Here's the thing: You can't live without living by faith. The trick is choosing what to put your faith IN. Because, whether we realize it or not, we DO live from the inside out. What we believe is inside comes out. Always. You can't give what you don't have. And you can only give what you do have. Or, again, what you believe you have. And that's what faith is: Faith is believing. That's why I keep bringing up Mark 11:22, "And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God." Have faith in God. Live by faith... in God. And the context of that verse in Mark chapter 11 is that Jesus had cursed the fig tree--the tree of knowledge of good and evil--and it had wilted and died. The disciples were amazed. Jesus told them where to put their faith. Basically saying what Revelation says where in Genesis, in the beginning, there were two trees. But in Revelation--after Jesus cursed the fig tree of human effort because it couldn't produce any fruit--there's only one tree left: The Tree of Life. Jesus was not only saying, "choose a more excellent way," He was literally taking away every other choice. When the Messicanic rebrith of the world took place on the cross... the consuming fire that is God--that is love--burned away everything but itself. Himself. It's the truth that Jesus not only laid His life down in order to give it to us... but took it back up so that we could be able to experience it as He lives His own life in us, and through us, and as us. He wants us to have it. He doesn't want us to miss out on it. And nobody can live Jesus' life except Jesus. So He lives it (again) in us, and through us, and as us. So what I'm trying to say, in my round about way, is that faith should be a conscious decision. Like I always tell my son, Logan, "Do what you do for a reason." Don't do things just to do them. Or because you think you're "supposed to." Your faith is such a powerful thing. What you do flows from what you believe. So make sure you're putting your faith in the right thing. Have faith in God. You are what you eat, so make sure you're on the right diet. Bread and wine. Lamb and the living water. Milk and honey. What you believe is inside WILL come out (I already said that, right?), so make sure the right thing is in there. By consuming it. When the Bible says "God is love," the word "love" means "love feast." Feast on His love by letting Him love you. Fill yourself up to overflowing with what you've already been filled with by knowing and believing that you've been filled with it! Learn how to love by learing how you are loved. You do live by faith. Right now. All of the time. So make sure your faith is in the right place. Listen, you don't have to believe everything you think. You can bring your thoughts under captivity by letting go of the ones that don't edify, and holding on to the ones that you know are true. Setting your affection. Setting you mind. Letting the mind of Christ (that's already in you) BE in you. USING the mind of Christ. And I'm telling you right now, there's only one thing ON the mind of Christ--love. So have faith in God. Have faith in love. The just shall live by faith, so just live by faith! Let what's really inside come out by knowing and believing it's in there. By receiving and releasing it. Receiving it BY releasing it. Releasing it by receiving it!

I've been thinking a lot about the term "the just shall live by faith." And today I took out two words from that phrase. I took out "the" and "shall." Which left me with "just live by faith." And I think that's how strongly I need to say it: Just live by faith. Don't worry about anything else. Don't tell your God how big the storm is, tell the storm how big your God is. And I'm not saying don't take your problems to God. You absolutely should cast your cares on Him, because He cares for you. That's Biblical. But in reality you can either let mole hills become mountains, or you can understand what it means that everything is under our feet. We don't "need" to overcome, because HE already overcame. And in Him WE have already overcome. But in order to experience that, we need to live by faith. Faith is not hoping something will happen someday. Faith is knowing what happened 2,000 years ago on the cross. Look at Romans 1:17 (I told you I was going to quote a verse or two with my phrase in it), "For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, the just shall live by faith." And I think one way to interpret "from faith to faith" is... from our faith to HIS faith. I truly believe the that point of our faith is to connect us to His faith. To bring us to a place where we have faith in HIM, so that He can do what He already wants to do. Because while I believe that God is a gentleman, and generally speaking doesn't force His will on us, I think He's just waiting in the wings to explode in our lives exceeding abundantly more than we could ever ask or think. When we have faith in God, it gives God the excuse--if I can say it that way--to show up big in our lives. Don't get me wrong, He's always there. Whether we know it or not, see it or not, believe it or not. He swore He'd never leave us nor forsake us. But what I'm talking about is the idea of power and manifestation in our lives. The power and manifestation of love in our lives. And the simple truth is: What you magnify in your life is what will manifest in your life. What you feed is what will grow. What you allow is what will continue. So what we need to do is set our affection on things above, not on things on the earth. Stop TRYING to overcome--and make it a split decision as to whether you will or won't--and start having faith in the One who already overcame! Let me say it another way: "These things have I spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world" (John 16:33). Be of good cheer, because the One you have faith in has perfect faith. All things are possible for Him that believes. So believe in Him that believes. Live by faith... and let Him live in you. And through you. And as you. Believe that He can do it. Believe that He is willing to do it. Be still and know that He is God... and LET Him do it. Just live by faith, man. What have you got to lose? If things seem bad and getting worse, but there's an alternative--a more excellent way--why not take that road less travelled? Faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the Word (which is Jesus, which is love) of God. So if you hear that Word... believe it. Let it (HIM) take you where it (HE) wants you to go. Because its an abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of love! And it can only be lived by faith!

