Finding our purpose in this world can be elusive and daunting. We have all considered those existential questions, haven’t we? There seems to be some invisible force driving us from the inside, relentlessly constraining us to seek after “Who am I, and why am I here?”. Am I wrong?

Being a follower of Jesus Christ may offer a perspective that leads us toward the answers to these questions, as the Bible addresses the reasons behind our need to know.

For those of you who struggle with this and do not have a relationship with Him, you have my heartfelt compassion and sincere desire for you to know Him, His unfailing love, and desire for an intimate relationship with you. If you are paying attention to all that is going on around you, there will come a time when you find yourself in a position to either acknowledge that nothing else will satisfy that longing in you, or choose to suppress it and attribute it to something else. My prayer is that you open your heart and mind to the possibility of Him and allow Him to be for you what He designed you to be, the focus of His love, in an eternal relationship with Him.

For my fellow believers and brothers in Christ, God has clearly laid out a plan and has already provided for your calling and purpose in this life. His plan reveals an intentional level of intimacy, not just for salvation, but for everything that follows as declared in His Word. Paul’s writings are full of defining statements and declarations of preordained provision for this very thing.
Over the next several weeks I would like to focus on what His plan for our purpose might look like, and to connect you with the provisions and promises of God for your identity, empowerment, qualification, equipping, and power for the unique purpose His is calling you to.
Let’s begin with a very special declaration statement, made by God about you through the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:17. Many of you are already familiar with this passage of Scripture. Let me share it with you here. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17 NKJV.
Paul is defining a new relationship you now have with Jesus Christ, that is no longer limited to the flesh. God has changed the parameters of this relationship to move far beyond the physical when we put our faith and trust in Him as our God.
The phrase “in Christ” is used to illustrate that all the current changes happening within and for us result from our new position in Christ, activated by our faith in Him, which has unlocked God’s great and precious promises and established a new relationship with Him through Jesus Christ.
Here, Paul defines us as a “New Creation” in Christ. A major change is taking place. Who and what we were no longer is. Instead, we have become something else. That sounds kind of strange, doesn’t it? But God declares in His Word that when we put our faith and trust in Him, He makes us something new. The old me is gone, and everything has changed. We have entered a new relationship with Him, and He has given us a new identity “in Christ”.
In part 2, we will discuss some changes provided by God for us in this new identity. If you want to prepare ahead, read through the book of Ephesians, and we will see you again for part 2.

As men we ask ourselves this question alot. It takes on various forms…Do I have what it takes, Am I enough, How do I measure up, Am I qualified? But the real question, what we are realy asking is the same…WHO AM I?

We seem to live in constant doubt of who we are, while at the same time, in constant need of affirmation.

Why do you think that is?

As believers and Christ followers our identity is very specifically and clearly spelled out in the Word. Yet, most of us struggle to live out of that identity.

Maybe we lack Bible knowledge, maybe we don’t have alot of time to read our Bible, and when we do, we simply don’t know where to begin. Maybe we don’t feel qualified to read and understand what God is saying. Maybe…..

We tend to be who we believe we are. Understanding the truth about who God says we are is the key in all of this.

If I believe I am a failure, I am corrupt, I am weak and powerless. If I believe that is the truth about it, then My life will tend to reflect my definition of that belief.

The Apostle Paul understood the significance of this truth. In his letters to the Church, he repeatedly makes defining statements about who we are IN CHRIST, giving us a clear image of who God says we are…

In Ephesians 1…. God says we have been blessed with EVERY Spiritual blessing in the heavenly places…IN CHRIST. He says we are Holy and without blame before Him in love…. In CHRIST, we are adopted into Gods own family by Jesus Christ to Himself., that God has predestinated this to us In CHRIST by his foreknowledge. In CHRIST we are accepted, redeemed, forgiven by the shed Blood of Jesus.We are the recipients of endless grace, as well as His wisdom. WE are joint heirs with Jesus, we have an eternal inheritance and that inheritance is sealed by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. We are given wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God, discernment, understanding, enlightenment, to know and understand what He is calling us to be. The understanding of His power In CHRIST toward us that empowers us and gives us dominion over EVERY principality and power in heaven and on earth, IN CHRIST.

