Let’s say we were called to endure……MUCH. 
Let’s say we were called to endure—
Afflictions
Hardships 
Distress
Beatings 
Imprisonments
Tumults
Unending Labors
Sleepless Nights
Hunger to Starvation 
Let’s say we were called to endure—Could we?

What If we were called to endure these things, could we settle into whatever we were being called to endure, to suffer for as many days as required?
AND
What if we were called to endure within that state without any end in sight?
Could we?
Would we?

QUESTION—WHO ARE WE TO GOD?
Relationships are vitally important.  Without them, we are isolated, separated, and alone.
Even though we might sit within a room, surrounded by hundreds of people—Loneliness is Loneliness is Loneliness. People may not be truly alone; they may be within sight of others; and they may still feel the heaviness of being all alone. It is there…..Believers are called to be “separate,” to be “peculiar,” to be “God’s people,” and to be “God’s sons and daughters.”
QUESTION—WHO IS GOD TO US?

Go with me to a time way back when, (1978) a time when there was a child who walked into a new classroom, into a sea of new faces, into a room filled with bodies that suddenly turned toward her as the classroom door swung open.  This little girl walked in that day to meet her teacher.  Thankfully, she did not have to go alone, but knew the security of her mother’s love as she faced this change, as she faced this new classroom filled with new classmates.

• Would they accept her?
• Would they think she was just weird?
• Would they know she was a girl even though she had such “tomboy ways” and dressed in tomboy clothes?
• Would she make any friends?
• Would her teacher be an advocate for her, helping her adjust, keeping her balanced as she adjusted?
• Would she play alone at recess?
• If she played at recess with the boys, would the girls treat her as strange?
• If she could play by herself: to run, to chase, and to pick up rocks, would she find joy in her time of recess?
• If she played as the girls played—jumping rope, swinging, talking, and just walking around, but never playing as she desired—running free until the sweat stung her eyes;  never chasing a friend until her legs screamed in protest; and never climbing so high on the monkey bars until the height became dizzy when she hung upside down by the bend of her knees—would she ever enjoy her school days?

QUESTION—WHO ARE WE TO GOD?
The Bible says we are “children” & “ambassadors” & “the righteousness of God” & “servants” &  “believers” & “the temple of the living God.”
SEE—-(2 Corinthians 5: 20-21 & 6: 1-4 & 6:13 & 6:14-15)

QUESTION—WHO IS GOD TO US?
The Bible is so clear.  God never leaves us to wonder WHAT we are, WHO we are, or WHO completes us.
Yes, God said,

Way back when, that little girl (ME), she survived that first day of sixth grade…

• Not because she played alone at recess. &
• Not because she remained alone, trapped inside her own thoughts. &
• Not because she built walls of protection around her small body.

NO.

She survived because of the relationships afforded to her by classmates who approached her &

She survived because of the relationships of those who invited her & who included her…..even when she was a stranger, even when she was a new kid forced to adapt in a new school inside a new state, and even when she was faced with a sea of faces &

She survived because of God & Who He Is.

Do We Know Who We Really Are—To The World? To Almighty God? & Do We Even Care…To Know?
We can ask God to reveal to us—ways we have been shutting others out, causing them to remain all “alone,” even though (in their aloneness) they may be surrounded by a sea of others.
We can ask God to reveal to us—ways we can scatter seeds as we walk through this one day because the most beautiful part of Christianity is becoming more like the image of Christ Jesus our LORD and Savior.  We are His seed, and seed produces after its own kind.
We can ask God to reveal to us—ways we can plant God’s Holy Word so deeply into our hearts that the seed brings a harvest of faithfulness.
We can ask God to reveal to us—Who we are to HIM & WHO HE is to us.

As we walk in that TRUTH, we can allow God to demolish any hindrances AND any walls of separation AND any barriers in our relationship with HIM & in our relationships with others.
Truly, we can allow ourselves to be open to others; truly, we can allow them to see who we are in Christ Jesus; and truly, we can walk in God’s Holy Spirit, as we allow them to see who God is to us.

God says we are “HIS children” & “HIS ambassadors” & “HIS righteousness” & “HIS bondservants” &  “HIS” & “HIS Holy Temple” reflecting to the world, to the sea of faces…the TRUTH of the living God.

To The World? To Almighty God? Are We Really Who We Are? & Do We Even Care?

Let us walk in TRUTH Today.