Everyone is Important to God

For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. Gal 6:3 NKJV

This verse is difficult to understand. How can a son or daughter of God be nothing?

 When I was a new Christian, a pastor tried to correct my tendency to pride. He told me I was “nothing”.. Of course, he exercised so much power to judge and control me, that he seemed to be saying he was super important, but I was quite literally “nothing”. This is not Christlike ministry at all. It was spiritual abuse.

Paul was a Jews, as was Jesus. In Hebrew thinking we often find extreme black and white statements which are really shocking if we take them literally.

“If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. Lk 14:26 NKJV

Jesus also tells us to love on another. Paul tells husbands to love their wives. Parents who hate their children are the worst sinners on earth. So Jesus is not telling us to hate people, but rather to love God more then we love our families.

Likewise, in Galatians, Paul is telling us not to be self important but to consider other people to be at least as important as ourselves.

Do nothing from selfish ambition or empty conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Php 2:3 NRSVue

Here again, Paul is not telling me I should go around feeling inferior to everyone. That is sick.

No. I see an insane man pulling faces and talking to himself. He is just as important to God as I am.

Years ago I was a language teacher. A young woman in my class was dressing and acting like a prostitute and I think she was. She was as important to God as myself.

So many churches teach women that their husbands are more important than they are, because men as supposedly wiser than women. The bible talks about doctrines of demons and I am convinced this is one of them.

I look around church meetings and I almost always see more women than men. Women who love God often find it hard to find a husband who is spiritually strong enough to be their married partner, and yet people rip bible texts out of context and tell us that the husband should always be the spiritual leader.

Clear eyed observation tells me this is dangerous nonsense.

Jesus tells you that you are dearly loved by the Heavenly Father. If you believe that Jesus suffered the punishment for your sins on the cross, if you accept the forgiveness that Jesus offers, you have eternal life.

You are a son or daughter of God for ever and ever. You cannot be a nobody. You are a very important somebody in God’s eyes, but you are not more important than anyone else. Why? Because God loves everyone without exception.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Jn 3:16 NRSVue

The Answer is the Love of God

 There are so many people who are not satisfied with money, things, sex and empty entertainment. They are hungry for something more, something spiritual. Many turn to New Age meditation, or even witchcraft, but they don’t find real contentment there.

There is a God, a loving heavenly father. He wants to reach the lost souls who stumble from one thing to another.

As Christians, many of us are partly to blame for the confusion around us.

Many Christians read the bible and believe in a supernatural God, but they don’t let God step into their own lives with miraculous answered prayers, even though they have serious needs that they try to deal with in their own human ways.

I have experienced many miracles, but I still often fail to trust God.

There are other Christians who are so upset about divorce, homosexuality and abortion, that they become self-righteous culture warriors and forget to love the people around them.
God is holy, but we must never forget that God is love.

There are also Christians who believe for miracles, but then get trapped in pornography or some other vice.

Many children believe in God, but then turn away because of the failures of Christians.

“If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.

Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come! Mt 18:6–7 NIV

As a Christian, I was always zealous for truth, but I have had to learn to be gentle and understanding with my own family and others around me.

We must learn to be kind and loving, as well as strong in our spiritual and moral beliefs.

If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 1 Cor 13:2 NIV

If I am constantly open to receiving the love of God and sharing that love with others, I will not be a spiritual policeman who offends people who need love.

People need Jesus, but they will not recognise Jesus in us unless we love like Jesus loves.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Jn 3:16–17 NIV

If you are not yet committed to believing in Jesus, I pray you will meet Christians who love with the love of Jesus.

If you have not yet found the reality you long for in Christianity, talk to God about it. Ask God to show you more of His love and truth.

JESUS IS PATIENT AND KIND ..

LOVE IS PATIENT AND KIND ... 1 Corinthians 13:4
Jesus is patient and kind. No matter how long people frustrated and disappointed, He kept right on loving them.

"O you stubborn faithless people," Jesus said [to his disciples], "how long should I put up with you? ..." Luke 9:41 (TLB) 

If the twelve apostles were stubborn, perverse and faithless, I know I also disappoint and frustrate God, yet for forty years He has been leading me on in love.

Before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and return to his Father. 

• He had loved his disciples during his ministry on earth, and now he loved them to the very end. John 13:1 (NLT) 

No matter how long people abused, accused and tormented Jesus, He never stopped doing everything He could to heal their sicknesses and deliver them from demonic bondages.

And you know that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. 

• Then Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. Acts 10:38 (NLT) 

Why are we often busy being Christian but we sometimes lose our appreciation of the deep love of God?

One reason is that we study and discuss so many other Christian issues and Bible themes but neglect to focus on the love of God. 

• What we study, think about, talk about, preach about or pray about is what shapes our experience. 

• Even our praise and worship can sometimes focus on something other than the LOVE of God.

God IS love.

Jesus is NOT jealous if you love your wife or your children, your hobby or your job.

This is partly true because God is a JEALOUS God who hates idolatry. He hates it when something else distracts us from enjoying HIS amazing love. 

• But in His love, He wants us to enjoy being human.

God does not want you to be focussed on your faith in such a way that your cannot relate to other human beings. 

• He was very critical of the Pharisees who allowed people to give money to God instead of giving support to their aged parents.

The JEALOUSY of God is a healthy jealousy, a loving jealousy, not the kind of selfish and insecure jealousy that sometimes ruins marriages.

If you try to be holy in a churchy or religious way, you can live in a cage of religious rules.

• Been there, done that!

If you really know the love of God, you can be incredibly free.

One religious rule is that you must not enjoy worldly music. Like many religious rules, it is partly true. 

• There is some very bad music around. Before Satan rebelled against God, he was Lucifer, the chief musician amongst the angels. 

• We must be careful what we listen to but we must not be legalistic.

Paul wrote:

All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful; all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify. 1 Corinthians 10:23 (NKJV) 

The Holy Spirit often speaks to me by bringing some music to my mind ... and not only Christian music. 

Recently this song popped into my mind. It was a Beatles song from the 1960s but it was a love song from God to me.

“If there’s anything that you want,

If there’s anything I can do,

Just call on me and I’ll send it along

With love, from me to you.” 

Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. 

It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 1 Corinthians 13:4-5 (NLT)