Faith kind of gets a bad rap sometimes, in my opinion. Because we use it when we mean "hope." Like we want to try to will something into existence--something that we hope would happen--and we call it faith. That's not faith. "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1). Faith isn't believing that something WILL happen... faith is believing that something ALREADY happened. Specifically, the cross. Remember what we're building this Rant series on? The just shall live by faith. Have faith in God. Don't hope God will do something, get with what He already did. Stop waiting for God to move, and begin to understand what happened when He moved! He was crucified on the cross, and we were crucified with Him. His death was our death. And now His abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of love is OUR life! Not because we try to live it ourselves. Again, that's not faith. But by letting HIM live His OWN life in us, and through us, and as us. Its Jesus' life. Nobody can live it but Him. So we live by the faith of the Son of God. We live by faith in Him... and we live by HIS faith. His unshakeable faith. Jesus knew who He was (and is). Jesus knew the Father. He knew the Father's love. That's why when Jesus was baptized we see this, "And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:17). And don't get me wrong, there are accounts where God said, "Thou art my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." But I think its interesting to note that in Matthew, God was telling everybody else who Jesus was. Because Jesus knew. I always say the biggest difference between Adam (God's son), and Jesus (God's beloved Son) is that Jesus knew who He was. God loved them both--God IS love, and cannot do anything BUT love--but Jesus let Himself BE loved. He didn't try to earn God's love, He simply let His heavenly Father's love equip and empower Him to live that abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of love. He didn't try to be someone He's not. And neither should we. What we should do is learn who we are. Who we are in Christ. Which is who Christ is in us. And that's what we can have faith in. That's who we can live by faith. Christ IN you, the hope of revealing glory. The glory IN you... coming out of you. I heard a preacher say it like this, "You are the spout where the glory comes out." Because what you believe is inside WILL come out. It has too. We, as a species, are no good at keeping stuff inside. Be it good, bad, or ugly. If you're full of bitterness, that's what manifests in your life. Hurt people hurt people. But loved people love people. That's why its so important to know what's REALLY in there. So that the love inside can come out. Naturally. Not by trying to "fake it 'til you make it," or anything like that. But just by living. Just by doing what comes naturally to you. Because, believe it or not, that's our new nature. Our TRUE nature. The love nature. And the nature of love is giving. Laying your life down for your friends. Giving everything you have and everything you are without worrying about what happens next. Even if it seems like the more you love, the less you are loved. Don't worry about it. Love anyway. And by loving... live! Truly live. Live a life of love. Live by faith!

