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Prayerful Pondering

Tag Archives: wisdom

Mama’s Bible

23 Saturday Apr 2016

Posted by Pat Luffman Rowland in faith

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

communion with God, death and dying, encouragement, faith, family, God's love, God's presence, heaven, living example, love, memories, prayer, respect, study scripture, trust, wisdom

. . . take root downward and bear fruit upward. (Isaiah 37:31 ESV)

My grandmother’s Bible was a treasure beyond any price. I had hoped as her oldest grandchild that I might inherit it, however I never discussed that with my grandmother or my mother and so in the end it didn’t come to be.

What made Mama’s Bible so revered? She poured and prayed over its words daily. Her gentle, but sure hands caressed the pages. She wept and rejoiced, she trusted and she practiced. She did what Isaiah said: took root downward and bore fruit upward.

I’ve never known anyone that Jesus was as real to as He was to Dulcie Spencer. She sang songs to Him throughout the day and talked to Him as if He were right at her elbow. I’ve walked into her home and overheard her talking and thought she had company, only to find out it was no visitor but her best friend and permanent resident: Jesus. Mama relied on Him completely for every matter and that reliance gave her a radiance that cannot be duplicated by anything of this world. Mama had a heavenly glow. THE_SPENCER_FAMILY_001 - Copy

My grandmother had no earthly riches. She lived a simple life, but a life marked with beauty because of how she lived it. Mama’s standard was to do exactly as God’s Word said for her to do: she loved God with all her heart, soul, strength and mind; she loved her neighbors as herself; and she believed God’s word that when we trust Him completely, He will never forsake us. Mama’s family saw and respected that trust. I believe we were all, in fact, hugely affected by her rock-solid trust in God. My earliest memory of Mama is of her kneeling by her bed for prayer at end-of-day, long dark braids falling down her back and over her homemade gown. Mama always prayed aloud and just as I have visual remembrances of Mama, I have auditory ones, too.

wedding pic - CopyWhen I married in 1989, Mama wasn’t physically able to be with us so she sent her Bible to me for the ceremony. I can’t think of better representation of this woman that I loved more than ever I could express.

Though I didn’t get to keep the book she loved above all others, she did give me her faith and for that I am eternally grateful. Mine isn’t as beautiful as hers, but it is as confident. And what she passed on to me, I passed on to my daughter Kristi. I know because I have witnessed it.

I truly cannot imagine my life without this great woman’s influence. I have often said if I could choose to be like anyone in the world, it would be my grandmother. I wish I could say I had lived a life like hers, but I can’t. My journey has been one of much stumbling, failing, and starting over, however no one’s persuasion of faith has had a greater hold on me than that of Dulcie Spencer. I thank her for showing me a Jesus she never doubted and pointing the way to heaven’s door. You are my crown jewel, Mama.Copy of spencer family about 1951

Here are a few lines from a letter Mama wrote to her children not long before she died in 1991 at 91 years of age: The dear Lord has been so good to our family. I can’t thank him enough and that he lives in me all the time.  I’ve prayed to him all my life and He answers my prayers day and night. Please don’t grieve after me when I’m gone for I’ll be safe with our dear Lord and all my loved ones in heaven. 

 

Mary & Elizabeth’s Added Blessing

19 Saturday Dec 2015

Posted by Pat Luffman Rowland in Christmas story

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

comfort, God's love, God's presence, Mary and Elizabeth, study scripture, support, trust, wisdom

“. . . [Mary] you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age” (Luke 1:30-31, 36 NIV).

_________________________

In reading Luke 1, I always stay a while at the part of the story where Mary and Elizabeth spend time together. These were two women of impossibility, touched by God to play pivotal roles in the salvation story. I doubt even the most creative of minds could do justice to what each gained in the three months they spent together.

The Jewish people had long awaited their Messiah; probably no one ever considered He would come by virgin birth to an unknown. Then there was the case of a woman long past child-bearing years, but by God’s divine appointment also pregnant. Most likely each one was enduring ridicule: Mary with her suspicious pregnancy and Elizabeth carrying a child in a worn out body.

