Thankful Thursday : Because He lives, we can face tomorrow

Dear Friends,

Thanks for stopping by! Thanks for your prayers and encouragements.

♥ I am thankful to God for strengthening me and restoring me from my recent relapse of clinical depression. Around May recently, I over strained myself due to work, blogging, church, family and other commitments. By the time I realized it I was heading towards a burnout. Though I attempted to slow down, I still slipped into clinical depression. Thank God for preserving and restoring me. I am feeling so much better now and will continue to look to our Lord. Thank you for your prayers and encouragements!

♥ With this health condition, the future can at times seem very uncertain and fearful with possible relapses of clinical depression and all the pain and difficulties associated with it. I am thankful to God for the comfort and assurance in His Words of His presence with us, His love for us and His sufficient grace no matter what we may go through in this imperfect world. We have the hope of one day being with the Lord where there will be no more tears, illness and suffering. Meanwhile, He is with us. He loves us and will give us grace sufficient for each day.

♥ I am thankful to God that my illness has drawn me closer to God, to know more and more of His love and mercies, and to be more dependent upon Him. The Lord fills my heart daily with His love and joy so that I can rejoice in Him and find contentment in Him despite my condition.

♥ I am thankful to our Lord Jesus Christ for giving me grace and courage to press on daily because He Lives! I am comforted that in the Bible, God tells us that Christ is risen and He is living today and interceding for us. His Spirit lives in us and will give us grace to live for Him until He calls us home. We are never alone!

♥ I am thankful to God for providing precious people in my life ie. my family, church, friends and blogging friends who love and care for me in their very wonderful ways. These are tokens of God's love for me and I treasure very much.

♥ I am thankful to God once again for all of you, my dear blogging friends and visitors. I have been so greatly blessed by all of you and I thank God upon every remembrance of you. It is wonderful to read of how God is guiding and blessing you in your walk with our Lord and it encourages me in my walk with God too. Thanks again for your prayers and encouragements.


I saw these videos on YouTube for this encouraging hymn "Because He Lives" and it strengthens my heart to remember anew that we served a Risen Savior Who loves us and is in control of all things. Therefore I can face tomorrow, with all its uncertainty, in God's strength and grace, because God holds the future and that makes life worth living.

Christianity Today has a touching account of how this Song was written by Bill and Gloria Gaither during a very traumatic time in their life in the early 1970s while expecting their third child. The timing for another baby wasn't ideal due to various reasons and the thought of bringing another child into the world was taking its toll. But God ministered grace to them and Christ's resurrection, in all its power, was reaffirmed in their hearts. They were assured that the future, left in God's hands, would be just fine.

In July 1970 a healthy baby, Benjamin, was born. Inspired by the miracle of their son's birth, "Because He Lives" poured out of the Gaithers' grateful hearts. The song clearly affirms the hope believers have in Christ. We can face tomorrow, with all its uncertainty, as we realize that God holds the future and makes life worth living.

Because He Lives

God sent His son, they called Him, Jesus;
He came to love, heal and forgive;
He lived and died to buy my pardon,
An empty grave is there to prove my Savior lives!

How sweet to hold a newborn baby,
And feel the pride and joy he gives;
But greater still the calm assurance:
This child can face uncertain days because He Lives!

Chorus: Because He lives, I can face tomorrow,
Because He lives, all fear is gone;
Because I know He holds the future,
And life is worth the living,
Just because He lives!

And then one day, I'll cross the river,
I'll fight life's final war with pain;
And then, as death gives way to vict'ry,
I'll see the lights of glory and I'll know He lives!

This video "Because He Lives" By The Gaither Vocal Band is posted by hoover4000 on YouTube. The 2nd stanza was first written together with the chorus, 3rd and 1st stanza added subsequently:



This video "Because He Lives" By The Gaither Trio 1972 is posted by hoover4000 (with Gloria explaining the circumstances surrounding the time she wrote the words to "because he lives" and then the gaither trio sings it (from 1972)) (This is very touching. Must see!)



May the wonderful reminder that we serve a Risen Savior, affirms the hope we have in Christ. We can face tomorrow, with all its uncertainty, as we realize that God holds the future and that makes life worth living!

May you continue to know God's love and sufficient grace in very special ways today and everyday!

How about you? How has the Lord blessed you through the past week?

Thanks for stopping by. Hope you have a blessed and thankful day!

For more participants of Thankful Thursday, do visit Iris at Sting My Heart. It will be a very blessed and spiritually uplifting experience for you!

Word-Filled Wednesday : I have loved you with an everlasting love

The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying,
Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love:
therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.
Jeremiah 31:3

Nothing is more powerful to engage our affection than to find that we are beloved! Expression of kindness and love are usually pleasing and acceptable unto us irrespective of who expresses it to us.