There are four verses in the KJV that say, "The just shall live by faith." Well, one of them says, "The just shall live by his faith." But you get the point. So its funny to me that we always hear about WALKING by faith but not LIVING by faith. And, really, they are kind of the same thing. God made the Way of Grace for us through the cross and we respond with the Walk of Faith. I always say you can give without loving, but you can't love without giving. And that's kind of how I feel about this, too. You can live without walking, but you can't walk without living. And, really, the version of "living" that we so often settle for isn't really living at all. Because to live is to love and to love is to live. You can't have one without the other, because they are the same thing. And you can't live a life of love without faith. Because, as Jesus said in Mark 11:22, we are to, "...Have faith in God." And God is love. So we live a life of love by having faith in love. We walk by faith, not by sight, and we walk the path of Jesus' eternal, everlasting, abundant, Resurrection Life of Love by letting HIM walk with our feet. By letting HIM live in us, and through us, and as us. I was going to quote some of the different "live by faith" verses (Habakkuk 2:4, Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, Hebrews 10:38), and I might in the next few days, but for today I want to hit Galatians 2:20. "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." And I want to focus on the part that says, "Nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." Because if you're trying to live Jesus' life, you're not living by faith. And you're going to be frustrated. Because nobody can live Jesus' life except Jesus. You can't works and labor--effort--your way into this thing. You can't earn a gift. So stop trying. Receive the gift that has already been given to you. Jesus gave His life FOR us, but He also gave His life TO us. So that we could live by letting HIM live in us, and through us, and as us. And did you catch that part at the end of the memory verse? We live by the faith of the son of God. And there's two ways that I can see to interpret that: 1. Faith IN the son of God... letting Him be Himself in us. 2. We live by HIS faith. I've long held--and plan on digging into this concept in this Rant series--that OUR faith is only expected to connect us to HIS faith. Because, when you think about it, when we're talking about "the just" living by faith... who is just? Jesus, right? HE lives by faith and we live by HIS faith. I believe that when Jesus said, "...If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth" (Mark 9:23)... I believe that Jesus was talking about HIMSELF. "If you can believe in ME--the One who believes--then all things are possible." Our faith gets us to Him, and then His faith gets us all the way to where HE wants us to be. Because its HIS life. HE is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Believing in God... believing in love... is what makes it all worthwhile. That's what makes it all possible. HIS faith is how we love. HIS faith is who we live. Because, one more time, to live IS to love and to love is to live. We live by faith... in love. We walk, and talk, and live, and move, and have our being... in love. Its all about love!

Revelation is so vitally important to this "Christian" life. This walk--this life--of faith. Because you can't believe in something that you don't know. And that's what revelation is: Its knowing the truth. Look at Revelation 1:1, "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John." And, really, I want to end this Rant series by focusing on that phrase "the revelation of Jesus Christ." Because that's what we're talking about. Jesus. God in the flesh. Love in a body. God in your flesh. Love in your body. LOVE. So look at what the word "revelation" means. It is number 602 in Strong's Greek Concordance and it means, "disclosure: - appearing, coming, lighten, manifestation, to be revealed, revelation." When we eat the honey that flows from the Promised Land, we are, in a sense, eating Jesus. Feasting on love. Which is what communion is all about--the bread and the wine that represents the body and the blood of Christ. Letting ourselves be transformed into what we've been transformed into by consuming it. By letting Jesus come to us and appear to us and reveal Himself to us (and in us, and through us, and as us). Our eyes are enlightened when the light of the world shines. And WE are the same light of the world that HE is. There's only one light. The light of love that shines into the darkness and makes the darkness flee. So we don't war against the darkness. We simply shine our light and let light do what it naturally does. I'm telling you, this shift in mindset from fighting AGAINST things... to standing FOR things means everything. Because if you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything. But if you stand on the Rock... if you stand for love... you will not (cannot) be shaken. So this revelation of Jesus is a revelation of love. A disclosure of love. God is love, and He loves you. An appearing of love. A coming of love. Love lighting the way. Love manifesting in our lives. That's what it means for the Word to become flesh--the love inside us coming out of us. Charity. Love in action. So when we eat the honey we can't think its going to make things look the way WE want them to look. We have to understand that the light of the world shows things how they really are. It shows them to be in Divine Order. Which SHOULD be how we want them to look, but sometimes (most of the time) its hard for people to see past themselves. That's why we're constantly trying to be someone we're not in order to get something we think we haven't got. We feel like we're missing something and we're desperate enough to do whatever it takes to get it. We'll believe the lie that says we have to do in order to be. We'll believe the lie that says we have to earn our bread by the sweat of our brow. But that's folly. Because works and labor don't work. You can't earn a gift. Especially one that has already been freely given. So stop trying to earn and simply receive. Receive and release. Receive BY releasing. Give what you've got. Release by receiving. Fill yourself to overflowing with what you've already been filled with. Let what's inside come out, naturally, by knowing and believing its in there. Let God reveal it--Himself, love--to you, and in you, and through you. Drink the milk, eat the honey, and live in the Promised Land by letting it flow out of you!

