Second Chances. My adoption. God's family.

We humans. We have problems. We often turn to things that we don't want to do, or do things like those who we don't want to be like. We are like sheep. Without being led, or sometimes even disciplined with God the Father taking his staff and gently nudging us back in the flock, well, we'd be lost, alone, injured, or worse, left for dead. I know this is true about my own life. That's the beauty of gospel. It's Good News not for the beautiful, but for the broken.

Isaiah 53:2-6. 

He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
    nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
³ He was despised and rejected by mankind,
    a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
    he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

⁴ Surely he took up our pain
    and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,    stricken by him, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions,
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,    and by his wounds we are healed.
⁶ We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
    each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.

We all like sheep have gone astray. The truth in this statement we all know in our hearts. But so many people have hardened their hearts to believe that they do no wrong. Honestly, I am willing to admit, to have any healthy relationships, I need Christ to lead them and to show me, how when He came as a man, how he dealt with sin and overcame it. I realized today as I was watching "LifeUnexpectedly." that I for so long have pushed people away, even God at times. I am a stubborn person which has happened out of callouses of hurt, frustration and anger from and towards others. We all want someone to understand. We all want love. No one likes afflictions. However, Christ was afflicted, he was hurt, he was crushed, DOES HE UNDERSTAND? Yes.  But what happens in America when we do not get our way? We can't have something because we didn't work for it, we open credit cards and incur huge debts, we can't eat something to be healthy, we eat it anyway, we know the truth of something we did was wrong, we lie, we are ashamed of our sin, we cover it, we know there is something more. However, that something more goes so much against our culture. IT requires hard-work, trust, love, peace, patience... Oh, I said a no no. Patience. Who needs patience anyways. We do. We have to have patience to have Christ in our lives. He is our Father, Mother, Sister, Brother, Friend, Savior, Husband, Protector, Provider, and Rabbi (teacher). The truth is to be a good Father, Mother, Sister, Brother, Friend, Husband, Protector, Provider, or Teacher you have to have patience. But to understand the love of all those people, or qualities, you have to have patience to receive them. We don't get our way in America, we make it happen. We never listen to the "NO's" in our life and only listen to how to make it a "YES". We care nothing about what it means to be patient. And we all because we have the freedom of INDEPENDENCE have taken things to a level of not trusting other, never depending on anyone, and by means of our own hearts, not letting anyone in. After all if we aren't independent we have to fight battles, we have to hear the words NO. We have to work together, we have to forget about self. But forgetting about self hurts. We have the freedom to chose not to be hurt. Or do we. The truth is those things we see do not hurt us in the moment, they hurt us for the rest of our lives. But we think, SELF GRATIFICATION INSTANTLY is more important that long term GRATIFICATION, and EDIFICATION of the Spirit. Why, if we believe in a higher power, WELL- we give up our desires, we realize we didn't do anything, we cannot be independent anymore and have our desires for self gratification written off. I even hear my own mind convince myself of these things often. "Marissa, that person hurt you, you have rights to be mean." "Marissa, don't be a door mat." "Marissa, that will get you what you have been wanting so long, right now, don't wait." The truth is. I often give in. Because if I have freedom not to wait, why would I wait. Why? I want to wait, because in the end, Christ is the one who loves me. Christ is the one who died for me. Christ is the one who constantly pleads on my behalf before a Father (who unlike my own) loves me. A father who chose me. A Father who created me. A Father who wanted me. He pleads before a Mother. A mother who is "Mother Nature". A Mother who loves. A mother who gives birth to new life in Him alone." Christ is my Husband, a husband who leads, a husband who provides, a husband who gave his own life for his bride. In Him we are one. One with the Spirit. A spirit who teaches me. Teaches me, who Christ is, who pleads on my behalf to Christ and to God the Father. A teacher who is a helper, the same kind of helper a man becomes one with as his wife. A husband and wife to have a working marriage have to have trust in each other. They become one, and they make decisions together, they are not their own. A husband loves his wife, and a wife is submissive to her husband. Wives, you are like the Holy Spirit in so many ways, you are submissive to your husband the way the Holy Spirit is Submissive to the Father, and then to Christ. The Holy Spirit is a helper to Christ, and so we are to our husbands. The truth is. I want to wait. I want to wait to see my Father in heaven who loves me. I want to wait, I want to wait on my Christ who died for me to come back for me. I want to wait. I want to learn as the Holy Spirit lives in me to be patient, and to be submissive to Christ and the Father. Without waiting... I have nothing. I have me. And me is lonely. But in Christ, through the Holy Spirit, which makes up the church, I am the bride of Christ and I... then am a part of the biggest family in the world. The family of Eliohim. The family of God. The family of Yahweh, the only eternal family. Please, if you do not know what I am talking about, or you do not know who God the Father is as I refer to Him or what Christ has done for you, or who the Holy Spirit is, then know this. Email me. Read the bible, the Christian bible. And pray for understanding. Being a Christian is the only way into eternal life. And knowing those 3 bodies as one body, it will change your life. But you have to be willing to say, YOU CANNOT DO IT ON YOUR OWN. After all, You are not you own. You were loved and created by my Father too. You just have never searched for your birthright Father, who is God the Father. 

Also, for more info visit Living Hope Church. It's a church of second chances. We all need them.