Thinking It Through: Extra-marital Sex is Sinful (Part 3 of 15)

Hey,

I'm physically exhausted today, so let's go.

"3. All sexual intimacy outside marriage is clearly sinful: There is no real debate about what the Bible teaches if one is committed to Jesus's teachings: 

     First, Jesus affirms the Law of Moses: "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished" (Matt. 5:17-18).

     Second, Jesus defines, marriage from the Law exclusively as God mysteriously joining into one flesh both a man and a woman for life: "Have you not read that He we created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate" (Matt. 19:4-6).

     Third, Jesus defines fornication (all sexual intimacy outside of this divine institution of marriage) as sin and defiling: "Do you not understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and is eliminated? But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornifications, thefts, false witness, slanders. These are the things which defile the man; but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man" (Matt. 15:17-20).

     So, since Jesus speaks about fornification in this way, Jesus also speaks clearly on the issue of homosexuality: he describes it as a sin that the Law condemns.

     Sexual intimacy outside marriage is one of many kinds of lawless deeds that Jesus gave himself over for on the cross (Titus 2:11-14). It is something we all need to constantly repent of as we look forward to Jesus' return. Jesus did not die so that we can freely sin. The gospel says: 'Jesus died and rose, so turn from your sin today and use your freedom in Christ to live in increasing obedience.'"

Ok. That was longer than the last two.

I am inclined to agree with the majority of this. It is fairly clearly laid out that the natural way, the way things were designed to be, the way God designed things to be is for a man and woman to realize the full depths of intimacy in a fully committed marriage relationship, including sex. Anything outside that definition will be less than, will be incomplete, will be in disobedience to the natural order. As Paul in Romans 1:27 puts it "the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men" as part of people turning from God and worshipping created things instead. There's a number of fairly recent arguments given for the biological value of same-sex partnerships, but I don't think I'll ever 100% agree that it is a natural process. The basis of evolutionary biology is having your genes be passed on and survive. More children, the higher the chances of survival. No children, than no survival.

What does it look like to live a life on increasing obedience? This area, although it maybe looked different from time to time, never felt like an area of increasing victory, but just cycles of failure, confession, and struggle. Some resources would speak of how these desires were good and point us towards finding our wives, but didn't address people who were same sex attracted. What then? Paul writes in 1 Cor 7:8-9 "To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain single, as I am. But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion." The way it's written makes it sound like marriage is just an acceptable form of diverting sinful desire into something satisfactory. But what then for same sex attracted people? Is marriage ok? Is it satisfactory in the case that one burns with passion and is unable to maintain self-control?

Jesus did not die so that we can freely sin. 

There were a few years where I struggled so hard against sin and temptation. I would write the kanji for blood on my palm "血" because "In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood." (Hebrews 12:4). Had I struggled so deeply against sin that I had bled in longsuffering pursuit of holiness? No. So I would remind myself of that as I struggled and prayed. Was it helpful? It was kinda guilt trippy. It wasn't a positive reinforcement. Sure, it made me reflect more on how much Jesus had fought against sin and that He did manage to win that battle and secure victory over sin and death on the cross, that He was a high priest we could always turn to because He had been tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15). I had wondered a number of times, had Jesus experienced temptation of same sex attraction towards His closest friends? Had removing his outer garments so that He could wash their feet been a difficult thing to do knowing that temptation was crouching at the door? Regardless, Jesus went to the cross and died in my place without having sinned at all. Now, with the Holy Spirit, I should be able to rely in His power to overcome temptation, ya? So, why did I keep failing? Why did I keep having to keep coming back tearfully asking for forgiveness? Why isn't there an easier way? And I don't want to just end my life, cause that would cause too much pain for others around me. It's not a fair option.

So what then? Slowly suffer cycles of celibate sin? *sigh*

I'll ttyl.

D.Fa

Thinking It Through: Jesus Gave Himself to Redeem Us (Part 2 of 15)

Yo yo,

I need to wake up in 6 hours, but I also need to think this through. :P So let's go.

