Landscape

Grace

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In today’s society, the world loves to tell us that not responding to someone after offense is a sign of weakness and we should do whatever it is that we need to do out of retaliation. The world tells us that if someone stepped on our shoes then we should step back twice as hard. But as children of God, we are called to be set apart from the world and respond out of love. The same way that God sent His son to die for us as atonement for our sins out of grace and compassion is the same way we ought to live our lives. God’s grace for us is also what carries us through our hurt and suffering. We sin everyday but God still loves and cares for us in every way. Let me show you what I’m talking about.

First off, Genesis 1:27 says that when God created us, He made us in His image. That means that we are to be like Him. This was hard for us humans to do before the first coming of Christ so He sent His son Jesus in the human flesh to be an example to us of how we ought to live our lives. Even though Jesus was God himself in the flesh, He still had very human emotions and faced temptations as all of us do. He still was a great blessing to the whole world by helping people in His ministry before His death and then dying to set us free from condemnation. Out of His love and grace, Jesus died even for Judas who betrayed Him and the Pharisees who hated and killed Him.

Understand that as believers, there will come a time in our walk with Christ where we must face persecution and suffering. In 1 Thessalonians, Paul wrote a letter to the church in Thessalonica where he is explaining to them that he himself has faced much persecution in spreading the Good News (1 Thessalonians 2:1-2). But God’s grace has carried him through his suffering and even as he was in prison as he was writing the letter, he wrote to them with joy. Now that Paul was filled with God’s grace, he was extending that grace to other people by spreading the Good News. If Paul didn’t have grace and compassion for people, he wouldn’t care whether they made it to heaven or not. But it’s out of grace that he still chose to follow the will of God by going around to spread the gospel. There will be people who will oppose the light that you carry as believers but let it still shine brightly because this is what you are called to do (1 Thessalonians 5:5). No matter what troubles come your way, still do your best to live a life pleasing to God. Not only is there a great reward for you, but your life will be an example to others. Let encouraging, loving words come from your mouth rather than hate. If you are struggling in this area, then my encouragement to you is to ask God to help you be more gracious and loving towards people and in everything and not respond out of anger. If you don’t really have a relationship with Christ then I encourage you to have a daily relationship with Him by reading your Bible and praying daily and as you become filled with the Holy Spirit, love and grace will begin to flow out of you onto everyone.

“As apostles of Christ we certainly had a right to make some demands of you, but instead we were like children among you. Or we were like a mother feeding and caring for her own children. We loved you so much that we shared with you not only God’s Good News but our own lives, too.” ‭‭1 Thessalonians‬ ‭2:7-8

“After all, what gives us hope and joy, and what will be our proud reward and crown as we stand before our Lord Jesus when he returns? It is you! Yes, you are our pride and joy.” ‭‭1 Thessalonians‬ ‭2:19-20

“And then, dear brothers and sisters, you suffered persecution from your own countrymen. In this way, you imitated the believers in God’s churches in Judea who, because of their belief in Christ Jesus, suffered from their own people, the Jews.” 1 Thessalonians‬ ‭2:14

“For God chose to save us through our Lord Jesus Christ, not to pour out his anger on us. Christ died for us so that, whether we are dead or alive when he returns, we can live with him forever. So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing.”1 Thessalonians‬ ‭5:9-11‬

“May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” 1 Thessalonians‬ ‭5:28

Repent

Dear reader, please understand that what I am about to say is not to judge or condemn you but to point you towards Jesus. I am not a perfect person and I have no right or place to judge anyone. I will however come to tell you the truth which is always the goal with this blog. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:20-21, “So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.” Because the Lord our God loves us so much, He keeps coming back around giving us chance after chance to get ourselves right before Him. Don’t miss this opportunity to change and turn from your ways.