Honey makes things taste good. Which is one of the things I think we miss when we're dealing with the gospel. We make it about doom and gloom. We make it about fiery end times. We make it about "get right or get left." We make it about anything and everything BUT love. And I think part of the reason why we do that is because an unconditional love that is freely given to us... seems too good to be true. We don't think we deserve it. So we try to earn it. And we're willing to do just about anything to do it. Jump through any hoop. Fit into any box. And we end up settling for less. Way, way less. Because, "...unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen" (Ephesians 3:20-21). God is able to do more than we could ever ask. Or even think. But we settle for whatever the world is willing to part with. Whatever we think we deserve. And it isn't much. Because for the most part, we don't seem to think much of ourselves. Because we know the worst things we've ever done. We were right there doing it. But, according to Romans 2:4, it is the GOODNESS of God that leads to repentance. Not the scariness of God. The goodness. I think the problem is that we want people to change, but we don't know how to motivate them to change. And, really, its not MY job to change ANYBODY. That's what the Holy Spirit is for. But we take it upon ourselves and the best we can come up with is trying to scare people straight. But I'm convinced that positive is better than negative. Fear of punishment doesn't stop people from doing things, it just makes them work harder to not get caught. But if we can show someone something better than what they've got... a more excellent way... why wouldn't they grab ahold of that? I think people settle when they convince themselves that "this is as good as it gets." When people don't think it can get any better. "It is what it is." Well, sure, but that doesn't mean you can't inject some love into the situation and improve things. Or, inject some love into the situation and be satisfied that you did what you could, whether it improves or not. Because love is not about getting something. Love is not about making something happen. Love isn't in the result. Love is in the doing. Because love is giving. And once you give someone something, its on THEM as to what they do with what you've given them. You can't give someone something and then get mad at them for using it in a different way than you expected them to. You just give what you've got and let the rest sort itself out. And if what you've got is good--SINCE what you've got IS good--it just might be exactly what they were looking for. I always say you were not called to change the world... but if you love someone, chances are you WILL change THEIR world. Honey. Revelation. The revelation that we are loved. That its not bad and getting worse. That there IS something good out there. Not in a "good versus evil" sense, I touched on that yesterday, but in an "exceeding abundantly above" sense. In a "there's a more excellent way" sense. In a super natural sense. God's super (love) on our natural. That's what makes life taste good. Honey. Revelation. Love.

I'm a pretty simple guy. So I try to make things simple. Especially when it comes to God. I have a bachelor's degree in theology. Which is in no way bragging, just to put it out there that I have (and do, and will continue to) study this stuff. Because I'm kind of obsessed with it. Obsessed with God. Obsessed with love. But one thing I learned at Bible college is that people like to--or maybe TEND TO is a better term--get stuck on things. That's one of the reasons why there are so many different denominations out there; someone gets a revelation, and they move to that spot and then plant their flag. "This is present truth!" And that's great. I'm all for present truth. I'm all for taking what the Bible (that was written a looooong time ago) says, and applying it to our lives here and now. But I'm also all about being flexible. Moving when God moves. And God is always moving. That's why He had the people of Israel carry around a tabernacle--it wasn't one permanent spot. It was a journey. An eternal, everlasting, never-ending life-long journey into the heart of the matter. Which is the heart. God's heart beating with love in your chest. That's what it means for God to love in you--LOVE lives in you. And flows out of you. Like the milk and honey that flows out of the Promised Land. The righteousness and revelation. Now watch this: "Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse evil, and choose the good" (Isaiah 7:15). Which, actually, seems like a pretty good endorsement of eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, right? Seems to say, "Do good and you'll be rewarded, do evil and you'll be punished." Which is the foundation that most RELIGIONS are built on. But Jesus didn't come to give us a religion. He came to show us the Father. To show us ourselves. To show us love. So when you look at this Old Testament verse you need to look at it cross-eyed; through the finished work of the cross. And you can pretty well (in my opinion) trade the words "evil" and "good," for "lie" and "truth." Because that's what happens when your eyes are enlightened; you move out of the realm of external--good AND evil--actions, and you move into the realm of faith. Because what you do flows from what you believe. Trying behavior modification is doomed to fail. That's backwards. You have to fix your believing IN ORDER to fix your actions. When you believe the lie that says you're not good enough, but through human effort you may some day be good enough... you'll never stop trying to be someone you're not. You'll always try to earn something that can't be earned. Something that has already been freely given to us. But when you believe the truth that God is love and He loves you... that's when (and how) you can be still and know that He is God. God's love to us, filling us up and flowing out through us, is the only way to experience the gift that we've been given. The abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of love that Jesus lives in us, and through us, and as us... when we stop trying to live it ourselves. Because nobody can live Jesus' life except Jesus. When we believe it, it manifests in our lives. And seeing is believing. Eating the honey is what equips and empowers us to believe the truth and ignore the lie. Equips and empowers us to give what we've got... because we KNOW what we've got. Be who we are because we KNOW who we are!

