Welcome and thank you for being here, my dear friends.
We are right on time.
I am going to begin with what is on my heart and what I have been meditating on in my mind lately.
The scorn and shame towards Jesus.
Before He came to earth, I believe His heart broke for those in which He created.
He made us to love, sing, and to dance freely and fully without shame or hindrance.
Yet, there we were broken and pained in our heart, hurting one another and ourselves.
With great humility, vulnerability, and risk - He came to rescue us. Yet we did not receive Him as our own.
He was despised and rejected on this earth.
He hurt for us before He came. Then He came and hurt some more through experiencing betrayal, rejection, and persecution.
I imagine there was comfort and joy intermingled with the pain as He experienced a new sort of nearness with His creation.
Then He left this earth to be reunited with His Father (our Father) in heaven.
His coming was worth it. He overcame death and conquered the grave. He ascended into heaven, oh what a glorious day.
Yet the story lives on and is not over.
I still hurt Him and reject Him every time I go looking for love and fulfillment apart from Him.
I still hurt others and others hurt me.
This world has been changed forever by His glorious coming yet it is still broken.
The change that happened on the cross cannot be reversed. It is done. We have been redeemed, if we will receive Him now and accept Him as our Lord and Savior.
Now I have the power to love those who hurt me, to pray for those who speak evil against me.
If I humble myself and see the ways I have rejected Jesus - I will receive His mercy towards myself and others.
I will end with this prompt…
When I am feeling rejected, I whisper a reminder to myself “Jesus was rejected again and again so that I can be accepted”.
I remember that just as people have rejected me, I have rejected Jesus. I enter into His story and gain power in my inner-man to receive, embrace and forgive broken people in this world, including myself. I am broken. I offer my brokenness to Jesus and am accepted into His family.
Part 2 coming soon…there is more to the story but I thought this was a good place to break and pause :-)
