Christ in the Clouds

Welcome to... ...where I share different verses from the Psalms!   May you find truths about God, yourselves, and living life in the images and word pictures shared here!  2014 will soon end. 2015 will then begin. (Unless the Lord chooses to return for His children before then.) In spite of many very difficult circumstances, both physically and emotionally, the Lord truly has blessed me! As you look back over some of the pictures I shared in my 48 posts throughout the past year in the video below, may you know that I appreciate all the great love and support I have felt from my friends in bloggerland! You are an exquisite and amazing group of brothers and sisters in Christ!  I know God has allowed me also to bless others through my blog, "Christ in the Clouds". It's only through His grace and providence that this has been possible . In these last days of 2014, may we remember that He will be our Guide, even to the end! Happy New Year fr...

I remember, as a child, waiting with excitement and anticipation for Christmas morning, when we would finally open our presents! The weeks prior to that day were often filled with inquisitive hope. Sometimes my patience would run out and I would shake my wrapped items under the tree or beg my parents to open at least one gift early. We, as the human race, are not so good at waiting either are we? I doubt waiting has ever been easy, but it seems especially difficult in our world of fast food, wifi internet, instant downloads, and text messages. We are conditioned to want immediate action, responses, and results. Even David felt the overwhelming difficulty of waiting for the Lord to reply to his prayers... Psalm 13  -   How long,  O LORD? Will you forget me  forever? How long will you hide your face  from me?  How long must I wrestle with my thoughts  and every day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?   ...

"and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger," Luke 2;7 Every true mother feels a sense of awe in her soul when she bends over her own infant child; but in the case of Mary we may be sure that the awe was unusual, because of the mystery of the child's birth. The angel had said to her, "That which is to be born shall be called holy, the Son of God." The night of her child's birth there was a wondrous vision of angels, and the shepherds who beheld it hastened into the town; and as they looked upon the baby in the manger, they told the wondering mother what they had seen and heard. We are told that Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart. ( Luke 2:19 )   While she could not understand what all this meant, she knew at least that hers was no common child; that in some wonderful sense, He was the Son of God. A Hurting Mother  ~  It’s hard to imagine the mixture of love an...

It has been awhile since I read some of her writings from her first book or from her blog. I should have known right off that her words would affect me in the same way that they did when I read them then. Yes, I'm talking about Ann Voskamp.  Last week I wrote about her new advent book, "Unwrapping the Greatest Gift." All week, I have been reading each day's Scripture and story, as well as the application of the story to us (or, as I  eerily  felt, applied directly to me) today.  All I can say is, "Wow, Wow, Wow!" I found myself shedding tears as I read just about every message she shared. She seems to pierce right into my deepest sorrows and life experiences and expresses where God stands with it. He is a God of so much love that, as she wrote in Day 4, "He feels what we feel and He's written our names on His hand." Here are some quotes from her book that literally took my breath away. Day 1: "The miracle no one dreame...