“Just as the Father has loved Me, so I have loved you. Abide in My love.” -Jn. 15.9
Some years ago, I was in the home of a beloved servant of God by the name of Art Katz. We were discussing the need for a kind of preaching and proclamation that would not merely inform the people of God, but lift them into a greater inner-awareness of His love. He made a comment that struck my heart, and I am feeling it’s reverberations especially today. This is what he said:
The Church is suffering from a chronic sense of inferiority, and they need to be built up in the reality of His love. We need to come into the realization that we’ve been “accepted in the Beloved.”
So many believers are “suffering from a chronic sense of inferiority,” and the opportunities for insecurity, self-consciousness, and anxiety are around every corner, particularly in a Western culture that is so status-driven. The powers of darkness have always worked overtime to keep the saints from a sustained and abiding experience of the favor and love of God. They have worked thousands of years at mastering the art of destroying the lives of men, and nowhere have they been more successful than in their plan to bind men in strife after worldly acceptance, while robbing them of the awareness of God’s desire to secure them in His love.
Billboards and magazines pin women into the corner of striving for external beauty, commercials and other media venues trap men in the pursuit after bigger trucks and better homes, and the options are voluminous for all types of searching after acceptance from others. Even in the religious world, many are jockeying for a position in ministry that would feed their ‘spiritual’ egos, and so many leaders are eaten up by a desire for numerical growth in their congregations and the popularity of their ministries. Individual strife for a spiritual reputation is also common in the Body, with jealousy and envy dominating so many souls who are wanting to establish a “form of godliness” without the reality of His power and love. We are comparing ourselves to others, living in an earthbound manner, and our vision of Jesus Christ is suffering as a result of it. We want approval from men, and it is that fallen desire that robs us from experiencing the heavenly approval that the Father longs to give.
“How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?” (Jn. 5.44)
Across the board, we humans are being consumed by a sense of inferiority to someone or something, and it all stems back to the fact that we have not adequately received and abided in the love of God Himself.
Can we fathom that He does not regret having brought us into the Kingdom? That we are not a part of some “inferior” segment of the Body of Christ? That we have nothing to prove to Him, nothing to perform in the aim of earning His love, and that He is kind and compassionate toward us not because of our spiritual performance, but because that is who He is?
We need to commit the rest of our days to pursuing a greater understanding and awareness of His love toward us. He has declared that He loves us “just as” the Father loves Him. Hear Him, dear saint! His affections are no less profound toward you than they were toward Moses, Paul, Brainerd, Whitefield, or any other great soul. Oh, that we would be awakened to the reality of His constant and unfading love, and that it would be more for us that a theological category; rather, an abiding experience as our hearts are more and more surrendered to His.
The more I study the New Testament and live the Christian life, the more convinced I am that our fundamental difficulty, our fundamental lack, is the lack of seeing the love of God. It is not so much our knowledge that is defective but our vision of the love of God. Thus our greatest object and endeavor should be to know Him better, and thus we will love Him more truly.
(D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, as quoted in God’s True Love by David Harwood; 2008, p. 22)
The pursuit after acceptance from men is a deathly roller-coaster ride, and it will not end until you still your heart before the Lord, and learn to receive the love of God Himself. Jesus Christ has already declared that He loves you just as the Father has loved Him, but your reception of that love is not automatic. You must push your way past the multitudinous voices that press for your attention, “be still and know” that a much profounder love is being poured from heaven. All other voices lead to the fading glory of self, but the voice of the Lord is “above the waters,” and it leads to His eternal glory, which is “life forevermore.”
Dear believer, you need not to be jerked and pulled by the opinions, compliments, and criticisms of men. You need not to be plagued with a sense of inferiority and a burning desire to be accepted by others. The undying and unwavering love of God Himself is available to you, for the cross of Jesus Christ has torn the veil of separation on your behalf. Turn from sin and strife for acceptance, and let your heart be stilled in the place of prayer. There you will hear His voice and receive from the well of His love, and your joy will be made full. And from that holy place, He will give you grace to live amongst men with a whole new consciousness, abiding in the love of God Himself, “accepted in the Beloved One.”
