From: "Beverly French" <frenchb@vcss.k12.ca.us>
To: "Heritage" <gheritage@juno.com>
Subject: Joyous Greetings
Date: Sunday, October 15, 2000 7:47 AM

A friend gave me a plaque many years ago and it still hangs on the wall
today.  It reads:
"The will of God will never take you where the grace of God cannot keep
you."  Last week we looked into submission to the divine will of God and
found that it is: purposed from within, establishes a divine relationship,
requires whole heartedness and is to be our daily guide.

As we think of the words on that plaque we can recognize that God's will may
lead us into hard places. It is never for our undoing, but always for up
building!  It is for the stretching of each child of His so that child will
come into a great knowledge of Christ.  And as we know Christ in a greater
measure we know the Father.  For Scripture tells us,

"If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also..."  John 14:6
"...He who has seen Me has seen the Father...Do you not believe that I am in
the Father, and the Father is in Me?...Believe Me that I am in the Father,
and the Father in Me."  John 14:9-11

And in Hebrews 1:1-3,
"God...in these last day has spoken to us in His Son, whom He (God)
appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.  And He
(Jesus) is the radiance of His (God) glory and the exact representation of
His nature..."

To know Christ is to know the Father and it is the Holy Spirit who reveals
Christ to us.
"But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He
will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to
you."  John 14:26

Read the whole of John 14; the exchange between Jesus and the disciples.  It
is Jesus' farewell to them before the crucifiction.  It is the glorious
message of the whole Godhead embracing and loving each one who belong to
God.  With such loving assurance how can we not desire to do God's will?
Even though it may take us into hard places we are not alone!  When
we have passed through the valley, we will KNOW Him; His love, grace
and mercy in ways we would not know otherwise!

Read Psalm 23 and rejoice in our wonderful Lord, the Great Shepherd, the
everlasting Father, the Lord God Almighty! And know (Vs. 6),
"Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life,
 And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."    Hallelujah and Amen!