Through Loving Eyes / “It Is Well with My Soul” / Friday Trip: Chandor Gardens

Through Loving Eyes,
through and through,
completely and throughout,
real Love,
passes completely through
the Heart of you.

Such Love
becomes an affirmation
that the Child you are,
and will always be,
will be Loved,
from moment to moment,
through Eternity.

You may think
there is no
real story to tell,
only the simplicity
of the rhythm and the rhyme
of being alive,
in Love
with Life,
and Living.
  But in the Gift
of conclusion:
“Love is through and through,
real or what you may imagine
is real,
Yesterday, Today,
and Tomorrow,
too.”

“We were like children posing,
Playing at games, acting out names
Guessing the parts we played.”
– Johnny Mercer

Life is Memory
in the making.
Everything we say and do
becoming strong, swift currents
in the River of Living,
movement of the moments
said or done.
But Life devoid of motion and magic
and memories,
leaves something less than
nothing,
an emptiness far beyond
the void of space,
Time
without measure,
and meaning
less.

“I hold it true, whate’er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
‘Tis better to have Loved and lost
Than never to have Loved at all.’ “
– Alfred Lord Tennyson
In Memoriam 1850

.
You
may be Blessed,
or cursed
or kissed.
You may be nothing
to anyone,
someone
never missed.
But to God,
you are a Child
of Everlasting Love,
and YOU are
His.

And nothing compares
in the whole wide Universe
to such Infinite Love,
as the Love
He feels
for His Child.

You
are more
than Everything.
You are
His Universe
in but one beat
of a precious Heart
that lives,
and lives,
and lives.

Pass on the Love
that gives,
and gives,
and gives.

                You are His Universe.

My Dear Friend,
when your precious Heart
beats for another,
you cannot give more
than it gives.
And,
you cannot live
more of Life,
than you live.

God
wants no more
than you should live
for Love.

The Love of God
is like the rain
that falls.
His Love also comes
from the Heavens above,
and it falls
on you.

Dr. Wm. C. Anderson 1981

He invites you
to channel the depths
of His powerful and tender Heart
into the Heart
that beats within
YOU.
There is
no greater Gift from God
than His Love.
And His Love
is
YOU.

Goodnight.
.

Dr. Richard L. Strauss

“We all need to know that
somebody Loves us.
The good news from God’s Word
is that somebody does.
To know Him is to find release
from the crippling effects of feeling unloved.
God is Love
(1 John 4:8,16).

Love is one of the warmest words
in the English language,
and that God is Love
is one of the most sublime, uplifting, and reassuring
Truths
known to Mankind.
It is the essence of His Being.
Love
is the way He is.”
– Richard L. Strauss, Th.D.

  You can do no more than Live for Love.

In Philosophy this week:
What are the hidden TRUTHS
contributing to one of the largest
health epidemics in history?
Why is conventional wisdom
of “exercise and eat”
not holding true?
This generation is the first
to live shorter lives than
their parents.
Why?

Today we view the
outstanding film presentation:
Fed Up!

“It Is Well with My Soul”
from Hope & Humor
by James Watkins
read more

Life can be so unpredictable
joys and sorrows,
beautiful blessings and distressing difficulties,
can come unexpectedly.
Our life’s dreams and plans
can change in an instant.
We all know this to be true.
So how can we find peace amid
such turbulence?

Horatio Spafford

Horatio Spafford knew something
about life’s unexpected challenges.
He was a successful attorney and real estate investor
who lost a fortune in the great Chicago fire of 1871.

In 1871, Horatio, a devout Christian, and his wife, Anna,
were living comfortably with their four young daughters
in Lake View, Chicago.
In that year the great fire broke out which devastated the entire city.
For the next two years Horatio and Anna devoted their time to welfare work among the refugees of the fire.

By November 1873 the Spaffords decided
to join friends in Europe
but just before their departure Horatio was detained on business.
Anna and their four daughters were set off without him,
but en route tragedy struck.
The steamship they were traveling
on the Ville du Havre,
sank after colliding with another ship in mid-ocean.

