Just a few random thoughts about God

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calling, character, comfort, family, lost causes, love, Love of God, relentless pursuit, unconditional love

1. How freeing it is to apprehend that God uses every circumstance (even though He does not cause them all) in our life to develop both our character and our calling (purpose!)

2. God is all about family. He is the good, good Father, and we (every human being) are fully and unconditionally loved by Him. (thank you Chris Tomlin) That’s it! Our purpose as human beings is so simple … yet we mess it up all the time. Our individual calling (purpose) is simply to receive the boundless love of God, then share it with each & every person we encounter. Simple!

3. Since God is all about family, He sees no rejects, no losers, no lost causes. Since the beginning of time, He has desired a family. His desire is for ALL to join His family to share His goodness and His love, and since the beginning or your life and mine, He has been working to bring us into His family for the purpose of loving us. That’s it! No rules. No obligations. Only love! But … such unconditional love is so foreign it frightens most of us. Why?

4. Perhaps the most difficult concept to understand @ God is that He is much more concerned with our character than our comfort. He works continuously to craft each of us into unique billboards that radiate His love, so all may come into His family. It is God’s love that comforts us,  corrects us, compels us & challenges us to share the love we so richly & abundantly receive. God is forever motivated by love, and so, too, we, as God’s sons and daughters are compelled to  act out God’s love in our own lives.

5.”What if you rejected everything about God that wasn’t God and accepted Him for who He is — God for you?”  This is from a powerful little book entitled, IF, by Mark Batterson
How much of what we attribute to God ought to actually be attributed to the words, attitudes, or deeds of certain believers? The single most radical concept of God is that He chooses in every case to love each person, AND He  continuously moves heaven and earth to draw each one into His forever family. Unfortunately, none of us get it right … even most of the time,but He never stops drawing us. e never stops teaching us. He never stops lov

Why not ask Him about it?

🎶 Good Good Father 🎶

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It’s Not Complicated!!!

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America, boundless love, extravagant love, Father's Love, fear, imperfections, love, not complicated, outrageously loved, shame, simple, sin, sinfulness, unconditional love

It really is simple! For thousands of years, men of education, and assumed intelligence, have sought to explain what is elementary enough for the youngest, most simple-minded among us to grasp. We complicate it with sophistication, assuming we can improve the experience of history: HIS-STORY! We complicate it with lofty knowledge’s elaborate words trying to impress … whom? God? or man?

From before Creation was spoken into existence until the time of His-story’s culmination, GOD is LOVE. That’s it! Every thought, every word, and every action of God is motivated, directed, and empowered by LOVE. Unconditional Love. A Perfect Father’s Love.

Problem: Burdened by inexplicable (and unaccepted in our society) guilt, we hate our Self. And because we hate our Self, we are unable to fully love any one or anything. We can’t give real love or receive it. We Fear instead. We fear alone-ness. We fear one another. We fear our differences. We fear our sin. We fear our Self. And we blame God.

Our imperfections, our sinfulness, cloud our understanding of God, of Love, so we distrust Him. This causes a separation resulting in loneliness, which is not about people, but about missing our closeness with Father God. In our loneliness, our vision (still clouded,) we see the brokenness and imperfections in others and feel repelled and rejected.

NEWSFLASH: GOD IS LOVE!!!!! Not just ambiguous, unfocused, vague, and random, but person, intimate, accepting and individual love. Every minute of every day, GOD is literally moving heaven and earth to LOVE YOU. He will not quit until your life’s last breath is gone.

Just a few of the hundreds of promises that are yours and mine!

What’s more … Every promise, every promise, every promise contained in His book … between Genesis 1 and Revelation 22 is a personal promise for YOU (and me.) But to see these promises fulfilled, though some again make it complicated, the only requirement is that you RECEIVE them. Of course, to do that, you must first have some belief that God can and will actually come through.

From the beginning of time, God knew we would fall, we would not always do the right thing. God knew, and because He didn’t want us to be estranged from Him indefinitely, so He set up a plan to reconcile us. It meant sending Himself in human form, Jesus, to live as a sin-free man. This enabled Jesus to choose to pay the price of my sinfulness, suffer and die on the cross, then walk out of the tomb, conquering death. Why? because He loves us and wants to hang out with us. Everything he says, everything He does, and everything He speaks comes from that Love … Everything!!!! He wants to love us outrageously, lavishly, happily, boundlessly forever! It’s really that simple!

Ray Comfort: Here is a rule of thumb when reading the Bible: “With God, nothing shall be impossible.”

Now you can believe that seas can open, food can fall from the heavens, the sun can stop, whales swallow people, animals can fit on a boat, arks float, walls tumble, and fish can multiply. It’s really quite simple.

Nothing is impossible in your personal life. Nothing is impossible in your family. No thing is impossible in this nation, if we return to God, receive His love and pass it on to one another freely, as He commands! God can fix what is broken in America, but first, we have to ask Him!

That the World My Know …

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Christ's love, GOD’s love, love, real love, unconditional love

Command, not request!

This has been a busy few weeks in my little world. Included has been a deep heart issue: LOVE!

