Believe on Him Whom the Father Has Sent

"Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." (John 6:29)

I used to struggle with this.

He asked us to trust in Him, to believe on Him, and that was the one work?

Really?!

Don't I have to go to work? Doesn't He require us to wake up and do things?

Here's the response to this set of questions. All of this finally makes sense to me.

We need to see how big Jesus is. We need to see that He is a Savior for all our needs, for everything that we are facing in this life.

He is active.

He is alive.

He cares for you and me.

Ten years ago, I did not see Jesus as a living PERSON. I did not recognize Him as someone who was taking care of me every step of the way.

I am seeing more of how much He loves me, how much he cares for me.

I am finally understanding how active He is in my life. He is my life!

This is something that I did not learn right away. I had heard, I had learned so many verses, but never saw God as active. He was still just an idea in my life. That was all.

I am seeing more that He is the active component to all things in my life. Amen to all of this.

To Believe on Him whom the Father hath sent. The issue is now more than "believing on Him."

It's about seeing more of Him, that we may know more of Him!

He Loves Me -- He Loves ME! Believe That He Loves YOU!

I needed people to tell me I was forgiven.

I needed people to let me know that there was nothing that would make God made at me.

This is the verse, and I needed more people to explain the truth of it:

"For this is as the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee." (Isaiah 54:9)

Even when I have sinful thoughts, feelings, emotions, My Daddy God is not angry with me.

He is not going to run away from me or hide from me.

This is incredible

I wish that someone had told me this sooner. I wish that more people had explained to me how perfect the work was.

I was in Christ, because I had believed on Him.

And yet, I can remember talking about this ten years ago, a sense of guilt could not be removed from me. Like many people, I was fleshy enough to continue believing that I had to keep cleaning up my thoughts, my feelings to be acceptable to God.

It drove me to absolute, despairing distraction. The pain, the shame, the hurt was so great. I wish that I could proclaim all of this with reserve, but there are so many people who do not seem to agree, or do not want to hear it.

I felt such a sense of guilt, but the answer is not to try to clean it up The answer is to believe!

It can be really tough for us, since so many of us are so used to thinking "Let me do something to feel better."

Jesus cut through all of that:

"Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." (John 6:29)

He loves me! That is the "Work", to believe on Him! YES!

I wish that more people had explained to me that Jesus carried every sin, every failing, and that He would never, ever punish me again for my sins.

I BELIEVE THAT TODAY! What great love!

Seeing Him Who Has Been From the Beginning

A real change, a real peace of mind has become pre-eminent for me.

I see Jesus, because I know that He sees Me.

He has been watching me, and watching out for me.

Even when I sin, even when I fail, even when I fall, I know that He will never fail, He will never walk away.

This is what love is all about.

Jesus, my Savior, the brother closer than any other, promised, and He has never not deliver.

"I will never leave you nor forsake you," (Hebrews 13:5).

That's what it is all about.

There is no future to worry about, because He carries everything. There is no yesterday to be ashamed of, because He covers everything.

In the midst of bad thoughts, bad feelings, He is Oh So Good to me.

Jesus, I love you.

I love you because You have indeed so loved me!

I see you before me and behind me, and I am a being who lives because of You!

Thank you for loving me first!

AMEN!

Why Was I Found "Guilty" In Court

Now that I get to unpack how much Daddy God loves me, it has gotten easier to look back at painful times in my life.

In fact, I do not think I would have run to Him for help in the trying times outside of me and within me if not for this "Guilty" verdict in the courtroom on October 25, 2018.

I had such unease in my spirit throughout the protracted trial. I just had this unease about everything, since so much evidence was supressed. The district attorney lied to the jury, and I was not allowed to call up my witnesses, either. Unreal.

After the guilty verdict, and my decision to delay sentencing until the next Tuesday, I went out to grab a bite with my friends who had attended the hearing. I was relatively calm, at peace. I was saddened, but not grieved, panicked, fearful, angry ... yet.

When I went home that night, lying in bed, the rage just bellowed out of me, as well as the panic. "WHY GOD! HOW COULD YOU ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN?!"

I was terrified, truly terrified. Was I alone in this world? Was I living in line with a lie now?

Why didn't you help me? Where were you, God?

I cried to my boss, Brian, for an hour. The pain was so great, the loss, the terror that followed. How could this be happening?!

I then called another friend of mine, who revealed to me the pain and loss he had suffered following a criminal conviction of his own.

It then occured to me after that. I had to stop running to other people. Even if they were there for me, they could not help me. I had to run boldly to the throne of grace.

I had to put this in His hands.

As I write this now, I recall the pain, the outrage, the fierce anger when my mother had left me at the airport in 1995. What was God doing? How could He do this to me?

The next day, two decades ago, this incredible peace had washed over me. For the first time in months, I was not depressed, fearful, caught in condemnation. If things had progressed better, I would have stayed there and never gone back to my mother ever again.

Fast forward to last year ...

I now look at what happened in 2018, after the guilty verdict. A level of peace washed over me that weekend. I began to meditate on my righteousness, actually His righteousness imputed to me.

No, I still am not stating it accurately:

"For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." (2 Corinthians 5:21)

He became sin--the noun. We became the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Not just righteous, and not just any kind of righteousness, but the righteousness of God.

We took on a completely new standing. This is quite a revelation, and something that has still yet to permeate within me.

I meditated on His righteousness, and the right standing that I received from Friday, when I flew off to Texas, to my return flight. It was a great time, despite the legal recriminations hanging over me.

