The Lighthouse of Asaph: Unforgettable Christian Reflections

"The Lighthouse of Asaph", is a story collection capturing the emotions and longings of a Cuban heart. The stories were written in an attempt to reconcile the author's life of faith with a society that discourages it. Born out of fear and sadness, sadness from praying for dreams that were never realized, The Lighthouse of Asaph is a book to encourage you and help you find meaning in your circumstances.

"The Lighthouse of Asaph: Unforgettable Christian Reflections":
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http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004VWQ3E0
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http://www.amazon.ca/dp/B004VWQ3E0

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The Hug of David, by Roberto Ornan Roche (Cuban Christian author)

The Hug of David

by Roberto Ornan Roche

 

Returning to my "world", this Sunday morning, I hugged the Bible in my room; I lifted it with my hands, while I prayed and my heart groaned full of regret and desolation. I had not even touched it for an extremely significant time.

Now, the beatings of my heart and my sadness tell me that I need a hug, a prodigal son's hug, a hug of angels who take care of their children. Maybe the redeeming hug of the Lord for David, who after collapsing in pain due to the consequences of his sin, humbled and cried until the unspeakable thing.

I want that comfortable hug that only God can give me. I need the restful waters and the green grass that my Pastor preaches. My upset and confused soul needs the end of my pain for years and the light that is missing from my life, it is not that of a home, not even that of the Sun, it is the transparent and calm peace of the Lord.

David is returning to the Lord, he is remembering Goliath's times, his victories and his great blessings of the past. However, this time he prays from the bottom of his heart, for the mercy of that God who made him King, and who blessed him when he was a simple and insignificant sheep shepherd.

I discover how important humility is in the things that come from the Lord when a longsuffering prisoner, who is Christian, fills me up with hopes in his letters but hundreds of people surrounding me are not neither able nor want to to do such things.

The Lord is good. He remembers a sort of David full of errors and pain. Although the consequences of the sin are only a shade on his forehead, the Lord raises him high again and heals his heart.

God, remember when we defeated Goliath, when we pastured sheep or we threw, in vain, the nets, and You chose us. Do not remember neither our iniquities nor our transgressions, throw them away at the bottom of the sea. Do not allow us to become drowned in water when we walk towards You, and keep us away from the perverse road so that we deny You nevermore.

If we are full of rebellions, as your people are in the desert, mercy upon us so as to accept our grievous errors and confess our sins; we need to learn the potter's precept because it is only Your hands which can amend and state our fate.

It does not matter that we feel Peter's crying or Pablo's sorrow and grief, give us the blessing that You sowed for ever in their hearts; give us the hug that You gave to David when he humbled himself before You, and once our hearts have been healed, we could be able to give them to others as well. Give us the miracle of being touched by Your hand again.

 

O LORD, you have searched me

 and you know me.

You know when I sit and when I rise;

 you perceive my thoughts from afar.

You discern my going out and my lying down;

 you are familiar with all my ways.

Before a word is on my tongue

 you know it completely, O LORD.

You hem me in—behind and before;

 you have laid your hand upon me.

 

 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,

 too lofty for me to attain.

Psalm 139

 

 

Trapezes of the Soul, by Roberto Ornan Roche

Trapezes of the Soul

By Roberto Ornan Roche

                                 

I

 

The trapeze artist remains serene, poised way up high above the spectators. The safety net below no longer looks too weak or narrow, as it did when he was new. That was a long time ago.

 

Now he does not even consider the possibility of error - his hands have proven to be sure and steady.

 

Over on the far side, other hands are waiting for him, hands that thousands of times have not failed to hold him at exactly the right moment.

 

II

 

There are times in our lives when we experience trapezes of the soul. At such moments we must decide, with all the strength of our hearts, if we truly wish to release ourselves from our heavy loads and instead trust the sure and steady hands of God.

 

Although we now face many challenges and questions, we were first of all motivated to believe in the truth. Faith sometimes seemed to be lost, while promises were in conflict and seemed as distant as old memories.

 

But God helped us when we thought we would plunge out of control, and today everything depends on our own trust in His promises.

 

III

 

The first acrobatic performance will begin, but among the public is a Christian who finds it very difficult to believe in and trust God when tragedies occur around him, or even in his own life, and he lacks a true Christian understanding of life.

 

He believes that without faith it is impossible to believe in God, and that to be able to have effective and real faith it is necessary to understand why we are sometimes left with nothing in our hands.

 

In some moments he has felt himself to be like a trapeze artist. He has felt that he wants things that maybe he can never reach. Things that are a complete impossibility. But then, when he starts to feel that way, his heart is filled with sorrow as he imagines that during his lifetime he will come to regret giving up on his greatest desires, even though everything seemed apparently to be lost.

