I think sometimes we have unrealistic expectations. Even for ourselves. Especially for ourselves. Like, we think that being a "disciple of Christ" means we're going to just get it. And that's why it's so frustrating so much of the time when we, you know, don't. But look at John 12:16 (NLT), "His disciples didn't understand at the time that this was a fulfillment of prophecy. But after Jesus endtered into his glory, they remembered what had happened and realized that these things had been written about him." Guys. Jesus' actually, literally, physical disciples that He spoke to and travelled with and lived with on the daily NEVER understood what the man was talking about! And He didn't cast them away. He didn't disqualify them or shame them. He just continued to teach them. And love them. Because that's what a disciple is: A student. And that's what a disciple of Christ is: A student of love. Learning how to love by learning how we are loved. John--the disciple Jesus loved--and Peter are great examples. To sum up their career as students, "I don't know much! But I know He loves me!" And they made quite a few mistakes along the way. Which is fine. You can't learn from your mistakes if you never make any. You can't move forward if you're too afraid to move at all. You have to give yourself--and those around you--grace to grow. When we slam someone every time they mess up... I think most people know when they mess up. So at that point it's just piling on. And that doesn't help anybody. Every time my kid messes us he tries to punish himself. And I always tell him, "I'm the decider on that one. If we have this situation back on track then we're good." I don't really understand why everybody seems to caught up on the idea of punishing people. It doesn't do anything for me. And I don't see in the Scriptures where it did anything for God, either. He chastens and corrects--as any good Father would--but He's not in the punishment business. In fact, He lavishes His mercy and grace on us just when we deserve it the least. Which, of course, makes it all the more powerful. When you get something you think you have no chance or no realistic shot of getting... man, that'll knock your socks off. And, as unbelieve as it may seem in the moment, it'll build your faith like nothing else. When God comes through in the clutch... you can trust that He will again. And then you can start to trust that He'll come in even when it's not an emergency. You'll be able to, you know, include Him all the time. And then you won't have as many emergencies. And isn't that the goal? To be able to operate from a place of rest? Rest, of course, not being inactivity, but simply Holy Spirit directed activity. Which brings us back to being students. Abrahamic faith is God saying, "Go," and you saying, "Yes, sir." That was what God accounted to Abraham as righteousness. Point being--you don't have to understand right away in order to learn. And I'm not exactly talking about blind faith. Because God always shows Himself faithful. He always gives us reasons to trust Him. And that's all faith really is--trusting in the Lord and the power of HIS might. Not by what I can do, but by what Jesus is doing in me, and through me, and for me, and as me. So what I'm trying to say is: It's ok if you don't get it. You don't have to have it all figured out. You can hold Daddy's hand. Trust Him. He knows the way. "I don't know what tomorrow holds... but I'm ok because I know who holds tomorrow!"

You prove who you are by what you do. What you believe is inside comes out. If you let the love that inside you--the love that God has put inside you--come out, that's how you prove that you are a disciple of Christ. But don't forget what a disciple is: a student. Specifically, in this case, a disciple of Christ is a student of love. Learning how to love by learning how we are loved. So let me tell you a story about my favorite writer of the Bible. John, his name was. But that's not how he referred to himself in his own writings. "Peter tunred around and saw behind them the disciple Jesus loved--the one who had leaned over to Jesus during supper and asked, "Lord, who will betray you?"" (John 21:20 NLT). John referred to himself as "the disciple Jesus loved." Which, again, might seem a little selfish or self-centered. But it's really not. It's really just a revelation of the ultimate truth of the universe that God is love and He loves you. Now let me show you why I believe John was able to see himself this way. "He then lying on Jesus' breast saith unto him, Lord, who is it?" (John 13:25). John (the revelator) laid his head on Jesus' breast... and heard the heartbeat of God. FELT it. Experienced it. And when you go through that, I don't believe anything can happen BUT you get that revelation. And from then on? Yeah. John knew who he was. I think between John's gospel, his letters, and the book of Revelation we see some of the deepest most powerful truths in the entire Bible. And I think that's why. He experienced the hearbeat of God. He knew he was loved. To me it's very similar to when Jesus was baptized and came out of the water and a voice spoke from heaven declaring "This is my Son, in whom I am well pleased." To me, it's the same thing. The same voice, saying the same thing. It's that still, small voice deep inside all of us that is God saying "I love you, I love you, I love you" with every beat of His heart in our chests. Think about that--we even have it better than John did. He leaned on Jesus' breast and felt that heartbeat. We have that living heart beating in our chests! That's amazing to me. God gave us everything He has and everything He is on the cross. Didn't just give His life FOR us, but gave His life TO us. Simply because He loves us and He wanted us to have it. Simply because He didn't want us to perish, but have everlasting life. And now, because of the cross, that's not only what God wanted for us... it's what we have! He gave it to us. He brought us out of death and into life. And, according to John again (1 John 3:14 NLT), "If we love our brothers and sisters who are believers, it proves that we have passed from death to life. But a person who has no love is still dead." No love... no life. Know love... know life! Being a student of love is learning how to love... by learning how we are loved! Being a student of love is a life-long journey into the heart of the matter--which is the heart. God's heart beating with love in our chest. And it's important that we identify ourselves correctly; as the disciples that Jesus loves. If you know you are loved, you can love with that love. If you don't know you are loved, you will always be trying to get something you think you haven't got. Usually by trying to be someone you're not. So the first thing is knowing. You can't believe something you don't know. Knowing that God loves you. We love because He first loved us. Filling ourselves to overflowing with what we've already been filled with, and letting what's already in there--the love of God--come out!

