Everybody wants options. Freedom to choose. I kind of like how simple God makes it for us so much of the time. Look at Isaiah 40:4 (NLT), "Fill in the valleys, and level the moiuntains and hills. Straighten the curves, and smooth out the rough places." That's called the cross. That's called God doing the heavy lifting. Finishing the work so that we can enjoy the fruit of His labor. The fruit of the Tree of Life. Which is the fruit of the Spirit. Which is love. The way that leads to life is straight and narrow. Which some people take as, or see as, constricting. But I see it as smooth sailing. We don't have to climb mountains and valleys. And, listen, I believe there's a song that says something to the effect of, "God gives us moutains so we can learn how to climb." I get that. If you never face adversity you will never learn and grow. Jesus said in this world we will have tribulation. But I'm not sure that is God giving us mountains. I think that's more just life. I think God said He would level the mountains. God doesn't GIVE us tribulation. He gives us joy, because even in the midst of our tribulation He is there, carrying us through. He has overcome the world. That's why we're overcomers. Not because we can overcome, but because we have already overcome in Him! See, once man proved--and God knew this would happen. This didn't sneak up on Him and make Him change His plans--once man proved that he couldn't resist the temptation of the tree of death (the tree of knowledge of good and evil), Jesus went ahead and got rid of that whole tree. So that it wouldn't be something we would even have to deal with. He brought us out of a place of duality (or what some people call "choice") and into a place of perfection. And I'm not saying we don't have a choice. Of course we do. We can take what God has made available to us... or we can not. But look at Deuteronomy 30:19 (NLT), "Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!" Even in the Old Testament, the Old Covenant, when God gave that choice... He also told us what the right choice was! There's life... and there's death. Choose life! Stop swinging from branch to branch on the wrong tree, trying to turn over a new leaf, and get onto the right tree! It's the only tree left. The only game in town. Or at least the only game in town worth playing. There is nothing that compares to God's love. And so He made it very easy for us to see that. Gave us time--until the appointed time--to see what else was out there... and then brought us back into the fold by getting rid of everything except Himself. Except love. Love is... everything. Love is... the only thing. The straight and narrow way that leads to life... is love. Because living and loving aren't just connected, they are the same thing. To live is to love and to love is to live. You can't have one without the other and you can't do one without the other. The fruit of the Tree of Life is love. And it's the only tree left. So dig in. Feast on love. Share it. Invite people to eat with you. Give what you've got and in that way experience and enjoy what you've got!

You are what you eat. I say it all the time. Your diet defines you. What you allow inside is what will come out. Because no matter what it is... it's too big and too strong to stay inside. We all live from the inside out. Whether we realize it or not. So the key is to know what's inside. To be purposeful. To fill ourselves to overflowing with what our heavenly Father has already filled us with. Eating from the Tree of Life, is my point. That's what I'm getting at. Eating the fruit of the Spirit. Which is love. Feasting on the bread and wine. The living water and the Lamb. When we eat those things--when we ingest them and internalize them--that's when we know and believe the love of God. That's when we really have something to give. And when we give it... we experience it. Because that's what love is; love is giving. If you want to feel love... love somebody. Give what you've got. Let what's inside come out by filling yourself to overflowing with it. Let God love you and love Him back by loving the people you come into contact with. Learn how to love by learning how you are loved. By learning how God loves you. Let Him love you. That's step one. Receiving. And then, once you've received, you can release what you've received. You can breathe it in and breathe it out. And when you understand this progression from two trees in the garden of Eden to only one tree (the Tree of Life) in the true paradise of God... it makes things so much more simple. You don't have to swing from branch to branch, weighing your good against your evil. You don't have to try to turn over a new leaf and try to be someone you're not. You can simply focus on the only fruit left. Which, again, is love. You can stop trying to turn over a new leaf and you can use the leaves of the Tree of Life for the healing of the nations! It's such a vital mindset shift. Stop weighing your actions and just hoping you have more good than evil. Stop pulling flower petals and hoping it lands on "God loves me" instead of "He loves me not." Nothing can separate us from the love of God. Nothing. So we don't need to stress about that or worry about that. We can cast our cares on Him because we know He cares for us. We can trust in Him because He has continually proved Himself trustworthy. He did the heavy lifting to get us to where we needed to be. Where He WANTED us to be. God warned man not to eat of the tree of death, telling us that only death could come from it. And then when man was naked and ashamed... God covered us--with Himself. HE cursed the fig tree because it couldn't bear fruit. HE did what we couldn't do. Brought us out of death and into life. And not just any life but HIS abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of love! If you want to experience life, doesn't it make sense to eat the fruit of the Tree of Life? I'm telling you, you are what you eat. What you see is what you be. What you focus on is what fills your life. What you magnify is what manifests in you life. So set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. Let God take care of you, and then take care of others because you are taken care of. Receive it and release it!

