All scriptures are from NIV unless otherwise stated.

It has been awhile, but I had determined, before I ever started blogging, that I would never make an entry unless Holy Spirit directed me.

Today He reminded me that I was “set apart”. The truth is that all of us who love the Lord has been set apart and all who will love the Lord will be set apart, not because we are better than anyone else but because we have hearts that long for something that only God can give. That something is Love and God is Love.

There is nothing, to me, that exemplifies being “set apart” better than Isaiah 35:8-10: “And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness; it will be for those who walk on that Way. The unclean will not journey on it; wicked fools will not journey on it. No lions will be there, nor any ravenous beast; they will not be found there. But only the redeemed will walk there, and those the Lord has rescued will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.”

1John 4:13-16,19: “This is how we know that we live in Him and He in us: He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the Love God has for us. GOD IS LOVE. Whoever lives in love lives in God and God in them…We love because He first loved us.”

Note: “God IS Love”. God is NOT our arrogant, erroneous ideas of what Love is.

John 3: 19-21: “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.”

Galatians 2:20,21: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life that I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

So you might be asking, “And your point is?”

When the Lord apprehended me in a church parking lot one evening, He said two things that changed my life: 1) You have known Me as a friend and Savior, but you have not known Me as your Lord and Master. Unless you know me as the Lord and Master of your soul, you are not saved. 2) All your life you felt rejected. Did you ever stop to realize that what you thought was rejection was Me setting you apart? I repented and gave my life to Him and I was immediately healed of all and every rejection I had ever experienced.

So what was the outcome?

I was accepted by the Lover of my soul. I could walk into any situation or group of people with confidence (not arrogance) in who I am in Christ Jesus, offering no apologies, no shame, just the Love of Jesus. My desire is to be like Paul who states in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23: “Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the Gospel, that I may share in its blessings.”

In other words to be with any group or situation that Holy Spirit leads me to with the Love of Jesus Christ, and imparting His Love to all who will receive it.

NOTE: This means being able to relate to all and every person Holy Spirit leads us to WITHOUT forsaking or compromising the Holiness and Righteousness of God within us. Like our Lord and Savior, we choose to show unconditional love, while hating the sin that binds a person.

Jude verses 20-23: “But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. Be merciful to those who doubt; save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear-hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.”

Have I arrived? No, but I choose to have Paul’s heart in Philippians 3:12-16: “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained.”

I leave you with 1Peter 2:1-10: “Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. As you come to Him, the living Stone-rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to Him-you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For in Scripture it says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in Him will never be put to shame.” Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone” and, “A stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.” They stumble because they disobey the message-which is also what they are destined for. But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.