Things I Love About You

Jesus, here are some things I love about You!

I love the way You are kind..

I love the way You are gentle..

I love the way You are beautiful..

I love the way You are so good..

I love the way You are so loving..

I love the way You are gracious..

I love the way You look at me with love in Your eyes..

I love the way You smile at me..

I love the way You hold me in Your arms..

I love the joy You have over me..

I love the way You are always there for me..

I love the way You call me Your best friend..

I love the way You always build me up..

I love the way You never focus on my faults..

I love the way You think I'm beautiful..

I love the way You embrace me..

I love the way You accept me..

I love the way You understand me..

I love the way You listen to me..

I love the way You feel my hurts..

I love the way You grieve with me..

I love the way You laugh with me..

I love the way You want to be with me..

I love the way You love our times together..

I love the way You love me!

I love the way You love the world through me!

We Can Take Heart, Because He Has Overcome and He is Lord - His Love Reigns!

This song, "Take Heart," by Hillsong, goes along with the whole idea of Christ being Lord - He has conquered and overcome, and we can take heart because He has put us into a place of freedom, security, and grace!

The Lamb has won!

Grace reigns, Freedom reigns, Love reigns!

He has overcome....Jesus is Lord of all!

I love You, Lord!

Take Heart - Lyrics:

There is a light
It burns brighter than the sun
He steals the night
And casts no shadow
There is hope
Should oceans rise and mountains fall
He never fails

So take heart
Let His love lead us through the night
Hold on to hope
And take courage again

In death by love
The fallen world was overcome
He wears the scars of our freedom
In His Name
All our fears are swept away
He never fails

All our troubles and all our tears
God our hope, He has overcome

All our failure and all our fear
God our love, He has overcome

All our heartache and all our pain
God our healer, He has overcome

All our burdens and all our shame
God our freedom, He has overcome

God our justice, God our grace
God our freedom, He has overcome

God our refuge, God our strength
God is with us, He has overcome
                                                                              Hillsong United

The Lordship of Christ Revisited

Growing up in church, I heard a lot about the Lordship of Christ and making Christ Lord of your life.  We were often encouraged to surrender our lives to Christ and commit to follow Him wherever He would lead, do whatever He might tell us to do.  With my performance-oriented brain, I tended to see this as a very hard thing.  I felt I was being told to give up my 'real' desires and do all kinds of hard things I would hate to prove I was a really 'good' Christian, to prove I really was committed to Him.  I figured if I really surrendered and "made Christ Lord" that He would surely send me to work in some foreign jungle with no flush toilets, or that He would force me to marry someone ugly (I really thought that!).. Why did I always think God's will would be something I would dislike?  Why did I not see that His will would be 'good, perfect, and acceptable' to me?  That His plan for my life would be more beautiful and amazing and soul-satisfying than anything I could dream up?  That His plans for me were good, to give me 'a future and a hope?'  Perhaps it all stemmed from my view of God as Someone whose agenda was all that mattered to him, not any of my desires or interests.  I didn't know that God's agenda is to love us and all people!!

So I was lacking, I think, in my understanding of how loving God really is, and since I saw Him as performance-oriented, I figured the Lordship of Christ centered on getting me to perform things I would rather not do. 

But lately God has given me a beautiful, new understanding of what the Lordship of Christ really means!  It doesn't have to do with forcing us to do things against our will or making us submit to some horrible plan that we dislike.  The Lordship of Christ has to do with freedom! 

The Lordship of Christ means that Jesus is Lord and the devil is not!  Jesus has all rightful authority over me - and if Jesus has all authority in heaven and earth and in me, the devil has NO authority!  Haha!  Jesus reigns in my life and sin doesn't!  Jesus is over all in my circumstances, and evil does not hold sway!  Jesus' righteousness rules in my heart, and condemnation can't stick!  Where sin abounds, grace MUCH MORE abounds and trumps sin every time!  Where death used to reign, now Life has the upper hand! 

I have been planted in the Kingdom of the Son of God's love, and that means that I'm no more held captive in the devil's kingdom - he has no more right to my life!  Haha!  I'm not a prisoner of Satan, sin, death, shame, guilt, oppression, fear, bondage, or struggle anymore - I've been set free by Jesus, the Rightful Lord of this place!  He has bought me back by the cross, and He is my rightful owner, not the enemy!  He came to set the captives free and tell the prisoners, "Come out, it's all right, you're safe now!" 

The Lordship of Christ means a new Kingdom has begun, a kingdom in which we are FOREVER removed from the threat of death and hell, condemnation and punishment, and the power of sin and the enemy.  Satan can't ruin me or destroy me or even touch me, because Jesus is Lord over me!  The power of Satan has been defeated in our lives by the cross and resurrection, and Jesus' power holds sway and is flowing through! 

We are in a new country now, where we're dead to sin and alive to God in Christ!  We won't ever be stuck in that old country again, because we exited it by death and were raised to a whole new life in this new Kingdom of Love and Grace!  The Kingdom where Christ, the Lover of our Souls, who means us good and not evil all the days of our lives, REIGNS!  In this Kingdom, Love reigns, Grace has the final say, and Goodness wins!  In this Kingdom, we are safe and secure, and the enemy can never EVER snatch us out of Christ's hand - because Christ is LORD! In this Kingdom, "surely goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of my life, and we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever!"

So what does it mean to say, "Jesus is Lord?"  To me, it is confessing reality, confessing the truth of what the cross did for me.  Saying Jesus is Lord is saying Satan has no more ownership of me - I'm safe in the arms of Him who perfectly loves and protects and keeps me!  I'm safely in His embrace, and noone can snatch me out.  My problems can't crush me, Satan can't crush me, my own failures and even doubt can't crush me, because Jesus is Lord over all that!  He is BIG and that makes everything else small and insignificant in comparison.  Jesus is Lord!  We are free!  Free to enjoy His presence, free to accept ourselves as He accepts us, free to lay down our efforts to be "good" because He's made us "good" with His goodness, free to rest and be at peace, free to enjoy our lives without shame and guilt, free to love the person next to us, free to dance, to sing, to soar in His grace!  Free to know Him intimately and be loved like we've never been loved before, for this is what we were made for - intimate fellowship with the Lord of All! 

Jesus is Lord - His love reigns and rules! 

Jesus is Lord!  Hallelujah!

A Favorite Grace Quote

Here's a favorite grace quote on what God has already done within us by Christ's wonderful work:

By faith we rest in what God has ALREADY done in the unseen and eternal realm within us.  He has made us His holy, blameless, irreproachable children.  He has made us the righteousness of God in Christ.  Our old man died with Christ.  We have been raised with Christ as completely new creations, born of God's Spirit.  He has made us perfect in His sight.  there is no condemnation.  He has become one with our spirit, through which He manifest His life to the world.

How many times have we said, "I'd like to be.  I wish I were.  Maybe someday."  And God was on His throne saying, "You are!  You are!"

Every one of us who has believed into Christ is complete in Christ (Col. 2:10).  We are already holy (Col. 3:12)  We are already perfect (Heb. 10:14)  We are His righteousness (2 Corin. 5:21)  There's nothing else to be done.  

There's nothing left for you to do to get close to God.  You and God are one.  There is no more separation.  [He who is joined to the Lord is ONE SPIRIT with Him!]

We live out of what is already true.

                                                               from The Rest of the Gospel
                                                                          by Dan Stone

Photos from our Waterfall Hike

We recently took a hike to a waterfall, and my daughter took these lovely pictures of our time there.  I wanted to share them with all..

