Remember When

“See what kind of love the father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are… Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.”
– 1 John 3:1-2 (ESV)

Remember when you feel down, unloved, and worthless; not good enough for people’s standards – whether it be peers or family – your Father in heaven is looking down on you with pride and indescribable love. You are perfect the way you are, don’t let people change you because you don’t match society’s contorted and twisted ways and standards. You are you, and no one else; “Just be yourself, everyone else is taken,” (Unknown). When you don’t feel like you can’t please or make your parents proud enough, do remember they love you, dearly, if you need extra comfort, God is there for you; he’s ready to take you and hold you in his arms, hear what you have to say, and to smother your tears with love and joy.

We are all children of God. One day all this pain, the feeling of unwantedness, and hurt will all be gone. For one day we will join God in heaven either when our days are up on earth or when Jesus returns to claim what is his and create a new earth and heaven.

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We Are Dead?

The focal verse is from Ephesians 2:1-10 (NIV):

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this worldand of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace,expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.  For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Starting with verses 1 and 2, it talks about how we were dead in our sins – alive to human nature, dead to a godly nature. We lived a lost life, following this world’s evil ways. Committing horrible acts, we were destroying ourselves and others. Satan and his followers at are constantly at work trying to destroy us (Christians) and those around us, too. Our — everyone’s — sinful human nature; flesh, was already working to makes those lost continue in their transgressions.

In the next few verses, verses 3 to 5, states that we once all lived in a lost state – “slaves to sin.” Our flesh was just consuming its desires, following and granting; feeding our sinful cravings, following its thoughts, likes a dog follows its master. Before coming to know Hm, we were subject to his righteous judgement; his wrath. But we were sanctified – saved – from that wrath by God’s grace. His love for us is never ending, never failing. When we have faults he still loves us, when we drift away he calls us back, and still loves us. He is a patient God. His mercy is unending. He gives many second chances, even when we do screw up (please excuse my language, but seriously), recognize it, and repent. We were indeed once dead but He made us alive with Christ – when Jesus died on the cross, he saved us from ourselves and sin – he took (literally) all that crap, that honestly, we really deserved, we should have paid for.

In verses 6 to 8you can see something totally amazing… God raised us up from being dead; a “zombie” to sin. Through the ages to com are unknown to us, Christians today are still severely persecuted, what is still to come? When we die, we’ll go to heaven to be with God, all because of our Savior. Through and through God’s kindness and riches of his grace. By our faith and God’s grace, we are saved. The faith was acquired on our own integrity, but instead it was a gift from God, a truly amazing and humbling gift.  Life is a gift, new life by Christ is a gift from God that cannot ever be repaid. We need not boast about it, for then that is our sinful nature speaking, showing people – giving them the impression that we believe we are better than them. The gift of live is precious, if you’re going to boast, check yourself, remember that this is God you’re talking about, and how would he want you to act, and then go out and share his word in a kindly, humble, and godly manner. I’m sure you know this old saying: If you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say it at all. It applies to everyone in every manner. We did not deserve a second change, at all, but God thought we did, and it was by his works, not ours, that we are (and all can be) saved.

The final two verses, 9 and 10, we are told that we are created by God, in his  perfect image. He made us to do good works, not bad, so that others may learn about Him. He prepared these works for us, before we were even born. God is gracious, but he does cry when his children lose their way, he gets angry at us, too. Just like a father. He disciplines us according to our train of thoughts and actions, like a parent to a child, because he loves us and wants us to do and see good, not evil.

Life is a gift… One shouldn’t just “throw it out the window”

Because of a foolish

Mistake.

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