Monthly Archives: April 2023

My Security is In Jesus 5

Spiritual Food

We’re in part 5 (should be the last one, but who knows) of a word of encouragement from the Lord for those of us bold enough to admit we’re insecure. God has a Secure place for us. We learned in Part 1 that we can each declare, “I Praise God; For Choosing Me to Love; For Bringing Me Home, and For Accepting Me As I Was.”

For Accepting Me As I Was

Eph 1:6 to the praise of the glory of His Grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved,

As I Was, we usually see the phrase “He accepted me as I am.” However, Jesus does not accept us as we are because He formed us in our mother’s wombs, and He knows our end before the beginning. He accepts us as “As I Was” because the minute we say “Yes” to Jesus Christ, our past no longer matters. Because of Christ’s shed blood, all our sin and bad decisions are removed, never to be seen again. Sure, people will remember them and try to remind you of them, yet God says, “For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more ” (Heb 8:12).” 

  1. God’s Grace is Praiseworthy: to the praise of the glory of His Grace.  God’s Grace is the most influential force in this world. It gives supernatural power, innovative ideas, unprecedented wisdom, and even compelling vision. The magnitude of this gift is worth praising God for, so we should be honored to receive this Grace. God’s Grace is honorable and dignified, much like the very savior who died to provide it to us. His Grace covers a multitude of sin, reconciles us to God, empowers us to overcome weakness, and guides us into purpose, and that is Praiseworthy. 
  2. We’re God’s Perfect Creation: by which He made us. When God created the earth, He said it was good (Gen 1:25); when He created Adam and Eve, He said it was very good (Gen 1:31); and when He created you and me, He said we were masterpieces (Eph 2:10). He created man in perfection, then Adam fell and caused us to be born into sin. Yet, since we were in God’s mind before the foundation of this world, He already had a plan for our redemption, which would restore us in God’s eye to the perfection of Christ, His Son (Eph 1:7-14). God made us perfect, and Jesus made us “perfection.” 
  3. We’re Acceptable to God: accepted in the Beloved. The word accepted in this text is χάρις charis; from the word graciousness, favour, gift, and Grace. Therefore, the text says that we are graced into the beloved. The word also means to grace, to indue with special honor, to make accepted, and to be highly favoured as in the process of receiving this Grace. So, there is an immediate acceptance into the beloved and a process of becoming the beloved. God immediately received us when we accepted Jesus Christ as Lord. And…our process of believing we are the beloved, our actions reflecting the beloved, and our understanding of our place in the Beloved often takes time. However, as He is, so are we in this world (1 Jn 4:17); when our faith lines up with God’s truth, our position in the beloved becomes our reality. 

God “Accepted Me As I Was” because of the gracious work of Christ on the Cross. That enormous act of Grace is Praiseworthy because of the one who gave us the Grace. This Grace was the finished work to restore us to the original perfection God created in us before the foundation of this world. God graced us to be accepted into His Beloved, and as our faith aligns with His, we will walk boldly as His Beloved Sons & Daughters.

My Security is In Jesus 4

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We’re in part 4 of a word of encouragement from the Lord for those of us bold enough to admit we’re insecure. God has a Secure place for us. We learned in Part 1 that we can each declare that “I Praise God; For Choosing Me to Love ; For Bringing Me Home and For Accepting Me As I Was.”

For Bringing Me Home

Eph 1:5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,

Isn’t it so powerful that God chose to bring us home to be in His family. The truth is we can be confident of a few things according to Paul’s letter to the Ephesians:

1. We’re His Child: having predestined us to adoption as sons. We have been predestined; which means to predetermine, to decide beforehand, to adopt (the action or fact of legally taking another’s child and bringing it up as one’s own); to become sons/daughters of God. God made this decision well before we were born (before anyone was borne for that matter). The term as sons in Greek speaks of the same relationship that God was pleased to establish with the Israelites; and the condition of the true disciples in Christ; and those who by receiving the Spirit of God become sons of God. Each of these demonstrates just what a special position we’ve been blessed with as sons.

2. Were His Decision: by Jesus Christ to Himself. Jesus made the decision to adopt us as sons while the Triune Godhead before the foundation of the world. However, after making the decision, Jesus Christ followed up and executed the decision on the Cross as Messiah. Truly amazing; Jesus, the Son gave His life so that we might switch places and live in the Son.

