- And I felt like I hadbumped into something.

- [Andrew] Face to facewith a hungry shark.

- I remember the sound of me screaming

through the snorkel tube.

- [Andrew] One diver hasto fight for her life.

- He had my whole arm in his mouth.

- [Andrew] Against one ofnature's greatest predators.

- And I see bloodeverywhere, all around her.

- See how a series ofmiracles saved her life

on today's 700 Club Interactive.

Hi, and welcome to the show.

At the core of Christianity is Jesus

and his gift of salvation.

That gift came at a severecost, one that he paid,

when he died an agonizingdeath on the cross.

- When Christ embraced the cross,

he really was embracing us.

Artist Selina Dominguez sharesa spoken word with us today

about how there is hope inthe message of the cross.

(mellow music)

- He embraced the cross,stepped down from his throne

and left his crown becausewe were worth the loss.

He embraced the pain,the thorns in his head,

the nails in his hands,the spear in his side,

he embraced the shame.

Fully exposed his arms, openedhis hands, opened his eyes,

open, all eyes on him.

His voice fading, his heartbreaking, his skin broken,

his eyes still open,

staring, piercing, looking at you,

at your past, yourpresent, your future too,

and thinking, you're so worth it.

His nakedness beforeall to cover your shame,

the nails in his hands toknow the depth of your pain,

his blood screamed, you're worth it.

His arms spread out so we'dbe within reach of a cross,

standing so tall anda love rooted so deep,

he's still says, you're so worth it.

Because he saw where you'dstand and he sees where you are,

let the nails through his handsso you could touch his scars

and believe he came, hesuffered and he bled.

his love pouring outwith every drop he shed,

just because he found you worth it.

So there came that sacred moment

where purity and sin did collide,

carrying every addiction,sickness and scar we try to hide,

all on his back, all inan effort to take us back

for we had turned our backs on him

and as we turned away, heturned to face our sin,

took our place and paid our debt.

And went as far as to paya wage as high as death,

do you get it?

Can you grasp the depth of such love,

a love that would go as faras to suffer and die for us,

a victim so innocentoffering up his own innocence

to substitute for our incompetence?

Yes, he embraced the cross

because he saw beyond that tree.

Looking through the crowdhe saw who you've been,

who you are and who you'd beand he said you are worth it.

You're worth my nakednessas I hang on display, child,

this is the evidence ofyour access to grace,

where you find yourself taintedbecause of what you did,

he says, covered.

Where you find yourself vulnerablebecause of what they did,

he says, covered.

Where you find yourself exposed

before his ever-piercing eyes

because you took the bait from the serpent

and sought a the tree to hidebehind, he says, covered.

'Cause he carried the crossand became the Tree of Life,

made himself the vine, sowe could be the branches

instead of wasting time sewing on leaves,

we could bear good fruitand lead others to believe

that the story didn't endwhen he bowed his head

and said it's done.

For he rose again with the power

that not even death could overcome.

There's no need to despair ina war that's already been won.

So when we're caught inhis grace, we come undone

for as he embraced thecross, he was embracing us,

Jesus Christ our Savior,the epitome of true love.

As he embraced the cross,(mellow music)

he was really

embracing us.(mellow music)

- Embracing you.

One of the great tricks of Satan

is to make you feel likeyou can't be forgiven,

make you feel like you're not worthy,

make you feel unlovable,

make you feel like you've gonetoo far to ever come back,

gone too far for the love of God to reach.

But the truth of the matteris, you can't go too far.

You can't do too many thingsthat are offensive or wrong.

God's arms reach out to you,

Jesus arms reach out to you from Calvary,

stretched there so thatyou and I could be free.

Reaching down to us today,saying I'm here, I'm here.

And how many of us

have not responded?

How many have heard thevoice, heard the call,

but have not responded, havein our own hearts determined

whether God really loves us enough?

What more could he possiblydo to convince you?

He gave all, he gave all,so that we could be free.

Jesus said this, I camethat they might have life

and have it abundantly.

Life here, life here after,

and the fullness he intended you to have.

Sometimes the things thatkeep us from receiving that,

believing him, or allowing him in,

are things that wound us, andmake us angry, and bitter.

He said in this life,you will have trials.

He didn't tell us we weregonna get off the hook

from all of that, we live in aworld that's filled with sin,

but he said I will not neverleave you or forsake you.

