The Joshua Victor Theory

 Part 4 of series "Singing with the Exiles" by Rev. Reed Lessing “This is what the Lord says to His messiah, to Cyrus …I will break down the gates of bronze.” Isaiah 45:1-2. On the afternoon of August 5, 2010 the 121-year-old San José copper-gold mine in Chile, South America, caved in. Thirty-three men were trapped underneath 2,300 feet of solid rock. Seventeen days after the accident, a note written in bold red letters appeared taped to a drill bit when it was pulled to the surface after penetrating an area believed to be accessible to the trapped workers. It read simply, “ Estamos bien en el refugio, los treinta y tres. ” In English: “ We are fine in the shelter, the 33 of us. ” But they were in survival mode. They ate two spoonful’s of tuna, a sip of milk, and a morsel of peaches—every other day. They heard the voice that said, “You are locked in with no way out.” The Chilean miners knew; O God, they knew. But once the people at the top found out that the men we...

Sermon Outline: 1.       Ever been stuck? Places: in traffic, in a long line, in an airport. Situations: caught in trouble with no apparent way out, stuck for ideas (when writing a sermon perhaps?), between a rock and a hard place, left to deal with someone else’s mess or problems. Emotions: fear, anxiety, or doubt freezes you from taking action; an emotional wound cripples you from moving on; guilt or shame puts you in a self-imposed retreat into isolation. Knowledge: can’t solve a problem, lack the know-how; fail to comprehend the situation. Spiritual dimension. 2.       Pres. Newton remarked that Jesus is “the master of getting stuck people unstuck. ” Not always by snatching them out of the situation though! Often we learn only through hardship and experience and failure. Prunes, shapes, matures us. 3.       Ethiopian eunuch was “stuck” on a confusing passage of Isaiah. Searching to understand, but a b...