In 1991 my wife and I arrived in St. Petersburg, Russia, one week after the coup that brought Boris Yeltsin into national prominence. We were there to participate in an evangelistic meeting with Bruce Johnston as speaker that resulted in 335 people confessing their faith in Jesus. Most of them had been atheists. Sixty percent of them were university graduates.
One of those baptized in our meetings was a university professor who taught astronomy. After accepting Christ as her Saviour she gave this testimony, “I have searched for a meaning to life in my scientific research, but found nothing to have confidence in. The scientists around me feel the same vacuum. As I looked at the vastness of the universe in my study of astronomy, and the emptiness of my soul, I felt there must be some meaning. Then I received the Bible you gave me and began reading it, and the vacuum in my life was filled. I have accepted Jesus as my Saviour and have found true peace, comfort, and satisfaction in life.”
Would Jesus have caught her attention if He were just another person? Probably not. She accepted Jesus as her Saviour because He is the eternally existing One who has the power to forgive our sins and who meets the needs of the human heart.
Jesus not only created everything in the universe, He existed “before all things.” In fact, He has always existed. He is “I am,” the eternally existing God (John 8:58, NIV). What difference does that make to an atheist, to you, or to me? Innate within every human heart is a longing for God. The Communist countries tried to obliterate God from human existence. But He has remained in the hearts of millions of former Communists and millions of others around the world. Jesus, our eternal God, meets every human need and longing.
Daniel R. Guild
from “The Best News Ever ”, January 5.
