AFTERSHOCKS

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The old Carol King tune hummed in my ears, several years ago when I felt “the earth move under my feet”. I was in a tall building in KL and an earth tremor from a quake in Sumatra undulated through the city. I felt momentarily tizzy. That was about my worst ever experience of tectonic shifts on planet earth, nothing compared to others elsewhere. Many years ago, a friend of mine ran out panic-stricken when a huge quake hit his hotel in China only to experience a greater terror on realizing he had left his false teeth behind! That was his aftershock.
An aftershock is a smaller quake that occurs after the main shock. It rarely takes a huge toll on lives but may destroy many buildings weakened by the initial quake. In May of this year a massive earthquake measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale shook Sichuan province in China resulting in the tragic loss of tens of thousands of lives. The aftershock a few days later destroyed 420,000 homes but injured only a few people and took no lives. The reason for this is simple: the people knew how to shelter after a quake. They no longer lived in their old houses but had shifted to tents or slept under the stars. They had made a shift to accommodate the quake and came out of the experience stronger as a community and wiser as a generation. People who survive aftershocks will rebuild their cities.
God is in the business of building His church so that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it (Mt 16:18). The foundation is Christ, the concrete is truth and the canopy is love. A church of this make-up may sway with quakes and aftershocks but it will not fall. That’s what the Lord calls us to be - HIS OWN BUILDING - as He fashions and shapes every stone into His likeness. Together we will embrace God’s awesome destiny for us! In 1923, a massive earthquake destroyed Tokyo leaving only one major building standing: the Imperial Hotel. Its architect was the American genius Frank Lloyd Wright. He had laid a foundation that moved with the earth yet strong enough to hold the structure. It took the quake and the aftershock and still stood. I believe God has made us such a church.
Ps Philip Lyn
Skyline: 2008 Year of the Sabbath
The old Carol King tune hummed in my ears, several years ago when I felt “the earth move under my feet”. I was in a tall building in KL and an earth tremor from a quake in Sumatra undulated through the city. I felt momentarily tizzy. That was about my worst ever experience of tectonic shifts on planet earth, nothing compared to others elsewhere. Many years ago, a friend of mine ran out panic-stricken when a huge quake hit his hotel in China only to experience a greater terror on realizing he had left his false teeth behind! That was his aftershock.
An aftershock is a smaller quake that occurs after the main shock. It rarely takes a huge toll on lives but may destroy many buildings weakened by the initial quake. In May of this year a massive earthquake measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale shook Sichuan province in China resulting in the tragic loss of tens of thousands of lives. The aftershock a few days later destroyed 420,000 homes but injured only a few people and took no lives. The reason for this is simple: the people knew how to shelter after a quake. They no longer lived in their old houses but had shifted to tents or slept under the stars. They had made a shift to accommodate the quake and came out of the experience stronger as a community and wiser as a generation. People who survive aftershocks will rebuild their cities.
God is in the business of building His church so that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it (Mt 16:18). The foundation is Christ, the concrete is truth and the canopy is love. A church of this make-up may sway with quakes and aftershocks but it will not fall. That’s what the Lord calls us to be - HIS OWN BUILDING - as He fashions and shapes every stone into His likeness. Together we will embrace God’s awesome destiny for us! In 1923, a massive earthquake destroyed Tokyo leaving only one major building standing: the Imperial Hotel. Its architect was the American genius Frank Lloyd Wright. He had laid a foundation that moved with the earth yet strong enough to hold the structure. It took the quake and the aftershock and still stood. I believe God has made us such a church.
Ps Philip Lyn
Skyline: 2008 Year of the Sabbath
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