I Love You

Our church family gathered at the lake for a baptism.  I was excited about the baptism before I even knew who was being baptized. I'm not even sure why I was so looking forward to this event. Perhaps the Spirit who lives within me decided to fill me with joyful anticipation for this heavenly celebration.

The sun was out and shining gloriously all around. It touched our exposed skin and warmed us to the point that some retreated to the protective cover of the tall trees. Kids splashed and played, colorful rafts and tubes glided across the top of the water as many people gathered around and sang songs of worship to God. 
The beautiful melody rose above the sounds of the people swimming and playing all around. Curiosity took hold of some who intently watched our seemingly strange and impromptu concert on the shore. One young man pulled up his blue and white flotation devise and planted himself directly in front of the pastor as he faced the singers.    
The pastor addressed the crowd and explained the importance and the immense joy of our gathering. Then with solemn determination a little curly haired figure walked out into the shimmering water. Her voice uttered the thoughts of her heart and the reason she stood before us this day. The pastor standing beside her, with what I can only describe as a sort of humble pride, affirmed her words and with great joy prayed for her and confidently baptized her in the name of the Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit.
Our celebration continued as another soul professed his love for Jesus and with simple faith took the plunge as well. Our time ended with another song of praise and then the sea of believers parted and returned to their fellowship and play.

Charles and I sat in a sunny spot and discussed the possibility of purchasing popsicles from a nearby vender. A young man approached us mid discussion and began a friendly exchange of words. Almost immediately Charles asked the young man what he thought about God.  I watched intently as my husband engaged the young man in spiritual matters. I could tell he hadn't seriously considered these things before now.
Charles asked him if he knew God had a plan for his life. He responded with a sure yes but said he was just going to sit back and watch it unfold as if he was a puppet on strings and God was some kind of puppet master. My heart ached and I was compelled to ask him if he knew God loved him. He just a surly responded, yes, but I knew right away by his almost flippant response that he didn't understand God's love for him.
After a while the young man seeing his sister off in the distance took his chance for escape from what may have seemed to him an uncomfortable conversation and abruptly walked off.

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." (John 3:16)

Probably the most popular bible verse in our nation, but have you ever considered it? A Father gave His Only Son, given to sinful and wicked human beings! Jesus came into the world, a baby born to die though He never sinned. God knew we could never do enough good deeds to be made right, to be justified from our sinful nature. So He in His infinite wisdom and loving kindness sent the answer to our hearts cry, Jesus. Incomprehensible! Though we all turned away from God to our own sinful and selfish desires God made a way for us to be reconciled through Jesus' shed blood. The blood of a perfect lamb, a sacrifice that would atone for the sins of the world if we would only believe in Him. 
What does that even mean? 
 How does someone believe? 
The definition of the word believe is: 

"To have confidence in the truth, the existence, or the reliability of something, although without absolute proof that one is right in doing so: Only if one believes in something can one act purposefully."

I like that last part, "Only if one believes in something can one act purposefully." We all believe in something and we live our lives, we act purposefully, according to what we believe. What do you believe? Do you believe God loves you? Do you know what love is, or do you believe love is only what you've experienced in human form? Have you ever experience God's perfect unfailing love? Do you want to? 

I hope and pray you do! Please don't hesitate to pray right now to God and ask Him to show you His perfect love and to help you understand His love. Ask Him to help you believe in Jesus' atoning death on the cross for your sins. I know it sounds too fantastic to be true but be strong and courageous and take a leap of faith. 

This life is so much more than living for the weekend or a family vacation or a graduation or a wedding or a baby or a house or a job or money or fame. There is life after death. We were made to die once and then comes the judgment. But God made a way and it couldn't be simpler and God wants to help you. Don't let pride get in the way. Kill your pride, die to yourself now so that Jesus can live in you and give you a new life, a victorious and joy filled, abundant life. Not a life without trials or pains. God has ordained the good and the bad. Trust Him! He says He will use all things, even the bad in your life, for good for those who love Him and are the called according to His purpose. 

It's a new existence and its exciting and awesome to be made new! Read these exciting words in 2 Corinthians 5. 

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17)

I pray that young man we talked with at the park considers the things that were shared with him. I pray that he seeks to understand God's love and the plan God has for him if he surrenders his life to Him. I hope he remembers the baptism and the worship and the fellowship we shared. I hope he reads the bible and seeks to understand its teachings. I am convinced that God is who He says He is and that He is not far from anyone of us if we would only cry out to Him we will be saved.