 

He has asked God thousands of times how to remove his pain. And amid such trials he feels, from time to time, that he lacks a safety net  that might help him try for a miracle in his life once again. When he loses his faith like that he feels that his life is crumbling and that friends are no longer able to say anything new that is encouraging.

 

IV

 

So "trapezes of the soul" means to come unbound into the hands of God, to trust in His arms and to keep faith alive.

 

It is true that the wrists hurt, becoming red and cramped after so much time spent on one's own efforts. They are swollen, with a lot of pain. But what will happen then if a person abandons the search for the most beautiful and important miracle?

 

 

V

 

The trapeze artists prepare for the execution of their last act, while the public applauds them. A moment before, all the senses were in their hands, in the accomplishment of each act of acrobatics.

 

Now the heart is looking at the crowd and a sigh escapes from the agitated chest. The faces are all smiling, but they are smiles that are plastic and fake. Yet everything was a resounding success.

 

Seated among the crowd, the Christian is thinking of "trapezes of his soul." For a while, his mind fails to accompany the public that surrounds him, fervently applauding. Instead, he is meditating about the many times when he felt like one of those trapeze artists, when he did not follow the life that the world had offered him and decided to pursue the difficult path of faith.

 

Due to the blessed hand of God, the trapeze acts of his heart were successful. He gave everything when he seemed to be lost; and in exchange for the faith of his heart he found a better destiny for his life and his own soul.

He felt as if he were receiving a big hand of applause from the sky. He was simply one more trapeze artist. The hands of God had saved him.

Eclipses en el Parque

Eclipses en el Parque

Por Roberto Ornan Roche

 

Mi niño eclipsó mi vida en muchos aspectos, ahora su vocecita es como el sonido de un arroyo, que me acompaña cada día. Mi amor de padre ha convertido todas mis frustraciones y errores en pequeñeces.  A veces me pongo a pensar lo inteligente que es, que nos parece a mi esposa y a mí que siempre va adelante en su crecimiento, no solo de estatura, sino que en muchas cosas nos parece tan virtuoso, despierto y hablador, más que un niño normal.

Cuando lo vemos cómo memoriza los nombres de todas las personas que va conociendo y cómo es capaz de relacionarlas con los seres queridos de esas personas, y hasta pregunta por ellos cuando no están presentes, simplemente como se acuerda de todo y hasta a veces nos llama por nuestros verdaderos nombres porque sabe que no nos gusta; y sin cumplir dos años ya sabe algunos colores, los primeros números y tantas otras ocurrencias que se van disfrutando con todo lo espontáneas y originales que son.

Entonces mi imaginación echa a volar, cuando lo veo repitiendo algunas frases de las canciones infantiles de sus discos, cuando lo veo con esa energía casi inagotable. Como todo padre, me lo imagino siendo alguien que puede llegar a ser bueno en un deporte y un excelente estudiante, quizás un maestro en algún arte, trato de atribuirle tantos talentos que al final en mis sueños no me decido por ninguno. Lo imagino a través de la vida y trato de tener la fe que lo podré acompañar durante una gran parte del camino.

Hoy cuando lo llevé al parque había un señor, estaba echado pensativo y tranquilo junto a una estatua del parque infantil, había una perrita haciéndole compañía. Cuando me vio jugando con el niño los ojos se le iluminaron. Noté que trataba de ser agradable y cortés pero apenas podía escuchársele la voz, porque tenía echa una traqueotomía por alguna enfermedad maligna en su garganta. Mi niño fue a jugar con su perrita y a conversar, el animalito está acostumbrado a jugar con los niños que visitan el parque y no había peligro alguno.  Hasta yo me sentí tan bien que también me senté a su lado. A veces la vida te regala momentos aparentemente insignificantes para que le demos más valor a lo insignificante.

Mientras yo sigo imaginando cómo será mi hijo cuando crezca y de disfrutar la gran e indescriptible bendición de verlo crecer, un eclipse sucede cada día, como en el parque. Una vida que comienza y uno simplemente anhela que sea mejor que la propia. Sé que él tendrá muchos retos en su vida, como cuando fue operado de un quiste dermoide con solo 8 meses de vida. Tan pequeñito fue entubado y sometido a anestesia general por varias horas, para retirarle su quiste benigno que tenía en su ceja desde antes de nacer. Con su vitalidad característica, estuvo toda la noche y la mañana hasta el mediodía sin tomar ni agua, pero aun con la aguja del suero en su manito, todavía así tenía una sonrisa antes de entrar al Salón de operaciones, eso me dio esperanza, a pesar de que fue un momento muy duro. Dios fue tan maravilloso que hoy en día se puede decir que no tiene cicatriz ni huella visible, una maravilla más, entre tantas otras.

Hoy vi  que nuestro diario vivir, con los pequeños triunfos y experiencias, es el cielo de nuestras vidas, donde suceden esos eclipses, siempre.

