Bible verses, and Letter from Neal

When Mom moved out here to Texas, about 6 years ago, she wanted to join a Church. We asked our friends Kim and Gwen where they went to Church and Sunday School. Kim told me she had been to every Church around and she found a home at First Baptist Pittsburg. Gwen told us that she and Elmer had been members there  a very long time. Both Kim and Gwen invited us to join their Sunday School Class, The Friendship Class, taught by Bo Pilgrim. We've been members ever since. It is truly a class of Christian friends. 

Friends and family sent some of their favorite Bible verses to share.  I have found that these verses are full of comfort for all of us.

Anne sent these:

"This is the day which the Lord hath made: we will rejoice and be glad in it." Psalm  118:24

"Let not your heart be troubled, ye believe in God, believe also in me."  John 14:1

"I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me."  Phillippians 4:13

"I will lift up mine eyes to the hills from whence cometh my help.  My help cometh from the Lord which made Heaven and Earth." Psalm 1221:1,2

Lara sent this:

"Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides.  You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors.  So don't try to get out of anything prematurely.  Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way." James 1:3-4,  The Message

From Neal and Linda:

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."  Hebrews 11:1

Neal also wrote Mom a letter that I want to share with everyone.  It brings home  how we never know how we will affect someone.  Neal wrote:

"Our acquaintance has not been one of great length, but it feels that you have been in my life forever.  You have completed a picture that I have carried with me since my mother died when I was five.  There were many very loving 'stand-in' moms for me.  My spotted mare, along with a couple of ole dogs that I had at the time of her death, the colored lady, who worked for my mother and whom I loved, took me as her tenth kid, and, the neighbors who cared about me, all were good stand-ins for a MAMA, but something was missing.  Not being able to remember much about my mother, I created a picture in my mind of how I thought MY MAMA would look and what she would be like, but without a face.  You have completed that picture, A REAL SOUTHERN LADY, fun and outgoing, with a sweet loving spirit, with enthusiasm for life, and a face of soft kindness and compassion for everyone she meets.  Now I know, that is the way My Mama would have been.  Thanks be to God for your coming into my life to help me complete my picture of MAMA.  'May the wind always be at your back and that you shall always be held in the palm of God's hand.'

Neal O'Quinn

February 10, 2009

This is from Nancy:

"Romans 8:18 is one of my favorite verses.  It has carried us through many rough times and is carrying us once again: For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to us. "

Nancy and Larry are always in our prayers for, his full recovery.  They have never lost  faith, with all of Larry's cancer treatments. Their faith has sustained them.

Betty and Jim love Psalm 100, 1-5, as does Elaine:

 Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.

 Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.

 Know that the Lord is God.  It is he who made us, and we are his;  we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

 Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise;  give thanks to him and praise his name.

 For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;  his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Catherine said one of her favorite verses is :  John 3:16.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

I love this verse from Psalms 55:22

"Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you;  he will never let the righteous fall."  When I was going through radiation treatment, the men's roundtable at the church sent this.

Some of  Mother's favorite verses are  from 1 Corinthians 13:1-13

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 

Love never fails.  But where there are prophecies, they will cease;  where there are tongues, they will be stilled;  where there is knowledge, it will pass away.  For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.  When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.  Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face.  Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.  But the greatest of these is love."

Elaine told me that the book of Ruth is one of her favorite books of the Bible.  Ruth was Elaine's Mom's name.  She also loves the Beatitudes, from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5.

I hope to add more Bible verses.  Please send them to me, or you can add them as comments.  Love,  Ann