By name

Thanks for taking the time to share a little bit of our lives with us through this blog, to scroll through pictures, & hopefully to be encouraged from time to time!  Normally I don't post more than twice a week, but I wanted to share this & will have some more things coming this weekend!  This is not a place to show how great everything is in life, because we are a family of sinners, saved by grace, who do have real struggles in this life, but also have a real hope because of our risen Savior.  Hold firm to that hope you have today.  If your hope is grounded in this world - your job, your relationship, your home, your car, your electronics, etc., I pray you will find the only hope that lasts & does not disappoint. You are deeply loved by your Creator.  He knows you by name.  By name.  By your name.  

Isaiah 43:1-8

But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel:

"Fear not, for I have redeemed you;  I have called you by name, you are mine.

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;

when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.

For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.

Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you,

I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life.

Fear not, for I am with you.

I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you. 

I will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Do not withhold; 

bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth,

everyone who is called by my name,

whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made."

Psalm 139

O Lord, you have searched me and known me!

You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar.

You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways.

Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.

You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.

Where shall I go from your Spirit?

Or where shall I flee from your presence?

If I ascend to heaven, you are there!

If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!

If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,

even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.

If I say, "Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,"

even the darkness is not dark to you;

the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.  

Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret,

intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them,

the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!

How vast is the sum of them!

If I would count them, they are more than the sand.

I awake, and I am still with you.

O that you would slay the wicked, O God!

O men of blood, depart from me!

They speak against you with malicious intent; your enemies take your name in vain.

Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?

And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?

I hate them with complete hatred; I count them my enemies.

Search me, O God, and know my heart!

Try me and know my thoughts!

And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!