Tiny Mouth, Tiny Feet

God. O infant-God. Heaven’s fairest child. Conceived by the union of divine grace with our disgrace. Sleep well.

Sleep well. Bask in the coolness of this night bright with diamonds. Sleep well, for the heat of anger simmers nearby. Enjoy the silence of the crib, for the noise of confusion rumbles in your future. Savor the sweet safety of my arms, for a day is soon coming when I cannot protect you.

Rest well, tiny hands. For though you belong to a king, you will touch no satin, own no gold. You will grasp no pen, guide no brush. No, your tiny hands are reserved for works more precious:
to touch a leper’s open wound,
to wipe a widow’s weary tear,
to claw the ground of Gethsemane.

Your hands, so tiny, so tender, so white—clutched tonight in an infant’s fist. They aren’t destined to hold a scepter nor wave from a palace balcony. They are reserved instead for a Roman spike that will staple them to a Roman cross.

Sleep deeply, tiny eyes. Sleep while you can. For soon the blurriness will clear and you will see the mess we have made of your world.

O eyes that will see hell’s darkest pit and witness her ugly prince … sleep, please sleep; sleep while you can.

Lay still, tiny mouth. Lay still mouth from which eternity will speak.

Tiny tongue that will soon summon the dead,
that will define grace,
that will silence our foolishness.

Rosebud lips—upon which ride a starborn kiss of forgiveness to those who believe you, and of death to those who deny you—lay still.

And tiny feet cupped in the palm of my hand, rest. For many difficult steps lie ahead for you.

Rest, tiny feet. Rest today so that tomorrow you might walk with power. Rest. For millions will follow in your steps.

And little heart … holy heart … pumping the blood of life through the universe: How many times will we break you?

You’ll be torn by the thorns of our accusations.
You’ll be ravaged by the cancer of our sin.
You’ll be crushed under the weight of your own sorrow.
And you’ll be pierced by the spear of our rejection.

Yet in that piercing, in that ultimate ripping of muscle and membrane, in that final rush of blood and water, you will find rest. Your hands will be freed, your eyes will see justice, your lips will smile, and your feet will carry you home.

And there you’ll rest again—this time in the embrace of your Father.

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This topic niggles at the back of my mind. Here’s an article that is a thorough discussion of suicide for Christians. The author, Lisa Copen, has rheumitoid arthristis and must speak her mind into the computer rather than type. Her mind travels faster than the computer can record; and may it always be so.

When You Are Tempted to Speed Up the Trip to Heaven

  By Lisa Copen

Heaven. The pain will subside. The joy will abound. We will know the presence of God’s glory unlike we can even imagine. Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? Even the apostle Paul said, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain”(Philippians 1:21). He too was eager to see an end to his suffering here on earth and spend eternity with God. The topic that I am confronting here, however, is not the blessed event of entering His gates at His moment of appointment, but the word that Christian leaders are hesitant to confront–suicide.

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More frequently than I would like I hear from a people who are seriously questioning why God would want them to remain here on earth one more day. And for each person that contacts me, I wonder how many others are suffering silently. What good could possibly come of constant pain? How can God expect us to continue to endure a future that seems to hold nothing but disappointments, sorrow, and physical pain?

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ON-LINE BIBLE STUDY FOR CHRONIC PAIN IS ON ITS WAY

Please let me know if an on-line study would be of interest to you. Choices: Managing Chronic Pain will be the text used. It will only cost $12 and I will absorbe the shipping costs. If you click on the book to your right, you will find out more about the book we’ll be using. I am going to try to schedule the study at 12:00 noon so that those who work can join in as well.

Feed-back at this time would be most useful so that I might determine if there is anyone interested. If you know someone who lives with chronic pain or if you are a caretaker, this study will be encouraging support as one’s painful condition keeps changing your life-style choices.

You may email me at jonnie@jonniewright.com subject line: on-line Bible study. Or you may want to visit my other sites: www.jonniewright.com and http://jwright.vpweb.com.

We don’t grow by doing a Bible study, we grow as we go through it.

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Abiding in the Vine: A Place to Grow

offers the user an opportunity to grow in their relationship with Christ. 

In the early morning of Jesus’ last hours on earth, He spoke at length with His disciples, perhaps pausing at the edge of a vineyard as they walked. John 15:1-8 gives us a glimpse of some of the basic and most important concepts Jesus wanted His disciples to grasp before His crucifixion. We too are Christ’s disciples.  We too must hear Jesus’ heart for our own walk with Him.