The question is: What does it really mean to be a disciple of Christ? I think we've all heard that term bandied about quite a bit. But it seems to me that it is used ambiguously for the most part. Well, I'd like to change that. So let's look at John 13:35, "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." And the word "disciples" is number 3101 in Strong's Greek concordance and it means, "a learner, that is, pupil: - disciple." A follower of Christ. A learner of Christ. Learning who we are by learning who HE is. And, with the connotation of love being so strong and prevalent... a disciple is a student of love. Learning how to love by learning how we are loved. Learning how to BE who we already ARE by learning of WHO we already are. Letting what's inside come out by knowing and believing that it's in there. That's the key--it's not "getting" anything. We already have it. It's LEARNING. Learning what we have. Learning what it means to be who we already are. And that's why this abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of love is really just a journey into the heart of the matter--which is the heart. God's heart beating with love in our chests. Listening to that still, small voice deep inside that says, "I love you" with every beat of God's heart in our chests. Receiving that love of God... and then releasing it. And that, friends, is the Divine Order of things--receiving and releasing. Because you can't give what you don't have, and you can only give what you do have. You have to receive it first. We love because He first loved us. He gave us something, and because He gave it to us we can give it back to Him by giving it to each other. Because we have something, we can give something. But, again, it's a process. A learning process. A maturation process. It is God showing us who we are by showing us who HE is. It is us filling ourselves up to overflowing with what we've already been filled with. It is the God who is love living in us, and through us, and as us so that we can experience that love. And, since love is giving, it is experienced when we give it away. Love is never about getting. If you're trying to get something... that's not love. If you're giving what you've got--what God has already given you--that's when you are receiving and releasing. Releasing is every bit as important as receiving. It only comes second because, again, you can't give what you don't have. And you can only give what you do have. So what I'm trying to say today is this: If you focus on love, your focus is in the right place. It may "seem" selfish to focus on God's love for you... but when you understand that filling yourself up to overflowing with that love that He has filled you with leads to that love inside you coming out... then it's not selfish at all. It's like an athlete practicing. He's getting ready for the big game. The more we know and understand that we are loved... the more we can love others with that same love. Which, by the way, is the New Commandment that Jesus set forth in John 13:34, "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another." Receive it and release it. Learn how to love by learning how you are loved. Let what's inside come out by knowing and believing that it's in there. A disciple of Christ is a student of love. A never-ending life-long journey into the heart of the matter--which is the heart. God's heart beating with love in our chests!

