Do Not Fear...God Is There

"But now, this is what the LORD says— he who created you...he who formed you...: 'Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.'" ~Isaiah 43:1

"So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." ~Isaiah 41:10

Will the Circle be Ever Unbroken!

When I was growing up, my daddy loved hearing me play this song on the piano, while Momma and I would sing this together. I can still hear him joining in at different times, although it's been a long memory now, since he died when I was 26. Knowing where he is, though, makes this song so dear to me. Below is a video of Waymasters singing it...their harmony is fantastic, and I love their down-home style...so much like my daddy was. Always a country boy was he...you could take him out of the country, but you could never take the country out of him. :) Let him come across someone selling fresh veggies on the corner, and you were guaranteed he'd come home with a heap of them! :) He taught me to love black-eyed peas and cornbread in milk. Therefore this song is in memory of my daddy...a man who taught me many things, but most of all he taught me to understand the Father's love, because he himself loved me so very much. Thank you Daddy...will the circle be ever unbroken!

1"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 2In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am." ~John 14:1-3

In the Hands of the Potter...

"It is not you who shape God; it is God that shapes you. If then you are the work of God, await the hand of the Artist who does all things in due season. Offer the Potter your heart, soft and tractable, and keep the form in which the Artist has fashioned you. Let your clay be moist, lest you grow hard and lose the imprint of the Potter's fingers." ~Irenaues (200 AD)

"But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand." Isaiah 64:8

Oh How Thou Lovest Me in Dark Gethsemane!

"Go to dark Gethsemane, ye that feel the tempter's power; your Redeemer's conflict see; watch Him one bitter hour; turn not from His grief away; learn of Jesus Christ to pray. See Him at the judgment hall, beaten, bound, reviled, arraigned; see Him meekly bearing all! Love to man His soul sustained. Shun not suffering, shame or loss; learn of Christ to bear the cross." ~Go to Dark Gethsemane, James Montgomery (1771-1854)

"...2 He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4 Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.

6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth." ~Isaiah 53:2-7

The Wonderful Grace God Gives to Those He Saves

"Ah, my Brothers and Sisters, Christ's eyes look in the opposite direction to ours. We usually look for some goodness on the part of men before we help them, but He looks to their sin, degradation and need. He is kind to the unthankful and the evil. He justifies those who are not, in themselves, just -- while we were dead in trespasses and sins, 'in due time Christ died for the ungodly.' Grace, pure Grace, abounds in Him and is blessedly manifested in His mission of saving the lost." ~ Charles Spurgeon

" 'My son,' the father said, 'you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' " ~Matthew 15:31

Atheist Doubts Darwinism After Listening to Kirk Cameron's Explanation Against Evolution

" And God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the ground after its kind: and God saw that it was good." ~Genesis 1:25

Romans 8:28 Hope!

(Nick Vujicic, of Life Without Limbs, speaking in the video above, meant we are God's child, not the reverse...it's obvious from the context & his statement of faith on his website, what he meant to say.) :)

My mom, who died when I was 26 and I miss dearly to this day...her favorite verse was Romans 8:28, as referenced in this video. May this video's testimony to the power of God in all things, and Romans 8:28, give you hope...hope that no matter what you're going through, God's plan is perfect for your life!

"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." ~Romans 8:28

Christ in our desolate places

"'I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.'
-- Isaiah 48:10

Comfort thyself, tried believer, with this thought: God saith, 'I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.' Does not the word come like a soft shower, assuaging the fury of the flame? Yea, is it not an asbestos armour, against which the heat hath no power? Let affliction come-God has chosen me. Poverty, thou mayst stride in at my door, but God is in the house already, and he has chosen me. Sickness, thou mayst intrude, but I have a balsam ready-God has chosen me. Whatever befalls me in this vale of tears, I know that he has "chosen" me. If, believer, thou requirest still greater comfort, remember that you have the Son of Man with you in the furnace. In that silent chamber of yours, there sitteth by your side One whom thou hast not seen, but whom thou lovest; and ofttimes when thou knowest it not, he makes all thy bed in thy affliction, and smooths thy pillow for thee. Thou art in poverty; but in that lovely house of thine the Lord of life and glory is a frequent visitor. He loves to come into these desolate places, that he may visit thee." ~excerpted from March 3, Morning & Evening, by Charles H. Spurgeon

"...and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen." ~Matthew 28:20