Of the hundreds on board,
Anna was one of only 27 who were rescued
having been kept afloat by a piece of debris.
Her daughters did not survive.
Overcome with despair at the loss of her children,
Anna felt strongly that she had been saved
for a purpose.

Upon arriving in England,
Anna sent a telegram to her husband that began:
“Saved alone.
What shall I do?”

Horatio immediately set sail for England.
At one point during his voyage, the Captain of the ship,
aware of the tragedy that had struck the family,
summoned Horatio to tell him that they were now passing
over the spot where the shipwreck had occurred.
As Horatio thought about his daughters,
words of comfort and hope filled his heart and mind.
He wrote them down, and they have since become
a well-beloved hymn:
.
“When peace like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll –
Whatever my lot,
thou hast taught me to know It is well,
it is well with my Soul.”

        Peace Like A River

But the tragedy surrounding the hymn
didn’t end there.
Horatio and Anna returned to Chicago,
and gave birth to Horatio II who would die at four years old
of scarlet fever in 1876.
Two years later, the couple gave birth to Bertha, who would would write that her parents not only suffered the pain of losing their fortune
and five children,
but it was compounded by a crisis of faith.
Were the children’s deaths a punishment from God?
Did He no longer Love them?
Horatio felt himself in danger of losing his faith.

In 1881, Anna gave birth to a sixth daughter,
appropriately named “Grace.”
Shortly after, the family of four moved to Jerusalem,
with Horatio explaining,
“Jerusalem is where my Lord lived, suffered, and conquered,
and I wish to learn how to live, suffer,
and especially to conquer.”

The family would remain in Jerusalem
and set up a children’s home.
And like his children, he too would die tragically.
Some reports claim he began to suffer delusions
that he was the second Messiah,
while his family insists it was the malaria fever
that caused the mental confusion
and death.

Anna and Horatio Spafford
led a small American contingent in 1881
to Jerusalem to form a Christian Utopian Society
known as the American Colony.
read more
They were later joined by Swedish Christians,
engaged in philanthropic work among the people of Jerusalem regardless of religious affiliation,
thereby gaining the trust of the local
Muslim, Jewish and Christian communities.
During and immediately after World War I
the American Colony played a critical role
in supporting these communities
through the great suffering and deprivations
of the eastern front by
running soup kitchens, hospitals, orphanages
and other charitable ventures.

Spafford died on October 16, 1888, of malaria
and was buried in Jerusalem.

But the tragedy surrounding the hymn
didn’t end there, either.
The tune was written by Philip P. Bliss,
which he entitled “Ville du Havre,”
the name of the ship that took the lives
of Spafford’s four daughters.
The hymn was first sung by Bliss himself
before a large gathering of ministers
hosted by Moody on November 24, 1876.

Just one month later, on December 29, 1876,
Bliss and wife were traveling to Chicago by train.
As the train passed over a trestle near Ashtabula, Ohio,
the bridge collapsed and the passenger coaches
plunged 75 feet into the icy river.
Philip was able to escape through a window,
but his wife was pinned in the wreckage.
As he went back to free his wife,
a fire broke out through the wooden cars
and both were burned beyond recognition.

Nine tragic deaths surround the hymn,
and yet those affected by them, could say,
“It is well with my Soul.”

Perhaps we cannot always say
that everything is well in all aspects of our lives.
There will always be storms to face,
and sometimes there will be tragedies.
But with Faith in a Loving God
and with trust in His Divine help,
we can confidently say,
“It is well,
it is well with my Soul.”
read more

“When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet,
though trials should come,
Let this Be
lest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own Blood for my Soul.

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

And Lord,
haste the day when my Faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound,
and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my Soul.”

– lyrics by Horatio Spafford
music by by Philip P. Bliss
listen to song here

Friday Trip:
Chandor Gardens
in Weatherford

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allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship,and research.
Fair use is permitted by copyright statute. Non-profit,
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