I just really like how Paul prefaced it, "A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power" (Ephesians 6:10, NLT).  A final word. I've said a lot, but let me end with this. Once upon a time I was lining up a job interview. And when the person told me what times they had available, I immediately chose the last one. Because, to me, it seemed like a good idea to be the last person they saw. That way, I thought, if I made a good impression, it would wipe out every other candidate. And, full disclosure, I can't remember if it worked or not. But the logic seemed sound. That's the bottom line, because Stone Cold said so! End strong. Make a good first impression, but go out with a bang. And his final word, "Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power," it's so simple. Memorable. It's something that sticks with you--partly because it's the "final word" but partly because it's just that good. "Save the best for last." That kind of thing. Which, by the way, is why I end every episode of my podcast (or my YouTube videos, when I did YouTube videos) by saying, "I love you... and there's nothing you can do about it." That strong ending. If you don't get anything else from anything I've said... at least that final word will (hopefully) stick with you. Well, I'm telling you, "Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power"... that's a stick with you line. That's an amazing final word. Think about it--any time you're NOT feeling strong... you can hold on to that final word. And it's not just "Oh, you're not feeling strong? Well, be strong." Look at James 2:15-16 (NLT), "Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, "Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well"--but then you don't give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do?" It doesn't do any good. Just saying, "Hey, good luck with that," isn't really helpful. Just saying, "Be strong," doesn't really do anything. Which is why that's not the whole memory verse. Be strong... in the Lord! And in the power of HIS might! It's not just telling someone WHAT to do, it's telling them HOW to do it. If you could be strong on your own it wouldn't be an issue, right? If you could be strong on your own you wouldn't feel weak. You wouldn't need a final word. You'd be fine. But. Because we are all humans and we can't do this all on our own... here we are. Crying out to the heavens when things are too much for us. That's a pretty universal deal. People try to do it all on their own, get overwhelmed, and break down. But we don't have to. We can let Jesus take the wheel, to quote a country (pop) song. We can commit our ways to HIM. We can let God--love--be first choice not last chance. We can stop trying to do it all on our own. God's strength is made perfect in weakness. When we can't... that's when He will. Because that's when He has the opportunity to move. I believe God will let you try it by yourself, if that's what you want to do. But I KNOW God will hold you up and keep you from falling if you let Him. His strength is 100% available to us 100% of the time. Jesus preached that the Kingdom was at hand. Within our reach. And then He took it a step further and took up abode inside us. We are not just IN the Kingdom... we ARE the Kingdom, because the King is in us! So our source is strength is not external. It's internal. It's what's in our hearts. The love of God. Letting that out is how we are strong in HIS mighty power. God is all-powerful. Which means love is all-powerful. Which means when we love each other WE are all-powerful!

Sum it up for us. Give us the final word. "Be strong in the Lord and the power of His might." I really like this. Especially as, you know, the bottom line. Because I hear a lot about how "You need to be an overcomer!" and, to be perfectly honest, I don't like that. I don't like putting burdens on people. I don't like saying, "It's your job to pull yourself up by your bootstraps." The idea that "God helps those who help themselves." If you can help yourself... do you need God's help? Or is it more likely that "He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless" (Isaiah 40:29 NLT). Is it more likely that "Each time he said, "My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness." So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me" (2 Corinthians 12:9, NLT). God's strength is perfected in our weakness. When we can't... that's when He will. If we (think we) can do it ourselves, I believe God will let us try. To an extent. I believe God is always working behind the scenes and protects us from a lot of things that we don't even know about. That hedge of protection that keeps a lot of things at bay. I'm a firm believer in that. What we're talking about here, though, is the idea of accepting His strength. "Commit your actions to the LORD, and your plans will succeed" (Proverbs 16:3, NLT). Don't let God be just your last chance... make Him your first choice. Let Him be involved in whatever you do. I like to give this example (mostly because if I use myself as an example instead of other people, I know I'm not going to get offended): I'm a writer. I've written stuff my whole life. But it wasn't until I turned my three T's (Time, Talent, Treasure) to doing something that would glorify the Lord that anything really happened. When I started writing Jesus books... I started publishing books. When I started writing Jesus Rants... people started to (I hope) get affected in a positive way. My point is: Be who you are, and do what you do... for God. With God. Because of God. It is the power of God working in us to will and to do of HIS good pleasure. You CAN go your own way, right Jonah? But you might end up in the belly of a fish. So let me get back to my original idea about "overcoming." An overcomer is not someone who has the ability to (maybe) overcome. An overcomer is someone who HAS overcome. To wit, "I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many tirals and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world" (John 16:33, NLT). That's Jesus talking. The red letters. That's Jesus letting us know what the bottom line, or the final word is. And that bottom line is that HE has overcome the world. Which means, in Him, WE have ALREADY overcome! We are MORE than conquerers in Him. He conquered. We get to enjoy the fruit of His labor. That's the good news of the gospel. So instead of trying to be something we're not, or overcome something we think we haven't... we need to embrace the truth. The finished work of the cross. We need to embrace who we really are--which is who we are in Christ, which is who Christ is in us! We need to be strong in HIS power! Let HIM fight our battles. The only fight left in the New Covenant is the Good Fight of Faith. Laying hold of eternal life. Receiving and releasing the gift we've already been given. That's how we enjoy the gift. That's how we live as people who have overcome. That's how we experience the abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of God--by letting HIM live His own life in us, and through us, and as us!