Let me bring you to the story of the adulterous woman in John 8:1-11. Jesus was in the temple teaching when the Pharisees came and brought a woman to him who was caught in the act of adultery. They brought her for the sole purpose of testing Jesus to see if he would condemn and stone her in keeping with the law. Then Jesus pretty much said that whoever has never sinned can throw the first stone. The only thing they could do at that point was drop their stones and walk away. Then Jesus turned to the woman and told her to simply go and sin no more. That is what repentance is, recognizing areas of our life where we have sinned and then turning away from that sin. Only Jesus can judge you, forgive you, and then set you free without condemnation.

That being said, I would like to encourage you to repent. I know that’s a word that many people do not like, especially believers who think that because they repented when they got saved, then they don’t need to repent again. But please understand that this is very important. Repentance should be a daily thing. I mentioned before in another post that we all are sinners no matter what (Romans 3:23). Therefore, we must be willing to look within ourselves daily and recognize areas of our lives where we know we have sinned and repent. We cannot become so puffed up with pride in thinking that we don’t sin. If you don’t know what sins you have been committing then ask God to reveal them to you and he will show you. Then, you can take responsibility for your actions by repenting and seeking God on how to do better going forward. Do not let the world confuse you and make you think that repentance and changing from your ways is bad. The world pushes being whoever you want to be and that people just need to accept you for who you are while the true gospel convicts you to change your ways. Yes, Jesus died on the cross for us and we are forgiven but don’t abuse his love and continue doing what you want (2 Corinthians 6:1-2). Now that you have been saved and set free, honor God by loving Him with all your heart (Matthew 22:37). Loving God means completely surrendering to Him in the keeping of His commandments and yes it is hard for us to be perfect but still try your best to change. Allow God to transform your heart and renew your mind so that you can be made new. Then, while you are still struggling with certain sins, repent until you completely learn to stop committing that sin. Then give God the glory a year later when you look back and realize that you do not commit certain sins anymore because this is how God works in our lives to show us who He is. This is a key part to spiritual growth and maturity as it grows your faith.

“So get rid of all evil behavior. Be done with all deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and all unkind speech. Like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation. Cry out for this nourishment, now that you have had a taste of the Lord’s kindness.”

‭‭1 Peter‬ ‭2:1-3‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Wisdom

It’s so easy for us believers today to listen to a favorite podcast host share his belief on a specific topic. We can also get lost in the latest and hottest book released by a very big and well known pastor. We just absolutely had to get that book and we are dying to know what kind of teachings he has on whatever topic the book is about. Oh and let’s not forget, we have had the craziest and hardest week but we just know that after hearing a word from our favorite pastor, we will have learned something and feel much better. But guys, what about God?

Let’s go on a little journey through some of the books of Romans and 1 Corinthians. In Romans 16:17-20, Paul warns the believers to stay away from people who spread division and hate within the body of Christ. They teach false things that go against the word of God and they are good at deceiving people by what they say. Paul encourages them to stay pure and lets them know that God’s grace is with them and soon God will crush the plans of the enemy. In 1 Corinthians 1:10-17, Paul is now speaking to the church of Corinth and is telling them to not be in division with one another in the church. He explains that as the body of Christ, we are to be of one mind, united in thought and purpose. He mentioned some of them arguing about whose teachings they follow and he explains to them that it doesn’t matter because at the end of the day, Jesus loves us all and all of the teachers have been sent by God to spread the good news. In 1 Corinthians 1:18–31, Paul goes on to further explain that God made our preaching sound foolish to those who believe more in signs and wonders and the teachings of other humans rather than Him. God did this so that only He got the true glory that he deserves. Some of the Jews were only looking for signs so the gospel sounds foolish to them. Same for the Greeks who only believe the teachings of man. The gospel makes more sense to those who truly believe in God because God himself is wisdom and as believers we have been made one with Jesus Christ. That is why it is not until you have a true encounter with Christ that you begin to understand the Word of God. This is because Jesus Christ is the Word in living flesh.

