Does Jesus Really Love Me?

“I am personally convinced that one person can be a change catalyst, a 'transformer' in any situation,

any organization. Such an individual is yeast that can leaven an entire loaf. It requires vision, initiative, patience, respect, persistence, courage, and faith to be a transforming leader.”

Quote: Steven Corey

In the Book of Isaiah 58:6, NIV, it says, 'Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke.'

As a child growing up, the first eight years of my life were bliss. We owned the Emeline General Store in Emeline, Iowa. Other then having a few cases of hay fever in our family, our parents worked very hard and we were blessed by having our grandfather working with us and a farming community of wonderful friends and neighbors who congregated at the store almost on a daily basis.

When, I was eight years old, it became apparent that someone was going to take over ownership of our blissful existence. From that time on, we moved on the average of between every 6 months to l year, a total of well over l8 times in our life at that time.

My sister and I were flung from one school to another, living in every type of town/city from small towns to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to a predominately Catholic town. And, as we moved so frequently,

we never were known long enough to have many friends. I developed low self-esteem and even developed panic attacks at times. As we transferred from one school to another so often, I found that I had become more of an individualist, a loner, somewhat of a dreamer that there had to be more out there that I was missing. In the lonely times, I thought, “Does God really love me?” “Do I mean anything to Him?” I had spoken to Him often but never seemed to get any response.

As I grew up into adulthood, I became a member in a wonderful church. My friends in that church treated me just wonderfully. But, through my life, especially after having an encounter with the living God, I knew there was more out there to be experienced. I eventually left my home church because I felt there was something creative in me, something 'out of the box', something that I wanted to experience and not the same 'o, same 'o, or just the same thing week after week. I ran away from the legalism and the boundaries that held me in.

My first encounter with the living God was at the time of asking the Lord into my life and heart. At that time I'd asked Him, “What is my destiny?” I was looking for God's destiny that He had desired for my life.

“Why am I here?” What am I doing on planet earth? Who am I, really? What's my calling?

It was on the day that I truly received Christ and asked Him into my life that the Lord came to me.

The atmosphere in my bedroom changed. As I prayed, I felt the true 'agape' love of the Lord. I felt His presence standing in front of me where I was praying. And, as I asked him to come into my heart, hands touched my hands and everything unclean, every type of sin disappeared and I felt clean for the very first time in my life. Lovingly and peacefully, I had felt the total depth of God's unconditional love for me. And, since that day, my life has been dedicated to showing that same type of love to others. I asked later to be totally filled with God's agape love, and my life just began to reach out to others and I started caring for others in ways many could not even understand. Where I had to fight just to stand my ground before, the Lord's unconditional agape love replaced all of those walls and fears that I had erected just to survive on my own. God had extended His hand and loved unconditionally one of the least of the least and made me His own. Covered in that unconditional love, that refreshing love set something right about all my life and the feeling of unworthiness, being unloved, and rejected that the world so freely flung my way.

I thought, “Wow, there are no conditions.” “This Jesus really, actually, totally 'loves' me.

One main characteristic that I had witnessed in each denomination that I'd visited within the church was every churches goal was that we all be the same. We live in a world of sameness. We seem to live in a world where everybody has to live in a box. If you aren't like us, then, you aren't with us. It took God to show me that we are a people of a harmony. But, each of us isn't the same as everybody else. All the world, planets, all creation are not exactly alike. No snowflake is alike. No fingerprints are alike. No DNA is alike. No planets are alike. Nothing in the Lord's creation is alike. Each person that lives on earth are not exactly alike.

We are each unique and wonderfully made in our own way. God is an artist, an artist of maximum diversity. That means He is incapable of making each one of us like one another. I realized that authenticity is what is going to attract God's close friendship, His anointing to come upon us, and His 'Light' to shine through us. Others will not have the same traits that you have. There is no one in the world who can do what the Lord has called 'You' to do.