I believe God always gives us added blessing when we go through troublesome times and He didn’t miss the benefit Mary and Elizabeth would derive from human comfort and support. He gave them companionship for three months. He gave them added blessing.

Somehow, I suspect the journey to Judea of four to five days probably didn’t seem that long to Mary; her mind must have been so flooded with all Gabriel had told her that she hardly noticed the steps.  Upon reaching Elizabeth’s home, she heard Elizabeth say “Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her would be accomplished” (Luke 1:45 NIV). That may well have given Mary the first relief she experienced after knowing her destiny. She was believed! She was affirmed without saying a word!  It was God’s added blessing.

Elizabeth was six months pregnant when Mary arrived so Mary was with her right up to time for John’s birth. Why would she stay so long? I believe to help this elderly woman through the hardest days of her pregnancy. I don’t think it assuming too much to consider that Elizabeth might have been confined to bed. Mary would likely have taken over cooking and cleaning and other household duties. And, with Zechariah unable to speak, Mary would have provided Elizabeth with conversation during her time of waiting.

In return, the young Mary would have gained great wisdom from Elizabeth. She would have passed on life advice and spiritual advice. Imagine the wealth of knowledge the wife of a priest would have! Mary would have gone back to Nazareth a stronger woman, better prepared to endure the unkind comments and stares of a suspect pregnancy, and one schooled in how to be a spiritual guide for the Lord in His youth.

For me, the three months shared by Mary and Elizabeth is a chief and often overlooked story of God’s amazing grace; how He never gives us anything to do that He doesn’t also give us the help in doing it–that thing called added blessing.

Giving Thanks

25 Wednesday Nov 2015

Posted by Pat Luffman Rowland in thanksfulness

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

comfort, faith, faithfulness, family, love, memories, mercy, sacrifice, salvation, Thanksgiving, wisdom

FLOWERS_FROM_HEARNS__RICHAR

The Season of Thanksgiving prompts us to think of the many ways we have been blessed. It is a right time to step away from disappointments and anxieties that will always be a part of life and count our blessings instead. Here are some at the top of my list:

I am grateful

  • for having been born into a family that believed in God and saw food for the soul as important as food for the body.
  • for parents who sacrificed for our family without ever saying it was a sacrifice.
  • for being taught the discipline of working hard, even at things I would not choose to do but was necessary for gains I wanted.
  • for growing up in a small town where people watched after one another; sometimes seen as a nuisance when a child but realized as a blessing once grown.
  • for being born into a free nation with values many have never known.
  • for never having been without food or shelter or clean clothes.
  • for friends–some that I’ve had since early childhood–who have enriched my life and been around to walk beside me in hard times and laughed with me in the good times.
  • for my daughter and son-in-law who have a marriage made in heaven. There is no greater joy for a mother.
  • for my daughter’s salvation at the tender age 7 and her faith that has remained strong through every trial—and there have been many. That she never gives up, no matter what life hands her.
  • for my son-in-law’s ever-positive attitude and solid grounding in what marriage is supposed to look like through hard times as well good. He is strong and steadfast.
  • for my Vietnamese family who call me Mom and Grandmom and Sister; for how God brought us together and united us in spirit and in love.
  • for brothers, grandparents, and other extended family members, whose love I have never had to doubt; that each one is saved and will share eternity with me.
  • for the three ministries of this life I cherish most, and oddly, none of the three was expected or planned: working with the mentally challenged, working in a hospital as a problem solver between patients/families and their caregivers, tutoring second grade children. I have clearly seen Jeremiah 29:11 in action: For I know the plans I have for you . . .
  • for the three church denominations that have blessed and enabled my growth in the Lord at just the proper time: Baptist, Methodist, Assembly of God.
  • for health in this seventh decade of life.

Most of all, I am grateful for the faithfulness and unfailing love of God. I don’t know how He can love one like me, but I am thankful beyond expression that He does. To God be every glory and honor!

What blessings do you count most dear?

. . . always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.   –Ephesians 5:20 (NIV)                   

Prayer and Samantha’s Surgery

02 Monday Mar 2015

Posted by Pat Luffman Rowland in God's answers to prayer

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

delays in prayer, prayer, receiving God's best, trust, wisdom

samantha and chloeSamantha, my 13 year old Siamese, had surgery 10 days ago to remove a cyst over her left eye. Samantha has always been an easily frightened cat and taking her to the vet is never easy for either one of us. But the cyst had been growing slowly over the past several months and it was time to have it removed before it got any closer to her eye.