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This became a famous hymn in 1930, written by Martin and Loveless.
Accepted in the Beloved
IN THE BELOVED
Author:
Civilla D. Martin, 1869-1948
Musician:
Wendell P. Loveless, 1892-1987
“In the Beloved” accepted am I,
Risen, ascended, and seated on high;
Saved from all sin thro’ His infinite grace,
With the redeemed ones accorded a place.
Refrain:
“In the Beloved,” God’s marvelous grace
Calls me to dwell in this wonderful place;
God sees my Saviour and then He sees me
“In the Beloved,” accepted and free.
“In the Beloved”— how safe my retreat,
In the Beloved accounted complete;
“Who can condemn me?” In Him I am free,
Saviour and Keeper forever is He.
“In the Beloved” I went to the tree,
There, in His Person, by faith I may see
Infinite wrath rolling over His head,
Infinite grace, for He died in my stead
The position of a believer in Christ was in common mind as most settling among those in the once culture embraced churches of the English Speaking Nations who looked to the phrase “Accepted in the Beloved,” of Eph. 1:6 in once popular translations, and knew they were more than OK in Christ. This was long prior to today’s popular psychology persuasions moving to positively embrace a person’s essential identity affirmation needs by its talking cure, issues intensive outworking awareness methods, and attempts toward people empowerment without God for its reference. Now, for almost a century, a catharsis centered in Psychology has moved to largely remove guilt and shame from any mentioned reference of who one is and has been. This, along with greed, lust, and covetousness becoming embraced by society, and few taboos for vicarious media experience have almost done the trick. This has contributed indeed to today’s acute relativism for a narcissistic normalized outlook being an accepted world view.
Even so, many have inherent nagging self doubt accompanying them, with questions about identity and how to build an affirmative existence formation that proves to go deeper—back to our family line of Genesis, and in the Bible’s Pentateuch—as to origins of need. The problem of this world embracing the condition of sin and actions of sinning have clouded the image of God Adam and Eve first understood when they were without much awareness of challenges of dealing with relative good and evil. They were driven away from their place of abode by not accepting the boundaries and bonds of trust God had set and extended; the history of our flawed human race so incurred. The mark of sin itself inherited has distorted our souls sense of well being for their offspring; in spite of intellectual problem solving disciplines, and emotional indicators for being, shame and guilt legally and existentially have come with each body package of earth’s human reality. If one reflects on any story of human struggle and strife, since Adam, one is left with unsolved questions and lingering matters of concern, thus obviously with a considerable accompanying self doubt.
Ephesians first chapter puts this human condition at rest in being in the offer of the Cross of Christ and His own continuous present day ministry of acceptance of anyone who embraces Him. Any soul can be completed in choosing to be the anyone who receives the Message of His unfathomable love asserted to the point of change. God’s rejection of sin, and the guilt that then accompanies its practices, has been turned into acceptance of the Christ-confessing sinner as unblemished along with the love of God shed abroad into our hearts through Jesus the Christ (Peter in Matthew 16 did establish a response of confession as the entry point of faith; he then denied Christ, and later repented. This seems to be the normal human response out of order to the message of “Repent and Believe.” But God is in the mix.). It is because of Jesus’ accomplishments, held fast by this phrase for life development God extended to us, in the words surrounding Eph. 1:6 in older English translations, that believers receive a less chaotic eternal culture and its reference link as chorused above: as to what was always in God’s mind as to defeating the claims of the condemnation of sin and self. The written code of the law of Sinai and condemnation related to not measuring up to that code shifted the identity of those who believed to a need for a right relationship with God. Repentance from dead works was the New ever enlarging identity position of those who lacked a naturally passed on understanding of how to become righteous and godly, found a reference in a religious system, and were left with a need for true redemption of the soul.
