Nothing Can Separate!

Hello there. I told you all that I would write more about identity and I promise I will eventually, but something else is really on my heart right now. What I am thinking about right now is the idea that nothing can separate us from God. The text is Romans 8:38-39 and it reads as follows in the ESV:

38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I would like to encourage you to take a second and think about what this means if we truly believe it. Just to preface, this passage was written to the church in Rome. This means that its intended audience would have been people who already had begun following Christ. I, however, do not believe that Paul was insinuating that God's love is exclusive to Christ followers.

Ok, now take a deep breath and we will discuss what that means in our lives. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing can separate you from God's love. It doesn't even matter if you don't want it... It doesn't matter what you've done, who you are, or who you think you might be... God loves you.

God's love is pure. We, as broken humans, have perverted everything that God created in us to be good. Everything we are is in some way a reflection of the characteristics of God (Gen. 1:26). We love because God first loved. His love is better than the best version of our love.

I don't really care what you've heard before, this is how God feels about you. Think about how you feel inside when you reeeeeeaaaaaalllllllly love someone. Are you starting to get an idea of how much God loves you?

Okay, here is an example. God being infinitely great, took on all the limitations of a human body to suffer and die to give us a shot at spending eternity with him. That is love. To be perfectly clear, God has no issues with His self-image. He has a clear picture of who he is. He is Great and he knows that spending eternity in his presence is the best thing for us.

Sooooooooo, just to summarize (because my writing is sometimes erratic at best) God's love is perfect and absolutely nothing can separate you from that love. No matter what you have or have not done you are stuck.... He loves YOU!:-) Embrace it and begin to truly live.(Rom. 8:11)

Peace,

D

P.S. Sorry I don't have an image to go along with this post. I searched and came up with nothing... Have an awesome day!

Identity Crisis? You're not alone...

Growing up I wanted to be lots of things, some practical, most not at all... I remember at one point wanting to be a ninja turtle. I mean what 8 year old boy does not want to be able to be a slob and eat pizza all day, and as a kicker have sweet fighting skills? That was probably the most ridiculous, but I remember wanting to be a police officer, a fire fighter, a teacher, an athlete, a musician, and many various other more practical jobs. I think more than anything, though, I wanted to be good at something. I wanted to be "Derek- The one who excels at something." The main problem with that was, that I wasn't really good at anything... I was average at lots of things, but not really great at anything. I know some people say that and are being modest, but I really was pathetically average. Because of this my identity started becoming a product of my ability. At the same time all this was happening came pressures to drink, do drugs, have sex... These things became what I started trying to become good at. I talked a good game, but thank heavens I was also pretty bad at these things. I mean I was good enough at them for it to be bad, but not good enough to really get myself into any long term trouble.

When I started college it changed some. It was basically the same, but now it was time to prove yourself as a "man." Now the mark of a man was set by how many beers he could drink or how many women he could sleep with. Also, thankfully I was bad at both of these games, but it left me with a sense of inadequacy that has been hard to let go of... I became "Derek- " I had no idea who I was. I had no idea where I was going in life, and I had no idea what the point of it all was.

This all seems kind of dramatic, but I would venture to guess that most of the people reading this will relate to it in one way or another. Every single one of us, as humans, deals with these feelings. I am speaking mostly to my experience, as a guy, but I see identity crisis in girls all the time also. It looks a bit different, but it is definitely the same problem.

I have an answer. An answer that has changed my life. An answer that can change your life. The answer is that we, as humans, have no ability to truly be human outside of a relationship with our creator. In order to find our identity we must find it in who we are as children of God. There are tons of verses that talk about who we are in Christ. I challenge you to go to biblegateway.com and search the phrase "in Christ". Make sure to use the quotes when you search. Read the verses in context and let what it all means soak into your soul...

I have more ideas floating around in my head along this topic. Stay tuned for more. If you have questions please feel free to ask them, I will try my best to answer them!

love,
"Derek- the one who is loved by God"