{"id":2031,"date":"2012-04-14T23:51:37","date_gmt":"2012-04-15T03:51:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/?p=2031"},"modified":"2013-06-12T15:50:48","modified_gmt":"2013-06-12T19:50:48","slug":"evangelism-and-the-titanic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/?p=2031","title":{"rendered":"Evangelism and the Titanic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/titanic1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2036\" title=\"titanic\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/titanic1.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/titanic1.jpg 400w, http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/titanic1-300x262.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a>Today is the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. This terrible tragedy was also the occasion of some very heroic deeds as men by and large supported a &#8220;Women and children first&#8221;\u009d policy. Sadly the heroic aspect has been obscured by a dubious movie.\u00a0 On this anniversary there is one specific story especially relevant to the theme of this site which I would not want us to miss. My friend <a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=1222084679\">Mark Donaldson <\/a>pointed me to the story of John Harper, a Scottish Baptist preacher from Glasgow. Harper demonstrated the heart of a pastor and evangelist in this desperate situation.\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/bbc.in\/HT2fgu\">This brief video from BBC news<\/a> includes comments from the current pastor of Harper Memorial Baptist Church and Harper&#8217;s grandson. It is well worth watching.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/john-harper.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-2032\" title=\"john harper\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/john-harper-150x150.png\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Knowing the ship was going down, Harper, a widower, calmly placed his young daughter on a life boat along with his niece ensuring their safety while knowing he would likely not see them again. When the ship went down he was in the icy sea with a life jacket. Survivors reported that Harper called people to Christ aboard the ship and while in the sea.\u00a0 Upon encountering a man without a life jacket, he asked if the man had trusted Christ. When the man said, &#8220;No,&#8221;\u009d Harper gave him his lifejacket saying the unbeliever needed it more than he did. This other man was later one of just a few who were rescued. John Harper died at sea, but the man who received the life jacket came to faith and later told the story.<\/p>\n<p>Harper, like his Master, came to seek and to save the lost.<\/p>\n<p>(<a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/IcEC0Y\">Story on the website of Harper Memorial Baptist Church, Glasgow<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today is the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. This terrible tragedy was also the occasion of some very heroic deeds as men by and large supported a &#8220;Women and children first&#8221;\u009d policy. Sadly the heroic aspect has been obscured by a dubious movie.\u00a0 On this anniversary there is one specific story especially &#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/?p=2031\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading &lsquo;Evangelism and the Titanic&rsquo; &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[62],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2031"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2031"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2040,"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2031\/revisions\/2040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}