Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass.  It's about learning to dance in the rain.
(Attributed to Vivian Greene)

I’ve told you this so that my peace will be with you.  In the world you’ll have trouble.  But cheer up! I have overcome the world.

(John 16:33 -- GW)

Goose pairs generally remain faithfully united until death . . .

(Dr. Konrad Lorenz)

If any of you are having trouble, pray.
(James 5:13a -- GW)

Photo:  https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/loose-gravel-sign-gm874620154-244206024

Why should I feel discouraged, why should the shadows come,
Why should my heart be lonely, and long for heav’n and home,
When Jesus is my portion? My constant Friend is He:
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me;
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.
I sing because I’m happy, I sing because I’m free,
For His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.

(By Civilla D. Martin)

Photo:  https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/birds-on-wire-gm952348242-259987899



 

Turn all your anxiety over to God because he cares for you.

 

(1 Peter 5:7 -- GW)

Jesus replied, "Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.  Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching.  These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me."

(John 14:23-24 -- NIV)



Keep your face to the sun and you will never see the shadows.

(Helen Keller)

Photo:  https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/pony-at-sunset-gm934414066-255833368


O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.
(Psalm 107:1 -- KJV)

“Therefore, you Israelites, I will judge each of you according to your own ways, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent!  Turn away from all your offenses; then sin will not be your downfall.
(Ezekiel 18:30 -- NIV)

I don’t want Satan to outwit us.  After all, we are not ignorant about Satan’s scheming.

(2 Corinthians 2:11 -- GW)

Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the foundations of past generations.

(Isaiah 58:12a -- GW)

As I remind Christians, we know that Jesus rose from the dead because we take God’s Word as it is written.  Secular scientists have never shown that a dead body can be raised to life, but we don’t reinterpret the resurrection as a nonliteral event.  We take God’s Word as written.
Yet in Genesis, so many Christians accept secular scientists’ old-earth ideas and reinterpret the creation account.  In doing so they have unlocked a door—the door to undermining biblical authority.  Subsequent generations usually push that door open further.
For those involved in ministry of any kind, can I challenge you to recognize a crucial, modern application of Psalm 11:3, “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?”  Applied to where we are today, the foundational issues are not ultimately creation and evolution, but God’s Word versus autonomous human reasoning.  This is the same battle that began in Genesis 3:1 when the serpent said to the woman, “Has God indeed said . . . ?”
That sums up what the creation/evolution battle is all about—it’s all about authority—God’s infallible Word or autonomous man’s fallible word!

(Ken Ham from Answers in Genesis)

 

And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!  Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

(Philippians 2:8-11 -- NIV)

But now Christ has come back from the dead. He is the very first person of those who have died to come back to life.  Since a man brought death, a man also brought life back from death.  As everyone dies because of Adam, so also everyone will be made alive because of Christ.

(1 Corinthians 15:20-22 -- GW)

Happy Saturday . . .
www.StevertS.com

And whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.

And, insomuch as we know that, by His divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment, inflicted upon us, for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole People? We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us! It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.

(Abraham Lincoln proclamation -- March 30, 1863)

But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
(2 Corinthians 11:3 -- NIV)

The snake was more clever than all the wild animals the Lord God had made.  He asked the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must never eat the fruit of any tree in the garden’?”
(Genesis 3:1 -- NIV)

Surely wickedness burns like fire.  It burns up briars and thorns.  It sets the underbrush in the forest on fire, and it whirls upward in clouds of smoke.

(Isaiah 9:18 -- GW)

In those days there was no king in Israel.  Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

(Judges 21:25 -- ESV)

He alone is my rock and my savior—my stronghold.  I cannot be shaken.  
My salvation and my glory depend on God.  God is the rock of my strength, my refuge.  
Trust him at all times, you people.  Pour out your hearts in his presence.  God is our refuge.
(Psalm 62:6-8 -- GW)

The chief priests gathered together with the leaders and agreed on a plan.  They gave the soldiers a large amount of money and told them to say that Jesus’ disciples had come at night and had stolen his body while they were sleeping.  They added, “If the governor hears about it, we’ll take care of it, and you’ll have nothing to worry about.”


(Matthew 28:12-14 -- GW)

When they went in, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.  While they were puzzled about this, two men in clothes that were as bright as lightning suddenly stood beside them.  The women were terrified and bowed to the ground.
The men asked the women, “Why are you looking among the dead for the living one?  He’s not here.  He has been brought back to life! Remember what he told you while he was still in Galilee.  He said, ‘The Son of Man must be handed over to sinful people, be crucified, and come back to life on the third day.’”  Then the women remembered what Jesus had told them.
(Luke 24:3-8 -- GW)

I'm but a stranger here,
Heaven is my home;
Earth is a desert drear,
Heaven is my home;
Danger and sorrow stand
Round me on every hand;
Heaven is my fatherland,
Heaven is my home.

What though the tempest rage,
Heaven is my home;
Short is my pilgrimage,
Heaven is my home;
And time’s wintry blast
Soon shall be over past;
I shall reach home at last,
Heaven is my home.

Therefore I murmur not,
Heaven is my home;
Whatever my earthly lot,
Heaven is my home;
And I shall surely stand
There at my Lord’s right hand.
Heaven is my fatherland,
Heaven is my home.

(by Thomas R. Taylor)

P.S. We're all on third base, waiting to go home. 

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”
(John 20:19 -- NIV)

By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also.

(1 Corinthians 6:14 -- NIV)

As he said this, he showed them his hands and feet.
⁴¹ The disciples were overcome with joy and amazement because this seemed too good to be true. Then Jesus asked them, “Do you have anything to eat?” ⁴² They gave him a piece of broiled fish.


(Luke 24:40-42 -- GW)

"Then I will remember my promise to you and every living animal.  Never again will water become a flood to destroy all life.  Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember my everlasting promise to every living animal on earth."
(Genesis 9:15-16 -- GW)

From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.
(Matthew 16:21 -- GW)

The angel said to the women, “Don’t be afraid!  I know you’re looking for Jesus, who was crucified.  He’s not here.  He has been brought back to life as he said.  Come, see the place where he was lying.  Then go quickly, and tell his disciples that he has been brought back to life.  He’s going ahead of them into Galilee.  There they will see him.  Take note that I have told you.”
(Matthew 28:5-7 -- GW)