The last post that shows on here was 7 months ago, and it's actually been about 5 months since I last posted. At the request of people of great importance to me, I removed my last post. A lot has happened in these past few months. Strangely, I just haven't had the desire to really post much - until now.
I'm sure I'll get to all of the fun things I want to post on here - decorating ideas, crafts with my kids, organizational tips, I could keep going... But for now, I want to share with you all just what makes me me. This stuff is the most important of all of the "stuff" in my life. It's really what makes me who I am. Because all on my own, I'm nothing to talk about - and certainly nothing to blog about. But with Jesus Christ in my life, I'm a daughter of the King of kings. I still may not be much to talk about, but my Jesus is. I hope that you'll please let me tell you about Him...
First of all, I want you to know that God cannot sin. We're told this in Hebrews 4:15. He won't mess up. He won't slip up. He won't make a bad choice. He just won't. He's not capable of it. Perfection is the very essence of His being. Here's what Hebrews 4:15 says: "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin." Did you catch that? He knows what we're going through. He's not just looking at us from up in the clouds, totally displaced from our lives. He's been here! He knows how it feels to hurt and to fear. The difference is, He experienced a very real existence but did not sin. Not once. That very real existence was through Jesus' life on earth. It's important that you understand that Jesus is God (John 10:30). Otherwise, a lot of this will not make sense.
In saying that God is sinless, we can easily transition to the fact that He is just. As in, He is in the business of bringing justice. I say that's an easy transition in our thought process because God, who is perfect, will obviously be about bringing justice. If He was perfect, how could He allow for injustice? Likewise, if He was imperfect, how could He bring true justice? Psalm 9:7-8 says, "But the LORD sits enthroned forever; He has established his throne for justice, and He judges the world with righteousness, He judges the peoples with uprightness." Some people will say, "How can a loving/just/good/etc. God allow ____ to happen?" My answer for this is that we only see the things that affect us. God sees the whole big picture. I believe that things happen in our lives sometimes in order to accomplish a greater purpose. Let's be real. I think most of us really do know that the world doesn't revolve around us. How could I really think that just because something isn't the way I think it should be in my life that it must be unfair overall? Perhaps I don't really know everything...
Another thing I want you to know is that God loves you (and me) regardless of our performance in this life. We don't have to be good enough for Him to love us. We don't have to be the best at something for Him to pay attention to us. He loves us no matter what. Romans 5:7-8 says, "For one will scarcely die for a righteous person - though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die - but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." That means that Jesus didn't wait for us to get it all right before He came and died for our sins. He looked at us, even in all of the messes we make, and said, "I love you so much. Let me clean you up." You don't have to be perfect - or even close - to come to Jesus. We can come in our brokenness, and He takes those pieces, fills in the gaps, and makes something totally new.
Now, this God who loves us no matter what also wants each of us to have a real relationship with Him. We're told that He wants all people to be saved (1 Timothy 2:3-4). He doesn't just love some of us. He loves all of us. And it's up to us to love Him back.
The last thing I want to share with you tonight is that, contrary to the cultural norm in America today, God's number one priority is not to make us happy, healthy, & financially prosperous. Rather, His first priority is to receive the glory and honor that is rightfully due Him. Isaiah 42:8 says that He gives His glory to no other, and Isaiah 43:7 says we are created for His glory. We aren't made to try to make the most money we can before we die, or to have the nicest house we can, or even to have the most well-behaved children we can, or to give the most shoes to the homeless. Those things (money, houses, well-behaved children, charity, etc.) are not bad things in and of themselves. But if that's our focus in life, rather than pointing everything we do back to the One who made us all, then we have sadly missed the mark.
There is so much more I want to tell you, but I'll save it for another post. For now, please give careful consideration to these points. Without these things, I'm convinced that the rest of our beliefs aren't really relevant.
Jesus, please use these words however you see fit. Your word to us in the Bible says you give wisdom and knowledge and understanding (Proverbs 2:6), so I pray you will make your word clear to anyone who reads this so that they can see and understand even just a glimpse of who you really are. Thank you, Lord.