Quotes from The Happy God

Here are some great quotes from the book I'm now reading, The Happy God (by Benjamin Dunn).  It's a wonderful book reminding me that God is happy with the finished work of Christ and happy with us, His children!

At the beginning of the book, he defines some common Biblical terms.  Many of these are words that I have misunderstood or taken in a more "performance" way than a "grace" way.  I wanted to share some of those definitions here:

Gospel - I always knew it meant "good news," but I didn't know how really and amazingly GOOD that news is!  I thought it was mainly about forgiveness, sort of giving people a second chance (and we better not blow it this time around!) and going to heaven when we die.  But it is so much more!  Ben Dunn says the Gospel is "the glad-message of the glory of the happy God; the glad tidings of salvation through Christ; the proclamation of the grace of God manifested and pledged in Christ."  It's about the revealing of God's grace through the work of Jesus, to free us from sin and shame and put us safely in His arms forever!  It's the message that we are right now reconciled with God and called His friends, and that He's not holding our sins against us, for they've been taken away by Jesus on the cross.  This message reveals that God is smiling on us - what a happy God!

Grace - here's another word that I felt clueless about when I tried to define it.  I guess I used to think it meant forgiveness.  But discovering what grace really means has literally changed my life!  Ben Dunn defines it as "total, undeserved divine favor, by which a man is saved.   Grace is not just the kindness or mercy that is shown by the Lord when one is in a fallen condition, but Grace is also the influence that keeps one from falling."  I love that!  Grace means salvation is a completely free gift.  Grace means we are favored for free, without having to deserve it, and grace means our salvation is secure, for He will keep us from falling.  We didn't have to do anything to get this favor and acceptance, and there is nothing we could do that would cause it to be lost!

Faith - I'm still learning what this one means, for so often in the past I turned faith into a "work," focusing on it as something I must somehow "do" to "get" God to give me good things or be on my side.  But that isn't what faith is, for it is the opposite of works!  Ben Dunn says it is "a firm persuasion produced by God's infinite goodness.  A childlike response to God's wonderful love and works.  It is also a gift."  Faith is just the natural response when we hear the good news of God's love for us in Jesus.  Faith isn't focused on me but on Christ!  It's not something I "do;"  faith is when I stop my "doing" because I see that Jesus already DID it all!  And it's not something I muster up - it's a gift from God, so it's actually Christ's faith in us!  Now that's perfect faith..

Flesh - Here's another word that has been tricky for me to figure out.  I guess I always thought it meant "the real me," in that I thought of myself as truly bad at the core.  Well, that is what the real me WAS, but not what the real me IS NOW, since I've been newly created in Christ!  Ben Dunn says flesh is "the unregenerate state of men that was destroyed or cut away by Christ at salvation.  "The flesh," "Old-Man," "Sinful-Self" and "Sin-Nature" are all different terms to describe the same unregenerate state."  That unregenerate state doesn't exist for us anymore as His children, so none of those terms describe us anymore!

Righteousness - Here's a word that I was also confused about (boy, have I been really confused!  Sometimes I still am, but that's okay, because HE isn't confused about our relationship and says it's perfect, keeps it perfect!)  I always thought righteousness meant basically doing everything God commanded, and how could I ever think I was totally doing that?  So I never felt righteous. I never felt righteous, so I figured I wasn't.  And this left me feeling that God wasn't pleased with me, and that it was impossible to please Him.   Here is Ben Dunn on what righteousness is: "uprightness and right standing with God.  The state of him who is as he ought to be."  This is what Christ has given us as a gift!  Salvation is simply the deliverance from being un-right with God and being given the gift of being right with God.  We're He's truly happy with us because He remade us righteous and acceptable to Him in every way in Christ.  We're now rightly related to God with nothing amiss or lacking in that relationship.  We are as we were always meant to be, in perfect, right relationship with Him, with absolutely nothing between us!

Justified - This is similar to righteousness, coming from the same Greek word.  I never really knew what this word meant.  Ben Dunn says to be justified is to be "declared or rendered righteous apart from the works of the Law or self-works."  In other words, made right and acceptable before God as a gift, apart from any works needing to be done on our part!  My whole life it seems I've been searching for acceptance from God.  I never felt really accepted, always felt He was looking at my ways and that I was coming up so very short in His eyes.  Oh, how I longed to know He accepted me!  And then He started showing me that grace means favor and ACCEPTANCE, and that being righteous or justified (which is basically the gift He gives us at salvation) actually means being ACCEPTED by God, made ACCEPTABLE in His eyes!  All along through my whole Christian life, I'd been accepted by God and had been since the moment I'd first believed in Jesus, yet I hadn't known it.  I'd been longing for Him to accept me, trying to clean up my act so He would, when He already had!  What a wonderful revelation..

God - how do we define God?  I guess the way we see Him determines so much about how we relate to Him, ourselves, other people, and our circumstances.  I have seen Him as more of a Judge in the past, a very serious and unsmiling person looking at my works and shaking His head in disappointment.  I knew or at least heard that He loved me, but it was hard for me to get past the fact that I felt He was requiring me to do things that I was failing at.  I always felt He was saying, "do better, why can't you just do better?"  But to start to meet the real God has been the greatest joy of my life!  He is so loving and happy with us!  He is so good and so kind!  He isn't looking at our works but at the perfect work of Christ for us.  He was literally dying to be with us, and became a man and died to make that union with us possible.  He loves, absolutely loves, being with us and spending time with us in fellowship.  What a wonderful God!  He shows off His glory for all time through Jesus and His work in us - He shows off how wonderful and loving and good He really is!  Ben Dunn has a quote in his book about God that describes Him as "the Good Being, a fountain of infinite benevolence and beneficence towards His creatures..In a word, a Being who, from His infinite wisdom, cannot err or be deceived; and who, from His infinite goodness, can do nothing but what is eternally just, right, and kind."  What a wonderful God!

Thank God We Just Can't Escape Him!

Thank You, Lord, that I can't escape You!  Thank You that You won't let me go!

Everybody crashes down
Sometimes
Everything come falling down
Sometimes
I don't even know how,
Or know why

At times I try to hide away
From Your eyes
At times I'm covered in shame
From my lies
You sweep me into Your embrace
And I cry

The thing I can't escape is You
The promise that You made is You
Will pull me through
You're never far away no matter what I do
The thing I can't escape is You

It's You
Your grace
Irresistible
It's true, it's true
Your grace
Irresistible

The thing I can't escape is You
The thing I can't escape is You

                                                                           Rush of Fools

The Happy God

I am reading a wonderful book right now called The Happy God, by Benjamin Dunn.  He makes a wonderful point in the book that the Bible actually describes God as a happy God!

In 1 Tim. 1:11, Paul calls the good news of grace "the glorious gospel of the blessed God," and in 1 Tim. 6:15, he calls God "the blessed and only Ruler."  In both of those verses, the Greek word translated "blessed" is makarios, which basically means "happy!"

It's wonderful to me to think of my dear God and Father as happy.  So often in the past I have imagined Him as very serious, maybe even frowning in disapproval or shaking His head in disappointment.  But the Bible describes Him as happy!  And since He is perfect, He is perfectly happy.  Since He is everything in an infinite way, He is infinitely happy.  And He is infinitely happy with us and in us!

