FEELING REJECTED

God Accepts You! Just As You Are (Romans 5:1-11) "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him." (Romans 5:7-8) Lets begin in Judges 10:17–11:8, 29 Where we find Jephthah who was a warrior he felt and was rejected by others, yet God used him for His plan and had a purpose for his life. Just like He has for you and for me. READ (Judges 11:2-3, 29). Right here, I want you to understand something, the fact is Jesus was no different from Jephthah or than you and me. He understood rejection, because He was also rejected by others, people He know who were living in His home town.. People who had watched Him grow up. Sometimes those people are our worst critices. Yup, the people of Nazareth, likly even friends and family, were a part of the group doubted questioned and His authority (Mark 6:1-6). Plus He was rejected by the religious leaders in the community, the Pharisees and even some of the Jewish religious leaders members of His own clan/tribe, it was these people who began the petition you might say, to have Him killed.(3:6). It was during His trip to the cross that many of His followers pulled up stakes and left Him.(John 6:60-66). There was even for a time, His siblings,- Brothers and sisters doubted and had a hard time to believing their big brother could be the Messiah (7:5). Then to top it off, His own disciple Judas Iscariot betrayed Him with a kiss, and turned Him into the authorities. (18:2-3). During His trial, the crowds were shouting and calling for His crucifixion (Mark 15:13). So, I would say, Jesus understands rejection, I know that when I face rejection, and that its not an easy thing to face, but I als know that I can bring my pain, "and I have learned to do just that" to Him because I know He understands, what I am going through. He sees it all, I am sure because of His loves for us, He is very sad, but He does not turn away, but rather He opens up His arms amd accepts us just as we are. As a sinner, lost in sin, as a 12 year old yougster, I knew I was rejected by many as a person who went to church, studied the bible and was trying to learn bible verses. I found that some of my school mates rejected me because of thea.. I also know that at least one of my teacher rejected me because of that. The teacher told me the verses in my Sunday school paper did as much good for me as the words in the Sears Catalouge. But a=t the age of 12, I knew that Jesus loved me,because of the great and good love of God, somehow deep down in my heart I knew I did not have to be perfect to be accepted by Him. Even though I was flawed, "I stuttered", I made mistakes, and at times I said bad words, thought bad things about my dad, and did a sin more than once a day Even then I knew God accepted me just as I was. But at that point what I did not know, was that He wanted me to change because of His love inviting me to do so. He wanted me to grow, and that I did not understand. Oh, I knew in that moment, there was no cleanup required, but what I didn't know was that the clean up was about to begin. In order to believe in God, one does not need to fix your life, nor stop bad habits, or earn God's favor before coming to Him.. But once the goodness of God has entered into your life, you begin to change automatically, because God has brought within you a new CHARACTER. Gods agape love, His unconditional love has entered in when you are born again, by the Spirit of God. As you read Romans 5:8 it shows you that God loved humanity even while you were still His enemy. Before you ever believed in Him.Because of that love you now know the value God has placed on you, you are impotrtant to God and He has a purpose for you being here. You are "SOMEONE" in Gods eyes of great worth. You have worth. Why, because HE created you, just as you are, and He has a plan for you as to who you will become. God is in the rebuilding business, just like we as humans like to rebuild things, like cars, houses, and so on, God rebuilds humans. So once God has come into our lives we should no longer be the same person.(2 Corinthians 5:7) says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." In other word we should not and will not stay the same, if we have truly been born again. It is true that God welcomes everyone, you and me and all of our families in our present state, and His goal is to help you heal, mature, and leave behind the patterns of this world, where we will say with the Apostle Paul, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. Everything about us and in us has the desire to live for God and to live in the shed blood of Jesus Christ being led by the Hly Spirit for =the rest of our lives. You will understand and see and feel the change happening.. Because it starts in the inside and works its way out. It is called Spiritual growth and it happens aftr your God made place with in you has been filled by Him and His grace and guidance begins its work in your life and in a pretty short time after this takes place, things begin to change. Because Yyou have given up your will for Gods will, it will be a struggle, but in time you will see that Gods will is the best thing for you. I know we always want do things our way. Father God, thank you, for accepting me as I was, and for helping me change as my desires turned towards you. I want to thank you, for your greatf love and patience with me, as I have grown over the yeas. You have been a great teacher, and I ask you still today for wisdom and guidance in the time I have left on this earth. As you provide and make way, help me to walk in it. It is in your name I pray AMEN.