Faces of Beauty 1 -
all for Abba

Rescue in Process: Hold On!,
by Rubel Shelly

Thirty-three Chilean miners are telling an unlikely story. After being
trapped half a mile underground for 69 wretched days, they were brought
to the surface one at a time in a cigar-shaped steel capsule that was
only slightly larger in diameter than a grown man's shoulders are wide.

In a rescue process that combined the efforts of the Chilean
government, NASA, a Pennsylvania drill company, and so many others, an
ahead-of-schedule operation brought the men out in a flawless rescue
operation. Each took the 15-minute journey to freedom from the longest
underground entrapment in history.

From the pre-commercialized reports that have emerged so far, it seems
clear that there was an early time of extreme fear and deep
discouragement. In the first 17 days, the men huddled in an area no
larger than 165 square feet. They had no contact with the outside and
knew nothing of what was being done above ground to rescue them.

Reports say that some of the younger men in the group threw themselves
on the ground and refused to get up. They appear to have resigned
themselves to death. Then the first bore hole penetrated their tiny
space, and hope soared. Bodies that had started eating muscle were
provided with food, and tainted mine water was replaced with pure
drinking water. Things improved dramatically.

But there was still a long wait to be endured. Even with good food and
water, what about the emotional health of the group?

The men organized to live. Everyone was assigned a job. Nobody was
allowed to isolate himself with his fears. One report of the experience
I read contained this sentence: "They functioned like a family -- a mix
of love, dependence, frustration. But there were never thoughts of
turning on each other."

As we wait, never doubt that heaven is furiously active on your behalf.

Then I thought this: What a microcosm of heaven, earth, and church! And
how much we could learn from the experience.

The "rescue work" we call salvation is going on above. No more than the
miners could know what was happening a half-mile above them, we cannot
know all God is doing for us in our times of weakness, failure, and
discouragement. We know of the cross in history, and we have the
promise we will never be forsaken.

The "holding-on work" we do as the church is our task while trapped in
the dark and threatening environment of a world where sin has done its
best to trap and destroy us. No, we can't climb out under our own
strength. We wait instead with all the patience we can muster, keep
hope alive, and trust the promise. Refusing to turn on each other, we
encourage one another daily to keep the faith.

As we wait, never doubt that heaven is furiously active on your behalf.

The beautiful words that Zechariah spoke over his son, John the
Baptizer, are as real for us today as they were then:

"For you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, to
give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness
of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the
rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in
darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the
path of peace" (Luke 1:76-79).

I cannot truly express how much the following text means to me...It's from a devotion by Charles Spurgeon and can be found at http://www.heartlight.org/.
I pray it blesses you as it has me...


MORNING:

"The mercy of God."
-- Psalms 52:8

Meditate a little on this mercy of the Lord. It is tender mercy. With
gentle, loving touch, he healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up
their wounds. He is as gracious in the manner of his mercy as in the
matter of it. It is great mercy. There is nothing little in God; his
mercy is like himself-it is infinite. You cannot measure it. His mercy
is so great that it forgives great sins to great sinners, after great
lengths of time, and then gives great favours and great privileges, and
raises us up to great enjoyments in the great heaven of the great God.
It is undeserved mercy, as indeed all true mercy must be, for deserved
mercy is only a misnomer for justice. There was no right on the
sinner's part to the kind consideration of the Most High; had the rebel
been doomed at once to eternal fire he would have richly merited the
doom, and if delivered from wrath, sovereign love alone has found a
cause, for there was none in the sinner himself. It is rich mercy. Some
things are great, but have little efficacy in them, but this mercy is a
cordial to your drooping spirits; a golden ointment to your bleeding
wounds; a heavenly bandage to your broken bones; a royal chariot for
your weary feet; a bosom of love for your trembling heart. It is
manifold mercy. As Bunyan says, "All the flowers in God's garden are
double." There is no single mercy. You may think you have but one
mercy, but you shall find it to be a whole cluster of mercies. It is
abounding mercy. Millions have received it, yet far from its being
exhausted; it is as fresh, as full, and as free as ever. It is
unfailing mercy. It will never leave thee. If mercy be thy friend,
mercy will be with thee in temptation to keep thee from yielding; with
thee in trouble to prevent thee from sinking; with thee living to be
the light and life of thy countenance; and with thee dying to be the
joy of thy soul when earthly comfort is ebbing fast.



EVENING:

"This sickness is not unto death."
-- John 11:4

From our Lord's words we learn that there is a limit to sickness. Here
is an "unto" within which its ultimate end is restrained, and beyond
which it cannot go. Lazarus might pass through death, but death was not
to be the ultimatum of his sickness. In all sickness, the Lord saith to
the waves of pain, "Hitherto shall ye go, but no further." His fixed
purpose is not the destruction, but the instruction of his people.
Wisdom hangs up the thermometer at the furnace mouth, and regulates the
heat.