Thank you, Jesus, for your gift of righteousness, which You call on us to receive--and keep receiving! (Romans 5:17)

I am a new creature, a New Creation in Christ Jesus.

Six months later, I look at what has happened. My life has really changed. My awareness of Jesus, of His love for me, has developed in ways that I would have never anticipated.

Here's the most important thing that I needed to learn: that Jesus loves me, and that the proof of this love does not depend on what is happening to me in the world. 

And therein was the problem. I needed to receive a "Guilty" verdict in the world as assurance that God loves me and that I am "Not Guilty" and "Never Guilty" before Him--and His witness is greater (1 John 5:9).

Before the guilty verdict last year, this witness for me still depended on what was happening in the world.

That is wrong, and that will not work. Recall the account at the end of Mark 4, when fearful disciples cried out to Jesus as the storms battered their boat. Jesus did still the storm, a megacalm followed, but they were even more afraid!

These discpiles at the time didn't understand who they had in their boat! They didn't realize that Jesus was not just "Master", but "Savior." For me, I didn't have the fullest revelation of God's love for me. It was all based on outer circumstances. 

During that trial, I was relying on myself, my efforts to try to get God to get a "Not Guilty" verdict for me. I did not see Him as a loving, active Savior ready to step into my life, into my circumstances right then and there. I admitted to Him that the lingering terrors of courts, of magistrates were still so great to me.

Yet what does Peter write to his beloved fellow-believers?

"But and if ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled;" (1 Peter 3:14)

There is an attempted terror in the powers of the state. And what of it?!

Besides, righteousness brings immense protection!

"No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD." (Isaiah 54:17)

Not only that, but a friend of mine then called me two weeks after the verdict was rendered:

"Arthur, I have looked at everything. Your life doesn't change." He meant, of course in the sense of bad things happening to me. "These are misdemeanors, so you won't lose privileges which would happen if you had been convicted for a felony." He then shared with me about friends of his who had protested abortions and stood outside of abortion clinics. Those individuals were convicted of "tresspassing" to save lives.

One lady I knew was not only convicted, but went to jail for two weeks! In the jail, she worked with other women and she helped lead a few of them to believe in Christ Jesus. WOW!

This same woman had come to my aid in the past. She was even present in the courtroom that day that I was found guilty. She told me "Just give it to God and let Him take care of it."

At the time, I had a hard time with that. I could not see the best in all of this, even though I had been reading and meditating on all of God's blessings in the life of Joseph. The lawyer who was assigned to me didn't even understand what I was talking about. What a shame--at the time.

I have started realizing that God has been loving me since the very beginning. There was so much that I had not seen, had not undersatnd about God's unflailing love for me. I just didn't get it at the time.

Over the last six months, then three months, then three weeks, I had to place everything in His hands. I had no choice. There was no amount of effort that I could engage in. I could not fix this problem. I could not right the wrongs placed before me. I had to cry out to God all out.

This happened about two weeks ago. I just cried out to God, and His supernatural peace just overwhelmed me.

God promised as much through the Apostle Paul:

"6Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. 7And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:6-7)

I used to think that my fears, my sexual perversions, the warring desires and feelings inside of me were blocking of frustrating God's love for me. I later learned, and in the midst of this very trying time and process, that all of that is not true. He was actively loving me, has been actively loving me.

This love just freed me from so many perversions. The fact that His love was in place before I was born secured a sense of freedom, took away any sense of fear.

The ravishing love of the Father has been rushing into me like never before! I LOVE THIS!

And all of this had to come about through a "guilty" verdict.

What irony. I know how righteous, how justified I am because of man's empty, hollow, meaningless condemnation.

Thank you, Jesus, for this small trial! Again, Peter shared:

"3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, 5Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: 7That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:" (1 Peter 1:3-7)

This small "setback" was a set-up for God to do even greater things for me.

What great love He has for me. So much that I needed to see, yet had not seen.

Why Christ Jesus Told Mary "Don't Touch Me" at The Tomb

"Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God." (John 20:17)

"Don't touch, for
I have not yet ascended to my father."

When I was in high school, I approached one of the elders in my local church about this passage. Mary recognized Jesus as soon as He said her name.

She called Him "Rabboni", which means "my teacher". It was personal!

The elder shared with me that Jesus did not want to interrupt her lack of faith.

Later on, Jesus would reveal Himself to the eleven remaining disciples, and even invited Thomas to touch His wounds so that He would believe on Him.

But really, though, why did Jesus tell Mary not to touch Him?

It has to do with His next work to fulfill in His death on the Cross. Note that Jesus told Mary "I have not yet ascended to my Father."

Jesus was not talking about His first Ascension are recorded in the Book of Acts.

This ascension had to do with His new role as our High Priest Forever!

"11But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; 12Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. 13For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: 14How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" (Hebrews 9:11-14)

And then

"23It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:" (Hebrews 9:23-24)

Jesus completed the full minister as our Great High Priest.

When Mary had arrived at the tomb, Jesus had not yet ascended to complete the work!

And a High Priest must remain undefiled!

"1And the LORD said unto Moses, Speak unto the priests the sons of Aaron, and say unto them, There shall none be defiled for the dead among his people: 2But for his kin, that is near unto him, that is, for his mother, and for his father, and for his son, and for his daughter, and for his brother, 3And for his sister a virgin, that is nigh unto him, which hath had no husband; for her may he be defiled. 4But he shall not defile himself, being a chief man among his people, to profane himself." (Leviticus 21:1-4)

Jesus ascended into heaven, before the Heavenly Father. His blood cleansed the place where Satan had stood, where Adam at once time was graced to stand but rejected because He had submitted to an outlaw Spirit.

