The Tide Turner

Our Dan and Mandy,
San Diego, CA, 2009

"Who kept the sea inside its boundaries as it burst from the womb...For I locked it behind barred gates, limiting its shores. I said, "This far and no farther will you come. Here your proud waves must stop!" (Job 38:8-11 NLT)

The book of Daniel takes an unorthodox turn in chapter 4. Pagan King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon offers a personal testimony of the miraculous signs and wonders the Most High God performed for him. I, too, have God-turning-the-tide testimonies:

• A failed business and empty checking account in 1988 that God turned to Phillip's job opportunity of a lifetime and ample provision.
• A child engaged to marry a mismatch that God turned toward His chosen "ana duo" - companion in the work of the Gospel.
• A child ensnared in the downward spiral of alcohol that God turned back to Jesus and filled with the Holy Spirit.
• A loved one's dead marriage that God turned into a watered garden.
• A child's barren womb that God turned to the giver of life.
• Unbelievers - my family and me - lost in our sins and doomed to an eternity in hell that God turned to Jesus, forgave our sins, and promised everlasting life in heaven with Him forever.

Beloved, is life's angry sea tossing you to and fro? Cry out to Jesus, the tide Turner!

HE can turn the tides and calm the angry sea.

HE alone decides who writes the symphony.

HE lights every star that makes our darkness bright.

HE keeps watch all through each long and lonely night.

HE still finds the time to hear a child's first prayer.

Saint or sinner call and always finds Him there. 

Though it makes Him sad to see the way we live,

He'll always say, "I forgive!" 1

1 HE, Avas Music Publishing Co, 1954. Lyrics by Richard Mullan.