Milk and honey. Righteousness and revelation. The revelation OF righteousness. That's what flows out of the Promised Land. That's what equips and empowers us to live the abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of God--by letting Jesus live it in us, and through us, and as us. Because the righteousness is the righteousness of God. And it is revealed to us--and in us, and through us, and as us--as Jesus reveals HIMSLEF to us, and in us, and thorugh us, and as us. We learn how to love as we learn how we are loved. Being a disciple of Jesus is being a student of love. Spending (not wasting) our life getting to the heart of the matter. And the heart of the matter... is the heart. God's heart beating with love in our chests. And that's pretty sweet. Like honey. Honey makes things taste better. Cheerios. Biscuits. Just about anything. The revelation of who we are in Christ--which is who Christ is in us--makes everything better. When you know love is everywhere (specifically, inside you), then you can stop looking for love in all the WRONG places, and you can let love out in ALL places. You can stop being a thermometer, which just TAKES the temperature, and you can start being a thermostat, which SETS the temperature. You can stop looking outside of yourself when you know what's inside. You can stop chasing love when you know that you ARE loved. You can be still and know that HE is God. You can stop trying to get something you think you haven't got, by being someone you're not, and you can embrace who you are. Who you REALLY are. But what you see is what you be. And eating the honey is what enlightens your eyes. Eating the honey is what lets you see things clearly. Because the world will tell you one thing--and it will pile up a LOT of evidence to try to convince you of what they're telling you--but when you know the truth... you can ignore the lie. When you look INTO the mirror instead of looking AT the mirror... you can see what's inside. You can see past the surface stuff and you can see the inner man. The hidden man of the heart. And when you see Him, you be Him. "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is" (1 John 3:2). And I'm convinced that "appearing" is something that happens all the time. When He appears... to you. When He appears IN you. When He appears THROUGH you. When love appears, that's when He appears. Because God is love. That's not just what He does, that's who He is. But we can't see Him as He is without that honey that comes from dipping our rod into the honeycomb. It feels like something we're striving for... but its really just Jesus revealing Himself. Its HIM doing all of the heavy lifting. And that happened on the cross, when the light of the world shined for all to see. He did it all, so we could get it all. Because He wanted us to have it all. And now, on this side of the cross, we DO have it all. We just don't always see it that way. We see the grass as greener on the other side, or whatever cliche you want to use. But when we open our eyes we can see things clearly. See HIM clearly, and be OURSELVES clearly. We can see that we are loved, and because we are loved... we can love. Because we are loved... we ARE love!

