“Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you endured in a great conflict full of suffering” Hebrews 10:32
Do you remember receiving your first flashlight? Was it small or large? My uncle Vic was an electrician and he had a powerful flashlight with a large battery that I always thought that sometime when I was older that would be what I would have to provide light during an emergency. Lessons from the Bible are much like powerful flashlights than can light up the darkest of trials that the world can throw at children and adults. The four girls in the attached photo attend Bon Berger in Caredeux and survived the vodou priest and on January 12, 2010 lived through the earthquake that claimed so many lives.
These girls have learned the message of Hope from the Bible and you may have seen others like them whose light shone brightly in the evenings following the earthquake on CNN or other news outlets. They were the bright lights praying and singing hymns in the darkness of Port-au-Prince when death, suffering and uncertainty seemed to be everywhere. God has given us Hope in the darkness and the ability to find comfort in hopeless time when the lost cling in vain to the ways and logic of this world.
So…I wrote this devotion yesterday afternoon and then did my daily search of Haiti news outlets and decided to add a paragraph. If you are not aware; things are really rough in Haiti now. Opposition forces to remove the president have been demonstrating for some time and it’s effects have been spreading to the small towns outside of the Capitol of Port-au-Prince…throughout the country; they need Hope. The people like you and I living there have some money for necessities, gas, water and food; but there is none to be found in many areas. Please pray that the true Light of this world will illuminate the darkness in Haiti and bring a swell of Hope into their government. Our Heavenly Father is the only answer. I listened to Anne Murray sing ‘Whispering Hope’ recently on the Internet radio and they are a wonderful way to close this devotion.
“Soft as the voice of an angel breathing a lesson unheard; hope with a gentle persuasion whispers a comforting word. Wait till the darkness is over. Wait till the tempest is done. Hope for the sunshine tomorrow after the shower is gone. Whispering hope, oh how welcome, thy voice making my heart in its sorrow rejoice. If in the dusk of the twilight dimmed be the region afar willn't deepening darkness brighten the glimmering star. Then when the night is upon us why should the heart sink away? When the dark midnight is over watch for the breaking of day. Whispering hope, oh how welcome, thy voice making my heart in its sorrow rejoice.”
Dear Heavenly Father, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen.
May God be with you…Jay