Mark 1:1-15
Do you recall the first time you said "I love you" ? What was the response? Hopefully, it was I love you too. Sometimes that ideal scenario strays and one of the most heartbreaking ones is the response "why?" It's not unlike the response you get sometimes when you say how proud you are of someone and they similarly ask "why?"
There is some self doubt, feelings of being unworthy perhaps. I have seen almost pathological needs for positive reinforcement and feedback as if it was said enough it would be true.
In this passage it needs only be said once, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’ This is how God feels about all of us. He is most pleased. You need not hear anything else, you are beloved by God. Everything Jesus did was to show us all how much we are loved. In every daily interaction, every story relates how much we are accepted and loved. All of us. How could God not love each and every one of us? He went so far as to give up what we value most - life.
What we fail to see is what God can see. We do get side tracked, we are capable of some fool hearty mistakes and bad decisions. We can fool ourselves into believes a lot of things, rationalize them until the cows come home. But God, God sees what we do not. To God we are all special and beautiful, beloved creations.
If we are to move forward at all in our lives, we need to accept that fact. "God don't make junk" as they say. Shed all the self doubt, the self recriminations over whatever. Loving yourself as God loves you comes first before anything else can be accomplished.
If there is no self love, no recognition that we are each "the beloved", there will be no growth, no relationships of any lasting value.
Please know, you are the beloved of God.
Do you recall the first time you said "I love you" ? What was the response? Hopefully, it was I love you too. Sometimes that ideal scenario strays and one of the most heartbreaking ones is the response "why?" It's not unlike the response you get sometimes when you say how proud you are of someone and they similarly ask "why?"
There is some self doubt, feelings of being unworthy perhaps. I have seen almost pathological needs for positive reinforcement and feedback as if it was said enough it would be true.
In this passage it needs only be said once, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’ This is how God feels about all of us. He is most pleased. You need not hear anything else, you are beloved by God. Everything Jesus did was to show us all how much we are loved. In every daily interaction, every story relates how much we are accepted and loved. All of us. How could God not love each and every one of us? He went so far as to give up what we value most - life.
What we fail to see is what God can see. We do get side tracked, we are capable of some fool hearty mistakes and bad decisions. We can fool ourselves into believes a lot of things, rationalize them until the cows come home. But God, God sees what we do not. To God we are all special and beautiful, beloved creations.
If we are to move forward at all in our lives, we need to accept that fact. "God don't make junk" as they say. Shed all the self doubt, the self recriminations over whatever. Loving yourself as God loves you comes first before anything else can be accomplished.
If there is no self love, no recognition that we are each "the beloved", there will be no growth, no relationships of any lasting value.
Please know, you are the beloved of God.
The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
As it is written in the prophet Isaiah,
‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way;
the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
“Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight” ’,
John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, ‘The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.’
In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’
‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way;
the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
“Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight” ’,
John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, ‘The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.’
In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’
And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.’
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