\u201cBut the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To Him be glory for ever and ever. Amen. Greet Priscilla and Aquilla and the household of Onesiphorus. Erastus stayed in Corinth, and I left Trophimus sick in Miletus. Do your best to get here before winter. Eubulus greets you, and so do Pudens, Linus, Claudia, and all the brothers. The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.\u201d II Timothy 4:17-22<\/p>\n
And this is grace: \u2018God is with us.\u2019 If we are His children, the sheep of His pasture\u2026 and His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus\u2026 then He is with us.<\/p>\n
The prisoner in Rome knew the same Good Shepherd that David sang about centuries earlier: \u201cEven though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me.\u201d Paul testified: \u201cThe Lord stood at my side and gave me strength.\u201d This is grace.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy sheep listen to My voice; I know them and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of My Father\u2019s hand. I and the Father are one.\u201d (John 10:28-30)<\/p>\n
When we read Scripture and God\u2019s Word seems to jump off the page and speak directly to our hearts, or when a verse comes to mind that bears truth to our spirits, the Good Shepherd is speaking.<\/p>\n
One August day in 2000 around 4:00 in the afternoon, I heard this: \u201cMy grace is sufficient for you.\u201d A couple of hours later my doctor and his wife knocked on our door, came into our home, and shared that I had cancer. To that point, Susan and I had not really considered I had a serious health problem; I had just gone to the doctor to check on aches and pains in my forty-year-old body.<\/p>\n
Now, after dealing with the blood cancer multiple myeloma for fifteen years, I know: \u201cGod\u2019s grace is sufficient.\u201d Or to state it another way: \u201cIt is enough that God is with us.\u201d<\/p>\n
No matter the prognosis or the challenge or the trial, to know \u2018God is with me\u2019 is the grace I need. No one can snatch me out of His possession. This is the Word of the Good Shepherd who knows us and cares for us with loving kindness and eternal power. We are in good hands.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all \u2013 how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died \u2013 more than that, who was raised to life \u2013 is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: \u2018For Your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.\u2019 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.\u201d Romans 8:31-39<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cBut the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To Him be glory for ever and ever. Amen. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2324"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2326,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2324\/revisions\/2326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}