After Jesus ascended to cleanse the Holy of Holies, He returned to His disciples:

"19Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. 20And when he had so said, he shewed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord. 21Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. 22And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: 23Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained." (John 20:19-23)

Jesus told Mary "Don't Touch Me", because He had not yet cleansed the Holy of Holies in the Heavenlies, the last part of His Finished Work as our High Priest Forever!

With that final cleansing, He came down to His disciples, breathed on them to receive His Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Adoption (Romans 8:15), so that we could call God "Daddy!"

JESUS! Restore to Me Everything That Was Taken

Our Daddy God is in the restoration business.

Just ask Him to restore to you all that was lost, all that was taken!

Daddy God, I am upset.

I lost so much of my life because of the lies of the enemy. I did not believe that all my sins were forgiven. I did not believe that you had everything covered, everything taken care of for me.

I was told to believe that I was on my own in this lost dark sullen world.

I didn't know that I could to run to you whenever I was in need.

Why? Because my parents didn't know how much you loved them.

My father's self-esteem was found in rescuing everyone else. How wrong, how selfish all that is.

My mother believed that you had to work for God's love. It was not even about love for her. "Love is not a feeling, it's an action," she would constantly tell me.

I was expected to love others. The pressure was on me to love God with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength.

Here's the problem: How do I do that? I cannot give what I do not have.

My parents both did not know the love of the Father. No wonder I was so lost. No wonder that so many people have struggled to understand what I have been talking about. No wonder that so many people, despite their best intentions, were so often giving me bad advice. They were drawing out of their limited knowledge, rather than relying on the unlimited love of God the Father, our Daddy God.

That was the kind of love that was needed, that we all need. How sad it is that there have been so many people in my life, even close friends and family, who turn down God's love for them to go with family, tradition, experience.

No thank you.

Jesus! Please restore to me everything that was taken. Restore to me everything that Satan lied to me about.

Jesus! I now understand. All this time, you wanted me to let you love me!

When I receive your love, there is more love for me to give to others. This is a wonderful thing. So happy! So happy!

For the longest time, I puzzled about what to do when I felt bad. I have now learned that I did not have to do anything. You are alive! You fill up every empty space in this world. There is no dead air. There is no dead space.

You hold everything together!

"[He] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: 16For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: 17And he is before all things, and by him all things consist." (Colossians 1:15-17)

He holds it all together. I was never supposed to run to other people for help. The kind of help that I needed -- that comes from YOU!

"I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.

"My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth." (Psalm 121:1-2)

It's not that other people do not want to help. Even the best of the best out there, from the greatest ministers to the wisest statements, cannot help. It's not about casting our cares on others. It's about casting our cares on Him.

The answer to every fear, to every hurt--is JESUS!

His Perfect Love is Unconditional Love

"There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love." (1 John 4:18)

I used to fear so much. I worried about the future. I wondered if "One Day, all my sins will be found out!"

I feared that all my needs would not be met.

I wondered if I would be all alone in this world.

I had so many, so many fears.

Then I felt about these fears, because I would look at the above verse, unable to make sense of something.

If I was fearful, it's that I didn't understand how much God loved me. If I was fearful, it meant that I wasn't "as He is", based on the previous verse.

Now I look at this verse with renewed revelation.

Love is perfected among us because as Jesus is, so are WE in this world.

This is a revelation for all of us.

And yet, individuals in the Body of Christ may struggle, may suffer in their understand of God's perfect love for us.

And there it all makes sense. I used to read that passage in 1 John 4:18, concluding "I guess I am not saved."

The truth is that I did not understand how perfect God's love was for me! He loves me perfectly, uncondititionally, irrespective of how I feel, or what I may be thinking or feeling.

He loved me and cared for me, even when I feared for my life, my liberty, my dignity. Even when I feared the worst and bad people were going to come get me. Even when I thought I was completely alone in the world, and no one knew what I was going through.

No one had ever told me that God loved me like that. No one.

Perfect love is unconditional love, the love of God sending His Son to die for me, to take all my sins, to free me from the penalties of sin. His love took me from dead in my trespasses to alive, seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, in God's own Son! (Ephesians 2:4-6)

Rightly did the Psalmist write:

"Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.

"Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:" (Psalm 103:1-2)

and also

"Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it." (Psalm 139:6)

When we understand that God sees us and loves us as much as His own Son, we need never fear again!

"And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased." (Luke 3:22)

Notice that God the Father, Daddy God, addressed His Beloved Son directly: "You are!" Not "This is!"

God says this to all of us "You are my Beloved Son!"

You! Me!

That is perfect love. That is unconditional love. When we understand that, it casts out all fears!

It puts out of doors of every perversion. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, none of it matters when we have His perfect love for us!

Wow!

For Victory Over Sexual Immorality, Let the Love of the Father Inside You

Interestingly enough, Pastor Joseph Prince of Singapore released the entire video for one of his sermons:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Vx3AgKmlQE

I have watched this video a few times. I wanted to break free of internal sexual demands.

The sexual issues I struggled with, however, were not taken care of very well. They did not go away, as I had hoped they would, from watching the particular sermon above. It's interesting, too, because in this sermon I find that the pastor does not stress the power and glory of God's grace to help us all overcome these failings which all of us fall into.

I suppose that it is just as well that I differ with Pastor Prince on this matter. No one should be so keenly attached to one pastor and everything that he preaches. All of us have to grow in grace, even those who preach God's Word, and who do so quite well.