"2. Jesus gave Himself over to redeem us from our sins: Paul explained to Titus that the gospel involves delivering sinners from sin's power over their lives and their sinful ways: "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds." (Titus 2:11-14)."

Again, I think the potential here lies in how things get defined. 1. We're all sinful. Agreed. 2. Jesus (and the grace available through Him and what He did through dying on the cross in our place) is the only way. Agreed. 3. Though.

"Instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires". Here's one of the potential 'loopholes' I need to pursue. The grace of God available in Christ brings potential salvation to all who would receive it, yes? I was talking to a friend, kinda like debating their points. And I'm like, "but Jesus said you're forgiven, go and sin no more." and they were like "what is the sin in this case?" and I'm like "thou shall not commit adultery"; sexual immorality. Basically anything outside the marriage of a man and a woman, it's outside God's design, ya? And they told me how they were reading about something. Like it was only recently around Martin Luther's time that sex began to be viewed as acceptable in marriage, and like not just sin, but ok. Like the priests would be celibate to be truly pure, but the normal people would be living with some degree of sin in their lives. But the thought that "sex in marriage is a gift from God" a good thing to pursue in the right contexts, is a newer concept. What other things need rethinking? It just seems like too much to me to think that you can twist it further. I had a friend who is gay who is Christian and he had explained part of why he believes he shouldn't pursue a same sex relationship is that the image of marriage reflects God and the church, that a man and a woman reflect Christ and His bride, the church. To have a man and a man, would be to have Christ and Christ, which is not the image that God wants presented, or whatever. I don't even know where I'm going with this now. :P

Uhhhhh. Here's the thing I've been thinking lately. If God is almighty and powerful and worth giving up everything, He will supply the ability to do so. "you will not be tempted beyond what you can handle, but God will give you the strength to overcome" or whatever. If God defines this as sin and wants us to overcome it, why does it seem so impossible? I've spent years trying to fight it and I've gotten nowhere but deeply self-hating and shaming myself. Is there a way to work it out together? "in whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God." (1 Cor 7:24) "But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband." (1 Cor 7:2)? So long as I am actively "looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour, Christ Jesus" and praying for and receiving forgiveness in His name where I'm at, is that ok? Or is it more the way I've described God's hatred of sin that 'we cannot dwell with God at all because of His holiness'? Where is the line? Is a committed gay relationship, in marriage, that pursues Christ and loves Him first, claims forgiveness and confesses sin daily, and zealously pursues good deeds ok? Or is that living in active rebellion because God can supply the strength to live a life more conformed to His will? :/

Abraham was willing, at age 100, to sacrifice his only son because God said to do it. God must be worth it, right? Worth giving up everything that we've been hoping and longing for for decades.

But is there a way that it can work? ://////

D.Fa

I am Human.

Heyo!

I can't believe it's nearly been a month. :) Work has been garbage, but that's for another day. Time does fly when you repress stress and anger and suffering. But time also flies when you're living what feels like a dream. And that's what I want to focus more on right now. :P I can't believe I have a boyfriend and I can't believe it's been nearly a month with him.

So, ya. :P It's been a wild ride. In the last month I've been more honest and open with what I'm feeling and what I'm thinking and just being real. It's been so insanely good. Like, I don't have words for it. And for the most part it's been so wholesome too. :) He bought me sunflowers. We went to the art gallery. We cooked together a bunch. We've walked so many miles together holding hands. We ate fresh baked goods. We watched fireworks three times. We just sat in peace on benches, and beaches, and rocks, and couches, and buses. We've spent probably an hour just staring into each others' eyes. When I'm with him I don't want to be anywhere else. :) 

