{"id":21841,"date":"2014-09-16T00:20:31","date_gmt":"2014-09-16T04:20:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=21841"},"modified":"2014-09-15T22:32:56","modified_gmt":"2014-09-16T02:32:56","slug":"welcoming-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2014\/09\/16\/welcoming-people\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcoming People"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SeekingHimLogo\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Unseal my lips, O Lord, that my mouth may praise You.
\nYou do not desire a sacrifice, or I would offer one.
\nYou do not want a burnt offering.
\nThe sacrifice You desire is a broken spirit.
\nYou will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.
\nPsalms 51:15-17<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

My sacrifice [the sacrifice acceptable] to God is a broken spirit;
\na broken and a contrite heart [broken down with sorrow for sin
\nand humbly and thoroughly penitent], such, O God, You will not despise.
\nPsalm 51:17 AMP<\/p>\n

I have yet to meet a person that Christ has rejected. \u00a0There is no such thing as too sinful, too perfect, too young, or too old. \u00a0Not one person who comes to Christ broken and humble is turned away. \u00a0He never said, “Oh…that’s too much for me to handle.” \u00a0He has never turned His back saying, “Not today…I’m too busy. \u00a0Try again tomorrow.” \u00a0He is never off limits. \u00a0He has never said, “Ha! You puny human. I am God. You are too beneath Me to help.” \u00a0And He is always emotionally available. \u00a0He has never said, “I’m too bored or tired or angry.”<\/p>\n

Therefore, accept each other just as Christ has accepted you so that God will be given glory.
\nRomans 15:7<\/p>\n

Jesus is always available to the willing heart. \u00a0He was even available to those who didn’t know they needed Him. \u00a0So, why aren’t we the same way? \u00a0The easy response to this question is: ‘He was God and I am only human.’ \u00a0 Even though this is very true, I think there are other reasons why we aren’t as accepting or available as Christ, and it all comes down to motives.<\/p>\n

We can never truly know a person\u2019s heart. \u00a0We can see their actions and listen to what they say, but even so, there is no way for us to know what is going through their minds or the motives they have or what they do behind closed doors. \u00a0How could we possibly know the internal struggles another goes through? \u00a0For example, you encounter a rude person and it’s easy to assume that person is just rude; but is that really true? \u00a0What’s happening on the surface is not always an adequate overall summary of the situation. \u00a0This is what the Holy Spirit is for! \u00a0(As well as it helps to remember to view situations in a “this is not about me” manner.)<\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0~ \u00a0 \u2665 \u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u271e\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0~ \u00a0\u2665 \u00a0 ~ \u00a0 *<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Lord, help me to welcome those around me the way You welcomed those to Yourself, so that I may be a light for others. \u00a0Please, help me to remember the big picture, and stay focused on You, so I can love people like You did. \u00a0Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unseal my lips, O Lord, that my mouth may praise You. You do not desire a sacrifice, or I would offer one. You do not want a burnt offering. The sacrifice You desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God. Psalms 51:15-17 My sacrifice [the sacrifice acceptable] […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":13840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3020],"tags":[3146,1287,425,506,7313,4049,1290,7338],"class_list":["post-21841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-devotions","tag-ahmee-bronaugh","tag-gch","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-holy-spirit","tag-psalms-5115-17","tag-romans-157","tag-seeking-him","tag-welcoming-people","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SeekingHimLogo.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-5Gh","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/118"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21841"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21845,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21841\/revisions\/21845"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}