Be very careful where you are getting your biblical knowledge from. It’s okay to listen to sermons and podcasts, read Christian books and blogs, and learn from other believers. But make sure that before listening to all of those, you are reading your bible and praying to God for understanding. Anyone can pick up the Bible and come up with their own interpretation. That is why you have so many false religions that say they worship God. They might believe He’s real but because they never had a true encounter with Him and don’t have any kind of real relationship with Him, they misunderstand scripture and have created a false version of God in their minds. These are false gods and this is idolatry. Once you have a true relationship with God, you will get a godly kind of wisdom where you now have discernment. The online definition of discernment is the ability to judge well. Hebrews 5:14 says, “So let us discern for ourselves what is right; let us learn together what is good.” True discernment only comes from spending one on one time with God. I mean, a daily relationship with Him through reading the Word and prayer. You will begin to notice the false prophets and those within the body of Christ that are spreading division and hate. Understand that these people are not sent by God. Anything that goes against the Word of God is false and is sent by the enemy. Be careful brothers and sisters because we are living in the last days where deception is at an all time. Get into your Word and get to know God for yourself and stop hanging on every word that comes out of people’s mouths. Even after reading this blog, I encourage you to go and pick up your bible and read it.

Judgment

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In today’s society, we see a lot of people leaving the faith because of people within the body of Christ being judgmental. Now, there are times when God is using someone to share a hard truth and reality with someone and that person just doesn’t want to face the truth and receive what someone is telling them. These kinds of people like to blame the church for everything and just do not want to accept the fact that they are wrong and need to change. However, this is not what I am talking about right now. This post is for all of us believers (yes, me too) who have a tendency to become judgmental which can cause people to turn away from their faith. Let’s take a look at what Paul has to say about this in the book of Romans.

Romans 1:18-32 speaks of those who either have evidence of God all around them but still choose to not believe in Him or they believe in God and yet refuse to worship Him. Instead, they have turned to idol worship and doing whatever they want. Since this is how they choose to be, God has left them alone to do whatever it is they want to do. These things that they choose to do opens them up to all kinds of problems and has corrupted their hearts out of their disobedience to God (Romans 1:28-32). Then, Romans 2 starts off with Paul telling us judgmental people, that we pretty much have no right to judge anyone for their sins when we commit sins every day (Romans 3:23). Who in the world are we? What right do we have? Especially, since God is very loving and patient with us and has not poured out all of His wrath upon us just yet (Romans 2:4-6). We have to be very careful that we are not out here telling people not to commit the very same sins that we are still struggling with (Romans 2:21-24). The last thing I try to do is have people thinking that I am perfect. Everything I post on this blog is either something that God has already taught me some time ago and then there are some things that God is currently teaching me and I am simply sharing it with you all. I am not here to judge or condemn anyone, just simply sharing what God has placed on my heart to share with others. My only hope is that this information will lead you closer to God in wanting to do better.

Romans 3:9-20 further explains that we are ALL sinners because we were ALL born into sin regardless of what position or title we may have in the church (Romans 5:12). God’s grace for us has made us right in his eyes but only by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. Therefore, it wouldn’t be right for us to continue judging other people. I know it can be hard when we see another believer sinning because we expect that they should know better as believers. It is also difficult to know the great things that God has in store for everyone including the nonbeliever but they choose to not believe in his son, Jesus Christ, thus missing out on these great things that God has in store. I encourage you to simply pray for them. Pray for the believer that God has mercy on them and reveals their character to them and they can turn from whatever area of sin that they are still struggling with. Pray for the nonbeliever that they have an encounter with God and reach salvation. Even after you pray, and you still don’t see change, still shower them with grace and love because that is what YOU were called to do.

Humble Ministry

I first want to encourage you that if God has shown your purpose and given you instructions on what to do for His glory then I want you to boldly use whatever gift, talent, or platform God has given you to spread the gospel. Yes, you will face persecution and yes, it will hurt but know that God is with you. As long as you choose to completely surrender to God and allow Him to use you for His glory, you will always be under His protection. Even if people hurt you, you will be just fine so do not worry or be afraid.

