Have you ever faced death? Stood on a cliff and felt the danger in slippery gravel or a gust of wind? Have you looked in the face of a mad dog or a dangerous wild animal? Narrowly escaped a terrible car accident? Or worse, faced down an angry and dangerous man, perhaps one brandishing a weapon? Maybe you have suffered an illness or an injury that would have taken you out but for the healing hand of God and the intervention of modern medicine. If so, you understand something of salvation. Salvation is rescue. You have been rescued. In 2023, my brother was rescued—saved—from a case of double pneumonia that nearly killed him. In 1997, I survived a car accident witnesses considered unsurvivable. I was rescued. Saved.
A few years ago while stopped at a red light, I heard popping noises and realized I was in the middle of a shootout. People were running between cars firing guns and using the vehicles to shield themselves from bullets. There were shooters in front of my truck and shooters behind. Suddenly I realized just how thin the sheet metal on a pickup truck really is. But I was rescued. I was saved.
Realizing what was happening, drivers ignored the red light and began darting across the traffic on Westheimer Road—a six-lane street so heavily traveled it has its own Wikipedia page. I did the same without hesitation. I was interested in justice, in identifying the shooters, in doing my part to assist law enforcement. But I was more interested in not making my children orphans.
Oh, there is joy in rescue. Being saved from death is joyful!
When David commits the most destructive sins of his life, he prays, “restore to me the joy of your salvation” Psalm 51:12. David knows he is going to heaven. He knows he is forgiven. But he is filled with remorse and regret and pain and needs joy. Sinners need the joy of salvation.
When we sin, we need our joy to be restored. We need God to renew in us the joy of having been rescued.
Isaiah knows this joy. Isaiah says:
“God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid … He is my strength and my song and He has become my salvation. Therefore, with joy shall you draw water from the well of salvation” Isaiah 12:2-3.
Is God your rescue? I know He is your provision. He gives you life and food and abundance. “In Him we live and move and have our being” Acts 17:28. God provides for everyone. But have you given God your life? Have you accepted His free gift of rescue, eternal rescue? Give your heart to Jesus. Then you will discover true joy, a joy like nothing else. A joy that is deeper than the deepest well. The joy of salvation is a joy that has no end.
“With joy shall you draw water from the well of salvation” Isaiah 12:3.
AΩ.
- By the way, this was not a case of being on the wrong side of town after dark. The gunplay happened around three o’clock on a Sunday afternoon. I had just left Mod Pizza and was across the street from Panera Bread. Based on what my friends and I could discover later, including the police activity records available online, no one was injured.
Household Words: 