EVERY one of these promises is a defining statement, made by God telling me WHO I AM in Christ, and that is just the first chapter of Ephesianss. THE ENTIRE BOOK IS FILLED WITH SUCH DEFINING STATEMENTS. EVERY one of them telling you the TRUTH about WHO you are in CHRIST. ROMANS, COLOSSIANS, GALATIANS, I AND II CORINTHIANS, AND OTHERS, ALSO FULL OF THIS DEFINING TRUTH ABOUT WHO YOU ARE IN CHRIST.

All of this TRUTH given to us by divine inspiration, and preservation, in Gods Word…and yet we struggle with the ability to look in the Mirror, and honestly see any of that….What does that tell us? We are, without a doubt, seeing ourselves as something less than God has declared that we are in CHRIST. Surely you can begin to see the potential effects of SUCH a misperception. If we see ourselves as something less, we will tend to live our lives as something less than God has declared us to be.

All of this pivots on what is defining what we believe. Either the absolute TRUTH of Gods Word, or the lies of the deceiver.

I have thrown allot at you I know. May I encourage you to look at this blogg post, meditate on it, look at the statements made here, carefully, prayerfully, and in the light of the scripture listed above. You may not see in this moment just how critical this truth is to your Spiritual well being. How it liberates and empowers you to live your life in freedom and power, out of your heart, and not by some moral decree. I beg you to spend what ever time you need here to dig out EVERY Spiritual truth the Holy Spirit has for you in this. Because it is crippling and debilitating, to live one moment longer out of the lies of the enemy, that have you convinced you are something less that God says you are……Jesus loves you and so do I.

Be a Man after Gods own heart…Be a Man like David.

There are some awesome men, both in Biblical record, and even today in our own country, who have inspired us all as Christ followers, by walking faithfully with the Lord, leaving us both a great challenge and a hope that we too can walk with God and live a life of faithfulness to Him. We need stories like theirs, especially in those moments when we are wrestling with challenging circumstances and seasons of pain and hardship.

This blog post is not intended to take a single piece away from that. But the reality is that many of us, inspite of the encouraging testimony of these great men of God, have failed. We have not responded as one would expect a man who follows Jesus and seeks after God, should respond. Instead, quite the opposite. We have failed miserably. We have screwed it up, missed the mark, fallen short, and made a complete mess of things.

Once that has been our response, there is no going back. We can not undo what has been done, take back what was said, or do what we failed to do.

Most of you know the story of Job. A man who suffered quite possibly more than any other man who ever lived. Yet through this horrific loss and suffering, Job remains faithful. With seemingly unshakable resolve, he continues to trust God….

Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him…….. Job 13:15 NKJV….. WHAT A DECLARATION OF JOBS FAITH IN GOD…..A DECLARATION OF WAR ON THE ENEMY WHO WOULD LIMIT OR DESTROY THAT FAITH!

Some of us have had that opportunity to stand fast in the faith, and declare to all the world around us… I trust in God, no matter what……and that moment slipped through our fingers. Maybe we were lacking in Spiritual maturity. Maybe we were focused on the pain, such that we could not see the healer. Maybe we simply just screwed it up. The situations and circumstances are nearly as diverse as the events themselves. To loose a child to disease, accident, or suicide or to fall into such financial ruin as to loose everything. To become ill with a long tedious life ending disease…the list of suffering goes on and on…and I will be the first to tell you…” my name is not Job”

We have become angry, unforgiving, depressed and defeated, negative with endless grieving, lost, undone, broken, and in our perception of ourselves worthless, unusable, discarded, unlovable, unforgivable.

Where do you go from this place of dispare, you have no strength left. There is no more courage or even hope. So what do you do? To whom can you turn? The shame and guilt weigh you down like a millstone around your neck and you see yourself beyond help, outside of the will of God….and somehow out of the reach of his love, forgivness and grace. Our upbringing may preach to us about the sinfulness of SIN, that God hates SIN and judgement is moments away. We deserve to be punished. God would be JUST to destroy us, or put us on ” the shelf “. What an ominous sound….you’ve been placed on the shelf…

We spend weeks, months, years, even decades adrift on this shelf, because according to our perception and deffinition of our situation, we have failed the test, we have stumbled, and fallen, and there is no getting back up, in one moment our SIN, poor choices, or bad decision has ruined everything.