Most of my friends are from work (Starbucks), or from church. And it's basically been the same story every time I tell people: coworkers - suuuuper excited for me; church friends - kinda awkward, don't quite know what to say, express their love and care for me, confusion based on my previous statements in past years, varying degrees of communicating they don't exactly agree with what I'm doing. And that's ok. I wish the conversations with coworkers went deeper more regularly. They generally stay pretty shallow. Excitement. Asking about him and details about dates and date ideas and stuff. So, like, I love my coworkers, but I feel like I really appreciate the depth of conversation and the conflict happening in my Christian friends. Not only are they reassuring me that they care about me, but they are all expressing that through how they decide to approach the subject matter. Do they ask more about him? Do they ask me how I feel? Do they ask how my thoughts and convictions have changed? Do they express their thoughts? Do they invite me to dinner to better discuss it? All of those ways are them expressing they care and love me, just in different ways, and I'm so happy I've got so many people that are willing to stay engaged and show their care for me. It's given me time to think. It's given me questions to address. It's given me space to figure out my own thoughts and turn them into words. I know there are people there to hear me out, and people I can go to when I need someone to talk to. I'm so incredibly blessed and thankful for this place I'm in now and how much support I truly have.

More internally though, I feel like I'm allowed to live. I feel like I'm allowed to express what I'm thinking and feeling. I feel like I'm ok and don't have to pretend to be someone else. 

And like, maybe you're reading that and thinking "ya. obviously." but like, I've spent so many years hating my thoughts, hating who I was, hating that I couldn't change this, hating that I had to always pretend and fake and censor myself. I know I don't have to tell everyone every thing. But the freedom to be real as topics come up. The freedom to be ok and acknowledge feelings and thoughts. The freedom to not know what to do, but know that whatever happens things will be ok; that I will be ok. That's what it feels like and it's incredible. There's such an intense and heavy weight of shame that I don't have to carry right now, or anymore ideally, regardless of what happens in the end. I am me. And that's ok. Jesus calls people to himself as they are, he heals and forgives and empowers to live for him. I still need to figure that out. I've not had much free time between work madness and stress, and SH joy and bliss. :P I've got time off, I've got vacations planned in the coming month. But again, that shame. It's ok that I struggle with this and am wrestling with what to do.

I'm gonna copy and paste something I wrote a few years ago. I don't think it was the worst day of my life, but it's the one day that I most clearly remember hating being me. There've been a lot of days over the past 10 years where I'd be tempted and hate my thoughts and my imagination and everything and like go to my bed and just attempt to block it all out. Sometimes there'd be a lot of internal yelling, a lot of desperate prayer, sometimes some kicking, sometimes some crying. I hated that this was me and it felt like I was wrong. But on this particular day it felt super bad. (As I'm writing this I haven't re-read it yet.)

Background: I'm in Japan. Me and four other young adults from my church have gone to help teach English to help a church in Northern Tokyo share the good news about Jesus with children and the elderly and anyone who came to the church for English lessons. Our other friend had been there all year doing similar things. We were there just for a week for a summer camp kind of thing. Me, knowing Japan somewhat from anime, knows that hot springs are a thing and are definitely a tourist destination. Generally, Japan doesn't think anything wrong with nudity in such instances and the baths are separated for men and women. So, the chances if I said nothing were high that our team would go and I'd be forced to decide in the moment not to participate; not to go to the baths with the other men on the team or from the church (whatever may happen). So I told them in Canada "I do not want to go to any hot springs. Do not take me to the hot springs." Or something to that effect. So, you would imagine how annoying it was that for our like one full free day they planned with the church to have us drive way out to the hot springs. The whole day sucked (in my memory. Still haven't read it yet). The drive up: dreading it. The lunch beforehand: didn't want to eat. Onsen time: sat outside. And this is where I wrote the following:

"12:37 august 1.

I'm actually so sad right now. Everyone is going to go to onsen and I can't. I don't know what I will do. I don't know how I will feel then. But right now I feel like the worst. Like I'm less than a normal person. But I know I don't want to see anything I wouldn't want to see. So I know it is a better choice. I'm definitely not in a place today where I could go to onsen and be OK. But this feeling sucks.