 He shall regard the prayer of the destitute,
And shall not despise their prayer.

This will be written for the generation to come,
That a people yet to be created may praise the Lord. (Psalm 102:17-18)

While it is said:

“Today, if you will hear His voice,
Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” (Hebrews 3:15)

"The Lord your God in your midst,
The Mighty One, will save;
He will rejoice over you with gladness,
He will quiet you with His love,
He will rejoice over you with singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17)

The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying:
“Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love;
Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you. (Jeremiah 31:3)

God's love is sure and it is better than anything this life has to offer. That's what we witnessed at the lake in the lives of the two courageous souls who gave up their lives in a public profession of faith and were baptized into Jesus' death and resurrection. That's what I feel in my heart as I look around at where I am now and I remember where He found me and it blows my mind that He would seek me out and love me even though my heart was far from Him. I believe Him when He tells me, "I Love You!" God loves you too, do you believe Him?

 

 

 

God Does All Things Well

It's been five months since Charles and I were married.

Time is strange! Marriage is supernatural! I mean five months sounds like such a short amount of time but it feels like Charles and I have been married much longer. Maybe it's because God has made us one flesh, but definitely because I'm so in love with this man who has become my best friend. But, I was married before for nine and a half years to someone I loved very much and whom I considered my best friend. Nine and a half years is a long time and it went by too fast! How can that be? How can Five months feel long and nine and a half years feel so short? I love what the Lord has done in our lives but I struggle to understand the meaning of it all. How can I love Charles so much when I loved Kenny and still miss him?

God knows exactly how long or short a time it will take to accomplish His plans. His plan was to send Jesus to earth and after many years, at the appointed time, Jesus would begin His ministry. He would tell people that He was the light of the world and that only belief in Him and His words would bring salvation, eternal life. Jesus walked around healing people and raising the dead. He cast out demons and rebuke the pharisees. He forgave people and proclaimed the love of God to everyone. He did things and spoke words that no one has ever dared do or say before Him. And at the end of His astonishing ministry He gave up His life to become a sacrifice for our sins so that we could be forgiven and made new by His shed blood. His perfect blameless life is the only way to a right relationship with God and eternal life. God did it all, He created time and set in motion His masterful plan of redemption.

God created time. Time can be so hard sometimes! It relentlessly and faithfully ticks away. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says; "God has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end." I struggle to believe that sometimes. Everything is made beautiful? But it's true! God can take the most tragic broken lives and completely redeem them and make all the past hurts and regrets feel like a distant memory or a victorious recompense.

The problem we have is that even after our Red Sea has been parted and we find ourselves on safe ground, pain can still cloud our thinking. We remember how we suffered in the past and question, why did it have to be? We look at the consequences we still face because of our past and wonder, what if things had been different? Pain can start a ripple effect of negative thinking that leads to discontentment and ungratefulness even after the battle is over, turning manna from heaven into loathsome worthless bread.  

What can we do? Trust God! Don't forget what He did in your life and the things He taught you! Take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ and be thankful! Learn how to be content with such things as you have! And never ever trust yourself! Grab on to faith and bravely march forward holding onto God's righteous right hand and pray, pray, pray!

That doesn't mean you wont feel sad and that there wont be difficult days. The pain is real but you can chose to carry it yourself or give it to God in faith and let Him lighten your load. Everyday we chose a way to walk, walk by faith not by sight. Walk knowing that one day Jesus is coming back and He will right every wrong and wipe away every tear and there will be no more death and no more sadness. Walk in love and that doesn't just mean receiving it means giving. Give your love away as Christ did. Abide in His word because the bible is living and active and it will accomplish the purpose for which it was sent to accomplish in your life.

I had to decide if I could love someone as my husband after Kenny died. There were times I was just lonely and there were times I was angry but I prayed a lot and I trusted God and waited to see what He would do. God blew me away with what He did! I know I don't deserve this incredible man God has brought into my life and my children's. Charles and I have a love that continues to grow even when I think it couldn't possibly get any better. That in no way discounts the love and happiness I had with Kenny. Instead it brings glory to God, I was given a blessing from God for an appointed amount of time and then God chose to take my blessing. Everything belongs to God first! And just because God is good He has blessed me again above all that I could ask or think with a man who loves me and my children as his own!