I've mentioned this a few times on the podcast and the Rant here: I've always subscribed to "That's the bottom line, because Stone Cold said so!" You put the most important thing at the bottom. The big finish. The grand finale. But my nine year old son, Logan, disagrees. He thinks the most important things should be at the beginning. Get it out there first and foremost. Which, I guess, makes it lucky that Jesus--love. God in the flesh, love in a body. God in YOUR flesh, love in YOUR body--is the Alpha and Omega. The beginning AND the end. He's not just the "final" word on the subject, He is the entire subject from start to finish. Look at Psalm 40:7, "Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me." Or 1 Corinthians 2:2 (NLT), "For I decided that while I was with you I would forget everything except Jeus Christ, the one who was crucified." It's all about Jesus. Which means it's all about love. God is love. Having faith in God is having faith in love. Faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the Word of God--which, one more time... is Jesus. Love! When Paul wrote his letter to the Ephesians he came up with "A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all the strategies of the devil" (Ephesians 6:10-11, NLT). He came up with: Be strong... by letting God be strong. We know that His strength is made perfect in our weakness. We know that when we can't... He will. So how do we be strong? By STANDING strong. Standing on the Rock that is Christ. The Rock that is love. And when we are planted on that Rock we cannot be shaken. Because LOVE cannot be shaken. Love never fails. Because love endures. When we have faith in love WE can endure. We can be strong in HIS might. We can shine with HIS light! The light of the world--which is how Jesus described Himself... and how He described us. It's the same light. The light of love. It's what God has shined on us, and into us. It's what shines out of us when we know and believe that we are loved! To me it's very simple: God and people. Love God and love people. Love God BY loving people. Let the light--the love--that is inside come out by knowing and believing that it is in there. Let the love of God come out by filling yourself to overflowing with what HE has already filled you with. I'm sure Paul probably put some good stuff at the beginning of his letter. Gotta grab people's attention, right? But when he specifically says, "A final word," that's kind of like saying, "Pay attention, people. Listen up. This part is really important. I said all that to say this." And the "this" that he ended with was, "be strong. In the Lord." You can't do it by yourself. And that's ok. You're not supposed to. Jesus doesn't want you to do it yourself. He wants to reveal Himself--His love--in you, and through you, and as you! He wants the love that He is to come out of you. He wants to love the hell out of you so that you can love Him back by loving the hell out of the people you come into contact with. Receive and release His love. That's the New Commandment. His final word on commandments, if I can say it that way. He fulfilled the old, and nailed the Law of Moses and the Ten Commandments to the cross. Then He moved us into something new. A reality and a realm where only love remains. Where it's all about love. Where we CAN love because we ARE loved. And that, by the way, is how we be strong in His mighty power. His power is love. We are strongest when we are loving people. When our hearts are open and we can be real with each other. When we give what we've got by knowing that we've got it!