I had dreaded this from the time we set the surgery date. I dreaded it because I knew it would traumatize Samantha and there was no way I could explain it to her. She is a house cat and used to being spoiled, not having unpleasant things happen to her. I had to take up her food and water the night before surgery and that meant no breakfast. She would be placed in a carrier (which spells “vet visit”), left alone in a place that frightened her, and wake up unable to stand steadily on her feet, and probably hurting. This morning’s return visit to have stitches removed meant more of the same. Samantha should not have pain this time, but it will require being sedated again because she is so out of control with fear that they would never be able to remove the stitches otherwise.

I am a sucker for animals and can’t bear to see them experience pain. I do everything I can to keep my own cats from being frightened or harmed and it hurt to have to put Samantha through the surgery and all that went with it even when it is for her well being.

On the way home from the vet’s office, I began to think of a personal parallel. There are times I don’t understand why things happen the way they do in my own life. This is especially so when I have fervently prayed about something and the answer isn’t what I had hoped. I’m sure if cats knew how to pray, Samantha would have asked to not have the surgery. She would have prayed according to her immediate needs: no fright, no pain, and no confusion. But to have delayed the unpleasantness of surgery would have caused her greater suffering in the long run. I can see that; she cannot. When God answer my prayers differently than I pray, it is the same thing; He sees what I cannot. He knows what will be best for me in the long run, and for that I am most grateful.  Grateful that He cares enough to sometimes withhold immediate blessings for ones of greater and more lasting value.

Scriptures that comfort when waiting for answers:

“My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD” (Isaiah 55:8)

 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11)

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to His purpose.  (Romans 8:28)

My Word is LOVE

01 Thursday Jan 2015

Posted by Pat Luffman Rowland in love

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

acceptance, comfort, encouragement, faithfulness, God's presence, mercy, respect, study scripture, wisdom

It’s spreading like a sudden fire in a dry forest. A one word focus for the New Year rather than a list of resolutions most of us never keep. My word of focus came without thinking twice. The word is “love.”

I choose “love” because the ones I have admired most are those who have loved best. They have understood the way of God’s love, that it is unconditional and abundant. They embrace it and let it spill onto others. They embody a joy and ease with life that tells me they know the secret to contented, purposeful living.

People who love well have an aura about them that speaks good will. They seem to move effortlessly through life, content with the simpler things, unhampered by the world’s bounty.  I see them as vessels filled with God’s love, ever ready to spill out onto the lonely, the heartbroken, the guilt-ridden, the insecure, the anxious, the frightened, the grieving, the young and the old. They truly care about all God’s creations and caring seems for them as natural as breathing.

They don’t hide behind busyness or judge anyone as being unworthy. These people have learned the joy of being fixed on God’s love and not the world about them. They don’t love for recognition or reward, but for the simple pleasure of caring.

So in 2015 my word of focus is “love.” I want to love more and better. And the best way I know to do that is to pitch my tent around the Book of Love in new ways. Read scriptures as if for the first time and think about how to implement what I am reading as an action of God’s love. It is one thing to know about God’s love and yet another to live that love. I want to do a lot more of the latter.

And we know and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. –1 John 4:16 (NKJV)

A Father and Daughter’s Communion

30 Sunday Nov 2014

Posted by Pat Luffman Rowland in communion with God

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

communion with God, faithfulness, observation, relationship, remembrance, study scripture, wisdom

As they slowly walked the aisle to the place where they would kneel to receive communion, the father would bend down from time to time and whisper to his little girl. She would nod understandingly, holding close to his side. Then when a place was made available for them to kneel, they went forward and did so, the father again speaking quietly with his child.

The pastor moved to them with a loaf of bread and cup of wine (grape juice) and for what was probably her first time, she took the sacraments and received the grace of our Lord. As Jesus instructed that we do (Luke 22:19), this sweet child took part in remembering Jesus and the sacrifice of His blood that redeems us.  Father and daughter lingered for a moment with heads bowed, then slowly rose and made their way back to where their journey had begun.