You hear the term bandied about a lot--disciple. Disciple of Christ. Jesus's disciple. And I think, probably, you wear it as a badge of honor. Internalize it. "I'M a disciple." But what does that really mean? Well, in a nutshell, "Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples" (John 13:35, NLT). That was Jesus, by the way. The red letters. The man Himself telling us in no uncertain terms what it means to be His disciples. And, in a Word, it is love. Your love for one another. That's what matters. That's what proves who we are to the world. Look at 2 Corinthians 6:6 (NLT), which I think is my key verse for this Rant series, "We prove ourselves by our purity, our understanding, our patience, our kindness, by the Holy Spirit within us, and by our sincere love." Those are the things that matter in life. Those are the things that God filled us with when He filled us with Himself. That's not just what God does... that's who God is. And because He lives in us, that's not just what WE do. That's who WE are. Your nature is what you do, at the end of the day. I think in some ways for some limited times, we can hide who we are a little bit. Behavior modification can have some very limited "success" if you're afraid enough of the consequences. But that's not real. That's not lasting. That's not something that anybody can depend on. And, if you're proving yourself... you have to be real. I think, for the most part, people can tell what's real. You can fool people, I'm not saying you can't, but if your goal is to fool people... get a new goal. You can't fool people into thinking your a disciple. Think about how often you've heard of "Christians" being described as hypocrites. When you say one thing and do another for long enough... people catch on. They figure it out. They see you for who you really are. What's the solution then? Love people! Give them what you've got. God and people. Loving God and loving people. Loving God BY loving people. That's the secret of life, friends. It's all about love. It's all about letting the love that is inside--that God put inside--come out. By knowing and believing that it's in there. By receiving it and releasing it. Giving what you've got. Laying your life down for your friends--and understanding that even the people that don't know it yet... are your friends. I'm of the opinion--I believe it was Abraham Lincoln that gets credit for this quote--that the best way to destroy your enemies is to make them your friends. To heap fiery coals on people, not to burn them to death, but to melt their hearts. The fire is God. Always. The fire is love. Always! So instead of trying to burn people to the ground... we need to let God totally consume us. He is a consuming fire. He burns away everything but Himself. Everything but love. So that there is nothing left... but love. So that we can prove ourselves--and prove TO ourselves--that we are who God says we are. So that we can experience and enjoy the gift He has given us, by giving it away. Can I tell you, I almost always put quotation marks around "Christian" because at this point in the world I don't necessarily like it as a term. It has a lot of negative connotations. When asked, I usually tell people, "I'm not religious, man, I just loves me some Jesus." Which, whether they know it or not, means I love THEM. Whatsoever you do unto the least of them, you do unto the King. Loving people is HOW you love God! He's the invisible Spirit, right? But WE are His visible address! Love God. Love people. Love God BY loving people. And in that way, prove that you are His disciple. Prove that you know and believe, receive and release, the Father's love!

When you can endure, when you can turn the other cheek, when you can pray for your "enemies" that's when you really begin to understand what longsuffering is. It is patience. And it is one of the greatest forms of love. Love is patient and kind. Love never fails, because love endures. And, let's be clear, that doesn't mean "love" will get you everything you want. Because that's not love. Love is never about getting. Because love is giving. Jesus said the greatest love a man can have is to lay his life down for his friends. Giving everything you have and everything you are. Without worrying about the fact that is seems like the more you love people, the less they love you. It doesn't matter how (or if) people pick up what you're laying down. All you can do is your part. Now, having said that, it is important to cultivate relationships so that people CAN pick up what you're laying down. Learning how to love by learning how we are loved. Learning how to love by learning how those individual people in our lives NEED to be loved. That's the wisdom part of love. Me, for example, I like effort. I see that as a labor of love. My wife likes words of affirmation. We can't love each other the "wrong" way and expect it to do what it's supposed to do. We have to really see each other, and then give each other what is needed. Which, of course, brings me to my old standby--if you don't know what to do... do what you know. Love. And that is as simple as seeing a need and meeting it. "What should we do?" If you have two shirts and you see someone without one... give them one of yours. That's it, man. Simple as that. Live out of your abudance. Don't worry about if someone "deserves" your love. Deserve has nothing to do with it. Love is giving. Receiving and releasing. Letting what's inside come out by knowing and believing that it's in there. Giving what you've got because you know it's too good to keep to yourself. We love because God first loved us. He filled us up with His love and now we can release it by filling ourselves to overflowing with what we've already been filled with. Know it and believe it. Receive it and release it. Receive it BY releasing it. Release it by receiving it. You can't give what you don't have, and you can only give what you do have. So if you love someone, that means--on some level--you beleive God loves you. Otherwise you wouldn't have love to give them. If you didn't know what you've got, you wouldn't be able to give it. Faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the Word (which is Jesus, which is love) of God. Letting that Holy Spirit wildfire consume you to the point where everything else except love has been swallowed up and burned away. It's easy to have patience when you can see the big picture. When you can see that all things work together for good. It's easy to be longsuffering when you know there's a light at the end of the tunnel. When you can understand the grand scheme. You don't have to fight everything. Sometimes you simply have to endure. Turn the other cheek. Don't retaliate. Understand that it came to pass, not to stay. That you can endure... because love endures. You don't have to always get your own way. You can still love people, and put them first. Longsuffering is about enduring. About standing on the Rock when you don't think you can stand anymore. About holding on to God--to love--and realizing that it is really HIM holding on to you!

