In order to use the patience that we have--love is patient, and we have love because we are love, so we have patience. It's not something we need, it's something we have--we must learn to see past right this minute. I know there's a lot to be said about "living in the moment." Fully experiencing what's happening in the here and now. I'm not trying to take anything away from that. I'm simply saying that there is a bigger picture. God's grand scheme. And He declares the end from the beginning. He knows not only what's best for us, but how best for us to get there. The problem is that we oftentimes want to skip the journey and get right to the destination. We don't want to put the hard work in, we simply want the reward. And, Spiritually speaking, that's what's available to us. Spiritually speaking, works and labor don't work. Spiritually speaking, Jesus did the heavy lifting and now we can enjoy the fruit of HIS labor. Which is amazing. Because His labor was His passion--His death, burial, and resurrection. That is what has equipped and empowered us to be who we are. Who we REALLY are. Which is who we are in Christ. Which is who Christ is in us. It is when we take what He has given us and begin to experience it, by using it, that we have to put in maximum effort. Receiving and releasing the gift of God is what allows us to experience the gift we've been given. Being patient with each other (and ourselves) is what allows us to ENJOY the journey we're on, instead of trying to skip right to the end. Which, I suppose, is what living in the moment is all about. Not neglecting the fact that our actions of today affect our tomorrows, but simply finding that balance between living life to the fullest today AND understanding that we are on a never-endling life-long journey into the heart of the matter; which is the heart. God's heart beating with love in our chests. What we need to understand, and what I think I'm trying to say in my roundabout way, is that it came to pass, not to stay. Where you are right now is not where you will be forever. So don't get stuck. Enjoy what you can while you can, but understand that life is constantly changing and evolving. Maturation is a process. Rome wasn't built in a day. We can't expect people who haven't gone through what we have to understand where we are and why we're there. And we can't expect someone who hasn't been through what we've been through to BE where we are, either. We have to walk our own path and let other people walk their own path. We have to understand that other people are not under our control. Even my ten year old son. He's my responsibility, but he's his own person. We have to let people be who they are, not who we wish they were. I really think that would solve so many problems. "Live your best life, just don't tell me how to live mine." Live and let live. And, again, there are things you shouldn't accept or stand for. I'm not saying you shouuld ever let people use you or abuse you. I'm simply saying, just because someone else is different than you, that doesn't necessarily make them wrong. We're allowed to be different. We're allowed to disagree. And we can still fellowship. Major on the majors and minor on the minors. Be patient with people. And with yourself. We are ALL works in progress. We are complete in Him, fearfully and wonderfully made. Yes. But we are also learning, bit by bit, line upon line, precept upon precept, what that means. What it means to be complete. What it means to be Jesus--God in the flesh, love in a body. And that takes times. That... takes patience!