It has been ten or more years, but I remember those tender moments as if they happened only yesterday. Watching that young father point the way for his daughter to a relationship with our Lord was a memory worth holding onto. And if it held fast in my memory, how even more it would have held in that small child’s. She would remember that her dad lived out Proverbs 22:6 which says “Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it” (NIV). I witnessed the Word of God in action.

My Grandmother’s Love

18 Thursday Sep 2014

Posted by Pat Luffman Rowland in Love for God

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

acceptance, faith, God's presence, love, memories, trust, wisdom

This is dedicated to the memory of Wendell Smith, who grew up across the street from my grandparents and loved my grandmother like his own, and was loved by her in the same way. Wendell called her Mama Dulcie just like the rest of us, and it was he who preached her funeral in 1991.

Dulcie Pauline Cotton Spencer had a way about her. A way that was warm, inviting, accepting of every person for just who they were. She was the best example of Christ’s love I’ve ever known. She knew Him well and loved Jesus with reverence and solid trust.

One of my earliest childhood memories of my grandmother is how she prayed on her knees every night at bedtime. With her braided hair unwound from atop her head and falling down her back over her homemade white gown, she spoke to the Lord. As an adult, I remember the many times I walked into her house and into her conversations with Jesus. He was her constant companion.

As a small child of barefoot summers, I remember the pain of getting a sizeable splinter in my foot and how Mama Dulcie placed a small piece of fat meat over the wound and wrapped it with a rag torn from a clean, but worn thin, pillowcase. (Repurposing, we call it now.) The splinter eased itself out. As an older child, I remember afternoons that she sent me to the garden for a fresh head of lettuce. I would wash it and then stand beside her and watch as she poured hot bacon grease over the lettuce, turning it into a wilted salad.

She was a cook that no would could top. I don’t suppose her kitchen ever knew a day without bowls of vegetables and platters of meat and a dessert of some kind. She loved cooking and loved even more sharing it with others. It was a delight to my grandparents for someone—anyone—to stop by for the noon meal. No need to call, food was always plentiful at the Spencer house. Chicken and dumplings was the grandchildren’s favorite and the dish she prepared regularly for friends and neighbors. In a small town, when someone is sick, you take care of them and their families with food. In my kitchen, I have a framed copy of Mama’s recipe for chicken and dumplings from the Medina Baptist Church cookbook. It was written just like she would verbally give it to you and what a treasure that is! “Use a good chicken” is one of the instructions. (For you of today’s generation, that means select a plump young hen big enough to feed several people.)

Mama Dulcie had fourteen children. Seven born to her and seven who married into the family—she and Papa knew no difference. There were sixteen grandchildren and I’ve lost count of the great-grands. Love flowed so naturally from Dulcie Spencer. Just like Jesus, she had no favorites; yet she loved with such abundance, that I think each one of us felt like we were her favorite.

Mama Dulcie took life seriously and she took her “soaps” seriously. It was a mystery to me that a woman so pure could enjoy stories that even in the 50s were a bit racy. Her favorite was “As the World Turns” and when the marriage of fictional characters Bob and Lisa became troubled, Mama wrote to Lisa. She told her about wrong and right and encouraged her to mend her ways. Are you smiling? Well, Lisa wrote back—I have the letter! She thanked Mama for writing to her and for her advice. But as I recall, Lisa continued to be a bit of a wild child, likely a great disappointment to my grandmother.

Mama Dulcie sang when she ironed, when she cooked, when she mopped the floors, pretty much all the time.  “In the Sweet By and By” and “When the Roll is Called Up Yonder” are two of the hymns I remember most—and she sang only hymns. She loved to paint and her pie safes had more coats of white paint than one could count. My mother, Mama’s firstborn, said Mama would rather paint than dust. There was just something about a fresh coat of white paint that made her very happy.

