Clubhauling

Good morning and welcome in everybody.  Today, we are going to take a look at a passage of scripture, but before we do that, I wanted to tell you a little story.

Andrew and I enjoy sailing during our down time, and there have been many times when we are out on the lake, that we have gotten into some really heavy winds.  There are times when the wind can get so strong that it’s extremely hard to turn the boat around to tack in the opposite direction.  Sometimes Andrew will yell out that there are rocks and deadheads directly in front of the boat, and we have to make an emergency turn as fast as possible to avoid them. The older sailing ships had a certain maneuver that was practiced for these kinds of situations, but it was fairly risky.  It was used as a desperate attempt to rescue the ship from danger.  What they would do is force the ship into a rapid 180 turn, by dropping an anchor off of the front of the ship.  When the anchor snagged on the seabed it would use the ship’s momentum to swing it around faster than it could have ever been done with just the rudder and sails.  Some people have nicknamed it the nautical handbrake turn, but it is more commonly known as clubhauling.

This reminds me of the Christian Life.

When there was an immediate danger approaching the ship, they needed to do an about face as quickly as possible to save the vessel from crashing upon the rocks.  When we become Christians, we must do the same. Sin will bring forth death, and we must turn away from it as quickly as possible before it’s too late.

2 Timothy 2:19  Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.

When we are baptized in the Christian faith, we are supposed to turn away from sinful living.  Scriptures teach us to repent of our sins.  To do so we must completely change direction in our lives and go the opposite way.  Instead of walking in the flesh we need to walk in the spirit.  Like a ship swinging around 180° quickly through the wind, we too must swing our lives back towards God.  We cannot delay.  The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, and the time to prepare and get ready is right now.  There’s great danger lurking on the worldly path in front of us, and we need to turn around right now. The Apostle Paul was commanded to preach repentance, and to convince people to turn from their sins so that they could be saved.

Acts 26:16-20  But rise, and stand upon thy feet: for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee;  Delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee,  To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. Whereupon, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision:  But shewed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judaea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance.

One of the definitions for repent is to cease from the practice of sin. When you practice something it’s continuing to repeat it over and over again.  It is a custom, habit, behavior, manner or routine. It is a repetition of a certain activity.  

Romans 6:1-6, 12  What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?  God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?  Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?  Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.  For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:  Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.

The apostle Peter constantly reminded the church that God has called us out of the darkness of sinful living.  God wants us to become sanctified and transformed from the person that we used to be in our past, to a new creature that is which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.  

1 Peter 2:9  But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:

Instead of constantly repenting from dead works, we want to get to the point in our lives where we don’t sin anymore.  If we sin, we can come boldly to the throne of grace in time of need, but God gives us grace so that we can become overcomers of the sinful nature.

Hebrews 6:1  Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,

Christianity is about turning from what is wrong to what is right.  It’s about turning from sinful living to righteous living.  To do this requires self-examination and looking into your own heart in mind and realizing the error of your way, insomuch that it causes you to turn your ship around.  When somebody truly repents with their heart, they will bring forth fruits of goodness, righteousness and truth.  John the Baptist was preaching the same message of repentance.

Matthew 3:1-8  In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea,  And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.  And the same John had his raiment of camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey.  Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan,  And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.  But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?  Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:

God does not want people to perish.  That is not his first choice.  He loves us and wants to save us, but It is the sin issue that needs to be addressed in each of our lives.  We need to take heed, and understand the dangers that result from sinful living.  We must be circumspect, and recognize the emergency ahead of time, before it’s too late.  Heave the anchor in, and swing the boat around, because the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and the time has come to do some……..

……….Clubhauling 

Let’s think about these things for right now. We can be found on your web browser by searching, tlkjbc where you can find our diaries distributed through various platforms. We are not associated, nor affiliated with any other religious groups. You can get our entire podcast feeds directly, along with transcripts at tlkjbc.com or I suppose that you could find us somewhere up here, in the Great Northern Minnesota woods. Peace to you all, and Lord willing, we will talk with you some more tomorrow. Till then, bye bye everybody.

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