A diamond is found in the rough.

This beauty is found deep in the earth

And amongst hard and tough stone.

Great effort is put forth to discover these gems.

Beauty is found when these diamonds are revealed.

In fact, beauty has been there all along,

But it was buried beneath the rough.

Ya see, a diamond is no ordinary find,

Its beauty is indescribable and greatly unique. 

It’s no wonder that a great struggle

is required just for these gems to be unveiled.

 

It is the rough, though that is familiar to so many.  

It’s hard, it’s stubborn,

and it’s not easily worked through.

Struggle and strife is inevitable;

The rough puts up a great fight.

In fact, there’s been a number of tragic casualties

That have come by the way of the rough.

We can take heart though;

There is beauty in the rough.

There always has been.

As we challenge the ornery rough

And break through it,

We are reminded

Of the beauty, of the “diamond”

that was there all along.

And the greatest beauty

That was awaiting its great entry

Has finally been revealed.

 

God's Love for us

It is He who loves you.  What does that mean exactly?  God loves you; He loves me.  Yes, indeed He does, but what does that look like?  I honestly cannot express how much He loves you or how much He loves me because I don’t think I’ll ever be able to grasp how much He loves us.  If I do, it’ll be in Heaven and I’ll probably be incredibly and inexpressibly overwhelmed.  I can tell you though, that the God who spoke the stars into being, He also spoke man into being and He saw that it was very good.  He put thought into His creation.  We were woven together in our mother’s womb, so intricately.  The Psalmist says that we were ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’.  God desired to know us even after the fall.  He wants to have a relationship with us.  He sent His precious, one and only son, and perfect at that, to take on the weight of the sin of the world; that is the world then (when Christ was on the Earth), the world now (the world we live in today), and the world to come (future).  The past, present, and future sins.  In fact, if we have received salvation then we are justified and God sees us as saints, as righteous, as set apart.  Isn’t that unbelievable?  Well, it’s very true.  It is crazy to think that God would want to have a relationship with someone so filthy as me or you, but in fact He does.  He sees us as worthy and We have been covered by the blood of Jesus.  We have been soaked by His Grace.  He loves us unconditional; there is nothing we can ever do that will separate us from the love of the Father, nothing.  Ever.  We may not get this because in fact it’s unfathomable to the human mind, but it also may be unbelievable because in fact we think we don’t deserve it, well we don’t.  But, really that’s irrelevant, but because God’s standard is different.  The Bible says that His ways are not our ways.  We may be so caught up in our past, what we’ve done; we may be so bogged down by guilt and shame; we struggle to understand why God would love us.  Really, for some it’s hard to accept God’s love because in fact we have been told so many times that we’re filth, that we’re unworthy, and we’ve believed it.  We may know that God loves us, in our minds, and we may believe it to an extent, but still haven’t fully accepted it because there is so much keeping us from being freed and living the life God has created us to live.  Because God created us for so much; He has a great plan for us.  He wants us to accept His love and live in it.  He doesn’t want us to believe lies that some of us have believed for so long.  We were created for more than to just go around sort of living instead of living in our potential.  God created each one of us the way he did for a reason.  We are each here for a reason.  We each have a purpose.  It is to bring Him glory, but we each have specific passions, gifts, etc.  And we are to use them not waste them.  So, the truth is, God love us.  He loves who we were, who we are, and who we will be.  And He wants us to accept that love.  And live in it.  We may not fully ever comprehend it, but may we accept the gift He bestows on us.  In that, May we seek Him.  And trust Him. 

Words of Wisdom

"...risky self-disclosure is what I mean by intimacy, and intimacy
is the way that love is transmitted.

"Some say the word comes from the Latin intimus, referring to that
which is interior or inside. Some say its older meaning is found by
in timor, or 'into fear.' In either case, the point is clear:
intimacy happens when we reveal and expose our insides, and this is
always scary.

"One never knows if the other can receive what is exposed, will
respect it, or will run fast in the other direction. One must be
prepared to be rejected. It is always a risk.

"The pain of rejection after self-disclosure is so great that it
often takes a lifetime for people to risk it again."

Ben Rector - When a Heart Breaks

Future Version Shane & Shane

'Tis So Sweet To Trust In Jesus

1. 'Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,
   Just to take Him at His Word;
   Just to rest upon His promise,
   And to know, “Thus saith the Lord!”

Refrain:
Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him!
How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er;
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus!
Oh, for grace to trust Him more!

Oh, how sweet to trust in Jesus,
Just to trust His cleansing blood;
And in simple faith to plunge me
’Neath the healing, cleansing flood!

Yes, ’tis sweet to trust in Jesus,
Just from sin and self to cease;
Just from Jesus simply taking
Life and rest, and joy and peace.
I’m so glad I learned to trust Thee,
Precious Jesus, Savior, Friend;
And I know that Thou art with me,
Wilt be with me to the end.

Stand On Grace- Jimmy Needham (with lyrics)