The Promised Land flows with milk and honey. Milk is righteousness. Honey is revelation. There's a story in 1 Samuel where Saul ordered his men not to eat until they had defeated the enemy. "And when the people were come into the wood, behold, the honey dropped; but no man put his hand to his mouth: for th epeople feared the oath" (1 Samuel 14:26). But Jonathan, Saul's son, didn't know about the oath, and he ate the honey. And he had this to say, "...My father hath troubled the land, see, I pray you, how mine eyes have been enlightened, because I tasted a little of this honey" (1 Samuel 14:29). So that's why I equate honey to revelation. He ate it, and his eyes were enlightened. He could see clearly. And he could clearly see that withholding it from the people was no good. That's why I call my ministry "Word Without Walls." I want to make the gospel of love accessible to people. No walls keeping some people in and some people out. No member's only jackets. Just unconditional love being given away with no exceptations. And, if you look at this story strictly in the natural, why would you diminish people fighting for you by denying them food? Its hard to fight on an empty stomach. Its hard to do ANYTHING on an empty stomach. I told my boss at work, "If I don't get my lunch you're going to see a very different version of Mr. Tom." Because patience is my super power... but when I'm hungry I get irritable. Cranky. Hangry (hungry + angry). I can't see straight. (See what I did there?). And while I'm trying to set up the foundation for this Rant series I want to spend a little time on how Jonathan GOT the honey. Check this out: "But Jonathan heard not when his father charged the people with the oath: wherefore he put forth the end of the rod that was in his hand, and dipped it in an honeycomb, and put his hand to his mouth; and his eyes were enlightened" (1 Samuel 14:27). He used the rod. You know... Jesus. Our revelation comes from Jesus because our revelation IS Jesus. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He is the Alpha and the Omega. He is everything we need to know. He is the truth about God--He told Philip, "If you've seen me, you've seen the Father."--and He is the truth about US. As He is, so are we in this world. He is the light of the world that allows us to see clearly. Remember how Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord? Well, that's what it means to have your eyes enlightened. The revelation of grace. The revelation of righteousness. The revelation of love. That's what you get when you eat honey off the rod. That's why the rod and the staff of the shepherd comforts us. They can correct us, but even in correction there can be comfort. You feel better when you're on the right path. When you know what's going on. And I'm not saying you will always know everything that's going on, but I AM saying that no matter what's going on you can know that God loves you. That your heavenly Father has your back. That He will never leave you nor forsake you. That you don't have to starve yourself (and I'm not getting into fasting right now, so leave that be). You can eat and be satisfied. You can let the honey of revelation refresh you. Just like when I Ranted about drinking a glass of milk if you need to remember who you are. Eat the honey, and let your eyes be enlightened, and see things clearly. See love everywhere you look. And let that love that's inside come out of you!

The milk of righteousness. Drinking it in as a way of knowing what's in. Because faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the Word of God. Which is Jesus, which is love. That's how you fill yourself to overflowing with what you've already been filled with. You listen to that still, small voice that's deep inside. The one that says, with every beat of your heart--with every beat of GOD'S heart in your chest--"I love you, I love you, I love you." See, look at John 15:26, "But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me." The Holy Spirit testifies our true identity to us by testifying of Jesus to us. We know who we are when we know who He is. Because who we really are... is Jesus. God in the flesh. Love in a body. God in your flesh. Love in your body. The inner man. The hidden man of the heart. Who we really are in Christ is who Christ really is in us. And when we lose our identity... that's when we try to be someone we're not. But that milk strengthens us. The foundation that we build on is a simple one. It is love. It is the glorious truth that we are the righteousness of God in Christ. When we have that part figured out, everything else can flow. We can get into the deeper things. But it starts with our righteousness--and by that I mean HIS righteousness in us, not self-righteousness. Its starts with the truth about His righteousness in us. And, one of the best things I think I ever heard a preacher say, "when you mess up you are STILL the righteousness of God in Christ!" That's not about what you do. That's who you are. What you do FLOWS from who you are. That's why behavior modification only ever has limited, short term success. You can make someone behave by scaring them... for a time. To a point. But at the end of the day people are who they are. I've found that the two hardest things in the world are 1. Doing something you don't want to do. 2. Not doing something you do want to do. So the only way to affect real change... is by letting the Holy Spirit do what HE wants to do. Real change comes from within. It is never forced, or coerced. Strict parents make sneaky kids, is basically what I'm trying to say. But if you teach up a child in the way he SHOULD go... he will not depart from it. If you give that strong foundation for people to stand on--by telling them what's RIGHT with them instead of what's "wrong" with them--they will not be shaken. They'll be able to ignore the lie simply by knowing the truth. That's why (and how) the truth makes you free and sets you free. Its not freedom TO sin... its freedom FROM sin. Its the freedom to live. Because to live is to love and to love is to live. Its the freedom TO love that comes from knowing that you ARE loved. Knowing that you are love. Love isn't just what you do. Its who you are. So when you start to forget who you are... get you a glass of milk. Drink in the righteousness of God. Remind yourself who you are by reminding yourself who He is. To you. In you. Through you. As you. Let what's inside flow out by knowing and believing that its in there. By accepting and embracing who you are. Believing the Word of God (again, Jesus... love) instead of the lie of the world. And then BEING who you are by loving people with the love that God loves you with!