Thoughts
Amazing Grace. Unfailing Love.
Just some early morning thoughts from me to you…
“When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you.”
Isaiah 43: 2 (NLT)“Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.”
Isaiah 41: 10 (NLT)“Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”
Isaiah 40: 30-32 (NKJV)
It may just be me, but the world seems to have lost its way.
And too many of us in our personal lives seem more affected than ever by all that is going on around us.
But God through Isaiah reminds us—
“Don’t be afraid, for I am with you.
Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God.”
Sin still lingers, evil rears its head, and grows as darkness surrounds us.
Personal lives and families continue to struggle. Illness unexpectedly hits, and heart-wrenching losses leave us empty. Families climb financial mountains unable to meet expenses as prices soar.
But again, God says through His prophet Isaiah—
“When you go through deep waters, I will be with you.
When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown.”
People continue to make decisions detrimental to their lives, to lives entrusted to them, and to the lives of others who follow their example.
And God promises to help and guide them as He says again through Isaiah—
“I will strengthen you and help you.
I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.”
Through all that’s going on within us and around us, God is still there. God is good. Still worthy. Faithful. Still lifting. Caring. Embracing each one of us in His strong and everlasting arms.
In the midst of whatever—God is still there.
In the midst of whatever—Hope reigns.
In the midst of whatever—God’s amazing grace is there.
In the midst of whatever—God’s unfailing love remains.
Phil Wickham shares a message of unending hope in his song “This is Amazing Grace” with a few words like these—
“Who breaks the power of sin and darkness?
Whose love is mighty and so much stronger?
The King of glory, the King above all kings,
Who shakes the whole earth with holy thunder?
And leaves us breathless in awe and wonder?
The King of glory, the King above all kings
This is amazing grace, this is unfailing love.
That You would take my place, That You would bear my cross
You laid down Your life, That I would be set free.
Oh, Jesus, I sing for, all that You’ve done for me.
Who brings our chaos back into order?
Who makes the orphans a son and daughter?
The King of glory, the King of glory.
Who rules the nations with truth and justice,
Shines like the sun in all of its brilliance
The King of glory, the King above all kings…”
My friends in the midst of whatever—God remains. God is still there.
In the midst of whatever—God is above all.
And He promises through Isaiah that—
“Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles…”
In the midst of whatever—God. Hope. Amazing grace. Unfailing love.
For you. For me. Forever.
In His Name–Scott
Be energized and inspired through this performance by Phil Wickham of “This is Amazing Grace.”
Recent Thoughts
The Price of Liberty
American heroes.
So many, for so long, have paid the price for us, beginning at Bunker Hill and Lexington and Concord and down through Valley Forge. They made the first payment for us. And that payment has been kept up-to-date through the Argonne, Normandy, Iwo Jima, Tarawa, Pusan and Pork Chop Hill, and across a thousand hills in Southeast Asia, and the burning sands of the Persian Gulf and Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan.
Live Now
As my friend remembered the story, a friend of his in Birmingham, Alabama was driving home from the office one day, when he got caught in an unexpected traffic slow-down. Sitting there in the car, he realized after a short while in the stop-and-go traffic, that he would be late for the plans which he and his bride had made for the evening.
A Mother’s Heart
Our elder granddaughter Hannah was beyond consolation. Mother’s Day was coming to an end and in the busyness of the day she had forgotten, until now at the end of the day, to give her Mimi the card she had worked so hard to prepare. As Lynda took into her hand the one-of-a-kind original card from her Hannah, she read the words— “I U Mimi”