Pastor Debbie Altman, Grace Family Church

Hi ladies! I just want to share with you my heart as of late...

We are living in unprecedented times.  I’ve been around for 63 years, and a Christian for 45 years now, and with all that is going on in the world, I feel more than ever that a “shaking” is happening.  I think of Hebrews 12:27 that says, “…all of creation will be shaken and removed, so that only unshakable things will remain.”  NLT

So, the world is upside down, and then we have our own personal battles, griefs, longings, and fears. And what we are dealing with in the outside world is only intensifying what we are experiencing in our own private worlds.  I know I’m talking to all of us here, right?  My hand is raised!

As I open the pages of my Bible, I see the headlines of the news and the tragedies of people I love jumping off of the pages.  The Bible is real.  It is relevant.  It is timely.  It is warning us.  And it is reassuring us. We need to press into learning God’s Word like never before. We have to know the truth, we have to know Jesus.  He is shaking things and only the unshakeable things will remain. I feel an urgency, a longing, an excitement to know Him and the truth of His Words in the Bible like never before. I know that only Jesus is unshakeable.  The Bible says He is our Hiding Place, our Rock, our Shelter in the storm.  There is nowhere else to find what we need.  When we feel like flying apart, He is our Anchor.

And while I am hanging on to my unshakeable Jesus, I want to share that hope with so many out there who have never known how much He loves them and sees them, how much He wants to hold them close and give them a new way of living…a new way of thinking and believing and hoping.  We need to bring others along with us!  There is an urgency!

I want to leave you with a few Bible verses that I have been thinking upon these last months as I see so many things falling away and so many challenges coming.  I can say my words, but His Word is what will remain.  Breathe them in.  Soak them in.  Rest in them.

When my flesh and my heart fail, be my portion forever.  Ps 73:25-26

Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup, you make my lot secure.  Ps 16:5

Your name and renown are the desire of my heart; my soul yearns for you in the night, and in the morning my spirit longs for you.  Isaiah 26:8-9

As the dear pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.  Ps 42:1

Let the light of your face shine upon me, O Lord, and that shall fill my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound.  Ps 4:6-7

O that my soul may thirst for you, and my body long for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water; that I may behold your power and your glory, as I have seen you in the sanctuary.  Your love is better than life.  Ps 63:1-3

Let the beloved of the Lord rest secure in Him, for He shields him all day long, and the one the Lord loves, rests between His shoulders.  Deuteronomy 33:12

If you do not know how to get to know about the Bible, please join us at Grace Family Church in one of our many Small Groups that will help you along the way.  There has never been a better time.  I love you all.

Pastor Debbie Altman