~ Distinctive Features of this Study ~

• The take-anywhere element of this study means that all Bible verses necessary for each lesson are included in this book with space to record your answers.
• Footnotes are used 1) to define words using Scripture 2) to identify the speaker when it’s unclear in the text 3) to add Scriptural clarity to any of the study questions.  
• Quoted Scripture will always be in bold italics. Quotation marks are not applied unless they are used within the Scripture passage. Any under-lining within Scripture is done by the author.  
• Six versions of the Bible are included to clarify, to edify, to add variety, and to increase interest in the presentation of familiar verses. 
• Scripture Memorizing Techniques are included in this study because learning Scripture is a vital tool for every Christian.  
• A useful Leader’s Guide is found in Appendix B.  This versatile study allows for flexibility within and without a formal Bible Study group. To read more click here 

THOSE OF YOU WHO LEAVE COMMENTS WILL BE E-MAILED THE FIRST CHAPTER.

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by Lisa Copen 

I remember the day my life shifted dramatically. I had had weeks of symptoms of swollen joints and inflammation beyond anything I’d ever experienced or even knew existed. My doctor called my place of work and said the rheumatoid factor was positive, which meant that at the age of 24, I most likely had an illness called rheumatoid arthritis. I bravely asked her “On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being normal, what will my life be like?” She avoided the question, not wanting to give me a specific number. But I like to know what I’m up against and so when I asked her again she reluctantly responded “If you are lucky, perhaps a six.”

Within days, I realized that everything in my life now be impacted by my disease and that there would be no such thing as “normal” again. Every detail of my life would change from the simple struggle to open a door, to stand from the chair, to walk across the room, or to shift gears in my car. Although my carefree lifestyle and attitude would stay imbedded within my heart and personality, it would take a back seat while I attempted to simply try to learn to function while in severe pain.

read more…

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How to make a difference for Haiti earthquake victims? A small project really… dresses from pillowcases. Yes, that’s right! And it’s only a $1.00 a dress. Read how this industrious lady turned the simple concept into an outreach, not only for earthquake children, but for friends and neighbors as well. She’s gone from a Saturday morning of 6 ladies to appearing on local TV.

We who have less energy can still participate, even if only a pillowcase a week. Call Sue and she will get you going.

Sue Bushell turns pillowcases into dresses.

The Roseville resident recently started a sewing group to help with this endeavor. Bushell, 64, and her friends have one goal in mind: Make dresses for girls in developing countries.

The clothes fashioned by this local group will go to feeding stations and orphanages in Haiti, a country in desperate need following the massive 7.0-magnitude earthquake that struck near Port-au-Prince on Jan. 12. An estimated three million people have been affected by this earthquake, including one million people left homeless and with limited access to basic resources, such as clean clothes.

“These kids have been in total upheaval,” Bushell said. “They’re wearing the same clothing they wore (during) the earthquake. We can’t visualize what that’s like.”

After learning of the Dress a Girl Around the World campaign, which supplies dresses to girls in impoverished nations, Bushell knew she had to take part.

read more…

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EXTRACT FROM DOUG COPP’S ARTICLE ON THE: ‘TRIANGLE OF LIFE’

My name is Doug Copp. I am the Rescue Chief and Disaster Manager of the
American Rescue Team International (ARTI), the world’s most experienced
rescue team. The information in this article will save lives in an earthquake.

1) Most everyone who simply ‘ducks and covers’ WHEN BUILDINGS COLLAPSE are crushed to death. People who get under objects, like desks or cars, are crushed.

2) Cats, dogs and babies often naturally curl up in the fetal position.
You should too in an earthquake.. It is a natural safety/survival instinct. You can survive in a smaller void. Get next to an object, next to a sofa, next to a large bulky object that will compress slightly but leave a void next to it.

4) If you are in bed during the night and an earthquake occurs, simply
roll off the bed. A safe void will exist around the bed. Hotels can achieve a
much greater survival rate in earthquakes, simply by posting a sign on The back of the door of every room telling occupants to lie down on the floor, next to the bottom of the bed during an earthquake.

6) Most everyone who gets under a doorway when buildings collapse is
killed. How? If you stand under a doorway and the doorjamb falls forward or
backward you will be crushed by the ceiling above. If the door jam falls sideways you will be cut in half by the doorway. In either case, you will be killed!