Back in Gen. 1:31, when God saw everything that He had made, it was very good.  And He blessed the man and woman He had made.  Eden was a pristine and innocent place of perfection, a place filled with God's joy and happiness.  And now that Jesus has come and died and rose and ascended for us, we have something better than Eden within us right now!  We are new creations!  The old has passed away and is forever gone - destroyed! - and the new has come!  And I think God sees us, His new creations that He has perfectly made in Christ, and He sees that what He has made is very good, and He smiles and is so happy!  Happy because we are beautiful to Him and happy because fellowship is ours, the intimate spiritual fellowship of being IN Someone, because the very Spirit of God dwells in us!  We dwell in God and He in us, how wonderful..

I believe God is happy and delighted with us today.  His Holy Spirit in me is always joy, pure joy.  Always love and delight in me.  Always grace and tender love.  Always open and accepting.  Always there in support and always there lifting me up when I'm down.  He has shown me the true nature of God - delighting, joyful Love!

We worship a Happy God!  He sings a love song over us today, to quiet our hearts and make us rejoice (Zeph. 3:17).  He smiles upon us with shining eyes (Num. 6:24) as a Proud Papa, for He is proud and happy with us, His little children!

Thank You, Lord, and let us enjoy Your joy today!

Already

I have been one who has been insecure about God's love for me.  I have tried to get it, tried to keep it, agonized when I felt I'd lost it, wondered if I had it, wanted it but felt it was just out of reach..so many lying voices I've listened to concerning His love for me!

Yet one day I could try no more.  I was so tired and just basically gave up trying to get His love and favor, trying to finally feel I was "right" and "okay" and "pleasing" to Him.  All my Christian life seemed to be a bust, and I just quit trying.

And He whispered to me that I was His own child, that He loved me anyway.

He had already proved His love for me before I was even born.  If someone actually being willing to die for you doesn't show the greatest love a person can have for another, I don't know what does!  I haven't ever thought of it that way, really, but that cross is such a proof of love.  We look around and sometimes feel noone cares, noone is willing to listen, noone will take any time for us, noone would actually give up anything to help us.  And here is Jesus giving up all just to be with us!  We are worth sooo much!  We are cared for, cherished, and loved beyond our wildest dreams!

There's no need to earn such a love.  It's already been given, long before we were even born.

Long before we were even created, God already loved us.  He loved us knowing all that we would do.  He loved us knowing all the mess we'd make of our lives.  He saw every thing that we feel is rotten about us, and He LOVED us still, loved us anyway, loved us with all that junk! And He went and became a man and died to absorb all our junk into Himself and carry it away, so it could harm and defeat and shame us into hiding NO LONGER!  So we could finally be free to enjoy the love that has always been ours.  To enjoy the God who has always been on our side.  To be held in the arms that have always been available to us.  To open up to the Friend who has always been there for us.  To embrace the Father who has always cherished us.  To relish the intimacy of being in the family we've always been meant to belong to.

We were made to be loved by Him.  This is where we belong.  And it's already been done.  There is NOTHING left for us to do!  We can just accept it!

Your failures are gone, that you are loved and welcomed in!  There is nothing between you and God!  He is fine with you!  He loves you forever!  You can relax in His arms...

Because He Is In Us..

Because He is in us, always and forever in perfect loving communion with us, in a relationship based on His grace and love and set in spiritual concrete through the sufficient and finished work of Christ, because of that wonderful reality, we will always be:

Cherished, adored, valued,
Taken in, accepted, embraced,
Held, affirmed, wanted,
Cared about, cared for, nurtured,
Supported, helped, strengthened,
Guided, cheered, comforted,
Kept, secure, safe,
Warmed, hugged, nestled,
Upheld, carried, lifted up,
Chosen, wanted, delighted in,
Valuable, listened to, remembered,
Thought of, important, significant,
Companioned, attended to, encouraged,
Whole, complete, sure,
Released, empowered, freed,
Needed, joined, included,
Celebrated, smiled upon, favored,
Befriended, fellowshipped with,enjoyed,

LOVED, LOVED, LOVED!

Thank You, dear Lord!

There's No Other Name Like Yours, Jesus

He is everything to us, and there's no other Person and no other Name like His!

When We Feel Lost and Far Away..

This song describes how I felt when I was in a deep, dark, lonely and depressed place that I felt I couldn't get out of.

And God came into my situation, was there for me and lifted me out! Grace!

Hey, I just realized the date this post is publishing - and it was exactly one year ago today that God lifted me out of my darkness by just immersing and baptizing me in His Spirit!  Coincidence?  I think not!

We can sometimes feel lost and far away, yet He's still right there. He will wash away all those lying voices and troubling thoughts..And show us we're still in His love, as always..  He is there with us in the pain and He is the One who brings us through and lifts us up!

When Jesus Erases the Lies That Hurt Us

I read a story once in the book Messy Spirituality (by Mike Yaconelli) that really touched my heart.  It was an account of a lady named Margaret who had been horribly shamed in childhood.  A teacher had decided on a terrible punishment for her tardiness to class:  she had made Margaret stand in front of the room while each of the other students came to the blackboard and wrote a sentence about how "bad" Margaret was. The students wrote, one by one, words like "Margaret is stupid!   Margaret is selfish!  Margaret is fat!"  The teacher said this "might motivate" the poor girl to "become a better student."  But what it did was crush her spirit and cause her years of heartache, as she watched herself become what those words said, because of the hold those lies held on her.  Those lies seared her soul and wounded her deeply, causing her to limp through life feeling unworthy and rotten.

I realized recently that I have been living under a lie that has crippled me as well.  I hate how the enemy lies to us and how we can live under what isn't even true.  The particular lie that crippled me was "You are a terrible friend.  There is something wrong with you.  People only tolerate you.  Noone would ever want to be close to you.  Noone would ever want you for a best friend."  Noone would ever want me for a best friend - those words have haunted me for years and years as I have seemingly searched in vain for a really good friend.  A best friend.  But the words of that lie seemed to be true in my experience.  It seemed that noone really did want me to be close to them, to be a truly close friend and confidante.  If it weren't for my dear husband, I would truly have felt totally alone.   The lie seeped in deeper and made me feel unworthy, defective, and like an outsider.  But it was so deep down below the surface that I didn't even know I believed all this - I didn't even see this lie in my life!  But still, like Margaret, lying words had been written across my soul, and I was wounded by them.

But Jesus is our Healer!  He comes in and erases the lies of the enemy.  He heals, lifts up and restores!  That is what He did for Margaret.  A counselor helped her through her troubled feelings and wounds.  He talked with her for a long time, then asked her to relive that day back in the classroom. Margaret recalled every single student, describing each one and what that person wrote that was "bad" about her.  She was in tears as she spoke about that awful day.  Then the counselor told Margaret that she had forgotten one person:

"You left out one person...See, He's sitting in the back of the classroom.  He's standing up...now He's walking over to the blackboard and picking up an eraser.  He is erasing every one of the sentences the students wrote.  They are gone!  Margaret, they are gone!  Now He's turning and looking at you, Margaret.  Do you recognize Him yet?  Yes, His name is Jesus.  Look, He's writing new sentences on the board.  'Margaret is loved.  Margaret is beautiful.  Margaret is gentle and kind.  Margaret is strong.  Margaret has great courage.'"  (Mike Yaconelli, Messy Spirituality, p. 76-7)

And what happened when the counselor said that?  Margaret began to cry.  Then her crying changed over to smiling, then to laughing and tears of joy!

I love that story!  That is exactly what Jesus does in His grace!  He comes in and erases the awful lies that Satan has tried to tell us about ourselves, that we are stupid, unworthy, unlovable, terrible, strange, and hideous.  And our dear Lord writes in new sentences that are the truth about us:  we are loved, we are worth something, we are whole, we are accepted, we are significant, we are beautiful!  And His truth sets us FREE to laugh and to dance and to sing with joy!

