WARNING: THIS IS A BLOG POST WITH A LOT OF CAPITAL LETTERS
God, the creator of heaven and earth, knew every single bit of what was to come and He chose us. He saw all that we would do or not do, He saw us and chose us anyway. AND He actually likes us!
I knew what I was getting into... <-- I heard this spontaneous song a few years back with
Hidden Manna Ministry , again in Oaxaca Mexico and AGAIN here in Queretaro... I also found that I had it saved in my own music. Each time I hear this song God ministers to me hugely!
Check it out (please).
The thought, the truth really, that God is crazy about us is hard for some to believe.
"Only if I do better, I deserve His love." "I'll try again harder" Pretty much we could put anything in those parenthesis that shows- us needing to do something in order to (finally) receive... as if we could.
What God has shown me is that is our own pride and insecurities, our need to do it all ourselves and try try try are in the way of receiving. What we have been given (
past tense) is a GIFT, it is called GRACE. This is what the newness is all about in Christ. There is nothing we can do, but rather it is what we get to step into, walk into, and need to grab a hold of. It has all been DONE and it is RIDICULOUS to think and act otherwise. It is not- "Forgive me pleeeeaseeee Lord!!" but rather "THANK YOU LORD, for you
have forgiven me, you
have won me." It already happened, we do not have to keep begging for something that was GIVEN TO US, HAPPILY GIVEN TO US.
We have been cleaned. We, as children of the Light, children of God we have this hope. I do not believe it is something that we have to keep on asking for... it was a one time deal. His forgiveness has the same worth in this very moment. In accepting His AMAZING gift that means we are accepting that He
is speaking over us "I AM YOURS AND YOU ARE MINE." The whole package, every bit of us, He took it all. We have been chosen, marked, set apart and ravished by love.
This changes us, this changes how we love others.
How we see Him and feel His love is how we will love others.
I want to love others well so it is important to me to get His Gospel right, to get the "GOOD NEWS" right. We are not meant to change the Gospel to our own unhealthy thoughts and feelings but rather be transformed. Rom 12:1-2
"I chose you. I see who you are, I see the price I will have to pay, I see how this will be hard, this may even hurt sometimes, but I say yes!" This is what He has told us and this is exactly how we get to live with others. To value them, to honor them, to be vulnerable together, to live in community, to see them how God sees them, and to fight for love... this is our joy.
Maybe we do not feel deserving of love but it doesn't even matter because we have forever and always been chosen. We were not deserving but Christ has changed all of that.
It is time to walk in the calling. It is time to receive a gift that WE have nothing to do with but we are legally justified to have. We have been made F-R-E-E. We are no longer slaves to sin, we need to start acting like it and calling others to walk into freedom, into their calling.
