“For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves” – Colossians 1:13
On January 5, 1997, British yachtsman 55-year old Tony Bullimore was racing around the world in Vendee Globe Yacht Race. He was in the Southern Ocean, about 1500 miles from Australia when his boat, the Exide Challenger, capsized in a storm.
For the next four days, he remained in an air pocket underneath the overturned hull. Surviving on "a little chocolate and a little water" he endured solitude, pitch darkness, and absolute silence except for the sloshing of waves.
Then on the fourth day, as he was praying to be saved, he heard a banging on the hull. An Australian rescue party had found his capsized yacht.
"I started shouting `I'm coming, I'm coming, coming'," Bullimore said. "It took a few seconds to get from one end of the boat to the other. Then I took a few deep breaths and I dived out of the boat."
When Bullimore emerged into daylight, the moment was spiritual. "It was heaven, absolute heaven," he said. "I really, really never thought I would reach that far. I was starting to look back over my life and was thinking, `Well, I've had a good life, I've done most of the things I had wanted to'.
"If I was picking words to describe it, it would be a miracle, an absolute miracle."
Bullimore said he felt he had been "born all over again."
All of us were drowning in darkness because of our sin. But Jesus Christ heard our prayers of distress and rescued us, and in Him we are born again. Today in prayer, praise Jesus for the absolute miracle of rescuing you.
“Salvation comes through a cross and a crucified Christ.” – Andrew Murray
God’s Word: “he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit” – Titus 3:5
By Peter Kennedy, Copyright 2011, Devotional E-Mail
DEVOTIONS IN COLOSSIANS