A Shipwrecked Faith

One of my favorite sermons by Pastor Jack Hyles is titled: “SOME ON BROKEN PIECES,” based upon our text passage of Scripture from Acts 27:44. I love that! What a perfect Bible passage to relate to one's shipwrecked life. The Bible says that some of the shipwrecked prisoners rescued others with the broken pieces of the ship. It may be dear friend that you too have suffered shipwreck in your, but God is not done with you! If you are still breathing air God has a purpose for your life. As only God can do, He can take the lemons in your life and make lemonade from them.

Let's look a little closer at this true incident in the book of Acts. The Apostle Paul had been arrested and imprisoned for preaching the Gospel. Paul and a group of fellow prisoners were being transported by a centurion (a commander over 100 soldiers) to the city of Italy in Rome...

Acts 27:1-2, “And when it was determined that we should sail into Italy, they delivered Paul and certain other prisoners unto one named Julius, a centurion of Augustus' band. And entering into a ship of Adramyttium, we launched, meaning to sail by the coasts of Asia; one Aristarchus, a Macedonian of Thessalonica, being with us.”

But then dangerous stormy weather suddenly arose and threatened to sink the ship. This sure reminds us of life doesn't it, where circumstances can turn ugly in an instant. I can remember many times in my life when the sky was blue with sunshine, and one minute all was calm; but then calamity suddenly came without warning, and all hope seemed lost in an instant...

Acts 27:14-19, “But not long after there arose against it a tempestuous wind, called Euroclydon. And when the ship was caught, and could not bear up into the wind, we let her drive. And running under a certain island which is called Clauda, we had much work to come by the boat: Which when they had taken up, they used helps, undergirding the ship; and, fearing lest they should fall into the quicksands, strake sail, and so were driven. And we being exceedingly tossed with a tempest, the next day they lightened the ship; And the third day we cast out with our own hands the tackling of the ship.”

I won't quote all the story of the incident, but the Bible says the ship was destroyed...

Acts 27:40-44, “And when they had taken up the anchors, they committed themselves unto the sea, and loosed the rudder bands, and hoised up the mainsail to the wind, and made toward shore. And falling into a place where two seas met, they ran the ship aground; and the forepart stuck fast, and remained unmoveable, but the hinder part was broken with the violence of the waves. And the soldiers' counsel was to kill the prisoners, lest any of them should swim out, and escape. But the centurion, willing to save Paul, kept them from their purpose; and commanded that they which could swim should cast themselves first into the sea, and get to land: And the rest, some on boards, and some on broken pieces of the ship. And so it came to pass, that they escaped all safe to land.”

I am always amazed at the power of water from waves. When I lived on Guam I used to walk out by the reef during low tide. I'd walk among the large rocks, which the powerful waves had literally cut into very sharp jagged edges. A big wave came in and pushed me enough to knock me backward and I instinctively put out my arms to break my fall. My hand landed on a jagged rock and I cut me hand open. That was the last time I ever went out to walk by the reef, because it was simply too dangerous. If a boat or ship were to hit those rocks, it would rip the bottom right off the vessel. Even more amazing is the power of the ocean during a typhoon (called a hurricane in America). The ocean level raises up 15 to 20 feet above normal because of the storms wind pressure, called “storm surge.” After a typhoon on Guam, the land along the seashore is full of giant boulders, some I have seen as big as 5 feet in diameter. The waves hurl those giant boulders like Styrofoam. Parking lot pylons are moved like paperclips by the ocean waves during a typhoon. Never turn your back on the ocean because it may kill you, literally. Sadly, several local fisherman drown each year on Guam, who grew up on the island and should know better, yet they still don't realize how dangerous the ocean can be.

I know many Christians whose life has become shipwrecked, as has mine. I was shocked in June of 2006 when my beloved former wife filed for divorce. I wept for 3 hours, incapable of speaking because my heart was so broken. God saw my pain of soul and grief. My wife had abandoned me in March and I was praying for her soon return, but it didn't happen. She was still gone in April and then May. I read in Romans 12:21 where it says not to be overcome of evil, but to overcome evil with good. So I started my Soulwinning.info website in May of 2006 to do something good for Jesus Christ. I kept my chin up and knew somehow that everything would be okay. But then I received the divorce summons to appear in court, and my heart sank into my feet. Without going into detail, we lost our home. My legal expenses skyrocket to $64,000 to pay ungodly greedy attorneys. No wonder Jesus warned, Luke 11:46, “And he said, Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers.” Ninety-five percent of lawyers are not good people, they hurt others for money. Many lawyers are monsters!