In the same way that there are only two men who have ever lived (Adam and Jesus), in the beginning there were two trees. But, since man couldn't keep his hands off the tree of death, and because it couldn't produce any fruit, only death, Jesus went ahead and cursed the fig tree so that it would wither and die. Which brings us to Revelation 22:1-2 (NLT), "Then the angel showed me a river with the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. It flowed down the center of the main street. on each side of the river grew a tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, with a fresh crop each month. The leaves were used for medicine to heal the nations." So we start with two trees. One of them messes man up big time, Jesus takes care of it, and we end up with only the Tree of Life when we get to the true paradise or Kingdom of God. And I just want to throw it out here that I believe the book of Revelation (the Revelation of Jesus Christ) is an in-depth look at the cross. So we can understand that nothing in the Bible is in our future. It is history. HIS story. And while these things are manifesting in our lives (in the sense of, "It has happened, it is happening, it will happen") we need to get out of the mindset of thinking we lack something, but someday God will hopefully give it to us. He gave us everything He has and everything He is when He gave us His only begotten Son. Jesus gave His life for us, yes, but He also gave His life TO us. So that we could have it. So what I'm trying to say today is, instead of trying to "turn over a new leaf," which would keep you on the same tree... good and evil were both on the same tree... we need to understand that fig leaves couldn't cover us at all. We needed lambskin. We need to understand that the fig tree can't produce any fruit... only the Tree of Life can. Twelve crops a year. Love for every season and situation. And while the leaves of the tree of death couldn't even cover man's nakedness... the leaves of the Tree of Life are for the healing of the nations! Everything we need is found on that tree. Because that Tree of Life is Jesus. And He is everything we need. So instead of swinging from branch to branch--"I was good yesterday, but I really messed up today, I hope the good outweighs the evil and God will love me"--we need to feast from the other tree. The fruit of the Tree of Life is the fruit of the Spirit. Which is love. When Jesus said He was the vine and we are the branches He was talking about this Tree of Life. We bear the fruit that HE produces. That's why He got rid of the fig tree--the tree of death--because it couldn't produce any fruit. He wanted us to change our diet. Because you are what you eat. And you can't give what you don't have. You can only give what you do have. When we are feasting on the fruit of the Spirit, filling ourselves up to overflowing with what we've been filled with, that's when we can SHARE what we have. That's when we can make it available to the people we come into contact with. That's when we can share it, and experience it even more fully. Think about your favorite movie. If you're anything like me you love watching that movie by yourself. Saying all the lines. Smiling the whole way through. But now think about watching that movie with your best friend. Shared experiences are better because, well, they are shared. Because now more than just you can enjoy it. That's how love works. Love is giving. Sharing what you've got is the very best way to experience what you've got. Letting what's inside come out by knowing and believing it's in there. Filling yourself up with the fruit from the Tree of Life. The fruit of the Spirit. Love!

