of you know this, but in case you don’t watch the news or have lived in a hole
for the past decade let me fill you in. Back in 2004 a massive Tsunami hit the
southern cost of Thailand. Massive devastation. Complete villages swept away in
seconds. A total of 4,812 lives were lost. More than 8000 people were severely
injured and 4,499 people were reported missing after the huge wave had taken
its toll on Khao Lak.
houses. There are now monuments to remember and honor the dead and sites you
can visit where you can still see the ships that were pushed up onto land by
this powerful force of nature. One large fishing ship was carried 3 kilometers
(almost 2 miles) by the wave and landed on a house in the middle of a heavily
populated neighborhood. This whole situation looked like utter chaos and it
was. But this horrific and brutal event would begin to birth something
beautiful in Thailand.
For hundreds of years Thai people
have been pretty closed to the message of Jesus. This country as a whole is
mostly Buddhist with some small pockets of Islam forming in the south. However
after the Tsunami something began to change in the hearts of Thai people. With
such devastation came a huge insurgence of aid workers, relief agencies, and
missionaries to this hurting country. Christian organizations not only brought
relief but the gospel as well. They talked of the love of Christ and then were
able to show it in action. Many organizations have stayed long term and have
begun to bring rehab and development to many parts of this beautiful country.
Due to this large number of Christ followers impacting so may areas, God began
to move in awesome ways to rescue the souls of men and women all throughout
Thailand.
God began to save people not only out of a devastating physical
situation but also out a devastating spiritual situation. Thai people began to
see their need for a Savior. They began to realize that you can lose all you
own in an instant but if you lose you life and soul you have truly lost
everything. This is so true! Jesus said it this way; “What does it profit a man
if he gains the whole world, yet loses his own soul?” The answer is nothing!
Jesus is making the point that you could have everything this world has to
offer yet if you lose your soul you have nothing and at the same time have lost
everything. So many people spend their lives in pursuit of wealth, fame, and
fortune. But what if all that is ripped from you in a moment? What then? Do you
still have worth? Do you still have value? Yes! You still have worth because
your soul is so costly that Jesus himself had to come down into human flesh,
live a perfect and sinless life, be unjustly charged with crimes he didn’t
commit, and then die a criminals death to pay for it! Jesus came to save
sinners! He came to pay the price for our souls. We were stained with sin so
Christ had to come and wash us clean by shedding His blood for us.
That is the
whole story of the bible, beginning to end. It is a awesome, beautiful, and
costly, story of REDEMPTION!!!! That was the whole point of sacrifice in the
Old Testament of the Bible. It was all a picture of what Jesus would ultimately
come and do! He would offer himself once and for all for all of our sins. His
sacrifice would be the all-satisfying sacrifice before God that would declare
us to be in right standing now with God. Sin had separated us.
Christ died for
all sin. The separation was repaired and now we have a choice to accept what Jesus has done for us on the cross, confess and turn from our sin, believe in
our hearts that God raised Jesus from the grave and now follow Jesus as the
forgiver of our sins and the leader of our life. A Tsunami can look like such a
devastating and hopeless thing but God can use a disaster like this to write a
beautiful story of redemption in a nation. It’s true…a Tsunami can’t really
save anything but we have an awesome God who uses an event like that to save
thousands.