The biggest thing, in my opinion, about having patience is understanding that things don't always go according to your timeframe. Nor, necessarily, should they. Especially when it comes to other people. If you expect someone to do something your way, in your time, all you're really doing is setting them up for failure and you up for frustration. Seriously: If you want to be disappointed, set expectations. If you want to get along, and remember Romans 12:18 (NLT) says, "Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone," you have to let people be who THEY are... not who YOU wish they were. Because here's the deal: People are going to be who they are whether you "let" them or not. If you're always getting upset because people aren't doing what you want them to do... that's on you. That's called you being selfish. But if you can let people be who THEY are, and love them anyway... in fact, love them for WHO they are... that's something completely different. That's something powerful. That's, really, what love is. Love is giving. Love is patient and kind. Love edifies. It builds people up instead of tearing them down. So what I'm trying to say is, let things be what they are. You don't have to (and can't) control everything. Do what you can do and don't worry about the rest of it. When you let go and let God, that's when things start to flow. When you can be still and know that HE is God... that HE is in control... that's when you don't have to be. You can stop running around like a chicken with its head cut off and you can rest. Rest, of course, not being inactivity, but being Holy Spirit directed activity. And the Holy Spirit doesn't direct us to change people. The Holy Spirit in YOU will convict YOU. The Holy Spirit in someone else will convict them. It's not your job to "fix" people or "change" people. It's your job to love people. Period. Full stop. And when you love people, when you show them who God is by showing them who (and what) love is... by giving them what God has given you--mercy, forgiveness, grace, patience, longsuffering... all of thost fruits of the Spirit... LOVE--that's when people can be who they REALLY are. Which is who they are in Christ. Which is who Christ is in them. So take a page out of the Beatles book and let it be. Take another one out and understand that love is all we need. If you're being patient with someone it is because you love them. And I believe that is one of the best ways to show someone that you love them. Instead of flying off the handle or making mountains out of molehills... instead of giving people what THEY expect (I messed up, he's going to be mad and punish me)... show people a more excellent way. That way, by the way, is Jesus. Love. Actions have consequences, but that doesn't mean God is in the punishing business. In fact, God has always been in the forgiveness business. The patience business. Look at 2 Peter 3:9 (NLT), "The Lord isn't really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent." And while I could (and might) write a whole Rant about that verse and that truth, for today I just want to point out that God is not saying, "Repent or I'll destroy you." Repentance is thinking differently about something in light of something else. The cross is that "something else" that allows us to think differently about everything. It equips and empowers us to stop perishing and have everlasting life as we believe in Jesus. That's what God wants for everybody, and that's why He's patient with everybody!

Patience is a virtue. Because love is patient. But... because love is patient, and we ARE love (because we are loved), that means we don't have to "get" patience. That means we have it. We ARE it. The key is to be who we are. To use what we have. To know and believe that we have it instead of letting anything (or anyone) else convince us that we don't have it. And, listen, that doesn't mean you won't ever have a day where everything gets on your last nerve. That doesn't mean you won't ever be impatient. It's a maturation PROCESS. We are, in a sense, becoming who we are as we learn who we are. And we learn who we are by learning who God is. Because... as He is, so are we in this world. Jesus is our true identity. Who we really are is who we are in Christ. Which is who Christ is in us. And let me say this, while we're talking about patience: Jesus, who IS love, who IS patience, still flipped some tables over in the temple when people were doing stuff they shouldn't have been doing. Meekness is not weakness. It is strength under control. Turning the other cheek doesn't mean you stand there and let people keep slapping you. It means you don't retaliate. It means what the NLT says in Romans 12:18, "Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone." For me, who finds it very easy to mind my own business, those are words to absolutely live by. The other day at work my boss called me over, but by the time I got there he said, "Never mind." And I said, "No problem. That's what I do best." And He said, "What you do best is... never minding?" Yessir! If it's not for me then it's not for me. No problem and no worries. I can let people do what they do, while I do what I do. Of course, it's when those two things connect, or collide, that patience comes into the picture. When you're doing all that you can to live in peace with everyone... you also have to stand for something, or you'll fall for anything. Not everything is ok. Not everything should be accepted or tolerated. And, again, I'm not saying you need to retaliate. I'm not saying it's your job to change people. It isn't. It's the Holy Spirit's job to convict people. It's your job to love them. Period. Sometimes that means you need to love them from a distance, and that's all you can do. Sometimes the least you can do is the most you can do. And you have to be ok with that. Be patient with people. Trust the process. Let them learn and grow even as you had to learn and grow. Now, again, sometimes you have to do that from a distance. If someone is having a bad day... they might need you there with them. OR they might need some space. That comes from knowing the person. Building a relationship with them so you can love them the way THEY need to be loved. Guys: Love is not about you. It's about giving what you've got. Love is never about getting, because love IS giving. God so loved the world He GAVE, right? So patience, which is love, is about giving. Giving people what they need. Letting people be who they are without getting exasperated or angry with them. Giving people space to learn and grow. To make mistakes and learn from those mistakes. Love is patient, because love doesn't require or expect anything from anybody. Love is not concerned with changing people, or getting anything from anyone. Love is simply trying to help people. That's why I always say the simplest way to love someone is to see and need and meet it. Give them what THEY need. And be patient. Especially if they don't know what they need, or aren't ready to receive what they need. Love never fails because love endures. And sometimes that's all you can do!

