We are called to be God’s light.
In the wake of the terrorist attacks in Paris, the entire world is on edge. We don’t normally hear about that kind of mass killing in the Western world. However, Israel has to deal with terrorists on a daily basis and they don’t just target the Israelis or Jews.
Back in October, a 78-year-old Christian woman named Marike Veldman, was riding on a bus in Israel. She was from the Netherlands originally, but had lived in Israel for many years. She had opened a home for Arab children 32 years earlier.
At one of the bus stops, two Muslim terrorists boarded the bus. One had a gun and one had a knife. They yelled, “Allahu Akbar,” and the one with the gun headed to the back of the bus and began shooting. The one with the knife began stabbing Marike.
But, Marike had her own battle cry which apparently trumped theirs. She began calling out in Dutch, “Lord Jesus! Lord Jesus! Help me! Help me!” She said at the sound of the name of Jesus, the terrorist ran away from her to the back of the bus and allowed her to escape through the opened door.
She was weak and bleeding and walking alone when a Jewish passerby, she calls a good Samaritan, picked her up and drove her to the hospital. She had a punctured lung and a shoulder injury. Two people died in the attack and sixteen were injured.
Seventy-eight-year-old Marike, is expected to make a full recovery. She says that she has no doubt that God intervened and that it was the name Jesus that saved her. Seventy-eight is kind of old to be walking away from a stabbing and with a punctured lung no less, yet God has shown us many times that He is not bound by human weakness or understanding.
I also find it pretty amazing that the woman called out in Dutch, her native tongue. The terrorists were not Dutch and surely didn’t understand what she was saying. Yet, the name of Jesus carried the same amount of power, no matter the language barrier.
Jesus said in John 14:13-14 “And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the father. You may ask me for anything in my name and I will do it.”
Marike’s actions certainly brought glory to God, and Jesus came through just as He said He would.
Philippians 2:9-11, tells us that, “Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Marike was never alone that day and neither are we. She remembered to call on the One who could save her and He did. The world has always been full of people who love evil, but we are called to remember that we worship a God who is good and He will win.
We are not called to live in fear, but to live courageously like Marike, knowing that He has a plan. The days may be dark, but, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” John 1:5
Have an awesome day!
Wendy 🙂