Love, Art, & Writing

God Loves You Dearly

We love because God first loved us.
1 John 4:19

Untethered by time, He sees us all. From the backwoods of Virginia to the business district of London; from the Vikings to the astronauts, from the cave-dwellers to the kings. From the hut-builders to the finger-pointers to the rock-stackers, He sees us. Vagabonds and ragamuffins all, He saw us before we were born.

And He loves what He sees. Flooded by emotion. Overcome by pride, the Starmaker turns to us, one by one, and says, "You are My child. I love you dearly. I'm aware that someday you'll turn from me and walk away. But I want you to know, I've already provided you a way back."

~ "In the Grip of Grace" by Max Lucado 

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I stopped by the Peter Lik gallery on Lincoln Road this eve on my way to a cafe.  Just as "God's Word will never return void" it has to be impossible for anyone to walk through that gallery and leave without an extra boost of inspiration from the beautiful photography all over the world! (http://www.peterlik.com/) My friend is an art consultant there and showed me the latest piece "Awaken" ~ ahh..
He started telling me about someone he met who has been asking him questions every day about his faith and it made me think of a verse I read earlier ..  (speaking of the "Starmaker") ..

 "Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever." Daniel 12:3

I shared this with him and was then reminded how our God today is the same God Who parted the Red Sea.. with Him all things (and people!) are possible ... 

I left & found a good spot to write at a cafe, beginning with the devo above, which I felt related to the conversation I had just had.. 
So thanks for the added encouragement, Max Lucado! (and Nannie for the book) I love when things connect.

Last Sunday I was in Greece, dancing & celebrating post-marathon!  Crazy. So this AM I returned to my church, Christ Fellowship, after a 2-wk absence.  Worship was Amazing! and so was the continuation of our "Authentic Faith" series. It was great to be back with my fam here and also to learn that the 9:30a service is a replay of last week's 11a .. so I got to see what I missed.  I opened my journal to take notes, and flipped to today's theme "Abundant Life" quoting John 10:10, the inspiration verse for starting this blog yesterday!  After the service I was leaving and saw more friends coming in for the 11a so I stayed (different sermon) .. getting a double-dose of the book of James.. :) (that journal's theme page was "Seek First" quoting Matthew 6:33, the other verse behind this thing!)

Intending to compose & share my overseas trip today, I instead wanted to share some of the goodness from this series that CF is wrapping up soon. Sorry to disappoint ;) ..Today's messages were on the power of our words and keeping our affections in check.

Those will be the next 2 posts as I continue to compose my Greek adventure story! .. so stay tuned!  More inspiration to follow :) ...

love, h