Jesus Loves Me

In the United States, the month of February is one that is filled with hearts and flowers, chocolates and roses, to celebrate those we love and those who love us. We shouldn't need a holiday to remember to do that, but love is, indeed, something worth celebrating! 

Love, in all of its many forms, is beautiful, and ultimately, love comes from God as 1 John 4:7 says:

 "Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God..."

Ever since I was a Christian, the book of 1 John has been my favorite book of the Bible. As a child (under the age 10 or so), my mom primarily read just Bible stores to me and my siblings, and sometimes, she helped us memorize Scripture. As I got a little older (around the age of 12), we began to read Scripture out loud during our family devotional time before bed. We took turns reading verses in a chapter or two from the Bible.

 

I always loved the book of 1 John. To me, that book is so easy to read and understand. The book of 1 John is very clear what a true Christian is. To this day, I still love that book. 

The apostle John is my favorite Bible writer because there is a common, reoccurring theme in the books he wrote. John wrote a lot about love - love for God and love for others. 

The apostle John, like the Lord Jesus, was Jewish. His Hebrew name was Yohanan. Coming from a Jewish home, I'm sure one of the first Scripture verses John learned as a little boy was the "Shema" (Hear, O Israel) from the book of Deuteronomy:

"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart." 

Deuteronomy 6:4-6 

In observant Jewish homes, even today, this is the first passage of Scripture they teach their children because it contains the greatest commandment of all. What is that? 

"…Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart..." 

The theme of love is seen throughout the books John wrote. John got to the heart of it all. This is why the apostle John is my favorite Bible writer. John is known as the disciple "whom Jesus loved". 

A couple weeks ago, I played my small lap harp at a local church of about 10 elderly people. I played two familiar hymns about God's love: "The Love of God" and "Jesus Loves Me". 

The song, "Jesus Loves Me", takes me back to my childhood. It was probably the first song I learned. Just hearing its sweet melody always brought comfort and peace to me as a child. Although the song was written for a child and is commonly sung as a children's song, this song doesn't have to be just for children. 

Those three words, Jesus Loves Me, bring comfort to me as an adult too. I need that reminder sometimes. 

When I was a girl, there were some things I didn't like about myself. I don't remember sharing those things very much, but they were there inside me. One was my dark hair; I didn't exactly like it. I thought blonde hair was nicer. (like my sister had) I was happy I had blue eyes, like my sister, but as I got older, my blue eyes changed to more of a green color. I didn't like that. 

There were other things I didn't like about myself either. I didn't like that I was the only one in my family who was left handed, and I didn't like my name. To me, Erin sounded like a boy's name, Aaron. (it does!)

One day, when I was about 10 years old, while riding in a vehicle with a friend, I voiced something negative about myself to my friend, not realizing that her Dad was listening to our conversation while he was driving. 

“Erin” he said in a kind, but concerned, voice: “I don't ever want to hear you say anything like that again! Do you realize that God made you exactly how you are? When you say something negative about yourself, you are telling God you don't like how He made you.”

Wow. I hadn't really thought of that before. Inwardly, I thought about it more. 

God made me with the hair color and eye color He wanted me to have? God made me left handed? 

The more I thought about it, that made me feel special. Knowing that God created me the way He did, made me realize that Jesus Loves Me.  

In time, I began to love my dark brown hair, my blue green eyes, my left handedness, and even my name - not out of pride, but out of pure joy and contentment, knowing that God made me exactly how He wanted me to be. That made me very happy and has ever since. 

When I gave my life to the Lord at the age of 11, I knew God's love in a way I never had before. Though I had sinned against Him, Jesus wanted a relationship with me. Jesus died for me. Jesus gave His life for me. Jesus shed His blood for me. I realized, anew, that Jesus Loves Me. 

This month, I was reminded again that Jesus Loves Me. 

Two days after Valentine's Day, I went out to run an errand, and while I was out, I decided to go into a grocery store that was nearby just as it was beginning to snow outside. I stopped to look at their clearance items in one of the aisles behind their floral section. While standing in that aisle, I could see carts full of left over flowers from Valentine's with plastic hearts in them.

Seeing those flowers, I began to cry. I went through all of my 20's and all of my 30's, and I was never given anything special like that from any Godly man for Valentine’s Day. No man has ever asked me: Be mine? 

I've never had a marriage proposal. I will be 40 years old next Valentine's Day. Though they were beautiful, and I would’ve enjoyed them, I didn’t need or want flowers. I was given a single rose from a family member on Valentine’s Day. Those flowers just reminded me that I had no Godly husband in my life - no one for me to love and be loved by. 

I put my head down as I began to cry while trying to look through the clearance items. I didn't find anything I needed. I left the store with blood shot eyes and a tear stained face, hoping no one would notice how much I had been crying. 

I do not seek my identity in marriage or in a man. My identity is in God. 

However, God is the author and designer of romantic love. God is the Creator of those things. Marriage, home, and family, is God's idea, not man's. (Godly homes and families are something that Satan hates and fights against!) God’s ultimate purpose for women is marriage, home, and family. This is very clear in the Word of God. (1 Timothy 5:14) 

Through my tears, the Lord, in His own kind way, comforted me as I drove home that afternoon. I was reminded that Jesus Loves Me. 

Jesus Loves Me is a song I will never outgrow. The truth of God's love is something that is eternal.

The longer I thought about God's love, I began to realize something. Mankind desires to be loved. 

