Who Am I

The unqualified get called to serve God.

Video - Casting Crowns "Who Am I?"

Who am I, that the Lord of all the earth

Would care to know my name

Would care to feel my hurt

Who am I, that the Bright and Morning Star

Would choose to light the way

For my ever wandering heart

Not because of who I am

But because of what You've done

Not because of what I've done

But because of who You are

I am a flower quickly fading

Here today and gone tomorrow

A wave tossed in the ocean (ocean)

A vapor in the wind

Still You hear me when I'm calling

Lord, You catch me when I'm falling

And You've told me who I am...

I am Yours, I am Yours

Who am I, that the eyes that see my sin

Would look on me with love and watch me rise again

Who am I, that the voice that calmed the sea

Would call out through the rain

And calm the storm in me

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Part of the good news of the Bible is that I don't have to be a somebody in any way in order to be used for God's plans. The Bible proves to me over and over again that God isn't partial to people that have it all together or those that are well trained for a task.

In the previous blog post from the book of Exodus we saw that Moses became an ordinary man with nothing to offer before he was called by God to lead his people. God didn't care about his trophies or his list of credentials that he got through his worldly education in the palace of Pharaoh.

The Unqualified Get Called

Who am I that somebody so incredible, powerful and righteous would care about me and desire to be intimate with me? I pray that I will never get over the awesome wonder that God would treat me so well when I deserve nothing from him.

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Are We All God's Children? (gotquestions.org)

I Am Loved Unconditionally

Praise God that I am his child and I am not defined by my mistakes.

Video: Jason Gray - "Remind Me Who I Am"

Ephesians 2:3-5 All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God's anger, just like everyone else. 4 But God is so rich in mercy, and He loved us so much, 5 that even though we were dead because of our sins, He gave us life when He raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God's grace that you have been saved!)

Ephesians 3:17-19 Then Christ will make His home in your hearts as you trust in Him. Your roots will grow down into God's love and keep you strong. 18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is. 19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

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Looking back on fifty plus years with plenty of wrong turns and mistakes, it would be easy to get down on myself, we all have a personal history that is full of things we wish we had never done and places we wish we had never gone.

The best way to keep from allowing my mistakes to define me is to remind myself of who I am in Christ. God's grace is so amazing because he knows us 100% and yet he still loves us 100%. How can you not feel loved and forgiven if you fully understand the gospel?

We can never measure up to God's standards but thank God he knows that I can't and he chose to love me anyway. God's infinite mercy came to my rescue and changed my standing in his eyes.

In saving us from his own wrath, God has done what we could not do, and he has done what we didn’t deserve.

-Joseph Scheumann (desiringgod.org)

My identity isn't about all of the good or the bad that I have done, I am identified as a child of God, I can put down all of the labels that life may hand me and take up the label that says "beloved child of God." Any other label that I try to wear will only bring me down and make me feel defeated.

Check out all of the things that God says about me.

Stairway To Heaven

Jesus gives us access to God.

 

John 1:45-51  Philip went to look for Nathanael and told him, "We have found the very person Moses and the prophets wrote about! His name is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth."

46  "Nazareth!" exclaimed Nathanael. "Can anything good come from Nazareth?" "Come and see for yourself," Philip replied.

47  As they approached, Jesus said, "Now here is a genuine son of Israel--a man of complete integrity."

48  "How do You know about me?" Nathanael asked. Jesus replied, "I could see you under the fig tree before Philip found you."

49  Then Nathanael exclaimed, "Rabbi, You are the Son of God--the King of Israel!"

50  Jesus asked him, "Do you believe this just because I told you I had seen you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than this."

51  Then He said, "I tell you the truth, you will all see heaven open and the angels of God going up and down on the Son of Man, the One who is the stairway between heaven and earth. "

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We have seen in the first chapter of the book of John a great amount of proof that Jesus is God, the testimony of John the Baptist, the testimony of God when Jesus was baptized, and the testimony of the first disciples should be considered if you are investigating who Jesus is.

As we saw in the previous post, Andrew couldn't wait to go and tell his brother Simon about Jesus, Philip had the same reaction and went to find Nathanael and invite him to "come and see" Jesus for himself.

As they approached, Jesus gave some information about Nathanael that he couldn't have possibly known, Nathanael was convinced very quickly that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God that they have been waiting for.

John 18:36 Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”

Nathanael was right to call Jesus his king but he didn't realize that his kingdom is not of this world. Jesus told his disciples that they will see greater proof in the days ahead that he is the Son of God. They are going to witness some amazing events in the next three years that will solidify their faith and make them sure of Jesus. Just wait until they see how much he loves them!

Romans 5:1-2 ESV Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Jesus changed everything, his work on the cross gives us access to God, like a ladder connecting earth to heaven, he made it possible for us to come to God. My relationship with God is changed, I don't need to go to a priest and I don't need to offer a sacrifice, I have peace with God for eternity. I get to live each day knowing that I am loved beyond measure and I know that I have access to God. (John 14:2-3, Hebrews 4:16)

John 14:6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.

I have access to the riches of heaven, not only for my eternal future, but as a resource for daily living. I should live each day with strength and confidence that this world doesn't offer. I need to show them Jesus and invite them to "Come and See" for themselves.

Thank you Lord for giving me access to heaven!

God's Friends

God's love is amazing, steady and unchanging.

