Hey, Family

Just a note to close my birthday out with praise.  As I end another trip
around the sun and begin (LORD willing) a new one, I can attest to the fact
that everything the Bible promises about the LORD and JESUS in particular is
true.

Isaiah 46:4 says:  quote "Even to your old age I will be the same, And even
to your graying  years I will bear you! I have done it, and I will carry
you; And I will bear you and I will deliver you." unquote

I'm not quite at that point yet, but I can tell you that the LORD has
brought me through some serious stuff and though some lessons have been
painful, all have been growing pains.  He has brought every desire of my
heart to pass when there was no hope for any of them.  When the doctors told
my parents at my birth that I'd be blind, profoundly retarded, unable to
eat, unable to speak, unable to walk unable to control my bowels or my
bladder and that I would thankfully be dead within a few days and that they
should leave me in the hospital to die, the LORD had another plan.  Although
there are still traces of disability (or whatever politically correct term
you want to use), He has brought me out of the pit of a hellish childhood,
physically, spiritually, mentally and emotionally, brought me through
college, through rough relationships and times of every kind of anguish.
Through JESUS He has provided me with a ministry for which I'm also paid
well with a job and surprisingly good health that still stumps the doctors
and the honor of serving Him to bless others.  All this and eternal life as
well .

He has granted me every desire of my heart and though I haven't seen a
repeat of one that started but faded away, knowing Him as I do after all
these years I still believe He will grant that one as well.  But even if He
never did I can say as the Hebrew song says (phonetically) "Die yay
nu"...it's enough.  Even if nothing else good ever happened and everything
good passes away, He has done enough good for me that I will spend all of
eternity praising His Name.  And a large part of that is the blessing He has
given me in you.

I pray that you will come to know this GOD, this Father who comes to you and
bleeds for you and rescues you in the Person of JESUS, and indwells you in
the Person of the Holy Spirit to comfort your heart as no one else can do
when there is no other comfort anywhere.  And I pray that if you already
know Him, you with be there along with me some day at Home with Him in
Heaven, praising Him for all of these things in the Name of JESUS.

Great is Thy Faithfulness ain't my favorite hymn for nuthin'!  Grin.

Paul, Ariel, Lion of GOD, still roaring with His Praise