Stand up and walk, you can make it. (Matthew 9:1-8)

Recording equipment was having a moment, sorry for any quality issues.

We are called to live in love. (Not a ton with what comes next, saying it because it needs to be said.)

The Son of Man, Yeshua, has all authority. It is give to HIM by HIS Father in Heaven, our Father in Heaven, His ABBA. The authority to forgive sins, the heart to reach out and do so and so much love.
This passage. HE, Jesus, sees the man lowered down and with all that He knows, the first thing He says to this broken paralyzed man is be encouraged. It's all well and good, even easy, to say "Stand up and walk." Four words after all. =) But to hear it, that's a whole different story. If you have spent your life on a mat, in a broken state, barely believing that you could get up, and even then only holding onto that faint glimmer of hope because you see other people walking and, "maybe I can one day too." hearing, "Stand up and walk." It almost feels like an insult or a betrayal (depending on who says it.) After all, "If I could just get up and walk, I'd have done it myself by now!" But that isn't what our LORD, our Master, our Savior, our Redeemer, our Friend, says. No, HE says, "Be encouraged,..." don't give up hope, never give up hope. It will be okay, I know it may not seem it but it will be, just don't give up hope, push on a little harder, I know you can do it! "... my child!" You are mine! I've had you in mind and known everything about you since the foundations of the world. You are welcomed, wanted, and Loved! You have a family that will never leave you and when you are facing the dark is right there, simply turn and look to it my sweet baby. "... Your sins are forgiven." I know you messed up, I know you failed and people got hurt. I know you hate yourself for what happened, for what you did, for how it played out and how much you wish you could do better. I know the pain you're carrying, the agony, the self doubt, the lack of hope. I know the sleepless nights and the waking nightmares, I know the sorry, the body shaking pain for the agony you hold that goes so deep you could drown in a moment, I know that wave of chaos and sorrow that threatens to drown you at any time in your heart of hearts, and I forgive it. I forgive ever moment, every heartbreak, every failure, every whoops, every moment that you hold and holds onto you, keeping you from that place of joy, "I forgive!" Because you are mine and so very, very loved. Put the pain down my child, it was never yours to bear and you were always born to shine. Come to MY arms and I will wash you white as snow (purified) by MY blood.

That's the love we are shown. The love we are given. We are born, made, sculpted, created, to bear this image. We don't always do it the best, I'd say some of us downright suck at it, but we are given mercy and can live and show it too. Not because it is deserved or earned, far from it, the opposite of it even. -We show it because we are all broken, all humanity, and we have all fallen short of the Glory of GOD, HIS response was to cross that gap and come get us.- We show mercy because HIS arms are around us when we cry, and family hugs are what it is all about when breaking down in a world of hurt.

Never give up y'all! And surrender only to The ONE. The LORD