1 John 3:1-3  See how very much our Father loves us, for He calls us His children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don't recognize that we are God's children because they don't know Him.   

2  Dear friends, we are already God's children, but He has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He really is.   

3  And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as He is pure.

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Have you ever been amazed by God's love? The most holy and perfect God loves the one little piece of his creation that rebelled against him. All of the rest of creation was working perfectly except for the human race, they decided they wanted to be God, they thought that maybe God was holding them back. God has definitely proven that we were wrong about that.

God loves us so much that he adopted us into his family, just like an earthly family adoption, the parents get to choose to have a child join their family. Somebody that doesn't have any rights to such a benefit. The child that is chosen gets to enjoy the security and love that the natural born children have.

2 Samuel 7:19-23  "How great You are, O Sovereign LORD! There is no one like You. We have never even heard of another God like You!

If you think it's good to be a child of God then just wait because it gets better. We are his children and we have gained a lot of blessings as a result but we haven't received the full benefit. Ultimately we will look just like a blood relative, usually an adopted child doesn't look like his new parents, when Jesus returns for his children he will change us and we will look like him.

Romans 12:2  Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

We will be like him but that isn't something that we should put off until then, we should start the process of becoming like our Savior immediately, God wants to start making changes in our life right now. This process will look very strange to our friends that do not know our Savior. They won't understand us because they don't have a relationship with God, they don't know him so they don't know his ways and when we live according to his ways then we look very strange to them.

God's Love Is Huge
Ephesians 3:18-19  And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is.  19  May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully.

God's love is sacrificial, eternal, and it is beyond measure. There is no end to what he will do for his friends, try as much as you want but we cannot understand it, anybody that would die for you has proven their love is huge. (1 Corinthians 2:14)

Have you been adopted into the family? Are you on friendly terms with God?

John 3:16  "For God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.

Adoptions are very expensive and our adoption into God's family was no different. The Bible tells us that he paid the ultimate price to make it happen. The only thing we have to do is accept the opportunity to be in the family, we don't have to worry that we have to behave good enough , God's gracious love for us was proven while we were yet sinners. (Romans 5:8)

Thank you Lord for allowing me to come close to you as a child in your family and as a friend! I want to live each day with an appreciation for how incredibly well you have treated me.

Find out more about having a relationship with God.

Privileges Of God's Children: Chosen

So unworthy yet God picked me.

1 Peter 2:9-10 But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God's very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for He called you out of the darkness into His wonderful light. 10 Once you had no identity as a people now you are God’s people. Once you received no mercy now you have received God’s mercy.”

John 15:19 The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you.

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Choosing teams for sports was a very humiliating experience for many people growing up. If you are in the first fifty percent of the class that was picked you were okay but if you were standing there for too long then it started to get embarrassing. As far back as the Old Testament God has had a chosen people, it is clear throughout the Bible that some are picked and some are not, it is a difficult concept for our little heads to understand.

There must have been thousands of people on earth but God chose Abraham, out of Abraham's two sons God chose Issac and out of Issac's two sons God chose Jacob, it had nothing to do with the individual that's just the way God wanted it to be. Even Paul said that he was the least likely person to be picked to be an apostle. (1 Corinthians 15:9)

It doesn't seem fair to us but just because we don't understand doesn't mean it is wrong. God is not to be measured by our understanding of what is just and fair. There are so many things that we do not understand about God and his ways but we do know that he is right and just in every decision that he makes. I am glad that God's wisdom and intellect is so much larger than mine, it makes a problem for me when I insist on trying to be a know it all, still I am glad that God is that big. (Psalm 89:13, Isaiah 55:8, Romans 11:33)

Before Christ came the nation of Israel was God's chosen people but now the body of believers have become a nation of chosen people, regardless of race or ethnic background, we have become members of God's kingdom. We are the kingdom of people that have been saved from the kingdom of darkness and now we have a new home which we haven't seen yet. (Exodus 19:4-6, Colossians 1:13)

God's chosen people should look like God

Colossians 3:12-14,17 Since God chose you to be the holy people He loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. 13 Make allowance for each others faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. 14 Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. 17 And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.

All of the blessings and privileges that have been given to such an unworthy person that God chose for himself should have an effect on me and cause me to live for him. If I am truly grateful for God's mercy that I have received then I should be willing to show others the goodness of God. His goodness toward me showed me how to love, how to be merciful and humble and I should be willing to do the same for those around me.

I praise you Lord that you chose to save me, that you gave me a clear picture of how depraved that I am and that you gave me the ability to believe in faith that you love me and died to redeem me.

I Have Been Adopted

Third Day - Children of God.

Galatians 4:4-6 But when the right time came, God sent His Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. God sent Him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that He could adopt us as His very own children. And because we are His children, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, "Abba, Father." 

Adoption isn't anything to be ashamed of, after-all God doesn't have any biological children, every one of them has become a member of his family through adoption, God chooses us to be his people and brings us into the family tree.

Here is what scripture tells us about adoption:

✔  God adopts those whom he loves and has predestined to be his children (Ephesians 1:4-6)
✔  It is through Jesus Christ that God’s children are adopted (Ephesians 1:4-6, Galatians 4:4-5)
✔  God adopts his children so that he might display the glory of his grace (Ephesians 1:4-6)
✔  God has secured this adoption by his Spirit (Romans 8:15)
✔  Our adoption makes us eager for Christ’s return (Romans 8:23)