Refresher on Lifesaving

Prayers are absolutely appreciated as our 20th Annual Keepers of the Light Men's Retreat has launched. 95 men and boys make up our crew this year.

As is our tradition, we began with a refresher course on the value of souls as we heard the stories of those who once served as lifesavers of those in distress along the Atlantic Ocean.

When souls were perishing in deadly sea storms, the lifesaving teams of yesteryear did not shrink back but led from their mission statement: "The lifesaving book says we have to go out. If doesn't say anything about coming back."

Grateful 

Send a Gleam Across the Wave

Each year the men from our local church join me for a three-day retreat along the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Our first stop is at the Chicamacomico Lifesaving Station.

On these grounds remembered for courageous at-sea rescues, a quartet from our men's group stands among us and sings an old inspiring hymn written by Philip P. Bliss -- "Let The Lower Lights Be Burning". It reaches to the depths of our souls.

Click here: Let the Lower Lights Be Burning - YouTube

Brightly beams our Father’s mercy,
From His lighthouse evermore,
But to us He gives the keeping
Of the lights along the shore.

Refrain:
Let the lower lights be burning!
Send a gleam across the wave!
Some poor struggling, fainting seaman,
You may rescue, you may save.

Dark the night of sin has settled,
Loud the angry billows roar;
Eager eyes are watching, longing,
For the lights along the shore.

Trim your feeble lamp, my brother;
Some poor sailor, tempest-tossed,
Trying now to make the harbor,
In the darkness may be lost.

BE LIGHT! GO SHINE!
Grateful

Rescue The Perishing

Click here: Rescue the Perishing.wmv - YouTube

Rescue the perishing, care for the dying,
Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave;
Weep o’er the erring one, lift up the fallen,
Tell them of Jesus, the mighty to save.

Refrain
Rescue the perishing, care for the dying,
Jesus is merciful, Jesus will save.

Though they are slighting Him, still He is waiting,
Waiting the penitent child to receive;
Plead with them earnestly, plead with them gently;
He will forgive if they only believe.

Down in the human heart, crushed by the tempter,
Feelings lie buried that grace can restore;
Touched by a loving heart, wakened by kindness,
Chords that were broken will vibrate once more.

Rescue the perishing, duty demands it;
Strength for thy labor the Lord will provide;
Back to the narrow way patiently win them;
Tell the poor wand’rer a Savior has died.

Praise our Life-Saviour!
Grateful

Keepers of the Light

Each Spring, our local church Keepers of the Light Men's Retreat journeys from Virginia's Shenandoah Valley to North Carolina's Outer Banks for three full days of soul inspiration. Our first stop along the Carolina Coastline is always at the Chicamacomico Lifesaving Station Historical Site in Rodanthe. Indescribable!

On one of the walls in the old boat house, the words of a beloved hymn of the church are wood-burned on an old cedar shingle. The words are from the 1871 hymn by Philip P. Bliss titled Let the Lower Lights Be Burning. With 75 to 100 men and boys crammed in the old boat house, the inspiration truly begins when through tear-lined eyes, we fill the rafters with the sacred singing of these old lifesaving lyrics:

Brightly beams our Father’s mercy from His lighthouse evermore,
But to us He gives the keeping of the lights along the shore.

Let the lower lights be burning! Send a gleam across the wave!
For to us He gives the keeping of the lights along the shore.
[or Some poor struggling, sinking sailor you may rescue, you may save.

Dark the night of sin has settled, loud the angry billows roar;
Eager eyes are watching, longing, for the lights, along the shore.

Let the lower lights be burning! Send a gleam across the wave!
Eager eyes are watching, longing, for the lights, along the shore.

Trim your feeble lamp, my brother, some poor sailor tempest tossed,
Trying now to make the harbor, in the darkness may be lost.

Let the lower lights be burning! Send a gleam across the wave!
Trying now to make the harbor, some poor sailor may be lost.

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful