Saturday, February 18, 2012

“I do! I do!...”

This week we had a wonderful fellow named Bill Payne (who will be with us next week also). We talked about the Character of God. I find that as I even think about to his teaching my heart starts to pound and my eyes get a bit misty. With that said, let me explain.
Early in the week Bill introduced us to a little thing all humans have, the “Truth Box”. It is the spot in your head that tells you what is truth and what is a lie. The more I learned about my truth box, the more I realized that I had a screwed up truth box! I had believed many lies not only of myself, but of God. And something we learned soon after the truth box was introduced is that when we believe a lie about God we are saying that something is wrong with God’s character OR that God is unable to do what he says. Talk about a hard pill to swallow!
Throughout this week Bill told us things like, “If you were the only person on the earth, God still would have sent Jesus for you” or “God loves the gifts you give him in worship and serving. He loves them because of the WHO is giving them, not what they are!” He even told us the reality that “God DIDN’T change after the fall!” At times these truths were something nice to think about, but I found myself being a bit worried to fully put my trust in them. Until Thursday night…
We had a time of worship for our school, and as we sang the songs I pondered about what we had been learning and was excited for what God was doing in our class. (One thing I have learned, whenever I start thanking God for what he is going in everyone else’s life, he is quick to turn it around on me and I usually end up getting my world rocked by him too.) Out of nowhere I decided to have this conversation with God…
“So… you love me huh?” I asked him (side note, stupid question to ask God because he will always answer this the same way).
“I do! I do! I really REALLY do!” was his response.
And in seconds, I was facedown before God weeping. There is something about hearing God tell you he loves you, and I don’t think I will ever grow tired of it. I can think back to times when God told me he loved me and each of those times, I felt like everything in the world was right and okay.
“You died for me, even though I walked away from you over and over again. You died for me even when I tried to be God and when I have called you a liar. You were murdered protecting me even when I did nothing to protect our relationship. You still suffered the worst death in mankind for my heart, and the selfishness and pride that I have held on to my whole life… you still loved me” as I continued to weep.
“Yeah, I did die for you. If you were the only one left on this earth, I would have still died for you. You are my little girl, and I love you with all I am. I don’t just love you kid, I REALLY love you!” He said that with such a gentle voice and as if he was bowing down from heaven to tell me.
MY PAPA LOVES ME!! HE REALLY LOVES ME!!
I wish I could tell you all the joy that I have had within me since this conversation with the King of Kings. The next day in class we talked about our value, and Bill put it in words that hit home for me, especially after the conversation God and I had the night before. Bill walked us through a story, “I want to go buy a person. I want the top of the line, the most valuable, so I go to the person who is the smartest, drives the best car, have the best job and the highest education. I finally find this person in the store of Humans and I want to buy them, so I flip the over to see the price tag attached to them… and it is far too much! So I put them back and I decide I will go down to the basement and find one of you students. You are not the best looking, you are not the smartest. You don’t drive a nice car, if you have a car at all. You are much less than the most valuable person in the world… so I go to flip over your price tag, and guess what?? Tell me what it said??” He then started at each of us, “It said the same thing as the most “valuable” person in the whole world. It is a price that hardly anyone would pay. What is your price?? EVERY DROP OF JESUS’ BLOOD. EVERY TEAR THAT JESUS WEPT. That is what your price tag says. And that is what the price tag of EVERY human being is, because Jesus died for every human being that has ever, is, or will ever live. Every drop of Jesus’ blood. Every tear Jesus ever wept.”

:)

A few verses that have impacted me this week is what I will leave you with.

“As for the Saints who are in the land (all of us Christians)
they are the glorious ones in whom I delight”      ***Psalm 16:3

“…He is a mighty savior. He will rejoice over you with great gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will exult over you by singing a happy song.”    ***Zephaniah 3:17

Thank you Papa, for showing me the deep love you have for me!

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