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At the moment you were born, what was God thinking? I think He was thinking, as he always has, how important you are. “A little lower than the angels” is the way the Bible puts it.
I love the way the 139th Psalm describes our day of earthly entry. That God, "knit me together in my mother's womb." What a moment of wonderment. Life!
In the book of Samuel 16:7, the mind of God is spelled out quite clearly, It reads “…The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."
This is no small thing, being created by and identified by God in such a way there is never any doubt in the halls of heaven who you are….who I am.
No small thing because “in the world of man” identities are stolen all the time. It happened to us two summers ago. Someone reached into my wife’s purse and stole her identity. Went around proving they were her to a world that was more than willing to accept as fact what was obviously a lie. We straightened it out, but for a short time “the things that man looks at” created an identity crisis.
But with God? No identity theft will ever take place. He knows who we are, the good and the bad and the in-between. And He loves us despite what He sees rather than because.
Yes, God knows us and loves us and forgives us and redeems us… but in return should we not love ourselves enough to take care of ourselves and redeem ourselves from foolish spiritual and physical habits that harm rather than repair?
When I was a little boy, one of my favorite games was hide and seek. To try to outsmart my playmates and manage to elude capture so I could then touch a home base tree first…that showed I had just won. It was fun.
But playing hide and seek with God and His commandments is not a game. Not a romp of competition. And to keep making withdrawals of forgiveness out of a spiritual bank account that never runs dry is great…but how much better to make deposits of good deeds and better resolutions.
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Paul says, "I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from, the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
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“Nothing will be able to separate us…” No matter the context of various scriptures, they just keep saying, in different ways, the same thing over and over again. Where we are…God is. It’s like a giant heavenly theater with a wrap-around screen and God not missing a thing.
And he is watching us and loving us and forgiving us and calling on us to call on His name on a regular basis. And ask the right questions and try to live in such a manner we can give the right answers.
Were our actions this last week good or bad? And why did we perform them? The why being more important than the what. Of course, I am talking about self-examination, and that is sometimes about as pleasant as a trip to the dentist.
Do you ever consider what you are worth? And worth to whom, and why, and when? We get hung up on the word worth and get in all kind of trouble because of it.
A man buys a Cadillac and thinks it gives him more worth.
Another man adds up one college degree after another and thinks they give him more worth.
A job title. A star in sports. Popularity.
But as a sub text…many people eventually get around to believing and accepting full blast, “My greatest worth is that I was made by God.”
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Over and over again the Bible underlines this real worth. From the very beginning in Genesis (1:1, 26-28) In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness…." So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female, he created them. God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number…."
"Through him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made."(John 1:3, NIV)
And quoting Paul, he said in Acts 17:25: …for he himself [God] gives all men life and breath and everything else.
And in 17:28-29: For in God we live and move and have our being.
And again, in 1 John 3:1, 2: “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God”
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A quote from the blog to be posted on my blog entitled “ANGER IS A KILLER” (1st in Series)
“Do you enjoy visiting friends? More than likely you’re thinking, Preacher, of course, I do.
Now let me ask the other side of the coin - Do you enjoy visiting enemies? No?
Well, I know you must enjoy visiting at least one enemy because, like myself, you probably visit this one quite often. Unfortunately, we all …visit this enemy…whose name is anger.
Some visit anger seldom . Some on a regular basis. And during those visits, some spew and others stew…”
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Neil Wyrick’s book RUST ON MY SOUL Serialized is available on amazon.com
To view an abundance of unusual stories and comments by Neil Wyrick go to Neil’s other blog ONE A DAY, YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS
Click on the following URL http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/
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