Hope found in the depths

I just was reading an article on the Power To Change website about the Chilean Miners' rescue.  Campus Crusade for Christ Chile had partnered with the rescue efforts by providing MP3 players for all the miners which had an audio copy of the Jesus film and the Bible.  Through the clear presentation of the life Jesus and His offer of hope and new life for all two of the miners became followers of Jesus while trapped in the mine.  One of the miners, "Mario Sepulveda, who handed out rocks from the bottom of the mine as souvenirs, stated: 'I seized the hand of God, it was the best hand. I always knew God would get us out of there.'"  To read more

I was just having a chat last night with a friend who is being baptised on Sunday.  I asked him what had made him decide to become a follower of Jesus.  He told me that he had been coming to church for a number of years and wanted to live a good life but for a long time it was just that: his effort in trying to live a good life.  It was in the midst of an intense personal crisis that God opened his eyes to the fact that being a follower of Jesus was about being in a relationship with God.  He said the truth hit him hard and he found himself weeping for hours.  He still wants to live a good life but now it comes from His daily, moment by moment walking with God rather than out of his own "tryin' hard to do right." 

Don't ya just love the way God brings hope in dark and difficult times?  Whether it is physical darkness, emotional darkness, relational darkness or whatever, the light of God's hope shines so brightly and changes lives forever.  "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade-- kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time." (1Peter 1:3-5)