The problem with all of this is It is simply NOT TRUE.

There is no such place as outside of God’s Grace and forgiveness…Paul said…where SIN abounds, grace does much more abound. God’s love for you is said in the Word, to be unmeasurable…the hight, breadth, width, and length, that is a three dimensional measurement of God’s love, is not possible because His love is unfailing, never ending.

WHAT about God’s judgement for SIN you may say….will I not reap what I have sown? Is God not bound by His Justice and Holiness to judge sin?

Except when Gods grace interviens we will always reap what we have sown. You cannot plant apple seeds and then come back in harvest and expect to pick bananas. If you smoke 2 packs of cigarettes a day for 20 yrs. There is a good chance you will one day contract lunge cancer. Because if we sow, we reap from that seed. If you are permisqeous, and have unprotected sex with multiple partners, you have a much higher risk of contracting an STD. It is a natural law.

As far as having sinned against God’s Holiness and justice, and the impending judgement and destruction….

We are fearful, we run and hide from God, or just give up on hope, and wait for the lightning to fall….I mean after all, look at Israel… constantly and repeatedly throughout the old Testament Israel finds themselves being judged for forsaking God…repents…is restored… and forsake God again…and over, and over, and over. What we take away from all of that, and what most of us have been taught, is that when you SIN God will judge you and punishment is coming.

Reality of it is God has already judged ALL SIN on the cross, as Jesus became SIN for us, who knew no SIN, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.

God’s wrath was vented on Calvary, SIN was judged, and by faith in Jesus Christ, you have been set free of all the wrath, judgement, and condemnation that use to bind us because of our SIN.

SIN has been judged. God’s Holiness and justice satisfied. So instead of suffering God’s wrath and judgement for SIN, in CHRIST, we are Holy and without blame before Him in love. For the believer, instead of wrath and punishment for SIN, there is chastising out of His love for us. HEBREWS 12.

The natural law of sowing and reaping is still in effect, but we now have the promise that all things work together for our good, if we love Him, so that even when we mess it up, if we love God and take that to Him, he will change it from a negative to a positive, and use that very thing to help mold us into the image of his son.

The lesson in all of this is DO NOT GIVE UP…GOD LOVES YOU AND IS NOT FINISHED WITH YOU, JUST COME TO HIM.

SOME OF US HAVE BEEN THROUGH HORRIFIC SITUATIONS AND CIRCUMSTANCES. No one would fault us for folding up, and giving up, and retreating into ourselves to hide out from God and the world. We didn’t respond well and were ashamed. We are hiding from God’s wrath. We are BELIEVING a lie…..

If we confess our SIN He is faithful, and just to forgive us of our SIN, and to cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness.

Be a man after God’s own heart, and bring everything to Him and trust Him with it…give Him your whole heart…be a man like David.

PRONE TO WONDER LORD I FEEL IT, PRONE TO LEAVE THE GOD I LOVE.               TAKE MY HEART OH TAKE AND SEAL IT, SEAL IT TO THY THRONE ABOVE…

If we are truely honest with ourselves, we would have to admit there is a certain amount of security in knowing there are boundries and expectations placed upon us. We have grown comfortable in the lesser role of rule followers, rather that heart followers. 

The thought of  living life in absolute freedom can be frightning. Which of us has not asked the question….Am I qualified to….Do I have what it takes…What if I make the wrong decision…Am I enough…?

The fact of the matter is this…We have been given everything we need to to be the men God has called us to be. We lack nothing, not one single thing. We have been equipped, in Christ, with every Spiritual blessing in the heavenly places and are empowered by the indwelling presence of God the Holy Spirit. God has preordained who we are in Christ. And set us free from everything and anything that could hinder His truth in us. 

Our freedom was purchased by His own blood and in Christ we are absolutely free to be whom God by his grace and mercy has declared us to be….Holy and without blame before Him in love.

We do not have to struggle to improve our morality. We live moral lives out of the truth and freedom of knowing who God says we already are in Christ.