Jesus brought healing to me yesterday as well.  I joined Margaret in seeing my sorrow turn to gladness.  He is so amazing.   He touched my heart and ministered grace to me.  He never made me feel like a defective person.  He gave me the precious gift of understanding. He poured out healing love on my heart. That is exactly the way He is, isn't it?  He doesn't ever crush a bruised spirit.  He is gentle and comforting, and He ministers healing balm to us.  He ministered that to me.  He made me feel special and worth something, that I was someone worth spending time with and worth helping.  Jesus began erasing the lies that I had lived under for so long, the lies that said I was worthless, not wanted, and not "good enough" to ever have a best friend.

The real healing began to flow upon realizing that Jesus is saying over and over, "We are best friends.  You are my best friend.  Best, best BEST!"  It was like Jesus was re-writing the sentences on my blackboard!  It was like He was saying to me: "You are special.  You are lovable.  You are beautiful.  You are loved.  You are MY best friend and you are worthy of being/having a best friend."  It was like a waterfall of love pouring over me, so healing and refreshing.  It was such a moment of release - in that moment, God healed me of the wounds those awful lies had inflicted!  The feeling was so freeing, like a little bird taking wing and floating on currents of air!

The enemy tries to tell us awful lies about ourselves.  It's crippling to listen to such trash.  Sometimes he's so subtle, and our feelings and circumstances can make the lies seem so true.  But they're NOT true!  Jesus is erasing those lies by His grace-words to us!  He is every day whispering the truth of our belovedness into our spiritual ears.  He will get His message across.  He won't give up until we see that every lie has been erased and that our spiritual 'blackboard' has been filled with His life-giving, Spirit-words of truth and love for us!  He is truly my Best Friend, and He also lets me know I'm worth being someone's best friend down here on earth as well.  And so are you!  You're worth something!  You're valuable!  This world would be a much darker place without you in it!  You are special!  Jesus, your Best Friend, the One with that holy eraser and life-writing chalk in His nail-scarred hand, says so!

Random Photos

Here are some beautiful flower photos that my daughter, the budding photographer, has taken...

For Those Who Have Nothing

I seem to be in a song mood lately. It's wonderful to find some new songs that are about His grace! Here's one I found recently - This is a great grace song by Rush of Fools...

"For Those"

For those who are worn with nothing to bring but empty hands
For those who are weak, for those who can't find the strength to stand

Lord we know it's for those You've come
Lord we know it's for those You've given Your Son
Lord we know it's for those who can't come on their own
That You've come, You have come for those

For those who are poor
For those who are broken, those who mourn
For those bound by chains with no way to freedom but for grace
But for grace

Rush of Fools

You Love Me Anyway

Sometimes in the morning, I wake up with a song going through my mind - I feel like God has put the song there to encourage me and remind me of His love and presence.  This was the song He gave me this morning, and boy, did I ever need it today!  He loves me anyway, He thinks I'm worth knowing and even worth dying for.

I have heard all my life that Jesus loved me enough to die for me, and it's something I had heard so much that sometimes I wasn't seeing the real impact of that great truth.  But one day when I was thinking some lonely thoughts, wondering if anyone really wanted me around, God showed me that Jesus wanted me around so much He was willing to actually give His life up for me.  He truly died for me, to wipe away the tears and shame and hurt and oppression the enemy has wreaked on my life.  He thinks I am worth something, and He is even lonely for my friendship and fellowship.

He just can't bear to be without us!  We are worth something!  We have an amazing value, the value equal to the precious blood of Christ!  We are worth knowing and worth loving.  We are worth Jesus.  We aren't friendless or rejected.  He says He has NOT rejected us but has embraced us in His Son!  We are held forever in the arms that won't let go!

Thank You, Lord, that You want to be our Best Friend.  Thank You that You actually want to talk with us and commune with us, that those are Your favorite times and the whole reason You created us - it was in love, through love, and for love that You made us!  We were made to be with You, hugged by You forever.  You even delight in our love to You!  What a beautiful thing that our words of worship and love minister to Your heart.  I love You, Lord!

There Is Nothing

There is nothing, no,
There is nothing You can't do

There is no wilderness,
No desert place, no sickness
There is no sinking ship,
No history, no weakness
That You can't save me from
That You can't save me from

When I can't find strength
I'm needing to get up
I'm not outside Your reach
You rescue me with love

                                                        Rush of Fools

He rescues us with love - what a great line in this song...

Praise God that He can do ANYTHING!

No matter what terrible pit we find ourselves in, He comes down to deliver us in some way!

Thank You, Lord, that You are a God of deliverance...to me grace means not only that You will always be with us and accept us no matter what we do or where we end up, but also that You will do something about our situation so that we can come through in victory and peace.Thank You for that!

The Simple Gospel

My daughter's group at church was having a discussion of the gospel, seeking to put it into only a few simple words.  Taking what was said there and thinking my own thoughts as well, it comes out about like this:

The Simple Gospel:

God loves us.

But we screwed up.

God took responsibility for our mistake.

And Jesus fixed the whole thing.

That's grace in a nutshell!

We got into a mess, and Jesus got us out.

Thank You, Lord!

Can't Get Away

We just can't get away from His love, His mercy, His kindness, His presence, His keeping, His care..

That's grace!

Lyrics to "Can't Get Away" by Rush of Fools:

I am an arrow, I am a rocket
I am a river and nothing can stop it
Cause You are the target and You are the atmosphere
You are the ocean that keeps pulling me, You're pulling me here

I am a beggar, You are the table
I am so helpless, God You are so able
And when I get turned around You change my direction
You're so perfect, I'm so broken, here You come with arms wide open
Chasing after me down every road
You're always waiting there

Even when I close my eyes, I can't help but see
There's no place that I can hide, You're such a part of me
I can't get away cause I keep running into You
I can't get away...

I'll never get away
I'll never get away
Can't get away
I keep running into you

                                                                           Rush of Fools

The Connection Between Grace and the Holy Spirit

				Reflecting on the Holy Spirit and Grace       by Bob Hoekstra "And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication." (Zechariah 12:10) Let's take a reflective look at our meditations on the Holy Spirit as a reminder that we are still studying about the grace of God. In considering how to live by the fullness of the Spirit, we have examined how to live more fully by the grace of God. In Zechariah 4:6, we observed the connection between living by the Spirit and living by the grace of God: "Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit." Serving the Lord is accomplished by the work of the Spirit in and through our lives, not by natural capabilities. The next verse restates this truth in terms of God's grace. "And he shall bring forth the capstone with shouts of 'Grace, grace to it'!" Every completed task in the service of God is accomplished by His grace (God's undeserved resources), not by our ingenuity or merit. We also saw how the early church experienced this relationship between the Spirit and grace. "They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness…And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all" (Acts 4:31, 33). The boldness they experienced through the Holy Spirit is described as a result of great grace at work upon them. Jesus came to establish a new covenant. "This cup is the new covenant in My blood" (Luke 22:20). This covenant was characterized by grace, in contrast to the old covenant that Moses set in place. "For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ" (John 1:17). This new covenant of grace is also a covenant of the Spirit. "Our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life" (2 Corinthians 3:5-6). When the Lord Jesus returns and Israel humbly bows to Him as their Messiah, this wondrous response will be the result of "the Spirit of grace" being poured out upon them. This glorious title, identifying grace with the Holy Spirit, beautifully sums up the grand truth that living by grace and walking in the Spirit are two perspectives on the same precious reality.                                                                              Bob Hoekstra I really enjoyed reading this about how grace and the Holy Spirit are interwoven. The wonderful goal of the cross and resurrection - having the very life of God to be within us by the Holy Spirit -  is a grace-gift.  The Holy Spirit is freely given to us without our earning or deserving. The Holy Spirit ministers the New Covenant of grace to us.  He always relates toward us in grace.  He pours the unconditional love of God into our hearts.  He doesn't point out our sin but instead convinces us of our righteousness in Christ. His way is never the way of law but always the way of grace.  He doesn't require from without; He gives godly desires from within.  Thus He moves us to live a life of love by motivating us through grace and freedom, not compulsion. He even bears the fruit of righteousness in our lives, doing what we couldn't do on our own.  From first to last, our Christian life is a product of the work of the Spirit of God in and through us! He is grace in a Person!  How wonderful that the blessed Spirit within us in this New Covenant is Grace Himself!

