A beautiful poem from “Keep me Faithful” , A sweetlittle paperback book of poetry devotionals by Ruth Harms Calkin:

I TRUST

Oh God, thank You
That Your promises are valid
As long as the world lasts.
They do not suddenly dissolve
When my faith is feeble
And my courage fails.

When You have given a promise
You will perform it–
Sight or no sight
Feeling or no feeling.

You may take me
Through the darkest night
The deepest waters.
The very worst may happen
But out of it
You will bring the very best
For Your Word remains secure.

Lord, keep me faithful in my trust.
When I can articulate no other prayer
May my waiting heart
Continually avow:
I trust!
I trust!

(This was in the bargain paperbacks of a major Christian bookstore chain. She is a “real” one..like Marjorie Holmes and Marion Bond West.. Hope this blesses your day, too! :) Her little books (and there are others) express so much of what we have been studying on the recent devotionals here!

Barbara, you have a marvelous God-given gift with words and paint word pictures… am a trained journalist here studied it in college, served as a Journalist in the U.S. Navy..but you are the writer! Thank you so much for sharing this powerful testimony that others reading on here will be blessed and “see” the Mighty Power of Lord Jesus! You had a “Holy Spirit Encounter” that special day in church..and it changed your life forever! I, for one, could see the “glow” that has to be on your special face..even across cyberspace in these special words. All sisters in Him on this special blog meeting place..hold Barbara up for encouragement as she writes this book that can touch and encourage many. HE loves you so much that HE reached through traditions and rules and led you to HIM!!! What a special experience you had… You are in the “Lamb’s Book” now…Hallelujah and Praise our Beloved Lord!!!! Amen and Amen and Amen!!!!!

Doris, I have come to see that God wants to carry us, he wants us to lean on him.

THank You Lord, for your son, for sending him to Save Us. Thank You for loving us so, that you gave your only son. It is because of You, we can share our stories of salvation with others, and be blessed.

I was saved years ago, but i do remember that the mountains that I usually looked at daily, seem to be even more beautiful than they had ever been.
It was like the blinders are lifted along with every thing else you have been carrying. Smile Barbara! Keep touching others with your story of salvation, encouraged you would write a book.

God Bless YOU ALL!

Sandra

I have been working on my own book and I would love to just share a quick portion of it with you all. It is the day that I accepted the The Lord into my Heart and Life. Here is a segmant of what I have written.