It is not a quest for knowing more about God, it is a quest for knowing who we are in Christ, living out of that truth brings true freedom and liberty…

BE A MAN AFTER GODS OWN HEART…BE A MAN LIKE DAVID.

We can find absolute Majesty, Power and Beauty everywhere we look, from the images of the most powerful microscopes to the images of the most powerful telescopes…..and yet God calls you and I his masterpiece.

What do you see when you look in the Mirror?  I would be willing to bet most of us would not describe a masterpiece in the image looking back at us. We fail to see ourselves the way God sees us in Christ. 

Memories of past failures, guilt, shameful behaviour, deliberate acts of sin, Brokenness, Terrible Loss, Failure, Wounds that have never been healed, Pain that has been suppressed, self medicated, hidden from, avoided and ignored until we only find comfort when living in these lies of the deceiver.

This keeps us bound and enslaved to things that Christ has already redeemed in us.

You are His masterpiece, as God himself has declared, if you are in Christ. You have put your faith and trust in Him, and in Him you have received all of the blessings from the heavenly places. ALL, E-V-E-R Y spiritual blessing…You are His Masterpiece. 

We already are what God is calling you to be. We just need to live it out in our lives, by believing the Truth of what God has said we are and living moment by moment, day by day out of that truth, and not the lie of the deceiver who is determined for us to see ourselves as something less than That!

Be a man after God’s own heart….be a man like David.

Why is it that most of us look in the mirror and see nothing but imperfection. Past failure, shortcomings, and hurting people left in our wake?
When I look in the mirror I rarely see anything that resembles Holiness. Righteousness and living Righteously sometimes seems to be just out of reach, an illusion or mirage that is either unattainable or simply not real. 

The things that I desire to do, those are the things I seem not to be able to do, and the things that I don’t want to do seem to be the things I end up doing. (Romans 7:21-25)

Sound familiar to you? Most of us, I think, wrestle with this. As Believers and Christ followers we have higher expectations for ourselves. We want our lives to honor God. We want to live our lives in a way that can point others to Jesus Christ. And yet we often seem to wrestle with the very same things that the world wrestles with.

Ephesians chapter 1 verse 3 declares blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has given us E V E R Y spiritual blessing in the Heavenly places in Christ. Those things that we couldn’t gain for ourselves like Holiness Justification, Sanctification, Redemption, Adoption all of those things are given to us freely in Christ. We couldn’t do anything to get them we can’t do anything to improve upon them or perfect them and nothing we can do can cause us to lose them, because they’re a gift to us from God in Christ. I can come boldly into the throne room enter into the holy of holies not because of my own holiness but because of the fact that I am declared Holy in Christ. That gives me no room for boasting no room for pride or arrogance but thankfulness and a desire to live a life that pleases The God Who created me and took my imperfection and perfected it in Christ so that my eternal Destiny is not dependant upon me but is found to already exist in Him by faith.

When you look next in the mirror, the man you see may not be perfect, but by grace through a personal faith in the completed work of Christ, he is perfected. In Christ you are Holy, Redeemed, Forgiven, Justified, Adopted into Gods own family and joint heirs with Jesus Himself. 

Somehow knowing that has helped me live my life in this corrupt flesh a little easier. 

Focused on who God says I am in Christ and intentionally living my life out of that truth gives me the ability to over come the lies of the enemy, who is constantly attempting to deceive me into believing that I am something less than God says I am….It will help you as well…Jesus loves you and so do I

BE A MAN AFTER GODS OWN HEART…BE A MAN LIKE DAVID.

If we are truly honest and transparent with ourselves, each of us simply knows; I dont know how we know, but we know that we are a smaller piece of something bigger.

You can try to deny it, but every man that I do ministry with, as well as men, who have been broken, and come face to face with what has wounded them or caused their pain, and come to themselves, inevitably recognize this truth. Honestly seeking this truth, maybe for the first time, drives them to seek after God. This is not merely curiosity. It is the thing that drives curiosity.