God Wants Us Around

It hit me yesterday that our times of just "hanging out" with God don't just bless us - they bless HIM  as well! 

God actually wants us around!  He loves being with us and loves our company!  It blesses His great heart to have us communing with Him.  He truly delights in our company!

What a Friend!

It's so nice to know that we have a Friend

• who loves us unconditionally
• who is never too busy to talk
• who loves to laugh with us and to hear us laugh 
• who truly rejoices with us and weeps with us
• who stands up for us and defends us against our accusers
• who comes along to bear our burdens so we don't feel alone
• who  won't discard us when we seem no longer "useful" to him
• who isn't just "using" us
• who isn't just tolerating us but really likes our company
• who actually enjoys our company
• who truly enjoys hearing all we have to say
• who never judges or criticizes
• who always builds us up, never tears us down'
• who won't kick us when we're down
• who WANTS us for a friend
• who thinks we're amazing, wonderful, and worth knowing
• who is actually blessed by our companionship
• who will faithfully keep all our secrets
• who won't ever desert us or abandon us
• who will always be there for us
• who just loves our times of being together
• who is faithful no matter what
• who lets us be real
• who accepts us as we are 
• who doesn't demand that we change or improve 
• who always speaks to us in love
• who won't be driven away by our rants and quirks and failures
• who still loves us even when we lash out at him
• who feels our pain and cares about our hurts
• who truly understands us, always
• who says we're his best friend
• who won't replace us sometime with someone he likes more
• who does everything in his power to help us and encourage us
• who is there for us whenever we need him
• who delights in and celebrates our personality
• who won't ever be irritable or angry with us
• who will be our BEST FRIEND forever

Thank You, Lord, that You are our Best Friend!  It amazes me that You want me around, that You won't discard or desert me, that You treat me as Your best friend and see this friendship as so important and valuable to You that You would be dying to have us in fellowship!  I have always felt so lonely, always felt people were just tolerating me, and that once they found out what I was really like  they would leave.  I have always wanted a friend who would truly love me for me and not leave me.  I have found that Friend in You a thousand times over.  You are all I could ever hope for in a Friend and in a God!  Thank You forever!

The Bottom Line

The bottom line for me, the truth that God keeps bringing me back to, the truth I need to hear every day of my life, the foundation of my whole way of living, now and forever, is expressed so well in this quote from The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning:

"...through no merit of ours, but by His mercy, we have been restored to a right relationship with God through the life, death, and resurrection of His beloved Son.  This is the good News, the gospel of grace."

Wow! We have been put into a right relationship with God through Jesus' work.  There is nothing wrong with our relationship with God and there never will be, no matter what sin or confusion or doubt we may experience.  There is nothing wrong with our relationship with God; instead, there is everything right with our relationship with Him! 

This is a perfect relationship where everything is always fine between us, even after we blow it, even if we fail to pray today, even if circumstances suddenly go crazy.  We will always be in that beautiful place, safe in His arms, forgiven and whole, accepted and cradled, loved and valued, alive and vibrant, full and free, carried through in strength and hope and triumph - safely home, at peace, at rest, in fellowship with the One who truly cherishes us and looks on us with delight, forever! 

And to think - we have that wonderful joyous relationship for free, as a gift, simply to be received with the "Thank You, Daddy!" of simple faith.  That is beautiful!  What a glorious gospel is the gospel of grace!

Grace and Getting a Smile...

"The Gospel is not the message of what we must do to get a SMILE on the face of God.  It is the message about what HE HAS DONE to get a SMILE ON YOUR FACE.      The GOSPEL soooo gooood.  It reveals GOD! How can we then but LOVE HIM?"

                                                                                        Bertie Brits

Wow, I'd never thought of it that way before...what a wonderful truth!

This quote makes me think of the wonder of the gospel of grace!  It reminds me that God wasn't the One who had a problem and needed to be placated.  He has always loved us humans and has always been on our side, wanting us to know Him.  He has been longing for restored fellowship with us since that fateful day of the Fall back in Eden.  We were the ones with the problem - sin had altered our perception of God, and our shame and feelings of guilt were keeping us from approaching Him with any kind of confidence.  We couldn't understand or enjoy His love.  We were trapped in the confused and distorted lies of sin.

So He did everything possible to put that smile back on our face, that smile in knowing without a doubt we are loved and cared for by God.  While we were still sinners, He showed that love for us by Christ's own death for us.  He took upon Himself the guilt and shame we felt, took upon us that old sin nature that gave us such a distorted and erroneous view of God and which controlled us and brought us to ruin.  He took away every sin and reconciled us to God (not God to us, He always loved us and wanted us near!) - wow!

The whole work of the cross wasn't to get an angry God to finally calm down enough to tolerate having us in His presence without destroying us.  NO!  The whole point of the cross was to win our hearts back!  To open our eyes to the One who has loved us from eternity past, before there ever was a world, before we ever sinned, before anything.  To draw us back into His arms, the arms that long to hold us forever!

He thinks you're worth knowing.  You are a pearl of great price, so precious and valuable to Him that He gave up everything to have you with Him.  He thinks you're worth dying for!  The Love we've longed for all our life not only exists, it's ours right now and forever!  The gospel message isn't "do this or that and hope to get on His good side."  It's "All is forgiven, come home, I can't bear to be without you!"  Amazing love!  The gospel is such good news!  It truly does bring a smile to our face, and it is so true - how can we NOT love such a wonderful and beautiful God?

Peace Be Still

You are our only peace when our world turns upside down.

You are the Only One who can calm our troubled hearts.

You are the only place we can find refuge and rest for our weary souls.

Thank You, dear Lord, for being our Peace!

Here are the lyrics from "Peace Be Still" by Rush of Fools:

Come to Me, you who are weak
Let My strength be yours tonight
Come and rest, let My love be your bed
Let My heart be yours tonight

Come empty cup, let Me fill you up
I'll descend on you like a dove tonight
Lift your head, let your eyes fall into Mine
Let your fear subside tonight

Peace be still, Peace be still
Please be still and know that I am God
and know that I am God
                                                                            Rush of Fools

Spring Flowers

 Here are some Spring flowers from around our yard..my daughter took the photos..

Sufficient Grace

Sometimes I look at my weakness, my performance and my believing, and I say, "Lord, it's not sufficient."

But God looks at His grace and love and Christ's performance and believing, and He says, "It's more than sufficient."

I am totally accepted and qualified and righteous FOR FREE, not because of anything in me or my works, but because of what Christ did.  His work on my behalf stands for all time, perfect and blameless!

Now THAT'S something (Someone!) I can rest in with confidence! 

