VIDEO Accepting Ourselves

Jesus Endured Our Rejection That We Might Have His Acceptance With The Father

By an act of faith, you must believe what God says in the Bible: that you are accepted in Christ. Scripture tells us that God’s purpose from eternity was to make us His children, and He accomplished this purpose, He made it possible, through Jesus’ death on the cross on our behalf (see Ephesians 1:4–6). When you come to God through Jesus, God accepts you. He will not turn you away.

To make this step toward acceptance, you must accept yourself. Many times, this is the hardest thing for us to do. We look back over a record of failures and false starts, maybe the ways in which we have failed others. You may label yourself “failure,” but God labels you “My son” or “My daughter.” We must accept ourselves because God has accepted us.

When you come to God through Jesus, you are a new creation:

“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:17–18)

That is the new creation. Do not think about yourself in terms of what you were before you came to Christ, for you have become a new creation.

Let us pray together: “God, I thank You that You love me, that You gave Jesus, Your Son, to die on my behalf. I thank You that He bore my sins, took my rejection, and paid my penalty. And because I come to You through Him, I am not rejected, I am not unwanted, I am not excluded. You really love me. I really am Your child. You really are my Father. I belong to Your family. Heaven is my home. Thank You, God. Amen.”

Prayer Response

Thank You, Jesus, for Your work on the cross. I believe what God says—that I am accepted in Christ—and I accept myself, as well. I proclaim that Jesus endured my rejection that I might have His acceptance with the Father. Amen.

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2 Corinthians 5 (Part 2) :11-17 A New Creation in Christ

Beauty in Place of Soil

Bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. Isaiah 61:

One evening, I noticed neat rows of soil in a vacant lot near my home. Each row contained small green leaves with tiny buds peeking out. The next morning, I stopped in my tracks when I saw a patch of beautiful red tulips sprouting in the lot.

The previous fall, a group had planted one hundred thousand bulbs in empty lots throughout the South Side of Chicago. They chose red to symbolize how redlining (lending discrimination by banks) had impacted neighborhoods where primarily minorities lived. The tulips symbolized the houses that could have been in those lots.

God’s people have endured many challenges—from being exiled from their homelands to discrimination like redlining. Yet, we can still find hope. Isaiah reminds Israel during a time of exile that God would not leave them. He’d give them a “crown of beauty” in place of ashes. Even the poor would receive “good news” (61:1). God promised to exchange despairing spirits with a “garment of praise.” All of these images evoke His splendor and would bring joy to the people, who would now be “oaks of righteousness” instead of dejected exiles (v. 3).

Those tulips also show that God can create splendor from dirt and discrimination. I look forward to seeing the tulips each spring, and more importantly renewed hope in my neighborhood and other communities.

By:  Katara Patton

Reflect & Pray

Where in your community have you seen beauty replace despair? How can you help create beauty in places of despair?

Thank You, God, for the beauty You allow me to see even when my circumstances seem dire.

Greatness for God’s Glory

The blessings God sends into your life are best enjoyed in service to Him 2 Samuel 7:18-29

Scripture calls David a man after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14). Despite some horrendous failures, he lived a life of greatness. Unlike many others who are raised to positions of power and prestige, David understood that his prominence was not for his own gain but for God’s glory. He knew inherently what Jesus would later teach: “The greatest of you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled, and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted” (Matthew 23:11-12).

In today’s passage, David refers to himself as the Lord’s servant and promises that all blessings he receives will be used to honor God’s name. He is conscious of the fact that gifts are bestowed on him and his descendants so the Lord ultimately receives praise.

When we humble ourselves under the divine hand of blessing in this way, God’s glory is made plain to those around us. No matter how humble or high our position in life is by the world’s standards, we must always remember that every good thing we have is from God and for Him (James 1:17). When our heart maintains a posture of thanksgiving and service to our Father, we can become truly great for His sake.

What God Requires

“And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, To keep the commandments of the LORD, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?” (Deuteronomy 10:12-13)

This sounds simple enough, and the people of Israel readily agreed with Moses to do these things. Modern religious liberals cite such a lifestyle as all that is necessary to satisfy God. But the rub is this: Who dares claim to “walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD [his] God with all [his] heart”? Anyone who makes such a claim would be breaking God’s commandment against lying.

Solomon reached a conclusion of like kind: “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man” (Ecclesiastes 12:13). Indeed so, but who can “keep his commandments”? “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all” (James 2:10).

