A Visit with the Joneses

Carol Jones Saint: Hello, hello there. Come right in to share this special time of family devotions at home sweet home with all the family. And we're so glad that you are a part of our family and can share this time together.

We have a very interesting quotable quote at the beginning of this visit. "In times like these, the world has a great need for a savior. And in times like these, we have a great savior to meet that need." Isn't that wonderful? And that's reason to rejoice and to want to help send forth a radio visit like this, because we're telling men and women of the great savior.

In times like these, the world has a great need for a savior. And in times like these, we have a great savior to meet that need. We are sharing with you what will be a two-part series that you will not want to miss.

Burt: In Hebrews chapter 6, verse 19, we read of the hope that we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, which entereth into that within the veil. Do you have that blessed hope that comes as a result of faith, that becomes an anchor of the soul?

In times like these, I hope you can sing with all of us here in the living room: "In times like these, I have an anchor. In times like these, I'm very sure that my anchor holds and grips the solid rock." And so we want everybody who's here—boys and girls, teenagers, grown-ups—everyone to sing it: "In times like these." It would thrill Mom Jones to hear us sing it, and I hope it's your testimony right now.

It is great to be anchored. For you see, an anchor speaks of something very solid. An anchor speaks of something being held in the middle of the storm, held steady. The very opposite of being anchored is to be drifting.

Now, a ship that is drifting in the midst of a storm, drifting toward the rocky coast, is in peril. But a ship that is anchored securely to the rock can ride out the storm at sea. The opposite of being anchored is to be drifting.

Now, sometimes drifting may be somewhat pleasant and delightful, especially when you think of drifting in a lovely canoe with your best girl on a quiet lagoon under a sunset sky or a moonlit night. Rather romantic picture, drifting.

But the fact of the matter is the general connotation of drifting is not really a good one. It's not really a pleasant one. And the condition of drifting is not really a desirable one. This is evidenced by the dictionary definition of drifting.

To be drifting is to be driven or carried along by a current of water, wind, or air; to move along the line of least resistance; to be carried along with no guidance or control. Now, do you catch it? The connotation of drifting is really not a good one. Not as pleasant as drifting in a canoe under a moonlit sky. Quite a different story.

Well, there can be many pleasant associations connected with the subject of drifting. The fact of the matter is that the river lore of all the rivers in the Pittsburgh area, and the river lore of the rivers in the Buffalo, New York area, and of many lakes and streams—these stories are filled with the tragic stories which speak only of the danger of drifting, not the delight of drifting.

And over and over and over again, anyone who has lived near water that flows onward to the sea knows the stories of boats that drift toward the locks and then over the falls to... on and on and on it goes. The tragedy of drifting.

God's word speaks of the danger of drifting in Hebrews chapter 2, verse 1. Listen to these words: "Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip."

Now, the word translated "slip" in the King James Version literally means to let carelessly pass as we studied in the Greek. And in most modern translations, it is stated as "drift." Therefore, we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should drift.

For instance, here is a very excellent translation, the Williams translation from Moody Bible Institute: "We must pay closer attention to the message once heard, to keep from drifting to one side." Or the Amplified: "We ought to pay much closer attention than ever to the truths we have heard, lest in any way we drift past them and slip away."

Guest (Female): My, that's very helpful.

Or in still another translation: "We must listen very carefully to the truths we have heard, or we drift away from them." Or still another translation: "We are bound to pay all the more heed to what we've been told for fear of drifting from our course." Or still another translation: "Let us give more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away from them."

And so you see it is important that we hear God's word say to us: Be careful lest at any time you should be drifting. In this period of family devotions, we want to think together about drifting—drifting carelessly with the tide, drifting on and on and on and on. For the tragedy is, vast numbers of persons are drifting.

As we have heard the Word of God, Hebrews 2:1, saying to us: We must pay closer attention to the message we have heard to keep from drifting to one side. Saying: We ought to pay much closer attention than ever to the truths we have heard, lest in any way we drift past them and slip away.

I am constantly amazed at how much spiritual truth most people have heard. I'm constantly amazed at people whom I thought knew very little about the gospel, and then I discover one day that they have heard a great deal of truth in years past.

Guest (Male): And sometimes these people expect much more from professing Christians because they have had some background, Burt.

Burt: That's true. And so often professing Christians are disappointing to them. I'm amazed to meet people who have not been born and reared in the usual gospel traditions. They perhaps have not gone to an evangelical or fundamental church.

And yet, there have been times in their lives when they have been confronted by the gospel. They've heard the message. They've heard the truths, but they've let them slip by.

People who have been influenced by Christian neighbors, people who have been influenced by the Sunday School and the church and Vacation Bible School and Christian radio and tracts and the Bible, but they did not listen. And therefore it comes with a very special message in this hour: We ought to give the more earnest heed, the more earnest heed, to the things we have heard.