"Faith is the awareness of His grace."  (Sammy Bilyeu)

Holy Love

"God is love...God is light...God is holy.."

I was thinking recently how all these phrases come together.  In the past my idea of God's holiness and the fact that He is Light ran along these lines:  "He is so perfect that He doesn't want to be soiled by us dirty sinners."  This idea didn't really make me feel I could approach God - it just seemed to make me feel more unworthy and despairing of ever being close to God.

But the reality is that God's holiness is so different than that!   God's holiness doesn't have a connotation of judging and condemnation, of pointing out our faults.  God's holiness has a connotation of attracting us to His love.  Jesus was perfectly holy, and that holiness didn't repel people.  It attracted the worst kinds of sinners and gave them hope.  His holiness was the purity and perfection of love and grace! 

He is holy - without any imperfection.  All that He is - grace, love, joy, gentleness, goodness, peace, patience, self-control - He is all that perfectly, without an ounce of anything different.  Think of having a person like that as your Friend; you would be drawn to such a person and feel totally at ease openly up to Him.  You would be able to trust Him implicitly, knowing you would never be rejected by Him but only perfectly understood, cared for, and loved!  As He shows me His love and grace, I see His holiness is beautiful, healing, attractive and freeing!  It means that He is perfectly pure in all His attributes, perfectly and completely those things in all His relations with us:

He is kind in a perfect way, with no unkindness in Him!

He is patient with no impatience mixed in at all!

His compassion and goodness go all the way, and all He does all the time is in perfect compassion and goodness!

He is pure, unadulterated joy and peace, with no hint of displeasure or strife.

He is totally gentle, without one single speck of harshness!

He loves perfectly, is that way every time, without fail, without any unloving traits - ever!  He loves without fault, without wavering, without stopping, without shortage.

He is holy in every way toward us - He is perfect love, peace, joy and grace - without fault or blemish or change!

There is no shadow of turning with Him.  God has no "dark side," no shadowy part of His character.  He is HOLY - He is 100% purely and completely who He is -  Perfect LOVE, GRACE, JOY, and PEACE!  That means He is 100% trustworthy for all our needs, for all our days...

"Christ In Me" by James Stewart

Here is an excerpt on the meaning of "Christ in me" from the book A Man in Christ by James Stewart.  (I found this on Merrill Thompson's facebook page.  Check out his page for many more grace excerpts from different writers.)

"'Christ in me' means Christ bearing me along from within, Christ the motive-power that carries me on, Christ giving my whole life a wonderful poise and lift, and turning every burden into wings.  All this is in it when the apostle speaks of  'Christ in you, the hope of glory' (Col. 1:27).  Compared with this, the religion which bases everything on example is pitifully rudimentary.  This, and this alone, is true Christian religion.  Call it mysticism or not - the name matters little;  the thing, the experience, matters everything.  To be 'in Christ,' to have Christ within, to realize your creed not as something you have to bear but as something by which you are borne, this is Christianity. It is more:  it is release and liberty, life with an endless song at its heart.  It means feeling within you, as long as life here lasts, the carrying power of Love Almighty; and underneath you, when you come to die, the touch or everlasting arms."

                                                                                                                            James Stewart

Wow - We don't have a religion we have to carry around - we have a Christ that carries us! 

Jesus Culture - I Adore You

What a beautiful worship song...it's by Phil Wickham and sung here by Jesus Culture..

We adore You, Lord Jesus!

We love everything You are!

And You are everything to us...

The lyrics:

Mercy falls from Your heart down on me
Glory streams from Your face so lovely
A million words could not describe
How marvelous Your perfect light

I adore You
I will sing it with all my heart
I adore You
I love everything You are

That my heart, beats to the rhythm of Your heart
That my eyes focus on Your beautiful eyes
A million tongues could not express
How beautiful Your holiness

My life is yours and will be forever
My love is yours

Nothing is Wrong!

I sometimes have these feelings that something is wrong between God and me, that I am lacking in some way, have failed or need to do more, that I need to do something to get close with God.  These feelings produce an uneasiness and sense of something being "off" in my relationship with God.  They are the typical lies of our old enemy, aren't they?  Fellow grace-lover Mike Fitzpatrick calls these lying feelings "the stun-gun of the ol' blamer boy." Yuck..

Yet God is reminding me of reality - that NOTHING IS WRONG!

Nothing is wrong with me - I am PERFECT before Him, since by one sacrifice Christ perfected me forever!  So that's that..

And nothing is wrong with the relationship between God and me - Jesus has brought me into this grace in which I stand.  That's where I always am, in a perfect grace relationship with God.  Actually, I have been put into the midst of the relationship of the Father and the Son - now THAT'S a perfect relationship, one that is never lacking or "off" in any way!

There's nothing missing, nothing "off", nothing lacking, nothing incomplete between God and me.

I am perfect and complete before Him, in a perfect and complete relationship!  Whether I always feel it, realize it, experience it, or not!

Because of Christ, NOTHING is wrong with us and EVERYTHING is right with us!
Because of Christ NOTHING is wrong with our relationship with God and EVERYTHING is right with our relationship with God!

We walk around today as perfectly loved and perfectly righteous saints in a perfect relationship with the God who perfectly acts on our behalf!

We've got it so good...  Oh, what a happy gospel!  That means when I have those old lying feelings of lack and condemnation, I can just rejoice in the truth that EVERYTHING is really fine between God and me.  I can just ignore those lies and keep enjoying the perfect fellowship I have with Him in the Spirit, because that fellowship hasn't been disrupted or changed at all, no matter what thoughts or feelings may have insinuated.  I love it!  Thank You, Lord, for reminding me of this..

We are living in the Spirit in PERFECT fellowship with Him today.  There is nothing between us.  We are so bonded with Him that we are ONE forever.  Our Perfect Friend is in perfect relationship with us forever.. Thank You, Holy Spirit, for being that perfect, always understanding, always present, always uplifting, always loving friend to us!  You never stop pouring out that waterfall of love and grace upon us!  Hallelujah!

:)

Forever reign

What a wonderful song - it's Forever Reign by Hillsong..

All that we need, He is..

We are one with Him in spirit, always together, always having all we need - HIM!

Noone and nothing satisfies our heart like He does..

In our hearts, we're running into His arms and He is the provision for our every need!

The lyrics:

You are good, You are good
When there's nothing good in me
You are love, You are love
On display for all to see
You are light, You are light
When the darkness closes in
You are hope, You are hope
You have covered all my sin

You are peace, You are peace
When my fear is crippling
You are true, You are true
Even in my wandering
You are joy, You are joy
You're the reason that I sing
You are life, You are life,
In You death has lost it's sting

You are more, You are more
Than my words will ever say
You are Lord, You are Lord
All creation will proclaim
You are here, You are here
In your presence I'm made whole
You are God, You are God
Of all else I'm letting go

Oh, I'm running to your arms
I'm running to arms
The riches of your love
Will always be enough
Nothing compares to Your embrace
Light of the world forever reign
 
My heart will sing
no other name
Jesus, Jesus

Four Big Truths

There are four big truths I keep coming back to over and over in my Christian walk.  They are so deep and rich, I feel I will continue learning about them more and more as time goes by..

These truths ground me in my faith and make me rejoice in my wonderful Savior and Friend, Jesus, the lovely One!  They free me to enjoy the real goal of the Christian life - knowing and fellowshipping with Christ!