“One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision and told him, “Don’t be afraid! Speak out! Don’t be silent! For I am with you, and no one will attack and harm you, for many people in this city belong to me.””

‭‭Acts‬ ‭18:9-10‬ ‭NLT‬‬

“Then some Jews arrived from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowds to their side. They stoned Paul and dragged him out of town, thinking he was dead. But as the believers gathered around him, he got up and went back into the town. The next day he left with Barnabas for Derbe.”

‭‭Acts ‬ ‭14:19-20‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Now, let’s talk about something that comes with ministry that many of us don’t often think about. That, my friend, is being humble enough to listen to other believers and allow them to teach us a thing or two. The same way that God created you with a specific purpose and plan and wants to use you to spread the gospel is the same way He has called all of us. So if God gives you a Word to share with others, you must also be willing to hear and receive whatever another believer has to share with you through their God given platform. The character flaw that first needs to be broken for this to happen is pride and it must be replaced with humility. I know that the world loves to tell people that pride is a good thing but here are some Bible verses on what God thinks about pride and some verses on what He thinks about humility.

“The Lord detests the proud; they will surely be punished.”

‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭16:5‬ ‭NLT‬‬

“Pride leads to disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.”

‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭11:2‬ ‭NLT‬‬

“And he gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.””

‭‭James‬ ‭4:6‬ ‭NLT‬‬

“Fools think their own way is right, but the wise listen to others.”

‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭12:15‬ ‭NLT‬‬

“He leads the humble in doing right, teaching them his way.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭25:9‬ ‭NLT‬‬

God will use other believers to encourage you and help stir up your faith. I believe this is one of the ways that He lets us know that we aren’t alone. This is why having a Christian community is also very important. It is not enough to stay at home and read your Bible. Also, do not deceive yourself into believing that you already know everything or more than other believers and end up missing out on the blessing that God has for you through another person. God knows our pain and sorrow and will use another believer to uplift us in some kind of way. The church is not a building, the church is the body of Christ and the same way God can use you to minister to people is the same way He can use someone to minister to you. There could be a new revelation that God has given someone and now He is using that person to reveal some things to you. If you are unsure about what they are teaching you, then simply ask God to reveal to you the truth and read The Word for yourself. It’s okay to be unsure and ask God for the truth because the Bible does say to test every spirit (1 John 4:1-6). A blessing is not just nice, uplifting words. Constructive criticism being said in a loving way purely out of just trying to help you is a blessing because now that you know better, you will do better. An example would be two people giving me feedback on this blog about a couple of things that I could change to make the blog more appealing or something that I posted on here that was incorrect information pertaining to the word of God. These two people came to me lovingly and rather than being prideful in not wanting to listen to them and what they had to say, I humbled myself by receiving what they had to say and making the necessary corrections. I understood that if they didn’t care about me at all then they wouldn’t have said anything. None of us are perfect, no matter if you are the world’s biggest and most famous pastor that has healed and delivered millions of people. It means nothing if you don’t know how to be humble.

“Meanwhile, a Jew named Apollos, an eloquent speaker who knew the Scriptures well, had arrived in Ephesus from Alexandria in Egypt. He had been taught the way of the Lord, and he taught others about Jesus with an enthusiastic spirit and with accuracy. However, he knew only about John’s baptism. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him preaching boldly in the synagogue, they took him aside and explained the way of God even more accurately. Apollos had been thinking about going to Achaia, and the brothers and sisters in Ephesus encouraged him to go. They wrote to the believers in Achaia, asking them to welcome him. When he arrived there, he proved to be of great benefit to those who, by God’s grace, had believed. He refuted the Jews with powerful arguments in public debate. Using the Scriptures, he explained to them that Jesus was the Messiah.”