“Accepted in the beloved” became the unique position and identity of a believer in Christ as the phrase appeared to the contemplation of the English speaking world for centuries (found lodged in scripture prior to more recent translations). This inclusive phrase moved us from death to life in a nutshell, which was our Redeemer’s intention of heart for sending the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world into our world in His appointed time and for all time. This extension of mercy was to accept, not to condemn, to save and embrace, by His formula for grace through faith, Acceptance!!!!! One does not have to imagine such a placement for one’s self, in some ideal surreal world, or by some arrogant entitlement, one’s discovery for life’s acceptance is His provision: unblemished by sin because of the Son. We are accepted as acceptable to the One who holds the keys to death, and life, and condemnation or its lack for eternity, by his unmerited favor replacing the truth of human condition.
From the appearance, above, of what I share, it is obvious that pasting in text here from a word processor involves the risk of loss of formatted expression. Please, moderator, go through the text, get rid of all the formating stucutute text placed above, keep the written text expression, add pararaphs, and redeem this posting.
Correction: the ninth line up from the bottom, of its completion, now reads “This inclusive phrase moved us from death to life in a nutshell, which was our Redeemer’s intention of heart for sending the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world into our world in His appointed time and for all time.” It should read, In a nutshell, this inclusive phrase moved us from death to life, which was our Redeemer’s intention of heart for sending the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world into our world in His appointed time and for all time.”
I would have referenced the correction by paragraph and sentence, which appeared as so in the “LEAVE COMMENT” comment window, but did not carry forward in the posting, above.
Thank you all for reading the prose, which involved thought out paragraphs as well.
By the way, along the lines of this article, I would highly recommend David Harwood’s book “God’s True Love.” It is a masterpiece of solid teaching, and very worthy of the Church’s consideration.
BP
The Nations and the church are just men, to synthesize from the Psalmist. Finding the love and affirmation of God, knowing who one is in Christ, binding together to present to this dark world what is settling indeed can take on the cultural challenges that now fragment and alienate its people.
The blood edge of courage to stand were tested by early martyrs, the Holocaust, those who stood against their source, and our Lord’s purposeful atonement. He came from the beloved to cradle us from there. He indeed ” loves you just as the Father has loved Him.” Our love must mitigate against the times.
The first line, second paragraph, should read …The blood edge of courage to stand was tested by early martyrs, the Holocause, those who stood against their source, and our Lord’s purposeful atonement.
Dear Jabez,
It is quite the easy thing to stand up for someone you know. (even the tax collectors do that) Yet you chose to stand up for a stranger. (only a Jesus person will do that!) I knew that if I were obedient God would rise up and show Himself my Father and I thank you for your obedience. Please let me know of any blessings that your obedience brings as I do love testimonies! They, along with the blood of the Lamb, have the power to put down the enemy. You can contact me through my site at littlegirlme.wordpress.com
I am expecting you to be remarkably blessed. Since my obedience my brother has gotten saved and a cousin who I have not seen in 27 years found me and she and her husband got saved and actually joined their neighborhood church. And then after I apologized, a relative who caused me great suffering contacted me to apologize to me! I am telling you, we don’t have to do a thing in the world to be loved and accepted by God but obedience is the key to Him opening the floodgates of Heaven on our behalf. It is hard and it hurts but if it were easy everyone would be doing it and nobody would hear the words, “depart from Me I know you not.”
Bless you Jabez for you have been a great blessing to me
Wanda, I am open to being blessed, or tried in the firey furnace that hones our being. Both have equal benefit in living unto our Lord. I am tied up for over a week, and will not communicaate personally until after Aug 5th. My family returns from Norway and Ireland just before this after five weeks there. I found god’s excellence in standing with you, after reading of you, by your open reporting and convictions shared. Thanks for your wishes for blessing, it is amazing what the Spirit of Christ does, and engages, to establish our being in Him! II Cor. 4, Jabez Hart PS I will send you my phone number over your connection, I can call you back for free. It would be good to listen again to your heart and offer consdered observations and encouragements, in Christ.
Great article.
