Tag: courage

Remembering Al Braca on Sept. 11th. A time when there was no debate.

I shared this Sept. 11, 2019. So much has happened since then. But so much is quite the same:

Today our world is overflowing with information of trouble and chaos. This breeds anxiety in hearts everywhere . . . and much debate.

But I can tell you a story where there was no debate.

September 11, 2001, World Trade Center.

There was a man named Alfred J. Braca who simply went to work—4th story from the top of a World Trade Center building. I knew him because he went to my church in NJ. Our sons were part of the same Boys Scout Troop.

He went to work on that day, but in a moment,  . . .

 great confusion and chaos made its entrance. There was no warning. No information.

The only debate was whether to stay put or to get out.

For the men and women on those upper floors, there was no way out.

Al Braca, had information.  The story’s told that he went into one of the big conference rooms, and he told everyone to gather everyone they could find to come into the room.

It is told, approx. 50 of his co-workers came into the conference room.

Al Braca knew the peace of God, the forgiveness of sin through Jesus and the power of salvation in His name.

He had information everyone needed to hear.

So, on that morning of September 11, 2001, this child of God stood up on a Conference table.

 This was a desperate moment. There was no good news about their circumstance. There was no way out.

Now was the time.

Al wasn’t worried about offending anyone. He wanted everyone to know what he knew. He wanted everyone to have life after this life was over.

Everlasting life. 

I don’t know the exact words he shared, but he told them about Jesus. How Jesus paid it all.

Jesus Christ came to this world and died on the cross to pay the debt that we each owe for our hard hearts against God, our stubbornness, our lies, our hatred, our impatience, cruelty, . . . our sin. 

Al knew Jesus personally. The risen Lord lived in him.

Al Braca was not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes Romans 1:16.

There was trouble on every side. There was no time for debate.

The Bible has a verse that reads,

“Nevertheless God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus . . . ” well on this day, comfort came. Not through Titus, but through a man named Al.

“What must I do to be saved?” Acts. 16:30.

Al Bracca knew the answer,
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved,…” Acts. 16:31.
On that day, people responded.

People on that day, were  like the criminal hanging on the cross next to Jesus. The criminal who said to Jesus,
“Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” Luke 23:42

Do you remember how Jesus responded?
‘And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you,
today you will be with Me in Paradise.” Luke 23:43.

How did this story get told in the first place?

Many of the men and women that met in that conference room that morning, made phone calls to their families and told them. They not only said, “Good-by, I love you,” but they were able to say, “I will see you again soon.
I’m going to heaven to be with Jesus. I’ll be waiting for you.”

Alfred Braca wanted the truth to get out about eternal life when each turns his/her life to Jesus. So many didn’t know. There was so little time!

They needed to know Jesus:

“Having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them until the end.” John 13:1.

Do we know Jesus? 

“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God,
believe also in Me. “In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.”John 14:1,2.

When I see the memorial with two lights shining straight up to heaven, I think of all those people who called on the name of Jesus that dark day. They now live a life everlasting with the Lord in glory. 

Thank you Al Braca for being a witness to the light of Christ. Many had the opportunity to receive eternal life because you spoke up in courage and hope.

“God had demonstrated His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8.

Today, 20 years later, my heart breaks. But, I want to be like Al. He had a heart that broke for each and every person that didn’t know the hope and life in Jesus. In this world of strife and debate, . . . we’ve got to let the people know.

We need to tell them the truth about Jesus. What will we do when found in a moment of terror or crisis? Do we have the peace of God as Al did?

Jesus is the name that saves. There is no other. 

 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” Matthew 11:28.

Is today the day for salvation? Call on His name. Jesus will answer.

And if you do, let someone know, today. 

This is a heavy article, but it’s full of hope and good news that many, on that day of Sept. 11, 2001, received eternal life by believing in Jesus Christ.  Today, I share John 3:16 & 17, the great promise and truth of life in Christ with the voices of children. 

Forever, THIS is the Good News: 

 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” John 3:16 & 17.

Eyes Up! God’s Word Speaks

 

I earnestly prayed, “Increase my faith,” and it seems in answer to my request, God ordered a stress test of trials and circumstance. 

I had a Bible reading plan in Psalms,  Proverbs, OT, and NT for each day’s reading. God spoke a similar message through each Book one day. 