Love never fails. Because love endures. When Jesus said He would never leave us nor forsake us, He was talking about the power of love. He was talking about patience. He was talking about longsuffering. And, in a very real way, He was talking about mercy and grace. Mercy is not getting what you deserve, and grace is getting what you don't deserve. It is in this state of perpetual rightness with God that we can truly flourish. We don't have to worry about our actions, or mistakes, or bad choices, disqualifying us from His love or His purpose. We don't have to pluck flower petals and say, "He loves me, He loves me not," and hope and pray that we end up on "He loves me." We can know, with a knoweldge that passes knowledge, that He loves us, He loves us, He can't stop loving us. What else could the God who IS love do? Love isn't just what He does. Love is who He is. And love is patient. Love is kind. Love never fails. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. Because--again--He IS love. So in order to be separated from His love, we would have to be separated from Him. And we know that even in the garden of Eden when Adam and Eve hid from the presence of God... He was still right there with them. Now here's where this gets really exciting: Because nothing can separate us from God's love... we can love no matter what! God and people. Loving God and loving people. Loving God BY loving people. That's what this life is for and that's what this life is all about. It's all about love. Letting people be who they are--even letting them be who they think they are when they have no idea who they really are--by having patience with them. Having mercy and grace for them. If you take deserve out of the equation, you can just love people no matter what. You can put into practice what the Bible says in Matthew 5:44 (NLT), "But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those that persecute you!" When you're not judging by appearance, but judging righteous judgment, that's when you are truly receiving and releasing the love of God. That's when you can truly experience what you've got by giving what you've got. That's when you can truly let what's inside come out (by knowing and believing that it's in there). What you believe is inside you WILL come out. It has to. It's too big not to. And that fact that you believe it makes it too powerful to stay hidden for long. If you've every tried to bottle your emotions up only to have them explode, you know what I'm talking about. What's inside--what you believe is inside--WILL come out. So let it be love. Faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the Word of God. Knowing and believing that God loves you is what gives you the patience to endure. To suffer long while knowing that it came to pass, not to stay. To be able to get through what you need to go through in order to get to the other side. And once you've gotten throguh it, that's when you can help others through it. Because we all go through the same things. We're all in this together. And we can endure more when we have people in our lives who will support us. We can suffer for as long as needed when we have people around us who will help us bear our burdens. And never forget that that's a two-way street. Never forget that if I look after you, and you look after me, that's when neither one of us have to worry about ourselves. We can both be Christ-centered (or people centered), and we can both still be covered. Because we're covering each other. Enduring each other and enduring WITH each other. Giving what we've got and in that way experiencing what we've got. Sharing it and in that way making it more real!

When you can keep your cool when everybody else is losing there's... that's when you've really found something. Something called maturity. Something called patience. Something called longsuffering. My wife posted Romans 8:18 today on her Facebook, and it seemed appropriate for my Rant today. "Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later" (NLT). In other words... all things work together for good. All things don't LOOK good, or FEEL good, but they all WORK TOGETHER for good. I started this Rant series with the idea of talking about why, and how, love never fails. And it is simply because love endures. Charity (love in action) is longsuffering. God doesn't disqualify us when we mess up. In fact, look at Isaiah 30:20-21 (NLT), "Though the Lord gave you adversity for food and suffering for drink, he will still be with you to teach you. You will see your teacher with your own eyes. Your own ears will hear him. Right behind you a voice will say, "This is the way you should go," whether to the right or to the left." A voice behind you. Speaking from 2,000 years ago on an old rugged cross. A voice crying out, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!" God is not in the punishment business. He IS, however, in the chastening and correcting business. He IS willing to redirect you when you get off that straight and narrow path. He has made the way straight--brought every mountain low and every valley high--so that we can walk easy on the way that leads to life. Now, having said that, even though the way is straight... it is narrow. To me that makes it much more simple, but to some it makes it more difficult to walk. People tend to want to go their own way. And make a lot of trouble for themselves. We don't have to do that. We can let the Word of God (which is Jesus, which is love) be a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. We can let love shine and show us the way. We can let love lead us, and guide us, and direct us, and protect us. We can trust in love (have faith in God) even when things don't seem to be going the way we want them to. We can suffer through some things. Because we see our teacher with our own eyes. And what we see--WHO we see--is what we be. We know we are the Son(s) of God. But it is when Jesus is revealed (to us and in us and through us and as us) that we BE who we are. That we truly UNDERSTAND who we are. That doesn't always happen overnight though. Sometimes it takes baby steps. Which are still forward steps. Be longsuffering towards yourself. Don't give up when things get hard, or when you think you've made a mistake. If you never make any mistakes you can never learn from your mistakes. If you're too afraid to move, you'll always be where you are. Life is movement. Life is change. You're not who you were yesterday, and you're not who you're going to be tomorrow. Learn and grow. Continue on. Upward and onward. Upward and GOD-ward! Remember that it came to pass, not to stay. Remember that God always gives us a way to escape--or bear--our situation. There's a way through. And, quite frankly, it's THROUGH. What's the old song say? "If you're going through hell, keep on going!" The only true failure is failure to try. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Don't give up. Don't give in. What's coming is so much greater than what has been. Have patience. Look at the grand scheme, the big picture. And trust in the God who is love. I don't know what tomorrow holds, but I do know who holds tomorrow!