My grandmother was a gentle soul. She was kind and generous. She knew how to love and chose to see only the best in everyone, and this brings me to a story about Wendell Smith that he told me a few years before he died. While Mama and Papa were at church, Wendell, just a little boy at the time, went into their house (doors weren’t locked then) and into the kitchen and there saw the banana pudding Mama Dulcie had left on the counter to cool. He set the whole bowl of pudding in the middle of the floor and with a big spoon dug in. He said my grandmother’s only words about it were “Bless his heart, he must have been hungry.” Someone else might have been annoyed, even angry, but not this sweet lady.

One other memory given me by Wendell was this: “The Sunday before I announced my call into the ministry I gave my testimony, then Bro. John Pippin preached about five minutes and gave the invitation. It was during the invitation that six people responded giving their lives to Christ. During the invitation Mama Dulcie got up, walked up the aisle and got Bruce and Bryan (two of her grandchildren) and with one on one side and one on the other she brought them down the aisle and to Christ. Such was her faith that she wanted her grandchildren to be saved.”

I think I want to close with that memory. It says who she was. A woman who loved her family and her Lord and made sure the two were connected. She was the wisest woman I ever knew.

Mama and me 001

Saying Goodbye to Grandma

09 Tuesday Sep 2014

Posted by Pat Luffman Rowland in death

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

communication, faith, family, heaven, strength, wisdom

From 1984 to 1998, I worked closely with patients, family members and their health care providers at Methodist Healthcare in Memphis. For most of those years, I wrote the stories of some of the people I met in those patient rooms and critical care waiting rooms. The following is taken from a story published in 1989 and the name of the husband has been changed. 

Mr. Markle, the husband of a patient who died in our hospital two months ago, came to see me last week. He stopped by to let me know how he and his family were doing after the death of his wife. A very close family, they stayed near wife, mother and grandmother for those weeks before her death.

Mr. Markle said his wife told him the morning he brought her to the hospital that she would die there and she was ready to go. She had battled illness for 15 years.

Those weeks in the hospital the family would gather daily to share a devotional reading. The morning she died, the devotional was on death and the willingness to peacefully give to God sick and hurting loved ones.  One of the daughters remarked how significant the devotional was for that day.

Mr. Markle said the very hardest thing for him during his wife’s illness was a conversation he had with his five-year old granddaughter. With tears in his eyes, he told me this story:

“Papa, I love you and I love Grandma. And I love God most of all. Isn’t that right, Papa, to love God most of all?” “Yes, honey, it is.” “I know God doesn’t want Grandma to be sick and He will do what’s best for her.”

That little girl’s words paved the way for another tough conversation just days later when Mr. Markle decided to tell his two young granddaughters (the other was eight) about their grandmother’s imminent death.  He took the girls into one of our chapels and placed them on either side of him, then asked the youngest if she remembered what she had said about God doing what was best for their grandmother. She did. He told them that he thought God was going to take Grandma to be with Him so she wouldn’t have to be sick anymore. They nodded their heads and bravely accepted his words.

What Mr. Markle did for those little girls was a courageous gift. By telling them what the rest of the family knew, he showed respect for their need to know. That kept the little girls from feeling isolated and afraid, as often happens with children when loved ones die.

I was with the family the morning Mrs. Markle died—they called for me to come. What a privilege it was to be with them as they said their goodbyes. Though they were sad, there was a very strong sense of peace about each one. I saw, and the nursing staff saw, their powerful witness of faith. But most of all, two little girls witnessed their parents and grandfather’s way of dealing with death, and they understood that Grandma going home to God wasn’t the end, just a temporary separation.

praying3

How God Our Father Sees Us

26 Tuesday Nov 2013

Posted by Pat Luffman Rowland in how God sees us

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

anticipation, encouragement, faith, forgiveness, hope, love, mercy, salvation, study scripture, trust, wisdom

“This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17, NAS). This is what each one of us as God’s children will hear. As “heirs to the promise” (Galatians 3:29), we share in the blessings of Jesus.

This is a lot to digest, the part of God being well pleased with me. I look at my life and see miserable failure in living the God-life. But if I take another view, I see it isn’t about the me I know, but the one God knows.