When you walk through thefire, I will be there.

You see, when we can't walkanymore, he carries us,

but he never lets go, never lets go.

The question is will you allow him

to enter your circumstances,your need, we all have it,

your very life, willyou allow him to come in

and empower you to live life abundantly?

That's why Jesus came.

He came because he loved you so much

he was willing to die for you,

willing to give everythinghe was and everything he had

so that you and I could be free here

and live with him there.

And it's yours for the asking today.

Invite Jesus into your heart.

Confess your sins to him.

He's big enough to handle your anger,

your bitterness, your resentment,

just unload and then listen

for him to sing love song to you.

Ask him into your heart, andthen ask him to change you.

It's what he's about for all of us.

If you need someone to prayspecifically with you today,

can I tell you that ourlines are always open?

1-800-700-7000.

And the person who's gonnaanswer the phone when you call,

is someone who's alreadyprayed that prayer

we've just talked about,

Andrew.

- Amen Terry, thank you.

Well, up next, a mother of three,

feels something bump into herwhile snorkeling in the water.

Then she turns to see theblack beady eyes of a shark

and its razor-sharp teethchomping at her arm.

- When I yanked the lasttime his jaws opened up.

And I remember when my arm popped out,

I looked at it and I was just in shock

because it was completely gone.

- See how a series ofmiracles helped save her life.

Plus, we're gonna be prayingfor you so don't go away.

(bright music)

Tiffany Johnson's day began

with parasailing over the Bahamas

but it ended with an emergencymedevac back to the States.

That's because Tiffany's dream vacation

was interrupted afterbeing attacked by a shark.

(foreshadowing music)

- [Narrator] TiffanyJohnson, and her husband JJ,

were enjoying a day ofsnorkeling while on a cruise.

But he started feeling sickand headed back to the boat.

- In the meantime, mywife is just out there

snorkeling by herself,

never thought that shewas in any kind of danger.

- [Narrator] But in these waters,danger is always close by.

- And I felt like I hadbumped into something.

I was face to face with a shark.

He had my whole arm in his mouth.

I remember the sound of me screaming

through the snorkel tube.

- [Narrator] Tiffany wasin a fight for her life.

- I felt the strength of the Lord

just come out from inside of me

and give me the strength to fight

and I remember thinkingno, I'm not gonna die here,

you're not gonna take my life.

So I started to yank harder.

When I yanked the lasttime his jaws opened up.

And I remember when my arm popped out,

I looked at it and I was just in shock

because it was completely gone.

- That's when I hear Tiff scream.

And she's screamed help me, help me Jesus.

And I remember looking at her,

half of her right arm wasgone and it's just mangled,

a mangled stump.

And I see bloodeverywhere, all around her.

I screamed baby, and I jumpedoff the boat after her.

And the first thing that Iheard her doing, was praying.

(water splashing)

- [Narrator] The boat'scaptain threw out a rope,

and JJ and Tiffany pulled themselves in.

- The moment I hit that boat,

the peace of the Lord was so strong,

it was like a tangible cloud,

a presence that I have never felt before.

- [Narrator] As the boatsped back towards the dock,

JJ made a tourniquet out of a towel

trying to stem the flow ofblood from Tiffany's arm.

- I just laid my head on his lap

and I just began topray in the Holy Spirit,

praying for my husbandto give him strength.

then I prayed for my kids,

I prayed in that boat that Godwould use this for his glory.

- [JJ] That was the only timethat I felt like oh my gosh,

my wife could die on me.

- [Narrator] Once back onshore, they called an ambulance.

Tiffany was rushed to the Nassau Hospital

and taken into surgery.

- I remember making phonecalls to her immediate family,

my immediate family,telling them what happened,

just to pray for her.

So I was just praying that theLord would just heal my wife,

that she would be okay,

that she was gonna make it through this.

- [Narrator] The surgerylasted four hours,

but it wasn't over.- After the surgery,

the doctor approached meand told me, "Mr. Johnson,

"your wife, she's stableand we stopped the bleeding

"but she needs to see an American doctor

"as soon as possible."

- [Narrator] Withoutproper and immediate care,

Tiffany could lose whatwas left of her arm,

or worse, develop alife-threatening infection.

- But they really justdid not have the resources

like we do here and soI was in a lot of pain.

- [Narrator] But getting backto America wasn't so easy.