I feel like sometimes, lately, I've been kind picking on "traditional Christianity." But only because I don't think it helps anybody and in fact traps people in bondage. And we were not meant to live that way. We were meant for something more than religion. Let me say that again: We were meant for something more than religion. Jesus didn't come to establish a new religion. And He didn't come to make "bad" people "good." He came to make dead people alive! And the difference, as we know, between death and life... is love! No love, no life. Know love, know life! So, I guess if you absolutely positively NEED a religion... let love be your religion. Let love be your guide. Let the Word of God (which is Jesus, which is love) be a lamp unto your feet and a light unto your path. Anyway, I said all of that to say this: "Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience" (Colossians 3:12 NLT). And I REALLY said all that to say THIS, about THAT: Religion will tell you that tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience (longsuffering) are things you have to do IN ORDER TO BE the holy people God loves. When that's not it at all. That's religion in a nutshell--be someone you're not in order to get what you think you haven't got--but that's not God. That's not love. Love is a gift. It cannot be earned. It is freely given and must be received. Received and released. We receive it BY releasing it, and release it BY receiving it! Because you can't give what you don't have, and you can only give what you do have. We love, because God first loved us. We love Him back (with the love He has loved us with) by loving each other. Giving what you've got by knowing and believing that you've got it. What does this have to do with longsuffering? Suffer a little longer and stay with me. We're not putting on the New Man, all of those things listed in Colossians, in order to be someone we're not. We're sinking into those things that we already are in order to experience who we've always been! Christ in you, the hope of glory! The hope of the glory inside being revealed by coming out of us, coming out through us, coming out AS us! What am I trying to say about patience today? Get to the point, preacher! I'm trying to say... give yourself a break. You're stuck with yourself. Twenty four, seven, three sixty five. But you're not stuck where you're at. It came to pass, not to stay. You're different than you were yesterday, and you're different than you will be tomorrow. It's a journey. A maturation process. Learning how to love by learning how we are loved. Learning what it means to be the New Man by "putting Him on." Because, guess what--whether you are kind, humble, patient, and all those other things or not... you are still who God chose to be the holy people He loves! Nothing can separate you from the love of Christ. Nothing. Nothing you've done, nothing you will ever do. Nothing. Paul wrote at length about it. You can take it to the bank. Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Not a horrible place to start. So, again, give yourself a break. Be patient with yourself. Longsuffering... with yourself. Grow in grace. Grow in the knowledge of Jesus--who He is, which is who YOU are. Let that heart knowledge (the knowledge that passes knowledge) fill you to overflowing so that the tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience that are already inside you can come out! That way YOU can experience those things by giving them away to the people you come into contact with!