You've probably heard it said--I know I have--that if you ask God for patience, He will give you opportunities to be patient. But let's look at that. It's kind of the same idea that God gives you mountains you can learn how to climb, right? Except that according to Isaiah 40:4, "Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain." God didn't give us mountains. He made the way (that leads to life) straight and narrow. In fact, Matthew 21:21 (NLT) says, "Then Jesus told them, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith and don't doubt, you can do things like this and much more. You can even say to this mountain, 'May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,' and it will happen."" And, yes, I understand that He was talking about the mountain of the Old Covenant. He was talking about the mountain that Moses went up onto in order to receive the 10 Commandments. He was talking about the mountain of the Law. But I think the analogy still fits. We make mountains out of molehills when we should just tell the mountain to take a long walk off a short cliff. So to speak. My point is, I don't necessarily think God expects anything from us that He doesn't first provide for us. If you're struggling with patience, for example, what good would it do for God to test your patience? Or for God to put you in a situation where you NEED the patience that you (think you) don't have? I think it's more likely, and more practical, and more helpful, for God to show you that you DO have patience. Maybe that can only come out when you need it. But until you understand that you have it... good luck with that. You can't give what you don't have and you can only give what you do have. What you know and believe you do have. One more memory verse for today: "Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud" (1 Corinthians 13:4, NLT). When we're talking about patience, we're talking about an aspect of love. And, without patting myself on the back too hard, I think I have something to say about this. Because patience is my super power. I'm really hard to bother. Now, when I DO get bothered... I REALLY get bothered. But it takes a lot to get me there. For the most part I'm very "live and let live." Let people live their best life. If it isn't hurting anybody... I'm not worried about it. And I understand, with a knowledge that passes knowledge--because I've been there, done that, got the t-shirt--that we're all on the same journey, but we're all at different stages of the journey and we're all going at different speeds. All roads may lead to Rome, but that doesn't mean we're all going to get there at the same time. And that doesn't mean we have to, or should, get there at the same time or in the same way. It's ok to be different. In fact, it ought to be encouraged. Variety is the spice of life. If you're stuck in a rut, that's just a grave with the ends kicked out. Going through the motions is no way to live. And, listen, if you're building something... keep on keeping on. Rome wasn't built in a day. Things are worth it take time and effort. There's a difference between grinding it out and just going through the motions. As long as you have goals that you're working towards--a purpose--then you can keep on going. But my point is that if you ask God for patience, He will show you what love is. Because love is patient. I know my son thinks I'm hard on him, but I'm more patient with him than probably anybody else. Because I love him more than anybody else. So I think if you ask God for patience, He will show you love. So that you can be patient... in the act of loving Him back by loving people!

