In a hopeless world, we can see the dim light from a distance radiating the hope we long for.  Jesus Christ came to this earth to accomplish an everlasting relationship so that we could be free from separation and yet...we are pulling away.  Deep down inside I think a part of us wants to be left alone to our own selfish desires and dreams.  Sometimes we even choose our own hurt and guilt over the Lord's joy and peace.     Many of us can sit around and share stories about all the wrong things that have been done to us. We can recall all the bad choices in our lives that has brought us to a place of shame and guilt.  We can look at all the hurt in our lives and magnify the fact that we could never truly stand whole before a perfect God.  When God is speaking purity into our lives, we cringe and want to cry out, "not me Lord... I'm not worthy...".  If it's the truth that sets you free, then it is the lies that keep you bound.  So is our plea of unworthiness  setting us free or restraining us?   The story of Jonah is a perfect example of someone who sought after his own will above the Lord's.  It's easy to look at Jonah's story and criticize him for blatantly disobeying God.  We find ourselves saying things like, "I know if I heard God's voice telling me to do something, I would never run the opposite direction!" or "I would be too afraid to disobey God!"   How bold have we become that we would deny the very same disobedience in our own lives?  How many of us have said that we are not perfect, that God couldn't possibly love us, that we have repeatedly failed him? How bold have we become to tell God, that His sacrifice wasn't enough to bring us back to Him?  How bold have we become to tell God that His Son's pure blood fails to cover our past, present, and even our future?   I encourage you to know and embrace the fact that the hurt, the lies, and the pain is all washed away in His magnificent love.  You can "stand boldly before the throne of grace.." (Heb. 4:13) and walk in Christ's richest blessings without being ashamed of what you've done or what has been done to you.   My dear sisters, I admonish you in the Lord, let us set aside our pride and completely allow ourselves to surrender to Christ's sweet love.  His amazing grace has washed away all your suffering and He wants you to obey Him now.  He calls you pure, holy, righteous, beautiful, whole, and strong. He wants you to obey by believing Him.  He wants you to stop running away from His words and to start walking in His truth.   -Joyce James

You are His

“You will love her,” God commanded.

He looks out to find a woman just leaving a house, flirting with a man whom she barely knew.

The echo of her laughter filled the air as she playfully pulled on his shirt and whispered in his ears. The stranger reached into his pocket for money and handed it to her.

“You will marry her and bear children with her.”

He sees her wave goodbye to the stranger and tells him she hopes to see him again, but sees the emptiness in her eyes.

“Gomer is your wife, Hosea. She will be unfaithful to you and leave you but you will betroth her in love and compassion.”

He stares at his wife, she is beautiful.

This is who God picked to be his wife.

So as God commanded, Hosea betrothed her as his wife.

One night, Hosea longed to feel the touch of his wife. He rolled over only to see that she was gone. His heart started to race because this was just another night she was gone. He knew where she was and that was in the arms of another man. Jealousy started to rise up in his heart and he laid awake thinking of his wife. His heart ached with the thought of another man trying to satisfy his wife the way he did.
The thought of another man holding her hurt Hosea, but the love he had for her was more than all consuming and incomparable.
When they were together, he would wake up before she did just to gaze at her beauty and hold her. He would tell of his love for her many times as she looked on, laughed, and said, “Oh, come on Hosea, stop with those words.” But every time he saw her, his love for her grew stronger. He could not stop falling in love with her. When she was feeling heartache, Hosea felt it and wanted to hold her in his arms and comfort her. When she laughed, he wanted to hold on to the moment and take great delight in it. When she was sick, he stood by her side and took care of her until he was sure that she felt better. He was so in love with his wife, even on the nights he smelled the scent of another man on her.

Hosea did everything to show his love for her, but that was not enough for her.

After going from lover to lover, Gomer eventually hit rock bottom and sold herself into slavery. Hopeless and abandoned, she believed that her husband had forgotten her.

But he did not forget her.

He longed to have her back.

“So he began his search, driven by that indestructible divine love, love that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things, a love that never ends.”

Gomer was pushed on the dirty platform and locked in chains in front of the large crowd. She could smell the strong rancid stench from her body, felt her hair full of dirt, and her feet were sore from wearing no shoes. She heard a woman in the crowd say, “Look at this useless girl, who would ever want her looking like that?”

As the crowd roared with laughter, she felt the weight of her sins and shame so heavy, that she fell to her knees and wept in her hands.

