Trapped Coal Miners Discover Old Passage
In one of the coal mines of the north, the top of the pit fell in while a considerable number of the miners were down below, and the shaft was completely blocked. Those who were in the mine gathered to a spot where the last remains of air could be breathed. There they sat and sang and prayed after the lights had gone out because the air was unable to support the flame. They were in total darkness, but a gleam of hope cheered them when one of them said he had heard that there was a connection between that pit and an old pit which had been worked years ago. He said it was a long passage through which a man might get by crawling all the way, lying flat upon the ground—he would go and see if it were passable. The passage was very long, but they crept through it, and at last they came out to light at the bottom of the other shaft, and their lives were saved.
If my present way of access to Christ as a saint is blocked up by doubts and fears, if I cannot go straight up the shaft and see the light of my Father’s face, there is an old working, the old-fashioned way by which sinners have gone of old, by which poor thieves go, by which harlots go. I will creep along it, lowly and humbly. I will go flat upon the ground. I will humble myself till I see my Lord and cry, “Father, I am not worthy to be called thy son, make me as one of thy hired servants, so long as I may but dwell in thy house.” In our very worst case of despondency we may still come to Jesus as sinners. “Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.” Call this to mind, and you may have hope.
It is a world gone mad which refuses to recognize reality. This culture has abandoned reason and forsaken God and in the process, you and I are left to choose between acceptance of reality and God’s truth or acceptance of the stark vanity of the way in which this world understands self – apart from God.
Martin Luther once wrote, “God creates out of nothing. Therefore until a man is nothing, God can make nothing out of him.”
Today, be reminded that our calling is to bear fruits that are worthy of the greatness of the gift that we have received in Christ. Let us repent, continually turning away from the things of this world that so easily consume us, unto the God who consumes us with His love! Amen.
From a sermon by Chris Surber, Fruit Worthy of Repentance, 12/9/2009