Logan and I were talking about this the other morning before school, so I thought I'd Rant about it and probably do a podcast episode about it too. Because it's interesting, and because I think it's powerful. That's one thing I always try to do with my ministry--Word Without Walls is about making the gospel as available as possible. Just presenting it in a way that is easy to accept, and to use. Making it practical. Giving people something that will actually help them in their daily lives. Not something to choke on, but certainly something to chew on. So, anyway, this discussion started with Logan saying something about the "forbidden fruit." He said it was an apple. Which is what we kind of generally accept. But I told him that I don't think it WAS an apple, and that the Bible doesn't SAY it was an apple. I told him I think it was a fig. He asked why. And we really got into a deep dive. Watch this: "The woman was conviced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. The she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too. At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves" (Genesis 3:6-7 NLT). After eating the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, Adam and Eve covered themselves with fig leaves. See what I'm saying? They were naked... and ashamed... and covered themselves with what was on hand. And before we go any further I want to point out that nakedeness wasn't man's problem. They were naked the day before and nobody cared. Certainly God never cared. It didn't bother Him. But once their eyes were opened and it bothered THEM... that's when it became a problem. Once man felt the need to cover up his nakedness... that's when it became an issue. And watch this, because this is an expression of love that I think is sometimes hard to really even understand: "And the LORD God made clothing from animal skins for Adam and his wife" (Genesis 3:21 NLT). God didn't have a problem with man's nakedness... but He had a problem with man's problem. Or He had a problem with man HAVING a problem. So even though it wasn't something God cared about... He cared about the person who cared about it... and He solved the problem. Covering up your mistake with more mistakes doesn't help. Eating a fig and then covering yourself with fig leaves is almost like wearing it like a scarlet letter. A constant reminder. That's not what God wanted. So He showed Adam and Eve a more excellent way. He covered them with animal skins. And in the same way that I believe Adam and Eve took what was on hand... I believe God did too. I believe He covered them with Lamb skin. Covered them with Jesus. Jesus IS our covering. Our protection. He is out refuge and our hiding place. Our safe place. He is why, and how, we can carry on even though we make mistakes. Even though we don't always listen to God's warning. And that's what we're going to get into tomorrow--the truth that God wasn't saying, "If you eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil I'm going to kill you." That's not what He said at all. But that's kind of how we've presented it. Unfortunately. Tragically. We've presented God as someone who gets mad when He doesn't get His own way. When, in fact, what we see is that He is more than willing to fix our problems--that we create for ourselves--by giving us Himself. And don't worry, by the time we're done with this Rant series we're going to see that it's not the fig tree that mattered at all. That tree couldn't produce any fruit. We're going to see that the tree that matters is the Tree of Life!

The biggest thing about tasting and seeing that the Lord is good, is that once you know what you've got--and you know how good it really is--you can share it. You can be the branches that bear the fruit to those who need it. Which, by the way, is everybody. Everybody needs what you have. And when you share it, when you give it away, that's how you experience it. Letting what's inside come out is how you experience and enjoy what's inside. Because what's inside is love. And love is giving. You can give without loving, but you can't love without giving. And when you give what you've got--which, again, is what everybody needs--that's how you show people who God is. Because God is love. Shoving religion down someone's throat doesn't help them. In fact, that will just make them choke. And probably throw up. Shoving your beliefs down someone's throat is an almost surefire way to turn them off of what you believe. To ensure that they run FROM God instead of running TO God. Because when we do that we make Him seem very unattractive. We don't show the goodness of God. We only show the scariness of the God we've created. And it is ont the scariness of God that leads men to repentance, it is the goodness of God! When people see something better than what they have--what they have settled for--that's when they can choose a more excellent way. I'm telling you, if the only motivation is to "not get in trouble" that doesn't bring any kind of real, lasting change. Strict parents produce sneaky kids. We don't need behavior modification. We need the heart of God. And we have that heart! His heart beats with love in our chests. He has given us everything we need. He reconciled us to HImself, and gave us that word, or that ministry, of reconciliation. So now we can reconcile others to God in the same way that we were reconciled--pulled in by His unconditional love. When you know that you have somewhere safe you can go, even when you mess up (especially when you mess up!), that's so powerful. Because then you don't have to run from Him. Ever. For any reason. Then you can run to Him. Every time. And, really, you don't have to keep running to Him, because you can simply STAY with Him. Seated at the right had of the Father. Safe and sound at home sweet home. You can rest. You can be still and know that HE is God. You can let God do what He's of a mind to do by letting the mind of Christ (that's already in you) BE in you. By letting the love that's already inside you come out. And we do that by knowing and believing that it's in there. By tasting it and seeing it. By letting God love us and then loving Him back by loving each other. It's all about the heart. (And I'm pretty sure that's what I'm going to Rant about next, starting tomorrow.) The issue of life--which is love--flows from the heart. We live from the inside out. Whatever we believe is inside WILL come out. It has to. Because whatever it is, it is too big and too powerful to stay locked up inside. Hurting people hurt people. But loved people love people. So the key is knowing and believing. Receiving and releasing. Tasting and seeing. Seeing the Kingdom. Not in the sense that we need to find, or get, something we don't have. But in the sense of exploring what we do have. God gave us the fruit of the Spirit. Which is love. And when we taste it we can't help but say, "Hey, give this a try" and let the people we come into contact with taste it too. Sharing is caring. Giving what you've got is how you experience what you've got. And the tide raises all ships. You experience it and THEY experience it. You taste it and see it and THEY taste it and see it. And then we all experience the love of God together. And that's what life is all about!

