LOVE

Wow... where do I even begin? This seems like the thing to do... So again, even though I hate following trends, this seems harmless enough! :) So, here I am, in good ol' Ohio. Of course it's nothing special... but wait. I'm gonna go ahead and stop right there. That's kind of the idea behind this blog; the point if you will. And the point is simply this: God moves no matter where you are. For the longest time, I struggled with this thought. It's not that I didn't believe that the Lord used people where they were, but I would always say something like 'Well, it's nothing like if I were in China and doing the the work of the Lord there.' But I got to thinking (or maybe the Lord got me thinking?) that when God hears us say this, it breaks his heart. For quite some time, I had been praying that the Lord would reveal to me a possible DTS where I could go and be actively engaged in Him there. No doubt, the Lord did this for me, but then He said that one simple word that is even worse than yes or no: Wait. 'Are you willing to wait on me Courtney?' 'Do you trust me?' And so the free-fall began. With every move that I made, every step that I took, I did my best to rely on the strength and power of the Lord. Since then, the Lord has been speaking into me the most beautiful things; and one in particular that has changed my life. It's the simplest of things, and yet aren't the simple things the hardest to accept? And it's SIMPLY this: God loves me. God loves his people. And you may be sitting there saying 'Well, duh Courtney. Of course he loves us.'But no... He LOVES us. And yes, I would love to elaborate :) The main verses (although there are many, many others) behind this revelation is 2 Corinthians 5:17-21. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has gone the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: BE RECONCILED TO GOD. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." Read that a few more times. I imagine most of you have heard this verse many times. Here's what I want to touch on, and I say that because that really is all we can do when we are talking about the love of Christ. We are a new creation when we commit our lives to Christ. What does this mean exactly? Jesus had all authority in heaven and on earth. After his death and resurrection, were we were given the Holy Spirit; the very Spirit of Christ. What does that mean? BE RECONCILED TO GOD. An absolutely sock-rocking statement in Rob Bell's Velvet Elvis says this: 'When God looks at us, he sees himself.' In Romans 8 it says that 'if we are children; then we are heirs: heirs with God and CO-HEIRS with Christ. Co-heirs with Christ?! You mean God sees ME as he sees his son; the Son of Man?! Realizing who you are in Christ is absolutely crucial in the furthering of His kingdom. If we do not realize it, we will never be able to step in the full inheritance of God. But not only do we need to realize it, we need to accept it. It is something that we will never understand; it is simply a divine gift from a Father who loves his children. Not just loves. LOVES. Phillipians 3:16 'Let us live up to what we have already attained.' Thanks for tuning in!! Courtney