Pastor Joseph Prince makes a lot of comparisons and discusses sexual dynamics. He praises women and denigrates men sometimes--jokingly, of course, but sometimes it irritates me.

He also stesses extensively that single people should seek the blessing of getting married. That really bothers me--and that imposition is not scriptural. There is no reason for anyone to feel inadequate, lacking, or "less than" if they remain single.

Paul the Apostle said it best:

"Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman." (1 Corinthians 7:1)

and also

"Art thou bound unto a wife? seek not to be loosed. Art thou loosed from a wife? seek not a wife." (1 Corinthians 7:27)

It's beautiful to be celibate. It is beautiful to be single! I wish that Pastor Prince and other ministers around the world understood this revelation. I am not sure why so many do not convey this truth.

At any rate ...

In his sermon about Victory Over Sexual Immorality, he does not talk about "The Love of the Father." Yet those who struggle with temptations: pornography, masturbation (self-starting), fornication, multiple partners, adultery--fall into one of the three categories outlined by John the Beloved:

"15Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. 17And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever." (1 John 2:15-17)

They are indulged, engaged in "lust of the flesh". They go for the lust of the eyes, and they have this pride of life, to feel like big shots in a world full of small people seeking to make others smaller.

Also, Pastor Prince's preaching in the above, to abstain from sexual immorality, stresses the following points:

1. Restraining yourself for sexual pleasure in the confines of marriage, which is more pleasurable

2. Avoiding fornication will make you smarter and sharper

3. Refraining from sexual immorality will give you greater spiritual expression --- Here, Pastor Prince wisely, wonderfully points out that Joseph, the son of Jacob and savior of his brethren and the Israelite nation, started interpreting his dreams after he refused Potiphar's wife and her perverse advances.

These are all great points.

However, these incentives do not entice or motivate people to abstain from fleshly lusts. If people think they can't have something better, they will settle for what is available. 

Let's return to what John the Beloved, the Disciple whom Jesus Loved, had to say in his First Epistle.

Why do people seek the lust of the flesh?

"The lover of the Father is not in him."

It's worth pointing out that Joseph the patriarch knew his Father's love--both his earthly as well as his heavenly Father.

He experienced God's favor throughout his life, especially when he was reduced to nothing, stripped naked, and sold into slavery:

"1And Joseph was brought down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him of the hands of the Ishmealites, which had brought him down thither. 2And the LORD was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian." (Genesis 39:1-2)

Now that's AWESOME! That is love!

Joseph knew and believed in God's love for him.

Therefore, he could reject Potiphar's wife:

"There is none greater in this house than I; neither hath he kept back any thing from me but thee, because thou art his wife: how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?" (Genesis 39:9)

God the Father was blessing and fulfilling Joseph in so many ways long before all of this!

God was good to Joseph! 

God was blessing Joseph, watching out for him the whole time!

It's the goodness of God, the grace of God that leads us more into His holiness, and away from the world's sinfulness:

"11For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, 12Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;" (Titus 2:11-12)

Grace, God's unmerited favor helps us to "deny ungodliness and worldly lusts"!

When we know the love of the Father, when we allow His love into us, all that dead, boring, ugly, destructive stuff falls away.

Imagine what would happen if we started telling young people: "Daddy God is madly in love with you. He is madly in love with you, declaring your righteous, blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 1:3-6)

He is in love with you, even if you engage in some strange sexual perversities. The more that you see how much he warmly, richly loves you--the less you will engage in other perversions, whether sexual or otherwise.

"Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?" (Romans 2:4)

When boys know that they are prized and loved by their Heavenly father, they won't try to find that love and acceptance in one-night stands. The same is true for girls.

They need to know the love of the Father, and they need to know that that warm, rich, satisfying love is already waiting for them. They just need to allow that love in!

Pastor Prince's most important revelation in the midst of these very personal, difficult, painfully intimate struggles?

"Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body." (1 Corinthians 6:18)

and

"10For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. 11But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness." (1 Timothy 6:10-11)

So what is going on for those caught in a cycle of sexual sin?

Pastor Prince delivers the problem perfectly!

If you do fail?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wm1LbIlmtfg

"1There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1)

There is no condemnation! God's love does not go away! His grace never stops flowing into our lives. When we start relying on our efforts--whether to fulfill lusts or to abstain--we are set free!

No condemnation -- we are accepted, fully loved and embraced in the Beloved!

There you have it.

The more that people understand how loved they are by God, why would they settle for the petty, temporal trash of one-night stands, empty sexual escapades, and shameful loss?

Final Reflection

The answer to sexual morality is not found in telling young people "Wait for marriage. It will be worth it." That does not work.

Why do these lusts in our flesh continue to tug at us, draq us into their net, whether we are young or old?

We do not know the Love of the Father. We have not allowed the Father's love into us.

Why do we not know the love of the Father?

We do not understand the Finished Work of the Son.

The answer to sexual immorality is divine intimacy. The answer to unhealthy desires is to know how much God the Father desires you.

If you feel like you are lacking something, look and see how much you Daddy God supplies to you--freely! (Romans 8:32)

If you think that your sins, your lusts and pride have separated you from the Father, consider that nothing can separate us from Him (Romans 8:38-39)

Don't focus on overcoming the sin. Be overcome by the Father's love for you!

Overcoming the Slights of Men With God's Eternal Love

Every since I became an active citizen, an activist for serious political causes, I have had my fair share of dust-ups and brush-ups.

People have pushed me, stolen from me, chased me down streets, spit at me.

