DESTINATION HEAVEN

By John C. Hamrick

(John 8:32)  Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

            This is not really about flying, although I draw heavily on certain lessons I learned as a pilot. It’s about LIFE and how to successfully live it.

My very first lesson when I was learning to fly airplanes was about safety. So was the second lesson. And the third. And the tenth. And all the rest. No Flight Instructor worthy of the title ever let an opportunity pass to emphasize the principles of safe flying.

THE BOOK

One thing I was taught over and over was, Always fly by the book, because the book was written about the mistakes of dead pilots. That’s pretty good motivation, isn’t it? Fly by the book  or die. I was always a book pilot. I studied the book and lived by the book. And I lived!

            What a lesson for our spiritual life. There is a Book  THE book  that has written in it the Way of Life. If we shape our lives by what is written in this book we will have rich, full lives. If we disregard the principles written in this book (I’m referring to the Bible, of course) we will crash and burn. There is no doubt about it. There are only two ways: God’s way, and the way of destruction.

            These are not rules or laws. Neither are they suggestions. They are the basics of life. With them, we live; without them, we die.

It’s that simple. God, Who created life, set down a list of principles that will keep us safe and on the right course. It’s doesn’t matter whether we agree with them, nor even whether we believe them. They are truth, and truth doesn’t depend on someone believing it or agreeing with it. Truth is truth! If we appropriate it and apply it to our lives, we will know its power, its comfort, its provision and its safety. If we ignore it, or violate it, the truth will live on, but we will dash ourselves to pieces on it.

God will forgive our deviations from His truth IF we repent and get back on course, but He WILL NOT alter His truth for our convenience.

We live in a time when it is considered old-fashioned to try to live by a strict interpretation of the life-principles that God has set down. This is a New Age; things are different than when we were children. We are better informed and more liberal now than people were fifty years ago. We are freer than our fathers were. We have the advantages of better education. We understand such things as morality, and sex, and honesty better than people did in the past. We have the tremendous advantage of having the great educator, television, with us constantly. Pornography is available to us on the TV, in the movies, on the computer, and on the news stand. Some of our heroes are the vilest of villains. And we are in a state of shipwreck!

Which raises a valid question: How did we get in this shape? Did we take a wrong turn somewhere? Did we go to bed one night pure and wake up the next morning filthy? Emphatically, NO! We get where we are little by little: a wrong decision today, a wrong act tomorrow. It’s usually very small in the beginning, but if corrections are not made the deviation gets larger and larger. Conceivably, we can find ourselves going in the opposite direction to God’s will for us.

Steer A True Course

 (Psa 119:105)   Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path

Another flying lesson has an application here. They taught us that only a slight deviation in our true course, if adhered to for very long, will cause us to miss our destination by many miles. Flying long distances requires regular course corrections.

It is necessary for the pilot to have references to help him (or her) recognize an inadvertent course deviation. He has maps, with landmarks on them. He has time calculations that help him know when he should be passing the landmarks. In addition he has unseen beacons by which he can check his course regularly.

The Bible is our roadmap for life. It contains very clear landmarks to help us find our way and to point out course deviations. The Holy Spirit is our unseen beacon to keep us on course. We must have both the Bible and the Holy Spirit. For the most part we have made only small deviations from God’s Truth at any given time. But our small deviations have accumulated to the point where we are in real danger of missing our target completely.

Ask For Help

(Jam 5:16)  Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

We have one other very important asset, the Church. In flying, we would talk to other pilots. We called it hanger talk. It provided a face-to-face, person-to-person exchange of information from and to people with the same interests and purposes and recent hands-on experience. So does the Church. Here, we are together with people who are on the same course, with the same purpose and destination and who share common experiences. Nowhere in any pursuit are there gathered people with more in common than in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. We can’t fly safely without it.

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            One lesson I will never forget had to do with how to recover from a mistake when you made one. (And everyone has made many.) It was called The three C’s of Flying. The three C’s were: Climb, Communicate, Confess. If you are in trouble you should Climb (radio communication is more reliable from higher altitudes); Communicate (there are Air Traffic Controllers out there who can help); and the hard part, Confess (that you’ve got a problem).