‭‭Acts ‭18:24-28‬ ‭NLT‬

Understand that because of your platform, God is using you not only to spread the gospel but also as an example to other believers. Living in a world so full of pride, if someone notices you being humble enough to accept constructive criticism, that might convict them to humble themself as well. You also have to be very mindful of the fact that many people are watching you to see if you walk by what you preach. If something does not seem authentic to them then it loses its credibility and once that happens, people are less likely to listen to you. In everything, always choose to walk in love.

“Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.”

‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭13:4-5‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Idolatry

There are many of us today that have gone through some sort of traumatic or heartbreaking event that has left us with a lot of emotional and mental damage. As a result, there are many people that are searching to find some kind of help to heal from these things either by going to therapy and counseling or getting into a physical activity. Then, there are some of us that have heard of some great pastor that has healed many people through his ministry. So we get excited when we hear he’s coming to our church or is in town at a Christian event and we run to the event just knowing that this man is going to heal us. Then we go and watch this pastor healing and performing miracles and we tell everyone about this pastor’s amazing ability to heal. But, my question for you today is this: Who do you worship? God or man?

First, let me break down something to you called idolatry. According to Webster dictionary, idolatry is excessive attachment or veneration for any thing, or that which borders adoration. Many times throughout the bible, God expresses his hate for idolatry. Here are just a few verses I found.

“Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts.”

‭‭1 John‬ ‭5:21‬

“So, my dear friends, flee from the worship of idols.”

‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭10:14‬

“Those who worship false gods turn their backs on all God’s mercies.”

‭‭Jonah‬ ‭2:8‬ ‭

““Do not put your trust in idols or make metal images of gods for yourselves. I am the Lord your God.”

‭‭Leviticus‬ ‭19:4‬ ‭

One of the ten commandments is, “You must not have any other god but me.” Exodus 20:10. Anything that you put all of your hope in and thus place before God is considered idolatry. That can mean a love of money because you think it will solve all of your problems. Becoming addicted to things like drugs, alcohol, or food to cope with your mental issues. Having Buddha statues and charms that you believe will bring you good fortune (Deuteronomy 18:10-12). You can idolize your phone, music, ministry, people, etc. Anything that you place before God is considered idolatry and God hates that.

The specific area of idolatry that I want to focus on today is something we don’t think about often, the worship of man. I am not talking about just men. When the bible uses the word “man” it is specifically speaking about people in general. In Acts 3, Paul and Peter were going around healing people and spreading the gospel. In verses 1-11, they meet a crippled beggar out on the street and Peter heals him. In verses 12-16, Paul explains to the people that it is not by their own power that the man was healed but by the power of God who filled them with the Holy Spirit. In Acts 4:10-12, they find themselves having to explain to the council who didn’t believe in Jesus, that it was by the powerful name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene that the crippled man was healed. Then, in Acts 4:23-31, the believers prayed to God to be filled with the Holy Spirit so that they could have the courage to go and preach the gospel and after that prayer, they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Our healing and miracles don’t come from ourselves or other people, they come from God. We have been filled with the Holy Spirit in order to do these things in the name of Jesus Christ. It’s not us doing the teaching and preaching, it’s God. All of us who are called to ministry are only vessels being filled with the Holy Spirit in order to do these things. It is God who gives us authority and power. Do not put all your hope and trust in man, trust God. He is our healer, teacher, peace, joy, comfort, and friend. I encourage you to get rid of whatever idols you are attempting to find comfort in and turn to Jesus today! Cry out to him and I promise he will heal you from whatever you are facing. I am not saying that God cannot use someone to heal you, He most definitely can. All I am saying is if he does use a pastor or someone else to heal you, do not worship them, worship God because He is the one who healed you through them and it is God who deserves all of the glory.

“There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.””

