First Love

Most of us have experienced the sheer exhilaration and seeming free fall into "first love" and can remember the young lady or young man.  Some of these "first loves" began a wonderful relationship of love while others seem to be like a rocket that failed to fully launch.

God had a very different idea when He placed us "in Christ" and in "first love".  The Father loves the Son and loved Him before we were ever created.  It is into this boundless and unlimited love which the Father planned for us to be placed in.  I have heard our position "in Christ" taught more like a text book, rather than being invited into this place of extravagant love, relationship, and fellowship between Father and Son.

In 1 Corinthians 1:30 we are told, "But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption."  I remember having an encounter with God while worshipping in Toronto.  The Father asked me the question, "If I did not like you, why would I want to spend eternity with you?"  This question came after I began to understand that from start to finish the Gospel was about relationship.  A lovesick Father had lost his children through deception and sin, He would then do whatever it took to get them back.

Amazingly what Father and Son share in their relationship, we are invited into this place of intimacy, love, and fellowship.  According to John 17:24 we share in the mutual affection between the Father and Son.  It is in the experience of this place of affection that rejection, love deficits, and unmet needs lose their grip on our hearts and we become free.  We all dream of our deepest needs for unconditional love, security/safety, purpose, and value being met.  There are no dreams that these are not included.

There are many men and women, who like little boys and girls inside, long to hear the words spoken by the Father over Jesus "This is My Beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased."  Due to shame, love deficits, fears, guilt over past failures, their judgment of their poor performance, or feelings of unworthiness we think those words couldn't possibly be for me but only for Jesus the perfect Son of God.  Yet we have been placed "in Christ" as sons and daughters of God and these are His words over you.  Jesus Christ paid the ultimate price with His life to completely redeem you and bring you home to the Father.

A beloved son,
Bret