3. Were His Pleasure: according to the good pleasure of His will,. Finally, we need to comprehend this last piece. We please God!!! But it’s not what you think; we don’t please him by how good we act nor what nice deeds we do. We please God because we believe in our hearts what Jesus did on the cross and have declared with our mouths that Jesus is our Savior. Jesus pleased God so we wouldn’t have too. We bring our Daddy pleasure and they is so Sweet.

We praise God because He chose us; He loves us and He made a home for us in His family and allows us to be ourselves. Paul’s text lays out a tremendous path for us to receive God’s insatiable love for us and I hope you can appreciate it; I’m learning to more and more everyday.

My Security is In Jesus 3

Spiritual Food, , ,

We’re in part 3 of a word of encouragement from the Lord for those of us bold enough to admit we’re insecure. God has a Secure place for us. We learned in Part 1 that we can each declare that “I Praise God; For Choosing Me to Love ; For Bringing Me Home and For Accepting Me As I Was.”

For Choosing Me to Love

Eph 1:4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,

There is something so satisfying about being selected; someone choosing you for a special recognition or honor. The thing that makes your selection even more incredible is the selection source. Obviously, the bigger, more powerful, more recognizable and well known the organization or person is that selected you the more amazing the recognition becomes.

Back in my youthful days, I was selected by an organization called “Big Brothers/Big Sisters” of the National Capital Region as their Big Brother of the year. It was an incredible honor and one I cherish to this day. It was special, because they choose me out of a very large number of volunteers, the organization was Nationally known and it had significant resources and respect around the country.

So much so that a few months later I was chosen by the President of the United States, George W. Bush, to be on his panel of mentors for his international mentoring initiative. The President was known Worldwide, much more than the DMV area. He was much more powerful, with many more resources; an his position as President garnered respect across the Globe and that was who chose me. Wow

So now imagine what this means, we are now:

1. Known: He chose us. The He in this text is simple; the God of the Universe. No one is more well known; more powerful; more respected. There is a trending term “I Am Him,” which means that this person is as dominant figure. Well, God is the originator; he told Moses “I AM WHO I AM.” The original “I Am Him,” chose us. Each one of you reading this post, regardless of who you are, where you’re from, what you’ve done He chose us. He chose us because He knew us (Jer 1:5); and contrary to our own beliefs, God knows us and even knowing everything about us He still chose us (Ps 139).

2. Family: in Him. When I got married, I chose my Wife to become a member of my entire family. Not only did I have to trust her with my heart but also with those who were the very closest to me. My wife inevitably was making the same decision for her and her family. Here we have the Almighty God; maker of Heaven and Earth deciding that we are special enough to trust us with His heart (not knowing that He would ultimately give us His heart) and to trust us with His family (You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself). Our neighbors are God’s family and He trust us to treat them with love and respect.

3. In His Timing: before the foundation of the world. God decided to choose us well before we could ever choose him (Jer 1:5). We were not even a twinkle in our parents eyes (always thought that was a corny saying), when God made up His mind to send Jesus to take on our Sin. Because of His timing we can see that God knew everything about us and what our lives would be; so we can realize the God has always loved us. He decided long long ago that we were worthy of His love; and worth giving the one He loved the most to ensure we could experience His most precious LOVE. That is pretty special!!

4. Holy In His Presence: that we should be holy and without blame before Him. We’ve been made Holy; spotless and without Blame. In His presence, we are full of Joy (Ps 16:11), rest (Matt 11:28), peace (Phil 4:6-7) and protection (Ps 91). There are a ton of benefits from being in the Lord’s presence, here we learn that in His presence we are without blame. This is because of what Jesus did on the cross. He took on our Sin and exchanged it for His Righteousness. His Righteousness; because of Christ sacrifice on the cross; He has presented us to God faultless (Jude 1:24). Therefore, in God’s presence we are holy and without blame.

5. Loved: in love. The entire foundation of our identity and our security is found in love. In the Love of God for this world (Jn 3:16-17); God’s Love for His Son (Jn 15:9) ; Jesus’ Love for Us (1 John 4:9-10) and Our love for Ourselves (Matthew 22:39). This verse tells us that we are Chosen; as Family; in His presence and in His timing all based in love. God Loves Jesus soooo much (Jn 3:35; 5:20); He gives Him all things and all of Himself. God Loves this World, so much that He sent Jesus to die for it (Jn 3:16-17). in love, We are able to learn ourselves and love what God loves about us; Ps 139:17-18 How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them!

God fully knows you; His love for you is special and abundant. So much so, that He chose you as His love interest, He brought you into His family. He has plans for you in His timing and desires that you be in His presence….and it’s all done in LOVE.