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I hope that you have begun this New Year 2004 with "the Beginning!" The best place to start is "the beginning". What I am playing with here is this...I hope you began your New Year by reading your Bibles starting with the daily readings from Genesis...(thus beginning with the beginning). Beginning each day with God's Word gives not only a better beginning to the day, but also a more pleasant ending. All that is sandwiched in between tends to be more of a delight to! If you haven't begun, it isn't too late. Begin today!

By the way, our reading has now taken us into Job. Job is having a tuff time. His life is coming apart at both ends at the same time. He is depressed and feeling "what's the use?!" His buddies, Eliphaz, Bildad and Zopha come to comfort him and show their care. Job's response seems to be, "With friends like you, who needs enemies?!" When we've got "the blues", that's the color of everything! His friends try offer their counsel. Bildad says, "If you would repent. God would restore you." We have to be careful whose counsel we listen to! Not all counsel is worth heeding.

I read a story about a man who took care of his daughters while his wise was gone for a couple of days. The time with the girls wasn't without the typical children's fights and misbehaviors. Dad thought things went fine. When Mom got home, she asked, "How were the girls?" Dad responded, "Good. No problem." One of the little girls overhearing piped in, "Dad, that's not so, we weren't good. How can you say that?"

The little girl and her Dad had different perceptions of what pleases a Father. The little daughter thought it depended on what she did. But you see it didn't!

We think the same about God. We think His love rises and falls with our performance. It doesn't! We love our children not for what they do. We love them for whose they are. They are ours.

God loves us for the same reason. God's love pursued David even though he was an adulterer and a murderer. That's not normal. God's love is not normal. He loves with an everlasting love. God doesn't love us any more if we are "wonderful" or any less if we are "rotten".

His love is not dependent on our behavior, but that we are His!

You are His! You are His!