I cannot put into words the inexplicable pain of going through the trauma of an unwanted divorce. I tried and tried to reconcile with my wife, but she refused again and again. It was her choice alone to divorce. She became a different person during and after the divorce. Even today, 17 years later, the wife that I had once know no longer exists. She has become rebellious, sassy, disrespectful and still has a hostile spirit of blame after all these years, still refusing to apologize for anything. Granted, I am as much a big sinner as anybody, so it is not my place to condemn anyone, not even myself (Matthew 7:1-5). God is the only Judge of humanity (James 4:12; 5:9).

Since 2006, I have suffered through so much loneliness, pain of body and soul and often depression. The blessed indwelling Holy Spirit has comforted my soul through it all, reminding me that a better life awaits me in eternity with my heavenly family as a redeemed and adopted child of God. Oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian!!! I made an entire webpage with many helpful quotes, sermons and resources for people who suffer with a broken heart, as I do continually. I wrote this helpful blog about our wonderful heavenly Father, and in the blog I share some awesome quotes from Pastor M.R. DeHaan (1891-1965), which I encourage you to read. Suffering saints have a special place in God's heart.

The Apostle Paul Wanted To Die Because Of Difficult Times

Dear reader, if your life has been shipwrecked, your life is not over! Your life may seem like it is over, but I assure you that it is not. The Apostle Paul said that they despaired even of life while in Asia...

2nd Corinthians 1:7-11, “And our hope of you is stedfast, knowing, that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation. For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life: But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead: Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us; Ye also helping together by prayer for us, that for the gift bestowed upon us by the means of many persons thanks may be given by many on our behalf.”

I've been at the same low point in life as the Apostle Paul, where I didn't even want to live anymore. Many years ago I bought two small barbeques and two bags of charcoal to commit suicide by asphyxiation. No believer ought to ever contemplate suicide, but when I hot rock bottom in life I did. I do not feel ashamed for considering suicide, because everybody has their breaking point. Even the Apostle Paul said that he and his ministry peers in Asia despaired of life itself. There is debate among theologians what Paul meant. Some think that Paul meant they just didn't want to live anymore, but didn't consider suicide. Other Bible students think that Paul and the others did contemplate taking their own lives. And then there are some theologians who think that Paul and his friends were in jeopardy of being martyred or dying from harsh conditions for their faith.

It is my humble opinion that the first theory is accurate, that Paul and his friends lost their will to live because of overwhelming dire conditions they were enduring for their faith in Jesus. We simply do not know for sure. For a period of a few years I lost my will to live. I was woefully down and depressed and no one cared about me. Psalms 142:4, “I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul.” When my life had hit rock bottom, I wrote this article about 'The God Of All Comfort.'

I won't explain what happened in my life, because it is too painful and uncomfortable to talk about, but I had never been at a lower point in my life. I had lost everything due to the divorce and things just got worse and worse. But one compelling thought kept me from following through with my plan to kill myself, which is simply that I knew there is a good God, and He has a plan for my life. I don't mind dying, but I want it to be in God's time, not mine. I may die in a car crash, but that is beyond my control. I might accidentally do something to cause an accident, but that is still beyond my control, because as a human I will make mistakes at times. That is still dying in God's time, because I didn't plan to do it. I pray that God will allow me to keep preaching the truth for many years to come. I feel exactly as Paul, who said in Philippians 1:21, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”

I know the pain of being betrayed. I know the pain of being abandoned and lonely. People equal pain. When I was at the lowest point in my life, no one came to my rescue. No one cared. No one befriended me. I have lived long enough to see how shallow people are. Sadly, you won't find a more shallow group of professed phony Christians than at Pensacola Christian College (PCC). The love of money is their God. At PCC the cult system comes first, individual people don't matter. If your life is broken, they will throw you under the bus at Campus Church and PCC, as they did me. SHAME on the PCC camp and pastor Jeff Redlin. They are ungodly hypocrites!