            I was flying from Atlanta to Greenville, SC, early in my flying days. Visibility was poor because of a heavy haze. Due to my inexperience I didn’t recognize that one of my primary navigating instruments was giving erroneous readings  not by much, but enough that at the time I should have been able to see the Greenville Airport, I could only see peach orchards. Obviously, I was lost. The C-C-C lesson sprang to mind. Gain a little altitude, give a call to Radar, and the hard part, Confess.

Spartanburg Radar, this is Cessna 12345, and  I’m lost. I’m supposed to be at Greenville Downtown Airport and I’m looking at peach orchards. As it turned out, I had passed Greenville in the haze and was about fifteen miles Northeast of my destination. I was heading for North Carolina at 120 miles per hour. A couple of quick corrections under the direction of Radar and in a few minutes I was safely on the ground at Greenville.

            What’s the spiritual lesson?

            When you need help, Climb. Reach up to heaven.

(Psa 121:1)  I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.

(Psa 121:2)  My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.

            Communicate. Prayer is another name for it. God operates our spiritual radar. He has the answers to our problems. He knows where we have been, where we are going, and what course corrections we need to make to get there safely.

Yea, though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of death I will fear no evil FOR THOU ART WITH ME! We are never alone in our difficulties, whatever they may be, however heavy they may seem.

Then do the hard part  Confess. Be totally honest. Lay it all out to Him.

            Having done all this, expect to hear from the Father with instructions for straightening out your mess.

The One-Eighty

 (Act 8:22)  Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee.

I was taught early on that the most important flying maneuver I would ever learn is the one-eighty. The one-eighty is an exact reversal of course. It requires enough gumption and good sense to say; Something’s not right. I’m on a wrong course. I need to start over.

If you take off in an airplane and something is not exactly right  the weather is worse than anticipated, the engine is running rough, or as happened to me on take-off once when a radio started smoking  you execute the one-eighty. It simply means returning to a safe haven and starting over.

In the Spiritual realm we call it repentance. And, as in flying, it is the most important move you can make. If something is not right spiritually  if sin has crept in and you find you are off-track in your relationship with the Father  there is nothing more important than setting it right. And remember that repentance is always of two parts. Part one is turning away from sin; part two is turning to God. It is a reversal of course and a return to a safe haven  the presence of the Father. It’s not enough to recognize that you are wrong; you have to make it right. And that ALWAYS involves a return to God. There will be time later for analyzing the problem. The immediate need is for the One-Eighty. No matter where we’ve been  no matter how badly off track  repentance will bring us back.

In the mighty and wonderful Love of God there is always room for the new start. There are no exceptions. Whatever the sin, if we confess it and turn to Jesus we WILL be forgiven and accepted into Heaven.

We’ve been talking mostly about the Christian who has gotten off-course in his life. The same lesson applies, however, to the one who has never known Christ.

A condemned criminal on the cross beside Jesus, already suffering the pains of death, cried out to Jesus. (Luke 23:39-43) In that moment his destination changed. He had been on course for Hell, and, indeed, had almost arrived at those awful Gates, which were opening to engulf him for eternity. But even as those terrible Gates swung open to receive him, he spoke a word of repentance, and the Word of the Master came. Today shalt thou be with me in paradise. Blam! With a roaring crash heard throughout the Spiritual Universe, the Gates of Hell slammed shut!

But that’s not all. Another Gate swung open and that condemned criminal was received into Heaven by the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Who only hours  before had spoken those precious words to him: Today shalt thou be with Me in paradise.

Are you a Christian who has gotten off course in his life? A One-Eighty is in order.

Are you a lost sinner whose course is set for Hell? Quickly now repent and call on Jesus. He will set a new course for your life! And more than that, He will fly that new course with you, helping you make the daily corrections that you need to keep you on course for victory in this life and eternity in Heaven in the next.

It’s the most important move you will ever make!