Most people have heard a whole lot more than their lives would indicate.

Guest (Female): Yes.

Burt: And I'm talking about people without the tradition of the church. Still they have heard, and still they know, but they have not listened to what they have heard and they're drifting.

A second comment: I'm thinking of the tragedy of vast numbers of persons who in their youth have heard much in the Sunday School and in the church, who have been reared in Christian homes and have been taken to Sunday School and church since they were babies.

They've gone to revival meetings, they've heard sermon after sermon, they've been to camp meeting after camp meeting, but neither have they heeded. And the warning comes: We must listen very carefully to the truths we have heard or we drift away from them.

We are bound—bound as it were by the privilege that has been ours—to pay all the more heed to what we've been told for fear of drifting from our course. Yes, I'm convinced as we're thinking of drifting, as we're studying this verse of Scripture in family devotions, Hebrews 2:1, I'm convinced that most people know far more than their lives would indicate.

What a tragedy in the light of all the spiritual light that most of us have had. What a tragedy that so many of us are drifting. There, of course, is the danger of drifting among the unsaved. Somebody listening right now, and you have never acknowledged Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

And yet you have heard the message many, many times. Oh, the danger and the tragedy of drifting! The danger of hearing of the Great Savior and His great salvation, but doing nothing about it. The danger of having every good intention of someday finding the Savior, but instead just drifting—drifting carelessly with the tide.

Drifting has several interesting implications. The pull of the current is a great one. You and I live in a day when the pull of the day, the pull of the world, the pull of the current of the crowd is tremendous.

And unless you and I are constantly careful, and unless we constantly seek the guidance and the strength of the Holy Spirit, it is easy to be drifting with that crowd. And so the tragic danger of those who have never acknowledged Jesus Christ is they're just swept along with the current of the crowd, the pull of the current.

Drifting implies also a deviation from the prescribed course. Now, the right way is clear. The safe channel is clear. Salvation is provided. There's one way of salvation, but to be drifting is to deviate from that prescribed course, and that's a dangerous, a dangerous course to follow.

A third implication of drifting is that it implies a certain carelessness on the part of the drifters. If you're drifting, you see, it implies very clearly that you're not paying much attention to where you ought to be going. It implies an aimlessness, a lack of purpose, a carelessness on the part of the drifter.

And it also implies a lack of vital inner power to combat the drift. What a tragedy it is then, when people who could be on a safe course headed for heaven are drifting, drifting, drifting with the crowd.

Many years ago, it was a sad, sad story in the Niagara River. That is the river that carries the water from Lake Erie toward Lake Ontario, but it all has to go over Niagara Falls.

A druggist from Ridgeway, Ontario, along with his wife and two friends, were sailing up Chippawa Creek. And those of you in the Buffalo area, you know that very well, Chippawa Creek that flows into the Niagara River.

The waters of the Niagara River look very smooth, but oh, they have a tricky current that flows at five miles per hour underneath toward the boiling rapids that drop 162 feet over Niagara Falls. Well, out of Chippawa Creek into the Niagara, the four sailed, confident that their great big 40-horsepower outboard motor would beat the current.

But then something happened. Apparently a tiny shear pin—that little pin that fastens the motor's propeller to the shaft—broke. And caught in the current, that boat, the Pink Lady, drifted toward the rapids, narrowly missing being saved against a protective control dam, then spun into the swirling foam and capsized.

The women tired first and were swept over the falls. The men grabbed at submerged barges and rocks, but they tired and then they disappeared in the water and over the falls. What a tragic example of drifting.

For you see, so often when the drift begins, there is no way of stopping the drift. And so it is from this story of the ship, the boat, the Pink Lady. So often in life, life depends upon a very little thing. Just a little shear pin.

The writer of the Hebrews exhorts us to make sure that we secure ourselves, that we take more earnest heed to the gospel we have heard, lest at any time we should begin to drift.

Oh, for the want of the pin of the decision, many a soul has been swept into eternity unprepared and unready to meet God. It doesn't take very much to cause the drift. It may be just a little shear pin in life, just something very small that will start the drift in your life, but soon you'll be caught up in the current and over the brink of disaster.

My friend, instead of drifting, why not lower an anchor of faith this hour until it grips the solid rock, Christ Jesus?

Carol Jones Saint: What a blessing it has been to have you visiting at home sweet home. And it is our prayer that these thoughts which have been so challenging and so thought-provoking will have been of help to you.

We are living in very serious days, and certainly days that we all need to take heed because of the terrible problem of drifting. If this visit has been a blessing, we hope you'll take time to write us: A Visit with the Joneses Incorporated, Post Office Box 575, Erie, Pennsylvania, and the zip code 16512.

Thanks for being here, and we hope you'll be here the next time to hear part two in this special series. Goodbye.