{"id":25434,"date":"2015-04-16T00:59:20","date_gmt":"2015-04-16T04:59:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=25434"},"modified":"2015-04-16T07:01:26","modified_gmt":"2015-04-16T11:01:26","slug":"25434","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2015\/04\/16\/25434\/","title":{"rendered":"Child Forgiven"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\">\n<blockquote><p>\u00a0<span style=\"font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\">Many of you have gone on Spring Break or are anticipating taking a vacation this summer. \u00a0It is a time to refresh spirit, soul, and body. \u00a0Over the next couple of weeks, our faithful bloggers will be taking a \u2018spring break\u2019 from writing so that they can come back to us refreshed and freshly anointed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\">However, Girlfriends\u2019 Coffee Hour website won\u2019t \u2018go black\u2019! \u00a0We will be revisiting some of our favorite blogs and daily devotions which have blessed us in the past. \u00a0We pray that each of you, our faithful friends and readers, will continue to start your day meditating on the devotionals and songblogs, and be encouraged and blessed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\">Let\u2019s give each of our bloggers a big round of applause, a hug,<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\">and the rest they so deserve. \u00a0God bless you, ladies!<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800080;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/psalmshymnsspiritualsongskjv.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-16629\" src=\"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/psalmshymnsspiritualsongskjv.jpg\" alt=\"psalmshymnsspiritualsongskjv\" width=\"341\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/psalmshymnsspiritualsongskjv.jpg 341w, https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/psalmshymnsspiritualsongskjv-300x175.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 341px) 100vw, 341px\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/psalmshymnsspiritualsongskjv.jpg\"><br \/>\n<\/a>I thought I had my bases covered <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\">My destiny was in control <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\">But I could see I\u2019d never reach perfection <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\">The day I hit a slick spot in the road<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800080;\">After that I thought my life was over <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\">But Jesus had a different point of view <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\">All I did was confess, and Jesus did the rest<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\">Thank God I\u2019ve been released and made brand new<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800080;\"><em>You\u2019re looking at a child forgiven <\/em><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\"><em>You\u2019re looking at a soul set free <\/em><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\"><em>You\u2019re looking at a pardoned prisoner who\u2019s walking now in liberty <\/em><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\"><em>I\u2019m standing here because of wondrous grace <\/em><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\"><em>My sins are in the deepest sea <\/em><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\"><em>He washed me clean somehow <\/em><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\"><em>So what you\u2019re seeing now <\/em><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\"><em>Is a happy, happy child set free<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800080;\">Now what you see is not a perfect person <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\">What you see is not a faultless soul <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\">What you see is someone who was broken <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\">Until the hand of Jesus made me whole<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800080;\">What you see is not a finished product <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\">What you see might sometimes miss the mark <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\">But I know my Father\u2019s eyes see only His sweet prize <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\">The perfect holy children that we are<\/span><\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/r7ZavuWe5Rw\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/center><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">The Gaither Vocal Band<br \/>\nSongwriters: Suzanne Jennings and Bill Gaither<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #800080;\">* \u00a0~ \u00a0\u2665 \u00a0~ \u00a0\u271e \u00a0~ \u00a0\u2665 \u00a0~ \u00a0*<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Hey, before we go any further, would you do one thing, please? \u00a0Would you go look in the mirror\u2026. \u00a0Now, see there?! \u00a0<strong>There<\/strong> is a \u201c<span style=\"color: #800080;\"><em>child forgiven, a happy happy child set free<\/em><\/span>\u201d\u2026<em><strong>you<\/strong><\/em>!<\/p>\n<p><em>But<\/em> for the grace of God, we would still be prisoners and slaves to sin. <em>But<\/em> for His wondrous and amazing grace, we would be without hope.\u00a0<em> But,<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.<br \/>\nThere is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned<br \/>\nand fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by His grace\u2026.<br \/>\nRomans 3:22-24<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For He rescued us from the domain of darkness,<br \/>\nand transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son,<br \/>\nin whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.