It begins with me being touched to the core of my being by my Heavenly Father's amazing love for me through His Son, Jesus Christ. Realizing that I am cleansed through the Cross ... of all guilt and shame ... free of ALL the lies and fears of the enemy that were created to hold me back ... able to break every shackle of thought that limits the dreams that God has placed inside of me... and that Jesus loves me FOR ME and not what I can do for Him. Just me, for being me. He loves me for WHO I am... that deep love that even my wife can't fulfill in my heart, He supplies to who I am. My Heavenly Father loves me as HIS CHILD. I am treasure. I am someone that God would give His life to know. And just like I long for the very best for my children, as an earthly Father ... our Heavenly Father yearns to walk each step of the journey of this life with me, as a Heavenly Father, excited over each step of the journey ... lovingly taking my hand and helping me each step of the way, and cheering me on, as I take in and acknowledge His love and presence with me, and sharing my life WITH Him.
Then, out of this great love... I begin to look at others and realize they are just a shell of the incredible potential of Jesus' love that He is wanting to pour out for them. And their pains... their struggles... their heartbreaks... their identity crisis... is all just like a Disney fairy tale, where they are royalty and have yet to discover it. They are Cinderella in the ashes, waiting for the Prince of Peace to come and deliver them from the oppression they are under - so they might shine as the remarkable child of God that THEY ARE. Jesus' love is just waiting to sweep them away - to lift them out of the ashes of their despair - and to deliver them from a life of doldrums, to one where Buena Vista COLOR sweeps their soul with joy and laughter and a meaning to life that was beyond their furthest dreams. Their purpose comes from being loved by the Beloved of God AND NOT found in what they are doing with their hands in living this life by some career.
Oh yes... I am drunk on the Heavenly Father's amazing love for us today. I am beginning to see it is ALL about God's amazing love for us. And, dare I say it (listen to the theologians gasp) even the Song of Solomon makes amazing sense to me now... as I am the lover being drawn by God to the awareness of the beauty of being loved and treasured by someone so amazing as God Himself! He is the love who is seeking me out....
“I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride;
I have gathered my myrrh along with my balsam.
I have eaten my honeycomb and my honey;
I have drunk my wine and my milk.
Eat, friends;
Drink and imbibe deeply, O lovers.”
“I was asleep but my heart was awake.
A voice! My beloved was knocking..."
(Song of Solomon 5:1-2)
I hear the knock. I answer and open the door of my heart to God, and God alone. Drink. Eat, my friends. The Heavenly Father wants you to drink of His amazing love FOR YOU today.
You will never be the same.
- TDS