I never thought I would be writing for our country because of the loss of thousands of lives of those we love.
My name is Nancy. I have been here in Colorado trying to do what I can for the Columbine community ever since the shooting there in 1999. The loss of thousands of lives seems overwhelming. I have been thinking, What could I do now? Thousands of people have lost thier loved ones... Then I realized that thousands of families now know the kind of loss that the Columbine community has known. So I will write to you just as I have the Littleton community. If you are visiting this page from Beslan, Russia - this message is for you too ...
Have you lost a brother, a sister, a son or daughter, a parent, a family member, a close friend?
Are you feeling grief beyond that which you thought you could ever bear? God cares about your heart. He is there for you in your grief. He grieves with you. His heart is with you.
As President Bush quoted from Romans 8:38-39 at the National Day of Prayer and Remembrance service in Washington D.C. , just after Septmber 11th:
" For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor anything in all creation, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. "
In 1 John 4:16 it says that "God is love."
1 Corinthians 13 says,
4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. 6 It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
8 Love will last forever....
13 There are three things that will endure-faith, hope, and love-
and the greatest of these is love.
God will be with you no matter what happens.
It is my prayer that you will know his heart for you.
17And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God's marvelous love. 18And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is. 19May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it,. so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God Himself. (Ephesians 3:17-19)
In 1997 I lost two friends in a roll over accident. Five of us were traveling from North Carolina to Michigan where we lived. I was in the van when we hit black ice and flipped over. One of my friends flew from the front seat into my arms and died. It has been the love of God and love for each other that has helped my friends and I heal.
1 John 4 says,
12No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love has been brought to full expression through us.
15All who proclaim that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. 16We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in him. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. 17a And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect.
Be there for one another. Do not try to make it through this alone. God created us to have a love relationship with him and to love others. Let friends, family and loved one's be there for you and be there for those you love. I've found that it helps to talk about good memories about those you lost. There is incredible healing in loving one another through this.
And let God comfort you. He is there for you weather you feel that he is or not. I have found that if I stop believing the lie that God is not there for me that I feel Him near me.
Here are some scriptures that I hope will comfort you ...
II Corinthians 4:14,16 & 5:1-9
14 Knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you.
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16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.
1 For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, 3 if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. 4 For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
6 So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. 7 For we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.
9 Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him.
1 Corinthians 15:53-58
For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory."
"O Death, where is your sting?
O Hades, where is your victory?"
The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
Isaiah 61
(Jesus said that this scripture was about himself.)
1The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is upon me, because the LORD has appointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted and to announce that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed.£ 2He has sent me to tell those who mourn that the time of the LORD'S favor has come,£ and with it, the day of God's anger against their enemies. 3To all who mourn in Israel,£ he will give beauty for ashes, joy instead of mourning, praise instead of despair. For the LORD has planted them like strong and graceful oaks for his own glory.
4They will rebuild the ancient ruins, repairing cities long ago destroyed. They will revive them, though they have been empty for many generations.
8"For I, the LORD, love justice. I hate robbery and wrongdoing. I will faithfully reward my people for their suffering and make an everlasting covenant with them. 9Their descendants will be known and honored among the nations. Everyone will realize that they are a people the LORD has blessed."
11The Sovereign LORD will show his justice to the nations of the world. Everyone will praise him! His righteousness will be like a garden in early spring, filled with young plants springing up everywhere.
Here are a few scriptures about how God feels about this tragedy...
Jesus said, " The thief's purpose is to steal kill and destroy. My purpose is to give life in all its fullness. (John 10:10)
1 John 3:8 - about the terrorists...
But when people keep on sinning, it shows they belong to the Devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy these works of the Devil.
A word of hope ...
Ephesians 3:20
20Now glory be to God! By his mighty power at work within us, he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope.
He is able to heal you beyond anything you could even think of.
He did it for me, He'll do it for you too.
A couple of books I recommend for you to read are
From The Sacred Romance:
" The true story of each person is the journey of his or her heart. "
Here is another quote:
"Indeed, if we listen, a Sacred Romance calls to us through our heart every moment of our lives. It whispers to us on the wind, invites us through the laughter of good friends, reaches out to us through the touch of someone we love. We've heard it in our favorite music, sensed it at the birth of our first child, been drawn to it while watching the shimmer of a sunset on the ocean. The Romance is even present in times of great personal suffering: the illness of a child, the loss of a marriage, the death of a friend. Something calls to us through experiences like these and rouses an inconsolable longing deep within our heart, wakening in us a yearning for intimacy, beauty, and adventure.
This longing is the most powerful part of any human personality. It fuels our search for meaning, for wholeness, for a sense of being truly alive. However we may describe this deep desire, it is the most important thing about us, our heart of hearts, the passion of our life. And the voice that calls to us in this place is none other than the voice of God. " ...
Please visit my Columbine healing pages. There are more web pages there to help you heal. And please read the letter I wrote to the Columbine community as if it was written for you too.
There is more continued on this page to help you heal. On some browsers it moves everything really far down the page if you do not see more after this, try loading the page in Internet Explorer instead of Netscape. If that doesn't work, just keep scrolling down the page. There should be 2 more articles and then the page ends after all the web rings. Thanks! I have also added another healing message for the 1 year anniversary of September 11th. It includes a message from the Columbine community.
I found this written on another web site and wanted to include this message here as well as a link to the web site:
" We join our President in asking God to bless America.
Let's not take this tragedy and turn it into a negative, because that would
lessen the importance of the many precious lives that were lost.
Have their lives make a difference by making the world a better place.
This is a call to unite and ask God what we can do, not what we can get.
Pray for the Christians that would choose
to use this time as a time to divide, rather than unite.
Jesus opened his arms to all people. He is a God of LOVE!
We believe this tragedy not only unites our beloved America
but the whole world to look to God for guidance. "
PRAY & BELIEVE
- Michael Sweet
This message was written by a musician who recorded a record to help people heal from the 9/11 tragedy. I wanted to include a link here to his web site so that you could order the CD if you like what he has to say.
Here are some of the things he wrote about the CD:
Since 9/11 there is an incredible need for encouragement and hope! My prayers are that this record will encourage and give hope to many people. That always means more to me than anything else - to know that what I do may help people through a rough time or a tough situation. I thank God for the opportunity to continue doing this!
What's most important to me is that people lives/hearts might be touched in some way by what they hear. I believe God has given me a vision for this record. He has given me the lyrics and the melodies and a desire to do it NOW!
"I have been writing A LOT lately and have plans to do something that's been in my heart for a long, long time. I believe that certain hymns contain some of the most powerful words/lyrics ever written. I have taken many of these lyrics and have written new music to them. I don't want to call it a praise and worship record or a traditional hymn record because it won't be either.
It will be a record that will have a lot of vocals-lead vocals, harmony layers, harmony lines, ect. I plan to have electric guitars, bass guitar, acoustic guitars, percussion, some keys/synths as well as drums and loops. It will be edgy at times yet will be light as well. I want it to feel like anyone listening is there in the room with me. I want it to be very personal and not over produced.
"I hear everything in my head and I wish you could hear what I hear now. It will be a very powerful record and one that I've wanted to do for a long, long time."
The Recording is now finished!
Here is the link to order the CD:
Michael has put together packages of this CD for a good cause...
Please be praying for Michael and Kyle Sweet, and the entire Sweet family.
In February, Michael's wife Kyle was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
Here is a link to the project Michael and Kyle have put together to help
raise awarness and funds for cancer research...
Here is another song by Michael Sweet.
It is written as if Jesus were singing it to you . . .
THE RIVER
Written By: Michael Sweet
From the Album: " Real "
If you're hurting, I'll take your pain
If your life is dry and weary, I'll bring the rain
If you're searching, then search no more
If you're drifting on an ocean, I'll be the shore
I see the scars that you hide
I've kept the tears that you've cried, they were not in vain
And every prayer that you've prayed
I have treasured and saved, my love will never change
If you're looking for the river
That runs with healing water
Bring yourself to me
And I will wash you in an endless peace
I'm your Saviour,
And I'll save you
Tonight
If you're blinded by
The darkness, I'll be the light
If you're hopeless, I'll be your faith
If you're lost, I'll
Lead the way
CHORUS
© 1995 Lifesong Music Press.
© Sweet Milena Music / BMI.
© & ® 1995 Benson Music Group, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
I found this article on another site and got permission to share it here ...
Where was God?
As I, like most Americans and people World-Wide, was watching and listening to the horror that took place on the East Coast, I heard people ask the question posed in the subject line. I was reminded of an interview with a Holocaust survivor who was asked that same question. Her response inspired the following words:
Where was God in all of this?
God was in the rescue workers who were running into the buildings as most people were running out.
God was in the flight attendant who called her husband as her plane was being hijacked to tell him that she loved him.
God was in the two men who carried a wheelchair-bound woman down 70 flights of stairs to safety.
God was in the people who stood bleeding, in line to give blood.
God was in the strangers in cars, picking up strangers stranded in the city and taking them home to their families.
God is in the people who are egging to volunteer, to do anything to help.
God is in the thousands, if not millions who are flooding the blood banks thousands of miles away to help people they have never met.
God is in the people who are comforting someone even when they don't know what to say.
God is in the people who watched and cried for people who still remain anonymous in name, but never in their sacrifice.
God is in my neighborhood where I see flags waving from every home. God is in the men and women, looking at 110 stories of rubble and seeing only the opportunity to find survivors.
God is with the heroes, most of whom will never be on the news, whose stories will only be told only to their closest friends and family; but who saved
someone's mother, father, sister, brother, daughter, son, husband, wife, grandmother, grandfather, aunt, uncle, cousin, lover, colleague, acquaintance, teacher, mentor or friend with a single act of kindness, compassion and bravery.
God was not in the hearts of the people who caused these inhumane events. However, God was indeed there, where He was needed the most...
A Message for the Aniversary
of Sepetember 11th ...
I wanted to share a message from the 2002 Columbine aniversary with you for this anniversary of September 11th.
It is a message from a speech given by Frank De Angelis, the Columbine High School Principal at this years memorial ceremony...
"When the one you love becomes a memory,
the memory becomes a treasure ... "
"Cry because you lost him,
smile because you had him ...."
( quoted from a tile posted into the school walls)
"The world breaks everyone, and then
we are stronger in broken places..."
(quoted from Hemmingway)
"We must pay homage to them by
making the world a better place to live..."
I also wanted to share this bit of wisdom from the Columbine community with you ...
Love one another through this, love each other to life again.
Come together as a family.
The Columbine community has.
Here's another song I thought would help you in your healing.
It's written as though Jesus were singing it to you again.
Think of it as between you and Jesus or between Jesus
and the loved one you lost or from Jesus to both of you.
Whatever helps you heal the most. The words are from
the "Song of Songs" or "Song of Solomon" in the Bible...
I pray that it will touch your heart in this time when you need healing ....
WATER
Arise, my beautiful one
Come go with me and see that the winters over
The rains have come and gone
And flowers appear, the season of singing has come
Waters cannot quench this love
That rivers cannot wash away
This love it is as strong as death
It lives beyond the grave
Your as fair as the moon
As bright as the sun, majestic as stars in procession
Oh arise, my beautiful one
Come go with me, the season of singing has come
Waters cannot quench this love
That rivers cannot wash away
This love it is as strong as death
It lives beyond the grave
Waters cannot quench this love
That rivers cannot wash away
This love it is as strong as death
It lives beyond the grave
Song Written by Michael Sweet
The Words are from the Song of Solomon or Song of Songs in the Bible.
© 2001 Restless Records. All Rights Reserved.
BONUS TRACK on Japanese & Korean Release of "TRUTH"
If you would like to download this song, you can get it on Michael Sweet's
web site downloads page. It's an mp3 file. The "Windows Media Player" that came with your version of Windows will be able to play it.
Here is the web page where you can download it from:
Click the link for MP3 Samples and you're there.
It's at the bottom of the web page. Many of the other songs listed for download are parts or samples of the songs. For "Water" the full song is available for download.
Any of his music is also available for purchase at his web site if you're interested.
"The River" which is posted earlier on this site is available on his Album: " Real "
Here's the order page:
A message for Michael ...
( should he ever visit this site )
Go for it, Man of God!
You know the heart of Jesus well!
And for info. about more music by Michael Sweet go to:
Here is a thought from scripture I'd like to leave with all of you,
"I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress; My God,
in Him will I trust."
Psalm 91:2
Let us continue to pray for God's protection for our nation, our cities,
our schools, and our friends, our families, children and loved ones.
And this year, let's pray for Beslan, Russia and for the protection of their nation too...
God Bless America!
I hope this web site has helped you to know the heart of God.
Love,
Nancy D.
