Week #8-- I am Father

Ahh, Well its the end of Week #8 here in Chi-Town.
 Its 1am on Saturday night and I just got home from work. I don't usually do a "on the spot" description of what I'm doing or my day, but I want to give God praise for my night at work.
 I have gotten into somewhat spiritual conversations at work this summer. One was getting to know a 47 year old guy I wait with. Another was hearing about the dishwashers bad experience in a Catholic home and sharing what I believe the differences are. And tonight I got to share my story with Leanna. She is 23 and probably the sweetest girl you will ever meet. We were talking about guys and whatnot and I mentioned my "wild" past. She immediately said, "Wild Past?! You?" .."Yeahh, I am human," I said. She started asking questions about why I changed and how It happened. Long story short I shared my testimony and she wanted to know if I was happier now than I was before. I of course said that I now have complete joy that I don't have to search for. I saw her begin to think about her own life and things starting clicking for her.
--That was end of that conversation but I hope she will have more questions. Please keep Leanna in your prayers as I only have another week with her to talk. I probably will only work 1 one day with her. Its not anything I can do but to ask God to work in her heart as I want her to have the complete joy that I think she is searching for.


This week on Summer Project our theme was I Am, Father. 
We looked at 1 John 2-3 and how God is said to be a father with four main characteristics: Holy, Truth, Hope, and Glory.
When you say "father" to someone they probably have a different view of what a father is than everyone else. Some of ya'll had a wonderful dad growing up, some didn't have one at all. Some might of had an abusive father, or one that was just absent all the time. No matter what your father image looks like, there is one truth that can be said: you have a heavenly father that chooses and adopts you, blesses, redeems, unifies, and seals you with his love.  In John 1:12-13 says we are born of God and not of humans. In Galatians 4:4-7 it says that we are adopted by God and we call him Father. If we accept God and what he has done for us then he says that he has redeemed us and he buys us back with Jesus. He also unifies us (John 17:20-23) --Jesus wants us to have the same unity with God that He has! That is crazy!
He also seals us forever! 2 Corinthians 1:21-22 says that he "sets his seal of ownership on us" and that he puts the Holy Spirit in our hearts only as a down payment for what is to come.

**I have learned that God really really loves me.. He created me, watched me fail over and over searching for significance in this world, picked me up again and again, then I finally gave in. I told him I would follow him with my life and that's when he told me that he chose me! He adopts me into his kingdom as a child of the king. He redeemed me and sealed me with his love. And "I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angles nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate me from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:38-39