It's been five months. Five difficult, amazing, long, but short months. And the miraculous part is God knew all along. He knows our beginning and our end, He knows our joys and is acquainted with all our griefs! God is sovereign through the pain and sadness as well as in blessed happiness! The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord.

Lord what an amazing life You've given me! Father help me to keep my eyes fixed on You no matter what may come my way! I can chose to be grateful or I can chose to be miserable. Everyday is a gift and my life belongs to You! Have Your way in me Lord. Thank You for teaching me and for never forsaking me! I love You, in Jesus name amen.

Is God mean?

Hosea 13:4-9

4“Yet I am the Lord your God

Ever since the land of Egypt,

And you shall know no God but Me;

For there is no savior besides Me.

5 I knew you in the wilderness,

In the land of great drought.

6 When they had pasture, they were filled;

They were filled and their heart was exalted;

Therefore they forgot Me.

7“So I will be to them like a lion;

Like a leopard by the road I will lurk;

8 I will meet them like a bear deprived of her cubs;

I will tear open their rib cage,

And there I will devour them like a lion.

The wild beast shall tear them.

9“O Israel, you are destroyed,

But your help is from Me.

Do you look at that bit of scripture and think, "what a cruel God!" Do you wonder at verse 7 and 8, "how could a loving God do such a thing?" I did! I thought those thoughts and I doubted God's faithfulness and His love.

What do you think? Is God an angry God, prone to wrath? Look at that scripture again, verse 6 says; "When they had pasture, they were filled; They were filled and their heart was exalted; Therefore they forgot Me."

In the beginning God created man and placed him in the garden of Eden. He gave him everything but that wasn't enough. Adam and his wife decided God was holding out on them. God commanded them not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam and Eve forgot who they were in God or just disregarded God completely in order to exalt themselves and take the thing that their creator had forbidden. Sin entered in and the man and his woman fell away from the blessings and were cursed.    

There are lots of people who seem to have everything they've ever wanted and are perfectly content to live out their days without seeking to know their God despite the fact that they too are only human and will die like all the rest. People think in their hearts, "I'm not that bad of a person God will let me into His heaven." I know I use to be one of those 'not that bad' thinkers. You can't live a life of self worship and come to the end of that life and enter into the kingdom of God where the only worship will be unto Him.

Sin lies, not only in how we conduct our behavior but also in the belief that we can get there on our own. We have created a faith in ourselves. When a person believes they don't need God and goes about life with an, "I'm not that bad of a person," attitude (Ironically trusting that God's love will cover their ignorance), they invite the curse and court destruction. Only in America can a person call him or herself a Christian and not be able to explain the gospel or follow Christ's teachings.

God knows that our hearts are wicked so....God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). Ask Him to give you a heart that desires Him. We all need pure hearts and only God can cleanse us from our self centered sinful hearts.
"Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing (John 15:4-5)."

God in His infinite wisdom, in His infinite love for us has made a way for us to be saved because there is no way we could ever save ourselves. God set it up so that we are all on the same playing field, "for all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God (Romans 3:23)."

As it is written:
“There is none righteous, no, not one;
There is none who understands;
There is none who seeks after God.
They have all turned aside;
They have together become unprofitable;
There is none who does good, no, not one (Romans 3:10-12)."

Verse 9....“O Israel, you are destroyed, But your help is from Me." God didn't spare His wrath from His disobedient children so that He might save them. Have you ever had to punish your child for being disobedient? I hate having to punish my children because its inconvenient and difficult and exhausting. But when I do it, and I do it God's way, I get to see them learn from their sufferings and grow in wisdom and understanding. To withhold punishment from them for a wrong behavior would be unloving! God doesn't withhold punishments from those whom He loves.
Have you experienced that in your life? I have. I'm grateful for my sufferings since they have led me closer to my Savior!

God saw me in all my wickedness and He offered me His love.
1 John 4:8 says, God is love.
1 Corinthians 13:4 says, Love suffers long and is kind. God suffers long with His rebellious children and continues to be kind!

Don't put it off any more...seek the Lord while you still have a beating heart and breath in your lungs. Your eternal destiny depends on it!

"In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins (1 John 4:9-10)."

Jesus is our only hope! What an incredible love we have in The Father and in The Son and in His Holy Spirit. Be content with the things you have been given. Your loving Father knows the things you have need of. Make your request to Him and receive His perfect peace as you wait in hopeful anticipation for the Lord to answer your hearts cry. May you be blessed today knowing that He will never leave you nor forsake you! "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast (Ephesians 2:8-9)."