- 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 severe cost,

one that he paid when he diedan agonizing death on a cross.

- When Christ embraced the cross,

he really was embracing us.

Artists, Selina Dominguez,shares a spoken word

with us today about how there is hope

in the message of the cross.

(slow music)

- He embraced the cross,stepped down from his thrown,

and left his crown becausewe were worth the loss.

He embraced the pain, the thorns in head,

the nails in hands, the spear in his side.

He embraced the shame.

Fully exposed, his armsopen, his hands open,

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 sowe'd be within reach

of a cross standing so tall,and a love rooted so deep,

he still says, "You're so worth it,"

because he saw where you standand he sees where you are.

Let the nails through his handsso you could touch his scars

and believe he came,suffered, 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 tried tohide, all on his back,

all in an effort to take us back,

for we had turned our backs on him.

And as we turn 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 crossbecause he saw beyond that tree.

Looking through the crowd,he saw who you've been,

who you are, and who you'd be,

and 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 andsought a tree to hide behind,

he says, "Covered."

Because 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 a 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,

he was really embracing us.

- Embracing you.

You know, 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 to 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 todaysaying, "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?

Have in our own hearts determined

whether God really loves us enough?

What more could He possiblydo to convince you?

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

Jesus said this, "I camethat they might have life,

"and have it abundantly."

Life here, life hereafter,

in 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 were gonna

get off the hook from all of that,

we live in a world that's filled with sin,

but he said, "I will 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 his 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 gonna

answer the phone when you call, is someone

who's already prayed thatprayer we just talked about.

Andrew.

- Amen, Terry, thank you.

Well up next, a motherof three feels something

bump into her whilesnorkeling 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.

Tiffany Johnson's day began

with parasailing over the Bahamas,

but it ended with an emergencymedevac back to the States.

That's because Tiffany'sdream vacation was interrupted

after being attacked by a shark.

- [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 she

was 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 thinking,"No, 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,

I looked at it and I was just in shock

because it was completely gone.

- That's when I hear Tiffscream, and she screamed,

"Help me, help me, Jesus!"

And I remember looking at her,

half of her right arm was gone

and it's just a mangled stump,

and I see bloodeverywhere, all around her.

I screamed, "Baby," and Ijumped off the boat after her,

and the first thing that Iheard her doing was praying.

- [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 husband,to give him strength,

and I prayed for my kids.

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

- That was the only time that 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, thedoctor approached me

and told me, "Mr. Johnson, your wife,

"she's stable and we stopped the bleeding,

"but she needs to see an American doctor

"as soon as possible."

Without proper and immediate care,

Tiffany could lose whatwas left of her arm,

or worse, develop alife-threatening infection.

- But they really just did not have

the resources like we do here,

and so I 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 fly 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 upthe phone and just balling.

- [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 forus 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 prostetic arm.

- I remember tears kindastarting to roll down my cheeks

as I was realizing that everyday tasks

are not gonna be the same,

and JJ 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 at church,

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 of depression,

and frustration, and why me,

they're tears of gratitudethat I'm even here.

I shouldn't even be alive,so it's just a limb.

So any time I do getfrustrated or feel like,

uh, this is just not fun,

it's just a reminder thatI'm here, and I'm alive,

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,

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 you 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 watchingwho are desperate

for a touch of God.

Lord God, we ask YourHoly Spirit to speak now,

to speak healing forthose in need of healing.

And I just come against aspirit 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 themwith hope, and the sensation

and empowerment of thelove of God in Jesus' name.

And God says, "I havea plan for your life,

"I have a plan for yourlife and I love you."

Thank you, Lord.

- There's someone, youhave a, you feel this,

it is like a cloak ofdarkness that's just over you

all the time and seems to overwhelm you

emotionally and spiritually,

and we speak to that thing right now

and we say, come off in Jesus' name,

and we just proclaimthe 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 being 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 nothing,says 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 us,

and never forsake us.

- And Lord, we just willingly let go

of any offenses that we've experienced,

any bitterness, any anger, any resentment,

even toward You, God, werelease all of that before You

and we ask You to forgive us

and to fill us with Your Holy Spirit.

Thank you, Lord.

- And, Lord, we try and bury our pain,

we try and bury our hurt,we don't wanna 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.

We always love to prayfor you here at CBN,

you can call us any time, 800-700-7000,

we would love to pray for you.

Terry.

- Well social media, likeFacebook 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-- as a highly sought after

author, mentor and conference speaker.

- God is a great God.

- [Charlene] Now thisminister and pastor's wife

reaches an even greateraudience 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 theworld to help them maximize

their use of Facebook toconnect their congregations.

The way that I like to think about it

in a ministry contextis digital discipleship.

- [Charlene] Jones told CBNNews how divine intervention

led her to quit a job sheloved and open this new door.

- I was at the Chief Executive level

of a state-wide 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 1:00,

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.

- 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."

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, Nona 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, actually,wanted 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 wanna have children.

- [Charlene] After her fatherdied 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 said itaffected her life in many ways.

- And I would go to schooland act out because frankly,

there was a 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, "Oh, thankyou, Lord, he's gone."

- [Charlene] That relief wouldn't last.

- Around the time of hisrelease, my mom said,

"Hey, what do you thinkabout 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 had this smug look on his face,

and so it continuedafter he got out of jail.

- [Charlene] Growingin her new-found 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 needed 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'mission at Facebook and beyond

is to tell others aboutthe God who rescued her

and has given her 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, CBN News.

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

of what He does withthe pain in our lives.

- Incredible testimony.

- Unbelievable.

- Wow.

- Yeah.

- Well, the family in our next story

saw their home leveled by an earthquake.

Uzil 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.

- [Narrator] Uzil and his parents survived

the earthquakes in Mexico,but lost their home.

Uzil was the one who gave the family hope.

- I told my mom to have faith in God,

He would send angels to help us.

- [Narrator] Uzil 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.

- Chemotherapy was expensiveand hard on my little boy,

but I saw his strength, his will to live,

and finally he was healed.

- [Narrator] After the earthquake,

they built a makeshift tent.

Walking home one night,Uzil said he was hungry.

They took their last fewpesos and bought two tacos.

- I told myself, "Tonight,Felicita and I will not eat.

"We can stand the hunger,

"we only have to buy some food for Uzil."

- That night a teamfrom Operation Blessing

was eating at the same restaurant.

The Operation Blessing team sat

and shared a meal withUzil 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 a new home.

- I saw on TV that Operation Blessing

was helping people in the disaster areas,

and I prayed for some help like this.

Now, to see them here,

I feel like God sent them to bless us.

- Soon we will have ournew home, I'm so excited.

- They showed me aroundand Uzil proudly told me

which 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.

- I always pray for thepeople from Operation Blessing

because they helped us so much.

Thank you for our new home.

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

- He's adorable,

- And 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 was a dream fulfilled.

- Amazing what we can dowhen 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 800-700-7000

and say, I wanna get onboard,and join the 700 Club,

and make a change possible in the lives

of those devastated bynatural disasters like that,

those families in need.

It's amazing how we can be the hands

and feet of Jesus whenwe partner together.

- You know, even as wespeak, if you're a 700 Club,

without leaving the comfort of your home

you are touching thousandsand thousands of lives

all around the world,so we say, thank you.

- Yes, thank you so much.

We're gonna leave youtoday with this Scripture.

"Those who sow in tears shallreap with shouts of joy,"

and of course that comesfrom Psalm 126, verse five.

We thank you so much for joining us today.

Of course we wanna remind you,

if you ever need prayerfor anything in your life

you can call us at 800-700-7000.

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, buh-bye.