The driving force behind the Scientist is also a result of this need we have for knowing where we fit in the bigger picture, Even those who do not consider themselves persons of faith, are driven to seek out this truth. What is the true story? Where do I really come from? Why am I unique, What makes me unique? What role am I destined to fulfill and am I enough to fulfill it. Do I have what it takes? All of this is born in each of us by something unseen and powerful.  Where we take that drive, and what we choose to believe as we go seeking out the truth, will determine our eternal Destiny.

An honest scientist, seeks after the truth without prejudice where ever that truth leads, through a never ending, ever changing hypothisis, that, by the way,  slowly over time continues to line itself up with the Truth of Gods Word.

The Athiest, arrogantly proclaimes THERE IS NO GOD, and limits his definition of the truth to meet his predetermined notion of the truth, thereby making the unfounded and unproven proclamation, (as absolute truth… while at the same time denying the existance of absolute truth); “THERE IS NO GOD”.

I use the word arrogance, not to be judgemental but to accurately describe this line of thinking. Lets be real for a minute. If we could measure the knowledge of the universe, I think we would all agree finding a word to accuratly define that is almost impossible. The knowledge we now posses, after such a brief time of existance on this planet, compared to what is out there could be described like this…taking a thimble and dipping it into the ocean. Therefore, to take such a limited sample of the knowledge available in the universe, and make the absolute declaration, THERE IS NO GOD…is nothing short of arrogant. In fact one could say it takes more faith to make such a statement of belief, than it does to believe in the truth of Gods word.

We are part of something bigger, certainly the existance of God in that picture is at the very least a possibility.  If it is a possibility, is it such a streach to think he would want us to know Him, and if what we read in His word is understood correctly, the desire for us to love Him freely, and to respond to His love for us by giving Him our whole heart in desire of an intimate relationship with Him.

We are part of something bigger and some how we kow it, Something we may not fully understand, something powerful, something that has GOD writtem all over it. May I suggest to you, that if you truly are open to the truth, what ever that may be, then include the idea of seeking that truth in God’s Word.  The scriptures say….seek Him today, while He may yet be found. And that the Lord desires us to seek him in spirit and in truth.

If you truly desire to find your place in the bigger picture, you will only find it at the had of the master of the canvass. But if you honestly seek Him….you will find Him.

If you are a believer, there have no doubt been many times you have had this question swirling around you, with some seeking honestly for the truth, while others proudly stumble in skeptical cynicism, or sarcasm.

There have been times when we have even asked ourselves this question, especially early on in our faith and relationship with God.

I can only address this question from my own perspective and speak for myself alone, although there have been many who have shared their own perspective and experiences with me, with the very same results and conclusions. Therefore, to say I am alone in my description and conclusions would be inaccurate, if not misleading.

From my perspective, the question might rather be asked ” Why Not Believe in God ” ?

There is Science that some would point to as proof there is no God. May I ask…is not science by definition made up of theories and premises drawn from an interpretation of evidence gathered and observation of current activity. Rather than promote these theories as fact, should they not be presented as one possible conclusion if the interpretation of the facts are accurate, if there are no additional facts or evidence yet to be discovered that may alter the premise of the theory? Can the theory be supported through observation in real-time? What are the possibilities if we are willing to open our minds to all possible alternatives?

From my perspective, there appears to be a propensity for ignoring the alterative thoughts and theories that do not agree with general interpretation. An almost dogmatic and authoritative pronouncement of theory as the only possible reality, and a closed-minded insistence that it is fact. One could almost hear a religious tone to the mantra.

This in the face of the fact that these theories are in a constant state of flux, with the only real constant being change. Constant re-vamping, altering, removing and injecting new premises, and producing new theories the longer they are in existence. That is good . That is what real science is all about, not forcing a theory as fact, simply because that’s what we believe. This seems to require another process often attributed to a belief in the existence of God…FAITH.

Does it not require faith in the integrity of the evidence that the premise is built upon? Does it not require faith in the accuracy and integrity of the men actually doing the research, and writing the papers and books being used to teach the new scientist, faith in the new scientist to get that information right so that they may continue to accurately draw deductive and inductive conclusions from the evidence they may collect? I am not saying these men are lying, only that they may be wrong or mistaken, because of incomplete data, faulty processes, tainted  concepts etc.