I am my Beloved's and He is mine.  He has called me to rise and come away with Him, away from my problems and worries and efforts and struggles and confusions and distractions and feelings of lack - to just come away with Him to the heights of joy and be happy with Him!  To just be happy in our perfect relationship!  For we have a perfect relationship; I am perfect before Him, and He is perfect towards me - forevermore!  All because of His finished work!

Four big truths:

1)  I am loved and accepted by God - so He will never shun or mistreat me!

2)  I am right with God - so He'll never get angry or disappointed with me!

3)  I am complete in Him - so He'll never see any sin or lack in me again!

4)  I am united with God - so He'll never leave or abandon me!

Think about it - you are perfect to God!  You are completely included, accepted, taken in and embraced today.  You are right with Him, complete and not lacking before Him in any way.  And you are bonded with Him, sealed with the Spirit into a relationship of perfect oneness and intimacy!  He is always delighting in you!  Wow!

Lord, reveal the depths of these truths to us!  That way we can forget about our sins and struggles and self-efforts - just as You have forgotten about them - and we can focus on just enjoying You and Your grace!

Dance, Dance! Because of Amazing Grace..

Oh, what a happy gospel!

Our sins are gone, remembered no more (Heb. 8:12)!

We are alive in Christ, new creations - the old is gone (2 Co. 5:17)!

We are accepted in the Beloved (Eph. 1:6)!

We are right with God, at peace with Him, by grace through faith (Rom. 5:1)!

We are complete in Christ (Col. 2:10)!

We are in the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom (Rom. 8:9, 2 Co. 3:17)!

We are in the kingdom of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14:17)!

We are one spirit with Him, in beautiful, intimate fellowship (1 Co. 6:17, 1 Jn. 1:3)

Oh, what a happy gospel - thank You, Jesus!

Random Thoughts

(My daughter took this picture of the rhododendrons in front of the house..just wanted to share that!)

Here are some random thoughts that have come to me:

What God wants to do in my life cannot be stopped!  Circumstances can't stop Him, the devil can't stop Him, and even my own failings can't stop Him from completing His purpose in my life!

Our new spirit is born of imperishable seed and cannot die..the life we have now is HIS life, which is eternal and can't die!  That's security..

The Spirit is like a boxer who has entered the ring to fight for me.  I may be puny, but He is gigantic and enforces His victorious strength so easily!

He is holding on to me.  I don't have to worry about holding on to Him.

Sin isn't on God's mind.  Jesus is on His mind, and us in Him..

The friend I've always wanted, to be committed to me, to listen to me without judgment, to always be there for me, to unconditionally accept me, to always want me around and actually enjoy my company - is HIM!  He tells me "All that you want in a friend I AM!"

Assume that you  have faith and have righteous desires, because...you do!  It's our nature..

When feeling that old feeling of not-good-enough, guilty, condemned, must "do" something to get close to God again - remember it's all a lie from the enemy.  EVERY negative thought is a lie from the enemy.  Remember that NOTHING is wrong and that you are fine and right and one with Him, right now!

Since Jesus set us free, we are free forever and free indeed!  The evil one cannot touch us, and no attack or lie will prove fatal.  We are free!

Because of what Jesus did, God will never stop favoring me, accepting me, being on my side, or blessing me.  No matter what!  That's grace!

The gifts of God - salvation, freedom, acceptance, righteousness, the Spirit, power, victory - are irrevocable and can't be lost, no matter how much we mess up!

Right now the Holy Spirit is in me delighting in me...I am valued and loved.  Someone thinks I'm special..  The God of all the universe was literally dying to fellowship with me. 

At all times, every day, no matter what happens, whether we sense it or not, we are in the Presence of Perfect Love!  We live out of the Father's embrace..Our Daddy is 100% pure and infinite love, the love we've always wanted and the love we'll celebrate for all eternity.  THAT'S where we live!

God isn't about punishing sin.  He's about imparting LIFE.  His main focus isn't shaping us up.  His main focus is loving us!

:)

Stray Thoughts and His Whispers

Stray Thought:  Sure He cares about the ones who are "together", but why would He care about you...

His Whisper:  YOU are My beloved child in whom I am well-pleased!

Stray Thought:  Maybe you were once a strong Christian, but look at you now, you've fallen away..

His Whisper:  You ARE My beloved child in whom I am well-pleased!

Stray Thought:  You don't belong anywhere, nobody thinks you're worth including in their life..

His Whisper:  You are MY beloved child in whom I am well-pleased!

Stray Thought:  How could God love you - you're a mess and worthless..

His Whisper:  You are My BELOVED child in whom I am well-pleased!

Stray Thought:  You're all on your own - face it, noone is going to take care of you anymore..

His Whisper:  You are My beloved CHILD in whom I am well-pleased!

Stray Thought:  You blew it, you're guilty and God is surely displeased and disappointed..

His Whisper:  You are My beloved child in whom I AM well-pleased!

Stray Thought:  You'll never be good enough, you are always lacking..

His Whisper:  You are My beloved child in whom I am WELL-PLEASED!

The Father said it to Jesus at His baptism:  the Spirit descended on Him like a dove, and the Father said, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased."

And we have been put in Christ.  His history is our history.  The love the Father has for Him is the love the Father has for us.  As He is, so are we in this world.  We've been brought into that same intimate relationship with the Father that Jesus has, and the Spirit of sonship is there to tell us of that sonship that we have.  He's there to cement into our hearts that intimacy that is ours with Him!  He is there crying out "Papa, papa!" within us, and He is transmitting that word to our hearts that the Father is constantly speaking over us: "You are My beloved son (child), in whom I am well-pleased!"

I needed so much to hear that today.  I asked God to just remind me of my acceptance in Him.  It is what ours hearts long to hear and the very foundation of our Christian lives.  Well, He led me to a devotional reading, and I read those very words that we are accepted in the Beloved, accepted as God accepts His own Son!  Wow!  He is so good to always remind us of the truth and build us up.  He is perfect love.  May we all enjoy the acceptance that is ours as a fact, by right of inheritance, freely given to us in Christ!

Dear Father, thank You for whispering to us over and over, "You are My beloved child, in whom I am well-pleased!"

The Bear Hug of God

Here's a wonderful quote from  The Lost Secret of the New Covenant:

"When we are given a bear hug, or a fervent embrace, all the ideas associated with love move from an intellectual concept to the actual experience of being loved.  When we say that God loves us, we must never think of that in terms of a cold statement of doctrine; we must understand that the Holy Spirit is God in the act of loving us, embracing and enfolding His arms about us.  The Holy Spirit is God running to us, flinging His arms around us, and passionately loving us."               Malcolm Smith

The Holy Spirit is God Himself loving me, embracing me, holding me, caressing me, cherishing me, enfolding me in His arms.

The Holy Spirit is in us to give us the Father's bear hug of love!

God and the Dolphins

Recently my family visited a big aquarium that has a dolphin show. As we watched these beautiful creatures leap through the air with flips and twists and amazing synchronized arches over the water, I admit that tears ran down my cheeks.  It was just so beautiful to see these lovely creations of God in a playful and graceful celebration of life.  For some reason it reminded me of God, His beauty and gracefulness seen in these animals He made.

Later on I found a library book that was a dolphin story, so I read that aloud to the kids since we'd just seen the show.  I was struck by this amazing true story of a man rescued by dolphins, and once again I saw a God connection.

The book is called Dolphin Treasure, and the author, Wayne Grover, befriended a family of dolphins while diving off the Florida coast.  In the book he describes an experience he had with one of the dolphins.  He had been diving with friends a few miles offshore looking for treasure from a Spanish shipwreck, and the weather had become treacherous.  He foolishly made one more dive to pull out an artifact he had glimpsed on his previous dive, and when he surfaced, his boat and crew were gone, pulled away by the wind and storm that had come upon them.  Wayne found himself floating alone in the ocean.  Nearing exhaustion in the middle of the night, he felt something bump against him.  When he reached out his hand, he felt the rough skin of a shark inches away.  He was about to be killed by sharks!