I've learned that when the Bible repeats something, it's important. That's a key to the Kingdom. Another one, in my opinion, is when the writers (usually Paul) just straight up underlines something. Like in Ephesians 6:10-11 (NLT), "A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil." And you guys know by now how I feel about the devil. The accuser. The one who can be completely and easily ignored when you know the truth of the gospel. The ultimate truth of the universe that says God is love and He loves you. When you know who you really are, nothing anybody accuses you of matters. When you know your sins have been washed clean you can walk with your head held high. Final word on the matter--let God be true and every man a liar. One of my favorite quotes from any TV show ever, "Lions do not concern themselves with the opinions of sheep." It doesn't matter what people think--or say--about you. You are not what people call you. But you ARE what you answer to. So make sure you're listening to the right thing. Make sure you're being strong in the Lord and the power of HIS might. Make sure it is the still, small voice deep inside that is leading you, guiding you, directing you, and protecting you. The still, small voice deep inside your heart that is your heavenly Father saying, "I love you" with every beat of HIS heart in your chest. That's what we ought to listen to. That's how we put on the armor of God. Because that love IS the armor of God. That is what we can stand on, and (in a sense) hide behind. His love. The Rock that is our foundation is God's love for us. Period. When we know we are loved we can stop trying to get love. Love is never about getting, because love is giving. The key is knowing it and believing it. Receiving it and releasing it. Don't use the armor of God to attack people. Use it to defend people. And notice that I didn't say "use it to defend yourself." You don't need to defend yourself. You're covered. It's mind over matter, man. If you don't mind, they don't matter. People can, and will, talk. That doesn't mean you have to listen. You can simply lay aside the weight and the sin (unbeilef, or wrong belief, or believing that God DOESN'T love you) that so easily besets you. You don't have to get tripped up. You can let God hold you up. In fact, that's one of my favorite Bible verses. "Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy" (Jude 1:24). See, we like to preach and teach about overcoming. About getting back up once we've been knocked down. But nobody ever seems to grasp the reality that we don't have to fall in the first place! Our God can keep us from failling. He can hold us up when the world is trying to drag us down. And just like the final word on the subject in Ephesians was "Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power," the final word on EVERY subject is God's love. Let that love hold you up. Stand firm on it. Let God love you and love Him back by loving the people you come into contact with. Let God love you and everything else will flow from that glorious truth. When we try to do it all on our own we WILL fail and fall. When we let God do what HE is of a mind to do--His glory, His strength, His power--that's when things go the way they're supposed to. Not always the way we think they will (or should), but definitely how they're supposed to. The final word? God knows the end from the beginning. So trust in Him. Be strong in HIS strength. Be strong in His love!

Today I want to end with the beginning of our key memory verse for this Rant series. Matthew 28:18 (NLT), "Jesus came and told his disciples, "I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth."" Why is this important? Because this is where we get OUR authority from. Look at Revelation 1:6 (NLT), "He has made us a Kingdom of priests for God his Father. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen." The King of kings. Made us a Kingdom of priests. He is the King of kings... because we are kings! Get it! He rules and reigns in and through and as us! So all we have to do is receive and release the gift He has given us. All we have to do is walk and talk in the power and authority that He has given us! God reconciled us to Himself, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That's how this thing works. He has blessed us to be a blessing. Given us everything we need to live victorious, successful, love-filled lives. Because He gave us Himself. Jesus didn't just give His life FOR us, He gave His life TO us. Because He wanted us to have it. Because He wanted us to experience His abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of love. He wanted it for us... so He gave it to us. It's that simple. All authority has been given to Him... and He gave that authority to us. Think about it--God never expects anything from us that He doesn't first provide for us. Before there was a cow, there was grass for the cow to eat. Before there was ever a sinner, there was a Savior--the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. See, God knows the end from the beginning. He knew what we needed, and He gave it to us. So we don't have to run around like chickens with our heads cut off trying to get something we think we haven't got. We don't have to try to be someone we're not. We can simply embrace who we are--who we are in Christ, which is who Christ is in us--and we can share who we are. We can give what we've got, when we know and believe that we've got it. We can let what's inside come out, when we know what's in there. We can fulfill the Great Commission when we understand what it is--loving people, immersing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, which is Jesus, which is love--and when we understand where our power comes from. It's all Jesus. His strength is made perfect in our weakness. When we can't, that's when HE will. Fulfilling the Great Commission is not about what WE can do. It is about what Jesus can do in us, and through us, and as us. Learning to love by learning how we are loved. And then teaching others what it means to be loved by loving them with that same love that Jesus loves us with. The New Commandment for the New Man. Love one another as Jesus loves you. It really is that simple. Receive and release the love of God. Receive it BY releasing it. Release it by receiving it. Breathe it in and breathe it out. Our kingly authority is not about what we do. It is about who we are. And what we do flows from who we (believe we) are. A disciple of Christ is a student of love. The Great Commission is putting what you've learned into practice. Getting out there where the rubber meets the road and DOING something with what you've learned. Not only embracing who you are, but BEING who you are. Letting the love of God that's inside you come out by knowing and believing that it's in there. You have the authority to rule and reign... in, and through, and because of love!

