As I prayed to get direction for writing this article, it just seemed that the message God wants me to convey is very simple. What is burning in the heart of God tonight is that GOD LOVES YOU, and that He wants you to know how much He loves you. (Please allow me to speak directly to "you" rather than to a generic "us.") His love for you is unconditional. You may be living a homosexual lifestyle. You may be a drug addict. You may be an outcast of society, and religion is telling you that God does not want to have anything to do with the likes of you. God wants you to know tonight that He loves you. He accepts you. Jesus died for you just as much as He died for me. And since God loves you, that's good enough for me. By the grace of God I love you too. Because God loves you, I no longer have the right to consider you any other way than as one for whom God spent His very best to redeem.
Let me go one step further. YOU ARE FORGIVEN. The Bible clearly says that God has reconciled Himself to you by the death of Jesus Christ. As far as God is concerned, your sins are forgiven you. He didn't wait for you to clean up your act before He sent Jesus to the cross. While you were still helpless, Christ died for you. He is not holding anything against you. Jesus has taken away your sins. God's arms are opened wide to you, just like in the Bible story of the father awaiting the return of His wayward son. When He saw that son returning, He ran to meet him. Picture that!! GOD IS RUNNING TO MEET YOU. You may have strayed into a distant land. You may have utterly turned your back on Him. You may have cursed Him, and said all kinds of hurtful things against Him. You may have been going all over town declaring that He is a fraud, or a figment of someone's imagination. And yet all that time, He hasn't been holding any of those things against you. He's not keeping score of your wrongs. All this time, God has been longing for you, watching for you, like a shepherd looking for a lost sheep, and not giving up until that sheep is found.
He said, "Come to Me, all you who labor and are burdened down, and I will give you rest." Two thousand years ago, a singularly unique Person was born into this world. He lived a sinless life, healed the sick, ministered to the broken hearted, ate with sinners, and preached good news wherever He went of the kingdom of God that is coming upon the earth. He was put through a mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a Roman cross between two thieves. While He was being reviled and His executioners gambled for His clothing, He said, "Father forgive them, for they don't know what they are doing." He died that day and was buried in a borrowed tomb. On the third day He came back from death, having conquered it for all time on our behalf, and He is now the ruling and reigning monarch of the Universe. He is Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He loves YOU, He forgives YOU, and He desires you to allow Him to come into your life by trusting Him.
@ copyright 1997 by Scott H. Northrup. All rights reserved.