When we understand the judgment of God--that it was in our favor... that it was not a death sentence, but an eternal LIFE sentence--that's when we can stop being afraid of the judgment. Look at 1 John 4:17, "Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world." The day of judgment. It is appointed unto men ONCE to die, then the judgment. Jesus kept that appointment. And He had first drawn us all into Himself. His death was our death. The judgment God handed down to Jesus is the judgment He handed down to us all. We don't have to fear, because when God looks at Jesus He sees us. And when God looks at us He sees Jesus. As He is, so are we in this world. We don't have anything to fear because perfect love casts out all fear. We are perfectly loved by our heavenly Father, who has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts so that we might cry out, "Abba, Father!" So that we might know Him as Father and know ourselves as His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. We don't have to fear a judgment in our future. Because the judgment is in our past. And now, because we know the good news, we can execute that judgment. We can be a witness of what God has done and who God is. God is love and He loves you. That's what we are a witness to. That's how we execute His judgment. His judgment is love. We receive it and release it. We fill ourselves to overflowing with what He has filled us with, and we let it come out of ourselves... naturally. We love God (by loving the people we come into contact with) with every breath we take and every move we make. We execute His judgment by knowing it and believing it. Not judging according to appearance, but judging righteous judgment. Receiving the life that God has given us and releasing it by sharing it with the people we come into contact with. That's what life is all about because that's what life IS: To live is to love and to love is to live! You can't have one without the other and you can't do one without the other. We can be bold in the day of judgment because the day of judgment happened 2000 years ago. And the day of judgment is every day. We judge things every day. Let's be real. The key is to judge them the way God has already judged them. To line up with what He says. Binding and loosing isn't about changing heaven. It is about BRINGING heaven to earth. The days of heaven ON earth. We can only bind what God has already bound. Can only loose what God has aleady loosed. We ought to only judge as God has already judged! Again, EXECUTE His judgment, rather than making up our own. When we see things the way God sees them--because the light of the world, the light of His love is shining--we can experience things the way God always wanted us to experience them! And that's when we can truly live. Not by trying to live Jesus' life (nobody can live Jesus' life except Jesus), but by letting Jesus live His own life in us, and through us, and as us! That's when things really come into focus and really get... well... real. When we be still and know that HE is God it takes all of the pressure off of us. We don't have to make a judgment on things when we know what judgment GOD has made on them. We can simply agree with Him and execute HIS judgment. We can be bold in the sense of not being afraid of what the judgment is, and we can be bold in the sense of knowing that by executing it, we are doing the best possible thing we could be doing. Because executing His judgment (which is love)... simply means loving people!

God's judgment was handed down 2000 years ago AFTER Jesus died on the cross, when, three days later, God raised Jesus from the dead. The book of Hebrews tells us it is appointed unto man once to die, THEN the judgment. So death can't BE the judgment, right? God's judgment was not a death sentence. It was, in fact and in truth, an eternal life sentence! God judged the WORLD, and cast out the prince of the world. So that we wouldn't have to deal with him anymore. Death and hell were cast into the lake of fire, which means we don't have to deal with them anymore. And now we know that is the honor of His saints to execute the judgment that was written. To let people know the good news of the gospel. Look at what Jesus said in John 5:30 (NLT), "I can do nothing on my own. I judge as God tells me. Therefore, my judgment is just, because I carry out the will of the one who sent me, not my own will." Kind of the same idea as John 7:24, "Judge not acording to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment."And I like it even better in the NLT, "Look beneath the surface so you can judge correctly." It's not that we are to NOT judge, but that we are to judge righteously, or correctly. We are to execute the judgment that God handed down. We are to look IN people instead of AT people. See what's really inside. Stop telling people what's wrong with them and start telling people what's right with them. That's how edification works. That's what it means to train up a child the in way he SHOULD go. If we put people on the right path, and put them in a position to succeed, they are much more likely to manifest their God-given destiny. If we're always telling people how bad they are--judging by appearance--they will eventually believe it. And what you believe about yourself is what manifests in your life. You are not what people call you, but you are what you answer to. You need to know that you have already been judged by your heavenly Father, and you have been found perfect in His eyes. Look at Ephesians 5:25-27 (NLT), "For husbands, this means love yoru wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God's word. He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church wihout a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead she will be holy and without fault." Jesus washed us with His Word (which is Jesus, which is love) in order to present us to Himself... clean. His judgment was not, "You're bad and need to be punished." His judgment was, "I love you, and that washes everything else away." A "sinner" who is saved by grace is not a sinner anymore. It is a saint. So what we need to do is start seeing ourselves, and each other, the way God sees us. We need to know His judgment (I love you, here is my Son... believe in Him and have everlasting life) and we need to execute that judgment. Both in our own lives and in each other's lives. Look beneath the surface and start to figure out WHY people are doing what they are doing. Look past WHAT it is and begin to understand WHY it is. Let people be who they are, and love them anyway. Love them BECAUSE of who they are. Embrace them FOR who they are. And watch them flourish and grow. Watch them be holy and without fault. If you're always telling someone how bad they are (judging them according to appearance) you aren't giving them a chance to be anything else. If you love someone no matter what, you are equipping and empowering them to be who they REALLY are. Which is who they are in Christ, which is who Christ is in them!