“Then one night my insane ways of living got the best of me and I did not want to continue on the “Wild Roller Coaster Ride” any longer. I was fed up with abusing my loved ones and myself, so I started praying to God. I told God that I did not want to awake the following morning and if he decided to have me awake then he needed to help me get better. For I finally realized that there was no way on earth that I was going to get better neither on my own nor with the help of doctors and/or medicine.
That following morning when I did awake, I prayed to God to lead me into a church for it was Sunday morning and for some reason I longed to be in his Holy presence. I fought a big time battle in the bathroom with my obsessions, fears and anxiety yet I made it through my dreaded grooming ritual and was able to get to church. I had never stepped foot into this church before and I had no idea that I was even going there for I truly believe that I was being led there by some unforeseen force. It was one of the weirdest experiences that I had ever encountered. It seemed as if I was not even driving my-self to this church for I had know idea as to which church I was headed to. However, in a matter of a few minutes, I found my-self driving up to a certain church that I had never even been to before.
I was greeted at the door with open arms by several of the parishioners and this alone made me feel welcomed. I quickly settled into a seat and immediately joined in the praise and worship session. It was so ironic because the songs that where being played that particular Sunday morning for some unknown reason was so fitting as to how I was feeling deep within myself. It was so uplifting and healing to my soul that I immediately started to cry as I joined in on the singing that was taking place. I could not get over the amount of sighs that kept on being released from within me. The amount of peace and calmness that entered into me was a blessed feeling that no words could ever explain. As the praise and worship session ended, I settled back down into my seat to hear what the preacher had to say. I do not recall the sermon that was spoken that morning yet when the service was about to end, the preacher announced an altar call. He asked if there was anyone whom wanted to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior to please raise their hand. There was no hesitation from me, for I knew, right there and then that I needed the Lord Jesus Christ to be a part of my life. I had no idea that this preacher was going to ask all of us, who had raised their hands, to go up to the front of the church for additional prayer for I had never been exposed to anything like this before.
I immediately walked up to the front of the church when he asked us all to and I was greeted once again with open arms. Immediately, members of the congregation began to pray with me and over me and while such was taking place, tears began to emerge once again because I was so relieved by just being there. My entire body began to go numb and the heaviness and darkness that I was carrying around with me immediately dissipated. I felt so enlightened that I did not want to leave that special anointing place. I knew right there and then that this was a pure blessing and a gift from God. For the night before, I prayed to God to take me out of my misery and I was looking forward to death but instead I was given the gift of eternal life. I felt extra special that day upon leaving that church, an awesome feeling and experience that came to me just in the nick of time.
The experience that I had encountered in going to that particular church that day was one that I had never known about before hand. Here I was a young, woman in her early 30’s not even aware that a church like that one ever existed. The last time I was in church was for my great grandmother’s funeral and need I remind you that it was not a good experience for me. In fact, as I sit here and write this book, I realize that the church that I had attended for my great grandmother’s funeral was in fact the one that I had attended while I was young. In looking back at some of my childhood pictures, I know that I had made my 1st communion and my 1st confession yet I do not recall participating in such activities nor did I even know what the purpose of them was for. I guess I was just following tradition and not fully understanding what on earth I was doing. None of it ever struck my heart the way in which this church did. I even had my first daughter baptized in my old church when she was born yet I did not fully understand what the purpose of that was for either. There again, I was just following the tradition that was taking place within my family and those around me.
None of this church stuff ever made sense to me because I just couldn’t understand how could people like my-self, living in such ungodly ways, go to church yet continue to live with so much sin in our lives. It just did not match up for we where all living in so much sin and rebellion yet, attending church once in a great while to carry out these so called religious “acts”. I do not know if this was a result of my clouded thinking or if in fact it was not supposed to make sense to me so that I was able to step away from such a type of religion as well as tradition. By no means am I condemning any type of a church, I am just trying to state my own point of view. Thus being that we need to sometimes not just go with the flow of things. I never felt comfortable about going to church when I was growing up. Maybe because of all of the bad stuff that I had to go through while I was young and I was just a walking zombie. All I do know is that the church that God had chosen for me to attend that special Sunday was a church that was fully alive and not dead. I’m glad that I did not allow tradition to govern my mind, for I believe that this allowed God to do what he so desired to do with me. Thus was to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and to accept him as my personal savior. All I know and all I can say is “Thanks be to God” for delivering me to that special church when I was hurting so bad for it brought new life into me.
I do not mean to continue on in bringing up my obsessions with my looks but it had such a stronghold on my life that I was crippled by it beyond measure. However, after I left that church there was something different about me. There was something inside of me that was different and it allowed me to start feeling good about my self in a healthy way and not in a self-destructive way. I felt blessed and I felt all cleaned up inside. I was not in any relationship with anybody, I was no longer drinking, I was still holding down my full time job and actually was enjoying it for the first time in a long while, and my obsessions and anxiety in the bathroom had diminished a great deal. For once I was finally starting to enjoy my life, something that I had not been able to do for such a long time without having to pretend or trying to cover up anything (sin). It was, without a doubt, a total turn around for me. I did not know that when the inside of someone is clean then the outside stuff becomes naturally beautiful. No masks to be worn, no cover-ups needed and no more make believes, just the real inner me. I was able to look at myself in the mirror and see the real, loving person that was so hidden deep within me for so very long. This newfound freedom allowed me to start attending church on a weekly basis and in fact it also allowed me to start attending bible study during the middle of the week as well. It was as if I could not get enough of what God wanted me to have and receive; which was his word and his truths. I started reading my bible daily, I started praying more and more for my loved ones in hopes that they would be blessed. I began to blossom up out of the shell that I was locked up in and I must say that it was the greatest feeling that anyone could ever receive. I even started to attend membership classes because I had such a strong desire to become a member of such a great family of true believers in Christ.”

I sure do hope I did not bore any of you with the above story. I just will never forget that special day that I accpeted Jesus into my life.

Amen, Barbara