They just won't have what God has placed on your heart...His DNA designed especially for you. No one else will have the destiny that God has put in 'You'. No one can walk the path that He has called you to walk. Others may cross our path, but it may be at that time that the Lord changes lives and others be healed just by His presence in you. He has set us apart and created us for His purpose. We weren't born a mistake. As, we, from deep in our hearts, truly repented and accepted Him as our Lord and Savior, we become that reflection of God's very character and essence in human form. So, again, I must emphasize that without each one of us reflecting God's Heart, then, the world misses seeing that part of God that only you can share.

I believe one of the problems with churches today is a lack of spiritual encouragers. We need to allow people to be set free to be all they can be in Christ Jesus. In fact, in many churches, we hinder such actions.

The words I am looking for here is 'equipping the saints'. What 'equipping the saints' means is that you give them permission to follow whatever it is that Christ has created them to be, whatever Christ has created you to be and not expect everyone to fit into one mold. Just as a body is made up of many parts, so is the Body of Christ.

What is your 'unique' destiny? What is your 'unique' calling? I give you permission as your spiritual encourager to be everything God has called you to be because we are steeped in a theology of sameness.

We need someone to 'break the mold'. It's time for us to be unique, truly authentic, and filled with God's destiny.

There can be copies, look-a-likes, and duplicates, but never another original 'You'. You may be at a crossroads if sometime you feel you are not fully using your God-given talents. My gosh! What would people say? So, you have suppressed that 'light' that draws others to Christ for fear what the next person might say or even for fear of being given the left hand of fellowship from your church.

Some things that have kept us bound are things like bad thoughts, perhaps, painful memories or experiences from our past, destructive habits, emotions, misplaced desires. Limited beliefs and narrow mindedness thwart our divine purpose that would bring true meaning and fulfillment in Christ on a day by day basis. These weigh us down and cause us to fall back into sin, get into fenced in behaviors and we just sit there and stagnate while we watch another arise and take our place in places they were never meant to be. Eventually, we leave this world without ever fulfilling our God-given assignment, fulfilling our inner dreams and submarine our purpose or full potential that the Lord had designed for us. We not only were unable to break free but we have kept others around us bound as well. We have become more of the problem then the solution. Eventually, we with go to the Father with unfulfilled assignments and with tears in our eyes. I feel the Lord wants to come to Him happy and fulfilled in Christ Jesus.

Time and time again, I have heard the cries of people who have been deeply hurt or negatively affected by the words or actions of others. Even within the church, if you listen carefully, you can hear the desperate pleas of people crying out for help from emotional desolation. It may be a silent cry not demonstrated by tears but by a seething undercurrent of rage, anger, bitterness, withdrawal, isolation, jealousy, hatred, manipulation, or random emotional outbursts, all masked by a peculiarly unsettled silence.

All actions and reactions not born of God's agape love are simply a cry from deep within...a cry for healing and freedom from the burden of pain and loneliness, a plea to be free from the weights, fences, and boundaries that have bound our souls for much too long.

My highest calling in Christ Jesus and greatest reward in life is launching you into a new level of faith to climb up higher to victory and joyous living by establishing you in the knowledge of the truth of God's spiritual kingdom and of His love...a knowledge that will 'set you free' and find healing regardless of any unfortunate events, decisions, or relationships you may have had in your past.

Jesus said, 'You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.' (John 8:32) NIV. The world will see the real you uniquely designed by the Father to complete your God-given purpose on this earth.

The truth will set you free – the divinely created you that has been held back for much too long.

As in the message entitled, 'The Field with No Fences', your harness will be taken off, you will be bound no more, now free from the limitations and fences that bound you.

In Christ, as He sets you free, He will also tell you, “Now go, for I know no matter where you go in this field with no fences that all I will have to do is snap my fingers and you will be right here by My side.” Be healed. Be free now in the Agape love of Christ Jesus that He has for His unique 'You'! Amen?