Aug 2 on the plane.

Honestly yesterday sucked. I felt like it was a complete waste of time to drive so many hours for me to just sit and wait while others bathed in the springs. I was very annoyed by a few other things too. What is permissible is not always beneficial. To sit out was the better choice. Unfortunately I chose to give in to temptation earlier. God had provided so much and I don't want to keep living this way. Even if it is hard I want to do all I can to change the future.

God's steadfast love is better than life.

That is how the verse goes. That is what I want to experience. That is what I want to see. But I feel so torn when it feels like I need something I know I don't need. When the desires of the flesh scream for attention and demand obedience.

I seem to have convinced myself that I do need those things.

When I think of how following God will mean never experiencing so many things. Never fulfilling so many desires. Never knowing the things I don't know. I feel deep sadness.

But the steadfast love of God is greater than life.

Better than any sin or otherwise. If I have to give up the world of sin it would be worth it. If I had to give up the world it would still be worth it. If I had to give up everything it would still be worth it.

But I've convinced myself that the fleeting pleasures of sin are greater than life and worth dying for.

That is craziness.

Like actually. Read that sentence. I've convinced myself that fulfilling a curiosity and fantasy or desire is so valuable that I'd give up God's eternal love in exchange for fleeting pleasure and eternal wrath.

That is madness.  "

Hmmmmm. Not exactly what I thought I had written. I like, literally cried myself to sleep waiting outside the baths. I thought I would have gone into more detail about not feeling like a person. "I feel like the worst. like less than a normal person." less than a person. that's how I always felt when this came up. I saw myself in monsters in shows I watched. I related more to them than the normal human protagonists. There was so much brokenness and shame just at the idea of thinking about having a boyfriend, or legitimately anything smaller than that. At just a single tempting thought I'd be spiraling into shame and self-hate and desperation to be anything or anyone other than myself.

And that's gone.

I'm human. I'm totally and utterly human. I do and will make mistakes. I'm free to have these thoughts and know that they don't define me. Who I am is deeper than what I think or say or do. Obviously I want those things to align with who I want to be. Who I want to be might be the question on the table now. Not entirely sure. But I know for sure I do not want to carry around shame and self-hatred. 

The stuff from on the plane though. This is what I'm now having to wrestle with. "God's steadfast love is better than life. ... that is what I want to experience." I still feel like that. I think anyways. But the problem is the dissonance between the statement and the feeling. Over the past few years I'd been thinking like "what do I need from God that will fulfill this temptation in a positive meaningful way?" like if I feel this desire so badly day in and day out there must be an answer. As I'd regularly say in sharing the gospel we all have a God-shaped hole in our hearts, thirst leads us to water, our other desires we try to fulfill through sin are there to lead us to their complete satisfaction in God. Or something to that effect. But I couldn't figure out what I needed. And it felt like week after week God was getting more silent or further away as I was asking for help, asking to know what intimacy with God looked like, asking for satisfaction in Him. But each day that would go by unsatisfied and emptier the more I'd think I needed to change something. Lately I've been thinking like "if God really wants me to not have a boyfriend and to not struggle with these things, He needs to be the one to supply the strength to overcome it. Otherwise He needs to supply the grace to live in brokenness." Or something like that. Idk.

Like I said, I need to spend some more time thinking and reading and praying through the topic more. 

I've never felt more whole.

But the question is am I giving up eternity for this bliss? Is there a way that it can work together? I can't go back to hating myself day in and day out. I want the best for both me and SH. I can't promise the future. I can't promise anything until I figure this out, but at least I'm alive and I'm moving forward, whereas before I was static and unwilling to move in any direction slowly feeling more and more empty. 

Jesus, show me again who you are and your grace. Lead me in truth and help me figure out what you need from us. Help us experience your lavish grace and love. Give me fresh faith and help me show your love to those around me.

Matthew 26: Does Your Heart Belong to God?