In 1996 we made a film, which proved my survival methodology to be
correct. The Turkish Federal Government, City of Istanbul , University of
Istanbul Case Productions and ARTI cooperated to film this practical, scientific
test. We collapsed a school and a home with 20 mannequins inside. Ten
mannequins did ‘duck and cover,’ and ten mannequins I used in my
‘triangle of life’ survival method. After the simulated earthquake collapse we
crawled through the rubble and entered the building to film and document the
results. The film, in which I practiced my survival techniques under
directly observable, scientific conditions , relevant to building collapse, showed there would have been zero percent survival for those doing duck
and cover.

There would likely have been 100 percent survivability for people using
my method of the ‘triangle of life.’ This film has been seen by millions
of viewers on television in Turkey and the rest of Europe , and it was seen
in the USA , Canada and Latin America on the TV program Real TV

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Ministering to the Chronically Ill: 20 Ways That Take 20 Minutes

by Lisa Copen

Rest Ministries, the largest Christian organization that specifically serves the chronically ill, recently did a survey and asked people to “List some of the programs or resources a church could offer to make it more inviting comfortable” They have provided a sampling of some of the 800+ responses, all of which could be done in 20 minutes or less.

1. Encouragement emails.

2. Make sure the handicapped stalls in the restroom are functioning and clean.

3. Padded chairs or cushions, room for wheelchairs, and plenty of room for my family to sit with me.

4. Be open-minded about a support group for the chronically ill like HopeKeepers. It would make me feel very special, knowing that there is an understanding of people’s needs that are not always visible.

5. Add more disabled parking, even if they are temporary spots.

6. Educate the ushers that people arriving late may have difficulty walking or getting out of cars and will need some assistance.

7. Ask volunteers to call people with chronic illness just to check on them when they don’t make it to services.

8. When suppers are given, recognize that I may need help getting my meal–or at least understand that I won’t be able to wait in a long line.

9. Be gentle when giving people big hugs. It can topple over or hurt a person.

10. Have a video tape of the service, not just a live web cast. Not all our computers work that well.

11. Make sure that the church doors aren’t too difficult to open or at least have mechanical assistance if they’re unusually heavy.

12. Stop telling me that if I really believed and had faith I would be healed by now. Please don’t insist how good I look, because I know for a fact that I look terrible and miserable that day.

13. Offer me ways to serve within the church that can be performed regularly, but not on a set schedule. I still want to contribute, but I need some flexibility so that I can do a job when I feel well enough to do so.

14. Have sermon notes available so I can listen later or even just review what I didn’t catch the first time.

15. Acknowledge National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week. Rest Ministries has a nice book list of top 100 Christian books for the chronically ill. It would make a nice display in your bookstore that week.

16. Just mention chronic illness occasionally! Don’t forget to talk about it in sermons as one of the challenges many people face just like unemployment or divorce.

17. Have Christian volunteers from church that will clean house for small fee. Some have offered to clean my house, but I cannot accept charity yet, but neither can I afford to pay a regular house cleaning service.

18. Help with some of the small costs of providing encouraging books and resources for the church library the chronically ill can check out.

19. Remember how many caregivers are in the church, not just caregiving for their parents, but also for their spouses or ill children.

20. Have copies of sermons for free on CD or computer.

Find over 500 ways to encourage a chronically ill friend in the book “Beyond Casseroles: 505 Ways to Encourage a Chronically Ill Friend” at www.beyondcasseroles.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I know that some days can seem like more than you can handle. Remember that the Lord promises to never leave you or forsake you. Cling to that. Even when you don’t feel his presence He is still there. I tell my 6-year-old son that God is working “under cover.” I know I am each day, especially righr now!

Blessings,

Lisa Copen, Rest Ministries Founder
Rest Ministries Chronic Illness Pain Support

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For those of you not acquainted with Rest Ministries, this is a good introduction. This ezine is more than what you would expect… it is a life-line for all of us who suffer from chronic illness. Here you can laugh, cry, and be encouraged right from the pages at your fingertips. A certain comfort this holiday as we see the joy of giving sucked out of this celebration of God’s greatest gift to the world. Jesus Christ lives in our hearts and thrives on our joy in Him.

As many of you may already be aware of, our weekly issue of HopeNotes is a free e-mail and newsletter that comes to your e-mail box each week. We also have HopeKeepers magazine. In the past this was an actual magazine, digest size, that we published. However, due to financial cutbacks, we were no longer able to print the actual magazine which costs over $10,000 per issue. Instead, it is now online in a digital format that you can click on to read or print out.

Although the price for this is typically $5 per issue, I am providing full access to the 64 pages absolutely free as just my way of saying thank you for your support of Rest Ministries.

for website click here…

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