"Don’t light a lamp and put it under a bowl" Matthew Ch 5 v 15
For the wages of sin is dead but the gift of God us eternal life ” Romans ch 3 verse 16
My first real job, after leaving school, at 16 was working as an Electronics technician for an Aerospace company in Stevenage Hertfordshire. I was still an apprentice at the time, but to my delight I was assigned to the engineering department responsible for testing the cargo structures for the NASA Space shuttle (Columbia) programme and communication systems for the Olympus-1 Satellite.
My interest in anything space travel grew from this experience of seeing satellites and Space shuttle equipment first hand.
I’m a great fan of Tom Hanks so it wouldn’t surprise you that one of my favorite films is Apollo 13
The true story of a “Successful Failure ” is almost like a modern day parable of the gospel .
On April 11th 1970 Apollo 13 launched successfully from Kennedy Space Centre USA with a mission to be the third landing on the moon. but the landing was aborted after an oxygen tank in the service module (SM) exploded two days into the mission, disabling its electrical and life-support system. This event gave rise to the phase “Houston, we have a problem” ; for the purists what was actually said by Jim Lovell was “Houston, we’ve had a problem , but Holywood preferred the present tense.
Spoiler alert if you have not seen the film . What followed was an amazing feat of team work and on the spot problem solving with 10/10 for effort. The three man crew made it back to earth three days later but only due to the heroic efforts of the ground crew to come up with a solution to what was a catastrophic accident 210,000 miles from plant earth.
In short, the ground crew came up with a work around using duct tape and plastic covers from procedure manuals. The solution was tested on earth, then instructions were communicated to the crew in record time. The crew were rapidly running out of oxygen due to a abnormal build up of carbon dioxide.. If you want to see the full dramatic story unfold watch the film, critics say it portrays the true story very well.
So how does this story help us understand God’s plan of salvation.
The problem that occurred which was described by the crew as a “pretty large bang” basically blew a large hole in the side of the space craft and crimpled the systems for maintaining good oxygen levels.
You could say it was a man made problem. The crew, who were following correct procedures, pressed a switch which created an issue waiting to happen. A design fault meant that as soon as this particular procedure was actioned the faulty component would unfortunately explode.
The crew realised straight away they could not proceed with the mission, but they did not have the technical knowledge to save themselves. They desperately needed Mission control room staff to come up with a plan and pretty quick.
This they did and sent the instructions up to the spacecraft. The crew then had to follow the plan to the letter and build their own version of the work-around piece of kit., No opportunity here to “do it my way” and ignore the boss.
Humanity has a problem called sin which needs a solution, we are unable to come up with the solution ourselves. Fortunately for us God has designed a plan of salvation and communicated that to us in the bible. We have all the necessary instructions to resolve the problem of sin and land safely back to Mission control or heaven to be precise.
“The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life” . Romans Ch 3 v 16 It sounds simple but we have the soltion to mans greatest problem right in front of us . All we need to do is follow God’s instructions. The crew of Apollo 13 could have said to the ground staff “thanks but no thanks, we will soldier on with our mission to the moon ” All three crew members splashed down on April 17th 152 hours after lift off. They were all saved because they di what they were told .
Question to you is , God has given us the way of salvation have you obeyed and followed the creator’s instructions.
FUEL FOR THE SOUL
UP->God — What has this devotion reminded you of, or taught you about the character of God?
IN->You — Is there something new you can do today to be more Christ like?
OUT->Others — Is there some encouragement here to speak to someone about your faith or is God calling you to do something courageous for Him today?
