Celebrate Church had a guest speaker this Sunday, Pastor Allen Speegle, who was awesome! He made several points that hit me. The sermon was about faith and love. 1. Romans 12:3 – God has dealt to every man the measure of faith. Pastor Allen pointed out that it says “the” measure of faith, not “a” measure of faith… That means that everyone gets the same amount of faith. It’s just that some people tap into more of it. We all have faith, it’s just exercising that faith that we all do at different levels. 2. Faith is my confidence in and response to someone who believes in me. My God believes in me unconditionally. I can make decisions that will affect how my friends and family see me, be there isn’t a single decision that I can make that will change how God sees me (especially since he knew about all my decisions long before I ever made them). Because God’s belief in me and love for me will never change, I can trust Him. 3. Uncertain times may change our plans and how we get there, but it doesn’t change the vision that God has for our lives (where we’re going, our destination). It also doesn’t matter how much I’ve failed, if I’ve been bruised, or if I’ve made mistakes; it still doesn’t change God’s view of me or His vision for me. We may change our opinion of Him, but He won’t change His opinion of me. For example, Jesus told Peter that he’d deny Him three times but the next thing He said was to not let his heart be troubled. Jesus answered, “Die for me? I tell you the truth, Peter—before the rooster crows tomorrow morning, you will deny three times that you even know me. Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. 2 There is more than enough room in my Father’s home.[j] If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?[k] 3 When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. (John 13: 38-14:3) Even though Peter would deny Him, it didn’t change that Jesus wanted Peter with Him in heaven. Even though Peter would deny Him, Jesus told Peter not to be troubled about it. Imagine if Peter had focused on his failure. He might never have gone on to be the Rock of the church and to spread the gospel to so many people! Momentary failure doesn’t change God’s vision for our life. That is SO cool, especially for those of us who have made mistakes… 4. We tend to see God as some great disciplinarian who comes down hard on us and gives us really tough punishments for our mistakes. But, imagine a parent. If that parent punished their child by breaking his/her legs for not obeying, we’d throw them in jail for child abuse. We know that that’s not right! So, how come we think God will do something like that? We don’t see God IS love. God loves us and isn’t trying to figure out how to hurt us the most when we make mistakes. Those are my interpretations of what Pastor Allen said. Very awesome. So faith is seeing God as love and seeing myself the way God sees me and knowing that I am loved and valued by God unconditionally. I love the way he put that. Thanks Pastor Allen!