Jesus and the Miners. 

What testimony to Jesus' saving Power!

When the miners came up one-at-a-time in that capsule – most were wearing special yellow T-shirts. These had been created by the Chilean branch of Campus Crusade for Christ. Emblazoned boldly across the front of the T-shirts were the words, in Spanish, "Thank you, Lord." The miners, in fact, had requested these words. The shirts were made and sent down to them while they waited for rescue.

But that's not all. A quotation on the back of the shirts which began "porque en su mano estan..." was actually Scripture. It was Psalm 95:4: "In His hands are the depths of the earth, the heights of the mountains are His also."

Campus Crusade had also provided the trapped miners – while still deep underground – with MP3 players with the audio version of the "Jesus" film. They also received the Bible in audio format.

Now here's the good news. Rev. Aldredo Cooper, the chaplain to the President of Chile, said of the rescued miners, "They're all wanting to testify to the Lord Jesus Christ. All 33 of them are saying that they found God in the mine. Five or six were already Christians and held services down in the mine. Many went down with no faith at all but they all say this: 'We were not 33; we were 34 because Jesus Christ was with us down there.'"

One miner, Mario Sepulveda, told reporters, "We never lost faith. We knew we would be rescued. I have been with God and I've been with the devil. I seized the hand of God. I always knew God would get us out of there."

One interesting point that I had missed was that a medic actually was sent down the rescue hole before the other miners could be brought up. Isn't that a picture of what God did? He sent His Son down to us before we could be rescued. We all, like the miners, were in darkness. But, as Jesus said, "I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life" (John 8:12). And, "I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness" (John 12:46).

I can only imagine the reaction, if those miners, trapped deep underground, came across Psalm 88 on their audio Bibles, when these words rang in their ears:

I am counted with those who go down to the pit; 
I am like a man who has no strength, 
Adrift among the dead, 
Like the slain who lie in the grave, 
You have laid me in the lowest pit, 
In darkness, in the depths. 
You have put away my acquaintances far from me; 
I am shut up, and I cannot get out; 
My eye wastes away... 
LORD, I have called daily upon You; 
I have stretched out my hands to You. 
Will You work wonders for the dead?  (Psalm 88: 4-10, selected portions)

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Loving Spiky People!

Colossians 3: 12-17

V12   As chosen ones of God; Recall who you are: declared holy & greatly loved by God! Wow! What an honour! God sees your worth and His Word declares it! Receive it and believe it!

How?   By proactively doing some things: 

Be compassionate,

kind,

humble,

gentle,

patient,

bear with one another:  be patient with, show forbearance toward, make allowances for, tolerate, put up with, endure.

Forgive each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone;

Just as Jesus forgave you!

 

V 14  Put on love. Just as v12 says we are to put on a heart of compassion.

This is the perfect bond of unity. That's what Jesus prayed for His church. Its what attracts others to us! And it ushers us into the peace which is ours through Jesus.

 

How do we put on love or compassion when we feel anything but?

The answer is in v 15 and beyond:

1.     Let the peace of Christ rule your heart. Not your own emotions, self pity, sense of offence or outrage. Stop, focus afresh on Jesus' presence within you. Let His love flood into you again. Let the peace which He secured on the Cross that reconciles us with God, and us with one another, no matter what we have done! It's not natural! Oh no! Such a miracle of forgiveness, of acceptance of a wounder, or a thorn in our flesh, or an unlovely person, even an enemy, can only come through the grace Jesus releases into our hearts. It flows from His practicing this very love compassion, acceptance for us in the Cross! By the Cross we have been called to such radical peace in one Body, and therefore within our church.

2.     Be thankful. Look for what you can see in the one you judge to be thankful for! Speak it out to God, and maybe the person themselves!

3.     Let the Word of Christ well in you richly!

4.     Use wisdom and psalms, songs and spiritual songs to encourage one another as a community. Love will grow!

5.     Sing with thankfulness from your heart to God! Don't just speak out your thankfulness! Worship it out, using your whole being. Singing form the bottom of your lungs releases your spirit, and engages your whole soul and body.