1. The limit is encouragingly comprehensive. The God of providence has
limited the time, manner, intensity, repetition, and effects of all our
sicknesses; each throb is decreed, each sleepless hour predestinated,
each relapse ordained, each depression of spirit foreknown, and each
sanctifying result eternally purposed. Nothing great or small escapes
the ordaining hand of him who numbers the hairs of our head.

2. This limit is wisely adjusted to our strength, to the end designed,
and to the grace apportioned. Affliction comes not at haphazard-the
weight of every stroke of the rod is accurately measured. He who made
no mistakes in balancing the clouds and meting out the heavens, commits
no errors in measuring out the ingredients which compose the medicine
of souls. We cannot suffer too much nor be relieved too late.

3. The limit is tenderly appointed. The knife of the heavenly Surgeon
never cuts deeper than is absolutely necessary. "He doth not afflict
willingly, nor grieve the children of men." A mother's heart cries,
"Spare my child"; but no mother is more compassionate than our gracious
God. When we consider how hard-mouthed we are, it is a wonder that we
are not driven with a sharper bit. The thought is full of consolation,
that he who has fixed the bounds of our habitation, has also fixed the
bounds of our tribulation.

(this and other wonderful devotions may be found at http://www.heartlight.org/.)

Church Museums, by Steve Ridgell

I enjoy visiting museums and I like church buildings. I never realized
I could get them confused until a visit to Spain. I saw amazing church
buildings with incredible architecture. They were old, and their
history was incredible. There were monuments and artifacts from
centuries past. It was overwhelming. They were featured stops on the
city tours. So I began asking the guides about attendance today. Some
of them no longer had worship services. Some of them had small rooms
partitioned off for current members. In most of them, there were more
tourists during an average day than worshipers on a given Sunday.

There are a number of lessons to learn about why churches become
museums. Who was it that forgot their purpose? Who lost sight of the
mission? Who lost sight of Jesus? Did each new generation fail to make
their faith genuine and personal? Were they more concerned with church
buildings than building a church? Did the church building become the
church? These are valuable questions and worth asking.

But I want to say a word to any of you who may be thinking about Jesus
and church. Do not confuse the building with the church. Church is
people. It is community. It is family. A church may meet in a building
large or small. It may meet in homes. Or in a coffee shop. Or a school.
You may visit a church building… but you are invited to become part of
a church.

Church is a living organism, not a building.

So if you want to visit a church building, I can tell you where there
are amazing museums. But if you are interested in being part of a
living community as the family of God, then I can help you find that
also. Write me at steve@hopeforlife.org. Or join our blog discussion at
http://www.hopeforlife.org/.

Ernzy...i don't know the words to say.
how i still cannot believe you are gone
how i try to plan for this day, but there is nothing to stop the onslaught of renewed grief
you are irreplacable, my precious Ernzy...and i will never stop missing you.
your smile and laugh
your love for the precious kiki's
your booming voice...

i just can't find the words this year, Ernzy, i keep tripping over my own thoughts,
can't type correctly.

i know i don't want to cry again, remember again, and the thought going over and over in my heart "it can't be...it just can't be!"
the same thought i had when Nattie first told me you were gone.
how can i have lost both you and Dad this way?

i feel you with me each and every day and i know i will see you again, when time drops away and there will be no such word as 'goodbye' ~ forever more...

i'm usually so careful about my wording and phrasing in my blog, but i'm just going to leave this here...raw, uncrafted and without polish.

i miss you, Ernzy, with a grief to fill oceans...

i
have and will
love
you
for
always, Ernzy.

if only you could come back to me...

come back to me, Ernzy.
please come back...

Sara: And if I were to go?

Harris: All I know is, on the day your plane was to leave, if I had the power, I would turn the winds around, I would roll in the fog, I would bring in storms, I would change the polarity of the earth so compasses couldn't work, so your plane couldn't take off.

(from L.A. Story - one of my very favorite films...)

VERSE:
"I will sing of your strength, in the morning I will sing of your love;
for you are my fortress, my refuge in times of trouble."
-- Psalm 59:16

THOUGHT:
So many things in our lives can be stolen away by natural disasters, aging, and death.
Satan could be appropriately called "The Thief of Always."
But God is immovable and "unstealable"!
We can invest ourselves in him and know our spirits are secure in his care.
He is a fortress and a refuge.

PRAYER:
O Great Rock of my salvation, thank you for being unchangeable and faithful.
Thank you for being the source of security and future in a day of chaos and change.
Thank you for being God.
You are my God and in you I place my life, my hopes, and my future.
May you be glorified in me today.
In Jesus name I pray.
Amen.