But to have the love of One Who is altogether lovely, to know that the glorious Majesty of heaven hath any regard unto us, how must this astonish and delight us, how must it overcome our spirits and melt our hearts, and put our whole soul into a flame!

Thank God for His everlasting and immeasurable love for us! It will take me a lifetime to try and comprehend it, and even then I may not fully understand it!

May you continue to know God's everlasting love and goodness in many wonderful ways daily :)

For more Word-Filled Wednesday participants, do visit Amy at The 160 Acre Woods. It will be a very blessed and encouraging experience for you.

Thank you for stopping by. Thanks for your prayers and encouragements. Hope you have a blessed day!

(I took this picture at a Flower exhibition in Singapore)

Blogging - Therapeutic to me and a tool in recovery from depression and coping with bipolar and other challenges in my life

Dear Friends,

Thanks for stopping by!

I am thankful to God for restoring me from a relapse of clinical depression recently. Bipolar disorder is a medical condition with extreme mood swings (manic and depression) which can be treated. I am thankful to God for preserving me through the difficult times of a relapse and strengthening me now.

Thanks for your prayers and encouragements. They mean a lot to me!

As I am on the road of recovery, I am learning to pace myself moderately and prayerfully.

I have at one point of time contemplated giving up on blogging as I found myself spending a considerable amount of time writing on my blog and visiting other's blog. I do a lot of this especially when I am hypomanic :-)

Too much blogging is actually mentally very taxing on me though I don't always realized it. My freelance work is also very taxing as I work on the computer most of time. I suspect my relapse of clinical depression recently was due to overstraining at my freelance work plus blogging.

Should I give up blogging? I prayed and asked the Lord for direction.

It has been a joy and privilege for me to be acquainted with many blogging friends who are suffering from depression, bipolar and other physical or mental conditions.

To be able to share and support one another as we seek to learn to understand and manage our conditions has a great impact upon my life. I felt I have grown much over the last half year of blogging through my acquaintance with such dear friends and learning from various people's experiences. I am learning to understand my condition better and to manage it better.

Ever since I joined Word-Filled Wednesday and Thankful Thursday, God has helped me to grow spiritually.

Word-Filled Wednesday (WFW) reminds me of many precious passages from God's Words. God's Words bring comfort, encouragement and direction in my life. It helps me to know more of God's love, His mercies and His sovereignty. Every visit to WFW blogs and post are very encouraging and refreshing. WFW also gives me opportunities to share my passion in photography and God's Words with others. I am thankful to God for many kind friends who allowed me to use the photographs they took and shared them on WFW. Thanks, Amy Deane, for hosting Word-Filled Wednesday and thank God for giving us this precious opportunities to be reminded and encouraged by His Words and beautifies of His creations!

Thankful Thursday (TT) helped me to count my blessings and to be thankful for God's many mercies. I learn to appreciate little things in life and to be thankful for them. Visiting the various TT blogs have strengthened my faith in God as I read of His goodness to His people in spite of whatever difficulties we face in this fallen world. I read of the power of God sustaining and delivering His people from the trials in their life. I read of how thankful they are admist the challenges of life. I am greatly humbled by the many who find reasons to praise and thank God for little things in life which I sometimes overlooked or took for granted. TT has in some way changed my perspective. It has helped me to be a more thankful and happy person despite the bout of depression I experience every now and then, and the many challenges I face in managing bipolar disorder, my work, my family, etc etc. Thanks, Iris, for hosting Thankful Thursday and thank God for using it to encourage us to count our blessings and know more and more of His love!

I am so thankful for your friendships, dear friends and visitors, and the way you and your blogs or your comments have encouraged me. I am greatly humbled by so many of you visiting me and encouraging me. Your prayers and encouragements mean a lot to me. They are especially precious in my recovery process. God has used all of you to provide the love, friendship and support that I needed very much in my recovery. It makes a lot of difference.

I am thankful to God too for making my posts an encouragement to various people. It is my joy and privilege to share with you God's goodness and mercies to me in managing depression, bipolar and other challenges in my life. God is good to me. I am greatly humbled by the knowledge that what I shared has touched some people's life and I thank God for using such a weak vessel so that His grace and glory may shine through!

In life, we will have our portions of ups and downs. Whether it be depression, bipolar or other physical or mental afflictions, or loss of jobs, loss of loved ones, and other difficulties in life, to have the love and support of family and friends is so precious. Thank God that He is with us and thank God that we can be here for one another!

So in other words, Blogging is therapeutic to me. I am encouraged by so many of you. And when God uses me to encourage you in return, it gives me a sense of satisfaction to know that I can still be useful and contribute despite my infirmities. It helps me to feel useful and challenges me to be more useful, as God enables me.

