HAPPY NEW YEAR?

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Many have said it to me and I have said it to them and many others. Most, I perceive, understand their statement as a wish in the sense of “I hope you will have a happy new year.” For some of us, it is a promise, i.e. I will have a happy new year, and you will have a happy new year!

Now that is a presumptuous statement. None of us know what will happen in the next twelve months. There will certainly be some good times, some victories, some progress, some divine healings and blessings of many kinds. But also there will be troubles such as sickness, death, accidents, setbacks, conflicts and woes of various degrees. But in Christ we share the confidence of David, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want….Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.” (Psalm 23:1,6)

            This confidence is expressed in a popular gospel song, “Through It All,” one verse of which says:

            “I thank God for the mountains,

            and I thank Him for the valleys,

            I thank Him for the storms He brought me through.

            For if I’d never had a problem,

            I wouldn’t know God could solve them,

            I’d never know what faith in God could do.          

             ..........

            Through it all, through it all,

            I’ve learned to trust in Jesus, I’ve learned to trust in God.”

            Because we are confident that Jesus loves us, and because we are confident that God is our Shepherd, we know that, through it all, this will be a happy new year. 

Grace and Peace

 

PROGRESS

Thank all of you who have assured me of your prayers and wished me a speedy recovery. Many have asked me how I am doing and I have not responded to all the emails, posts and other inquiries. So now, at the changeover of years, allow me to do so here.

As most of you know, on November 30^th I looked down at a GPS while driving into a curve, looked up to see I was going off the road into a mud puddle, and over corrected which caused me to slide across the road into some trees. For once I did not have my seat belt fastened so I was thrown around the air bag. My head went through the windshield and I was then thrown against the passenger side door. I was knocked out for two or three minutes but was awake and lucid by the time someone stopped. After twelve hours in the ER I missed Sunday services the next day. I haven’t missed any services since. My face and scalp were cut up, the index finger of the left hand was broken, one vertebrae in the neck was chipped and there were bruises and pulled muscles everywhere. Now, a month later, my face and scalp have healed but I                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         I still have pins in the finger and a brace on my neck. These will be with me for a few more weeks.

In answer to your inquiries, I am doing fine. I haven’t been limited in activities except for tennis (alas!). Without a divine miracle, healing is a slow process, but I will get there. I’ve told a few friends that with the Lord and Lortab (a pain killer) I’m doing fine. (And I have certainly been thanking God for the medical scientists who, under His inspiration, have made pain killers available.)

Please continue to pray for me as I do for you. 

Grace and Peace