Thoughts on Discipleship by Dr. W. A. Dillard - HTML preview

DOES THE MAYFLOWER LIVE ON?

“And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?”

John 11:26

The Mayflower, as early history students learn, brought some of the first pilgrims to America. It returned to England and was decommissioned in the 1620s. How long it sat before being auctioned off as scrap is not known, but it has been featured in respectable magazines such as National Geographic and others as presently a barn in Jordans, England, outside London.

It was my privilege to visit that place where there is also a cemetery hosting the grave of William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania. While enjoying tea and crumpets, I could not help but notice the resemblance of a large barn-like structure to an inverted ship. Upon inquiry, I was told that it was the Mayflower. Asking how this could possibly be, I was told that the lack of wood in England made decommissioned ships valuable as building material. So the ship was bought at auction, disassembled, then reassembled upside down as a barn structure. A visit to the inside was fascinating.

In the United States, most anything that is a century old is considered old, but in England hardly anything is considered old unless it exceeds four to five hundred years of existence. I was privileged to stay in a hotel, and dine in a banquet room that dates back to the 1200s. A.D. The antiquity of the room was apparent, and hosted an aroma of age, but the large timbers were quite structurally sound.

So, perhaps the Mayflower lives on as a useful structure, but not as originally intended. I was reminded that unlike the Mayflower the ship of life has deposited Christians as pilgrims in a Christ-rejecting world. However we will live on in Christ Jesus, not downgraded, but upgraded: mortality swallowed up of immortality. Praises be to the Lord Jesus Christ Who took our dross, and Who made His own righteousness available by faith to all who receive Him! 2 Cor. 5:21 states it this way, “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”

FOR THOUGHT: Do you realize that unlike the Mayflower, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ continues to sail the seas of life after some 2,000 years? Moreover, it is still true to its purpose, not perverted, except as some have willingly left the faith once delivered to the saints. Have you found that “Ship of Zion?” Are you an active part of it?