Review: Centers My Soul

I downloaded The Lighthouse of Asaph http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004VWQ3E0 several days before I found myself stuck somewhere with a long period of waiting. I opened my Kindle on my phone and began to read ... and felt as though the sweetest of words had found my heart. The agony of waiting lifted. I had found the reason God had delayed my day, just so I could find time to read. Now, I save the words for those moments, which come too often, when I can open my Kindle and read words that center my soul and remind me of God's goodness. And of people, like me, who long to walk with Him for eternity.
Eva Marie Everson
Author

FREE Redemption, Encouragement & Restoration Stories: The Cuban Christian Writer

Redemption, Encouragement & Restoration Stories: The Cuban Christian Writer
is free today 4/3
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Blessings, from Cuba

Roberto Ornan Roche

 

A Wedding Day Miracle, by Roberto Ornan Roche

A Wedding Day Miracle
by Roberto Ornan Roche

 

My mother was operated on for an infected gallbladder on the same day that I was supposed to be married. It was an urgent operation and all of us saw her suffering for several days, in two hospitals. But the Lord healed her, and I felt blessed that God saved her on that very day - that He chose that moment to work a miracle with her health and body. He chose to bless this special day with a miracle of joy, but in another way - in His way.

 

Surrounded by surgeons and the medical staff, just before her operation, my mother asked the surgeon next to her what time it was. The doctor looked at his watch and told her it was 10:00 o´clock in the morning of that day, September 25. She replied that it was the moment for my wedding. The doctor, a little confused and surprised, commented that the wedding should have taken place already. But my mother quickly made him aware that I was outside in the family waiting room. It was something that did not seem to be as miraculous as when it happened.

 

In the days before her operation, my mother spent most of the time suffering in her hospital bed. She regretted the inconvenience that her health condition - with constant medication, intubation and abdominal pain – was responsible for the postponement of my wedding. But I just hugged my mother to my chest, begging her at the same time to calm down and saying that there were many other moments for my wedding. And so it transpired - two months later, on November 20, I got married and she was there, completely recovered from her illness.

 

The events were as follows: Marlene and I were returning from booking the hotel for our honeymoon when we got the news about the severe pain in her abdomen. We took her quickly to the nearest hospital that night, in a beat-up old ambulance that appeared hardly able to move. But although she remained hospitalized, receiving medicines and antibiotics, it was not a good hospital in which to be operated. Thank God the urgency of the operation did not come up at that moment, because maybe she might not have survived. Several people acted as angels and my mother was taken to a better hospital, though all the time, and in all places, there were angels watching over her.

 

At the other hospital it was a Thursday night when she was to have her operation. This is almost the weekend, when all the minor surgery has been completed, and only emergency operations requiring major procedures are carried out. In fact, it was early on Friday morning, the last day of the week, and even more miraculous was the fact that during the night many surgeons and other staff were still at work at the hospital. My mother did not lack a single specialist for blood tests, electrocardiogram, ultrasound, and more. And she underwent a minimal-access operation, from which she quickly recovered without complications or danger.

 

As we passed through the hospitals we saw so many patients who were seriously ill with the H1N1 flu pandemic. Ambulances, elevators and hallways were contaminated and even some friends became isolated patients in the hospital for forty days. But the Lord alone looked after us even more. Her gallbladder, completely damaged, was about to break open, spreading its lethal load inside her abdomen. But fortunately, that did not happen. Even the pain eased up, so she could spend the last waiting night without going to the operating room.

 

Some people talk about miracles, about the moments when they went to Heaven and came back. Many of these stories may be true, because one should not doubt the miracles of others. They may seem like a dream to us, but they are real events that saved those people. But my miracle was the happiest I had ever experienced - my mother would continue with us, though sometimes I did not believe so because many times in my life I had stopped believing in miracles.

 

Three years later, when I see my mother carrying my little son Jorge Roberto in her arms, it is impossible to forget how God changed the date of my wedding to make this event so precious . And everything depended on minutes, on people acting as angels at the exact moment. I might imagine this in a better way - it was like going to Heaven and coming back with this miracle in my hands, but without even realizing it.

 

Thank our Lord for synchronizing my watch in such a way!

 - " Doctor, what time is it?"

 - " It's just 10: 00 o' clock"

 

 ***

Roberto Ornan Roche, a Christian writer from Cuba, is an internationally recognized author with stories published in English and Spanish. His book, A Lighthouse of Asaph, is a story collection capturing the emotions and longings of a Cuban heart. The stories were written in an attempt to reconcile the author's life of faith with a society that discourages it. Born out of fear and sadness, sadness from praying for dreams that were never realized, A Lighthouse of Asaph is a book to encourage you and help you find meaning in your circumstances.

"The Lighthouse of Asaph: Unforgettable Christian Reflections":
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0987901117 (Print)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004VWQ3E0 (Kindle)