As a disciple of Christ--or student of love--we learn how to love by learning how we are loved. And then, according to the Great Commision, we take that love that we are loved with and we share it with the people we come into contact with, thereby making disciples of our own. Which DOESN'T mean putting yourself ahead of, or above, or over people. It simply means loving people with the love that we are loved with. Teaching people how to love by loving them. I've always felt like positive reinforcement is a more excellent way than negative. Chastening and correcting is more excellent than punishing. God is not in the punishing business. So why are we? Why does our sense of justice seem to stem from and require an eye for an eye? Look at Matthew 5:38-39 (NLT), "You have heard the law that says the punihsment must match the injury: 'An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.' But I say, do not resist an evil person! If someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer the other cheek also." In other words, DON'T retaliate. Don't give back what someone gives to you. Instead, give what GOD has given to you. It doesn't matter how someone treats you... you can still love them. It doesn't matter if someone is awful to you, you can still be kind to them. Stop trying to justify yourself--he did this to me so it's ok if I do this to him--and just love people. We all want a better world. I truly believe that. Even if we can't agree on what that would look like. Well, to me it looks like people loving each other. To me it looks like people letting the love inside come out by knowing and believing that it's in there. Didn't Martin Luther King Jr. say something along the lines of "Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that"? Guys, it's all about love. Jesus' commission to His disciples was... go love people! Baptize (or immerse) them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit--which is Jesus, which is love! So don't make it too complicated or too hard. Just love the people you come into contact with. Just let that love of God that's already in you... come out. Receive it and release it. Receive it BY releasing it. Release it by receiving it. Fill yourself to overflowing with the love that God has already filled you with. Obey the New Commandment, and love one another as Jesus loves you! There's a part I haven't touched on yet in our key verse for this Rant series, and I think I'm going to close with it tomorrow, but I want to mention it here. Jesus threw in a part about authority. That's important. Because we are not "junior Jesus." We are kings and priests equipped and empowered to rule and reign on the earth. Jesus is the fulness of the Godhead bodily. All of God inside a human body. YOUR body. Jesus is God in the flesh, love in a body. God in OUR flesh. Love in OUR bodies. And because He lives in us (and we live in Him) we are not trying to do what He did. We are letting Him do what He's of a mind to do... in us, and through us, and as us! We aren't trying to follow in His foot steps, we are letting Him make His own foot steps with our feet. We're not "trying to be like Christ." We're letting the Christ inside (the hope of glory) come out and be revealed. Not trying to be someone we're not but embracing who we are. Resting in the arms of our heavenly Father and letting Him be who He is (one more time) in us, and through us, and as us! Letting the love that HE put inside of us come out so that the whole world can see it, and hear it, and experience it!

Go and make disciples of all nations. Baptize people in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Commonly referred to as "the Great Commission." But really, it's just letting what's inside come out. A disciple is a student of love. You can't give what you don't have and you can't teach what you haven't learned. Receiving and releasing the love of God is our purpose in this world. Learning how to love by learning how we are loved. That's what makes us disciples. So in order to make disciples of others... we teach them what we've learned... by loving them. We give what we've got. Which is what people will always do anyway. What's inside--what you believe is inside--WILL come out. No matter what it is. No matter how hard you try to keep it in. We live from the inside out. That's how we were created. Which is why things like mercy, grace, and forgiveness are so important. When we know those things... the other things that try to take root inside of us are washed away. Or, if you like the God as a consuming fire picture better... those things like bitterness and hurt and anger are burned away. Leaving nothing but the fire (which consumes everything BUT itself). Leaving nothing behind... but love. On the cross Jesus enacted the Messianic Rebirth of the world. Getting rid of the old and bringing forth the new. That's why He gave a New Commandment to a New Man--love one another as Jesus loves you. Let Him love you, and love Him back by loving the people you come into contact with. Give what you've got. Let what's really inside come out. God's love inside of us coming out of us is the whole point of the whole thing. Spreading that love. Giving what you've got by knowing and believing that you've got it. Knowing and believing that you've got something worth giving. Something that everybody needs. If you have what someone needs... you're almost obligated to share it. If you have to shirts, and someone doesn't have one... give them one! Look at Romans 13:8 (NLT), "Owe nothing to anyone--except for your obligation to love one another. If you love your neighbor, you will fulifll the requirements of God's law." Now. What this DOESN'T mean is let people walk all over you and treat you horribly. Boundaries are good and proper and healthy. Loving someone doesn't mean letting them abuse you. What it means is, do what you do heartily--to the best of your ability, and because it is in your heart to do it. It is the power of God working in you both to will and to do of HIS good pleasure. If something is in YOUR heart to do... that's because God put it there. Because it is God's heart beating with love in your chest. That's how we fulfill the Great Commission--by loving people. By giving what you've got. By letting the love inside come out. Filling yourself to overflowing with the love that you've already been filled with. Letting God love the hell out of you and loving Him back by loving the people you come into contact with. Taking what you've learned--how to love--and applying it to your life. Making disciples--students of love--by teaching people what it means to be loved. By loving people. It really is that simple. It really does all come down to love. We were created to know and be known. To live by loving. God loves us and we love Him back by loving people. We don't owe anybody anything--except to love them. Love is the bond that keeps us together. And make no mistake, we are all in this together. We need each others love, and we need to love each other. That's how the world works. Love is what makes the world go 'round.

