This is the season for graduation. Students are rewarded for their great effort at complying with school requirements and more importantly, for their long years of patient, hard-earned learning.
Graduation is then not only for students who go to formal schools. Graduation is for every person who goes through lifetime learning, one who passes through one phase and moves on to a new chapter of life, one who says goodbye to the lessons of yesterday, of the past and one who says hello to a new beginning, to a new today and more tomorrows.
Parents and loved ones prepare gifts for their graduates. What can be an appropriate gift to give to those who have done their best and are ready to say goodbye to the past and are ready to embark on a new today and tomorrow in their lives?
Business has been busy with their items and promos for graduates. Consumer items, however, do not have to be the only gifts that can be given to graduates. There can be a thousand and more creative ways to reward graduates!
To all the graduates, we offer our prayers. To the graduates, we offer God's blessings of faith and hope. "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1)
To all types of graduates, we share this inspiring message taken from the March 26 reading of L.B. Cowman's Streams in the Desert, page 129-130.
"Lift up your eyes from where you are and look north and south, east and west. All the land that you see I will give to you.. (Genesis 13-14-15).
"No desire will ever be placed in you by the Holy Spirit unless He intends to fulfill it. So, let your faith rise up and soar to claim all the land you can discover. ( S.A. Keen).
Everything you can comprehend through faith's vision belongs to you. Look as far as you can, for it is all yours. All you long to be as a Christian, and all you long to do for God, are within the possibilities of faith. Then draw closer to Him, and with your Bible before you, and your soul completely open to the power of the Spirit, allow your entire being to receive the baptism of His presence. As He opens your understanding, enabling you to see His fullness, believe He has it all for you. Accept for yourself all the promises of His word, all the desires He awakens within you, and all the possibilities of what you could become as a follower of Jesus. All the land you see is given to you.
The provision of His grace, which helps us along the way to the fulfillment of His promise, is actually tied to the inner vision God has given us. He who puts the natural instinct in the heart of a bird to fly across a continent in search of a warmer climate is too good to deceive it. Just as we are confident He placed the instinct within the bird, we can be assured He has also provided balmy breezes and springlike sun to meet it when it arrives.
And He who breathes heavenly hope into our hearts will not deceive or fail us when we press forward toward its realization. (Selected)
They left and found things just as Jesus had told them. (Luke 22:13)
To all graduates, then, go with God!
"Our God is trustworthy. He is asking you to take that leap in the dark. Come and believe that you may see and receive all that God has in store for you. (Carina in the March 26, 2009 reading of the Living Water).
"Without Christ, not one step; with Him, anywhere!" (David Livingstone)
Happy well-deserved graduation to all graduates! Congratulations too, to all parents, teachers, guardians and loved ones who supported the graduates through long years of learning! To the Lord, our God, praise and thanksgiving, too, for His continuing guidance and blessings to the graduates and all!
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Email: cherryb_thefreeman@yahoo.com