In reality, it is only by tasting and seeing that we can KNOW that God is good. It's easy to say that, easy to try to tell someone that, but at the end of the day we need something more. We need something real. And God knows that. That is why He has gone to extraordinary efforts to SHOW us who He is. That is why He is never afraid to prove Himself to us. I quote this verse a lot, "Dear friends, we are already God's children, be he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is" (1 John 3:2). And I know that a lot of religious folk like to use this verse in the sense of some pie in the sky future day "second coming." But I don't see it that way (pun intended). I believe Jesus appears to us every day. We just have to be looking for Him in order to see Him. God is love, right? Love appears to us all the time. And when we see love... we be love. You are what you eat. What you see is what you be. God appears to us--and in us, and through us, and as us--so that we might know Him as He is... and know ourselves as we truly are... and know each other! That's what this life is for: Knowing and being known. Loving and being loved. Loving because we are loved! Tasting and seeing that the Lord is good is tasting and seeing that love is good! And when you know how good it is--when you know how good what you already have is--it makes you want to share it. To give it away. Because you know that you have what everybody--EVERYBODY--needs. Seeing a need and meeting it is the most simple and effective way to love someone. Building connections and relationships with people so that we can learn how to love them the way they need to be loved. Always remember, love is not about you. It's about the person you're loving. Love is never about getting. If you're making sure you get your own way... that's not love. If you're TRYING to get your own way... that's not love. Love doesn't have an ulterior motive. Love IS the motive. "Why did you do that?" Because I love you. Because it was in my heart to do it. That's where the real comes from. And people are so desperate for the real because we are surrounded by so much fake. The deep calls out ot the deep. The light in me and the light in you is the only way we can truly connect on the real, deep, meaningful level. Love is the bond that brings us, and keeps us, together. And you can't give what you don't have. You can only give what you do have. So you need to know what you have. You need to taste it and see it. You need to seek the Kingdom in the sense of exploring the Kingdom. Not in the sense of getting something you think you haven't got. Because you have the Kingdom. You're in the Kingdom. Because the Kingdom is in you. The Kingdom IS you. We don't just live in it, we ARE it. Because the Kingdom is where the King (Jesus) rules and reigns. He reigns in us, and through us, and as us. Wherever we go, there He is. Wherever we go, there LOVE is. You can always love people. Because you are always loved by God. And when you taste it and see it, you will want to share it. Because it's too good to keep to yourself. You have what everybody needs. You know how good it is. And you know what it's like to have been without out. So don't be stingy with what you've got. Give it away freely and generously. Live out of your abundance. Give what you've got. Because you know how good it is!

The goodess of God leads men to repentance. Because repentance means thinking again about something in light of something else. The religious world has made "repentance" into the idea of "say you're sorry for sinning and get your soul saved." And, listen, moving past the things that you did in your life when you dind't know better is good. I'm not saying you shouldn't do that. But begging for forgiviness in the hopes that you get to go to heaven instead of hell when you die is not in my theology. Repentance is about a mindshift away from earning your (spiriual) bread by the sweat of your brow... and moving into a mindset of being still and knowing that HE is God. Not trying to be someone you're not in order to get what you think you haven't got... but receiving and releasing what you have already been given. Tasting and seeing what you already have instead of always trying to get, get, get what you think you don't have. We have what we need. We have no lack because our God has no lack. We have been given everything we could ever need when God gave us His only begotten Son. Repentance is a shift from perishing... to having everlasting life. A shift from death... to life. And, again, it is the GOODNESS of God that leads us to this. It is seeing that there IS something better available to us. There IS a more excellent way and His name is Jesus. His name is love. Love is literally the difference between death and life. No love, no life. Know love, know life! That's the key. That's the secret of life. It's all about love. When you're tasting and seeing that the Lord is good... you're tasting and seeing LOVE! Tasting and seeing that LOVE is good! And when you taste and see something that is better than what you have... why wouldn't you want it? In reality, you want something better already. Chances are you just don't believe that it's possible. Or you don't believe that it's possible for YOU to have. So you settle. You take what life gives you instead of seeking first the Kingdom. And, again, not in the sense of seeking the Kingdom in order to get something you haven't got, but seeking the Kingdom in order to explore what you have got! In order to see what's available to you. In order to EXPERIENCE the Kingdom. And, since it is the Kingdom of God--the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of Love--in order to experience that Kingdom, that love, we give it away. Because love is giving. You can give without loving, but you can't love without giving. And watch this: When you give the love that you've got... you are showing people the goodness of God! How else do you think it is seen and tasted? When you love someone, you are showing them God. Jesus told Philip, "If you've seen me, you've seen the Father." A man, like you and me, filled with love. That's Jesus. God in the flesh. Love in a body. God in our flesh. Love in our body. And when that love comes out--when we fill ourselves to overflowing with what we have already been filled with--that's when WE taste and see, and that's when we allow OTHERS to taste and see that the Lord is good! Jesus was given the ministry of reconciliation. And He gave that same ministry to us. Brought us back to Himself--after WE hid from His presence--and equipped and empowered us to bring others to Him. Not by scaring them into submission. But by showing them who God REALLY is. Taste and see... that the Lord is GOOD! The GOODNESS of God leads men to repentance. Seeing something BETTER than what you've got is what will bring about that change of mind in you. And by "better than what you've got," I mean seeing what you've REALLY got instead of what you've settled for. The Kingdom is at hand. It is available. It is, in fact, within us! We don't need it. We already have it!

