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Welcome to the Daily Blade. The Word of God is described as the sword of the Spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

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This week we're going through real-life stories of courage and sacrifice from the tragic shipwreck and sinking of the RMS Titanic on April the 15th of 1912, and how they correlate to verses from God's Word. So today we're going to look at the story of Jack Phillips. So Phillips was a 25-year-old chief wireless operator of the wireless telegraph system aboard the Titanic. So he was responsible for sending and receiving messages using the Marconi wireless telegraph system. So he was responsible for sending and receiving messages using the Marconi wireless telegraph system. So this was a critical communication device that was on the ship. You had to have it. And on the night of April the 14th 1912, phillips and his assistant, harold Bride, were busy with a backlog of passenger messages that needed to go to Cape Race in Newfoundland. So both were tasked with working very, very long hours at their posts, which for any of you guys that have worked long hours, as you can imagine, this could lead to you being a little prickly right I'm certainly not immune to that. And earlier the SS Californian tried to warn the Titanic about the iceberg threat along their path and Phillips's official response was shut up, shut up, I am busy, okay. So that gives you a little bit of insight into how stressed he was and how he was responding. I am busy, okay, so that gives you a little bit of insight into how stressed he was and how he was responding.

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But then, at 1140 pm, the Titanic struck an iceberg on her starboard side. So the collision frightened Phillips and Bride, but both of them simply continued their work assuming that it was just, you know, a minor collision. But just after midnight Phillips and Bride were informed of the dire condition of the ship and they both immediately began sending the distress call. Cqd, which stands for come, quick danger. So one of the official messages actually reads as follows CQD, cqd, cqd. This is Titanic Position 41, 44 north, 50, 24 west. Require immediate assistance. Come at once. We have struck an iceberg.

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So they eventually began sending out the distress call SOS. It was one of the first times actually in human history where the SOS message was sent. So these messages went out to the SS Californian, which was close by, but they weren't received because the wireless operator was off duty. The messages also got to the RMS Carpathia, which was just over 58 miles away at the time, but it did eventually arrive on site to rescue the some 700 survivors of the shipwreck. Now we can't know this for sure, so I'm going to venture into speculation territory just a little bit. But I think that Phillips came to a decision point Send out some CQD SOS messages for a little while and then try to escape or work for as long as he is able, and now, according to his assistant, harold Bride, he chose the latter.

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So both Phillips and Bride sent messages to surrounding ships for over an hour. They were able to send these messages because of the courageous engineers that stayed below deck in order to keep the electricity running for the ship, as we discussed yesterday. And the ship began to have intermittent electricity, right, so the electricity was coming in and out, but Phillips did not leave his post. Bright later recalled that Phillips continued working, even with frozen fingers. Okay. So even when captain the captain of the ship, captain Edwards Smith, he released both of these men from duty, he said okay, that's it, that's all. Thank you so much. Phillips remained, he didn't leave. Phillips kept sending distress signals until the power completely failed, likely around 2.17 am, just minutes before the Titanic sank at 2.20. So Bride actually managed to escape the wireless room and survived on an overturned lifeboat. Some survivors claim to have seen Phillips on the deck, but he did not have a life jacket because he had given it to another passenger. So Phillips died in the frigid waters of the North Atlantic along with more than 700 others. His body was never recovered. So Phillips and Bride are credited with saving potentially hundreds of lives by coordinating the rescue of the survivors of the shipwreck.

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So there is a parallel here with Jack Phillips and the Apostle Paul. Okay, so when Saul of Tarsus became the Apostle Paul, he didn't just get a name change right. His entire frame of reference for the world shifted the moment he received the Holy Spirit. So, as Saul of Tarsus, he was a Jew that was also a Roman citizen, which was very privileged. He studied the Hebrew scriptures under a big time rabbi named Gamaliel. He was likely very comfortable from a financial standpoint. He was revered. He was sought after. I mean, dude, had it going on? Then everything changes. On the road to Damascus, a road he was actually traveling down so that he could continue overseeing the murder of Christians, mind you, he had a radical encounter with the Lord, as described in Acts 9, which led to him eventually converting and becoming a disciple of Jesus.

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But if we fast forward to Acts 20, paul is speaking to the elders of the church of Ephesus, paul is talking about how he's faithfully carried out a public ministry up to that point, how he's about to travel to Jerusalem to continue his ministry. So let's actually read Acts 20, verses 22 through 24. And now, behold, I'm going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. But I do not account my life of any more valuable nor as precious than the other lives of those aboard the sinking Titanic. That's why he was willing to die at his post. The apostle Paul did not consider his life as more valuable nor as precious than the other souls of those who had yet to hear the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and he was willing to die in order to carry out that mission. May we all have that same mindset, see you tomorrow.

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Thank you for listening to today's episode Before you go. If you want to help equip other men for the fight, share this podcast around and leave us a five-star rating and review. Stay sharp.