I love the movie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding". My favorite scene is when Tula's boyfriend Ian visits her family for the first time. He goes to their house, expecting a small family get-together, and instead, there are a hundred family members there to greet them on the front lawn. I laugh at this scene every time because I grew up in a family like that. Poor Ian walks up to this gregarious group of Greek family members, most of whom are named Nick, and is bombarded by their graciousness. Even though their culture was so different from his (they were actually roasting a pig in the front yard!) he felt welcomed and accepted, and he fell in love with Tula's family.
Many people may feel the same way about attending a church service. Sometimes we feel uncomfortable because we do not know what to expect. What if we are called on to read a Bible verse, answer a question, or worse yet, to pray out loud in front of all these people? Also, how do we know what to wear to the service? What songs will they be singing? What if no one talks to us? Or what if everyone talks to us and it is overwhelming to us?
Then there are also some doubts and concerns in our minds that I believe are direct lies from Satan. Thoughts such as "I am not good enough to belong in God's family" or "I can never be forgiven", and my favorite "I won't be accepted for who I am". Oh, how we have allowed Satan to lead us away from the Father that loves us so much!
Not any more! These thoughts are not allowed to reign in our minds and hearts, and keep us from becoming who we were created to be! We refuse to be tricked and deceived by Satan. We commit to knowing the truth.
In the WPW ministry, we are learning to praise our Father who has this GREAT love for each one of us! He has a purpose for each one of His precious daughters, and a desire for us to know Him as the loving Father that He is, not some far distant deity that is waiting for us to mess up so that He can make us feel terrible about ourselves. We are all equal in Him; not one daughter has a greater purpose in this life than another daughter, and we are all equally loved by Him. He is a wonderful Father!
Oh how I wish I could adequately express in this post the love that Jesus Christ has for us as well! We may know that He died for our sins, but what does that really mean to us? What do we owe Him? What does He want from us? Who was He, anyway? I wish that we could actually see Him for who He is and what He is doing for us, now, at this very moment. I wish we could see Him with His arms reaching out to us, with joy in His face, and love in His heart. I wish we would run to Him, with our joy, our fears, our troubles, our families- basically, with all our hearts and minds, and throw ourselves into the open arms of a Savior who loves us so much!
We are a family in Jesus Christ! We are connected to each other and we WALK together through this life's peaks and valleys. We are happy for each other, and we cry together. None of us are perfect, but, thanks be to God, He loves us so much that He has chosen to make us complete in Him. In Him, we have peace.
We want to invite you to come meet our family! We promise not to be roasting a pig on the front lawn, and not to overwhelm you. We are not here to judge you, to tell you what you should do to be like us, or to condemn you. We just want you to know the true love that is found in God's family. Dear sister, we hope to meet you soon!
Grace and peace,
Michele