You are what you eat. What you ingest, or what you put inside you, is what, in a very real way, defines you. Garbage in... garbage out, right? Or, in the same way, God in... God out! And the best part about that is: God has already filled you with Himself. We're not starting at empty. We're starting at full of the Holy Spirit. All we need to do is fill ourselves to overflowing with what we've already been filled with. Look at 2 Peter 1:4-5 (NLT), "And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world's corruption caused by human desires. In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God's promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and more excellence with knowledge." It goes on and on, adding more and more. But the important part to realize is that you aren't adding anything that God hasn't already added. It's about looking into the mirror, seeing the glory of God, and being changed into that same image from GLORY to GLORY. We start at glory. We start at full. We aren't missing anything or lacking anything. Tasting and seeing about about "getting" anything. It's about experiencing what we already have. When Jesus said, "Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need" (Matthew 6:33 NLT), I believe He was telling us HOW to EXPERIENCE all that He has given to us. We don't seek the Kingdom in the sense of finding and getting something we don't have. He gave us the Kingdom. We are in the Kingdom. And we are the Kingdom. We don't need to seek FOR it. We need to seek it in the sense of exploring it. Finding out what we have. Testing the height, and depth, and length, and breadth of God's love by loving people bigger and stronger than we ever thought we could. Love is giving. It's never about getting. We love because He first loved us. He gave us everything we need. He prepared a table for us in the midst of our enemies. He finished the work. He did everything that needed to be done. So now we can enjoy the fruit of His labor. We can take the ball and run with it. We can bear the fruit that He has produced, and we can make it available to the people who need it--which, by the way, is everybody. Everybody needs love. If you have it--and if you understand that love is giving--than you can give people what they need. By letting what's inside come out. By adding all the things God has already added to you until they overflow out of you. Learning how to love by learning how you are loved. Letting what's inside come out by knowing and believing that it's already in there. Tasting and seeing. Eating the six course meal (the six steps to the throne) that Jesus prepared for us. And not only eating that love feast, but sharing it. Making sure nobody around us is hungry. Making sure everybody around us has what they need too. Showing how good God is by loving people. Giving what we've got. Letting the love inside come out. Then other people can taste and see too. And then other people can receive and release that love in the same way that we have received it and released it. A Holy Ghost wildfire that rages out of control and consumes everything but itself!