There's a very simple but important principle in this life, especially in regards to our relationship with God, and it goes like this: Receive it and release it. That, really, is our purpose why we were created. God--who is love--wanted to express Himself, so He created us. He wanted something to love... so He created us. But love is a two-way street. Because love IS giving. So receiving comes first--because you can't give what you don't have and you can only give what you do have--but releasing is every bit as important. Here's what I'm trying to say: "To execute upon them the judgment written: this honour have all his saints. Praise ye the LORD" (Psalm 149:9). God passed down, or wrote down, a judgment. And it wasn't a death sentence. First came death, THEN the judgment. It was raising Jesus--the one who died both for us and as us--to life. And, since we were in Jesus at the time (He drew us all into Himself when He was lifted up from the earth on the cross), God drew US out of death and into life. We were dead in our trespasses and sins. God's judgment was for us to come out of that death and into His glorious life! And now that we have passed from death into life, we can execute that same judgment--an abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life sentence of love--onto everybody we come into contact with. Once you receive it, you can release it. Once you know you've been filled with all the fullness of God you can fill yourself to overflowing with what you've already been filled with and you can let it come out. Naturally. With every breath you take and every move you make. You can let God love you and love Him back by loving people. God's judgment on the world is love. Receiving and releasing His love is how we accept and experience that judgment that was handed down. Let me say it another way: "And all thing are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation" (2 Corinthians 5:18). We were reconciled... now we can reconcile. We are blessed... to be a blessing. To let what God has given us--His love, His mercy, His grace, His forgiveness--flow into us, through us, and out of us! It's the idea that while the truth (that God is love and He loves you) HAS set us free and made us free... if you don't know that glorious truth, you will always act like a slave or a prisoner. Even though Jesus unlocked the door to your cell, He came like a thief in the night. So it's not until someone tells you the good news--that the cell door is unlocked--that you'll be able to come out of there. It's the truth you KNOW that equips and empowers you to experience the freedom you already have. It's all about faith. And faith comes from hearing. Hearing comes from the Word (which is Jesus, which is love) of God! What I'm trying to say is: We have been judged. Judged with righteous judgment. Seated at the right hand of the Father in Jesus. That's who we are and that's where we are. So now that we KNOW who we are and where we are... we can begin to BE who we are and operate from where we are. We can now begin to help others know and believe and understand who THEY are. We have something, so now we can give something. And, in fact, it is our honor to execute this judgment. This life sentence. This LOVE sentence. God loves us, we ought to love each other. That, to me, is the gospel in a sentence. He judged us worthy of love. We ought to judge each other the same way. We ought to just execute HIS judgment. Not a death sentence, but a life sentence. A love sentence!