At just that moment, as hopelessness and anguish swept over him, he heard a sound followed by sharp clicking noises.  His friends the dolphins had arrived just in time, and they quickly drove the sharks away! The dolphin he knew best came to him and allowed him to grab onto his dorsal fin; then, the dolphin began gently swimming toward the shore. Yet Wayne was so weak he couldn't hold on to the dolphin, and he kept slipping off.  The dolphin communicated to a companion nearby, who came up on the other side of Wayne and lifted him from underneath.  So one dolphin was pulling him and another was supporting his weight, buoying him up so he could be brought along in the water.

As the day dawned, they finally neared the shore and the dolphins moved back a little.  Wayne stood up - he was in shallow water near the beach. He was saved!  He turned around and the dolphins were chattering and swimming around as if in joy about his rescue.  The dolphin he knew best jumped up high in the air as if in triumph.

What an amazing story!  It's unbelievable but true!

And as I read this aloud to the kids, it dawned on me how much these dolphins acted just as the Holy Spirit acts with us.  He is called our Paraclete, which means "one called alongside to help."  He is there to lift us up when we can't go on, there to lead us out of trouble, there to fight off enemy attacks, there to be the strength we don't have.  He is the One buoying us up from beneath, for underneath us are His everlasting arms.  And He is the One guiding us into the way ahead, gently leading us along.

He's always there to help at a moment's notice.  He won't ever let us down!  Our enemy is already defeated and is no match for our Paraclete!  Even after we have blown it and gotten ourselves into a mess of our own making, He is there for us, helping, rescuing, carrying us along, fellowshipping with us as if nothing had happened, because in His eyes, nothing has - our sins can't ever keep Him from us, because they've already been taken away at the cross and we have been forever cleansed and joined to Him, our Paraclete, forever!  This union with Him means I'm never ever alone in any problem I face, even if I feel alone, even if I get confused, fail, or seem to forget about Him.  He is still there for me, and He will be there for me forever!

And just like the dolphins celebrated over Wayne, the dear Holy Spirit celebrates over us.  He dances and sings and leaps and twirls with joy that we are God's beloved ones.  He has pure delight and happiness about us!  His presence with us is the constant experiential reminder that we are loved, accepted, safe, kept, right, complete, full and delighted in by God Himself.

God wants a relationship with me.  He doesn't want to save me so I can be His worker.  He saved me to be His beloved little child!  He wants fellowship, interaction, a relationship that is so open and free and full of trust that I can be myself, be totally real, and never fear rejection.  I have been welcomed into His arms forever.  He is sharing all of Himself with me.  This is a wonderful love relationship, the kind I've always longed for, of mutual sharing and joy.  Out of that wonderful celebration of love comes the power that will change this world and bring His kingdom of love to earth.  Wow!

A Declaration

Those irritating lies of the enemy can get me down.  Old programming from years of legalistic thinking can seem to come back to haunt me.  But the Spirit continues to whisper the truth to me.  And my spirit continues to know the truth deep down.

So I'm led to make this declaration:

• God loves me so much that He calls me His child - that is what I am!
• I am born of God's Spirit and have His nature within me and no more a sin nature.
• I am safe in His arms forever because I am kept safe in Christ Jesus!
• My sins are gone, removed as far as the east as the west.
• As He is in this world, so am I!
• The peace that passes understanding will guard my heart in Christ Jesus.
• I am in the Kingdom of righteousness, joy and peace in the Holy Spirit.
• I am never alone, for He is always with me.
• I will never be abandoned - for He will never leave me or forsake me.
• He will supply all of my needs through the riches of Christ.
• I am strengthened with power through the Spirit of the resurrection that lives in me!
• He has given me authority over all the power of the enemy, and nothing can harm me.
• He will always lead me in triumph in Christ!
• I have been perfected forever by the perfect sacrifice of Christ.
• I stand before Him washed and cleansed forever.
• My sin will never come between God and me.
• I will never be punished for my sins.
• There is no condemnation on me today or any day!
• My guilt is gone.
• God only looks at me with love.
• God will never harm me but only help me.
• God will do me good and not evil all the days of my life.
• God gives me a future and a hope - things are not hopeless!
• I am one with God, one with Him - my spirit and His are in perfect communion always!
• God's greatest joy is fellowshipping with me in the Spirit!
• Jesus calls me His friend and shares Himself completely with me.
• My relationship with Him is one of complete openness with no barriers.
• There is no possibility that God would ever reject me.
• I am accepted and acceptable to Him!
• God delights in me!
• I have the right to the full inheritance from my Father.
• I am qualified to pray and my prayers are heard and answered and are effective.
• No matter what the circumstance, He will turn things around for good.
• No matter what my failure or sin, I'm forgiven and right with God in Jesus' name!
• Every gift I have from God is a gift and is mine for free without my earning or deserving it.
• I am unconditionally loved by a love that won't ever run out or fail.
• The infinite and sufficient One Himself lives inside me, so I have sufficiency for all things.
• I can impart Christ to the world.
• Everywhere I go, I glow with a Jesus glow in the Spirit.
• I am in the Spirit, never in the flesh again.
• I sit with Christ in the heavenly places.
• I enjoy the goodness of God upon me always.
• I walk in His favor and grace at all times.
• I am never out of His presence and never out of His care, His thoughts, His love!
• I am complete and not lacking.
• I am full and free!
• I am His, and He is mine!

The One I've Looked For All My Life

He is the One I've looked for all my life, 

the Friend I have wanted so much, 

Someone to understand, to care, to always be there, 

to always support and help, to always accept and say soothing words, 

always ready to listen and to give encouragement.

Someone who loves me unconditionally, 

Someone I can dare to trust, knowing He won't crush my heart or reject me. 

Someone who understands!

I have felt so lonely all my life, and now I'm never alone!  

He actually wants to be around me!  

I am in awe that the God of the universe would dwell in me by His Spirit.  


He's there not to use or abuse me, but to fellowship with me..

to interact with me, to talk to me and listen to me,


to commune with me, to love me..


He is my Intimate Ally,  my Strong Defender,


my Tireless Supporter,


my Truest Friend!

If..

If Jesus took all my sin, there's no sin left on me..

If Jesus took all my guilt, there's no guilt left for me..

If Jesus took all my condemnation, there's no condemnation left for me..

If Jesus took all my shame, there's no shame left on me..

If Jesus bore all my sorrows, I need bear them no more..

If Jesus bore all my anxieties, I need bear them no more..

If Jesus bore all my fears, I need bear them no more..

If Jesus bore all my despair, I need bear it no more..

If Jesus gave me His Life, I'm alive forevermore and will never die!

If Jesus gave me His righteousness, I'm righteous and will never be a sinner!

If Jesus gave me His relationship with the Father, I'm beloved and will never be an outcast!

If Jesus gave me His wholeness, I'm complete and will never be lacking!

If Jesus gave me His joy, I have rejoicing no matter what..

If Jesus gave me His peace, I have calm in the midst of any chaos..

If Jesus gave me His love, I have love for the most unlovely..

If Jesus gave me His faith, I have trust that can move mountains..

Since Jesus took away all that weighed me down, I'm free!

Since Jesus gave me all that He is, I'm abundantly satisfied!