Ron Hutchcraft Ministries - Cockpit Calamity - #8308

Monday, July 6, 2009

Download MP3 (right click to save)

It was just a few months before that we’d been in the little town of Clarence Center outside Buffalo, New York. And now there it was on the news; the scene of a tragic crash of a commuter flight. All the passengers died and some people on the ground. And now we know why: the cockpit voice recorder revealed that in the moments before the crash, the pilots were violating flight rules by casually chit-chatting instead of monitoring their approach. They let the plane drop below the minimum speed and suddenly it was just plummeting to the ground. It was a tragedy that just didn’t have to be.

I’m Ron Hutchcraft, and there is a sobering reminder here for all of us, because any of us can crash morally, spiritually if we take our eyes off the controls and allow ourselves to get casual and careless about things that could bring us down. Like a dark or dirty website, a casual flirtation, media or music that feed our dark side, walking on the edge of sexual sin, letting anger or bitterness or un-forgiveness build up, or whatever weakness that has caused us to fall before. The button Satan has often pushed and gotten just the response he wanted from you.

This is why God shows us exactly what’s at stake when we get casual or careless about sin. He says, “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Resist him…” (1 Peter 5:8-9 ). See, when a gazelle gets careless, they become a lion lunch. When get careless, so do we. So “take your stand against the devil’s schemes” (Ephesians 6:10 ). Because when you’re careless, you crash.

Bible References: 1 Peter 5:8-9 ; Ephesians 6:10