Water to Wine

My wife grew up in Communist China where she was taught both in school and at home that there is no God.  That man originated from a puddle in the ground and that Christianity was wrong.  When she was in high school she fell into a deep depression and started to read books about how to be successful.  A particular phrase in one of those books painted God in a positive light.  After reading this book she decided that she would go to Church with one of her friends who had invited her some time before.  She looks back now on this and reflects on how deeply she was steeped in the atheism of her culture because she remembers initially being shocked at the fact that her friend was a Christian and said "I thought only old people and people with mental issues were Christians."

When she went to Church with her friend she felt peace.  Though she didn't believe in God she kept coming back because she felt that this was a place she belonged.  Eventually she prayed to receive Jesus in her heart but she was still greatly plagued by these questions in her mind.

She found herself in a great internal battle.  She wanted to believe in God but she was plagued by these questions in her head.  She realized that this battle became spiritual when thoughts turned into voices and those voices started telling her to end her life.  She was in a great trial.

She took to prayer and at times fasting and she would call her spiritual mentor every time she had these struggles - which turned out to be almost daily.  Her mentor would talk with her and pray for her and this went on for a while.

Eventually she went on a church-wide retreat.  During the retreat her mentor spoke out of John 2 where Jesus turned water to wine and declared that God can change your very internal substance.  Something happened in her that day and she says she woke up the next morning and the thoughts and voices were gone.  She had been given faith in Jesus.  God had turned water to wine.

She says that after this everything in her faith got easier.  She believed in God so living out her faith became normal.  Her depression lifted and she became one of the most cheerful people you could meet.  God had turned water to wine.

I believe that even if she hadn't had that encounter with God and she had passed away soon after that she still would have gone to Heaven because God would have seen the intent and desire to believe being expressed by how she lived her life.  But God has a greater plan for us than grin-and-bear-it Christianity.

Romans 15:13 say, "Now may the God of hope, fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."

Hope in the Biblical sense is not used in the same way we use it today.  To us today hope means something that you want but aren't sure of.  We say things like "I hope its sunny tomorrow."  But the Bible uses the word hope very differently.  Scripture defines hope as being an earnest expectation of a future reality.  In the Bible hope is in the future but it is certain.  So when God makes our hearts abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit it means that He touches our internal nature to such a degree that He removes doubt and gives us deep-seated belief.

This is my prayer for all who would read this book - may the God of Hope cause you to abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.  May He turn your water into wine.

Amen.

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