Thoughts for Life: GOD REALLY LOVES YOU

Kelly Balarie- God doesn't, some days, love you... He doesn't just love you after you brought a home-baked meal to a cancer patient. He doesn't just love you after you carried an old lady's grocery bags to her car. He doesn't just love you when you had a beautiful, candle-lit moment with God and then kept worship songs on during the day.

He loves you.
He loves you on your good days.
He loves you on your bad days.
He loves you when you are at your best.
He loves you at your worst.

"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38-39)

Your mess-ups are never bigger than God's love. Your conception of how bad you are doing is never greater than the price Jesus paid. In fact, the price Jesus paid actually paid for grace, for you. Grace is the highway back on track with God; not only that, but His unmerited favor, like wind behind your back, goes with you.

Don't discount yourself.
Don't compare yourself to others.
Don't deny that God still wants you.
Don't believe that His grace is broken on account of you.
It is not. The devil is a liar.

You are all right with God, thanks to Jesus.

God gave you Jesus' rightness, so that you could always come back on the road of righteousness and obedience, with ease.

“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” – 2 Corinthians 5:21

Oh, isn't the grace of our Lord Jesus so amazing?!

If you feel off track, repent of sin, receive His grace and hop back on the highway of holiness.

If you feel left behind by God, humble yourself, release mistruth and run back into His arms.

If you feel unwanted, ditch the sob story and receive the fact that the Holy Spirit chose to make His dwelling place in you (1 Cor. 6:19)

God wants you, God wants you, God wants you. Period. Exclamation point!

God's grace is enough to make you right in God's sight even when you feel horribly and terribly unlovable.

Glory to God!
Praise to the Lamb!
Jesus died with arms wide open.
Always waiting for your grand return!

Let's pray-

Father, we know that You love us on our good days, bad days, when we're at our best and at our worst. You love us! Thank You for giving us Your Son, Jesus, to be the One who opens His arms to us in Your stead, welcoming us home through faith in His Salvation, made on Calvary! We're waiting in expectation for His return, to welcome us home with You for eternity!

We pray in Jesus' name, Amen!

My weekly advice from the book, "We All Married IDIOTS, by Elaine W. Miller:

(p. 69) "Marriage is not a short journey. It takes sustained energy and effort. What do you do when drained of all strength and you feel your grasp slipping? How do you continue when all desire to hold on is gone, and giving up seems like a more pleasant option? You keep going day by day." Heb. 12:1b . . . let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us."

#117 Testimony- Andrew Murry

"The believing disciple learns to look upon Christ on the throne, Christ the Omnipotent, as his life. He studies that life in its infinite perfection and purity, in its strength and glory; it is the eternal life dwelling in a glorified man.

And when he thinks of his own inner life, and longs for holiness, to live well-pleasing unto God, or for power to do the Father's work, he looks up, and, rejoicing that Christ is his life, he confidently reckons that that life will work mightily in him all he needs.

In things little and things great, in the being kept from sin from moment to moment for which he has learned to look, or in the struggle with some special difficulty or temptation, the power of Christ is the measure of his expectation. He lives a most joyous and blessed life, not because he is no longer feeble, but because, being utterly helpless, he consents and expects to have the mighty Savior work in him." (From Herald of His Calling paper, p.10, 9/10)

1636-1640 One-line Scriptures for those of you who want to learn some more verses this week- or to review them from when they were first posted-

1636- Ps. 10:16a "The LORD is King for ever and ever."

1637- Ps. 58:11b "Verily there is a reward for the righteous."

1638- Jer. 36:7a "It may be they will present their supplication before the LORD."

1639- Is. 45:21b "There is no God else beside me; a just God and a Savior;

there is none beside me."

1640- Ps. 72:7a "In his days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance

of peace."

#117 Hymn- Be Thou My Vision

The information about this song, is taken from the book by Robert J. Morgan, THEN SINGS MY SOUL (p. 4)

Patrick [later dubbed as Saint Patrick], was about 16, when raiders descended on his little town and torched his home. When one of the pirates spotted him in the bushes, he was seized, hauled aboard ship, and taken to Ireland as a slave. There he gave his life to the Lord Jesus.

Patrick eventually escaped and returned home. His overjoyed family begged him to never leave again. But one night, in a dream reminiscent of Paul's vision of the Macedonian Man in Acts 16, Patrick saw an Irishman pleading with him to come to evangelize Ireland.

It wasn't an easy decision, but Patrick, about 30, returned to his former captors with only one book, the Latin Bible, in his hand. As he evangelized the countryside, multitudes came to listen. . . Patrick became one of the most fruitful evangelists of all time, planting about 200 churches and baptizing 100,000 converts.

His work endured, and ceveral centuries later, the Irish church was still producing hymns, prayers, sermons, and songs of worship. In the eighth century, an unknown poet wrote a prayer asking God to be his Wisdom, and his Best Thought by day or night.

In 1905, Mary Elizabeth Byrne, a scholar in Dublin, Ireland, translated this ancient Irish poem into English. Another scholar, Elenor Hull of Manchester, England, took Byrne's translation and crafted it into verses with rhyme and meter. Shortly thereafter it was set to a traditional Irish folk song, "Be Thou My Vision."

It is one of our oldest and most moving hymns.

Some encouraging words-

"Let God guide you daily among the many ways in which He will bring Wisdom to you. He wants to use impressions and other gentle forms of guidance to lead you joyfully and in perfect rest of heart, as you realize more and more the wonder of His intimate and personal love for you."

(Taken from a testimony of Wesley L. Duewel)

Church Notes: Psalm 51

King David admitted his sin was against a Holy God, and asked for mercy.

Everything in life gets dirty and needs cleansing.

We're by nature children of wrath.

Christians still have flesh to deal with. Sin does get the upper hand at times.

God delights in truth.

King David asks to be washed from his sin.

He wanted to have joy again, and to have his sin blotted out!

He asked to not be a castaway.

Jesus' blood cleanses us!

The Holy Spirit will not leave us but will teach us how to please God.

Our sacrifice is a broken and contrite heart for our daily cleansing.