<br \/>\nColossians 1:13 and 14<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight.<br \/>\nEphesians 1:4<\/p>\n<p>One of the joy-filled lines of this song is \u201c<span style=\"color: #800080;\"><em>But I know my Father\u2019s eyes see only His sweet prize\u2014the perfect holy children that we are&#8230;<\/em><\/span>\u201d. \u00a0Now <em>I <strong>know<\/strong><\/em> we aren\u2019t completely and totally perfectly perfect yet\u2026but remember Jesus told His disciples (and us!) to \u201cBe perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect\u201d (Matthew 5:48).<\/p>\n<p>The apostle Paul, who is such a wonderful example to us of how to live righteously, wrote of his own struggle with this Truth:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on<br \/>\nso that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.<br \/>\nBrethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do:<br \/>\nforgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,<br \/>\nI press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.<br \/>\nLet us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude;<br \/>\nand if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you;<br \/>\nhowever, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained.<br \/>\nPhilippians 3:12-16<\/p>\n<p>It is so very important to remember the Truth of <em><strong>who you are in Christ<\/strong><\/em>. \u00a0Here are just a few aspects of this reality that, by God\u2019s grace, He has made us to be.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>I am forgiven<\/em>; Jesus paid my debt<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature,<br \/>\nGod made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins,<br \/>\nhaving cancelled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us<br \/>\nand that stood opposed to us; He took it away, nailing it to the Cross.<br \/>\nColossians 2:13 and 14<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>I am His child<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name,<br \/>\nHe gave the right to become children of God.<br \/>\nJohn 1:12<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>I belong to Him<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Little children, you are of God [you belong to Him]<br \/>\nand have [already] defeated and overcome them [the agents of the antichrist],<br \/>\nbecause He Who lives in you is greater (mightier) than he who is in the world.<br \/>\n1 John 4:4<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>I am chosen, holy<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood,<br \/>\na holy nation, a people belonging to God,<br \/>\nthat you may declare the praises of Him<br \/>\nwho called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.<br \/>\n1 Peter 2:9<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>I cannot be separated from His love<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?<br \/>\nShall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?<br \/>\n\u2026No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.<br \/>\nFor I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,<br \/>\nneither the present nor the future, nor any powers,<br \/>\nneither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation,<br \/>\nwill be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.<br \/>\nRomans 8:35-39<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>I have been given strength<\/em> to do all which God calls me to do<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">I have strength for all things in Christ Who empowers me<br \/>\n[I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him<br \/>\nWho infuses inner strength into me\u2026].<br \/>\nPhilippians 4:13<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #800080;\">* \u00a0 ~ \u00a0 \u2665 \u00a0 ~ \u00a0 \u271e \u00a0 ~ \u00a0 \u2665 \u00a0 ~ \u00a0 *<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u2026Grace to you and peace, from Him who is and who was and who is to come\u2026<br \/>\nand from Jesus Christ, the faithful Witness, the Firstborn of the dead,<br \/>\nand the Ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us<br \/>\nand released us from our sins by His blood\u2014<br \/>\nRevelations 1:4 and 5<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0Many of you have gone on Spring Break or are anticipating taking a vacation this summer. \u00a0It is a time to refresh spirit, soul, and body. \u00a0Over the next couple of weeks, our faithful bloggers will be taking a \u2018spring break\u2019 from writing so that they can come back to us refreshed and freshly anointed.\u00a0 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":16629,"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":[4937],"tags":[4070,2574,235,3896,389,10,5264,1287,425,7560,4821,7561,7562,762,4932,5024,7563],"class_list":["post-25434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-psalms-hymns-and-spiritual-songs","tag-1-john-44","tag-1-peter-29","tag-coleen-hayden","tag-colossians-213-14","tag-forgiven","tag-forgiveness","tag-gaither-vocal-band","tag-gch","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-jesus-set-us-free","tag-john-112","tag-matthew-548","tag-philippians-312-16","tag-philippians-413","tag-psalms-hymns-spiritual-songs","tag-romans-838-39","tag-truth-of-who-i-am-in-christ","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/psalmshymnsspiritualsongskjv.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s39pHp-25434","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25434","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\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25434"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25442,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25434\/revisions\/25442"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}