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the reality of God’s unconditional love. Perhaps you have experienced repeated rejection or abuse from your spouse, a close friend, or a significant other, and this has hindered you from believing that you are precious, valuable, and fully acceptable to God. Maybe you struggle daily with some temptation or addictive behavior, and you do not believe that God could possibly love and accept you. Instead, you imagine God’s rejection of you, and you believe that, in order for God to accept you, you have to be perfect!

      Whatever your background, do you long to know and experience the intimate love and acceptance of God? Would it not be wonderfully freeing to wake up every morning, knowing beyond a doubt just how much God loves and accepts you? This would be life-transforming, would it not? This is a hard kernel of truth to understand and internalize. However, let us look at God’s word together and discover the amazing truth about God’s love and acceptance.

      My prayer for you is that, over the next six weeks, as you embark on this exciting journey of learning and growing in God’s word, that you will experience the intimate love and acceptance of God—maybe the love and acceptance that you have longed for your whole life long. May this truth transform your life and cause you to grow in a more intimate relationship with God.

      Before you begin this week’s Bible study, take a moment and ask God to guide you as you study his word and to bring revelation to your mind and heart about his life-transforming truths.

      Learning God’s Truth

      In lesson 1, we will study Scripture passages 1 John 4:7–8, 1:4–9; John 3:16; Ephesians 1:1–10; Romans 8:35–39; and Revelation 7:14.

      7Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. (1 John 4:7–8)

      4We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. 5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. 6If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; 7but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:4–9)

      For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish, but may have eternal life. (John 3:16)

      God is .

      What does this mean to you?

      How did God show his love for you? .

      What an amazing gift of sacrificial love! God loves you deeply; there is no greater expression of love than for one to lay down his life for you. Jesus died for you; if you were the only person on the face of the earth, Jesus would have died for you.

      Why did Jesus have to die?

      By faith, when you confess your sins, you are saved. Because God’s very nature is love, what is God’s command to us?

      This sounds easy, but it is not always so easy to love others. Now, you might be thinking, “Well, I try to love, but it is not easy. I have been so mistreated by those who were supposed to love and nurture me that I have a very difficult time loving others.”

      This is quite human and understandable. It is very difficult to love others when you have not received love from your significant others. You cannot give out of an empty vessel. This is precisely why you need to soak in the unconditional love of God before you can attempt to love others. It is all right to give yourself permission to take time to grow in the love of God before you attempt to love others unconditionally, especially those who have harmed and hurt you deeply. Be gentle with yourself. Furthermore, love comes from God, and we can only love with agapē love, a selfless, sacrificial love, when we allow Christ’s love to flow through us to others.

      What circumstances in your life have hindered you from knowing and experiencing God’s love?

      Either journal your thoughts and feelings or share your heart with others in the group.

      How have these negative life experiences affected the way you image God? Take a few moments and write down how you have imaged God because of the experiences of others.

      Who is God to you?

      Coming to know and experience a loving God is a process. It takes time to grow in the wisdom and knowledge of God, it takes time to heal the memories and it takes time to trust a God whom you cannot see.

      Now, let us turn to the book of Ephesians.

      1Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus: 2Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. 5He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace 8that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight 9he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, 10as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. (Eph 1:1–10)

      The apostle Paul originally wrote this letter to the faithful saints of Ephesus while he was in prison. His purpose in writing to the church at Ephesus was to encourage the community in the faith among both Jews and Gentiles and to help the body of Christ to live in peace and love with one another. But in order for believers to live in true peace and love, each must first know his and her identity in Christ. Each person must know who he or she is in relation to Jesus Christ and understand this new life in Christ.

      The apostle Paul tells us that, as God’s beloved children, we have been blessed in Christ with every spiritual blessing.

      To whom do we belong? Yes, we belong to Christ.

      What are the spiritual blessings that God has blessed us with in Christ?

      Name three of these spiritual blessings that you learned about in Ephesians 1:1–10:

      1) (v. 4)

      2) (v. 5)

      3) (v. 10)

      We have received the past blessing of being “chosen” in Christ before the foundations of the world. You became a part of God’s family when you came to believe in Jesus Christ, a global family both here on the earth and in heaven. You do not stand alone. You were chosen by your loving God, called out for his divine purposes and for his good pleasure. What a privilege! What a calling! You are his children through Jesus Christ, accepted in the Beloved. As children, you are still growing and learning, still in process. Although you have not yet arrived, you are still working together as a community on the way to perfection in Christ. Just reflect on this truth: You

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