Longtime friend Randy Tompkins of Alexandria, LA, is president of Cornerstone Consultants Ministries. In an eThoughts devotional from last week, he writes of the recent Sunday morning worship service at his church when the electricity went out. Just as the choir and orchestra lined up to enter the sanctuary, total darkness. The absence of power also meant no temperature control, no organ, and no sound system. He says, “Everything the average person equates with a comfortable room was absent.”

The staff decided to proceed with the service in the dark, Randy says. The musicians all took their places in the congregation and the doors were opened for what light was available. The pastor began by baptizing a father and daughter, while someone held a flashlight. Then, the man with the light assisted the pianist.

As the congregation sang, Randy noted two things: the congregation had a good voice and could be heard, since there was no choir or orchestra, and secondly, without hymnals or screens, the people did not know the third verse of the hymns.

As the pastor took his place at the pulpit, something else happened Randy found fascinating. All the ambient noise usually associated with the Sunday sanctuary was absent. No coughing, moving about, paper rattling, nothing, just absolute quiet. The pastor had in his hands the sermon notes and his flashlight. As he preached, Randy noted he seemed to be editing the sermon down, making it shorter, either because the room was warm or he feared the battery dying.

The other thing that occurred to Randy was that God was present in that room, not in a well-worded prayer or an emotional display of any kind. He was in that room in the same way He had appeared to Elijah in I Kings 19. “The Lord was not in the wind…not in the earthquake…and not in the fire. And after the fire, a still small voice.”

Randy writes, “(Ever since) people have been talking about their spiritual experience during (that) worship service.” Not only have they been talking among themselves but with their friends and neighbors. He concludes, “I Kings 19 could be paraphrased to read:

‘And there was a great crowd of shoppers around us;

But the Lord was not in the crowd;

And after the crowd was long lines,

But the Lord was not in the lines;

And after the lines were the gifts,

But the Lord was not in the gifts;

And after the gifts came a still small voice.”

(To subscribe to eThoughts, send an email to editor@ethoughtsteam.com. I write for them occasionally too. They have an excellent and diverse stable of writers you will enjoy.)

Stephen Smith of South Africa has a blessed ministry called The Papillon Foundation, ministering to the needy and disadvantaged of his area in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. His website says, “Papillon is the French word for butterfly, a universally accepted symbol of transformation and freedom.” He writes, “Papillon was started with no money but a great sense of purpose. We simply rolled up our sleeves and went to work on our immediate societal ills. Some of our detractors said that we would not last for three months and yet here we are 7 years later going strong and growing daily.”

I was struck by a purpose statement on their home page, for both its beauty and its simplicity: “Never make empty promises. Do not pay lip service. We all know the pain of emptiness. Let us not then create this!” His website is http://www.papillonfoundation.com

Dave and Louise Decker head up a retreat program for God’s servants called Deer Ridge Ministries, based in Polo, Illinois. In their December newsletter, they quote from Jim Anderson’s book, “For God’s Sake, Rest! Discovering the Pleasure of His Rest.” I thought you would appreciate it. (I’m editing it down a tad.)

“Once upon a time there lived a jeweler who handled diamonds on a daily basis. Some were splendid selections from his personal collection which he had purchased over the years. Others belonged to customers who left them in his store to be cleaned or appraised or placed in settings. Some were worth thousands of dollars; most were prized for their sentimental value.”

“Day after day, the jeweler examined diamonds under special light and a magnifying glass. None possessed perfection, including those in his personal collection. Then one day, he came across a diamond that was perfect. No matter how many times he turned it in the light, he could not find a single shadow or imperfection. It was flawless. He fell in love with this diamond, and solid his entire collection in order to purchase that matchless jewel.”

“At least once a week, when the store was closed and he was all alone, the jeweler opened his safe and took out the perfect diamond and gazed upon its perfection. He found pleasure in just holding it in his hand and turning it in the light. It reminded him that perfection exists, and it made the monotony of viewing flawed diamonds worth the trouble. That one diamond made him a better jeweler because it provided the standard by which he could measure all others.”

Dave writes, “Anderson compares Jesus to the perfect diamond. He points out that Sabbath rest is like the weekly visit to the safe, when for a prolonged time we can review the perfect diamond. The diamond reminds us that among those we serve (people), the Perfect (Christ) does exist. ‘A prolonged look brings Christ to the foreground of our minds, so that we can live and work with all the other diamonds (people) in the rough.’ He asks the question, as do I, ‘How long has it been since you opened the safe and viewed the perfect diamond, Jesus Christ?'”

Dave Decker’s website is http://www.DRMretreats.org.