‭‭Acts of the Apostles‬ ‭4:12‬

Identity

Unfortunately, there are so many of us, especially in this generation today, who struggle with identity. It doesn’t help that we live in a society that tells us how to look, dress, and speak. We keep looking at these images of models that either starve themselves to look the way they do, have plastic surgery done on themselves, or their pictures have been photoshopped. Can you imagine just how many things we compare ourselves to that are most likely not even real? We also spend so much of our time on social media watching other people’s lives and watching their accomplishments wishing we could have what they have. We don’t take into consideration what kind of deliverances and breakthroughs they might have had to walk through in order to get there. We don’t even know if what they are showing us is real. However, there is an enemy of this world who’s sole desire is to kill, steal, and destroy. He loves to use the things we see all around us to get us to hate ourselves and become jealous of other people. So my question for you today is this: what are you feeding yourself?

All of us have been created with a special design, purpose, and plan (Psalm 139:13-14). All of us are God’s masterpiece and when you devote yourself to God and allow him to transform you, you begin to change into a completely new person and actually discover who you were really created to be (Ephesians 2:10). The problem though for a lot of believers is that we have this one sided relationship with God where we just go to church and behave ourselves on Sunday, get our peace for the day, and then throw God in the closet for the rest of the week. Then, we go and “live our best life” doing what we want, chasing after all kinds of things and wondering why we aren’t happy with ourselves and seem to be getting nowhere. The problem is we are feeding ourselves the wrong thing. The Bible says we cannot serve two masters, it’s either we love God or we don’t (Matthew 6:24). That verse I just shared says we can’t be enslaved to money but it also goes for anything we place before God. That can be clothes, food, cars, houses, jewelry, partying, literally anything. We have been feeding ourselves the wrong thing so it would be incorrect for me to get on here and simply tell you how loved and beautiful and great you are without pointing you towards Jesus, the bread of life.

Let me direct your attention to John 6:22-59. Here, Jesus is having a conversation with some people after miraculously feeding five thousand people with only five loaves of bread and two fish. Even after following Jesus around everywhere he went and watching him perform all of these miracles, they still didn’t believe in him and challenged him to perform more signs and wonders the same way God had sent their ancestors manna down from heaven. He spends verses 32-59 explaining to them that he is the bread of life and whoever believes in him has eternal life. Therefore, whoever eats the bread of heaven will hunger no more.

“Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, Moses didn’t give you bread from heaven. My Father did. And now he offers you the true bread from heaven. The true bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” “Sir,” they said, “give us that bread every day.” Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But you haven’t believed in me even though you have seen me. However, those the Father has given me will come to me, and I will never reject them. For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do my own will. And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them up at the last day. For it is my Father’s will that all who see his Son and believe in him should have eternal life. I will raise them up at the last day.” Then the people began to murmur in disagreement because he had said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They said, “Isn’t this Jesus, the son of Joseph? We know his father and mother. How can he say, ‘I came down from heaven’?” But Jesus replied, “Stop complaining about what I said. For no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them to me, and at the last day I will raise them up. As it is written in the Scriptures, ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. (Not that anyone has ever seen the Father; only I, who was sent from God, have seen him.) “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes has eternal life. Yes, I am the bread of life! Your ancestors ate manna in the wilderness, but they all died. Anyone who eats the bread from heaven, however, will never die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever; and this bread, which I will offer so the world may live, is my flesh.” Then the people began arguing with each other about what he meant. “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” they asked. So Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you. But anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise that person at the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. I live because of the living Father who sent me; in the same way, anyone who feeds on me will live because of me. I am the true bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will not die as your ancestors did (even though they ate the manna) but will live forever.” He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.”