God knows that I love the leadership at PCC and Campus Church, but they have woefully drifted away from the depth of Christ's love for all people. John 5:42, “But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you.” I reached out in Christ's love three times to PCC and Campus Church in the summer of 2022, pleading to reconcile. I just requested to come back to church. Pastor Jeff Redlin cold-heartedly refused, putting it in writing on August 2nd, 2022 that I am banned from attending Campus Church. SHAME on PCC and Campus Church!!! They are rich snobs at PCC, academic type yuppies who don't care about individual people. God's judgment is upon them. Romans 5:5, “And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” Their faith is shipwrecked at PCC and they don't even realize it yet. They are miserable, naked, wretched and spiritually blind Jesus said (Revelation 3:15-17). Woe unto the cult at Pensacola Christian College and their ungodly uncaring Campus Church!!!

Raise Up Your Lows By Deciding How To Handle Valleys Early On

I listen to preaching almost every day. I do it for a few reasons:

I need Bible preaching and so do you; preaching helps us think right.
I am laying up truth for a rainy day when the lows come.
I can lay up truth to help others who are struggling through life's lows.
Preaching gives me new ideas for website articles and blogs.
Preaching helps me find truths to share on social media.

I could say so much about a shipwrecked life as a Christian. I am listening to a helpful sermon right now while I'm writing this article called: "Set Up Your Waymarks." The sermon is by Pastor Jack Hyles. One bad day can ruin your life! Five minutes is all it takes. Dr. Hyles makes these statements in the preceding MP3 sermon. I hope you will listen to it. We ALL get down and depressed at times. If you don't you're not human! There are hundreds of things that can cause depression. I get depressed by other professed believers who are shallow, like the PCC camp, who refuse to contend for the faith. PCC should rename their cult to Pensacola Comfortable College. Their stinking rotten attitudes and unwillingness to forgive and give people a second chance at PCC depresses me. It depresses many of their students too!

The wickedness of our society depresses me, seeing the vile LGBTQ homosexual agenda forced upon impressionable children, perverting their proper manners and good character. God's judgment cannot rest forever upon our ungodly American culture of violence, death, covetousness, perversion and idolatry. We DON'T trust in God as Americans, we trust in the government (and the government is failing). Our economy is a giant Ponzi Scheme, which will ultimately fail. But that is a different article for a different day. Dear reader, if your life has been shipwrecked, get up for God! You are not a failure unless you make failure the last chapter of your book. Our life is a book! 2nd Corinthians 3:2, “Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:” Each person's life is a book that is being written. I have had some adverse and traumatic chapters in the book of my life. My present life's chapter is a quiet one. I am bunkering into my foxhole in Pensacola, serving God quietly night and day, doing the best I can to serve Christ in His strength.

No one can be happy all the time! I need my unhappiness. I wouldn't want to be happy all the time. When I am down, I know that it is necessary to that at some point in the future I can be back up on the topside of the mountain. Right now I am down somewhere in the valley, keeping on keeping on. I am pawing in the valley as Brother Lester Roloff preaches. If your life has been shipwrecked, get back up for God! You cannot do it alone friend, you need fellowship with other Christians in a local Bible-believing church. We need comfort from one another. But if you have been kicked out of church and banned as I have been at the wicked Campus Church cult at PCC, and the wicked Harvest Baptist Church cult on Guam, then serve God at home. One man plus God equals a majority (Romans 3:4). I have lost everything because I faithfully contended for the Christian faith. Let PCC wickedly bid Godspeed to infidel Ken Ham and his counterfeit plan of salvation, because that blood is on PCC's hands not mine (2nd John 1:11).

Life doesn't become easier when you're a born-again Christian, but it does get better because you have Jesus to help you through things. We ought not pray for God to remove our burdens, but to cast our cares upon Him to give us the strength to bare those burdens (1st Peter 5:7). The Apostle Paul said that Christ's strength was made perfect in the apostle's human frailties and weaknesses. I need my weaknesses and mistakes in life, which enables Christ to use me more to serve Him. Pastor Dwight L. Moody (1837-1899) used to rightly say that God never had a child too weak to make use of, but He has had many children too strong to be used. God resists the proud the Bible says, but He gives grace to the humble (James 4:6). Our mindset is everything in the Christian life. The greatest determining factor in our daily life is what things we choose to think about. I receive many emails from down and depressed people, some talking about suicide. I always encourage them to start listening to preaching regularly. Bible preaching helps us think right!