Since God has forgotten our sins and removed them “as far as the east from the east” (Psalm 103:12), we stand only in the holiness of Jesus, the One we call Savior. God the Father sees us with clothes of salvation and righteousness (Isaiah 61:10) and we are beautiful in His sight. Though a lot to get our minds around, we look like Jesus. Standing in the Savior’s garment we radiate only good things, for He is only good. And that is all the Father sees. Imagine. All that grieves us about ourselves will not be a part of our final being. We will at last be revealed as the Father sees us. We will not be confused by the ploys of Satan. We will not walk with a rock of sin in our shoe. There will be no more guilt, no more shame and all because we did one thing: we chose to believe in Jesus (John 3:16).

Perhaps the amount of detail to our garment will be reflective of all we have done in Christ’s name. It won’t be a garment of fine fabric, buttons and trim, but a different kind altogether. Our new garment will be of the little one we loved, the old person aided, the sick we attended. It will be the orphanage we helped build, the missionary we supported, the joyful surprise we prepared for a weary sojourner. The meal we cooked, the child we taught about God, the witness we gave in darkness. The stranger we made welcome, the lonely one we sat with, the one in need we walked with.  The time we spent in worship, the songs of praise to God we lifted, the words of encouragement we spoke. The times we sought and followed wisdom, the moments we forgave, the unconditional love we extended.

Those acts in the Lord’s name will be the garment that cover us, for that is the righteousness of Jesus and that is what the Father has chosen to see when He looks on us in Spirit and not in flesh (Romans 8:27).

Praises be to the One who forgives and loves us. Praises be to the One who made a way possible for us. Glory to God, for Redeemer is His name!

jesus111

Faith versus Fear

02 Wednesday Oct 2013

Posted by Pat Luffman Rowland in faith

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

communion with God, encouragement, faith, hope, trust, wisdom

It is in fear that faith is lost, confusion reigns and miracles are denied.

When we close the door on God’s abilities because our own are inadequate, we hamper not just His love but the fullness of it.  He would provide so much, but we keep refusing Him in our little faith.

David, the psalmist, declared the intention for those who revere God:  that He allows friendship “and reveals the secrets of His promises.”

We long to be included in such a friendship, but while it is available, we refuse the secrets, crying out instead that there is no logic – and so we deny the whispers of the One who would befriend us.

In self-induced pain, we toss and turn, we weep pitifully.  We say, “How could a loving God allow me to be so deceived?”  In fact, we should be thanking Him for the revelation and watching eagerly for its fulfillment.

Oswald Chambers writes, “We have to live in the gray day according to what we saw on the mount.”  When God reveals a certain matter to us, we should live in faith until it happens.  We should trust His whispers in friendship.  Surely we stop a lot of miracles with our reluctance to trust wonderfully in our God.

How carefully we tiptoe about, demonstrating more fear than faith, forgetting the power of our God.  His joy is in giving; His word declares that He is able.  “My purpose will be established . . . .  I have planned it; surely I will do it.”

But we must hold onto the knowledge that without faith it is impossible to please God.  When we refuse Him our faith, we fail to activate all that our Lord would do for us.  J. Oswald Sanders said that “when sight brings no helpful vision and comfortable emotions are largely absent, the prayer of faith finds its greatest opportunity.”

The words of Martin Luther enhanced such a statement when he wrote, “not the merits of my prayer but the certainty of Thy truth.”

Just how many miracles do we deny when we stare dead center into the face of our problems and not into the face of the Problem Solver instead?  If we would but lift our chins upward and rest them in the palm of His waiting hand, we would unleash all the glory and truth of heaven.

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The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23 ESV

If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Romans 10:9

God has not given us a spirt of fear, but of power and love and of a sound mind. 2 Timothy 1:7

Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name. For the Lord is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations. Psalm 100:4-5

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9

© Pat Rowland and Prayerful Pondering, 2010 - 2013.
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Pat Rowland and Prayerful Pondering with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Hope must be in the future tense. Faith, to be faith, must be in the present tense. Catherine Marshall
Everything over your head is under his feet. Dr. Tom Lindberg
What an excellent ground of hope and confidence we have when we reflect upon these three things in prayer--the Father's love, the son's merit and the Spirit's power! Thomas Manton
Our Christian hope is that we're going to live with Christ in a new earth, where is not only no more death, but where life is what it was always meant to be. Timothy Keller

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