‭‭John‬ ‭6:32-59‬ ‭NLT‬‬

I encourage you that if you are struggling to love yourself, cry out to Jesus and I promise he will help you. He absolutely loves you and only wants what’s best for you. I encourage you to find a Bible and read it yourself. If you don’t have a physical Bible, there are many Bible apps out there that we can read from our phones that we already spend so much time on anyways. I encourage you to allow the Word of God to transform you and be amazed at what you learn about yourself and who God has called you to be. My own testimony is that I have struggled my whole life to love myself but since the day I made a decision to follow Christ and completely devote my life to him, I have been healing, changing, and learning so much about who God says that I am. I recently removed and flushed away a nose ring that I have had for 10 years. I have made it a daily habit to spend time with God and overtime, God revealed to me that I needed to get rid of my nose ring because I had placed all of my identity in it. I honestly used to believe that I wasn’t beautiful without it but once I removed it, I realized that nothing about my face had changed with it, I still looked exactly the same. God was showing me that I was beautiful all along and didn’t need a tiny piece of jewelry to tell me that. But, the only way I finally came to this understanding is by having a daily relationship with the Lord. Jesus is the bread I eat every day and become full and satisfied and I encourage you to do the same. I want you to know that you are not ugly, dumb, fat, slow, stupid, or worthless, in Jesus name. You are fearfully and wonderfully made, beautiful, smart, full of purpose, and worth something, in Jesus name. Take your ears from the lips of the enemy, stop believing his lies, turn to Jesus today and allow his love to fill you up inside today.

“Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭139:14-15‬ ‭NLT‬‬
Watch this video: https://youtu.be/58YLveEbLaA

Love

Oftentimes, the first thing that pops into our mind when we hear the word love is either a romantic relationship or being around friends and family. We might even have a lot of love for a physical object such as money, food, or clothing. But what if there is a love even greater than that? A love that you can’t find in any kind of relationship or item? A love so great, it can actually bring you freedom? Hmm, let’s see.

First, let’s consider our friends. Think about your closest friend for a moment that you might even consider family and ask yourself if they are willing to die for you despite whatever you have ever done to them. I am not talking about some ride or die, A1 since day one, thug life death. I mean like you did something so completely bad to your friend that could have actually broken the friendship you have with them and then they had to make a decision on whether they were going to die for you or not to save you out of a situation. Like, dying would be the only thing that would save you, even after you stabbed them in the back. The only person that I know would actually do something like that is Jesus. In fact, he already did. He loves you so much that he actually hung from a cross with nails pierced in his hands and thorns around his head to save you.

Next, let’s talk about the friendship of Judas and Jesus. Jesus had twelve disciples that followed him around in his ministry and Judas was one of them. As a matter of fact, Judas was actually Jesus’ brother (Mark 6:3, Matthew 13:55). Judas ended up betraying Jesus by turning him in to the Pharisees and having him killed (Mark 14:44-46). Jesus knew that he had a mission to fulfill here on earth which was to die in order save everyone from their sins and he already knew that Judas was going to betray him (John 13:18, 25-26). Yet, there were two times where Jesus humbled himself and still showed love to Judas. First, he washed Judas’ feet even though he knew Judas was going to betray him.

“Before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and return to his Father. He had loved his disciples during his ministry on earth, and now he loved them to the very end. It was time for supper, and the devil had already prompted Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to God. So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel he had around him.”

‭‭John‬ ‭13:1-5‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Pause for a moment and think about that. Would you go and wash someone’s feet knowing that they are about to betray you? Like, this is your best friend and sibling who is about to have you killed and you go and wash their feet? That sounds like some pretty big love to me. Then, Jesus died on the cross for all of us including Judas.

““For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.”

‭‭John‬ ‭3:16-17‬ ‭NLT‬‬

That means God sent his son Jesus to die for you, me, murderers, thieves, liars, cheaters, homosexuals, politicians, etc. More evidence of great, amazing love. Yet, there are a lot of people that don’t choose to accept him. People either don’t believe God is real or they boxed him into being just a Sunday thing. If you’re reading this and you haven’t made a decision yet to give your life to Christ or maybe you have been saved but you don’t have a daily relationship with him, I encourage you to do so. Jesus loves you so much and it doesn’t matter what you’ve done and it’s not too late. God has so much in store for you but it starts with you making a decision to follow him. Jesus can free you whatever pain, sickness, mental issue, or addiction you have today. All you have to do is accept him the way he has already accepted you.