OUR WORTH

     Is there anyone like me out there? Anyone who has had a hard
time believing that God really loves them? Or even that God may
love us all, but not me?  Or worse than that, that God only loves
me because He said  He loves everyone and I just happened to come
along before He could revise what He said?
      Well, if there is nobody here that has ever felt that way,
then praise God!  IF there is anyone who has felt that way and
feels that way no longer, then praise God! And, if there is
anyone out there that feels that way...then get ready to praise
God 'cause do I have something to share with you!!! ( Actually,
it isn't me, but God that has something for you!  I just get to
type!!)
     Let's start with the beginning.  Jeremiah 1:5..."Before I
formed you in the womb I knew you...before you were born I set
you apart".  Okay, God was speaking here to the prophet Jeremiah,
but do you know that the word of God is for everyone?  So first
off, God took the time and thought involved to create each one of
us!  Even me, even you.  We are fashioned in a one-of-a-kind way,
individually, for God's own purpose.
     And listen to this scripture, Isaiah 43:6-7..."I will say to
the north, 'Give them up! And to the south, 'Do not hold them
back.'  Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of
the earth--everyone who is called by my name, who I created for
my glory, whom I formed and made."  Wow!!  It is to God's glory
that we were made...or we were made to bring him glory.  Either
way you look at it, that is great to know.  We did not just
"happen"...we are not a one of us an accident (despite what we
may have been told)...we were created and designed for His glory!
     We have all heard the scripture "For God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever would believe
in him should not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16),
right?  But do you know what that "whosoever" means?  It means
WHOSOEVER!!!!! Anyone who will believe...the good the bad and the
ugly...the smart the not-so-smart...everyone.  And He loved the
whole world first.  And since God is outside of time, He didn't
just love the people living at the time of Christ...He saw and
knew and loved us all from beginning to end.
     Along with that, hear this...and this scripture needs no
explanation.  Romans 5:6-8  " You see, at just the right time,
when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.  Very
rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man
someone might possibly dare to die.  But God demonstrates his own
love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for
us."
     Now then, how about this last verse.  1 John 3:1  "How great
is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be
called the children of God!"   I looked up the word "lavished"
once...it means given freely and over-generously with full
understanding and no reservations.   THAT IS GOD!
     You know, He could have saved us to be little peons in His
kingdom, but He didn't.  He saved us that we might become His
children for His glory.
     Believing the Lord is a truly loving heavenly Father is
often hard and it is sometimes even harder for us to accept.  Our
earthly fathers have not always given us the best image to look
up to.  But God is not a man that He should lie, and He is not
one who will ever withhold from His Children anything they need.
Especailly love...he loves us out of such an abundant love...with
not strings attached, no quotas to fill.  He just loves us with
an everlasting will.  The word says that to all who believe power
is given to become sons of God.  That includes us ladies.
     The most special thing in this world to me is my family.  My
daddy and my husband and my daughter.  The feelings my dad has
for me are for his precious child that he raised to be a woman.
The feelings I have for my Emily are for the precious child that
I worked so hard to bring into this world.  She is my joy and
delight.  But those feelings, as strong as they are, in no way
compare with the great and mighty love the Lord has for us.  The
feelings we have are only the tiniest part of how God feels about
us.   Pretty neat, huh?
     I wish that I could take this that He has given me and place 
into your hearts, but that is not within my power. It is however 
within my prayer, and for each of you, I pray this:
that the Lord would open the eyes of your understanding and you
would know along with all the saints how high and wide and long
and deep is the love of Christ for you.
     In His Name, I bid you peace and joy in Him.