Doubt not His grace.

O child of suffering, be thou patient;

God has not passed thee over in His providence.

He who is the feeder of sparrows,

will also furnish you with what you need.

Sit not down in despair; hope on, hope ever.

Take up the arms of faith against a sea of trouble,

and your opposition shall yet end your distresses.

There is One who careth for you.

His eye is fixed on you,

His heart beats with pity for your woe,

and his hand omnipotent shall yet bring you the needed help.

The darkest cloud shall scatter itself in showers of mercy.

The blackest gloom shall give place to the morning.

He, if thou art one of His family,

will bind up thy wounds, and heal thy broken heart.

Doubt not His grace because of thy tribulation,

but believe that He loveth thee as much in seasons of trouble as in times of happiness.

What a serene and quiet life might you lead

if you would leave providing to the God of providence!

With a little oil in the cruse,

and a handful of meal in the barrel,

Elijah outlived the famine,

and you will do the same.

If God cares for you, why need you care too?

Can you trust Him for your soul, and not for your body?

He has never refused to bear your burdens,

He has never fainted under their weight.

Come, then, soul!

have done with fretful care,

and leave all thy concerns in the hand of a gracious God.

[c.h. spurgeon]

2 mysteries.

"Here are two mysteries

for the price of one--the plurality of persons within the unity of God,

and

the union of Godhead and manhood in the person of Jesus.

It is here, in the thing that happened at the first Christmas,

that the profoundest and most unfathomable depths of the Christian revelation lie.

"The Word became flesh";

God became man;

the divine Son became a Jew;

the Almighty appeared on earth as a helpless human baby,

unable to do more than lie and stare and wriggle and make noises,

needing to be fed and changed and taught to talk

like any other child.

And there was no illusion or deception in this:

the babyhood of the Son of God was a reality.

the more you think about it, the more staggering it gets.

Nothing in fiction is so fantastic as is

this truth of the Incarnation."

[knowing God.] --j.i. packer

-j. shae

{I will find rest}

"God is God.

Because he is God, He is worthy of my trust and obedience.

I will find rest

nowhere

but in His holy will

that is

u n s p e a k a b l y

beyond

my largest notions

of what

He

is up to."

[elisabeth elliot]

Sometimes I wonder...

"Sometimes I wonder about my life. I lead a small life - well, valuable, but small - and sometimes I wonder,

do I do it because I like it, or because

I haven't been brave?

So much of what I see reminds me of something

I read in a book, when shouldn't it be the other way around?

I don't really want an answer. I just want to send this cosmic question out into the

v o i d.

So good night, dear void."

{Kathleen Kelly}

-j. shae

hope.

Hope can be such a precariously happy thing.

You never know when the curtain will be

pulled away and you'll see

what you were hoping in

for what it actually is, a total sham.

[unless]

My hope is firmly attached to the

One thing or Person

that will never prove to be less than I was hoping,

but in fact will always be better

than anything I could ever ask or think.

That is, the personhood of

Jesus Christ.

["Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think...to Him be glory" -eph. 3:20,21]

-j. shae

"For He who is the ground of thy faith..."

So very very encouraged by this Puritan prayer I read tonight before bed...

[Remember] O my soul,

It is thy duty & privilege to

rejoice in God:

He requires it of thee for all his favours of grace.

Rejoice then in the Giver & his goodness,

Be happy in him, O my heart, & in nothing

but God,

for whatever a man trusts in,

from that he expects happiness.

He who is the ground of thy faith

should be the substance of thy

joy.

Whence then comes heaviness & dejection,

when joy is sown in thee,

promised by the Father,

bestowed by the Son,

inwrought by the Holy Spirit,

thine by grace,

thy birthright in believing?

Art thou seeking to rejoice in thyself

from an evil motive of pride & self-reputation?

Thou hast nothing of thine own but sin,

nothing to move God to be gracious

or to continue his grace towards thee.

If thou forget this thou wilt lose thy joy.

Art thou grieving under a sense of indwelling sin?

Let godly sorrow work repentance,

as the true spirit which the Lord blesses,

& which creates fullest joy;

Sorrow for self opens rejoicing in God,

Self-loathing draws down divine delights.

Hast thou sought joys in some creature comfort?

Look not below God for happiness;

fall not asleep in Delilah’s lap.

Let God be

[all in all]

to thee,

& joy in the fountain that is always full.

- j. shae

Not my own

"Know ye not . . . that ye are not your own?"

"Most of us fall and collapse at the first grip of pain; we sit down on the threshold of God's purpose and die away of self pity and all so called Christian sympathy will aid us to our death bed.

But God will not.

He comes with the grip of the pierced hand of His Son, and says-- 'Enter into the fellowship with me, arise and shine.' If through a broken heart God can bring to pass His purposes in the world then thank him for breaking your heart."

--Oswald Chambers

Trusting God: even when life hurts

I'm ready Jerry Bridges book; "Trusting God: Even when life hurts" right now and while reading yesterday this paragraph jumped out and grabbed me . . .

"No plan of God's can be thwarted; when He acts, no one can reverse it; no one can hold back His hand or bring Him to account for His actions. God does as He pleases, only as He pleases, and works out every event to bring about the accomplishment of His will. Such a bare unqualified statement of the sovereignty of God would terrify us if that were all we knew about God. But God is not only sovereign, He is perfect in love and infinite in wisdom."

If I really allowed that truth to rest in my heart how much easier I would make things on myself.

". . .He is perfect in love and infinite in wisdom."

-j.shae

waiting.

"Mr. Quick, I am a human being. Do you know what that means? It means I set a price on myself, a high high price. You may be surprised to know it, but I've got quite a lot to give. I've got things I have been saving up my whole life, things like love and understanding and, and jokes and good times and good cooking. I'm prepared to be the Queen of Sheba for some lucky man, or at the very least the best wife that any man could hope for. Now that's my human history, and it's not gonna be bought and sold, and it's certainly not gonna be given away to any passing stranger. . ." -Clara Varner



-j. shae