The more I kind of listen to other people's "religious ideas" the more I think we've really lost the whole point of the whole thing. Because it seems like "theology" has become "Don't make God any more mad than He already is or you're in big trouble." We misrepresent the gospel because we think scaring people straight is the only way to get them to do what we want. But here's the thing: It's not about getting people to do what you want. It's about loving people. And if you present a scary, angry God to people, they will run FROM Him instead of running TO Him. What I'm trying to impart into my own son is that when he gets in trouble... I should be his first call. Because nobody will ever be on his side like I am. Nobody will ever have his back like I do. And that's how our heavenly Father feels about us. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, and didn't listen to His warning, and ate from the tree of death (the tree of knowledge of good and evil), they hid from His presence. Because they thought He was going to punish them. They were naked and ashamed, and they thought God was going to be mad about their nakedness. But the truth was, they were naked the day before and God didn't care. He never had--and never will have--a problem with our nakedness. And watch this: When WE had a problem with our nakedness, and tried to cover ourselves with fig leaves... even though He didn't have a problem, He solved OUR problem. He didn't punish man. He covered man with Lamb skin. With Himself. And then He drove man out of the garden of Eden--not as punishment, but to protect us from living forever in that "fallen" state. To get us to the place where, at the appointed time, He could reconcile us back to Himself through the finished work of the cross. A scary God doesn't do anything for me. That's my point. And I want to use two memory verses at the foundation for this Rant series. "Don't you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can't you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?" (Romans 2:4 NLT). In the KJVis says, "...not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?" It is the GOODNESS of God. Not the scariness of God. And repentance, for the record, means thinking again about something in light of new information. Basically, in this sense, seeing ourselves as saints instead of sinners in light of the finished work of the cross! So that's one of my building blocks. It is the goodness of God. When we see something better than what we have, we will want that. The grass actually IS greener on the other side. The Kingdom is available to us. It's at hand. Within reach. Within us! And the second memory verse is, "Taste and see that the LORD is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him!" (Psalm 34:8 NLT). Seeing is believing. God doesn't expect us to blindly follow Him. He is more than ready, willing, and able to show Himself. Every time in the Bible that someone needed a sign from God... He was happy to provide it for them. It doesn't bother God to prove Himself. He knows who He is and what He's about. He invites us to check Him out, because He knows He will stand up to the scrutiny. Taste and see that the Lord is good. And then let that goodness lead you to repentance. To think again. To see--and taste--things as they truly are. Seeing is believing. What you see is what you be. Jesus said, "This is my body, take, eat." The way we understand God is by consuming Him. Getting what's inside... inside. To the point that it fills us to overflowing and comes out. Naturally. With every breath we take and every move we make. So don't try to make God into something He's not. Simply taste and see... that He is good!

LIfe, light, love. Three L's that desribe God. Three things that look different, but are really the same thing. Living in the light is living a life of love. God has shined His light on us--INTO us. He has given His life for us--and to us. He has filled us with His love, so that we can love Him back by loving people. This is important to understand, because when we look in the mirror we see Jesus. As He is, so are we in this world. The Three L's that describe God... are the Three L's that desribe US. I know I quote this memory verse a lot, but I'm going to keep doing it because it's one of my favorites: "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). We know who we are... but we don't yet know exactly what it means to be who we are. We ARE the Son(s) of God. He created us in His image in the beginning, and then conformed us to His image on the cross. That's all a done deal. We don't need to change. We are who we were created to be. What needs to change is our understanding and our mindset. And we don't need to wait for some "second coming" for Him to appear. He appears to us all the time. LOVE appears to us all the time. People living their lives in the light by loving us appear all the time. And when we see that love, we can be that love. When we know what we have we can experience it and enjoy it by giving it away. By sharing it. Guys, we have been blessed to be a blessing. To let what's inside come out. We have been given everything we need to experience and enjoy Jesus's abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life by being still and knowing that He is God. By letting Him live His own life in us, and through us, and as us. Nobody can live Jesus's life except Jesus. And that's ok. Because that takes the pressure off of us. It's not by our might, or by our power. It's by the Spirit of God. The power of God working in us to will and to do of His good pleasure. It's Jesus living His own life... in us. That's what it means that He gave His own life TO us. Jesus said HE is the light of the world and He said that WE are the light of the world. It's the same light. The same life. The same love. And, again, those things aren't just connected. They are all the same thing. We live in the light by loving people. Love God and love people. Love God BY loving people. Let God love the hell out of you and love Him back by loving the hell out of the people we come into contact with. That's what this life is for. That's what this life is all about. So instead of chasing something you think you're missing--instead of trying to be someone you're not in order to get something you think you haven't got--embrace who you really are. Which is who you are in Christ. Which is who Christ is in you. He has brought us out of the darkness and into the light. By appearing to us. By shining that glorious light on us, and in us, and through us. And when that light shines... we can see clearly. We can understand the Divine Order of things. Knowing and believing. Receiving and releasing. Letting what's inside--the love of God--come out. Filling ourselves to overflowing with what we've already been filled with. Experiencing God's love for us... by giving it away. By loving people. Shining our light on them. Helping THEM to see God's love. Helping them be in the light, as we are in the light, as He is in the light. That's how we can truly live. Truly experience life to the fullest. You are loved. Which means you can love. Because it means you ARE love. So be who you are and give what you've got!