STIGMA.....

Webster's Dictionary definition of " Stigma" is:

*A set of negative and often unfair beliefs that a society or group of people have about something.
*A mark of shame or discredit: STAIN; example: bore the "stigma" of cowardice.
*An identifying mark or characteristic; specifically: A specific diagnostic sign of a disease.

Stigmata plural: Bodily marks or pains resembling the wounds of the crucified Jesus and sometimes accompanying religious ecstasy.

Jesus knew the depth of the "suffering and shame" that he was going to hath to bare on the cross in order to save us from our sins.  Yet He was willing to leave His deity and to come to this Earth and to be born of a virgin, and to take on human flesh in order to fulfill the will of His Father in Heaven. 

Words are very powerful and can change or challenge the perception of someone's character and nature if not wrapped in truth of God. They have the ability to coerce people into making judgmental statements that are irreverent and degrading of who God has called a person to be in spite of past sickness, disease or sin.

The word "stigma" can foster the weight of negative connotations of shame and discredit for a person.  This is especially true as listed in the definition above relating to a diagnostic sign of a disease, for example: HIV.  Many people term it as being "death" or "contagious" even after 30 years and mass improvements of longevity of life, people still struggle with the real truth and do not want to acknowledge that Jesus died for even someone who is HIV Positive. The Bible clearly states that Jesus healed many people, as many as believed on Him. And He is still healing people today of HIV and AIDS.

As Jesus hung on the cross for our sins, the crowd that watched Him hang there began to mock and shame Jesus and doubt who He was as well and even considered Him to be a coward all because he chose not to save His own self and to come down off the cross. Had He done so, we would never have been able to find the hope of having eternal life and to escape the penalty of death.  His mission and purpose was not for to be seen and accepted of men, but to be obedient to the will of the Father to restore us back into fellowship and to provide us a way of escape from eternal death due to us for our own sins and sin nature. The Father's love for us was far greater than our issues.   Isaiah 53:3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4) Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.  5) But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed, demonstrates just how precious You and I are to the Body of Christ and the Kingdom of God. Jesus suffering was our example of how to bear our cross.  We must understand that we are not bearing it alone.  He is bearing it right along with us. We just have to walk in faith and let Him show us the way. 

Do not allow anybody to place the "stigma" on you because of HIV or discredit you with the guilt of judgment. You are not an outcast, persecuted, or rejected by God because of a disease. Your Heavenly Father has loving accepted you and you are no longer bound by the association to a sickness that was never your name to start with.   You have been stripped and cleansed of that guilt.  Understand and know that Jesus took care of it on the cross before you even knew about it.  Jesus did not stop for one minute to consider how humiliating or how humiliated he was going to be mocked to have to suffer for the sins of this world.  Why?  Because His love for us far out weighed what he was going to have to face and obedience to God was more important.  His atonement took care of it and He is your advocate, even when others will not believe in God says you are.

Understand and accept that you are more than a conqueror and have been equipped by our Father in Heaven.  Stand on the truth of  His Word that Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world.  John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17) For God sent not his Son in to the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.  18) He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son fo God.


                                                    And for this ........You Are Living "Life" On Purpose !!!