She thought of Hosea.

He was the only person who had ever truly loved and cared for her.

“I have failed time and time again that I know I deserve to be where I am right now. I hurt the one person who truly loved me. I feel so alone, empty, and hopeless. Who would want to take in a broken woman like me? How could I ever be forgiven for what I have done and feel whole again? Who will ever love me?” These thoughts raced through her mind and she wept harder.

She heard a stranger scream, “Half a shekel!” Fear gripped her heart because she didn’t know with who or where she would end up.

The price of her life was being thrown around until she heard a powerful voice say, “No, I will buy her for fifteen shekels and thirteen bushels of barley! Her name is Gomer and she is mine.”
Gomer struggled to get up and she started to search the crowd for the man with the familiar voice. She saw a man running through the crowd and pushing people aside so he can reach her

It was Hosea.

She wept harder and thought “Is that really him? How can this be? ”

“And he found her, ragged, torn, sick, dirty, disheveled, destitute, chained to an auction block in a filthy slave market, a repulsive shadow of the woman she once was.”

They unlocked the chains and he picked her up and wrapped her tightly in his arms.

She felt so overwhelmed not because she was exhausted, but because of his love for her.

Hosea took Gomer’s face and said,
“Look at me, Gomer. ..
Don’t you know how much I love you?
I love you so much that there are times it is more than I can take.
You’re my beloved and my beautiful bride.
I want to be the one that you are with when you wake up and the one you are with when you are sleeping.
I did not once forget about you because my heart was longing for you to come back to me.
Every time you left me, I wanted to run and find you.
But I found you now and you are forever mine.
I want to be only yours forever.”

Then he said to her, “You shall stay with me for many days. You shall not play the harlot, nor shall you have a man; so I will also live with you” (Hos. 3:3).

This story does more than paint the picture of Hosea’s love for his wife, it tells the story of God’s love for you.

Yes…You read that right, He loves you.

No matter how unfaithful we are, God is still willing to fight for us with His unending grace and compassionate love.

God longs to spend time with you.

He desires to have a relationship with you.

He offers you a peace of mind, indescribable joy, enduring strength, unfailing love, unending comfort. In return He wants your brokenness, shame, hurt, sins, sickness, and sorrows.

If that isn’t enough He sent His one and only Son to die on the cross for you. God wanted to show you the extent He would go to prove His love for you.

Hang my locket around your neck, wear my ring on your finger. Love is invincible facing danger and death. Passion laughs at the terrors of hell. The fire of love stops at nothing - it sweeps everything before it. Flood waters can't drown love, torrents of rain can't put it out. Love can't be bought, love can't be sold - it's not to be found in the marketplace-Songs of Solomon 8:6-7(MSG)
I want to pray for you. So go ahead and read on…


Father, I pray for whoever is reading this that they would feel your amazing love. I pray that he/she would know that You love them no matter what they have done. You love us so much that you sent your One and Only Son to die on the cross so that we can be free of our sins. Lord, we can be so unfaithful… but You continue to remain faithful, forgiving, and so good in our lives. Your word says, “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.” I pray that if the person reading this has any hurts or is holding anything back from You… that he/she would be able to let go and lay them at Your feet. I pray that this person would be able to fully trust in the purpose and plans that you have for their life. I pray that this person would walk in obedience according to Your will and they would be able to experience Your joy and peace. Thank you, Lord for just who You are and what You’re about to do in his/her life. You’re amazing in all that you do and we love You.
Amen.

No Greater Love

The love of Christ changed me permanently [and continues to do so because I am an ungrateful, forgetful creature] when I understood the Gospel of Jesus Christ accurately. When I acknowledged that I, though I was physically alive, was spiritually dead -that is when He began a good work in me.

“‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life...Then you will know that I am the LORD.” - Ezekiel 37: 4-6

Christ breathed life into my dry bones when he offered Himself on the cross and with His resurrection I was [am] made a new creature and was [am] able to go boldly to the throne of God, because I was [am] made alive and righteous by the blood of Christ.    I am forever changed by this awesome act of Love.

“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” - John 15:13

I’m continually being moved and challenged by Christ’s Love - His love for me personally, that is.   I am able to fairly easily accept that Christ loves "US", He loves "HIS CHILDREN", He loves "BELIEVERS", etc…but it still moves me to tears when I feel His overwhelming love cover my very own heart and soul.  In the stillness of being wrapped up in His love, I am reminded that Christ loves me, not US but ME!   I heard a Pastor once say, “Christ doesn’t love us like a football stadium full of people. He loves each of us individually.”  So true!   It’s easy to get lost in thinking that God loves the masses as opposed to God loves ME- the individual -but I challenge you today to blast the video below and bask in Christ’s awesome act of love for you personally! 

