Praise God

HMMM where to begin... I haven't been as diligent with writing in my blog for the past week... so here I go again :)
I learned a lot last week. Kelsey Caverley my wonderful friend in G-RAP came to a debate between a Christian and an Athiest at a coffee shop. There were about 20 people who listened to the debate (half were Athiest, half Christian). It was interesting, incredibly confusing, and left me wondering what exactly drives people to be Athiest. I understood the Christian's perspective, but when it came to the Athiest's arguments for not believing in a God, I sat there in utter confusion. Perhaps it is my lack of knowledge regarding the Athiest philosophy which caused me to be fuzzy minded. Yet, if the Athiest had a sound argument, being the educated, moderately intelligent person I am, shouldn't I have been able to at least understand their argument?
Who knows. But all I can say is praise the Lord for opening mine and so many others' eyes to the Truth. It truly does set you free. Free from worry, contempt, envy, lack of self worth. The Lord loves each and every one of us for who we are and who he created us to be. We are all fearfully and wonderfully made. He delights in spending time with us. And there is nothing.... LITERALLY NOTHING that we need to do to earn our way to salvation. We are all sinners. We all fall short of the glory of God. But we have soooo much self worth, full and complete and perfect self worth through our Lord, Christ Jesus, who paid the ultimate price, overcoming our debt of sin, by dying a criminals death on the cross, so that His children, who he delights in, cherishes, and perfectly and supernaturally loves, could be washed clean and be saved. As Shelly taught all of us who were on Leadership weekend for Young Life, never ever get self esteem mixed up with self worth. These words, though they sound alike, they do NOT mean the same thing. Self esteem is our own perception of ourselves, that is so easily negatively affected and brought down from doing things like just looking in the mirror at someone we believe could have been created to look better and more attractive, or by having someone tell us something that hurts our feelings. Self esteem fluctuates every minute, every hour, every day. In complete contrast, our self worth NEVER EVER changes. We always have perfect self worth, due to our Lord Jesus Christ who sees us as His prize, His cherished children as evidenced by His brutal, humiliating death on the Cross, burial, and resurrection. He did that for each and everyone of us.

What a beautiful thing. If that isn't the most amazing and romantic love story, then honestly, I don't know what is. Nothing can compare to His love for us. No matter how we feel about ourselves, no matter how ugly we think we are or others think we are, no matter what the world thinks of us, no matter the lies that Satan tells to each of us everyday, no matter what the media says about ourselves, no matter how much we think we are unloved and alone.... NO MATTER WHAT the Lord our God, who created us and paid the most extreme and perfect sacrifice for us so that we can join Him and the angels in eternity, will always always ALWAYS LOVE US! I need to remind myself of that every morning and through out every day. Sometimes I wonder how it can be true. What have I done? Why would anyone die for me? Sometimes I just feel so unlovable. Yet, how much more do these human feeling of low self worth illuminate the deep love that God always had,has and will have for us. DANG DAWG!

As an Athiest you have no hope beyond this life. If this life was all I had to live for, what a sad , brutal, unfortunate life that would be. But since there is more to this short, often difficult, life on earth, we have purpose. Not for our own relationship with God, but for glorifying Jesus Christ our Lord, by serving Him, getting to know Him, and loving God's children who are all around us. How much more worthwhile our life is with Jesus.

The most beautiful and amazing thing that I have constantly reminded myself of recently is that when God looks at us, he does not see us (the sin, dirtiness, junk, imperfectness in or life) but you know what he sees?
JESUS CHRIST His one and only son who like Phillipians 2:6-11 says:
"Though He was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling t. Instead, he gave up His divine privileges, he took the humble position of a slave, and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal's death on the cross. Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor, and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

I love that scripture passage. Isn't that crazy?? God is goooooooooooooood!