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I have spent so much of my life being a victim of the type of love that the world has to offer. I tend to do and say things to earn people's favor; I spend so much time and energy trying to understand what other people think and say about me. When I let other people's thoughts and words affect me, they end up defining who I am.
God has called me out of these clutches. As his love has entered me, I have been able to release the anxiety I feel from other people and slowly see who I truly am.
 Thankfully, God has always taken me as I am, filth and all. It occurred to me for the first time that the prodigal son returned to his father for the wrong reason. He said, "My father's paid servants have more food than they want and here I am starving. I will leave this place and go to my father." He returned to his father because he needed to eat, not because he wanted to see his father's renewed love for him and experience his forgiveness. That is such a powerful statement about our God. He takes us as we are every time. We always go to him with all our mess, and he opens his arms and embraces us
filth and all. That is the love that I have been searching for all my life; God placed this love inside me, and I was foolishly looking all over the world for it.
A reflected radiance
Love came to me.
A sweet aroma
Perfumed was she.
Clothed in beauty
She grabbed my eyes.
With her twisted truth
And her cunning lies.
She tried to fill
This void in me.
She lustfully said,
"A king you will be."
My thirst went deeper
And cracked the mirror.
And I did lose
What I held dear.
A ray came through
This painful crack.
Exposed my sin
And all I lack.
Tis not the love
That I did know.
New beauty in this ray
Did show.
With arms wide open
He captured me.
While I was stuck
In my misery.
"I know your pain
And the burden you bear.
Please come to see
How I do care.
I bore all shame
And all men's guilt.
And at my cross
All burdens wilt.
"Shine on me
Your blessed face.
Embrace my soul
With Your sweet grace.
"With You I die
And live again.
Such gainful loss
That You did send.
"May I behold
Your lovely fire.
So I may be
What You desire.
"Sweetly slay
The dross in me.
So I may die
And live with Thee."
piece by Dean Robinson
email him about this piece at drobinson@Sebesta.com | 