I was given exhortation from His Word in Proverbs,  If you fail under pressure, your strength is too small.  (1)

Then my reading in Jeremiah proved a similar message,

“If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? If you stumble in safe country, how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan?”(2)

 “Is this encouragement? I wondered. It’s a if I could hear the stampede.

I turned to Proverbs 3 for some wisdom, My son, do not reject the discipline of the LORD Or loath His reproof, For whom the LORD loves He reproves, Even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights . . .

My NT reading for the morning in Hebrews 12: 2-4 brought me instruction in my dilemma,

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 

looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

“Let go of it all, and focus on Me!” God spoke so clear to me.

Eyes up!” was God’s exhortation. 

Discipline is good. For my growth and renewed faith and strength, I must be taught through it. 

I was reminded: 

Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 

For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. (3)

“Eyes up!” 

God’s Word speaks right to the heart. 

“Let go of the garbage. Continue on your race unincumbered with all the loss and hurt. Let Me in . . . “

Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees,  and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. (4)

Who will join me today and start a new day with a new skip in our step because in the process of the walk with Him, He increases our faith!

Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled. (5)

I can’t run this race without the Spirit of the Lord. I try on my own, but in my own strength, I’m worn down and fail.

With each new day, let’s run this race with lifted hands and strengthend knees, with a walk forward with increased faith and eyes up on the author and finisher of our faith,

Jesus!

 

 

 

 

(1) Proverbs 24:10
(2) Jeremiah 12:5
(3) Hebrews 12: 9-11
(4) Hebrews 12: 12,13

(5) Hebrews 12: 14,15

Re-charge with an old hymn to increase faith

Dead phones need a charger. Weary souls need a re-charger too. Paul Gerhardt knew about the need to be encouraged, so in 1656, he penned these words:

“Give to the winds Thy fears; Hope and be undismayed;

God hears Thy sighs and counts Thy tears,

God shall lift up Thy head.” Hymn by Paul Gerhardt, translated by John Wesley, 1656.

 Some old hymns need to find their way back in today’s busy minds.

A 1656 hymn speaks volumes, plain and clear for today, “hope and be undismayed.”

John Wesley is a familiar name. He’s the brother of Charles  Wesley, one of the 19 children born of  Samuel and Susanne Wesley. John was four years older than Charles, and  they both were used mightily by God.

But John Wesley had sighs and fears. All of human race has sighs, tears, and fears.

However, God lifts up our head. When we believe, our heads rise. 

“Through waves and clouds and storms, He gently clears Thy way; Wait Thou His time; So shall this night soon end in joyous day.”

Faith helps us wait for His time. Ecclesiastes 3:17 reminds us: 

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

This night will soon be over into a joyous day.

“Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD” Ps. 27:14.

God is God, we’re not. He is a Sovereign God, He knows the beginning from the end. But waiting on the LORD is hard. Our hearts become weak and weary. 

We struggle to trust Him. How we need to know Him and His love deeper and wider.

He knows everything about us, yet He loves us with tender-mercies.

There is no one like God. But do we know Him?

When we spend time with Him. He will strengthen our heart.

Faith is believing God. Wanting to know His Word, His Ways, His wisdom.

“Leave to God’s sov’reign sway To choose and to command; So shall thou, wond’ring, own that way, How wise, how strong His hand!”

 He desires my best, not my own wandering ways.

When I don’t fully understand, do I believe still?

Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ Romans 10:17.

Which of all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this? In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind Job 12: 9-10.

“How can tragic loss, disease, and strife bombard our lives as it does?”

We ask, we wonder, we doubt God’s love,

Yet His Hand remains to hold ours as we walk among thorns in this broken sin-cursed world.

There’s always hope, as long as there’s God.

“Let us in life, in death, Thy steadfast truth declare, And publish with our latest breath Thy love and guardian care.

God’s Word, a voice of love and care and steadfast truth: 

Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the earth was founded? 
 
He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. 
 
 He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing. 
 
No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground, than he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff. 
 
 “To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One. 
 
 Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name.
 
Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing Isaiah 40:21-26.

 

“Far, far above thy thought, His counsel shall appear, When fully He the work hath wrought, that caused thy needless fear.”

  He supernaturally lifts us to carry on . . .

Until that day,

He calls us home.

“Give to the winds thy fears. Hope and be undismayed.

God hears they sighs and counts thy tears.

God shall lift up thy head.”