Thankful for His Love

We live lives full of change. There is no recipe for change, no how to book, no magazine titled “CHANGE MONTHLY”. Change is never fair. Sometimes its good, like the birth of a new child. Sometimes its bad, like the loss of a loved one who shouldn’t have died. Sometimes its wrestling through character issues and sometimes its wrestling with health issues. We change jobs, careers, loves, tastes and even opinions. Change is always there. Even in the midst of change scripture teaches us that there is something else that is always there.

ROMANS: (8:35) Can anything ever separate us from Christ's love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or are hungry or cold or in danger or threatened with death? (8:36) (Even the Scriptures say, "For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep."° ) (8:37) No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.
(8:38) And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from his love. Death can't, and life can't. The angels can't, and the demons can't. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can't keep God's love away. (8:39) Whether we are high above the sky or in the deepest ocean, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s Love? These verses answer is “No”! Even in death and pain we have Victory. There is nothing that can separate us from Jesus Love. --- BUT --- If we were to take a poll of everyone here, I bet, at least half of us have wondered, at one time or another, just where Jesus love went. Our lives are complex. Interwoven with change after change and some of those changes have been almost unbearable. We know that His love is not gone; it has not forgotten us, but it sure hard to be Thankful for it when we don’t feel it.

I am not here to say that it is our duty or responsibility to be thankful for Jesus love. I am here to say that it is our refuge. Jesus Love is that one thing that is always there to cling to. When my spirit is finally broken, when my strength is gone when I fall to the floor in tears, I have always landed in the embrace of his Love. It makes no sense that Jesus died for us, but He did. It makes no sense that he cares for us, but He does. His Love is always there.

Change and Jesus love go hand in hand. It is Jesus love that causes us to grow and change, but it is also Jesus love that gets us through the changes that make no sense to us.

Wherever we are in life, our lives are about to change. I know the love of Jesus will carry us through. I know that I am Thankful, not for change, but for what Jesus love is changing me into.

The Hands that Caught Him

The hands that caught Him
Limp before her Son

The feet that chased Him
Frozen before her Son

The heart that cherished Him
Torn before her Son

The eyes that adored Him
Pained before her Son

The Mother that Bore Him
Broken before her Son



The Son that loved her
Died before her

By Marcus McDaniel

written for Mothers Day 2003 (or 04 I can't really remember)

A Dream Come True

Well this is it! Our Dream Come true. I say our Dream because Rachelle sees more blue sky than grey. Madison, Ashton and James have a playground in their back yard. And me? . . .Well I got to follow the Lord's call to a great church. For those who know me you realize that the Desert is not high on my list of places to live. For those of you who know me even better, you know what kind of church I dreamed of wroking in. God lead me to just such a place.

God planted in me this desire to work in a smaller church with the promise of growth. I really wanted to go to a youth ministry that I could build from the ground up. I wanted to be in a place that fealt more like a family than an organization. I have found that place and I love it!

When I left my last church (the Evangelical Free Church of the Conejo Valley) I was heart broken (and I still miss you all). I had no desire to leave behind all the great friends and families that God had brought into my life. I looked forward to touching the lives of the upcoming generations. I wanted to see young people embrace a real and genuine faith in Jesus Christ. But God wanted to move me. He wanted to use me to touch the lives of other youth.

God has a plan for the Youth of Yucca Valley and I cannot wait to see what God wants to do in and through me while He has me here. It isn't about what I want but what He wants. Isn't that the lesson we learn from the Garden of Gethsemene. When our Lord and Savior cried out to His Father. "Not My will but Your will be done", He said. He showed us the way. It is not always easy and the path is not always clear but in the end if we obey He promises to bless us. If not in this life He will certainly bless us in the next.

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In Christ,

Marcus, Rachelle and the kids