Some people have gotten in my face.

I was the victim a few times, and yet even then some of these wannabe macho types would comment on Facebook, YouTube channels, or other sites and comment:

"If I had been there, I would have never let that happen to me."

"That guy wouldn't have gotten away with that."

Some of them just attacked me:

"You are a wimp."

"What a cuck!"

Blah, Blah, Blah.

For a long time, though, I did think about the wrongs that had been perpetrated against me. A sense of outrage and shame would overtake me. "How could I let them get away with that? What was I thinking! I should have stepped up and pushed back!"

For a long time, I began to prep myself with this sense of "punch back! punch first!" mentality. I wanted to make sure that no one ever got away with messing with me, with taking something from me, with affecting my dignity.

I was meditating on this dilemma last night. Why did I have a sense of outrage? Why could I not rest over one conflict that I had endured, even though a number of people had told me that I had handled it properly?

Then I realized--out of the many people who had praised how I had handled one very tough situation, I was focusing on one person whose blood was boiling when he watched what I sat through quietly.

It occured to me then: many people do not see, do not understand the love of the Father the way that I have understood him. While many people have a sense of self-important and pre-eminence, and cannot abide the thought of being shouted at, shamed, dishonored by dead people in this fallen world, I know and believe that God's love for me has been from everlasting to everlasting.

There is nothing that the world can do a man who has been established in righteousness. There is no shame that will stick to a man who knows that He is fully accepted in the Beloved. No shame, no dishonor, the hollow laughter of little people cannot affect a man who knows where he is seated:

"But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 6And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:" (Ephesians 2:4-6)

When you understand that you have the favor and fervor of Almighty God, who cares what other people say about you? Really--who cares?

Then I began to realize that I had been entertaining a different form of mixture. I was taking other people's opinions and views of certain issues and conflicts in my life.

The shame and abuse of others cannot stop me, cannot hurt me, because I have perfect standing in my loving father. It really doesn't matter what other people say to me.

This active love of my Daddy fills me up and shapes me.

If I failed to stand up for myself one time, I do not have to live in a sense of shame. I do not have to worry about fixing or repairing a situation. I do not have to be done or hard on myself because I could have, should have, would have said something, done something different.

This is quite liberating. His life is coursing through my my heart, my mind, my soul, and my strength.

And the more that I simply rest and understand where I stand in Christ, the easier and wiser I have become in repeling and rebuking hateful people.

"No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD." (Isaiah 54:17)

Not Bringing God In, But Recognizing that He Has Always Been

For the last two days, I have thought about the harrowing situations, dangers, hurts frustrations, and all the rest which I have faced.

When I panicked or worried, I felt that I had to struggle, do something to remove the fears in my life. If I didn't get my emotions right, it would frustrate God's grace at work in me.

Now, of course, I know what really does frustrate the grace of God:

"20I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. 21I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." (Galatians 2:20-21)

It's not about our effort, but His life.

It's not about tyring to bring God, but realizing that He is already at work in us. The moment that we try to "help God" so to speak, we are frustrating His grace, His favor, His fervor in our lives.

"When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory." (Colossians 3:4)

So, God is actively, passionately loving each of us.

There are some of us who receive it. There are others who indulge in it.

And there are those of us who can't get enough and just want to know and receive more and more of His love for us!

That's me, baby!

"17That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, 18May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; 19And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." (Ephesians 3:17-19)

Two Good Things I Remember About My Mother

Full disclosure: My mother's name was Pamela Adele Milligan ... Schaper.

I can't call her "Mom" anymore, though, since she was not a good mother. I pretty much had to fire her toward the end of her life. She had lied to me, taught me to regard Alcoholics Anonymous is a sacrosanct program in line with the Bible and Christian faith.

None of that is true. Alcoholics Anonymous is a dangerous cult, founded by an evil fraud who wanted to turn himself into a modern-day Messiah. He never worked his program, really. A serial smoker and adulterer, Bill Wilson was clamoring for alcohol at the end of his life all while sucking canned air on an oxygen tank to get through the last days of his miserable existence.

But there are not one, but two good things I remember about Pam. I am sure that there will be more things. I see how good God is, and that all the while when I suffered in lies and the bondage of errors which Pam had forced upon me.

1. How Pam Quit Smoking.

This is a story I never hesitate to share with others. When she started running with Alcoholics Anonymous, she quit drinking in 1978. However, she still smoked like a chimney. She smoked everywhere. This addiction was so much harder to quit.

Not until 1984, when she was in her bedroom (and I think I saw this when I was a little kid, and all of us were living in a tract home in the Harbor Gateway section of Los Angeles County), did she cry out for help.

She prayed:

"Lord, I have little faith in you. I have no faith in myself. Please take away from this desire to smoke."

And she was set free! No 12 Steps, no working a program. She had no confidence in her flesh, in her self-effort, and she committed herself completely to the grace of God.

2. She knew that I was going to be a well-established writer.

It was my Freshman year in high school. I was constantly writing stuff down. When my sister was graduating from 8th grade, and we were attending her promotion ceremony at Zamperini Stadium in Torrance.

"You will be published," she remarked, trusting full well that I would be well regarded fully for the things that I would write.

How true that is today! Amen.

A Wise Man Keeps His Mind In

There is so much that I wish I could share right now, but time simply will not permit it.

There is also the fear of the moral and political backlash. How many questions, how many attacks, how much slander from evil people all around do I really want to put up with?

