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It Can Never Happen to Us |
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Themes: "Sin's Deception, Sin's Blindness In September, 1994, one of the worst tragedies to ever occur in the Balkan sea took place. A ferry, the Estonia, was making its way across the sea between Finland and Sweden. The seas were heavy. Yet everyone on board had no reason to worry. The ferry was safe. The Swedes always stress safety. Nothing could happen.
But suddenly the ferry took on water during a storm and sank. Many people tried to save others. Some only tried to save themselves, even if it meant that others would drown. Life jackets and rafts were greedily grabbed. Over 900 people were lost at sea. Only 141 were rescued. The nation was in shock.
Other nations have had tragedies at sea. Large numbers of people die in many nations from earthquakes, floods, famines, and tornados. But there seemed to be something even more tragic to the Swedish nation about this tragedy.
"This isn't the kind of thing that happens to us," said one man who was a law clerk and worked in Upsala. "Maybe in South East Asia, but not in the Baltic Sea". Why shouldn't disasters happen in the Baltic Sea if they can happen in poor nations in South East Asia? Why should a man in Sweden be shocked that accidents and death happen in Sweden as well as in China?
A professor at Stockholm University, the man who wrote the book, The Swedish Mentality, gave the answer: "We have a planned society with social welfare and everything in order. We have arranged things so that nothing bad happens."
In 1995, an nation that thought it had learned to control earthquakes and to construct an earthquake proof city was suddenly hit. You all know what happened in Kobe, Japan. Scientists were humiliated. Some Japanese scientists actually apologized to the people for not building a safer city.
In every human heart is pride. It is the ultimate and the greatest of sins. It is so awful because it makes us think that we can live without God. It makes us think that we can handle our own lives. It makes us think that we are not "so bad" after all.
Yet the Bible says that we are all sinners and totally without strength to please God (Rom.5:6). The Bible says that man is without any profit to God (Romans 3.12) It is not a very nice picture that the Bible paints of us. But it is an accurate picture. It does not make us feel proud. It makes us realize that we are sinners.
But the good news is that "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners" 1Tim.1:15.
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Simon Wallace