What's Your Story?

Today, I am asking the question, "What's your story?" And not just any story...what's your love story? Is it one full of mistakes and heartache? One of joy that lasts until morning comes? One of secret pain that is hidden by a mask of bliss? Let me tell you my love story.

I had tried looking for love. Not so much physically, but emotionally. I would run after a boy, and always come up empty. I never felt loved. I was betrayed. I was hurt. I was running after things I could never obtain. But then I ran smack dab into something--Someone who had been running after me, pursuing me in passionate love, for a very long time.

I came to a conclusion last night.

Love can never be fully comprehended unless one knows, intimately, the very author of love.

I assume you know what Holiday is almost here & will be here on Sunday morning. The embodiment of this love, this love that found me when I was running from it & running toward anything--anyone else...

Well, rewind two days from Sunday. Visit Friday...perhaps the darkest day of Human history. This is where love is found. This is what I ran into...the Cross. Maybe you know this story. But maybe you just think that a man died on that cross and it is said that whoever he was rose again. But maybe you don't believe any of that. Maybe you are searching. Maybe you just don't care. But I invite you to care--even if it is just for a few seconds. I don't want you to just get a picture in your mind of a gruesome death. I was to tell you the story behind it. The motivation behind that gruesome death.

One word. One word completes the motivation. One word, not perverted by too many uses. Not perverted by actions that don't add up to its actual meaning.

This word, is love.

Get the thought that just came into your mind OUT. Don't think about the world's definitions of this world. Think about it in it's first form, when it was first shown. Wanna know when it was first shown? Genesis chapter 3. Love was first shown right after the fall. The fall? When we--humans--completely, utterly, without reservation, did exactly what God asked us not to do.

In that moment, God came to us. He came looking for us. Calling out our names. And we hid. We hid, because we felt guilt. Shame. Fear. He came looking for us to show us love. He did not smite us. He did not kill us on the spot. Instead, He made us a promise. It's right there, in the midst of punishment (without punishment, there is no justice, without justice, no righteousness..see Romans 3)...He promised us a Savior. In verse 15. The words, "he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." The he at the beginning of the phrase is the serpent, a long reference to Satan. The you at the beginning of the 2nd phrase is a Son of Man, how Jesus referenced Himself frequently in the gospels. So, this is what is known as "protoevangelium"--the very first reference to the Gospel. And this is the gospel...Christ, His death & resurrection. This is the very first reference of love. That one day, God's own Son is going to step out of Heaven to die for this first sin in the garden, all the way up to my sin. Your sin. All of our sin. All of everyone's sin. This is love: that a man would die for sinful people--while they (we) are still so sinful, still running in the opposite direction.

Love. Love. Love. God is the greatest lover of all time...and He proved that on the cross. Can you imagine how it felt when Love itself breathed His last on the cross?

That's why Easter is more than just a holiday celebrating a rabbit. LOVE AROSE! Love came back.--defeated death, hell, and the grave for us all! Despite how much we run, He runs after us. That is love. True love.

The story doesn't have to end...just with this knowledge of love. Christ is constantly pursuing a relationship with you. A love relationship. He wants you to be His. His Bride. His Love. He wants you. Not your body, not your looks, not your charms. But you. All of you. All your heart. And this won't end after a one night stand. He won't get tired of you. He won't forsake you for another. He's forever. His love is forever. Accept it, rejoice in it. Be freed from this world's form of love. Enter into His arms, which were spread upon that cross for you.

"As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you." Isaiah 62:5