It blows my mind how often I hear religious folk talk about the judgment of God against humanity. Usually, unfortunately, in the terms of "the wrath of God." Like God has a vendetta against humankind. And here's how it usually seems to go: God created humans. Humans disobeyed God. God got mad and decided to kill humanity in order to punish them. Jesus--who, by the way, IS God--decided to step in. Instead of God killing humans to "satisfy His wrath," He killed Jesus instead. And that, we are told, is the righteous judgment of God. Someone HAD to die, so Jesus did it. But that's not exactly what you see in the Bible. When it is humanity killing (or trying to kill anyway) God. It is people nailing Jesus to the cross. It is people torturing Him and mocking Him and spitting on Him. And it is Jesus crying out, "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do!" And that, friends, is the true judgment of God. His mercy, and His grace, and His forgiveness... and His love. Jesus didn't die because God was mad at us. Jesus died because we were already dead in our trespasses and sins and He wanted so badly to bring us out of that death and into His abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life! Jesus did not come to make "bad" people "good." He came to make dead people alive. He came that we might have life and have it more abundantly. We looked at the verse in Hebrews that said it is appointed unto men once to die THEN the judgment. The judgment isn't death. The judgment is what happened AFTER the death. The judgment wasn't a death sentence, it was an eternal life sentence! God's judgment wasn't killing Jesus. It was raising Him from the dead! And just to be thourough, let's talk about wrath for a minute. My go-to on this one is 1 Thessalonians 5:9, "For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ." In my opinion? Problem solved. Even in the Old Testament God set up an entire system of animal sacrifice in order for the people to NOT get killed for their disobedience. Like, we have this image of an angry, unyielding, petty God who throws a fit every time we don't do what He wants us to do. But that's not what we see in Jesus. Jesus knew Judas was going to betray Him, right? For example. And He didn't punish or mistreat Judas. He still invited Judas to the supper table. Still washed his feet. The only time we really saw any anger out of Jesus at all was when the religious dudes had turned the temple into a money changing scheme. Then it was time to flip some tables over. But when Jesus was being literally and physically abused, His prayer was not for wrath, or vengeance. It was for forgiveness. Because we didn't know what we were doing. Like Paul--when he was Saul--who, in his religious zeal took part in killing Christians. He thought he was doing the Lord's work. God didn't punish him... just struck him blind in order to truly and fully open his eyes. Chastening and correcting is very different than punishing. Consequences of our actions is very different than God's judgment. So I guess the point I'm trying to make is that when we see God as angry... we are more ready, willing, and able to run FROM Him than run TO Him. And that's a problem. Because He is what we need. Especially when we do something that we think would make Him mad. Running, or lying, or hiding what you've done always makes it worse. The judgment of God is forgiveness. The judgment of God is life. You can bring your problems to Him and He will help you with them. You can cast your cares on Him because He cares for you!

I ended the last Rant series kind of talking about God's judgment. How it is appointed unto men ONCE to die, and THEN the judgment. And about how Jesus (and us IN Jesus) kept that appointment. How God's judgment was not a death sentence (the judgment came AFTER the death), but an eternal LIFE sentence. God's judgment--AFTER the death of His Son on the cross--was to raise Jesus back to life. To show that death has no power over us. To totally and completely disarm the enemy that could only threaten us with death. Now, because of that second death (the death of death), and because of the judgment of God (being raised to abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life) we don't have to worry anymore. Look at 1 John 4:17, "Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world." God judged JESUS. We were along for the ride. We don't have to fear... anything. Expecially not an angry God. God is not mad AT you, He is mad ABOUT you. Head over heels in love with you. Guys. When God looks at you He sees Jesus, and when He looks at Jesus He sees you. Because we live in Jesus and Jesus lives in us! As He is, so are we in this world. The New Living Translation of 1 John 4:17 reads like this, "And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world." Again: We have nothing to fear. Let me drive that point home with some of the red letters; the words of Jesus Himself. "The time for judging this world has come, when Satan, the ruler of this world, will be cast out" (John 12:31 NLT). The time of judgment had come. Back then. On the cross. When the world was judged, and Satan--the accuser--was cast out. Which, to be frank, always makes me wonder why so many "Christians" struggle with "Satan" or "the