Lyrics...Natalie Grant

This is a song that has just recently been recorded and getting some air-time by Natalie Grant. The song is titled "Held," and I've been listening to it nonstop since I got the track a few days ago. It talks about suffering and how sometimes we think that as Christians we should be exempt from pain. But we're not. The promise was not that life would be smooth sailing, but that when everything dear to us falls apart, betrays us, crashes and burns, leaving us alone and trembling in the pile of ashes, that He would still be there. In my small life, I have had some suffering. But I cannot begin to compare it with some of the things either my friends or people I've known have experienced. But I can promise one thing: I have been held by the everlasting arms.

"Two months is too little. They let him go. They had no sudden healing. To think that Providence would take a child from his mother while she prays is appalling. Who told us we'd be rescued? What has changed and why should we be saved from nightmares? We're asking why this happens to us to have died to live? It's unfair.

"This is what it means to be held. How it feels when the sacred is torn from your life and you survive. This is what it is to be loved, and to know that the promise was when everything fell we'd be held.

"This hand is bitterness. We want to taste it and let the hatred numb our sorrow. The wise hand opens slowly to lilies of the valley and tomorrow.

"This is what it means to be held. How it feels when the sacred is torn from your life and you survive. This is what it is to be loved, and to know that the promise was when everything fell we'd be held.

"If hope is born of suffering, if this is only the beginning, can we not wait for one hour watching for our Saviour?

"This is what it means to be held. How it feels when the sacred is torn from your life and you survive. This is what it is to be loved, and to know that the promise was when everything fell we'd be held...This is what it means to be held."

Lyrics....Nicole Nordeman

The following is the lyrics to Nicole Nordeman's song "My Offering" on the Woven and Spun cd. (A cd, by the way, that I would wholly recommend to anyone and everyone. The entire cd is awesome.) If I could play the piano very well, I'd learn this song. I think it's just beautiful. The ultimate message is one I'd want said of my life: no matter what God has made me, I do and will have a song of praise to sing.

"If you made me, like the grass that is green, growing tall and covering the hills above me, maybe I would pray for sunshine and a little rain to fall now and then to make me lovely. I would be a place where sheep could graze or barefoot feet could play. I would grow and grow, and hope You'd bend down low, and I would sing my offering.

"Open up the heavens; open up the sky. 'Cause all of Your creation wants to testify. I have a song. So let the earth sing along. 'Cause I just want to praise You.

"If you made me like a cloud in the sky and found the perfect place way up high where I could hover. Maybe I would pray for skies that were blue or a sunset or two to show Your colors. Or maybe I might be a mountain tall and steep. But I would try and stand as tall as I can, and I would sing my offering.

"Open up the heavens; open up the sky. 'Cause all of Your creation wants to testify. I have a song. So let the earth sing along. 'Cause I just want to praise You.

"The sun every morning cannot wait to shine. And the stars in the evening are all standing by to light the sky. Give the rocks and the stones voices of their own if we forget to sing praises to our King.

"Open up the heavens; open up the sky. 'Cause all of Your creation wants to testify. We just want to praise You; we just want to praise You."

Jim Elliot

"Let not our longing slay the appetite of our living."

"...Lamentations 3:2: 'He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light.' Because I cannot see, nor even assuredly feel, His satisfaction with me, I cannot doubt the leading simply because of the dark. The leading is nonetheless real; the pathway has simply been into a place I didn't expect or ask for."

Good Quotes...Amy Carmichael

"I wish Thy way,
But when in me myself would rise,
And long for something otherwise,
Then, Holy One, take sword and spear,
And slay."

"Oh Thou who art my quietness, my deep repose,
My rest from strife of tongues, my holy hill,
Fair is Thy pavilion, where I hold me still.
Back let them fall from me, my clamorous foes,
Confusions multiplied;
From crowding things of sense I flee, and in Thee hide,
Until this tyranny be overpast,
Thy hand will hold me fast;
What though the tumult of the storm increase,
Grant to Thy servant strength, O Lord,
And bless with peace."

"Hold me in quiet through the age-long minute,
When Thou art silent, and the wind is shrill.
Can a boat sink when Thou, dear Lord, art in it?
Can the heart faint that waiteth on Thy will?"

"From prayer that asks that I may be,
Sheltered from winds that beat on Thee,
From fearing when I shoud aspire,
From faltering when I should climb higher,
From silken self, O Captain, free
Thy soldier who would follow Thee.

"From subtle love of softening things,
From easy choices, weakenings,
(Not thus are spirits fortified,
Not this way went the crucified,)
From all that dims Thy Calvary,
O Lamb of God, deliver me.

"Give me the love that leads the way,
The faith that nothing can dismay,
The hope no disappointments tire,
The passion that will burn like fire,
Let me not sink to be a clod;
Make me Thy fuel, Flame of God."

"Lord, grant to me a quiet mind,
That trusting Thee--for Thou art kind--
I may go on without a fear,
For Thou, my Lord, art always near."

"He said, 'I will forget the dying faces;
The empty places--
They shall be filled again.
O voices moaning deep within me, cease.'
But vain the word; vain, vain:
Not in forgetting lieth peace.

"He said, 'I will crowd action upon action;
The strife of faction
Shall stir me and sustain.
O tears that drown the fire of manhood, cease.'
But vain the word; vain, vain:
Not in endeavor lieth peace.

"He said, 'I will withdraw me and be quiet;
Why meddle in life's riot?
Shut be my door to pain.
Desire, thou dost befool me; thou shalt cease.'
But vain the word; vain, vain:
Not in aloofness lieth peace.

"He said, 'I will submit; I am defeated.
God hath depleted
My life of its rich gain.
O futile murmurings, why will ye not cease?'
But vain the word; vain, vain:
Not in submission lieth peace.

"He said, 'I will accept the breaking sorrow
Which God tomorrow
Will to His son explain."
Then did the turmoil deep within him cease.
Not vain the word, not vain;
For in acceptance lieth peace."

"See in this which seems to stir up
all you most wish were not stirred up--
see in it a chance to die to self in every form.
Accept it as just that--a chance to die."