I’m a mom, and there is no more satisfying and challenging position (career) in life (except perhaps fatherhood!) My kids are all adults, but that doesn’t mean I stop being their mom. In fact, it seems as they grow and mature, so does my role as their mom! The hard part is redefining LOVE in accordance with my role as mom to adults!

As believers, we are COMMANDED, not requested, to love one another as Christ loves us. That is quite a tall order! First, we have to accept that Jesus loves us more than words can express, more than any human can possibly apprehend, more than our finite brains can even imagine. That is LIFE! But accepting Jesus love as truth is just the beginning! We are to love one another the same way … even FAMILY … even the absolutely unlovable!

This revelation shook me! It seems like common sense, but … how many of us really treat family with the kind of love Jesus pours into each of us continuously? I tend to try to control my kids’ lives! I confess! I am always right, and of course, I know better then they do what is best for them, right? 🙂 It was a “loving” smack across the face when I realized I was putting MY expectations, MY dreams, and MY plans onto them. THAT isn’t Christ’s love!

Strangers are much easier to love! We don’t have to see them often and deal with their imperfections routinely. Family we do! We are commanded to love one another as Christ loves us … in spite of our bad habits, inherent weaknesses, bad choices, and frailties!

Not so easy … but if we practice appreciating the best in each of our family members, our friends and co-workers, maybe … just maybe they will see Jesus in us!

A Case for Risky Living

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forgiveness, GOD’s love, homosexual community, power of Christ, self-indulgence, unconditional love, welfare

In Jesus’ brief ministry, I never see Him sit in a “safe” place. Rather, He, with one or more of His disciples, goes to the home of the tax collector, or walks to the well in midday when He knows the women will be there. Jesus mingles with the people and does not hold Himself above them. There is no arrogance in his words or actions – NONE! In fact, the religious leaders became upset with Him for just this reason.(Mt 11) And when, pray tell, did Jesus ever wag his finger in the face of even an open sinner and tell them they’re going to hell??? Answer … NEVER! He does, however, with tears in His eyes, weep for Jerusalem and the wickedness of us sinners and he prays for them.

Now, think about that for a minute. Jesus is, according to Scripture, the Head of the Church, yes? The “Body” of the Church should follow the Head. If Jesus (the Head) walks down to the beach of the Sea of Galilee to gather those “called” to Himself, should the “Body” sit comfortably behind closed doors hoping for the “lost” to stumble into a local gathering by themselves?

The single GREAT reason for the general ineffectiveness of the organized Church is our general unwillingness to be … like Jesus! Believers are called to be like Jesus. What He did, we should be doing (and more.) While Jesus never tolerated sin, it is His unconditional love that drew (and continues to draw) people to Him. He was clear in His love for sinners. It was sinners he hung out with. He pointed out their failures gently, but boldly embraced them as individuals. No place in Scripture are believers urged to condemn sinners, yet many believers feel obligated to do just that, even in “ministry”.

Let me ask this …

What drew YOU to Jesus? (not church) Was it fear of hell or need for acceptance/kindness? Perhaps the ugliest example of this error at work is in the way the organized church has judged and condemned the entire homosexual community. YES, homosexuality is sin, but it is sin just like anger is sin, and gluttony is sin, and gossip is sin. All are forms of self-indulgence, while believers are exhorted to walk in self-control (Gal 5:22-26), yielding even our most base needs to the Holy Spirit. Our quickness to judge comes across to others as arrogance, or an elitist attitude, and it is putrid! It totally contradicts all that Jesus represents. It drives people away from us AND Jesus, while we SHOULD be busy allowing God’s unconditional love to flow through us freely to all in an attitude of service.

It is my contention, if we, the Church, were where we ought to be, welfare wouldn’t be necessary! No, not government’s job, not even the Church’s job, but it is OUR responsibility, as individual believers, to do what we can, to do what He calls us to do and be.

Bottom line is, most people are fully aware of their sin, aren’t you? We don’t need someone to point it out to us. Rather, we need someone to love us enough to accept us right where we are and offer unconditional love – GOD’s love, and forgiveness.

Jesus is the WAY … the one and only way, but the unique thing about Jesus is that He meets us right where we are. He knows exactly what we have done, what we will do, and what we need … He never pushes, but instead, He draws us, welcomes us and frees us to find the person HE created us to be – freely unique individuals. His love empowers us to see who we are and who He is, and gives us the desire to be like Him. It’s all about God’s love! Like a shepherd to his flock, Jesus loves each sheep (person) so much that He leaves the other 99 to go in search of the one that is lost. Jesus loves the outcast lepers, harlots, and uncircumcised enough to go out in search of them, not to rebuke them, but to love them in spite of their sin.

“6 For when we were still without strength,
in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5: 6-8 NKJV

Dear reader, is it not after the Holy Spirit indwells us that He begins to change us into His likeness? He does not require us to be holy before He embraces us, nor does He require us to work toward perfection. He only requires us to admit our need of Him, His love, His grace, and His mercy! How dare we require more! Let God be the judge of the sinner’s heart, and let us be His hands of mercy and acceptance. Then, and only then will we begin to see the power of Christ change our sinful world.