- We knew that we needed an act of God

and a miracle for us to get back.

- [Narrator] Their only optionwas to hire a medevac crew

that would find them fromNassau back to the States.

- It cost $16,000 for the medevac flight.

- The medevac company told JJ,

if we don't get this pre-approved,

chances are it's gonna bean out-of-pocket expense.

- [Narrator] JJ was morethan willing to pay,

but the couple stillprayed for another miracle.

Two hours later, they got acall from the medevac company.

- You don't have to worryabout one penny of it,

we'll take care of it.

And I remember JJ hanging overthe phone and just bawling.

- [Narrator] Less than 24 hours later,

Tiffany and JJ landed in Charlotte,

where an ambulance was waiting.

- It's just incredible,

just to see how God moved the mountains

for us to get back home.

And we didn't waver on our faith.

We just knew that hewas gonna come through.

- [Narrator] Tiffanynever fought infection

and had two more successful surgeries,

one of which was an innovativenerve transfer surgery

that allowed her tocontrol a prosthetic arm.

- I remember tears kind ofstarting to roll down my cheeks

as I was realizing that everyday tasks

are not gonna be the same.

And JJ, like looked over at me, he's like,

"It's okay, we're just gonnaestablish our new normal now."

- [Narrator] And they have done just that.

Tiffany leads worship atchurch, and together she and JJ,

continue raising their three children,

Kylie, Luke, and Natalie.

They thank God for hisfaithfulness through everything.

- My prayers were definitely answered

more than I could ever imagine.

She's not only alive, but she's thriving.

And her testimony is onethat's gonna last for ages.

- The tears I cry are not ofdepression and frustration,

and why me, they're tears ofgratitude that I'm even here,

like I shouldn't even be alive.

So it's just a limb (chuckles).

So anytime I do get frustratedor feel like, (grunts)

this is just not fun, it's just a reminder

that I'm here and I'malive and God's in this

and he's using it.

- In the midst of thathorrifying situation

for Tiffany and her husband,they found God faithful,

they found him faithful.

Now, Terry, and I wanna pray for you now.

I don't know what typeof situation you're in,

but you may have your own terror,

or your own anxiety and fear,

and you may be feeling overwhelmed

and you're seeking God's faithfulness.

Well, for Terry and I, it'sa privilege to pray for you

and whatever your need is,or the need of your loved one

that you desperately care about,

I ask you now to pray withus for what those needs are.

Father God, we see that storyabout Tiffany and her family

and we rejoice in your faithfulness

in the midst of that situation.

And Lord, there are people watching

who are desperate for a touch of God.

And, Lord God, we ask yourHoly Spirit to speak now,

to speak healing forthose in need of healing.

And I just come against thespirit of suicide people feel,

that people feel sodesperate, so hopeless,

they are literallycontemplating ending their life.

And in the name ofJesus, Terry and I rebuke

that spirit of suicide in Jesus name.

Holy Spirit, I ask you now

to infuse, those desperate and hopeless,

I ask you to infuse them with hope,

and the sensation and empowerment

of the love of God in Jesus name.

And God says, I have a plan for your life,

I have a plan for yourlife and I love you.

Thank you Lord.- Mm-hmm.

There's someone you have a,

you feel this, it islike a cloak of darkness

that's just over you all the time

and seems to overwhelm youemotionally and spiritually.

And we speak to that thing right now

and we say come off in Jesus name.

And we just proclaim the life and the love

and the light of Jesus Christ to you,

that your heart and yourmind would be filled with it,

that you would sense it right now.

Lift up your hands andbegin to worship God,

declare that thing gone,say no to it, refuse it,

block it out with praise.

God inhabits the praises of his people

and darkness cannot come into that place.

So get your worship music on,

and lift up your hands in faith

and just begin to say yesto God and to worship him.

Thank you, Lord.

- And we're reminded bythe Holy Spirit today,

be anxious for nothing.

Be anxious for nothingsays the word of God.

And we claim John 14:27, "PeaceI give to you," Jesus said,

"it is not peace the world gives.

"So do not be troubled, do not be afraid."

Thank you, Heavenly Father,

you will never leave usand never forsake us.

- Sovereign Lord, we justwillingly let go of any offenses

that we've experienced,any bitterness, any anger,

any resentment, even toward you God,

we release all of that before you

and we ask you to forgive us

and to fill us with your Holy Spirit.