Recently, I finished reading a book on the power of prayer that someone loaned to me. While reading a chapter in this book about a woman with a really rough past, something jumped out at me. In her testimony, she shared: "All I wanted was for someone - anyone - to love me and take care of me." My heart broke for this woman as I read all that she went through while trying to find love. (often, when people are hurting, rather than running to God, they run away from Him.) This woman eventually found true love, hallelujah, in the Lord Jesus. 

Reading that confirmed my thoughts about our desire to be loved.    

This month, I listened to a message, and the speaker mentioned something about this too. He said that, ever since he was a little boy, he wanted to know that he was for sure "acceptable". While listening to him, I thought, it could be more than that? Behind a desire to be accepted is often a desire to be loved. 

True love is found in God.  

I honestly don't know who reads this blog of mine. This blog post was not meant to be about me, but rather, to hopefully encourage someone else. 

Perhaps, like me as a child, there is something that you don't like about yourself? If so, please be assured that God created you and loves you exactly how He made you! Jesus loves you! 

Or perhaps there is someone reading this blog, and you don't know God in a personal way, or maybe you have wandered away from God? If so, please know that God loves you, He died for you, and He wants you to come to Him! Jesus loves you! 

Perhaps there is someone reading this, and like me, you grieve over something you do not have, rest assured, Jesus loves you! He cares. 

I love one of the verses from the song “Jesus Loves Me” which says: 

"Jesus loves me he who died

Heaven's gate to open wide.

He will wash away my sin,

Let his little child come in."

The apostle John said it well when he wrote: 

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved." 

John 3:16-17 

The One Who created you loves you and gave his life for you. 

That is true love.

Thoughts on the Life of David

David is my second favorite Bible character. I won't be writing several posts about David like I did about Joseph, but there are several things about David's life that encourage and inspire me, so much so, I decided to write a post about him.

David was known as being a man after God's own heart. That is how God describes David. That is a very special and incredible thing to be known for, in my mind. 

In speaking about David, Acts 13:22 makes a reference to him by saying: 

“...He raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfill all my will.”

An artist's drawing of David playing his harp to the Lord.

David was also known as the sweet Psalmist of Israel. (2 Samuel 23:1) David not only wrote many Psalms in the Bible, but he also sang many of those Psalms to God as songs. David clearly loved music, and David used music to praise the Lord. David inspires me. 

David played the harp. Many people associate the harp with David, and rightly so, because the Bible mentions David playing his harp to the Lord in many places throughout Scripture. 

David was born and grew up in Bethlehem (Israel) and was the youngest in his family, having many brothers. David was the great-grandson of Ruth. (who we read about in the Book of Ruth)   

David was anointed and later became king over Israel. David was a king all of Israel loved. 

Although he didn't build it, David had a lot to do with the first Temple in Jerusalem and the instruments of music used in that Temple. 

Sometime later in David's life, he sinned against the Lord by committing adultery and murder. During that time in his life, David was far from being “a man after God's heart.”

Psalm 51 is a Psalm that David wrote. David asked God for mercy and for cleansing as he was, clearly, repenting of his sin against the Lord.

God made promises to David about his seed, his descendants. One of his descendants was the Messiah of Israel, the Lord Jesus Christ, born from the line of David.

In speaking of David, Acts 13:23 says it this way: 

“Of this man's seed hath God according to his promise raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus.”

These are all well known facts behind David's life. However, there is something about David that especially encourages me. 

David failed God at a certain time in his life as mentioned above. David was not like Joseph who was faithful to God. And yet, David was called a man after God's own heart. 

How could David be known as that after he sinned the way he did? 

I believe it was because David had a heart of repentance - something God loves. 

Sometimes, when a person fails or falls short of something, as humans, we have a tendency to dismiss or “write that person off” as a failure. God does not do that. God is willing, ready, and eager to forgive someone who has a heart of repentance. 

I believe that quality about David is one of the reasons God called David a man after His own heart. David was quick to acknowledge and repent of his sin. 

David also had a deep love and desire to follow God’s Word (God’s will) as seen in Psalm 119. I believe that is a large reason why David was called a man after God’s own heart. 

David opened up his heart to God with very real, raw, honest emotions about many difficult things he dealt with in his life. That is something we see throughout the Psalms he wrote. I admire that about David.  

Recently, I've been crocheting some blankets, and while doing that, I've been listening to some messages I discovered online about different women in the Bible. There are women in the Bible I enjoy reading about, and I have a few favorites. (Rebekah and Rachel) I also have a favorite Bible writer and book of the Bible. (the apostle John and the book of 1 John) 

While listening to a beautiful message about Rachel in the Bible (the mother of Joseph), the speaker mentioned her failure. Rachel sinned by stealing, lying, and hiding idols, and yet, Rachel’s life was not a failure. God and her husband, Jacob, honored her greatly. I was blessed by the message. 

The speaker mentioned other people in the Bible, such as Moses, who also sinned. Moses sinned by striking the rock at Horeb when God told him to speak to it instead. Was Moses a total failure to God? Of course not. I don't remember this speaker mentioning David and his sin, but my mind went to him. 

Though we have sinned against God (like David), that does not mean we are a total failure to God if we have a heart of repentance like David did. That blesses me. God is rich in mercy and love. (Ephesians 2:4) 

The name David means Beloved - a name I hope to use someday for children of my own. 

David's life is a blessing, an encouragement, and an inspiration to me. Through David’s life, I see the nature and character of God.