Jesus Loves Me This I Know

Posted on March 4, 2015 by Graeme Wilson in Freedom Fighters

Jesus Loves Me this I know!

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

I was reminded last night of one of the most important things in all of life, JESUS loves me.  No, really.  Jesus loves me.  My family and I watched a movie last night titled, “Ragamuffin, the Rich Mullins story”.  I do not know whether or not you know who Rich is, but he was a Christian artist and was really talented.  Rich, like many of us (really all of us) had this battle going on in his life. To do what God wanted him to do (which looked like rebellion to certain kinds of Christians) and what the Church or others wanted him to do.

Rich also had a horrible relationship with his father, which skewed the struggle that he had with God.  He was the son of a farmer and his father was training him to be a farmer which did not work out in Rich’s favor (neither did it work out for his father).  Rich was not built for the farm, he wasn’t too sure what he was built for, but he knew it wasn’t farm work.

In his early college days, he was playing music and met the girl of his dreams.  She too had a certain plan but to it was not the same plan that Rich had in mind.  He was all for marrying her, but not to stay in a Cincinnati Ohio. So, off to Nashville he went to write music for Amy Grant, but deep down inside, Rich did not want to just write music, he wanted to write and sing his own songs.  Man oh man, the man could write, talk and sing his music.  Nashville, did not give him a look because of his appearance.  It wasn’t until Amy Grant hear him sing one of his songs and then a conversation took place with the Record label people, and Amy saying, “sounds like he show be singing his own songs”, that he got a contract.  Still, Rich was not settled in his spirit.  Rich struggled with alcohol abuse in his life.  Alcohol was a horrible friend to him.

Rich was doing music in a church one night and the preacher was preaching on Holiness.  After the message, Rich shared about how he could not live what was preached, that he did not want to be disrespectful to the message, the church, or the pastor, and he sang, “Jesus loves me this I know”.  Oftentimes, we who have once embraced that song for all of its meaning because that is all we could grasp of the Christian life, we forget that that is the most important thing to remember in all of life.

I want to encourage you today, because I know that there are some of you reading this today who are struggling with other people’s plans, desires, or thoughts about who you are, what you’re suppose to be doing or not doing, etc.  Remember, this most important fact and think on it, JESUS LOVES YOU THIS YOU KNOW, why?  BeCAUSE THE BIBLE tells us so.  I love it.  Jesus loves me just as I am.  Yes, he is transforming me, but he is doing that because he loves me.  He knows my sin, is hurting me.  He loves me, and he is really cool with who I am.  I can tell you this, He LOVES YOU too, and He is really cool with who you are too!  Don’t let anyone ever tell you differently.  Have a great week! – Doug Barger is the Director of Men’s Ministries at Bethesda Mission. You can write to him at dbarger2030@comcast.net

Daily Bible Reading: Exodus 36-38; James 4

Think About This: A good man is ashamed to speak that which many people are not ashamed to act. —Matthew Henry

This Week’s Verse to Memorize: For the honor of your name, O Lord, forgive my many, many sins. Psalm 25:11