"Father, Forgive them"

“Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” – Luke 23:34

While He was hanging on the Cross, Jesus spoke 7 times. Each time His words sketched a clear picture of His love for sinners and His intimate relationship with His heavenly Father. Even despite the excruciating pain, Jesus noticed other people and tried to help them.

In the period before His crucifixion, Jesus’ relationships had also suffered. The 12 friends who had accompanied Him for 3 years deserted Him, Peter denied Him and Judas betrayed Him. The Jewish people for whom He had come, rejected His offer of salvation and had Him crucified. Despite the agony He was suffering on the Cross. Jesus prayed for those that rejected Him and had Him crucified. He prayed that His Father should forgive them because they did not understand the impact of their actions.

The unconditional love and forgiveness of Jesus are still available to you. You can confess your sins with confidence because He is prepared to forgive them!

-         Derived from Living in God’s Love, Nina Smit

Surrendering to Christ

God intended for us as young Christian women to live a life that is completely and fully transformed by the power, life and radiance of our Heavenly Prince. For us to live lives that are not our own, but Christ’s’, for He lives within us. Unfortunately, modern femininity falls short of this example of true beauty because we do not understand the reality of who Jesus is meant to be in our lives.

Jesus is not meant to be slipped into our lives whenever it is convenient. He is not meant to be treated as a casual buddy we hang out with every once in a while. Jesus wants to be our LIFE. He wants to occupy every waking thought, action, attitude, word and decision.

Being a Christian means that your life is hid with Christ. You are not your own. You have no time of your own, no money of your own. Christ must become your complete Master.

If you are ready to trade the hollow self-made beauty of this world for the glorious Christ-built beauty of a set-apart young woman, this is where it all begins. Denying self, taking up your cross and following the Lamb wherever He leads. In other words, letting go of all preoccupations with self; our comfort, our pleasure, our agenda, our popularity, our ability to gain the world’s approval, even our own dreams and desires. And as Paul did, treating all those things as rubbish for the excellence of the knowledge of Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings (Phillippians 3:7-9).

At first glance, it sounds like a very scary decision to make. If we stop looking out for our own agendas and become completely preoccupied with Christ, won’t our lives become dull and boring? If we stop pursuing worldly applause, worldly beauty and worldly pleasure, won’t our lives lose all their radiance?

Just the opposite! A life overtaken by the Heavenly Beauty of Christ is the only life truly worth living. Yes, it may include some discomfort, prison, pain or even death, but it also includes triumph, joy, peace and fulfillment in their richest and purest forms. Jesus Christ takes good care of the things we entrust to Him.

When we offer our existence to Him, we may not gain fame, fortune or sex appeal, but we will gain all the riches of His Kingdom. We will gain the lasting loveliness that every woman longs for. We will gain the unshakable fulfillment that the rest of this world spends their entire lives searching for in vain. Not only that, but we will live out the most spectacular real life adventures this world has ever seen.

I don’t know about you, but that sums up everything that I truly desire. I want the kind of beauty and radiance that never fades away. I want to join the ranks of set-apart femininity and glow with the kind of loveliness that all of Heaven cheers.

“...those who catch the vision are ready to follow the Lamb wherever He leads, and as they follow, in this spirit of joyful adventure, their path becomes clear before them and they are given power to fulfill their higher calling. They are those who have the courage to break the conventionalities, who care not at all what the world thinks of them, because they are entirely taken up with the tremendous reality of Christ.” – Bishop Bardley

I give myself to you

"My life is not my own, to you I belong, I give myself to you. I give myself away, so you can use me.”

God made the ultimate sacrifice for our sake, by sending His Son to die on our behalf. To die. Imagine losing the one thing that is most precious to you. Imagine losing your child, your mother, your father, your brother, your sister, for the sake of some one else.

I struggle to comprehend the idea that someone would do that, for me, a sinner, unworthy of this sacrifice. I use the term sacrifice very lightly, as Jesus voluntarily bore our sins on the Cross so that we may be saved from an eternity in hell. Despite the countless times that we have sinned and wronged God, He finds each one of us worthy of His love, and worthy of His gift to us. Therefore, personally, I think the LEAST that we can do to show our gratitude (not that He expects any reward for what He has done for us), is to give our lives to Him, and completely and utterly surrender to His Will for our lives. He took the time to formulate a plan and purpose for EACH of our lives before we were even in our mother’s womb! How awesome is it to know that God has given each one of us our own, unique destiny?? 

As His children, He has set us apart from all of those who belong to the world, so that we may rise above all the enemies attempts to take control of our lives.

Jesus is our Saviour, who gave His LIFE, so that we may be saved. There’s no greater love than that.

Galatians 2:20

"I have been crucified with Christ. 

It is no longer I who live, 

but Christ who lives in me. 

And the life I now live in the flesh, 

I live by faith in the Son of God, 

who loved me and gave himself for me. " 

Romans 6: 22-23

"But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you real leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord"