Sometimes things happen in life that are devastating.   Such is the life of  Horatio Spafford, a lawyer who lived in Chicago in the 1800’s.  Any one of the following things would be traumatic, yet he experienced all of these:

• His only son died at the age of four.
• About that time, the great fire in Chicago in 1871 destroyed him financially.
• Later, Spafford planned a European vacation in 1873 with his wife, Anna, and four daughters, Maggie, Tanetta, Annie, and Bessie.  Business kept him behind and he was to join them in Europe.  However, the ship on which he sent his family sank in the Atlantic Ocean and only his wife survived.  All four of his daughters died along with 222 other passengers!  Anna cabled her husband, “Saved alone!”

On his way to meet his grieving wife, Spafford said these words, “It is well; the will of God be done,” as his ship passed close to where his four daughters had died.  Later, he wrote the words to this song based on those words.
.
Since Horatio lost all of his children, I thought it would be a nice tribute to have these young ones sing his song.   Here is a young teenage group, all siblings, who do a beautiful job of singing this amazing song written by Horatio, It is Well With My Soul:

Some people believe our planet Earth occurred by chance.  I believe the very first words in the Bible where it says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” without taking any probability factor into account.   My belief comes from faith in God.

However, John Clayton was a scientist and former atheist who set out to disprove the Bible using scientific facts.   I’m sure it was a great surprise to him when he came to believe in God and the Bible while trying to disprove the Bible.

Although I haven’t read Clayton’s book, The Source, it’s interesting to see how mathematical probabilities are used to show the improbability of Earth possessing all of the conditions needed to support life by random chance.  These are the variables used.

11 variables*:

• Being in the right type of galaxy:   1 in 100
• Being in the right position in the galaxy:  1 in 150
• Having the right kind of star:  1 in 1,000
• Being the correct distance from the star:  1 in 10
• Having the right planetary mass:  1 in 10
• Having the right planetary spin:  1 in 10
• Having the right planetary tilt:  1 in 10
• Having comet sweeping planets:  1 in 40
• Not being close to a black hole:  1 in 250
• Having one large moon:  1 in 10
• Having a magnetic field that can shield:  1 in 10

Mathematical probability of Earth occurring by chance:

1  in  150,000,000,000,000,000

This doesn’t prove that there is a God who created the Earth. This always has been and always will be a matter of faith. But there is plenty of evidence in the world that reveals God.

• Psalm 19

  New Century Version (NCV)  from BibleGateway.com

  ¹ The heavens declare the glory of God,
         and the skies announce what his hands have made.
   ² Day after day they tell the story;
         night after night they tell it again.
   ³ They have no speech or words;
         they have no voice to be heard.
   ⁴ But their message goes out through all the world;
         their words go everywhere on earth.

* Beth Moore, Believing God (Nashville, TN: LifeWay Press, 2004), 39

* John Clayton & Nils Jansma, The Source (W. Monroe, LA: Howard Publishing, 2001), 28

A parent’s worst nightmare, your five year old daughter is hit by a car in your own driveway!  And to make it even worse, the driver of the fatal accident is your teenage son!   People.com  and  ABC’s Good Morning America  shared this story which touched the hearts of thousands of people, people all over the world.
.
Some stories behind the song are so sad, yet they reveal such a strong, rock solid faith that no matter what storms come in life, faith remains in the One who carries us through hard times.  Although Chapman wrote and released “Yours“ a year before the tragedy, the last verse of the song relates to their experience and the video shares pictures of the Chapmans’ adopted daughter.  The Chapmans experienced a parent’s worst nightmare and lost their youngest daughter, but they kept their faith!

.

“I won’t be shaken by drought or storm” are words from this fairly new song, “My Hope is in You,” which shares the hope we have in God to take care of us.  No matter what storm we’re going through (loss from an actual storm or drought, illness, loss of job and income, family problems, and the list goes on), God is the only solid rock we have.  Circumstances can change, people can change, but God never changes.  He is our fortress in any storm!

Isaiah 40:28-31
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
29 He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
30 Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
31 but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.