For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16
Have you ever been in love? Have you ever been loved? Love is a wonderful thing, a gift from God. We all can experience love, even the animals experience love in ways that may be different from the way we do, but they still know love. Have you ever had a dog or cat show you total affection? Or a baby? Babies know love for their mothers from the second they’re born! It is built into them, just amazing.
Love is something we all need, whether we think so or not. When you fall in love for the first time, it changes you forever. Your heart flutters and everything inside you changes. It is an amazing feeling.
The first time I fell in love was in 1985. I met the girl who would eventually become my wife. We had a whirlwind romance that quickly resulted in pregnancy after only about three months! We were married the following summer and in June 2023 we will celebrate 37 years of marriage! Has it been easy? Definitely not, but we kept at it and worked to stay together and through God’s grace we have made it this far. Today we are more in love than we have been in years and that is because God showed us the way!
The love of Jesus is like that. He loves us unconditionally. All we need to do is ask Him to love us and He will! He doesn’t ask questions, He doesn’t hold grudges, He doesn’t remember our sins once we ask Him to come into our lives and help us.
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There is an email going around speaking about forgiveness. I wrote about forgiveness not long after I started my blog. (Is Forgiveness Fair?). People wonder about this question, and honestly forgiveness is not fair. No matter who you are or what you have done, there is a place in Heaven for you! All you need to do is ask Jesus to open a place for you, and you can be there! But some people do not believe that.
If you have tattoos, wear jewelry, dance, sing, watch movies, drink or smoke or any number of other “sins” then you don’t have a place in Heaven, or so we are led to believe! But that is not true. Yes God wants us to live a good life and eat properly and treat our bodies as a temple, but none of these things are salvation issues! Our salvation depends on us accepting the gift that Jesus Christ has given us! He gave us the gift of His life to save us from our sins. Yes some of this things I listed, and more, are sins, but they won’t keep us out of Heaven IF we ask Jesus to forgive us.
I’ve not been a good Christian all my life and in fact had a long stretch of my life when I had no real connection to God, but He had a connection to me and was just waiting for me to realize it and that happened in 2014 when I was sent to jail. If you are new to my blog you can find that part of my life in My Story. He used that time to work with me and change me inside and begin rebuilding me. Over the last eight years my strength in Christ has grown and that has changed other things in my life too.
So as I said earlier, my wife and I have been married for almost 37 years, but they have not been easy years. By the time I went to jail in 2014 I have no idea how we were still together, but we were. I still loved my wife, but that love was hidden so deep down inside me that I barely knew it was there. Going to jail changed that, I suddenly realized how much she meant to me and in my many letters that I wrote while in jail I began to express that in a way I hadn’t in many years. I told her how much I loved her and couldn’t wait to get home to prove it to her and everyone around me.
But I also found the love of God deep down inside me too and that is what saves me! All the bad things that I had done in my past melted away as God forgave me. His love was evident all around me. People noticed a difference in me immediately and I felt different. That love that God offers is amazing. It is a free gift and is the greatest gift ever given, and you can have it too!
No one, no matter who they are or what they have done, is exempt from the love and forgiveness offered by God. All you have to do is ask and He will forgive you and change your life too. I cannot promise that once you accept Him that life will be easy. I am living proof that is not the case. Satan is out there always trying to turn us back to him, but as long as your faith is strong, then God will be there to help you to overcome.
Sometimes when I start a post I have a whole different idea in mind, but the thoughts flow and the words come out. God guides my fingers as I create, so it is His words that I post. I hope you enjoyed this rambling post.
God bless
Shiny Side Up 