I am Loved

I must be honest.. sometimes I feel so incredibly inspired and sometimes not so much. Still – I am going to keep at it. Often times I don’t really feel it flowing until I get started..

Anywho – I feel compelled to share with you how awesome God’s love is. As Christians in the world, we are living in during 2023 – we are not the most popular kids in school. I’ve noticed that when I tell folks I am a Christian they instantly feel like I am judging their life. Often times I have to remind them that I am also a human being and obviously if I were perfect I wouldn’t need a savior lol..

I’ve decided to just keep it moving being me because in the world – I am rejected. And in Christian circles – I am also rejected. However, in the eyes of my loving father, I am accepted. Oh, what joy I find in the presence of God where I can just be me – all of who I am – flaws and all – He sees everything and yet, I am loved.

There is no devil in hell that can take God’s love from me. How marvelous is that!? No one can convince me at this point that I am not accepted. God has shown up for me way too often for me to ever believe anything other than what His Word declares.

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. ⁹ Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. ¹⁰ For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. ¹¹ And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

Romans 5:8-10

Oh, and have you ever read Romans 8? What a spectacular outpouring of what Jesus did for me. God is constantly reinforcing His love for me. From sending someone my way to be a friend at the right time – to showing me a vision during a worship service that brings better understanding of who He really is. God is constantly reminding me that I am chosen – I am anointed – I am loved. I am the one that He came to this earth for and He will never leave me.

God has chosen intentionally to wait on His children and pour love out on them continuously until they come to know Him.

I look around at people I know, and I feel so compelled to share messages like this! I want to just tell you that there is a God – who loves you, He longs to bring you home! Ever wonder why you just don’t feel right? No matter how much money you have it doesn’t satisfy. No matter how many friends you have, you are still lonely. No matter how successful you are, you still feel like a failure. No matter what you do – there is still a void. Yea man! That’s where Jesus is supposed to be! In that void. In that black hole in your innards that makes you want to throw up when you think about exploring it. When Jesus comes and fills that void – you go from bats to butterflies.

Have you ever felt cleaned from the inside out? What a glorious feeling of relief. Oh, the love of Christ is the best high you’ll ever have. He will never leave you – never let you down – He’s there till the end – until He comes to bring us home.

This place was created for God’s children, but we messed up. We thought we could be God. One act of disobedience and boom all of humanity cast from God’s presence. Seems harsh right?

Let me give you an example. Let’s say you are in a room filled with flies. They are landing all over you – flying in your eyes and mouth. Will you stay in that room? That’s how God feels in the presence of sin. But it’s much more than that. God can’t be in the presence of sin – because He is perfect. He is holy. Holiness is such a hard concept for us because we aren’t holy and we can’t fathom the thought. We can’t wrap our minds around perfection. God is perfect. He is just. He is righteous. This is why He could not choose to forgive our sin. A price had to be paid. There was a debt owed to a righteous God. A decree was made to Adam and Eve in the garden – do not eat the fruit. The decree of a King is final. There is no changing it. Judgement had to be carried out and Adam allowed Satan to rope him up and drag him into bondage to sin. With just one bite. But if God did not hold to His Word then – we could not trust in His Word now. Our glorious God held to His Word then – and He does now.

However, God was not satisfied leaving His children in a mess of their own creation. Much like a parent that looks upon a child who has fallen in the mud and is crying because they are a mess. The parent looks upon them in compassion and lifts them up into their arms, wisps them away from that mud puddle and brings them home to be cleaned up.  

That’s essentially what God did when He sent His son. Jesus came and paid the price for us so we could be cleaned up and placed in right standing with God again, where we were created to be.

This world is so sin riddled, and it collides with our spirits in such a way that feels so uncomfortable. But it’s all we have ever known so how could we recognize that we are longing for another place – a place of purity – a holy place where God resides? We are made in His image, and when we accept the gift that Jesus provided as our savior, we have His Spirit – a part of God. So, to be away from God leaves a void.

But when you open your mind, open your heart, and consider that this creation was not an accident but an intentional plan from a sovereign King who created out of His overflowing lovingkindness – the void shrinks. When you accept this free gift of His endless mercy and run back to the arms of a loving father that desires to clean you up – you are reconciled, forgiven, set free, cleansed, and in perfect peace once again.

You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.

Isaiah 26:3

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

John 14:27

What is that perfect peace?

That perfect peace is the assurance that God exists. Yes, there is a God that created this world and everything in it. We inherited this sinful nature from Adam and Eve when they disobeyed God. Willfully choosing to disregard God’s direction and giving up their rights and entangling all of humanity in bondage to Satan. Don’t believe it? Dare I say that the very fact of this concept being so hard to grasp is evidence of its truth. (I already know that my brother would pick this argument apart so, Josh, if you are reading – let me live! Lol!)

Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the LORD, who has compassion on you.

Isaiah 54:10

Jesus was sent as a sacrifice for our sins. He walked this earth as a man and died to pay the price and set us free from Satan’s grasp. Jesus is the Word that became flesh, abandoning His deity to come and save His father’s children from the grip of death. He is the perfect son – fully willing – and fully qualified in righteousness to come and rescue us from the mess we made. He died, shedding His blood that pays the price for our sin. When we accept that Jesus did this for us, we are reconciled back into the family of God once again.

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.

Isaiah 53:5

Perfect peace is finding our seat at His table, a table setting with our name on it. Perfect peace is not being concerned that we are wearing ratty clothes, and our hands are dirty. It is embracing this glorious feast among the family of God – enjoying everything our King has provided for us and knowing that we are accepted. Perfect peace is resting in God’s promise of provision in the face of every assault. Perfect peace is when fear tries to grip our heart and we lift our eyes to Jesus claiming His Blood and using His Name to stand in the assurance that the battle belongs to the Lord.

He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”

Mark 5:34

Zechariah’s Song

His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied:

“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come to his people and redeemed them. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago), salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us—

to show mercy to our ancestors and to remember his holy covenant, the oath he swore to our father Abraham: to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.”

Luke 1:67-79

The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written: “The Spirit of the LORD is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the LORD’s favor has come.” He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down. All eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently. Then he began to speak to them. “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!”

Luke 4:17-21

Jesus came and showed us the way back to God. When God points out a child whom He has chosen to come to the table, Jesus shows us the open seat at the table and the Holy Spirit softens our hearts and gives us the vision to see the open seat. God has chosen you, for such a time as this, to join in the feast. We have the free will to join in and take our seat or continue on with the void looking for an alternate solution.

You don’t have to run, you don’t have to hide, you don’t have to wonder. Jesus came for you, He came for me. He cleaned us up. We are accepted, we are loved, and we are free to live in the promise of provision from the Kingdom of Heaven. Our days are numbered. The closer we get to the end of our road – the louder fear sounds. Perfect peace can be yours. Rest can be yours. There is a seat with a setting created just for you – will you come?

I also must add that the dinner table of the King is so marvelous because every nation, every tribe, every tongue is represented. The family of God houses all ethnicities, men and woman alike, all cultures, all shapes and sizes. Everyone is invited, everyone is included, and everyone is provided for. There is no striving, everything you need is found in the King and His storehouse never ends. Everything you can think of belongs to Him and is intended for the building of His magnificent Kingdom. No one goes hungry at the Kings table. The popularity contest of the world becomes only a memory, and the void that once existed is now filled – there is joy and perfect peace in knowing that you are loved.  Trust me – once you sit down, you’ll never want to leave.

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