Yo,

The other day, in St. Louis at the Urbana conference, David Platt shared Matt 26:1-16 with us (session here). And he challenged us to truly give our whole hearts to God. Here is the passage from the ESV:

"When Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said to his disciples, “You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.”
Then the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, and plotted together in order to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him. But they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people.”

Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as he reclined at table. And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste? For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor.” But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial. Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.”

Then one of the twelve, whose name was Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?” And they paid him thirty pieces of silver. And from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him."

Jesus said "I'm going to die." The elders plotted to kill Him. A woman poured very expensive perfume (or ointment in this translation) on Jesus and there was a disagreement of how that money could have been used. Judas planed to betray Jesus. Matthew 26:1-16 A fairly simple passage with deep implications for our relationship with Christ and how we act in the world. In this passage the one simple question the speaker presented was this: Does your heart belong to Jesus? My goal in this post is to help you understand the passage as it had been discussed at Urbana and to explain a bit of how I was responding to it.

In between two scenes of plotting to kill Jesus is this story focused on an unnamed woman and a bottle of very expensive perfume. A bottle that would have been worth a year's wages, that's 50-100k if it were today. I don't even think there's a good analogy. It'd be like giving someone a new Ferrari that could only be driven once. That's how expensive this bottle was. If that had happened today, what could seem like a waste of 100,000$, what would we say? What would we have wanted to use the money for? I'm sure we could all think of something for ourselves or for others or for those truly in need or charities or even needs in our church. We too would be standing there judging this action. All the disciples seem convinced that the cause they'd support was a good cause. And so they say so in front of her. Yet instead of agreeing with them, Jesus says that what she had done is a beautiful thing.What does Jesus mean and what does this mean to us?

The disciples, the chief priests and the elders, every one of us are "prone to passionately defend a cause while personally disregarding Christ". Even the causes we think are worth pursuing. Things of value and noble character, be it fighting for justice for refugees or sex trafficking victims, participating in outreach or missions, or any other cause; we are prone to do so while ignoring Jesus. But this woman was not going to and there were two main things that she realized that made her action different. Two things that we all need to realize; the significance of Jesus' death, and the purpose of our lives.

First, Jesus' death was of utmost significance. something that He had spoken about multiple times and which the disciples did not understand until well after. Jesus was not some mere man and he was not going to die some mere death. In verse 2 again he said "the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified." This is what the scriptures pointed to. This is why He came to earth as a babe in a manger. Death was not the end, but a beginning. By living a life in complete obedience to God, every word, every action to the point of death on a cross. He alone, God the Son, would be able to take our place and buy us back from the death we rightly deserve. This was His mission to seek and save the lost. Those living lives of disobedience which had separated them from God. From the very beginning, God spoke and the world was made. He commanded the mountains and seas where to go and they went. Jesus in the boat commanded the winds and rains and they calmed. But then it gets to men and women and we have "the audacity to say no". As such we are guilty and deserve judgment. Eternal heaven or eternal hell and without Him we are all going to eternal punishment. Yet in His perfect love and justice God did something unthinkable, and as John 3:16 says "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life." Jesus would die in our place. He would rise victorious over sin and death. He would return in His glory to the Father. The woman knew the significance of Jesus' death.

Secondly, she knew her life purpose and was willing to pay whatever cost. Her purpose and our purpose as David Platt put it was "to pour out our hearts in sacrificial, selfless, satisfying devotion to Christ." She was willing to pay every cost. She walked through the entire crowd up to Jesus. She poured out the extremely costly perfume. Why does she do it? Because she believes Jesus is worth it and that He is her reward. Similarly in Matthew 13, why does the unnamed man in the parable Jesus tells sell everything he had to joyously buy a field? Because the Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure more costly than all we could ever have or do. God's steadfast love is better than anything life can offer. He is worthy of giving our all too, our lives and our hearts. The woman recognized her purpose. Does your heart belong to Jesus?