Thank you Lord.

- Lord, we try and bury ourpain, we try and bury our hurt,

we don't want to face it.

And right now, thanks to thepresence of the Holy Spirit

and his love, and care, andconcern for us, the counselor,

we just bring it to the surface now,

what our pain and our hurtis, the mistakes we've made.

And Jesus, we lay themat the foot of the cross,

we lay our burdens atthe foot of the cross,

we lay our sins at the foot of the cross,

and we say Jesus, thankyou for your mercy,

and your grace and for loving us.

In Jesus name, we rejoice

at the overwhelming faithful love of God

and it's in Jesus name we pray,

Amen.- Amen.

- Amen, we always love topray for you here at CBN.

You can call us anytime, 800-700-7000,

we would love to pray for you.

Terry.

- Well, social media,like Facebook and Twitter,

is one of the most influentialforces in our world today.

Nona Jones is recognized as an expert

in building the kingdom ofGod through social media,

but her success didn't come easily.

Charlene Aaron tellsus how her painful past

helped propel her to greatness.

- [Charlene] Ordained intothe ministry at only 17,

Nona Jones has expanded her coast

as a highly sought after author,

mentor and conference speaker.

- God is a great God.- Now this minister

and pastor's wife, reachesan even greater audience

in the digital world

as head of Facebook'sFaith-based Partnership Outreach.

- I've preached around thecountry and around the world

and what's interesting is,

I wasn't asked to join thecompany in spite of that,

I was asked to join thecompany because of that.

I work with pastors, andchurches, and denominations,

literally all over the world

to help them maximizetheir use of Facebook

to connect to other congregations.

The way that I like to thinkabout it in a ministry context,

is digital discipleship.

- [Charlene] Jones told CBS News

how divine intervention ledher to quit a job she loved

and open this new door.

- I was at the chief executive level

of a statewide network ofalternative schools in Florida.

But four years into the role, God said,

this assignment is over.

So I met with my boss thatday, met with her at one,

I finished talking with her at 1:40,

got in my car, was driving home,

at 2:05 my cell phone rang.

1:40 to 2:05- 1:40 to 2:05.

- 25 minutes, my cell phone rang

and I didn't recognize the number

so I wasn't gonna answer it,

but the Holy Spirit said answer that.

And so I was like, "Hello."

And the lady was like,"Is this Nona Jones?"

And I said, "Yeah."

And she said, "I'm calling from Facebook."

- By all accounts, Noah Jonesis living a life of purpose.

But the journey to that purpose

has been filled with rejectionand the pain of abuse.

- I grew up in a very traumatic situation.

So my father actuallywanted to have children

but for 15 years, himand my mom were married

and she never got pregnant.

And then she finally gotpregnant and she actually cried

because she didn't want to have children.

After her father died of cancer in 1984,

her mother dated many different men.

One of them ended up sexually abusing her.

- When I was about five,

she met a guy who becameher live-in boyfriend.

And unfortunately, shortly after that,

he started to abuse me sexually.

- [Charlene] Jones says itaffected her life in many ways.

that I would go to school and act out

because frankly, there wasa lot of chaos at home,

and I didn't know how to process it.

- [Charlene] At age 11,her life changed forever

when a friend invited her to church.

- It was there that I discovered Jesus,

I began to learn about thecalling that God had on my life.

- [Charlene] The abuse continued, however,

and Jones eventually told her mother.

- The very first timeI told her what he did,

she had him arrested and I was so excited.

I was like, "Well, thankyou, Lord he's gone."

- [Charlene] That relief wouldn't last.

- Around the time of hisrelease, my mom said,

"Hey, you know what do youthink about him coming back?"

And I was like, "I don'twant him to come back."

And she told me that she was the adult,

we needed money in the house

and so she was gonna bring him back.

And so she literally took me with her.

I will never forget beingin the backseat of the car,

heading to the jail to pick him up.

And when he got in the car,

it's like, he had thissmug look on his face.

And so it continuedafter he got out of jail.

- [Charlene] growingin her newfound faith,

Jones prayed for a way out.

The answer came afterearning a full scholarship

to the University of Florida.

As a microbiology major, she studied hard

and was one of the top students on campus.

Yet the brokenness and bitternessof her past haunted her.

- I was successful in college,

but I had a lot of rejection inside of me

that I still need God to work out.

