Accepted

Two of our sons were skiing together with their families in Utah! Love that someone headed down the "Glory Hole" slope.

Sharing a lift with a super fun uncle!

This little one conquering some slopes with his big brothers in Virginia.

On a snowy February evening my husband and I were searching for a movie to watch and hit fail after fail. I suggested we go back to a 2011 comedy-drama series called "The Hart of Dixie."  We binged watched three shows and that evening I found myself stewing over the characters of a stuck up Southern Belle name Lemon and her arrogant, egotistical, doctor father named Brick. Their mistreatment of the cute female physician protagonist, who moved from NY to this small southern town called Bluebell, made me thinking...just be kind and show some southern hospitality.

This particular day I landed in Romans 5:1-11 titled "What It Means to be Acceptable to God."  I want to start unpacking these life lessons.

Verses 1-5.  

By faith we have been made acceptable to God. 

And now, thanks to our Lord Jesus Christ, we have peace with God. Christ has also introduced us to God's gift of undeserved grace on which we now take our stand. 

So we are happy, as we look forward to sharing in the glory of God.

But that's not all!  We gladly suffer, because we know that suffering helps us to endure. And endurance builds character, which gives us a hope that will never disappoint us.

All this happens because God has given us the Holy Spirit, who fills our hearts with his love.

Does my life reflect these characteristics?

Do I know I am acceptable to God?  Do I have peace and happiness through faith?

Does my filling of the Holy Spirit allow me to gladly suffer because I know there is purpose in the suffering?

Romans 5:6-11  God's amazing love is the richest gift we could ever receive.

Christ died for us at a time when we were helpless and sinful.

No one is really willing to die for an honest person, though someone might be willing to die for a truly good person. But God showed how much he loved us by having Christ die for us, even though we were sinful.

But there is more! Now that God has accepted us because Christ sacrificed his life's blood, we will also be kept safe from God's anger.  

Even when we were God's enemies, he made peace with us, because his Son died for us.  Yet something even greater than friendship is ours. Now that we are at peace with God, we will be saved by the life of his Son. And in addition to everything else, we are happy because God sent our Lord Jesus Christ to make peace with us.

The Song

“He Sees You” Terrian

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3tA08OK7-g