"A fool uttereth all his mind: but a wise man keepeth it in till afterwards." (Proverbs 29:11)

Let's keep the most intimate aspects of our walk to ourselves. That is the proper way to go about in this world.

I just wish that I could open my mind and heart to the world, that they could see, understand, relish the joy, the peace, the settled mind which has become so much a part of me now!

Time will tell. I can utter my mind afterwards.

-----

Another take on this verse:

"Fools give full vent to their rage, but the wise bring calm in the end." (Proverbs 29:11)

Why scream and yell about everything?

Sometimes, we misunderstand the situations we face. When more is revealed, the need to rage dissipates.

Refraining from emotional outbursts brings greater peace, too.

I Stopped Playing Chess -- No Need To Play When His Love Fulfills

For a while, I found myself getting glued to playing online chess.

I would play one ten-minute game, then it turned into 10 games, then 20.

Yes, I was addicted. I had started playing online in December 2017, when my Facebook accounts were disabled.

I was free from social media, but I still wanted to do "something" on the computer. I started playing online chess. I played different games, different scenarios.

The verve of winning was a lot of fun. The jolt of victory gives you a real high.

Some days, I found myself tumbling into the chess games so much, that the whole day would just evaporate. Gone!

Such a loss of time.

One day, in Monterey Park, I found myself playing with another guy. He had more experience. He played in more tournaments. I lost nearly every game I played against him. Slowly, I got better at playing. I realized that to play well, I couldn't get too jolly, giddy, or silly.

He walked me through a number of games, and he gave me honest appraisals for how I played and I what I did when I played. It was a crazy learning experience, too, since I had grown so accustomed to playing on a 2-D screen as opposed to working with 3-D pieces.

After that, more good things were coming my way, and more revelations about God's love and goodness entered into my mind and heart. Then one day, as I was playing chess on the computer, I found myself quite bored with it. The same moves, the same parries, the same game. It started really boring me.

As I understood more about how much God loved me, that need for an extra "buzz" was gone. I didn't need to do something to get it. Not only that, but I was having more fun winning battles and making inroads with the work that I have been doing with MassResistance. All of that came together, and a sense of completeness worked in me.

I stopped playing chess, and a sense of "need to play" was suddenly lifted from me.

It's amazing what a grand revelation of God's love can do for all of us when we just believe on Him and receive from Him.

Trials Are For Trusting God More

These tough circumstances have happened many times in my life.

God wants us to trust Him. He wants us to believe that He is coming through for us. He wants us to trust Him to come through for us every time.

Yet ... the temptation for us to do something, to fall into our own efforts, to wonder if He will come through for us is so strong.

Isn't it, though?

Remember that it was 20 years before God blessed Abraham and Sarah with the child of promise. It was many years after that before God told Abraham to offer up his son Isaac. Abraham had experienced so much of God's goodness, He had seen God come through for him every time.

There was nothing holding him back from offering up Isaac as a sacrifice.

Why?

The writer of Hebrews answers that question perfectly:

"17By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, 18Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: 19Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure." (Hebrews 11:17-19)

The beginning of this powerful chapter, from which this account is drawn, begins:

"1And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am." (Genesis 22:1)

The word "Tempt" is a little off. The better term would be "test" or "try", the same way that a metal smith tests gold and silver, to ensure that it is pure.

God was not setting up Abraham to see whether he would succeed or fail. God put him through this trial to show the type of faith that our beloved Father of Faith Abraham really had!

Abraham so trusted God, that he foresaw God bringing his son back from the dead. Abraham both knew and believed that God loved him, loved Isaac, and that he would bring him back to life. He had to, since through Isaac all the nations of the world would be blessed. "From whence he received him in a figure," Abraham received indeed. Isaac served as the type and shadow of Jesus, God's only Begotten Son, who would be delivered up for all the sins of the world, who would be brought back from the dead, and through Him indeed all the nations of the world would be blessed.

To this day, the world is blessed, for those who believe on Christ Jesus!

So, the trials that I have faced manifold times in my life ... I must say that I have had my fair share of them. God wants me to see Him not just as the only source, but the best source out there. In Mark 4, the disciples could cry out to no one but the Lord Jesus, who was soundly asleep on a pillow while the winds raged and the waters flooded their boat.

Think about it -- if Jesus is sound asleep, what did they really have to worry about? He was asleep, but the disciples feared the worst. Worst yet, they did not know who was in the boat with them. "And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish?" (Mark 4:38)

They saw Him as Master, not Savior.

They saw Him as uncaring, but He has never ceased caring for us.

They thought they were perishing, when The Way, the Truth, and the Life was in the boat with them!

Yet even despite all of this, Jesus rose up and quieted the storms with one word. They still feared, though:

"41And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?" (Mark 4:41)

As for me, I want to get to that point where I never doubt His love for me. Ever.

I welcome every trial, for each trial grants me the grace to see that He is not only on my side, but He is prepared to save me, succor me, and secure me from the worst out there. I want to know Him better than before. I am so glad to that He loves me as much as all that and then some. This is great!

Trials are all about trusting God more, so that He can grace us with more, since we will rely less on our own flesh and more on His Love, His Grace, His Goodness.

What is new to me, though, is that this sense of "being stuck", of being stuck between the Pharaoh and the Deep Red Sea is very much part of the Christian life, the life that Jesus gives to us:

"In him was life; and the life was the light of men." (John 1:4)

We should not fear unspeakable hardships. The more dire the situation, the more that we can rest assured that He will rush in to help us.