I have found it a joy to blog. Blogging allows me to share my thoughts and feelings, to verbalise it and to see things more clearly. It has also enriched my life through the vast of information that other bloggers shared through their life, resources they found useful and comfort from God's Words and God's goodness to them.

So here I am, continuing with blogging :-)

But I shall endeavor to pace myself more moderately in order to prevent burn-out and depression, as far as I can. I probably won't be posting on my blog and visiting blogs everyday like what I did before my relapse of clinical depression recently. I have to learn to understand my limitation and work within that boundary. You are in my thoughts and prayers always. I love to visit your blogs but if I am not able to visit you as much as I would like to, I trust you will understand :-)

What about you? Do you enjoy blogging? How has blogging helped you? Or how has blogging changed your life?

Thanks again for stopping by, dear friends and visitors. Your friendship and kindness means a lot to me and I thank God for everyone of you. I pray that God will make me a blessing to you too and that your visit to my blog has been a pleasant and encouraging experience. All praise and glory be to God!

Take care and have a blessed day!

My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever. Psalm 73:26

Blog Awards

Thanks to God and my blogging friends for all these lovely awards!

Thank you, Michele! (17 Jan 2009)

Thank you, Michele! (17 Jan 2009)

The Premio Dardos award acknowledges the values that every blogger shows in his/her effort to transmit cultural, ethical, literary, and personal values every day.

Thank you, Michele!

A Perfect Blend of Friendship Award
Thanks, Serendipity (LS and Happy)!

Nisha's Friendship Award

Thanks Lorie!

If you ever need a hand, I'm here Award

Thanks Willow, Lorie and Sunny

Faithful Servant Award Sowing Seeds of Love!
Thanks Jill and Willow!

You lift my spirit Award
Thanks serendipity (LS & Happy)!

Gratitude with Attitude Award
Thanks Jim!

Kind Blogger Award
Thanks Melanie and Serendipity!

Friendship Award
Thanks Serendipity and Peggy!

Sharing The Love Award
Thanks Peggy!

The “Arte y Pico” Award

Thanks SharonB, Edie and Serendipity!

Flower Award
Thanks Colored Heart!

Brillante Weblog Premio 2008
Thanks Peggy and Jena!

BFF Gold Card
Thank you Serendipity!

I am an Awesome Blogger Friend Award
Thanks Dennis, Michele W. and Peggy!

Autumn Friends Award

Thanks Serendipity, Michele W. , Peggy and Carrie!

Inspiration Award
Thanks Dennis, Michele W., Peggy and Serendipity

Blogging makes us 'close' Award (Portugese)
Thanks Michele W. , Peggy and Kathy!

Top Pick Blog Award
Thanks Janera!

Thankful Thursday : Father's Love Letter

The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever. Isaiah 40:8

Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away. Luke 21:33

Dear Friends,

Thanks for stopping by! Thanks for your prayers and encouragements.

Some weeks ago, I posted "Letter to My Child" which is very encouraging. It tells us of the great love God has for us and that He cares for us.

Dear Child,

You may not know me, but I know everything about you (Psalm 139:1). I know when you sit down and when you rise up (Psalm 139:2). I am familiar with all your ways (Psalm 139:3). Even the very hairs on your head are numbered (Matthew 10:29-31). For you were made in my image (Genesis 1:27). In me you live and move and have your being (Acts 17:28). For you are my offspring (Acts 17:28). I knew you even before you were conceived (Jeremiah 1:4-5) and I chose you when I planned creation (Ephesians 1:11-12). You were not a mistake, for all your days are written in my book (Psalm 139:15-16). I determined the exact time of your birth and where you would live (Acts 17:26). You are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14). I knit you together in your mother's womb (Psalm 139:13) and brought you forth on the day you were born (Psalm 71:6). I have been misrepresented by those who don't know me (John 8:41-44). I am not distant and angry, but am the complete expression of love (1 John 4:16) and it is my desire to lavish my love on you (1 John 3:1) simply because you are my child and I am your Father (1 John 3:1). I offer you more than your earthly father ever could (Matthew 7:11) for I am the perfect Father (Matthew 5:48). Every good gift that you receive comes from my hand (James 1:17). I am your provider and I meet all your needs (Matthew 6:31-33). My plan for your future has always been filled with hope (Jeremiah 29:11) because I love you with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3). My thoughts toward you are countless as the sand on the seashore (Psalm 139:17-18) and I rejoice over you with singing (Zephaniah 3:17). I will never stop doing good to you (Jeremiah 32:40) because you are my treasured possession (Exodus 19:5). I desire to establish you with all my heart and all my soul (Jeremiah 32:41) and I want to show you great and marvelous things (Jeremiah 33:3). If you seek me with all your heart, you will find me (Deuteronomy 4:29). Delight in me and I will give you the desires of your heart (Psalm 37:4). It is I who gave you those desires (Philippians 2:13). I am able to do more for you than you could possibly imagine (Ephesians 3:20). For I am your greatest encourager (2 Thessalonians 2:16-17). I am also the Father who comforts you in all your troubles (2 Corinthians 1"3-4). When you are brokenhearted, I am close to you (Psalm 34:18). As a shepherd carries a lamb, I have carried you close to my heart (Isaiah 40:11). One day I will wipe away every tear from your eyes (Revelation 21:3-4) and I'll take away all the pain you have suffered on this earth (Revelation 21:3-4). I am your Father, and I love you even as I love my son, Jesus (John 17:23). For in Jesus, my love for you is revealed (John 17:26). He is the exact representation of my being (Hebrews 1:3). He came to demonstrate that I am for you, not against you (Romans 8:31) and to tell you that I am not counting your sins (2 Corinthians 5:18-19). Jesus died so that you and I could be reconciled (2 Corinthians 5:18-19). His death was the ultimate expression of my love for you (1 John 4:10). I gave up everything I loved that I might gain your love (Romans 8:31-32). If you receive the gift of my son Jesus, you receive me (1 John 2:23) and nothing will ever separate you from my love again (Romans 8:38-39). Come home and I'll throw the biggest party heaven has ever seen (Luke 15:7). I have always been Father, and will always be Father (Ephesians 3:14-15). My question is will you be my child (John 1:12-13)? I am waiting for you (Luke 15:11-32).

