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- ❤️ First Love Weekly #30: God Is Good
❤️ First Love Weekly #30: God Is Good
Weekly post about God in the daily with encouragements from the Word
Jae Leeholland
June 15, 2025
Hello there,
My goodness, it’s already been 10 months since the last message. Hope y’all have been well. As for me, man, all I can say is God’s been GOOD.
It’s been 9 months since the Lord has called Mary and me to start a home church— one that is centered on Him above all, inspired by the Word, led by the Holy Spirit, and devoted to loving one another in Christ. Though small in number, the manifold wisdom and depth of love He’s demonstrated have been something we’ll cherish dearly for the rest of our lives.
And(!) we are only a month away from welcoming our baby boy, John Jae-Yong Leeholland— named after John the Baptist, who spent his life calling people to repentance and preparing the way for the Christ! Over the past couple of years and through all the losses, God drew us nearer to His heart by the day and taught us to have hope in Him, and He indeed delivered through the hope in Christ— as He always does.
What else? I was recently involved in a wild 6-car collision that resulted in 4 cars getting totaled, including ours. Thankfully, Mary wasn’t with me then, and miraculously, despite the gnarly crashes, not a single bone in my body was broken. Ultimately, that experience led me to truly believe— in my heart of hearts— that every day is a gift from God and not my own, with a sole purpose to glorify Him in all that I am and do.
Yes, through it all, I am here to testify God is good and faithful. The greatest blessing above all though has been how He’s instilled in me a deeper heart to continue wrestling with the Word. I guess it’s a part of my job now as well, but boy, the depth of wisdom and love in the Word never ceases to amaze me. Praise God for that!
With that said, the Spirit inspired me to pick up the proverbial pen again to share some of the messages he’s handed me to share at our home church with you too. From here, we’ll see where he takes us— I’m always down for adventures with the Lord.
Here are two passages from last week’s reading of Romans 4 through 6 the Lord’s planted in my heart to wrestle with I’d like to share:
“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
“For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
My goodness, what beautiful witnesses of faith!! It’s SO GOOD!
They beg the question: What are we truly suffering for?
Is what we’re currently so fixated on producing righteous endurance, the character of Christ, and hope that does not put us to shame?
What are we enslaved to: the desires of our flesh or those of God? Are we presenting our spirit, body, and mind before the King of kings and the Lord of lords on the daily and literally asking him what he’d like for us to do instead of rushing through our checklist?
The fruits of the former lead to pride and death, while the latter, sanctification and eternal life in Christ— our ultimate reward.
How God uses words written centuries ago to mold us, prune us, and guide us, I will never fully comprehend— but like the good Father He is, He convicts and disciplines those whom He loves to draw them closer to His heart.
Thank you Jesus.
May God our Father bless you and keep you in the coming week.
With love,
Jae
“You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.” (Revelation 2:3-5)
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