Saved by faith and quick thinking

The Oregonian ^ | Thursday, December 30, 2004 | JOHN LANCASTER

[DAVEY CROCKETT]

NAVALADY, Sri Lanka T wo hundred yards away from the beach, in the orphanage he had built, Dayalan Sanders lounged in his bed early Sunday morning. He was thinking, he said, about the sermon he was due to deliver in the chapel in half an hour. A few yards away, most of the 28 children under his care were in their rooms, getting ready for services

snip

One of his employees yanked on the starter cord, and the engine sputtered instantly to life -- something that Sanders swears had never happened before.

"Usually you have to pull it four or five times," he said.

Crammed with more than 30 people, the dangerously overloaded launch roared into the lagoon, Sanders said, at almost the same moment that the wall of water overwhelmed the orphanage, swamping its single-story buildings to the rafters.

"It was a thunderous roar and black sea," he said.

Snip

At that point, Sanders said, he recalled a line from biblical book of Isaiah: "When the enemy comes in like a flood, the spirit of the Lord shall raise up a standard against it."

He raised his hand in the direction of the flood and shouted, "I command you in the name of Jesus -- stop!" The water then seemed to "stall, momentarily," he said. "I thought at the time I was imagining things."

With the water pouring into the mouth of the lagoon, he began to worry that waves would overtake them from behind, swamping the small boat. Reasoning that it was better to hit the waves head on, he said, he ordered the driver to reverse direction and head back toward the open ocean.

[WildTurkey]

Do you think God takes pleasure in seeing people suffer?

I don't know. Do you?

[Jorge]

"Do you think God takes pleasure in seeing people suffer?"

I don't know. Do you?

Of course not. How could any of us have peace of mind if we thought our Creator might take pleasure in seeing us suffer?
Perish the thought.