The Train Owner

I heard a story like this when i was younger, it made me think...  so here is my rendition of it ...

Lets say there was this man.  Everyone liked this man.  He owned the railroad company and helped build the railroad and still worked for the railroad.  He had wanted someone to pass his legacy along to for years, finally as he was getting older, He and His wife were blessed with a son.  This man loved his son, he did everything with his son.  His son grew up playing at his daddy’s work.  Flattening pennies on the tracks. 

“One day the man asked his son if he wanted to go to the crossing bridge with him and help him switch over the tracks.  This was the boy’s favorite thing to do.  The crossing bridge was over a large body of water and only one track wide.  The only way that the trains coming from either side could get over it is if the worker would change the track.  They expected the tracks to be changed and the system had gotten so good, that they slowed instead of stopping unless another train was on its way.

So this man took his son with him to work that day, like they usually did, they played.  They walked the track carefully and inspected it and they talked about the importance of the integrity of the tracks.  As the time approached for the train to come, they heard the whistle in the distance.  He told his son to get off the tracks, and went towards his control station.  As the tracks were switching over, the man saw that the track wasn’t connecting properly.  The son saw it too.  They knew what had to be done.   

The son ran to the track to try to fix it.  He was young, but he knew what he had to do.  He pulled the track to one side, the only way to keep the train from derailing was to wedge something in there to keep it open.  The father and son both saw the headlights from the train coming around the curve, it was too late to push the button and switch the tracks back over. His son sat there and looked up at his father.  His father had tears in his eyes.  His decision had to be made.  If he moved the tracks back, the son would be saved but the train, carrying over 200 people would plummet into the water below.  If he saved the people, his son would die.  Knowing that he couldn’t sacrifice 200 people for his son, he ran to the tracks and watched as the train approached.  Horrified, he heard the whistle.  He was too far away from his son to grab him and pull him out of the tracks.  The son was still busy at work fixing the tracks.  

The train came… The boy died.  The 200 people on the train never knew what the man had done for them.  They didn’t know that he sacrificed his son to save them and ultimately the railroad.  

When word got out about what the man had done, the 200 people were shocked.  How could they repay this man, they felt they owed him a debt.  How could they repay the boy, and honor his memory?

The train is like us and the tracks are the world.  We were headed toward total destruction, to certain death.  The world was in a downward spiral, the only way to fix it was to have someone fix the tracks.  The person that did that was God’s son Jesus.  He stood in the gap and fixed the tracks so that we wouldn’t die.  He gave his son so we could have everlasting life.

If you knew what that boy was doing, would you have stayed on the train and lived or would you have jumped off and faced certain death because you didn’t want to deal with the fact that someone was willing to make that sacrifice for you?  

God made that sacrifice so that we could live.  So that we could be with Him in Heaven.  The best part about it, the boy doesn’t say dead in our story.  The Father loved him so much, that he figured out how to breath life back into him.

Now that you have been told that there is a boy on the tracks ahead, you now know…  are you going to jump off and ignore the fact that God made the sacrifice for you and not have everlasting life, or are you going to stay on the train and ask Him to come into your life?

All you have to do to ‘stay on the train’ is to ask to.  You just have to ask God to come into your heart and He will.  The Bible says, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” Revelation 3:20.
 

Prayer isn’t this big long drawn out thing with big words, it is just us talking to God.  I talk to him all the time, you just don’t hear me.

If you do want to ask him in, you can just say something like this: (You don’t have to do it out loud even.)  Just say ‘Dear Lord…  I am standing at the door….  I am knocking…  please come into my life…  let me live to honor the sacrifice that you have made…  make me into someone you are proud of….  Amen.’”

Most likely, if you just said that prayer, you have a lot of questions.  What is expected now?  What do i do now?  

I suggest that you contact someone local to talk through this with.  If you are local to the Mattoon, Charleston area, I would love to talk with you.  we would love to have you come to The Fields church on Dewitt in Mattoon.  If you are not local and are too afraid to talk with someone, feel free to e-mail me.   You can comment on here, facebook message me, however you got my information.  I would love to talk to you.  It is important that once you make this decision that you get guidance.  

If you are someone that made this decision days, weeks, months, or even years ago and have questions, please seek out the answers.  God didn't leave us alone in this world.  He has given us people that are there to help us through this life and through questions that we have.  

My prayer for all of you is that you find the peace that God brings.  That we all live lives worthy of the sacrifice that Jesus made for us.  That we are constantly wanting to get into The Word and wanting to grow and honor the boy that saved us.