Unconditional

Did you know that God loves you unconditionally? That is, he loves you with out conditions - there is no standard and no qualifications that you have to meet before God can love you.

Many people have trouble with this. We think that any thing that is free must not be worth much. So if God's love is worth having, then we have to pay for it somehow. Or we don't think God could love us - for whatever reason - because we don't measure up or are so beyond his love.

If either of these apply to you, I urge you to change your mind. For the first, God's love is truly free and you must come to believe it. God's love is worth having, but is so great that we could never afford it. It is a gift - open your heart and receive it.

For the second, you might need for God to first heal you of some hurt. Strictly speaking, none of us are worthy of God's love. That is why God's love had to come in the form of of Jesus' Cross. Our worthiness is not the primary issue. The issue is that God made us and we are his. His loves his Creation - including you! Ask God to heal anything that keeps you from opening to his love.

There is a funny thing about God's unconditional love: we have to accept it unconditionally. This might be the hardest thing of all - because of Jesus' Cross. Many of us want to say that we are basically good. But to accept God's love unconditionally means we have to accept the form it comes in - a cross.

At the intersection of God's love and who we are, we find the Cross. It may be a paradox, but accepting God's love unconditionally means repentance. Repentance is the only possible response when we see the vastness of God's love and our true condition.

I pray that you will be enveloped by God's love!

Body Worship on a rollercoaster

Romans 12 says an amazing thing: "Present your body...which is your spiritual worship!

We think our bodies have nothing to do with us. Even CS Lewis said we were souls with bodies. But we are whole people. And God calls us to "present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God..."

Acceptable to God! Wow!

I had a taste of this riding "Wild Thing," a roller coaster at Valleyfair, an amusement park near us. It has a 200 plus foot first drop. When we got there in the morning, I went straight to Wild Thing. I rode in the back (the best place to ride a coaster). On the way up, I felt a bit nervous (it is a long way up!).

But when I got to the top, I put my hands up (standard roller coaster position) and I realized that that was exactly the posture I was frequently using to praise God! So the whole ride I was yelling at the top of my lunges, praising God!

Don't wait to ride a coaster - you can praise God with your whole self right now. But the next time you ride one, remember: Arms up!

And go to my Facebook profile, too!

Here!!!

Go see Andy Crouch's video!

Here!