I look back over my life, and there were many "last minute saves". Sometimes it seems that there were simply too many, as though there was something wrong with me. Was I making mistakes? Did I somehow miss what God was trying to do? What was He saying? What was He doing? Where did I go wrong? Did I do anything right?

At the end of it all, it became crystal clear to -- and has only become clearer since then -- that He has been watching with me, working with me, working in me, and working all around me to be guided by His grace.

The trials are wonderful, that I may trust Him more, and there is such joy in that, to see Him come through for me.

AMEN!

Take No Thought for the Morrow -- He Has Already Taken Care of It

33But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

34Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." (Matthew 6:33-34)

God's righteousness is not about doing things God's way.

His righteousness is not something that is done. He is righteous, and our Loving Father is righteousness. It's part of His identity.

Consider what Christ Jesus is to us:

"But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:" (1 Corinthians 1:30)

Christ is our righteousness.

And because of Jesus, we have been made the righteousness of God in Christ"

"For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." (2 Corinthians 5:21). 

Notice that Paul does not say that Jesus made us righteous (adjective). We have been made the rightoeusness--definite article--of God in Christ Jeasus.

Not only that, but a grand exchange took place. Jesus did not just take our sin, but He became sin. He took it away, and there is no way that it can be taken back! It's a done deal.

Now, back to the Sermon on the Mount:

"Seek you First the Kingdon of God and His righteousness".

Jesus did not impose on His disciples to "be righteous." He told them to "seek His righteousness."

We have that today of Jesus.

Before that, let's consider what Jesus shared with His audience:

"31Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? 32(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things." (Matthew 6:31-32)

and then

"34Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." (Matthew 6:34)

What makes these verses sing for my heart today? What makes these wonderful promises stand out for me today?

I know how much my Daddy God loves me. I realize now, much more than ever, that He was always loving me. There is no longer any question about how big, how grand He is NOW!

Why was this a problem in the past? Because of the stupid AA cult, which teaches people to turn one's will and life over to a power greater than oneself as we understand Him.

That is so patently offensive now that I look at the verse in italics. How can anyone even dream to understand God? How can we take into account His grace, His power, His goodness? Such grace, such grandeur, such glory is too great for us!

"Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me.

6Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.

7Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?" (Psalm 139 5-7)

He is taking care of everything. He is before us, and after us! Such love is too great for me to understand. I just have to keep growing in grace and take in more of His love for me!

He was always there for me, and He was actively caring for me. The righteousness issue has to be resolved, however, or we will be too busy trying to fix ourselves rather than trusting that He is taking care of us.

He cares for the birds, He cares for the flowers, so what would possibly make us think that He does not care for us? Only if we see our sins and ourselves, just as Adam and Eve fled from their Creator in the garden.

Today, all of these revelations make so much sense, these revealing loves of Daddy God are so clear. But ten years ago, I was constantly struggling with fear, constantly wondering if Daddy God had my back. I could not see into tomorrow. I feared so much for tomorrow. I actually believed that tomorrow was out of God's control!

Now that I have such a deeper knowledge of God's love for me, it's so much fun to cast my cares onto Him (1 Peter 5:6-7).

There is no need for me to take thought, to worry about tomorrow. He is taking thought for everything before me and after me! Hallelujah!

There Are Some Things Not Worth Sharing -- They Are Worth So Much

"The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant." (Psalm 25:14)

Some things should be kept to ourselves.

It's not so much that ideas, revelations, intuitions do not matter.

It's just that these beloved secrets which are loving Father gives us do not belong to anyone else.

There is so much out there that we here from Him. It's not for the rest of the world to hear, to read, to see, to share with others.

Such is the case when you realize how much God loves you.

Besides this, I have received so much revelation from my loving Father, I just cannot keep it all in.

Some things we learn, and we get the grace and peace to share these wonderful revelations with the public. It is wonderful.

Some things are not worth sharing, beacuse they are worth so much.

His Love is Pre-Emptive

For the last two weeks, I have been thinking about all the times and troubles I had faced in my life.

This past evening, I recalled the internal struggles that I went through as a substitute teacher.

When I realized how much Daddy God loved me, I had no fear. I could speak to students with conviction, without recrimination or concern.

Yet a sense of burden still overwhelmed me. I had to be "Focused" on His love for it to work in my life.

Wow! Talk about burdens!

I felt like a schizophrenic. My mind was working double-time: trying to live in everyday life; trying to hold onto God.

But all this time I am learning that He has been holding onto me!

He has loved me with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3)

It's never been bringing Him into my situation. He has always been there for me.

He promised:

"Let your manner of living be without covetousness, and be content with such things as ye have. For He hath said, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee”" (Hebrews 13:5)

His love is pre-emptive. His love came into play for me since the foundation of the world. Even when I didn't care about Him, He cared for me! (Romans 5:8)

Even now, when I think about how He has been loving me since the beginning, I just can't help but be at peace. It just gives me such joy to know that He has been watching out for me since the beginning!

Nothing Will Separate Me From God's Love -- Including My Sin

"38For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38-39)

For the longest time, I used to believe that my sins, my thoughts, the perversions in my flesh had to be removed from me before I could understand, received, enjoy God's love.

It's amazing to me how I didn't understand this, even though I have been hearing this verse so many times before.

Nothing can separate me from God's love--and that is because I am now in Christ!

"But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 6And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:" (Ephesians 2:4-6)

This love is active and involved in my life. Nothing is stopping it.

Nothing can prevent it.

Just as Paul wrote, I had to be persuaded to believe it.

It takes time.

It does not happen overnight for us.

