"For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be His people, His treasured possession.” Deuteronomy 7:6
Do you remember when you were in school and teams were picked in PE? I remember it well. The coach would pick the two most athletic people in the class to be the captains ~ and, hence, the team pickers. Then those two guys (in my day, it was always two guys ~ not girls) would one by one pick who they wanted to be on their team. And it would always come down to the last two people left ~ me and the kid with the broken leg. And, after much deliberation and ribbing from the other teammates, the picker would finally make his pick . . . . the kid with the broken leg. And the team that got me would say “Aw Man!!!” and huff off to the playing field (you think I’m making this up?). I’m not athletic at all. So I was always the last one picked to be on the team. And the team that got stuck with me always felt, well, stuck with me. Those of you who aren’t athletic, know what I’m talking about and you know how it felt to be the last one picked.
But the good news is that we have all been hand picked for a team that is much more important than any other team. We have been chosen for the most important team ever. And we were chosen for this team before anyone else even knew if we’d be athletic or pretty or smart. We were picked for this team before we were even born. This team, the One that reigns superior over all other teams, is God’s team. And we are on it. Alleluia!
Jeremiah 1:5 says: “I formed you in the womb; I knew you before you were born. I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
A friend of mine recently said to me, “God knew I would screw up and He chose me anyway.” Wow!!! I’ve never thought about it that way. God knew I would argue and fight with Him and He picked me anyway. He knew there would be times when I wouldn’t believe Him or trust Him and He chose me anyway. God knew that there would be times when I’d break His heart by turning my back on Him and still He chose me.
God chose each and every one of us to be on His team because He loves us that much. He loves us with a passion that we can’t always comprehend. He loves us so much that He sent His only Son to this earth to bear the excruciating pain of our sins.
During a recent church service, we had a guest speaker who read from the book “The Devine Romance” by Gene Edwards. In the book, it talks about angels going to all the times past and all the times in the future to gather up all the sins ~ every single one of them ~ and putting them on Jesus as the nails are hammered into His hands and feet. This made me realize just how much emotional pain Jesus went through for us. I’ve tried to imagine His physical pain; but I’ve never thought about His emotional pain. I know how guilty and painful I feel when I know that I have sinned. It makes me feel awful. So I can’t even imagine the emotional pain Jesus must have felt as the sins of the past, present and future where laid on Him. With every strike of the hammer, Jesus felt the pain from the sins of each one of us. And He felt the pain from the sins of all the murderers and all the child molesters. He felt the pain from the sins of Hitler, Mussolini and Osama bin Laden. And He felt the pain of all the sins that we don’t even know about. It is a pain I can’t even imagine. And He felt all of that pain for you and for me. Because He loves us THAT much!
God loves us so much that He guides us and teaches us. He also loves us so much that He corrects us when we’re doing wrong. And He loves us so much that He surrounds us with the things that we love.
I love the sound of thunder. It’s one of my all time favorite sounds. In Atlanta, we rarely get a good thunderstorm. So when we do, I am so grateful to God. The thunder in Atlanta rumbles and rolls on and on forever. It is so soothing to me. So during a recent storm, I thanked God for the sound of the thunder. And then with the next rumble, it was like I heard God saying, “I love you! I love you! I love you!” with each rumble as it went on and on and on. And when the rain started coming down, I felt like God was shedding tears of joy just for me.
God loves me so much that He brings me rolling thunder to listen to. He loves me so much that He makes amazingly intricate and beautiful flowers for me to see and photograph. He loves me so much that He surrounds me with people I love and who love me. And when my heart was broken into a million little pieces, God loved me so much that He glued me back together again then taught me that I could love again even though I thought it would never happen.
And God loves each of us that much. He loves us enough to reach into our deepest, darkest moments and lift us up and restore us. He loves us so much that He will never let us go even when we turn our backs on Him. He loves us so much that He will be by our sides no matter how ugly and full of sin our past is. And when we think we will never be whole again, God loves us so much that He will hold us tight, comfort and strengthen us and put all our broken little pieces back together.
God loves us so much that before we were even born, He chose each and every one of us to be on His team even though He knew we would screw up. He knew we would be difficult, willful and stubborn and still He chose us. He knew there would be times when we wouldn’t trust Him and we would do things our own way and still He chose us. We are on God’s team not because of anything we have done. And we are on God’s team in spite of the things we can’t do and the things we do wrong. We are on God’s team because He loves us THAT much!!!