- [Charlene] Healing finallycame with forgiveness.

- When I forgave my mom,like truly forgave her,

and realized that numberone, hurt people hurt people,

she had been abused, he had been abused.

When I realized that, I think I was able

to finally walk in thefreeing power of forgiveness.

- [Charlene] Today Jones'smission at Facebook and beyond

is to tell others aboutthe God who rescued her,

and has given her a platform

to share her story of freedom and hope.

- It doesn't matter howmany followers you have,

what matters is how many people

are following Jesus through you.

- [Charlene] Charlene Aaron, CBS News.

- Beauty for ashes, it's God's promise

of what he does withthe pain in our lives.

- A bit of testimony.- Unbelievable.

- Yeah,- Well, the family

in our next story, saw theirhome leveled by an earthquake,

Uziel told his parents

that God would send angels to help them.

The family prayed, andtheir prayers were answered,

courtesy of a constructioncrew from Operation Blessing.

(mellow music)

- [Reporter] Uziel and his parents

survived the earthquakes inMexico but lost their home.

Uziel was the one whogave the family hope.

- [Interpreter] I told mymom to have faith in God,

he would send angels to help us.

- [Reporter] Uziel is a fighter.

He battled cancer and won.

But his medical expenses used up

everything the family had saved.

They owned a piece of land

and had planned to build a house on it,

but couldn't afford it.

- [Interpreter] Chemotherapy was expensive

and hard to my little boy,but I saw his strength,

his will to live, andfinally he was healed.

- [Reporter] After the earthquake,

they built a makeshift tent.

Walking home one night,Uziel said he was hungry.

They took their last fewpesos and bought two tacos.

- [Interpreter] I told myself tonight,

Felicita and I will not eat.

We can stand the hunger,

we only had to buy some food for Uziel.

- That night, a teamfrom Operation Blessing

was eating at the same restaurant.

The Operation Blessing team

sat and shared a mealwith Uziel and his parents

and when they heard their story,

they decided to helpthe family in a big way.

We went to the oldpiece of land they owned

to build them at ne home.

- [Interpreter] I saw onTV that Operation Blessing

was helping people in the disaster areas.

And I prayed for some help like this.

Now to see them here, I feellike God send them to bless us.

- [Interpreter] Soon, wewill have our new home.

I'm so excited.

- They showed me around

and Uziel proudly told mewhich room was going to be his.

It's big, it's a big room.

The new house won't just bebigger than their old one.

Thanks to modern technology,it'll be stronger,

more stable and even better insulated.

This cellular concreteis such a great insulator

that even running a blowtorchon it, it barely gets hot,

and it's really easy to work with.

In fact, it's solightweight, it even floats.

In no time at all, theirnew home was finished

and the family was settling in nicely.

- [Interpreter] I alwayspray for the people

from Operation Blessingbecause they helped us so much.

Thank you for our new home.

- Wow, Uziel is quite aninspiration, isn't he Terry?

And,- He's adorable.

- Keeps his family encouragedwhen they're in such pain.

And then of course, we saw his dad crying

when the new house was built.

- Yeah, well, that wasthe dream fulfilled.

- Amazing what we can doand we partner together.

Now, if you saw that family in need,

I think you probably wouldhave wanted to help them.

And you can see how becausewhen we all partner together,

we can make a tremendousdifference like that.

And you can do that by joiningthe 700 Club at $20 a month.

You just have to call us at 800-700-7000

and say I wanna get onboard and join the 700 Club

and make change possible inthe lives of those devastated

by natural disasters likethat, those families in need.

It's amazing how we can be the hands

and feet of Jesus whenwe partner together.

- Even as we speak, ifyou're a 700 club member,

without leaving the comfort of your home,

you are touching thousandsand thousands of lives

all around the world, so we say thank you.

- Thank you so much.

We wanna to leave youtoday with this Scripture,

those who sow in tears, shallreap with shouts of joy.

And of course, thatcomes from Psalm 126:5.

We thank you so much for joining us today.

Of course, we want to remind you,

if you ever need prayerfor anything in your life,

you can call us at 800-700-7000.

And it is our joy and ourprivilege to pray with you.

And remember, Jesus desperately wants

to be involved in your situation,

he wants to be involved inthe details of your life,

there's nothing he can't handle.

So please go to God through Jesus Christ.

We'll see you next time, bye-bye.

(bright music)