first time getting my blog on

welcome to my blog. GOD IS SO GOOD! He has been blowing up at the Billingsley household for a while now but He came with a little more intensity this last weekend. Totally fun! More fun to tell that one in person than via the blog so you'll have to grab lunch with me or come by the house. Why the blog? I'm attempting to lived fully filled with the Spirit all the time and this is my place to journal it. I'm journaling it here because I can't read my writing when I journal on paper and I hope it will encourage anyone who visits. I know it's kind of an old pic up top but there's something sweet about Beau's adventurous spirit. Kind of like the Lord wants us to have a similar spirit as we run after Him.

Why should we try to live fully filled? Jesus did. Jesus was 100% human and yet 100% filled and submitted to the Spirit of God within Him. Because of that fully filled nature, the God of the universe said "I am well pleased with Him"; He performed more miracles than could be written down; and, He literally changed history and made it His-story. Pretty good reasons, huh?

A couple of things on my mind. Again, GOD IS SO GOOD! If you ever wondered whether or not that is true, ask Him to reveal Himself to you and you won't ever wonder again. He wants to reveal Himself to us. He wants to show us individually who He really is and what He really is all about. I'm sure you're aware but even if you're not, He tells us that He wants to reveal Himself to us. In John 14:21 Jesus says: He who has my commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest (or reveal) Myself to Him.

Jesus has been showing Himself to me as THE Redeemer. I was struck this morning by that fact. If you think about the Bible and story of humanity, the whole thing is the story of redemption. A bad choice was made in the garden and God put the redemption plan into place. He wasn't surprised by that bad choice anymore than He is surprised when we make bad choices. And here's the cool thing, Romans 8:28-29 says that He works all things to the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purposes. So if that's true (and it is completely) then we know that no matter what has happened or will happen He will work it for our good! He didn't want/cause Adam & Eve to make the choice they did in the garden anymore than He wants or causes us to make poor choices now but He takes the choices we make or have made and He will redeem them. Here's the exact dictionary definition of redeem: to buy or pay off; clear by payment. Like paying off a mortgage He literally "cleared by payment" our choices.

There is so much freedom in knowing that He is the Redeemer! The freedom is two fold: 1) when we confess our sins "He is faithful to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness" so we don't have to carry the regret/condemnation/guilt/etc...; and 2) since He redeems those poor choices we can have confidence that He will literally take what the enemy intended to destroy us and turn it for our benefit.

GOD IS GOOD. HE'S FOR YOU AND NOT AGAINST YOU. HE'S GOT PLANS TO PROSPER AND NOT TO HARM YOU. HE'S NOT MAD AT YOU FOR PAST DECISIONS (once they've been forgiven, He doesn't even remember them!)