These lived well and died well- Trophies of God’s Grace.

I recently read a book called, ‘Titanic’s Last Hero’ which tells the courageous story of a man named John Harper, who, in his dying moments, allowed himself to be a conduit of God’s grace to those who were perishing in the icy waters, when that great ship ‘heaved her last breath’.

Here’s a glimpse into some of the interactions that took place between John Harper and the people he ministered to, before he went to be with his Lord :

"If you saw the movie "Titanic," you know much of what took place 87 years ago tonight, when the ship that even God couldn't sink, DID sink. Of the 1,528 people who ended up in the icy water, only six were rescued.

But did you know that one of those six was actually saved twice that night?

His story is an inspiring reminder that there's more to life than mere survival.

To tell this man's story, though, I have to first tell you about another man, a Scot named John Harper. Harper, a minister of the Gospel, boarded the Titanic with his six-year-old daughter, Nana. He planned to travel to the Moody Church in Chicago, where he'd been invited to preach for three months. When the ship struck the fateful iceberg and began to sink, Harper made sure his daughter was placed into one of the lifeboats. He then began what would be the last evangelistic work of his young life.

As the freezing waters began to fill the ship, Harper was heard shouting, "Let the women, children and the unsaved into the lifeboats." Survivors reported that Harper took off his own life jacket and gave it to another man. "Don't worry about me," he reportedly said, "I'm not going down, I'm going up!"

When the ship began to sink, more than 1,500 passengers jumped or fell into the icy waters. As they gradually drowned or froze to death, Harper was seen swimming from one passenger to another, pleading with them to accept Christ.

Only six of the 1,500 people struggling in the water were later rescued, including a man who later identified himself as Harper's last convert. This young man had climbed up on a piece of debris. Harper, who was struggling in the water near him, shouted out, "Are you saved?" "No," the man replied. Harper then shouted the words from Scripture: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." The man did not answer, and a moment later he drifted away on the waves.

A few minutes later, the current brought the two men back together. Again Harper asked, "Are you saved?" Once again, the answer was "no." With his dying breath, Harper shouted, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." He then slipped under the waves for the last time.

Then and there, the man he had witnessed to decided to turn his life over to Christ. Four years later, at a Titanic survivors meeting in Ontario, Canada, this man tearfully gave his testimony recounting how John Harper had led him to the Lord.

I don't need to tell you that this dramatic story never made it into the movie. We live in a culture that seems to be more interested in fictional stories of romance, illicit sex, and priceless jewelry than in the real romance between God and His people.

When the subject of the Titanic comes up, as it may today on the eighty-seventh anniversary of the sinking, tell your friends the story of the young Scottish minister who witnessed to Christ with his dying breath.

And make sure your kids know the story a well. John Harper reminds us of a great lesson, the secret of the ages: that there's more to life than mere survival. "

http://www.sonserver.com/archive/titanic.htm

In Jesus,
John

Dear Saints,

I pray that you will be encouraged as you read this brief testimony of God’s grace in the life of David Brainerd. It is wonderful to read about how revival broke out at one point among the people Brainerd was preaching to. One statement of Brainerd’s, recorded in his diary, seems to sum up well what was the passion of his heart : "It is my fervent longing," he said, "to be a flame of fire, continually glowing in the divine service, till my latest, my dying moment."

The following biographical sketch is from Heroes of Faith on Pioneer Trails by E. Myers Harrison, former pastor of Judson College Church, Rangoon, Burma

“Brainerd longed to be AFLAME FOR GOD, living, like Paul, to preach Christ and to share His sufferings unto the salvation of souls.

His Diary contains this entry, July 6, 1744: "I long and love to be a pilgrim; and want grace to imitate the life, labors and sufferings of Paul among the heathen." He and Paul were kindred spirits in being captivated and animated by one great design-the salvation of lost souls, and in believing that this objective could best be attained by preaching the gospel of Christ and by living a life of self-denial and sacrifice.

Brainerd and Paul were kindred spirits!

Captivated by one grand design--"to testify the gospel of the grace of God."

Animated by one superb longing- "to fill up that which is lacking of the sufferings of Christ."

"I long to imitate the life, labors and sacrifices of Paul among the heathen."

Almost every page of Brainerd's Diary tells how he endured "hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ" (2 Tim. 2:3). His sufferings, caused by a diseased and weakened constitution, were intensified by the rigors of his life among the Indians and his arduous travels through the wilderness. Concerning his first night among the Indians, he made this entry, "I rode to Kaunaumeek and there lodged on a little heap of straw."

He was frequently in distress for lack of suitable food, exposed to hunger and cold, lost in the forests, caught in storms with no shelter available, obliged to ford raging streams and to spend the night in the woods, in peril from wild beasts and wild savages. Concerning one such incident he relates, "About six at night I lost my way in the wilderness, and wandered over rocks and mountains, through swamps and most dreadful places. I was pinched with cold and distressed with an extreme pain in my head and stomach, so that much blood came from me. But God preserved me, and, blessed be His name, such fatigues and hardships as these seem to wean me more from the earth and I trust will make heaven the sweeter."

This man was no secluded saint. He was apostolic in his labours and in the way he glorified in tribulation.

Brainerd's health was failing fast and he gave some consideration to the idea of giving up his missionary journeys and settling down, either among his Christian Indians or at one of the white churches which had extended to him a call. This prospect was immeasurably enhanced by his dreams of domestic felicity, for he was ardently attached to Jerusha Edwards. He realized, however, that he had at most a year or two longer to live, and concluded, after much struggle of soul, that he should "burn out to the last" as a traveling missionary. Falling on his knees in his resignation, he cried: "Farewell friends and earthly comforts; farewell to the dearest, the very dearest of them all. I will spend my life to my latest moments in caves and dens of the earth, if the kingdom of Christ may thereby be advanced."

During the last months of his life, Jerusha was his nurse and constant companion; and so heartbroken was she at the death of her beloved, she faded like a flower famished for rain, and, just four months later, went to join him in the Celestial City.

Brainerd, like Paul, gloried in the Cross and determined to preach nothing "save Jesus Christ, and him crucified" (1 Cor. 2:2). He made Christ the center and goal of every message. "If I treated on the being and glorious perfections of God," he wrote, "I was thence naturally led to discourse of Christ as the only way to the Father. If I attempted to open the deplorable misery of our fallen state, it was natural from thence to show the necessity of Christ to undertake for us, to atone for our sins and to redeem us from their power." The Apostle to the Indians proved, not only that the preaching of "gospel truth" is the only thing that can melt savage hearts to repentance, but also is the only means by which to reform and transform their lives. Just as soon as the Indians were changed at heart, they gave up their heathen vices.

At the end of one year of labor at Kaunaumeek, Brainerd persuaded the Indians to move to Stockbridge, where they came under the ministry of a Mr. Sargeant and later of Jonathan Edwards. Henceforth his parish centered in the area of the forks of the Delaware and extended through wide areas of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. He made the Indian town of Crossweeksung his headquarters and there erected a little hut. For a considerable time he was greatly depressed by the heathen practices of the Indians, by the darkness of their minds and the hardness of their hearts. But he kept on sowing the gospel seeds and watered them with his tears, for he believed "the promises of God." Often he retired into the forest recesses, and the leafy solitudes echoed with the pleadings of his anguished heart on behalf of his "poor Indians."

The promises! The sure promises of God! "Sow in tears . . . reap in joy!" "Call upon me and I will answer!" Echoes among the leafy solitudes! Pleadings of his anguished heart!

At length a mighty revival broke out in Susquehannah, and the reaper with joy gathered the precious sheaves. One day while preaching on Isaiah 53, "the Word was attended with amazing power; many scores in that great assembly were much affected, so that there was a very great mourning among them." Suddenly there fell among the Indian population of this area a sense of soul concern. From all directions they came, crowding around the missionary to hear his message and falling down with sobs and groans under conviction of sin. A besotted woman fell down crying, "Have mercy upon me, O Lord." An elderly man, who had been a murderer, a pow-wow (or conjuror), and a notorious drunkard, cried for mercy with many tears. Scores were soundly converted and came to be known as "Praying Indians," for, like their missionary, they spent much time in importunate prayer for the salvation of their people. And what was the message that produced such remarkable results? When one of the men was asked, "Why do you cry so?" he replied, "When I think how Christ was slain like a lamb and spilt His blood for sinners, I cannot help crying." It was the message of Isaiah 53! And when Brainerd called his Christian Indians together for their first communion and talked to them of the great sacrifice represented by the sacred emblems, the whole company was dissolved in tears.

SWEEPING THROUGH THE GATES
During the conversation in the Palace Beautiful, Christian confessed that he sometimes lost his ardor on the pilgrimage. When Prudence inquired how he was enabled to revive his heart and press on his journey, Christian replied, "When I think of where I am going-that will do it!" It was the same with David Brainerd.
After five years of arduous travel, manifold hardships, and almost incessant pain, the frail consumptive, spitting blood and almost delirious with fever, stumbles down the road to Northampton to die in the home of Jonathan Edwards. But he is by no means despondent. He is thinking of where he is going and his soul is exultingly happy. The pilgrim has finished his course and waits eagerly for the chariot to take him home. When someone comes into his room with a Bible, he exclaims: "Oh, that dear Book! I shall soon see it opened! The mysteries that are in it will all be unfolded!"

As his physical powers wane, his spiritual perception heightens. "I was made for eternity," he whispers. "How I long to be with God and to bow in His presence." The light of another world is in his eyes as he murmurs, "Oh that the Redeemer may 'see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied.' Oh come, Lord Jesus! Come quickly!" And with this petition upon his lips he greets Death as a long-awaited friend, who will forthwith usher him into the presence of the King!

Brainerd's Diary and Journal reveal an ardent and oft reiterated yearning to "burn out" for his Lord and to be "aflame for God." "It is my fervent longing," he said, "to be a flame of fire, continually glowing in the divine service, till my latest, my dying moment."

To the very last, Brainerd was supremely concerned with the extension of the kingdom of his "blessed Redeemer," the suffering Christ of Isaiah 53.

On his deathbed he prayed that He who "was bruised for our iniquities" might "see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied" (Isa. 53:5, 11). October 9, 1747, he experienced the ineffable joy, which, in prospect, had so long cheered his lonely and heroic pilgrimage-namely, "to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord." (II Cor. 5:8).

The flame that burned so brightly and glowed so warmly seems to have burned out at last. But it only seems so. Death is life's sublimest illusion. For those "in Christ" there is no death, there are no dead. The event called death does not extinguish, but rather intensifies, the vital flame of life and service. "He is not dead." The sweet and consecrated spirit of David Brainerd is "continually glowing in the divine service" and, to a degree beyond all his imagining, he is still AFLAME FOR GOD.”

In Jesus,
John