The Bible talks about longsuffering a lot. And I learned in Bible college that any time the Bible repeats itself, that thing being repeated is important. So I want to spend a few days digging into the concept of being longsuffering. Which, by the way, is one of the ways love is described. "Charity suffereth long, and is kind; chairty envieth not; chairty vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up" (1 Corinthians 13:4). It is also a fruit of the Spirit, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith" (Galatians 5:22). In other words, I'm telling you, it's a big deal. But what is is, exactly? Well, looking at the word itself would lead you to believe it is suffering for a long time, right? In our verse in Galatians it is number 3115 in Strong's Greek Concordance and it means, "Longanimity, that is (objectively) forbearance or (subjectively) fortitude: - longsuffering, patience." That last is how it is rendered in a lot of the other translations of the Bible. Love is patient. But if we're really going to dig in, let's really dig in. According to Dictionary.com "Patience" is defined as, "the quality of being patient, as the bearing of provocation, annoyance, misfortune, or pain, without complaint, loss of temper, irritation, or the like." So... yeah. Basically suffering for a long time without throwing a fit about it. And, let's be clear, the only way this makes sense is if we understand a memory verse like Romans 8:28 (NLT), "And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them." Like I always say about turning the other cheek--that means don't retaliate. It doesn't mean stand there and let people slap you over and over and over. Boundaries are so important in this life. If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything. We think loving people means we have to let them abuse us. That's not what love means. That's not what love is. God, our heavenly Father, is love. A true Father will not abuse His Son, or want anybody else to either. It's horribly unfortunate that there are natural "fathers" out there who abuse their children, and it's horribly unfortunate how hard it is for those abused children to get away from that. Especially when the child sees the abuse as love. Or sees staying in the abuse as love. The only thing you can do with abusive, toxic people... is walk away. Get away from them. Love them from a distance. Staying in an abusive situation is not patience. That's not longsuffering. Longsuffering is going through a hard time with someone and getting to the other side. Enduring something that's not a lot of fun because you know it is good. Working hard at a job you might not like is a labor of love, because you're providing for your family. When you have that goal--which is a good, noble goal--it's easier to grind your way through it. When you know what you're working for, the hard work is more palatable. Easier to endure without complaint, or temper, or irritation. I don't necessarily like my job... but I certainly do like the paycheck that help me take care of my family. So I guess what I'm trying to say is, longsuffering is one hundred percent Biblical. But it is not an excuse to put yourself, or keep youself, in bad, toxic, abusive situations. You should not suffer that. At all. Ever. It takes strength to walk away from abuse... but it's the only thing you can do. You can't change abusive people. You can't stop them from abusing you. You have to just walk away. So now that we've covered a big part of what longsuffering ISN'T, tomorrow we will really start to look at what it IS, and why it's so important!

I think the worst kind of condemnation is self-inflicted. When you take the lies that the world (and the people in the world) say about you to heart. When you accept the condemnation (again, lies) as truth. Because when you hear something like that in your own voice, or in the voice of someone that you love and trust, that's when it's the hardest to ignore. Even in the face of all evidence to the contrary. That's why it's so important to stand on the Rock--that is the truth, that is God, that is love. That's why it's so important to listen to that still, small voice deep inside that says, "I love you" with every beat of God's heart in your chest. When you know the truth, you can ignore the lie. When you believe the lie... things are bad and getting worse. I talk about, and write about, how Jesus referred to Himself as the Way a lot. And the Life a lot. But there was something else He said there too. "Jesus told him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me."" (John 14:6 NLT). The Way to the Father, the Truth abou the Father, the Life of the Father! And notice that He didn't say anything about afterlife there. Didn't say anything about heaven. Said "No one can come TO THE FATHER except through me." If we want to live as Son(s) we need to understand God as heavenly Father. Sons, not slaves. Saints, not sinners. The difference between the truth and the lie. The difference between life and death. There is no condemnation in Christ because, to God, we are His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. Condemnation is that adverse judgment, right? Which is what religion would have you believe God gave to Jesus on the cross. "I'm mad and I have to kill someone." But... God and Jesus are One. God killed... Himself... because He was mad at humanity? I never quite understood that line of "thinking." Jesus sacrified Himself in order to bring us out of the death we were already in. In order that death might die. In order for us to experience HIS abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of love by letting HIM live HIS OWN life in us and through us and as us. He laid His life down so that He could take it up again. God's judgment regarding Jesus wasn't a death sentence. It was a LIFE sentence. He raised Jesus (and all of us IN Jesus) back to life. That's the opposite of condemnation. That's a Father who loves His Son(s). That's the ultimate truth of the universe: The Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into His hands. God is love and He loves you. Again--that's the truth. The opposite of condemnation. That's how we experience that abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of God--we believe that He has given it to us, that He is living it in us, and we LET HIM. Rest. Which doesn't mean inactivity, but does mean Holy Spirit directed activity. And what else could the Holy Spirit direct us to do... but love? The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth. The Spirit of love. Leading and guiding us into all truth. Into all love. You are loved. That's the truth. That's God's final word on the subject. And nothing that anybody else has to say on the matter... matters!