The Apple of His Eye

One of the greatest deceptions of all time is the lie that convinces you that you are not loved –or worth loving. Since before you were born God’s love for you has never wavered, His love remains constant and strong; there is nothing you can do to make Him stop loving you. Your worth is determined only by that everlasting love. He delights in you; you are the apple of His eye!

The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing. Zephaniah 3:17 NIV

For this is what the LORD Almighty says: “After he has honored me and has sent me against the nations that have plundered you—for whoever touches you touches the apple of his eye— Zechariah 2:8 NIV

Some may argue that God’s love is for others – but surely not for themselves. That is when you know the deception has taken root in your heart. The most quoted verse in the Bible, displayed at ballgames and easily memorized by children tells the truth of the matter:

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 NIV

God loved the world – everyone in the world, yes, even the most miserable person you’ve ever met. He loves us so much that He gave – the best that heaven had to offer, the ultimate, supreme price – He gave his one and only Son as the sacrifice for our sins.

Even if the person you find hardest to love is yourself – God loved you first and always will. His love for you is perfect and eternal, it cannot be earned – it’s already yours, no matter what. Embrace it….

Just Like My Dad....

Some would rather not be compared to their fathers - having grown up in a home where no father was present or their father was a tyrant. Some boys vow never to become a father for fear they'll be like their own. Young women swear they'll never have children if they have to raise them in the same house with the man who fathered them, believing that all fathers are alike. Others may promise themselves that 'things will be different in my house - my children will be loved and valued....'

Many fathers have treated their own children disgracefully and abused them horribly - or simply abandoned them. What a shameful legacy to pass on. Sadly, many of us grow up to repeat the mistakes of our parents.

This is not what our heavenly Father had in mind for us.

Satan plans to destroy the very beings God loves best, those created in His own image. He's infiltrated our everyday lives, distorting the truth. He seeks to divide and conquer; to discredit the structure of the family unit as God designed it and tear it apart. Satan wants us believing we are alone and vulnerable.

As humans, our fathers (and mothers) make mistakes, we make mistakes; we sin - we've all sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). But if we search the Scriptures and discover the attributes of God in His goodness, we see that we're to live our lives reflecting His glory. This is the holy legacy we are to hand down to our children, bearing our heavenly Father's image.

It's not too late to teach our children the truth. We can be the parents our children want to grow up to be - we can humble ourselves and seek God's face. We have to, for God's sake....

Searching.....

If stars could be held
and sunshine contained
If trials were no trouble
if parents came trained
If darkness revealed things
instead of concealing
if pain didn’t hurt
and we’d never need healing
If sin wasn’t ugly
if heartaches weren’t real
then life wouldn’t matter
and we wouldn’t feel
If doubt didn’t happen
and fear didn’t scare
we wouldn’t find God -anywhere...
Helen Williams! c 12/02

Look Before You Leap

Although it’s an awesome responsibility (and I have no idea what God was thinking when He gave us choice) but our privilege to choose makes it our decision to rejoice, or not to rejoice. To celebrate, or not to celebrate. To pout, to indulge in self-pity, to walk in anger, or to walk in the hurt someone else has caused, to walk in love, or disappointment, or frustration, to walk in resentment, or peace, or to walk with purpose. To respond to God, or not to - these are all our choices to make. We can’t not make a decision. We decide if we get up and do something, or if we rest. We decide if we go to work today or if we play hooky. We decide to take a class, read a book, go for a walk, to eat, to call a friend, play a game, write a letter, sleep, or go exploring. We decide whether or not we want to invite God to share in our day -or our life. But whether we choose to have Him present with us or not - He is there. He gave us a lot of power when He allowed us to choose............

The Dirty Little Girl in the Middle

THE DIRTY LITTLE GIRL IN THE MIRROR

It's me Lord, Your clumsy little daughter, the one that's always falling down.
...No, the one with the skinned up knees and the scrape across my chin, the one whose eyes You're always wiping tears from.
...No, the one who never seems to be standing up straight-the one who keeps needing a new dress, 'cause I keep messing up the old ones.
...No, Lord, the one who's always hounding You with petty little requests. You know Lord, the one who always has some complaint or ailment.
...No, no, Lord, me, the dirty little one in the mirror.
...Lord, You're teasing with me, aren't You?
...You know who I am, You hear from me enough, don't You?
...You don't?? But, You do know who I am, right? Oh good.
...What do You mean, I'm the one who's always smiling? I cry more than I smile.
...What do you mean, I'm the pretty one in the middle? Lord, how can you call me pretty?
...Lord, listen to Yourself!
...Why, yes, I am the one wearing Your Robe of Righteousness, but, Lord, I keep messing it up!
...What? You never noticed? How could You not notice, Lord?
....Yeah, Jesus must have covered for me!
Well, Lord, now that we've established who I am, I just want to say Thank You Lord, because of Who's I am.
Now I know You must really love me.
Not because of anything I've done, but because of all You've done, Lord.
Thank You, You’re so good to me!
-Helen Williams c 8/90

So What About Me?

