Ron Hutchcraft Ministries - The Rescuing Heart of God

When I was only a child of seven or eight years of age, my family went on vacation to Galveston, Texas. One afternoon, instead of going to the beach to swim, my mother and I decided to just stay at the hotel and swim in the pool downstairs.

As I waded out into the shallow end of the pool, I accidentally pushed my floaty toward the deep end. As I attempted to retrieve it, my feet suddenly came out from under me and I was under water before I knew it. And I didn't know how to swim.

My mother, who was sitting near the edge of the pool close to me, didn't realize what was happening and I vividly remember her telling me while I was under water, "Just come up for air, son. Just come up for air." But I couldn't. I didn't know how. Thankfully, a man was also sitting near the edge of the pool close to where I went under. When he saw what was happening, he threw his newspaper down, jumped into the pool, and saved my life.

Just yesterday, I was visiting with a friend and he told me the most amazing story of a casual conversation he had last week with the head cook of a local restaurant. The conversation turned into a discussion about God. Before he knew it, my friend was being asked all kinds of questions about the Bible. At the end of the night, my friend had the opportunity to share the Gospel with this truth-seeking cook, and helped him begin a relationship with Christ.

My friend recalled, "I was so happy because of what God did that I went out to my truck and just began shouting and praising God!" I reminded him that God had divinely positioned him in that restaurant at that specific time in order to share Jesus with a guy whose heart God had made ready.

As I think about these two stories, I am realizing that there are people all around us who are living each day of their life "going under" with no one to save them. They are doing life without a Savior - a Rescuer - and we as the church are ignoring them or at best saying to them, "Just come up for air and you'll be fine."

But unfortunately, the church is the last place that most lost people want to turn when their lives are falling apart, because they've seen so much junk come out of it. So the challenge in front of us is to be reminded that we cannot stay where it is safe and rescue dying people. We cannot be content to maintain our safe, clean little Christian circles and not plunge into the deep waters where lost people are drowning without hope.

Is there someone within your reach that God wants you to go after today? May His peace and wisdom guide you as you plunge into the deep.