Sometimes I almost think this is where we get stuck on something like the Great Commission--well, let me quote it again so I can show rather than tell. "Then the eleven disciples left for Galilee, going to the mointain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him--but some of them doubted! Jesus came and told his disciples, "I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and othe Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age"" (Matthew 28:16-20). I think it's that tiny word "go" that gets us. And, to be honest, I can have a little resistance to that word. I'm a bit of a homebody. As I once famously told my sister, "My favorite outdoor activity is going from one indoor to another." I don't necessarily like to go places or do things. I really like the Mother Teresa quote that says, "If you want to change the world, go home and love your family." That makes sense to me. That's something I'm comfortable with. Now, let me say this: Thank God for the internet. As I sit here, I am, in a sense, going into all the world. Or at least a pretty large part of it. Even when I was preaching in a physical building every Sunday morning I wasn't reaching as many people as I do with Words Without Walls Ministry. Between my daily blog and my podcast... I'm going! I'm baptizing (again, immersing)! I'm spreading the gospel. And, on top of that, when I love people I'm work I'm plowing my mission field. When I'm driving and I let someone over with a smile and a wave... I'm putting love out there. That's our goal, guys. That's what we've been commissioned to do--put love out there. Let the love that is inside us come out. Simply by knowing and believing that it's in there. Simply by letting God love the hell out of us so that we can love the hell out of each other. And it really is that simple--give what you've got. Receive and release the love that you've been given. Don't worry about if people have earned it or not, or "deserve" it or not. Deserve has nothing to do with it. You don't have to be a physical world traveller to go and make disciples of all the nations. What you need to do... is whatever you can do. Maybe I can't reach the nations, but maybe someone I can reach... will. Some plant, some water, but it is GOD who gets the harvest. So what I'm trying to say is, don't psyche yourself out. Don't look at the Great Commission as TOO great, or too big. Don't think what you do DOESN'T make a difference. Because it does. Don't worry about what you can't do, and just do what you CAN do. Don't worry about what you DON'T have... just give what you DO have. All you can do is all you can do. And that's all you could ever be expected to do. Once you've given something everything you've got it's either enough... or it isn't. And either way, you've done your part. So don't get down on yourself. Don't be so hard on yourself. Just do what you can do. Go where you can go. Reach who you can reach. It's more effective to pour yourself into the people in your life that can (and will) pick up what you're putting down anyway. Otherwise you're just shouting into the void, or banging your head against the wall. And when you do that, all you end up with is a sore throat and a headache. So rest. Flow. Do what you can do, wherever you're at. Let the love inside come out and let that be enough!

