church of Christ at 26th and Connecticut
Joplin, Missouri

Phone
417-781-2326

1819 E 26th
Jopin, MO  64804

   Worship Schedule

Sunday
    Bible Class              9 am
    Morning Worship    10 am
    Evening Worship      6 pm

Wednesday
     Devotional & Class   7 pm

Upcoming Activities

“Almost Home” 

     Just a couple of weeks ago, the 99^th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic passed by.  In conjunction with that anniversary I noticed a variety of online articles and television programs related to the event.  It seems that we still remain quite fascinated by the ill-fated voyage of 1912.  However, we just passed the anniversary of another tragedy – a tragedy which actually exceeds the Titanic disaster in terms of loss of life – but it’s one that we rarely hear anything about.  It’s the story of the Sultana. 

     Consider this excerpt from a bulletin written by David Banks, a friend of mine who preaches for the Rena Road Church of Christ in Van Buren, Arkansas (07-27-2008).  It gives the history of the event and make some good applications:

“The worst maritime disaster in American history took place during the last days of the American Civil War but did not receive a great deal of publicity because it occurred only a couple of weeks after the assassination of president Abraham Lincoln.  The Sultana was a paddlewheel steamboat that was powered by three boilers.  The boat had been commissioned by the U.S. government to transport Union soldiers up river so that they could return to their homes.  On the 27^th April, 1865, Union soldiers recently released from Confederate prison camps, muscled, bribed, and crowded their way into every spare corner of the Sultana’s decks.  Her legal capacity was 376 passengers, but on this day the Sultana was grossly overloaded in excess of 2,400 celebrating soldiers.  Before leaving Vicksburg, Mississippi, one of the Sultana’s three boilers received a hasty and poorly done patch to repair a leak.  As the Sultana inched her way upriver, overloaded and overweight, she began listing from side to side causing the boilers to take on water creating an excess of steam and overheating.  The damaged boiler, unable to handle the stress, exploded expelling hot metal       and ash that ignited the Sultana’s wooden structure.  According to best estimates, between 1,600 and 1,700 of the 2,400 passengers perished, more even than would die in the Titanic disaster of 1912.  These soldiers who had fought bravely in the war, who had survived countless engagements, and had endured the harsh treatments in Confederate prison camps were almost home when they met their ultimate fate. 

     This tragedy was an accident, a chance occurrence of human error, but even though it was not a malicious attempt to harm, kill, or maim, it nonetheless had that affect.  The Sultana tragedy stands as a reminder that all of our human activities are but a preamble to eternity.  We are not citizens of this world trying to get to heaven.  We are citizens of heaven trying to get through this world (Philippians 3:20-21).  Most of us cringe at the thought that these soldiers were almost home, but the greatest tragedy is for those who perished who were not prepared for a heavenly home.  Jesus said, ‘Blessed are those servants whom the master, when He comes will find watching…and if He should come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants’ (Luke 12:27-28).”

     So, let’s be diligent in our efforts to be watchful servants of the Lord.  We certainly don’t want to fall short of our destination when “almost home.”  Rather, we want to hear those blessed words, “Well done, good and faithful servant….Enter into the joy of your master.”  (Matthew 25:21). 

“But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.”