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You used to be far from God. Colossians 1:20

 

once i was lost.  i was unacceptable and unwelcome.

once i was a stranger and rejected and rebellious.

 

God himself was pleased
to live fully in his Son.
And God was pleased
for him to make peace
by sacrificing his blood
on the cross,
so that all beings in heaven
and on earth
would be brought back to God.

You used to be far from God. Your thoughts made you his enemies, and you did evil things.  But his Son became a human and died. So God made peace with you, and now he lets you stand in his presence as people who are holy and faultless and innocent.  Colossians 1:19-22

 

once i was lost.  now i am found.

once i was a stranger.  now i am a friend.

once i was a rebellious sinner, now i am holy, faultless and innocent.

 

Ephesians 1:5 NLT says this: God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.

 

You have been welcomed into God’s family with all the benefits and protections and rights and blessings of been a daughter of God.

 

The Message puts it like this: Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.  Ephesians 2

 

 

Evangeline, my darling 7 year old daughter, wrote me this beautiful letter a few months ago:

To Claire, I love you because you are lovely. You are lovely because you are loved.

 

It’s like that with God. He says you are lovely. You are lovely because you are loved by the Creator of the Universe, the one who breathed out the stars, who holds the universe in the palm of His hand, who designed zebras and butterflies and hummingbirds. You are lovely because God says you are.

Do you hear that?

You are a daughter of God!

Welcomed.

No shame.  No rejection.  No performance required.  No refusal.  No indifference.  No condemnation.

We do not have to live in the shadow of our past! We have been set free and redeemed and welcomed into the family of God!

Your past has no power of you because the cross cancels the junk and the guilt. Jesus heals. He redeems. He calls you by name. He declares you’re innocent. No matter what you have done or what has been done to you – God declares us not guilty and opens His arms wide to receive us, to welcome us. Nothing can disqualify us from His love.

Amazing things happen when we come home to God.

 

Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Hebrews 4:16

 

esp relevant today is that today marks the first day of being part of a Leading & Loving It Virtual Community Group – a group brimming with welcome and connection… cant wait to see what God does in and to and through this bunch of women!

#FiveMinuteFriday free write time! <—click to tweet this!

Five Minute Friday is a feature over at Lisa-Jo Bakers TALES FROM A GYPSY MAMA blog.  i first read about it on my friend Fee’s blog and thought it sounded fun!

1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking.
2. Link back here and invite others to join in.
3. And then absolutely, no ifs, ands or buts about it, you need to visit the person who linked up before you & encourage them in their comments. Seriously. That is, like, the rule. And the fun. And the heart of this community..

OK, are you ready?

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