devil" or... really any "enemy" on a daily basis. It drive me nuts hearing stories about "the devil's fighting me." Or, "Satan is really attacking right now." How? He was cast out. All he could ever do was accuse you of breaking the law and threaten you with death. But the law doesn't apply to dead men. And neither does death. I want to say this as clearly and as strongly as I can: First came death... THEN came the judgment. The ruler of the world was cast out when death died. When Jesus rose from the dead and proved that death had no power and no hold over Him... or us! God's judgment is never against us. It is always for us. All of His promises in Christ Jesus are Yea and amen! God is on our side. He judged the world, and the ruler of the world, and He set up His Kingdom! The Kingdom of God is the Kingdom of love! THAT is God's judgment. That, friends, is the only thing God has. God IS love. What else could He say and what else could He do? What else could His judgment possibly be? God is not out to get us. On the cross... He got us. When Jesus was lifted up from the earth and drew all men into Himself... God got us. All throughout the Old Testament God said over and over that He wanted to be our God and He wanted us to be His people. Then we get to Revelation--an in-depth look at the cross--and we see, "I heard a voice thunder from the Throne: "Look! Look! God has moved into the neighborhood, making his home with men and women! They're his people, he's their God" (Revelation 21:3-4 MSG). God got what He wanted. His judgment is that we ARE His people and He IS our God! Not a death sentence, but an everlasting, eternal, abundant, Resurrection Life (of love) sentence!

You have to die if you want to live forever. Or, rather, you have to understand that you DID die 2,000 years ago on an old rugged cross when Jesus died. His death was our death. That's why, now, His life--His abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of love--is our life. We can only experience Jesus' life by letting Him live His own life in us, and through us, and as us. And we can only do that after first identifying with His death. Out of the second death--the death OF death--comes newness of life. Out of ashes comes the consuming fire of love. And the key is to see this finished work behind us instead of in front of us. Dying is not something we need to do. It's something we already did. When Hebrews 9:27 says, "...it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment," we need to understand that JESUS kept that appointment! And us IN Him. It is appointed unto men ONCE to die. When Paul said, "I die daily," he was talking about the literal danger of physical death that he was in because of his preaching of the gospel. He wasn't talking about needing to die over and over again. We are crucified with Christ. His death was our death. That's why His life can be our life. So we need to stop looking forward to something that already happened. That's why we miss it. We need to look back to what already happened so we can enjoy the fruit of Christ's labor. We need to see that our death is behind us. We need to stop thinking so much about the "afterlife" and focus on the life that we have right now. The gift of God that is His everlasting life. Did you catch that? Everlasting. What is "after" everlasting? I don't see how anything could be. If our new life never ends, there is no way anything could be "after" it. Things change, yes. Always have and always will. Only Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. And that's where we stand, and why we can stand, no matter what changes all around us. That's why we can be who we were created to be no matter what. I think, honestly, we are too ready, willing, and able to settle. That, to me, is one reason why something so drastic had to happen. Something to shock us out of our "comfort zone." Pink Floyd sang about being comfortably numb. And I think that, unfortunately, is where a lot of us are at. We're just going through the motions. Stuck in a rut. And we know that a rut is just a grave with the ends kicked out. We accept life as we know it even though there is so much more available to us. The Kingdom of God is at hand. It is within reach. All we need to do is grab it. Fight the good fight of faith and lay hold of the gift we've been given. Stop trying to get something we think we haven't got by being someone we're not. Embrace who we are. Let Jesus show us who we are. And the shift--from death to life--comes from the death (our second death, the death of death), burial, and resurrection of Jesus! Because when He was lifted up from the cross He drew us all into Himself. From that moment on whatever happened to Him happened to us. After death came the judgment. Death WAS NOT the judgment. God raising His Son (and, again, us in Him) back to life was the judgment! The second death, death and hell being cast into the lake of fire, was simply the mechanism God used to get us out of death and into life. Jesus said the greatest love a man could have was to lay His life down for His friends. He told us what love is, and then SHOWED us what love is. So that we can experience His love--His life--by receiving it and releasing it. So that His death could be our death and HIs life can now be our life!