REJOICE (2025 Key Verse)

Forsaken was the theme based on my 2024 key verse, Ps 22:1: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Because Christ was utterly forsaken on my behalf, I never would. I am encouraged by Anne Frank, who died in a concentration camp of typhus fever at age 15. In just her early teens, the age of my oldest grandchildren, it is remarkable that she wrote in her diary, "God has not forsaken me, and He never will."

Rejoice is the theme based on my 2025 key verse, 1 Th 5:16: "Rejoice always," which is the shortest verse in the Bible. Through my ordeal and predicament I learnt that joy and sorrow, peace and pain can coexist peacefully, even perfectly. This was exemplified by Jesus, who was simultaneously all of the following: 

• a man of sorrows who was familiar with pain and suffering (Isa 53:3; Mt 23:37; Lk 13:34), 
• a man of peace, for he is the Prince of Peace (Isa 9:6), and the giver of peace (Jn 14:27) that transcends all understanding (Phil 4:7), and 
• the happiest man who ever lived, for he was a man of joy, happiness and contentment (Jn 4:32; 10:30; Mk 1:11; 9:7; Lk 9:35; Mt 3:17; 17:5; 11:25-30).