Love, Your Father,
Almighty God

Recently, I saw another presentation of it on YouTube which is very very encouraging too and it is entitled "Father's Love Letter."

As I viewed "Father's Love Letter" I realized afresh God's love for us as He expressed it in His Words, the Bible. The Bible is in someway God's Love Letter to us to reveal His love for us from creation to salvation to sanctification and to glory.

"Father's Love Letter" is a very encouraging paraphrased of various Scriptures from Old Testament to New Testament. It helps me to appreciate how precious the Bible is to us and how we can know more and more of God's glory and love for us, and how we can live for Him.

♥ I am thankful to God for giving us His Precious Words, the Bible.

♥ I am thankful to God for giving us the Bible so that we can know Who God is, who we are, and what Christ has done to reconcile us to God.

♥ I am thankful to God that He reveals in His Words His love for us and how He has given us His only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to redeem us from sins and give us eternal life.

♥ I am thankful to God that His Words admonish us and convict us of our sins, and assures us that with God there is forgiveness of sins as we turn to God in repentance.

♥ I am thankful to God that His Words has the answers on how we can handle the various issues in life with the many challenges.

♥ I am thankful to God that His Words instructs us on how we can live for God, glorify Him and enjoy Him.

♥ I am thankful to God that His Words directs us in the path that God wants us to go.

♥ I am thankful to God that His Words comforts us in our time of sorrows, sufferings and losses.

♥ I am thankful to God for the freedom to read His Words and to worship Him in my country.

♥ I thank God for providing precious people in my life ie. my family, church, friends and blogging friends who love and care for me in their very wonderful ways. These are tokens of God's love for me and I treasure very much.

♥ I thank God once again for all of you, my dear blogging friends and visitors. I have been so greatly blessed by all of you and I thank God upon every remembrance of you. It is wonderful to read of how God is guiding and blessing you in your walk with our Lord and it encourages me in my walk with God too. Thanks again for your prayers and encouragements.

♥ May God opens our eyes daily that we may behold wondrous truths out of His Words (Psalm 119:18) and enable us to walk in them.

♥ May God's Words continues to be a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our paths (Psalm 119:105).

♥ May God enable us to hide His Words in our heart that we might not sinned against Him (Psalm 119:11).



Do take a few minutes to listen to this narrated Father's Love Letter, if you can. Though these Bible verses and Truths are familiar to us, the way they are connected together in this touching letter is very encouraging and enable us to know God's love in a very special way.

To read the Letter is one thing, to listen to it being read is another totally yet wonderful experience! It may change your life!

This Father's Love Letter is posted by joetopc on Youtube.




To read more about Father's Love Letter, visit their website here.

Father's Love Letter is available in 89 languages! Free posters of Father's Love Letter can be downloaded from here.

May you know God to be our Heavenly Father, Who will never leave us nor forsake us and cares for us daily.

And may you know the love of God that is perfected in Christ Jesus our Lord Who gave His life for us so that we can be reconciled to God.

May you know God's love and care in very special ways today and everyday!

How about you? How has the Lord blessed you through the past week?

Thanks for stopping by. Hope you have a blessed and thankful day!

For more participants of Thankful Thursday, do visit Iris.