I think a lot of people still think they need to earn God’s love because we have a hard time fathoming the type of love that only God can give. Our love usually works mutually, we give love, we expect it back. I believe “agape” is the Greek word I’m looking for that expresses God’s love, which is unconditional. If I’m not mistaken, I believe that agape was a new word formed to express the type of love that only God could give.
Jabez,
I am unable to communicate by telephone but please feel free to contact me at the email address on my site. That is a public site that I have made available to women that I meet in the prisons I visit so even though it is rather girly looking, you can also leave a testimony or two there if you like. Most of my readers don’t leave a public comment because much of what they have suffered is of a sensitive nature. But I do also visit male prisons and I know that many men have suffered the same way so I don’t dissuade anyone from commenting or emailing. (James 5:11) We give great honor to those who endure under suffering.
It is interesting that you mention Norway. For the past month I have prayed for Jews in Oslo. I have no idea why, as God doesn’t explain Himself to me, and I don’t watch the news, I just faithfully do as I am told. I have been been praying for the settlements in Jerusalem, as well. My own neighborhood in the US was recently re-named ‘The Settlements.’ Not sure what God is up to since I have never been led to pray for anything other than individuals or my local church, but I recently was invited to a church service at which it was vehemently argued that Americans need to take a stand against Islam. It was all new to me but God spoke to me during the service, saying the words, “The Crusades.”
I googled those words and saw there is a tremendous amount of info and I was hoping that if you are familiar with The Crusades you could recommend a good read to me. And since there is honor among brethren in His Kingdom, I know I can trust you to lead me in the right direction!
Blessings on you and yours,
p.s. I saw a post in which you wrote of having a child with food allergies. When my son was two he was diagnosed as being allergic to 94 of the 96 foods tested for. It was a nightmare! But God is good and things are so much better and as a result he is now, at age nine, such a healthy eater. His favorite food? Salad!
Just got this, hope to respond after the 5th, Wanda. If you have a personal broadband internet connection, and a USB 2 port on your computer, Magic Jack is available as a phone service for USD 40 ist year, 20 each year thereafter. Can be purchased at Best Buy, and used overseas to connect here as well as in the USA and Canada freely (includes free North American long distance 24/7). You need a wireable phone to plug into it as well (usually thrift stores have many inexpensively). I will email as I can, doubtful I will be blogging on your site due to other commitments–but wish you and the Spirit of Christ the best there.
Norway is very antisemitic, especially since the failure of the Oslo accords–secular liberals there (most urban people there 40 or under) believe that that failure was all the fault of Israel and Jews, where in their view up is down and down is up. Christians there are lovers of Israel, generally. There is a “Bible belt” in Norway as well as here, though here it seems to be waining.
Please pray for my family’s return here to Colorado on the third, for safe and swift passage, and as to any visa issues/matters smooth sailing through Toronto on the way scheduled to Denver. Please also pray for our need to find a larger house in the area which is affordable, for the Boulder Minyan fellowship (of Jews and Christians), for a class I hope to teach in the fall using some of Michael Brown’s literature at a Free Evangelical Church, also for ongoing blessing in doing what I do (in faith, fellowship, and business).
I briefly read some of your “chapters,” and know you have a story of excellent regard and restructured reality in Jesus about your life and days to tell and share. FYI, we are an international family with our own unique calling and story. (See, e.g. our grown son and daughter in law’s site http://www.nakedicame.com (per Job’s reference FYI). Pray for our peace and the peace of Jeusalem in our midst as we pray for the Spirit’s visitation there. –later, JH.
I forgot to add, a recommendation to hear “Hope for the Heart,” June Hunt’s nightly radio counseling phone in program as useful and helpful to what you share on your site. It can be found on the net if unavailable in your area (wherever that may be).
Her late night version may be called, “Hope in the Night.” Our allergy aware son, Joshua, is also 9, but can eat certain protiens. No dairy, cheese, milk, eggs, nuts, wheat, etc. This makes for challenges, along with asthma.