from doing to being

reading

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
(mark 1.9-11 nrsv)

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!
(1 john 3.1 niv)

This is the kind of love we are talking about--not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they've done to our relationship with God. My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us--perfect love!
(1 john 4.10-12 tm)

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.
(1 john 4.16 niv)

thought

I am the one who is smart- maybe the smartest in my school.

I am the one who is captain of the team.

I am the one who works the hardest.

I am the one who is the life of the party.

I am the one who always looks perfect.

I am the one who has the scoring record.

I am the one who always helps people.

I am the one who will do anything to get that right person to like me.

I am the one who is a leader.

I am the one who is never afraid.

I am the one who holds my family together.

I am the one who made varsity this year.

This is how we usually define ourselves. Our lives turn into a game to see what you can do to stake your claim as someone who matters, someone who is significant, someone who deserves to be liked- maybe even loved. Those of us who are living the Way of Jesus embrace a significant change in how we look at ourselves- we’re not accepted for what we do; we’re accepted for who our Father in the heavens says we are. Our Father speaks over all of us connected with Jesus the same words that he thundered from the heavens in today’s reading: you are my Beloved. I love you. For who you are. I’m pleased with you.

I am the one who is accepted by God for who he has made me.

I am the one who has heard my Father say, “You are my Beloved, my dearly loved one. I love you.”

I am the one that the Father is pleased with.

I am the one who Jesus sacrificed himself for.

I am the one who has the freedom of living in God’s unconditional love.

I am the one who freely expresses God’s crazy, irrational love to everyone I can get my hands on.

Conversation
**What are the ways that you try and earn acceptance from other people?

**Listen to God. How do you respond when you hear him say that you’re his Beloved, his child in the family of Jesus, the one on whom he lavishes his love? Have you ever let God speak that to you before?
**How do you think it would change your life to define yourself, not in terms of what you do, but of who God has made you to be?
**What are some practical ways that you can remind yourself and your other friends who follow Jesus about this truth?
**What are some practical ways you can express God’s crazy, irrational love to other people?

**click "comment," and let the conversation begin...