"Accepted Just as You Are"

"For God so Loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.  For God did not send into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.'  John 3:16-17

The Love of God is deep and wide enough to embrace every kind of person and situation.  It may appear to some that there is no hope for them considering the many evils they have committed.  But the truth of the Gospel is that God loved the whole world with a everlasting, unconditional kind of love.  It's not the love that we can earn or work towards by anything that we do, it is simply God's very nature.  It's exactly who He is.  He even loves us when we don't love Him back.  Imagine that for a moment and how we tend to compare God's loving embrace with anything we have experienced on this earthly realm.  The fact of the matter is that there is absolutely no comparison.  This gives us unending peace and hope when we are faced with trials and circumstances beyond our control, and to know that God's love is covering our minds and hearts.

As I listen to the heart of the youth in this generation, I am starting to recognize one of their greatest needs.  They are crying out to be accepted!  For so many of them, they have been rejected by their parents, loved ones or even society.  My heart breaks as I hear some of the emotional pain and heartache that they have endured already in such a short lifetime.  But God!  God in His great Mercy has given us a way to rise up out of our ashes and to become all that we could ask or think.  He is a God of more than second chances, His Love for us is greater than any pain or suffering we have endured.  When I think of some of the lowest points in my personal journey, they have usually involved some form of rejection.  Whether or not it is on the same level as someone else or not, still the Love of God is able to heal, restore and rebuild any broken life.  The only reason I did not give up when life hit hardest, is simply because the Love of God was shined into my life in some way or another.  Thank God for Christians who operate fully in the Love of God.  We can have all the talent in the world, but if we do not have love, we are only as a clanging cymbal or a noisy gong!
(I Cor. 13:1)  And I don't know about you, but I want my life to make a difference and I'm not impressed with dead religion.  Why even bother with going to church meetings and doing all of the "good works" that impress people, while being a stench in the face of God and not making any difference in eternal matters.  But before we can actually Love the world with this heavenly love, we have to know it and embrace for ourselves first!  You absolutely cannot share something you do not have yourself.  God loves you and accepts you just as you are.  You were not an accident, but rather were created on purpose, by purpose and for a purpose!