Another favorite verse of the liberals is Micah 6:8: “He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” Yes, but the problem is that “there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not” (Ecclesiastes 7:20).

There was one such man, of course! The Lord Jesus Christ “did no sin,” yet was willing to “bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness” (1 Peter 2:22-24). What we could never do, He has done for us. Now, through faith in the finished work of Christ, we have been set free from the bondage of sin and can indeed “have [our] fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life” (Romans 6:22). HMM

Overcoming Spiritual Dryness In Our Daily Life With God

Last night a high-energy buddy of mine who lives on airplanes and thrives on the high voltage culture of the corporate world confided in me of his long-standing sense of spiritual dryness.

Following are a few simple suggestions I made to him for overcoming dry Quiet Times:

• In approaching God, it is important to slow down, relax, and give Him adequate time to break through to the core of our encrusted, pressurized souls. God simply will not be rushed!
• In our time with God, be sure our focus is not primarily on gleaning truth from the Scriptures, but on experiencing intimacy and fellowship with Jesus. Christ cautioned the Pharisees:
• “You diligently study the Scriptures… yet you refuse to come to Me to have life.“
• Prayerful meditation over a relatively small portion of Scripture usually proves more meaningful than attempting to cover a larger portion. Scheduled readings can have a stultifying effect on us.
• Keep in mind that meditation involves visualization and application.

In focusing on Psalm 23:1, for example, our prayerful meditation might go something like this:

“THE LORD is my SHEPHERD, I shall not be in WANT”

“O God, I pray that you are THE Shepherd of my life… I belong to you alone.“

“O Father, I surrender to your LORDship: My finances, career… everything.“

“Lord, because You are my SHEPHERD, I know I shall never be in WANT.“

• Strike a balance between intercession and worship. While petition is important, we need also to understand that (1) God seeks our worship, and (2) worship touches at the core of our need for intimate communion with Him. Using worshipful music tapes and a hymnal can prove helpful.

“True worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.“(John 4:23)

• Keep in mind that Christ went to the Cross so that we could enjoy intimacy with Him:

“God… has called you into fellowship with His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.“

What a shame it would be to miss a life of intimacy with our Savior this side of eternity!

“The eyes of the blind shall see.”

John 9:1-23

John 9:3

that is to say, neither his own sin nor that of his parents is the cause of his blindness

John 9:7

Means lucre used, but they were such as had no efficacy of their own, and would tend rather to impede than assist. Often docs the Lord use the most unlikely instrumentalities.

John 9:9

He was a plain blunt man of unusually sound sense. He ended the controversy by two words of the most positive kind—”I am.”

John 9:11

His statement was as clear as it could be, and as brief as possible.

John 9:13, 14

And so the old quarrel was revived, and fresh ground found for opposing the Lord Jesus.

John 9:15

Here is not a word to spare, yet the statement is full and accurate.

John 9:17

So much he felt sure of, and was not ashamed to declare. When he knew more, he was equally definite and decided. If the Lord hath given us our spiritual sight, it will be a happy circumstance if we are just as positive and outspoken as this remarkable man. The cause of God needs many champions just now who will speak out whether they offend or please. The Lord make us such.

Yes, the Lord has healed my blindness,

Pitying my infirmity.

Trophy of his lovingkindness,

I was blind, but now I see!

Oh that all the blind but knew him,

And would be advised by me;

Surely they would hasten to him,

He would cause them all to see.

Man’s View of This World

Choose you this day whom ye will serve… but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. (Joshua 24:15)

If you have ever given much thought to this present world in which we live, you have some idea of the power of interpretation. The world is a stable fact, quite unchanged by the passing of years, but how different is modern man’s view of the world from the view our fathers held.

The world is for all of us not only what it is; it is what we believe it to be, and a tremendous load of weal or woe rides on the soundness of our interpretation!

In the earlier days, when Christianity exercised a dominant influence over American thinking, men conceded this world to be a battleground. Man, so our fathers held, had to choose sides. He could not be neutral—for him it must be life or death, heaven or hell!

In our day, the interpretation has changed completely. We are not here to fight, but to frolic! We are not in a hostile foreign land; we are at home! It now becomes the bounden duty of every Christian to reexamine his spiritual philosophy in the light of the Bible. So much depends on this that we cannot afford to be careless about it!