Tuesday, April 15, 2008

ON THIS DAY – IN HISTORY April 15, 1912.


The Titanic - “God Himself could not sink this ship!!!”
On April 15, 1912, the British luxury liner Titanic sank in the North Atlantic off Newfoundland, less than three hours after striking an iceberg. About 1,500 people died.

Sometimes God allows events to happen that puncture human pride and bring us to a greater sense of our vulnerability and mortality.

The God of the Bible, who is often derided as irrelevant or even nonexistent by today’s generation, has a great deal to say about human pride and notions of invulnerability. We are told that “God resists the proud” (James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5) and that “pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18).

In the same way that a ship or indeed any other expression of human pride and accomplishment can fail, so too can the entire society that humanity has constructed.

Almost a century later, do we not tend to think of our own age as indestructible? We take such great pride in our human accomplishments, scientific advancements and technological progress. Yet so often God is left out of the picture. All too often we are ignorant of the spiritual laws and parameters that govern life.

And if, collectively, we live our lives outside the spiritual parameters that speak to such traits as pride and arrogance, is it possible that one day we might face an unprecedented disaster on a scale far greater than that which overtook the Titanic?

Certainly that is the message of the Bible—an instruction book filled with spiritual values and the godly wisdom that will guide us through perilous times.