Can something be true even if we don’t believe it?

Can something be a lie even if we believe it to be true?

Yes. And yes. So how do we know what is truly true? How do we uncover the lies? Find out what God has to say about it.

There are times when we read God’s Word and don’t agree with or understand what we’ve just read. The Bible tells us that God is not the author of confusion – so when confusion overwhelms us as we’re reading His Word we need to ask Him for clarification or at the very least, peace about it. There are many, many things in the Bible that I don’t understand, but my lack of understanding doesn’t keep me from believing that the Bible is truth – the Truth I need to line up with.

So what does God’s Word have to say about me – and you?

One of my favorite scriptures is Psalm 139:14 - I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. (NIV) Verses 15 – 18 go on to say; My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand— when I awake, I am still with you.

If you have time, read Psalm 139 from the beginning. God knows us intimately – because He created us, He Himself breathed life into us. He wants us to know Him intimately, too. His desire is for intimate communication between us and Himself.

What else does His Word say about us?

More to come!

Daring to Discover Our Worth

INTRINSIC. Kind of a neat sounding word. One day it came to mind, although it’s not a word I recognized. If I’d heard it before, I certainly didn’t know what it meant. It hammered away at my mind throughout the day so much that I had to look it up.

Per dictionary.com: Intrinsic - Of or relating to the essential nature of a thing; belonging to a thing by its very nature.

The child born to a starving Ethiopian woman that’s delivered in the streets and left to die has the very same intrinsic value as the child of royalty.

The bitter old criminal that dies alone in a prison cell has the very same intrinsic value as the missionary that’s martyred on the mission field.

Though I may not have starving Ethiopians or dying criminals or even princes or missionaries reading my blog posts – I imagine you fall somewhere in between, and your intrinsic value is exactly the same as everyone else’s because we were all created by the only God that creates!

We are created equal, with the same intrinsic value – yes. But there’s nothing equal about what happens to us after we’re created. Some of us are killed in our mother’s wombs. Some of us die of childhood diseases. Some of us are victimized by family or strangers. Some of us live normal looking lives and perhaps never reveal our secrets. Some of us learn young to trust in God – but that doesn’t mean bad things won’t happen to us. Many of us grow up to be criminals, and some to be successful members of society – some even going on to accomplish noticeable, great things.

But whether we die young, accomplish great things or commit evil atrocities, our value to God remains the same.

All the things that happen between our conception and death compete to define us – to determine our worth.

More coming….

Who Would Notice?

‘If I fell off the face of the earth – no one would even notice…’

Have you ever thought that? I’ve seen similar statements as status updates on Facebook and it saddens me to see that our common enemy, Satan, has managed to diminish our value in our own eyes.

Is it because we’ve fallen short of some standard that was set for us?

Is it because we measure ourselves by the successes of others?

Is it because we simply don’t like what we see in the mirror?

I would love to convince you of your worth – but convincing anyone of anything means coming up against what they already believe, and against the experiences that brought them to the point of believing what they believe.

What gives something its value? What determines its worth?

To a millionaire a fifty dollar gift card might be an insult. To someone in a third world country, fifty dollars could mean the difference between life and death.

To a professional violinist, a half a million dollar violin is a thing of beauty and coveted. To a child with no ear for music, it’s merely a decoration.

Relative value is largely determined by who’s holding the object in question.

Absolute value is predetermined.

The fifty dollar gift card is worth just that, fifty dollars. The half a million dollar violin is worth a half a million dollars.

When we’re mistreated by the world at large or the people we are closest to, we often feel worthless, even if we’re pretty enough to be a decoration. But our absolute value was established before we were conceived, even before the earth was formed.

So our relative value can only be affected by allowing our lives to be controlled by people who don’t care about us. By yielding control to God – we retain our unfathomable, absolute value, which can never change.

More to come…………….