Finally, an illustration of what this looks like in our lives, David Platt then spoke of John Wesley. The John Wesley of the Wesleyan church. He graduated with honours from Oxford, was ordained as minister, had rich theology from the word, an active faith in the world going to slums and prisons, daily Bible study, worship services all week, prayer and fasting, giving. He even moved to America to serve the First Nations peoples as a missionary. He did everything and upon return to Britain penned these words "I who went to America to convert others was never myself converted." He had done everything and yet his heart did not belong to Jesus.

We cannot manufacture a heart for missions while missing a heart for Christ. Missions, all service and causes for justice in the world are an overflow of life and love in Christ. Missions was never intended to be your life. Christ is intended to be your life.

This is the beautiful life, one in love with Jesus. Although it looked like a waste she was willing to pay the price that she could truly know Jesus. That is the life that counts. It's not about how involved you are in church or ministries at school or work, not how many bible studies you attend or lead, not about how many missions you've been on, not if you've ever said a prayer once, but does your heart belong to Jesus? That alone is the important question.

And that was the question for me. Over the conference, and the weeks and months leading up to it, I was confronted again and again with the reality of my disobedience to God and my reliance on myself. Did my heart fully belong to God? A little over 5 years ago I was baptized. I had made my choice to follow after Jesus, but I had not given my entire heart to God. I had studied the Bible. I had prayed prayers. I had shared the gospel. I had been on missions multiple times. But I had kept a part of my heart mine and again and again I was confronted with how regularly I would choose to follow my own apparent desires instead of listening to God's word, instead of trusting in His good plans and His purposes.

I wouldn't say I was living a double life, but the part of my heart that was mine continued to grow as the part of my heart that was God's shrank. In the last year numerous times I had asked myself questions along the lines of whether I should stop following God altogether so I could stop feeling so hypocritical, so I could freely try to follow the apparent desires of my heart that seemed out of line with the God of the Bible. The words spoken by Patrick Fung, Francis Chan, and David Platt on the authority of God brought that question to the forefront: who am I submitting to? to whom does my heart belong? And God's word is clear, you cannot serve two masters, either you will hate the one and love the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot drink the cup of the lord and the cup of demons, you cannot sit at both tables. I knew I needed to make a choice. I couldn't live divided. But I didn't want to give up either.

Monday afternoon at Urbana I went to listen to a seminar by Christopher Yuan, a Chinese man who had lived an active life of homosexuality and by God's graces came to know Jesus (seminar here). He explained in his own testimony that he could not find a biblical blessing of monogamous gay relationship and was presented with the decision to abandon God and His word or abandon a gay relationship. In his words the choice was clear and obvious. I knew the choice was clear and obvious yet so much of me did not want to give my heart to God. This has been and is a large part of my struggle. When presented again with this decision, as David Platt listed off the various things that we do, service, bible studies, missions, and invited us to stand and make the decision to give our hearts to God. I knew I had to make the decision. I stood up as did hundreds of others.

We went to a room to help us process our decisions. There were balloons. This was a celebration. And yet so much of me felt lament and sorrow over this decision. This decision is to die that Christ may live fully in me. To take up my cross and deny myself. I knew I need to surrender to His authority. He is worthy of all our affection, adoration, longing, and love. I know this is the right decision and am praying that He gives me the ability to follow Him, the faith to trust Him through difficulty, and the strength to fight sin and any temptation to abandon Him. I have seen Him do amazing things all over the world so I echo the words of Wesley "I who went to convert was not myself converted" as well as the words of the father in Mark 9 "I believe, help my unbelief." I need to love Jesus first and let missions flow out of that love. My heart had not fully belonged to Jesus. Does your heart belong to Jesus?

May we seek after Him with all our hearts, may we taste and see that He is good, may we pursue the Kingdom knowing the treasure is worth more than we could ever hope or imagine, may we trust in the statement of the Psalmist in Psalm 63:3 that His steadfast love is better than life and respond in praise and glorifying Him, may He be our all in all and our greatest desire be for Him and for others to know Him.


D.Fa