I love science, the exploration of the universe fascinates me but even in my short 60 years on this planet I have seen how often and how drastically some theories have changed. To me that is ok. Science should always be in a constant state of change, and it will be until absolute truth is revealed. My theory is that eventually science will catch up, that the evidence will clearly support the accuracy of the Word of God…The Bible.

From my perspective, That evidence already points to that very conclusion. I have been a student of the Word for over 50 year. I have observed the power of this books teachings in my own life. I can tell you that without the affect of the writings in this book, I would be a far different man than I am today. There is an intentional congruence between my life, speech, actions, behaviors, and lack of behaviors in my day-to-day life because of the effect this Book has had upon me. There is also a transformational effect upon my thought processes, unintentional, but occurring nonetheless simply from reading this book. There is a battle that takes place daily between good and evil, moral and immoral, flesh and spirit if you will, that would never be taking place if not for the powerful influence this Book has had upon my thinking. I have learned to live in forgiveness, rather than guilt and shame for selfish and hurtful deeds of my past. I have changed behavior patterns from what some might call natural, animal instinctive behavior, to selfless, humble serving of others. Please do not misunderstand me, I am not perfect by any means, But I am different, and every day becoming more and more different from the man wanting to fulfill himself in me. The man who would go after what he wants, with little regard for how that may affect others. The man who, when allowed to have his way has done nothing bur cause hurt and pain to others because of his selfishness and self-serving actions.

I have seen this same change take place in many others. My grandfather was an alcoholic, I remember him cursing all the time, drinking, mean to my grandmother, until he came to a faith in Jesus Christ, a belief in God. from that day until the day he died, he was a totally different man. Every time I was around him he was whistling a gospel tune or singing old hymns of the faith.  I have been doing prison work for many years and I can take you to man after man who’s lives have been transformed permanently through the transforming power of God’s word. Big men hardened by the circumstances of their life, criminals who have done some evil things, having their lives turned upside-down by the power of the word of God and a faith in him.  Transformed forever by the God who loves them, even when they don’t love themselves.

If you are an unbeliever, I don’t expect you to drop everything you have believed all your life because I say so. I pray that you will seek the truth for yourself honestly and intentionally. I hope you will open your mind to consider some alternative theories. I challenge you to get into the Word yourself, read it, ask God ” If you are real, speak to me through this Book and open my mind and my eyes to your truth.”  Why be afraid, if He does not exist and all of this is just fairy tales and religious superstition, what possible harm could befall you.

May I suggest you start with the book of John, that will tell you who Jesus is, and the Book of Ephesians, that will tell you who you are in Christ.

If you would like to get back to me, I would love to hear about your experience.

My Pastor in Florida once spoke about…celebrating the ” AND ” insted of the ” OR “. The idea has stuck with me over the years.
There are some clichés that may help visualize this for you. ” my way or the highway ” get in or get out. “, or those… if – then…ultimatum statements…if you can’t get this done, then I will find someone who can.
It is all about exercising authority, pushing an agenda, and in some cases getting your own way.
This kind of thinking has at times divided and broken the body of Christ or at the very least hindered the mission of the Church.
We want to define and pigeon hole everything and when it does not fit with our definition we reject it and sometimes lable it in ways that are untrue and even unkind.
I remember when the Church in Florida was attempting to make changes in their outreach methods, and worship style in order to be relevant to their community. People were upset, even livid at times. Some even left the Church over it. All because we were taking the very same core beliefs that have been unchanged since the beginning and began to find new ways to take them outside the walls of the Church to a world without Christ. Making our worship service something joyful, open and welcoming instead of exclusionary, dry and proprietary. Infact they offered 2 services, a traditional service and a contemporary service and still many could not get past the ” OR “. It was either the old way OR I will worship somewhere else.
The fact is after several years, a Church that was loosing members every year, and quickly moving toward closing the doors, has stabalized, and gotten good at both services.
Let me attempt to clarify what I am trying to say here. We become so tied to our religeous traditions and ceremony that we close our minds to the changing needs of the world around us, and become irrelevant. Not because the gospel is irrelevant, but because we are not speaking the right language.
Would you go to China and do Church just like you do here, preaching the good news in english? Of coarse not. You are going to adapt to the language and take you core values and relate them in a way relevant to the culture you are in so that the people understand the message you are giving.