-Viney

Unique in Christ

Those of us who have been brought up in the Church have heard time and again the “You are unique” message.   We've heard that there is no one on the earth just like us, and that we are special and one of a kind.  We've also heard that we’ve been created by an awesome and loving God who does not make duplicates.   But if any of you are like me, it seems down-right impossible to fully believe this, especially when struggling with life’s ups and downs.    At times my internal dialogue sounds more like this instead: “Really, I’m special? What makes me so special?”, “I am nothing like Her aka Ms. Beautiful.  I’m so plain and ordinary”, “Do I make a difference?”, “Do I have worth?”   I go through moments where I struggle to see the uniqueness staring back at me in the mirror.   While we may cerebrally take in the “You are unique” message, does it truly penetrate to our heart and soul?   It’s a miracle that out of all the people in ages past, present life and in the coming ages- that there will only be one me.   There will only be one you!   How can any of us be that unique and specifically designed? …But we are! :)

We are surely not all the same.  Just take a look around you.  We vary in beauty, intelligence and talents when compared to others around us BUT our uniqueness is not dependent on how we measure up to the standards designed by this world.    We are unique because we are God’s workmanship in Jesus Christ!

 “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” -Colossians 1:16-17

 “All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” -John 1:3

It is essential to first talk about who “He” is before we can understand who we are.  He is Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God the Father.  We are created through Him and for Him.   We exist to bring glory to His name.  Period.   When we believe and accept that He was slain for our sins by the Father because He was the only satisfying atonement, we begin to fulfill our purpose in this life.    Your existence should shout praises to His name because He is your Savior.  With this foundation, let us move on to who we are.   

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” -Ephesians 2:10

 We are God’s workmanship, His handy work, created in Jesus Christ according to His own purpose and pleasure.  Please watch the following video:

God is the Potter and we are the clay. 

“But now, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.” -Isaiah 64:8

He molds us by His vision and expectations for our future.  He sits by us refining us, over and over until we are perfect in His eyes.  This process may take years of going through ups and downs for some of us while it may be quicker for others but Praise be to God for His long-suffering for our sakes.    He never gives up on His children.  Although we have free will, He is continually shaping us into who He wants us to be if we confess the name of Jesus Christ.  He takes away the excess clay (i.e.-baggage, addictions, insecurities, bad influences, etc.) but there may be areas in which we feel that when compared to the other pots, we are not perfect.  We may ask ourselves “Why has the Potter left this area like this?  Clearly, He made a mistake or forgot.”   During these moments humble yourself and be reminded that HE is the Potter and you are HIS workmanship.  His ways are higher than yours.  His wisdom is too great for you to fathom but everything he does is for the blessedness of His children.  You need only to trust Him!

“…Shall the potter be regarded as the clay, that the thing made should say of its maker, “He did not make me”; or the thing formed say of him who formed it, “He has no understanding”? -Isaiah 29:16 

In echoing the video, remember we are all different and we all have flaws and insecurities.  But no one else in all of creation, fashioned by God, will have gone through your experiences.  No one else in all of creation will be able to do what God has created you to do.   You have immeasurable worth and purpose.   God has specially molded each of us with different faces, families, personalities, likes, dislikes, childhoods, experiences, problems and trials, goals, dreams, quirks, resources, weaknesses and strengths, triumphs and scars.

Psalm 139 can become so familiar to us that it looses its awe striking quality if it stays at the cerebral level and does not penetrate the heart.  Picture God, the Master Weaver of all things, having you specifically in mind and knitting you into existence!  I pray that the intimacy and awe-inducing force of Psalm 139:13-18, which is the “You are unique” message in it's most perfect and purest form, does not get lost for you.   I hope that you will be made afresh in the knowledge that you are special.  With the understanding that you are truly unique in Christ, I hope that you hold your worth and the worth of others in greater esteem.  Be encouraged that the work you've been created in Christ to do and the place you hold in the lives of others is just as unique as you are.   No one can do it just like you.  You are one of a kind!    

Let us gratefully and thoughtfully consider the marvelous care our Father took in shaping us into who we are, flaws and all.