Freedom Blog

a Message to you from Jesus by Mother Teresa:

“I know you through and through – I know everything about you. The very hairs of your head I have numbered. Nothing in your life is unimportant to Me. I have followed you through the years, and I have always loved you – even in your wanderings.

I know every one of your problems. I know your need and your worries. And yes, I know all your sins. But I tell you again that I love you – not for what you have or haven’t done – I love you for you, for the beauty and dignity My Father gave you by creating you in His own image.

It is a dignity you have often forgotten, a beauty you have tarnished by sin. But I love you as you are, and I have shed my blood to win you back. If you only ask Me with faith, My grace will touch all that needs changing in your life. I will give you the strength to free yourself from sin and all its destructive power.

I know what is in your heart – I know your loneliness and all your hurts – the rejections, the judgments, the humiliations. I carred it all before you. And I carried it all for you, so you might share my strength and victory. I know especially your need for love – how you are thirsting to be loved and cherished. But how often have you thirsted in vain, seeking that love selfishly, striving to fill the emptiness inside you with passing pleasures – and ending with even more pain. Do you thirst for love? ‘Come to Me all you who are thirsty’ (John 7:37). I will satisfy you and fill you. Do you thirst to be cherished? I cherish you more than you can imagine to the point of dying on a cross for you.

I thirst for you. Yes, that is the only way to even begin to describe my love for you: I thrist for you. I thirst to love and to be loved by you – that is how precious you are to Me. I thirst for you. Come to Me, and I will fill your heart and heal your wounds.

If you feel unimportant in the eyes of the world, that matters not at all. For Me, there is no one any more important in the entire world than you. I thirst for you. Open to Me, come to Me, thirst for Me, give Me your life – and I will prove to you how important you are to My heart.

No matter how far you may wander, no matter how often you forget Me, no matter how many crosses you may bear in this life, there is one thing that will never change: I thirst for you – just as you are. You don’t need to change to believe in My love, for it will be your belief in My love that will change you. You forget Me, and yet I am seeking you every moment of the day – standing at the door of your heart, and knocking.

Do you find this hard to believe? Then look at the cross; look at My heart that was pierced for you. Have you not understood My cross? Then listen again to the words I spoke there – for they tell you clearly why I endured all this for you: “I thirst” (John 19:28). Yes, I thirst for you – as the rest of the Psalm verse, which I was praying says of Me: “I looked for love, and I found none” (Psalm 69:20).

All your life I have been looking for your love – I have never stopped seeking to love and be loved by you. You have tried many other things in your search for happiness; why not try opening your heart to Me, right now, more than you ever have before.

Whenever you do open the door of your heart, whenever you come close enough, you will hear Me say to you again and again, not in mere human words but in spirit: “No matter what you have done, I love you for your own sake.” Come to Me with your misery and your sins, with your troubles and needs, and with all your longings to be loved. I stand at the door of your heart and knock…Open to Me for I thirst for you.”

From: Margaret Hebblethwaite, ed., “Wednesday of Holy Week,” The Living Spirit: Prayers and Readings for the Christian Year, A Table Anthology (Lanham, MD: Sheed & Ward, a division of Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, 2000), 169.

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I’ve just spent the last couple days reading “Here and Now: Living in the Spirit” by Henri J.M. Nouwen. I literally could not put the book down. It kept me captivated page after page because the author’s words were so saturated with the love and grace of God. My heart drank deeply of his gentle words which allowed me to soak in the love tub of Jesus. What I encountered continually while reading was the sweet conviction of the Holy Spirit, His kind hand of love pulling ever so gently at my heart. Something that I hadn’t felt for some time now.  The combination of seminary + ministry has gotten me moving at breakneck speeds which was in an of itself an amazing journey (I wouldn’t change any of it). But, to be able to slow down and take a deep long drink of living water without worrying about a deadline or a meeting has been so refreshing. It was like Jesus breathing life into me all over again. Thank You, Sweet Savior.

Page after page I encountered a humility that made me all the more aware of my own hardness of heart and the realization that I have much to learn about love. My pride has led me down the path of exalting myself in the way I exercised my gifts and talents. What I’ve learned because of this is that when this happens love disappears. Sure truth still got proclaimed. But the truth was given with an insensitive heavy hand, instead of with a patient understanding that wraps the truth in love in order to heal and not accuse or condemn. I am thankful for Henri’s words that have helped to refocus and ground me: “It is not proving ourselves to be better than others but confessing to be just like others that is the way to healing and reconciliation” (99). There is strength in these words because they speak of unity. They seek to embrace the prayer of Jesus for our oneness (John 17:20-23).

I’ve come to realize that to love is a journey that demands patience, endurance, hard work, hope and trust. I’ve also realized that it is a lifelong journey. I do have a lot to learn about love, but, I am in good company. “To pray is to listen to that voice of love….the One who is with us wants only one thing: to give us love” (20). Henri’s book has brought me back to my Christian mystic roots where prayer is about communing with Jesus through the Holy Spirit. His words have reminded me that prayer is a time where our heavenly Father actively loves on His children.

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April 20th is symbolically know in the drug culture world as a day to get high. Millions of people around the world at this moment are either getting high or are planning to go to a 420 rally, in order to get high. For them, to be able to get high on 4/20 at 4:20 is profoundly meaningful. We truly are in a spiritual battle. If there is a day that the devil truly dominates in blinding people’s eyes (2 Corinthians 4:4), it’s today.

So let’s start taking this day (and time) back for the Lord through prayer and fasting. However the Lord moves you, please be obedient! Pray that God would open people’s eyes to the light of the Gospel (2 Corinthians 4:4) and that through divine appointments the scales that blind them from the Truth would fall from their eyes (Acts 9:18), so that they can begin to embrace the meaning that God wants to bring into their lives through Jesus.

Also, ask the Lord of the harvest to raise up more laborers for the “drug culture” harvest field (Luke 10:2). Thank you for your faithfulness in praying for those at 4:20pm. When you prayer at 4:20pm you are one of these laborers. Blessings on you! Finally, my prayer for all of us is that God would continue to help us rely more on His strength when we are weak (2 Corinthians 12:10) and move us to remember to cast all our anxieties onto Him because He cares for us (1 Peter 5:7). Peace.

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