Remember: “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16
But the good news is that we have all been hand picked for a team that is much more important than any other team. We have been chosen for the most important team ever. And we were chosen for this team before anyone else even knew if we’d be athletic or pretty or smart. We were picked for this team before we were even born. This team, the One that reigns superior over all other teams, is God’s team. And we are on it. Alleluia!
Jeremiah 1:5 says: “I formed you in the womb; I knew you before you were born. I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
A friend of mine recently said to me, “God knew I would screw up and He chose me anyway.” Wow!!! I’ve never thought about it that way. God knew I would argue and fight with Him and He picked me anyway. He knew there would be times when I wouldn’t believe Him or trust Him and He chose me anyway. God knew that there would be times when I’d break His heart by turning my back on Him and still He chose me.
God chose each and every one of us to be on His team because He loves us that much. He loves us with a passion that we can’t always comprehend. He loves us so much that He sent His only Son to this earth to bear the excruciating pain of our sins.
During a recent church service, we had a guest speaker who read from the book “The Devine Romance” by Gene Edwards. In the book, it talks about angels going to all the times past and all the times in the future to gather up all the sins ~ every single one of them ~ and putting them on Jesus as the nails are hammered into His hands and feet. This made me realize just how much emotional pain Jesus went through for us. I’ve tried to imagine His physical pain; but I’ve never thought about His emotional pain. I know how guilty and painful I feel when I know that I have sinned. It makes me feel awful. So I can’t even imagine the emotional pain Jesus must have felt as the sins of the past, present and future where laid on Him. With every strike of the hammer, Jesus felt the pain from the sins of each one of us. And He felt the pain from the sins of all the murderers and all the child molesters. He felt the pain from the sins of Hitler, Mussolini and Osama bin Laden. And He felt the pain of all the sins that we don’t even know about. It is a pain I can’t even imagine. And He felt all of that pain for you and for me. Because He loves us THAT much!
God loves us so much that He guides us and teaches us. He also loves us so much that He corrects us when we’re doing wrong. And He loves us so much that He surrounds us with the things that we love.
I love the sound of thunder. It’s one of my all time favorite sounds. In Atlanta, we rarely get a good thunderstorm. So when we do, I am so grateful to God. The thunder in Atlanta rumbles and rolls on and on forever. It is so soothing to me. So during a recent storm, I thanked God for the sound of the thunder. And then with the next rumble, it was like I heard God saying, “I love you! I love you! I love you!” with each rumble as it went on and on and on. And when the rain started coming down, I felt like God was shedding tears of joy just for me.
God loves me so much that He brings me rolling thunder to listen to. He loves me so much that He makes amazingly intricate and beautiful flowers for me to see and photograph. He loves me so much that He surrounds me with people I love and who love me. And when my heart was broken into a million little pieces, God loved me so much that He glued me back together again then taught me that I could love again even though I thought it would never happen.
And God loves each of us that much. He loves us enough to reach into our deepest, darkest moments and lift us up and restore us. He loves us so much that He will never let us go even when we turn our backs on Him. He loves us so much that He will be by our sides no matter how ugly and full of sin our past is. And when we think we will never be whole again, God loves us so much that He will hold us tight, comfort and strengthen us and put all our broken little pieces back together.
God loves us so much that before we were even born, He chose each and every one of us to be on His team even though He knew we would screw up. He knew we would be difficult, willful and stubborn and still He chose us. He knew there would be times when we wouldn’t trust Him and we would do things our own way and still He chose us. We are on God’s team not because of anything we have done. And we are on God’s team in spite of the things we can’t do and the things we do wrong. We are on God’s team because He loves us THAT much!!!
Remember: “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16
Precious Jesus, I thank You for loving us so much that You bore the pain of all the sins past and all the sins present and future so that our sins would be forgiven. I cannot even begin to imagine how painful that was for You. I thank You for loving us so much that You will never let us go. I thank You for loving us so much that You chose each of us to be on Your Team. We are so blessed because of Your love for us. Amen ~Robin
1 comment:
so beautiful! i'm so proud of you and what God is doing in an through your life! lyhh
Post a Comment