6.     Whatever you do, ensure it is something of which Jesus would approve. That He would do Himself!

7.     And give thanks, yet again, that you can do it!!

 

Back to the beginning at verse 12.  We can't love others unless we love ourselves and know God's deep love for us in our own hearts. These verses are a cycle. As we stand with a certain knowledge of God's love for us, and put that into practise by loving others, especially the prickly, we in turn will grow in our understanding and the grace of God's love for us, which in turn will help us love others better, which in turn will help us grow in God's love, which in turn………!!

Love well! God, yourself and all others!

Believe me, it's too simple

 What does Scripture say? 'Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.' The one who does not have works to show, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness. As David says: "Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, and those whose sins have been covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account."                            Rom 4:3,5,7-8

 Abraham, though the father of our faith, has no great feat to cause us to admire him. In fact there is plenty to question about him. He believed God, followed and failed. He lied. He was outwitted by Lot, who out maneuvered him to gain the better territory. He lacked patience in waiting for God to fulfil His promise, so he had sexual relations with his wife's maid, to conceive Ishmael, a blight on his nation's people for the last 5000 years! So what's so great about Abraham? Just this: His belief demonstrates the good news of the gospel. We are credited with righteousness and our sins are obliterated in God's sight, by simply believing Him!

What do we believe? Simply, Jesus is God's Son who died on the Cross to take away our sin, who rose from the dead to declare us righteous (justify us), and guarantee our place in Heaven. All we have to do is believe this! As we do, grace will be released to us bring our actions into parity with the righteousness God has granted to us. He will not be mocked, and leave our lives awash with sin. Through our faith He will forgive, cleanse and deliver us from sin's grip. As we exercise our faith, and it becomes more central to our lives, we will increasingly be empowered not to sin, but choose righteousness.  Even this is God's work in us, so that we can't boast. Towards the end of his life, God miraculously blessed Abraham with Isaac, the first step in the fulfillment of His promise to make him father to a multitude of nations. Be patient and believe! God will strip sin's power in you too! Believe!!!

Let Jesus be Jesus!

'Daughter, your faith has made you well, go in peace, and be healed of your disease,' Jesus said to the woman who had suffered mercilessly with an unclean hemorrhage for 12 years. (Mk 5:34) She had taken great courage and pushed through a crowd, just to touch Jesus' hem, certain that if she did she would be healed, because she knew Him to be God's Son. He felt power go from Him, and stopped the crowd's jostling to speak to her. His words are telling.

1.     He calls her, 'Daughter.' Her faith and deep love for Jesus had lifted her past just respecting Him, into family relationship with Him. She worshipped Him and loved Him more than any other person in her life.

2.     Her faith made her well. Her faith in what? In who Jesus is. She had heard of all that He was doing and had come to believe that He was bringing God's Kingdom to earth. She knew He was Son of God and believed to the uttermost that He would heal her. Knowing who He was, she had no room for doubt!

3.     'Go in Peace', Jesus said. He bestowed the Kingdom of God on her. 'Peace' is the outworking of God's Kingdom. Shalom, in the Old Testament, Peace, with and from God, in the New Covenant. 'Let Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven,' we pray. She believed God's Kingdom would come upon her, and Jesus responded by bestowing the Kingdom on her, through healing!

4.     Be healed of your disease. His word, spoken to her was powerful to sustain the healing she had received. His will to bless her was done on earth!

May you come to know Jesus still more intimately. May you receive grace to love Him more than anyone or anything else. May you be so aware of His awesome power as God, and your heart so primed to receive His Kingdom in and through your life, that He works His miracles in and through you! May His Kingdom come and His will be done in and through you!

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The Bible proclaims God to be a God of hope, best seen in Jesus' resurrection. As God, He was crucified to bear the weight of the world's sin. Dying, He went to Hell. On the 3^rd day, He rose from the dead. The Roman soldiers had fortified His tomb, but His dead, broken body, transformed with a Life that could never again die, burst the tomb! He was different, yet recognizable. He ate with His friends who saw Him again, and was hugged by them. One even placed his fingers into the scars of His crucifixion. Jesus was the first to rise from the dead, a hope which all Christians have.