Author: Dr. Carl G. Chewning
Jesus Lives
BROKENNESS
Nothing is wasted when it is shared with Me. I can bring beauty out of the ashes of lost dreams; I can glean Joy out of sorrow, Peace out of adversity. This divine alchemy will become a reality in your experience as you learn how to share more and more of your life with Me. You believe I am capable of creating wholeness out of your brokenness and struggles. So I urge you to bring all these things to Me for transformation, trusting in My healing Presence.
I take great delight in transforming My precious children. Give Me your broken dreams! Release them into My care and keeping. I will not only heal the brokenness, I will give you a new dream—one that is in harmony with My plans for you. As you seek to nurture this budding dream, you will find yourself becoming more content and increasingly aware of My beautiful Presence.
Give Me your sadness and your problems as well. Sorrow shared with Me is permeated with brilliant glitters of Joy—like numerous Christmas lights sparkling in the darkness. Accept adversity as My gift to you. You will find golden pockets of Peace hidden in the hardness of your problems.
I am your devoted Friend and also your King of kings, accomplishing My divine transformation in you. All things are possible with Me!
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted . . . and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.
~ Isaiah 61:1, 3
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” John 14:27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
~ Matthew 19:26
Eternal Perspectives
According to Scripture the present world will neither continue forever nor will it be destroyed and replaced by a totally new one. Instead it will be cleansed of sin and re-created, reborn, renewed, made whole. While the kingdom of God is first planted spiritually in human hearts, the future blessedness is not to be spiritualized. Biblical hope, rooted in incarnation and resurrection, is creational, this-worldly, visible, physical, bodily hope. The rebirth of human beings is completed in the glorious rebirth of all creation, the New Jerusalem whose architect and builder is God himself.
~ Herman Bavinck, [The Last Things]
Daily Strength For Daily Needs
Thou shalt rejoice in every good thing which the Lord thy God hath given unto thee.
— Deut 26:11 WEB
Rejoice evermore. In everything give thanks.
— 1 Thess 5:16,18 WEB
Grave on thy heart each past “red-letter day”!
Forget not all the sunshine of the way
By which the Lord hath led thee; answered prayers,
And joys unasked, strange blessings, lifted cares,
Grand promise-echoes! Thus thy life shall be
One record of His love and faithfulness to thee.
— F. R. HAVERGAL
Gratitude consists in a watchful, minute attention to the particulars of our state, and to the multitude of God’s gifts, taken one by one. It fills us with a consciousness that God loves and cares for us, even to the least event and smallest need of life. It is a blessed thought, that from our childhood God has been laying His fatherly hands upon us, and always in benediction; that even the strokes of His hands are blessings, and among the chiefest we have ever received. When this feeling is awakened, the heart beats with a pulse of thankfulness. Every gift has its return of praise. It awakens an unceasing daily converse with our Father,—He speaking to us by the descent of blessings, we to Him by the ascent of thanksgiving. And all our whole life is thereby drawn under the light of His countenance, and is filled with a gladness, serenity, and peace which only thankful hearts can know.
—H. E. MANNING
