GREENE STREET LETTERS: How About A Little "SO LOVE" This Morning

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

How About A Little "SO LOVE" This Morning

John 3:16
...For God so loved the world....

Me?
I'm a part of that continuing process of people being born and then dying.Sometimes referred to as humanity...the family of man...etc...
I'm a part of this thing called the world....sometimes referred to as society...community...nations and countries.
...For God so loved the world...

I didn't always love God....
Time was, I never gave God any thought...
Yet all the while of living in this manner, deep inside, I knew something wasn't right.
So I pushed against this loving God....
I cursed His name...
I lived steeped in my own appetite and desires...no room for God here.
Yet through all my running away, all my rejection....
One truth never changed....
....For God so loved the world....

His love kept on being poured out over me...but I wanted no part.
His love was abundant and freely given....but I didn't care for it...
His love was pure and not tainted by the things and ideas of this world...Which only made me not trust Him or it (His love) on any level.
But I could never escape those words...no matter how hard I tried...No matter how hard I tried to couch it and cover it in religious terminology....I could never dismantle or destroy the truth of....
....For God so loved the world....

It might have been different had God only had these divine feelings toward His creation....but God was not content to simply have affection and love. God is a demonstrating God. God is one who takes His very character and manifests it in the most unusual ways. In other words...God put feet to the emotion and choice He had made to love the world. Love means nothing unless it is demonstrated to the object of desire. In this case...humanity and this planet..
Every human ever born falls under the category of being loved by God.
Not something we truly want to hear, is it?
But the truth is.....
....For God so loved the world that He gave (He sent) His only begotten Son, Jesus........

This morning, even now as you are reading this posting...
God loves you.
He loves you just the way you are...with all your emotional scabs and warts. With all your mental blemishes and scars....with all your dark secrets and hidden sin...He loves you just the way you are, right now...right here.
But that love that God possesses burn so bright and hot that His heart is to not leave you in this manner, but to offer to you the opportunity to be changed.
Changed in ways you never considered possible.
I know.
I am going through the process right now. I know how my heart use to be..cold and hard and not very caring. I remember what a stinker I was...selfish and self centered. Yet God...flaming with His love...touched me and burned away all the stuff that separated me from having a relationship with Him.

So here is some hard core truth for you this morning:
1.) It doesn't matter how much drugs you have used. It doesn't matter how much Crystal Meth you have smoked, shot or snorted...It doesn't matter if you ate Oxy's like skittles...
It doesn't matter if you have drank yourself into unconsciousness...God loves you and stands ready to change you if you will let Him.

2.) Nothing in the past matters...God is ready to help you deal with what was, so you can live in the "what is" moment. God is into big time forgiveness and right-now living. God isn't going to make you jump through hoops to receive the forgiveness and healing that will bring about this change of heart and life.

3.) The only person who God cannot change is the one who rejects God and His work. Simple as that. Even then, God continues to woo and draw them unto Himself.

The greatest truth ever written is very simple:
Jesus loves me...
This I know...
For the Bible tells me so....

Maybe you just needed to be reminded of the Love of God this morning.
Maybe life has become very hard and hectic and somewhere along the way, you lost sight of the truth of God's love.
Whatever the reason...
Know today that the love of God is over you.

See you Saturday Night/ Vineyard Recovery / 7 p.m.
Nori / Barbie Kelley and WIND in concert and in worship..

God on you....
mb

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Looking At The World Through Cracked Lens

As ol' Paul wrote in his Corinthian letters.."We see in part and we know in part." Now what piece of this bit of wisdom do we not get? I wish to not run around acting and trying to be some sort of Biblical G00-Ru (I meant to spell it wrong). Or a sage of sages.

I simply want to be able to communicate some of what God has given to me. Why? Do I think what I get is better than what you may have received from Him? Nope. But I do think encouragement comes when we share our daily story of struggle and victory in an effort to encourage each other.

Thanks for letting me share.

Time to soldier on..

mbb

Our Statement of Faith

We believe that God is the eternal king. He is an infinite, unchangeable Spirit, perfect in holiness, wisdom, goodness, justice, power and love. From all eternity He exists as the One Living and True God in three persons of one substance, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit equal in power and glory. we believe that God created mankind in His image, male and female, for relationship with Himself and to govern the earth. Under the temptation of Satan, our original parents fell from grace, bringing sin, sickness and God's judgment of death to the earth. Through the fall, Satan and his demonic hosts gained access to God's good creation. Creation now experiences the consequences and effects of Adam's original sin. Human beings are born into sin, subject to God's judgment of death and captive to Satan's kingdom of darkness. We believe that Jesus, God's Son, was sent to this world, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin, Mary, fully God and fully man in one person. He is humanity as God intended us to be. Jesus was anointed as God's Messiah and empowered by the Holy Spirit, ushering in God's kingdom reign on earth, overpowering the reign of Satan by resisting temptation, preaching the good news of salvation, healing the sick, casting out demons and raising the dead. Jesus' atoning death on the cross took God's judgment for sin which we deserved as law-breakers. Jesus' resurrection and ascent back to heaven opened the door for those who received salvation to begin a relationship with God.

Little Nets Into Deep Waters

Fishing nets were designed for one purpose only. To catch fish. Nets are no good if they stay on the boat. Nets serve no purpose if they are never used. I think maybe God sees us this way. We are all created for a purpose (by the way, the creator gets to define what our purpose is). Any other use besides the one we were created for does us no good. But when the creator places His hands upon us, casting us out into those scary, dark places with deep waters, it is then we can see the reality of our purpose. He knew there would be a catch waiting for us. I think I will be the net God has called me to be.

The Twelve Steps

As a community of people in recovery, we affirm that our higher power is Jesus Christ. He did for us what we could not do for ourselves. Just as God told the children of Israel He was going to give them a promised land, He has revealed to us that He desires to give us a "Promised Life." When Israel got to the promised land, God instructed them to go and in a possess it, fight for it and claim it. In recovery, the 12 Steps are the directions given to us on how to fight, possess and claim this promised life.

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

How About A Little "SO LOVE" This Morning

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THE REALITY OF THE NAME OF GOD