We spent a Rant series looking at who we are--Disciples of Christ, students of love, learning how to love by learning how we are loved--now let's look at what we are called to DO as disciples. "Then the eleven disciples left for Galilee, going to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him--but some of them doubted! Jesus came and told his disciples, "I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age"" (Matthew 28:16-20, NLT). There it is. The Great Commission. Right at the end of Matthew's gospel. Man, there's a lot to get into here. A resurrected Jesus, right? And some of the disciples STILL DOUBTED!!!! Unbelieveable. I hope it wasn't my namesake, old "Doubting" Thomas himself. He had already poked his fingers into the wounds, right? If anybody was good to go, he should have been. But I digress. I'll do another Rant series about Thomas here at some point. For today, let's set our foundation. And, to me, you know it's not the traditional religious foundation. It's the foundation of love. To me, it's single-mindedly simple. What would Jesus possibly commission His students of love to do... but go practice what you preach! How does a disciple make a disciple? How does a student of love practice what he's been taught and what he's learned? By loving people, of course. By letting the love that he knows is inside come out! And I know there's a lot to be said about "The Trinity." The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Godhead three in one. We might get into that a little bit. I like some of that stuff. But, to me, you baptize, or immerse, people in the name of God--which, in a Word, is love--without even saying "God." Or "Father God." Or "The Son of God." Or "The Spirit of God." Some of the best conversations I've ever had about God where when the other person didn't know that's what we were talking about. Because we were simplhy talking about love. If you try to shove "The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit" down people's throats you are not fulfilling the Great Commission. You're not making disciples, and you're not baptizing people. You're shoving "God" down people's throats and making them choke on Him. Run from Him. You're presenting Him in a way that makes people run FROM Him instead of running TO Him. And that's not even getting into the idea of "teaching these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you." Man! We make it hard on newbies! An immediate list of does and don'ts and someone looking over their shoulder to make sure they do and don't! Talk about intimidating right out of the gate. Where's the mercy? Where's the grace? Where's the love? Jesus fulfilled the Old Covenant--which was never given to YOU unless you're a Jewish person anyway. He gave us the New Covenant and the New Commandment--love one another as I have loved you. That's what a disciple--a student of love--has learned, and can therefore teach. It's all about love, man. Whether you doubt or not, whether you think there's more to it or not... Love one another as Jesus loves you. Receive and release His love. Love people. God and people. Love God and love people. Love God BY loving people. Love God back (by loving people) with the love that He has already loved you with! That, friends, is why the Great Commission is so great!

Learning to love by learning how we are loved. That is the essence and the key to being a disciple of Christ. Because a disciple of Christ is a student of love. If you didn't notice, it's all about love. Love is what matters. In my opinion? It is the only thing that matters. God and people. Loving God and loving people. Loving God BY loving people. Receiving and releasing His love for us, back to Him, by lavishing it on each other. And that's the thing about love--it is extravagant. It is unconditional. It has nothing to do with "derseving" or "earning" it. It is simply given. It is a gift. And that, I think more than anything, is what we need to learn. You can't earn a gift. Freely you have been given, freely you can give. That's how everything in this New Covenant works. In the Old it was do in order to be. In the New it is do BECAUSE you be! In the old it was forgive and you will be forgiven. In the New it is forgive BECAUSE you are forgiven. So instead of trying to get something (love) that we think we haven't got... and thinking trying to get it (usually by being someone we're not) is what makes us disciples... we need to simply understand and accept what we have got. I have no lack because my God has no lack. I can love because I am loved. We simply know and believe the love that God has given to us. We simply fill ourselves to overflowing with what we've already been filled with. And that's how we experience that love that we've been given; we give it away! Because love IS giving. You can't give what you don't have and you can only give what you do have. So knowing and believing that you have it is paramount. If you don't know what you've got, how can you do anything with it? You can't. We love because He first loved us. He gave us something, and because HE did that... we can do something with what HE gave us. We can let what's inside come out. And listen, what you believe is inside WILL come out. It has to. Your belief in it makes it too big and too powerful to stay inside, whatever it is. So if you truly want to be a disciple of Christ, a follower of Christ, a "good Christian" (I hesitate to even use that term because if Christian means Christ-like, then there are no "good" Christians or "bad" Christians) then what you need to do is let God lead you. Teach you. Guide you. Direct you. And protect you! That's my prayer every day. "Thank you, Abba, Father, for leading me, guiding me, directing me, and protecting me." Giving Him glory where it's due, proving to myself that I cannot lean on my own understanding, committing my ways to him, and making sure my focus is where it belongs. When you have an attitude of gratitude it goes a long way towards making everything else fall into place. If you know what you've got and your grateful for it, that goes a long way in making sure you're not chasing something you think you haven't got. It helps the disciple have discipline, if I can say it that way. Which, by the way, is a fruit of the Spirit. Self-control is VERY important. Because you CAN do whatever you want, but that doesn't mean you should. So. Hopefully this Rant series has given us a good foundation to build on, because I'm pretty excited about what comes next. Shout out to Mike and his feedback because now that we can kind of see what it means to BE a disciple--one more time, a student of love... learning how to love by learning how we are loved--now we're going to talk about what disciples are to do. Or, you know, the Great Commission!