Brace for Impact

This week I am forwarding you for your encouragement an article that was sent to me by one of the people that receives these weekly emails! She is from India and I thank her for her article! I will leave it totally unchanged from how I received it. Please enjoy!

Good morning dear brother in Christ, REv John routsala THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH FOR ALL THE BLESSED MESSAGES YOU ARE FORWARDING THROUGH FM BLOG . THEY GREATLY ENCOURAGE US IN THE LORD . THANK YOU . Hope you be blessed reading
This encouraging powerful word which will surely touch your hearts and let you remind again of HIS miraculous power working towards His people in midst of trouble.
A few weeks ago, a commercial airliner crashed into the Hudson river in New York city. The flight was U.S. Air # 1549, bound for charlotte, North Carolina. With in a minute of take-off, a flock of large birds had a head-on collision with the plane. As a result , both engines of the jet were damaged and ceased to function. The pilot was forced to make a quick decision. His options were limited. He knew he couldn’t make it back for a landing new york city nor could he make it to some other airport. It looked like he was headed for a terrible crash that would likely bring lots of damage and death to everyone in the plane and may be to others on the ground as well. The well experienced pilot , chesley sullenberger III came up with another option. He decided to attempt a landing on the river. He knew that this plan was loaded with risk and uncertainty but it was the only remaining option. So he spoke a brief, important message to the passengers and crew on board the plane…. BRACE FOR IMPACT. Moments later the plane landed on the surface of the river. And miraculously, no one was killed in the crash.
Lets focus on the three worded message given by the pilot…. BRACE FOR IMPACT. The pilots message was a word of caution. It was based on the reality of present danger. It was an honest assessment of present discomfort. It also warned of even more dire conclusions to their journey.
Those three words are an important reminder for all of us. Many of the biblical authors give us the same message… to expect some affliction… and to prepare for it before it comes.
• JESUS says ….. in this world you will have trouble ( john 16:33)
• PAUL, in speaking of his own experience mentions a wide variety of difficulties ( II cor.11:23-29)… mentioning…imprisionments , flogging, exposure to death,stoning, shipwreck,danger from bandits, sleeplessness,hunger,thirst and pressure from churches.
• PAUL…preparing us for times of affliction, speaks of this cluster of difficulties…trouble,hardship,presecution,famine,nakedness,danger and death(Romans 8:35)
• PETER writes richly about suffering in his first epistle ,including these phrases…suffering grief in all kinds of trials …do not be surprised at the painful trials you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you ( I peter 1:6; 4: 12)
• JOB, even in the midst of huge losses ,said …Naked I come from my mothers womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; May the name of the Lord be praised ( job 1:21)
Robert Mc Cracken has written “ Adversity is not necessarily an evil. Because of it understanding ,patience,endurance,sympathy can be learned… Beethoven composed his deepest music after becoming totally deaf,pascal set down his most searching observations about God and man and life and death in brief intervals of release from a prostrating illness. Robertson Nicoll wrote an essay on the thesis : That the best letters are written by the mortally wounded.”

The pilots words truly re-echo the similar themes stated by multiple authors of the scriptures. We are wise to be prepared and ready for today. tomorrow and tomorrows tomorrow…and for whatever it may bring to us. Yes., I will say it again ,…BRACE FOR IMPACT.

As we do it, lets do it joyfully, confidently, and thankfully, as the Scriptures declare , remembering that we never travel alone. He is with us all the way. Even in the toughest times, God is doing something special IN us and THROUGH us.

Dear ones in the Lord , I am sure that you be encouraged through this wonderful message that touched my heart to share it with you my beloved family in Christ.

Yours in His service, Sis Evangeline Ashok INDIA.