Dear Family and Friends

Today we celebrate our 34th year wedding anniversary. It's been great. We would not change not one day. God has truly blessed us in ways beyond our hopes and dreams. We look forward to the next 34!

This scripture has been with me all week. And I thought I would share it along with a commentary I came across:

"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?"

The Lord reads the hearts of all men. In all ages He has used human beings to carry out His purposes. He chooses subjects who will not be perverted, who in all righteousness and faith will honour His name.

Through those who voluntarily submit themselves to Him in all matters, who seek Him in faith and hope, He works out His plans. Those who ask because they wish to impart to others will not be disappointed. God will reward those who come to Him in earnest faith. He assures us that the thought of His majesty and sovereignty should not keep us in fear. He will do much more graciously than we suppose if we will come to the footstool of His mercy. He urges His sovereignty as a reason for His great and merciful bountifulness in supplying the demands upon Him. He pledges Himself to hear our prayers, declaring that He will hear them. He condescends to appeal from the instinct of parental tenderness to the infinite benevolence of Him whose we are by creation and by redemption.

He says, "If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him." The needy and soul hungry never plead with God in vain.

In our weakness we are to accept Christ's power. He gives us the assurance, "All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."

In view of this tell me who should wear countenances more bright and cheerful, more full of sunshine, than those who live by faith in the Son of God. In Him the needy and hungry find all their wants supplied. But let us not forget that those whom God has blessed with the good things of this life are to be His helping hand, to supply the necessities of His needy ones. They are to be labourers together with Him. They are His stewards in trust, and are to use their goods for the advancement of His work, that His name may be glorified.

God has given man the richest of His gifts. He reminds us that we have only to ask, and we shall receive; to seek, and we shall find; to knock, and it shall be opened unto us. -Ellen G. White

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