Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! Today is May 2, and 2018 is one-third over! How time flies whether or not you’re having fun! May Day, usually celebrated on May 1st, is an ancient northern hemisphere spring festival celebrated with dances, singing, and cake (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_Day).
While not associated with the May Day holiday, the term “Mayday!” is used to signal a life-threatening emergency. The call is always given three times in a row to prevent its being mistaken for some similar-sounding phrase under noisy conditions, and to distinguish an actual mayday call from a message about a mayday call. The "mayday" procedure word, from the French m'aider (help me), originated in 1923 at a London airport to indicate distress and was easily understood because much of the traffic at the time was between London and Paris. In 1927, the mayday call replaced the Morse code SOS call (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayday). “M’aider,” phonetically pronounced, kinda reminds me of the tow truck who always comes to the rescue in the movie that’s popular among children and adults alike (http://cars.disney.com/mater).
The Bible describes distress calls from God’s people. On at least one occasion, the distress call wasn’t made to God and it backfired (2 Chronicles 28:5-23; 2 Kings 16:1-19). Of course, anytime the Israelites called upon any other god, it backfired (Exodus 20:1-6). Whenever they called upon the real God from the heart, however, he came to their rescue, whatever the trouble, whether treachery, oppression, sickness, poverty, trouble, or even sin (James 4:3; 1 Chronicles 15:1-9; Psalm 121:1-8; 120:1-2; 18:1-50; 30:2; 34:6; 79:9).
God saving us from our sin, forgiving us, is the basis of the Gospel message (Good News). He wants to rescue us so we can spend eternity with him (Romans 3:23; 7:14-25; Colossians 1:13-14; Galatians 1:3-9). Our enemy actually wants us to go to hell, but Jesus took our sins upon himself, redeeming us from that consequence (Revelation 12:10-12; 1 Peter 5:5-11; James 4:6-10; Deuteronomy 33:26-27; Romans 8:31-34). While God is always near and ready to save us and, because there’s no other name by which we can be saved, he’s defined how we call on his name (Psalm 46:1; Acts 4:12; 17:26-27; Romans 10:8-13; Acts 22:16; 1 Peter 3:21-22, the standard Bible versions correctly translate baptism as being an appeal for a good conscience based on the original wording, which also is consistent with calling upon the name of the Lord and being baptized for/unto – to bring about – the forgiveness of sins – Acts 2:38-39).
God wants to save everyone, but we must obey his commands for that to happen (2 Peter 3:8-9; Luke 6:46-49; Matthew 7:13-27). Otherwise, there’s a time limit on his patience at which time no mayday call will suffice (Acts 17:30-31; Revelation 6:15-16; Luke 23:26-31). Just as the salvation of Christians is nearer now than ever, so is the punishment of non-Christians (Romans 13:11-14; Galatians 3:26-27; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Matthew 16:27; John 5:28-29).
Have you called upon the name of the Lord on his terms? Your eternal life depends on it!
Leonard Lauriault writes about faith for the Quay County Sun. Contact him at [email protected]