I never really had much use for rap music. To me it seemed irrelevant and reflected a ” gangster mentality “, but then I am a 59 year old white guy. Not too long ago I became friends with a young black man at Church. I attend The Blended Church, a multiciltural Nondenominational Church in Indianapolis. We have over thirty nationalities represented in our Church. We are not color blind, we celebeate our differences, love and encoueage each other and worship God together. JD is a gospel rapper, that loves Jesus Christ and has a heart for reaching those that society has shunned. Prostitutes, drug addicts and dealers, gang members etc. He recently brought some of his fellow rappers to the prison where I go twice a week to preach and teach the Word. We had a great turn out and lives were touched and hearts changed with the gospel through what some might label an unconventional means. When JD led the same worship style at the womens prison in Madison In. Over 300 souls made the decision to either receive Christ or rededicate their lives to Him. It just amazes me that in the face of the evidence to the contrary, some will deny the power and presence of God because the ” AND ” is not in their religious tradition or vocabulary.

Artist signed in image.

I have recently been both challenged and encouraged to consider just how much God loves me. I have been overwhelmed by the results of this focus.
I thought I had a fairly clear picture of what God’s love looks like and how that plays into my day to day relationship with Him, But I have come to realize my vision of this image falls far short of the literal.
I believe I could spend a lifetime on this one subject and still only begin to scratch the surface of this incredibly deep, powerful, and life changing fact. Just getting a glimpse of the fullness of Gods love will change your life forever, and everything in it.

There are certain attributes listed throughout the Bible that speak to who God is. The I Am…God is…We know that God is Holy, we know that God is Just. For many that seems to be enough. They devote them selves to separation and living by a set of rules. They are quick to judge those who fail to meet what they proclaim to be God’s expectations. Those who suffer as a result of their own sin are given no compassion because they are simply reaping what they have sown, and are not worthy, or have placed themselves somewhere ourside of God’s grace.
Yet, before we came to Christ, we were all in a position to reap what we have sown. In fact God would be perfectly Just and perfectly Holy to simply allow us to reap what we have sown, and spend eternity in destruction and outer darkness, separated from God forever. BUT HIS LOVE WOULD NOT HAVE IT. He did not stop with the first Covenant, He did not stop with the law, perfect in itself, but only had the power to reveal sin and condemn it. To let the natural law of sowing and reaping to just play out, which would leave us all condemned. Instead, before the foundations of the world were laid, He chose to make us the focus of His love.

Ephesians 1:3-6 MSG
How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He’s the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.

How can anyone who has been redeemed by Jesus Christ, had their sin forgiven and made just by His sacrifice on Calvary, not have some concept of God’s love.
John says God is love. Just as much as God is Holy, as much as He is Just, God is love.

1 John 4:7-12 MSG
My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn’t know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can’t know him if you don’t love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they’ve done to our relationship with God. My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us—perfect love!

Your spirituality is not measured by the rules you keep, how much of the Bible you have memorized, how many people you have lead to Christ, how much biblical knowledge you possess, but how well you love.

1 Corinthians 13:1-7 MSG
If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love. Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have. Love doesn’t strut, Doesn’t have a swelled head, Doesn’t force itself on others, Isn’t always “me first,” Doesn’t fly off the handle, Doesn’t keep score of the sins of oth ers, Doesn’t revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end.

All of what you know, everything you have learned about God, all of the things you have done, feed the poor, help the needy, leading people to Christ, prison ministry, care of the elderly. No mater what you say, what you do, what you believe, you are spiritually bankrupt without love.
Holiness, Justice, the law, could only point out and condemn sin. Our eternal relationship with God is totally dependant on mercy, grace and forgivness, which is only produced by God’s unfailing, relentless, love for us.
I Corinthians 8:1 “…knowledge puffs up, but love builds up…”.
The fact is, people really do not care how much you know, about the Bible, about God. What matters to them is are you really willing to love them right where they are, then what you know has meaning for them…Jesus loves you and so do I.