(Be-lated) Nov. 29th - "I'm Thankful for: "

    On Nov. 1st, I had shared that I was Thankful for the fact that God loved me. I had also admitted, "I am a sinner (wasn't sure all of you knew that o;-p)"  What I hadn't gone into detail about, was just how much God does love me. And you. God loves each and every single person ever created. And His love for all of us (and them) is deep. Passionately so. Not the sexual type of passion, mind you. But a deep burning love type of passion. That type that He willingly and knowingly took action on our behalf for.
    Last week was Thanksgiving, so we are now in to the Christmas season. There is a reason that word begins with the word 'Christ'. As many put it, Christ is "the reason for the season". Christmas is actually a huge celebration of Jesus birth. Who else has birthday parties that the stores start stocking for six months before the date? ;-p
    Around Christmas, you do hear a whole lot about "the Christian version" of the holiday. To the point that a lot of people have taken great measures to try to remove that "influence" from our society.
    There is a lot of coolness about Christ coming as a baby. But the really wondrous part is that He came as a baby, knowing full well how his earthly life would end. Knowing that His eventual death would create the holiday we call Easter. Easter, where there isn't as much "Christian influence" evident every where. With out Christmas, Easter could not have happened. Without Easter, our sinfulness would have kept us separated form God. For eternity! There is a lot to celebrate about Easter! And also about Christmas. All in all, the real roots for both of them often just boggles my mind.

    The reason that Christ came to this earth, was so that He could eventually die. THAT death, the resulting shedding of His blood, was the only way that we could become 'qualified' to enter Heaven once our earthly bodies die.

    Christ loving me that much, that He willingly endured that much pain and torture for my sake, is just mind boggling.

    Earlier in this 'series' (challenge), I talked about how I am thankful that Brian is not only my husband, but also my friend. And sometimes the fact that he still wants to be my friend, these just shy of *34 years later, is mind boggling to me. And yet it's also thrilling. And heart warming.
    [ *34 years as friends - 30 1/2 years as husband and wife.]
   A different time I had written about Brian as my husband. And his still choosing to love me, all these years later. Sometimes I see plenty of reasons why he shouldn't. But he does. His quote to me, "I loved you before. I love you today. And I'll love you tomorrow. Period!"  While I'm not always sure why he does, I am very thankful that he does!!!
   In another posting in this 'series' (challenge), I talked about how I am WOWED by people whom chose to be my friend. And many of them have been friends for a r-e-a-l-l-y long time (but no, that does not then mean we are 'old'!! ;-b). The fact they they are my friends because they want to be, I find amazing. And thrilling. And heart warming.
    Then there is the fact that while I KNOW God purposely did not make me like everybody else,  sometimes how 'different' I am (at least in my own perspective), makes me question why He would chose to love "ME" !

    But He does. God LOVES me. And He loves you too. Just as much! So much so that He willingly died in order to rescue us from our own sins. That folks, is amazing!!! That is thrilling!! That is something for which I am ever so thankful for!!!!!! !!!!
    
    Not only did God die and offer me "salvation", He offered it "free of charge".
   - There is no 'small print' on the 'contract'.
   - There is no 'limited time' on His offer. Well, that is, our time to accept His 'free of charge' offer is limited to the time we are alive here on this earth (and we all aware, whether we like to think on it or not, that we do not know how long that really might be). Or, until He chooses to end the world as we know it. That event comes connected with "the Rapture" (which is talked about in the Bible's book of Revelation, and we posted some about it in THIS posting).
   - There is no way that we can 'earn' our salvation. The Bible is very clear on this. "Not by righteous works which you have done.... " That does not mean that we aren't suppose to do good works. It just means that no matter how many we might do, THEY are not able to earn us His free gift of 'salvation'. ('Salvation' essentially means forgiveness of/for our sins.)

   Then, God not only offered it 'free of charge', He also offered it TO ME. Me, personally. God did so because He wants to have a relationship with ME.
   Again, this is not referring to a sexual type of relationship. Rather, it's about the deepest of friendships. The type of friendship where you truly love the other, and "sex" NEVER enters the equation.
   - God wants to "walk and talk with us". He knows all about us, and yet He still wants us to share that information with him. You know how sometimes you know this or that about somebody, and yet when they open up and share that information about themselves it means that your friendship has passed over even more barriers/walls? THAT is the type of relationship God wants with us! Amazing!
   - And He wants us to read His Bible so that we learn more and more about Him. (If you don't have a Bible in your own home, then we recommend you go to a public library and use one of theirs. For those of you whom haven't had lots of experience with the Bible, we would recommend the NIV version. It's written more in lines with the language we use today.)
   - Another aspect about God offering it to me personally, is that means that we do not have to go through anybody else to get to Him. Not another human. Not His mother. Nobody else. He wants us to have a relationship with HIM!  WOW!

    If my earthly life were to end tonight, I KNOW for a fact that I would then be in Heaven. Do you? Is this something that is on your own "I'm Thankful for: " list?   If not, or if your not totally sure, P-L-E-A-S-E scroll down to the picture at the very bottom of our blog site, and use your Bible (or borrowed Bible) and look up all of the references listed there in for yourself. Yes, it really is THAT important!!!
   
    Thank-You God for your amazing wondrous love for me. WOW!!!!



The 2010 "I'm Thankful for: " Challenge   - if you don't know what this is, follow the lead on our side bar.