Again, this is why Paul had to pray on his knees that we would understand how much God loves us! (Ephesians 3:14-19)

There is so much clutter that has to be removed in our lives, so many things that we believe which are ... wrong.

Let's believe the truth -- let's know and believe in God's love for us!

It's Not About Our Love for God, But God's Love for Us

"We love because He first loved us." (1 John 4:19)

I wrote in a previous post about maturity in Christ Jesus.

We need to see how much God loves us. It's not about how much we love God.

We cannot give what we do not have. We cannot give what we do not think we have, either.

Consider what David declared in his final prayer as he passed on the kingdom to his beloved son Solomon:

"But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? for all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee." (! Chronicles 29:14)

We cannot give but what we have freely received from Him.

Paul did not pray for the Ephesians to love more.

He prayed that they would understand how much God loves them!

"14For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 16That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; 17That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, 18May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; 19And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." (Ephesians 3:14-19)

Paul did not pray the following:

1. Do more for God.
2. Love God more.
3. Give more to charity.

Paul's prayer is incredible, and incredibly power.

To the best of my knowledge, this passage contains the only time when he wrote "I bow my knees", to show how earnest, how heart-felt, how emphatic his prayer is!

1. Be strengthened with might by His Spirit
2. Let Christ be at home in your hearts
3. Be rooted and grounded in love--His love
4. Comprehend, take into understanding His love in all directions
5. To know--to understand with greater awareness, even intimately--the love of Christ

NOTE here - it's Christ's love for us, not our love for Him. This revelation skips over so many people. We are so busy trying to love God, when we need to get "busy" understanding how much He loves us.

This deeper knowledge reminds me of a scene in The Wizard of Oz.

Towards the end of the movie, when Dorothy Gale returns with her three friends, she finds out that the Wizard is just an old humbug professor from Kansas. He doesn't really have any power, and there is not much he can offer to the four weary travelers who sought home, brains, hearts, and courage.

When the Wizard finds something for the Tin Man, he provides him a clock-working heart medallion.

Then the Wizards says:

“A heart is not judged by how much you love; but by how much you are loved by others.”

Many people I know struggled with this statement. Isn't love about what you do for others, not the other way around? Isn't love an action?

No!

Love is about our ability to receive -- from God the Father!

"Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." (1 John 4:10)

Love is not about us or anything that we have done or will do.

God loved us, and He sent His Son to be our Mercy Seat. He is the atonement for all the sins of all the world. He loved us first!

Love is defined by what God did, for God is love! (1 John 4:7-8).

It's not about our love for God, but God's love for us!

Babies Work for Righteousness. Adults Receive Righteousness

We cannot earn righteousness, but rather we must receive it as a gift. If we are still trying to earn or work for it, then we are still little babies in Christ:

"13For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. 14But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil." (Hebrews 5:13-14)

Righteousness is all about faith, faith in God's promises specifically, and faith in Christ Jesus essentially:

"And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness." (Genesis 15:6)

Righteousness is something God declares that He will establish us in:

"14In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee." (Isaiah 54:14)

and then

"No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD." (Isaiah 54:17)

So, God's gift of righteousness is granted to us as a gift.

In His Love! In the Beloved!

"To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved." (Ephesians 1:6)

Last week, I was talking to a friend of mine. I said that I felt like Kanye West. His sense of new freedom has been something else to watch. He talks a lot about love, too. God's love is freedom, isn't it!

This sense of freedom had grown, has become increasingly overwhelming for me in the last week. I could not ignore it. I began to realize how much God loved me. Daddy God loves me, because of what His Only Begotten Son had done for me, and what His Son continues to do for me!

This love is just so much for me, I can hardly take it in, and there's still so much to take in!

"The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee." (Jeremiah 31:3)

This verse comes from the Old Testament, under the sacrifices of bulls and goats. Notice that the "Lord has appeared" here.

But John writes something far more intimate:

"For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." (John 1:17)

This is a love that has been in place since the beginning:

"According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:" (Ephesians 1:4)

God had His eye's on us from the outset. Before time began, He loved us!

Folks, we need to understand this! This matters so much. I submit to all of you who read this, that understanding, receiving a deeper revelation of how much God loves you is maturity in Christ. To be a real, grownup Christian, you need to know how much God loves you! It's not about how much you love Him, because we can only give what we have received.

"6To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved." (Ephesians 1:6)

We are accepted in Christ Jesus, yes indeed. More importantly, however, we are accepted in "The Beloved."

What does it mean to be in Christ? So much, and that includes to be "In Love". God is in love with us, and we are in His Love!

God's Love is Unconditional--Independent of All Circumstances

"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." (Romans 8:28)

This is yet another difficult message, a difficult revelation for me to accept.

It really is easy for us to believe that God loves us when things are going well.

Do we believe that He loves us when things are NOT going well?

His Love for us has nothing to do with what is going on around us.

God sent His Son into this fallen world without our knowledge or permission.

He loves us passionately, even if we don't get what is going on all the time.

I have received some interesting news, so who knows what will happen.

I used to wonder if God loved me when things were not going the way that I wanted them to go.

Now I realize the full meaning behind "We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, who are called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28)

We love because He First LOVED US!

I love God because I know that He loves me. He loved me first! (1 John 4:19)

Part of the struggle has also included seeing God's love as something that cannot coexist with trouble.

That's not true at all.

Let's start with the truth. God loves me! God is in love with me!

From there, we take into account everything else that is happening.

His love came first, regardless of what is happening. At this time, it has become more than essentizal for me to trust, to believe in that love, regardless of circumstances.