Saturday, February 26, 2011

A Love Letter From Our Father


God desperately unfathomably loves you and me.
Nothing exists that wasn't created for His Son and His Son's bride.
We are the bride of Christ the Son of God.
We are the children and heirs and co-rulers of God.
(romans 8:17)



My Child,

You may not know me,
but I know everything about you. 

Psalm 139:1
I know when you sit down and when you rise up. 
Psalm 139:2
I am familiar with all your ways. 
Psalm 139:3
Even the very hairs on your head are numbered. 
Matthew 10:29-31
For you were made in my image. 
Genesis 1:27
In me you live and move and have your being.
Acts 17:28
For you are my offspring. 
Acts 17:28
I knew you even before you were conceived. 
Jeremiah 1:4-5
I chose you when I planned creation. 
Ephesians 1:11-12
You were not a mistake,
for all your days are written in my book. 

Psalm 139:15-16
I determined the exact time of your birth
and where you would live. 

Acts 17:26
You are fearfully and wonderfully made. 
Psalm 139:14
I knit you together in your mother's womb. 
Psalm 139:13
And brought you forth on the day you were born. 
Psalm 71:6
I have been misrepresented
by those who don't know me.

John 8:41-44
I am not distant and angry,
but am the complete expression of love. 

1 John 4:16
And it is my desire to lavish my love on you. 
1 John 3:1
Simply because you are my child
and I am your Father. 

1 John 3:1
I offer you more than your earthly father ever could. 
Matthew 7:11
For I am the perfect father. 
Matthew 5:48
Every good gift that you receive comes from my hand. 
James 1:17
For I am your provider and I meet all your needs. 
Matthew 6:31-33
My plan for your future has always been filled with hope. 
Jeremiah 29:11
Because I love you with an everlasting love. 
Jeremiah 31:3
My thoughts toward you are countless
as the sand on the seashore.

Psalms 139:17-18
And I rejoice over you with singing. 
Zephaniah 3:17
I will never stop doing good to you. 
Jeremiah 32:40
For you are my treasured possession. 
Exodus 19:5
I desire to establish you
with all my heart and all my soul. 

Jeremiah 32:41
And I want to show you great and marvelous things. 
Jeremiah 33:3
If you seek me with all your heart,
you will find me. 

Deuteronomy 4:29
Delight in me and I will give you
the desires of your heart. 

Psalm 37:4
For it is I who gave you those desires. 
Philippians 2:13
I am able to do more for you
than you could possibly imagine. 

Ephesians 3:20
For I am your greatest encourager. 
2 Thessalonians 2:16-17
I am also the Father who comforts you
in all your troubles. 

2 Corinthians 1:3-4
When you are brokenhearted,
I am close to you. 

Psalm 34:18
As a shepherd carries a lamb,
I have carried you close to my heart. 

Isaiah 40:11
One day I will wipe away
every tear from your eyes. 

Revelation 21:3-4
And I'll take away all the pain
you have suffered on this earth.

Revelation 21:3-4
I am your Father, and I love you
even as I love my son, Jesus.

John 17:23
For in Jesus, my love for you is revealed. 
John 17:26
He is the exact representation of my being. 
Hebrews 1:3
He came to demonstrate that I am for you,
not against you. 

Romans 8:31
And to tell you that I am not counting your sins.
2 Corinthians 5:18-19
Jesus died so that you and I could be reconciled. 
2 Corinthians 5:18-19
His death was the ultimate expression
of my love for you. 

1 John 4:10
I gave up everything I loved
that I might gain your love. 

Romans 8:31-32
If you receive the gift of my son Jesus,
you receive me. 

1 John 2:23
And nothing will ever separate you
from my love again.

Romans 8:38-39
Come home and I'll throw the biggest party
heaven has ever seen.

Luke 15:7
I have always been Father,
and will always be Father.

Ephesians 3:14-15
My question is…
Will you be my child? 

John 1:12-13
I am waiting for you. 
Luke 15:11-32


Love, Your Dad
Almighty God

Friday, February 18, 2011

To Love Jesus


Bridegroom- a newly married man or a man about to be married.

The scent of rain and wet earth rode on the heavy summer breeze the day I sat on a log in the middle of a Tennessee forest. It blew softly over my face and through my hair.  My soul was giddy with excitement for I knew I was not alone. I was in the very presence of my beloved bridegroom, my Jesus.
The trees danced and swayed in worship praising God in all of their earthly form. The forest was stilled and awed.  I could hear crisply, sounds ordinarily unheard to my ears. The leaves that fell to the forest floor, the rays of the sun and a scurrying creature pattering it's small paws on the wet earth. The stillness was a peace, a slow motion as if Jesus were savoring this moment with me, extending it as long as I was in the spirit, a moment just between Him and me.

When Dave courted me before we were married we savored every moment together. We held hands, we gazed into each other's eyes and we kissed. My bridegroom could not get enough of me. He wanted every part of me and I wanted him. But we could not become united as one until our wedding ceremony. That did not stop us from cherishing every opportunity to be together.  We would go crazy with excitement sometimes anticipating our life together as one.

Jesus, our bridegroom.
The Father the Son and the Holy Spirit have a beautiful and perfect relationship together. They are in a perfect unity of love called holiness.
Their joy with one another is on levels beyond our understanding in the flesh.
God the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit want to share that family unit, that holiness with us. Going to Disney World is really fun for Dave and I but it doesn't compare to the joy in sharing that fun, in taking our two boys with us. The beautiful relationship between the trinity is fun and joy and beautiful and wonderful and perfect holiness yet shared with us, God's children it is all the more awesome to for our Godly family the Trinity.


I think about when Adam named every creature while still in the garden. He realized that there was not one creature created just for him. He longed for a bride. God created Eve for Adam just as God has created us His adopted children, a bride for His Son.
Christ longs for us, His bride. He has a perfect relationship full of joy with the Father and the Holy Spirit and yet He longs for us. he loves us and He waits for us. To be united as one as His bride.

Dave and I have friends that are in the process of adopting a child from Rwanda.
That child is coming from the poorest country in the world.
Genocide is a common factor in her world. Starvation disease and parentless children are not unknown to her.
Our friends have a beautiful life that they want to share with her.
They have a gorgeous home, the most genuinely loving children I've ever met, zip lines in their back yard...their life is blessed and perfect and they want to share that with this child from Rwanda. She will be blown away when she arrives to her new home. Just imagine it.
She will step off the plane to immediate change of luxury for the rest of her life. She will know love beyond what she had ever experienced, she will know hot water, a warm bed, food, toys, and an inheritance from her new family.
Just as our friends are so excited to share their love and their life with her so is Jesus excited to share His life, His love His inheritance with us.
We will step off our plane called rapture and Jesus will be overjoyed to show us our new life with Him.

Before the wedding feast (after the rapture-the marriage supper of the lamb-revelations 19:7) Christ courts us. He is savoring time spent with us as we seek Him and pray to Him and long to be with Him. He cherishes every opportunity for us to be together and He is crazy excited anticipating our life together as one in eternity in the fullness of Him. He wants every part of us and He wants us to want every part of Him. He gazes into our eyes as we pray to Him and holds our hands in His. He holds our hands up to His heart so that we can feel that every beat of His heart says "I love you".

He died for His bride that we may live with Him for eternity. That we may live as His royal bride inheriting His kingdom, His glory....His Father has adopted us and placed a crown on our head because of His Son.
I have more to write on the love of the Father for us but I will have to save it for my next post.

Our bridegroom is not weak. He is a powerful force of righteousness and fierce almighty power.
He is ruler over all in all and He extends His hand to us in marriage.