There aren't many things in this world that are more powerful than a loving embrace. It can turn things around in a hurry. And I've always liked the quote that says, "You can't change the whole world, but by loving someone you can change THEIR whole world." That's what an embrace is all about. It's personal. It's intimate. It's one of the best ways to show love, because it shows human contact. And I think most people are desperate for human contact. It's ironic, because we spend so much times trying to protect ourselves, trying to avoid contact for fear that we'll get hurt (again), that every once in a while when we can no longer stand the isolation we crash into someone. But maturity is when, instead of giving an eye for an eye, "You crashed into me so I'm going to crash you back," we begin to understand WHY someone crashed into us. We break the cycle and show them a more excellent way. Because the truth of the matter is, hurt people hurt people. But loved people love people. And we are loved. (God loves everbody, of course, but we know and believe we are loved.) So we can love. We don't have to take what the world gives us and make the best of it. We are in the world, but not of the world, as they say. We can be thermostats (SETTING the temperature) instead of thermometers (merely reading the temperature). We can tap into a whole different economy. Not the world's economy, but the Kingdom economy. And since the Kingdom of God is the Kingdom of Love... the currency of the Kingdom is righteousness, peace, and joy... mercy, grace, and love! Someone hits us, and instead of hitting back we can embrace them. We can give them what they need instead of just boomeranging back what they gave to us. Because you can't give what you don't have. And you can only give what you do have. So instead of letting what someone else gives you dictate what you give them... turn the other cheek. Let what's inside you come out. Naturally. By (again) knowing and believing it's in there. When we try to change people we put wedges and walls between us. Because people are going to be who they are (or rather, who they think they are) regardless of what you say or do about it. Behavior modification doesn't work. ESPECIALLY when you're trying to modify someone else's behavior. All I can say is, "Good luck." But when you give someone room to be themselves, to learn and grow, that's when real change takes place. And by "real change" I don't mean a change that needs to happen. I mean a change that took place 2,000 years ago on an old rugged cross manifesting in people's lives. I mean that more excellent way--which is love--showing people who they really are by showing them who God really is. Who they are in Christ. Who Christ is in them. You can't show someone the God who is love without showing them love. People are used to getting bad news. They've accepted it as, "the way things are." But that's not the way things have to be. Because we know better. And when you know better, you do better. What you do flows from what you believe. We have BEEN embraced, and now we can embrace each other!

When you give someone something unexpected, it can turn their whole world around. Especially when, instead of an eye for an eye, you give them a loving embrace. Especially when you show them a more excellent way. I think people--unfortunately--are used to getting a bad deal. We always ask, "Why do bad things happen to good people?" but I think deep down we expect bad things to happen. We complain about it, but we're used to it. We accept it. It's par for the course. Normal. So when something good actually DOES happen... it's usually kind of shocking. Remember Jacob and Esau? When big brother (who was wronged over and over again) embraced little brother they both wept. It was a release. For Jacob it was being able to release all the feelings of guilt and shame. For Esau it was a release of any bitterness or resentment. There was something between the brothers. And it took one of them letting go of it and embracing the other for that reconciliation. Love doesn't break things apart. Love binds things together. I've Ranted before on the ties that bind. And there are a lot of them. Guilt... obligation... "you owe me." A lot of negative ties. But there are a lot of positive ones too. Mercy, and grace, and forgiveness... and love. And THOSE ties are unbreakable. In fact, the positive ones can break the negative ones. Nahum 1:13 speaks of this idea. "For now will I break his yoke from off thee, and will burst thy bonds in sunder." (And yes, I understand the historical context is about the Assyrian oppression. But the Spiritual application is about the bondage of sin and death.) See... we don't win by fighting against flesh and blood. We win by fighting the good fight of faith. Laying hold of the gift of eternal life that we've been given. Sin is unbelief, and can only be defeated by faith. And we lay hold of eternal life... by embracing it. By letting God love us. By receiving it and releasing it. And we receive it BY releasing it. We letting God love us by loving each other. We embrace eternal life... by embracing each other. By letting what we've been filled with fill us to overflowing and come out naturally. We don't have to fake it 'til we make it. All we have to do is let what's true be true for us. And that happens when we know it and believe it. When we BE transformed (into what we've already been transformed into) by the renewing of our minds. By letting the mind of Christ (that's already in us) BE in us. We don't have to change. We simply have to see the change that already took place. We don't have to transform. God's love already transformed us. The Old Man died in the watery grave of baptism. The New Man came forth to walk in newness of life. We CAN embrace, because we have BEEN embraced. We CAN love, because we ARE loved. Because we are LOVE. That's what's inside. The Kingdom is within you. The Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of Love. Righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. When we know what we've got, we can give it away. We can share it. We can experience it. We can stop letting stuff get between us and our fellow man. We can let people be who they are even as we be who we are. We can stop rejecting people and start embracing them!

There were two brothers. And they didn't exactly get along. The younger brother was a swindler. He stole his brother's birthright, and his first-born blessing. Then he ran away and hid, for fear that his big brother would, well, kill him. He had what they refer to as a "guilty conscience." So when it was time to come home, he was big time nervous. Terrified, in fact. He was so sure that he was going to get punished for all of his wrongdoings that he instead of just living his life he was doing everything he could to avoid the punishment he KNEW was coming. And then this happened, "And Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him: and they wept" (Genesis 33:4). A little bit of mercy, and grace, went a long long way. An expected loving embrace changed everything. The brothers were united again. Reconciled. This story is a type and shadow of Jesus and us. He represents the older brother (in this case. Because He also represents Jacob. It's the Bible, after all. It's ALL Jesus.) And Jacob (again, in this case) represents us. The world. Humanity. Doing wrong and running to avoid punishment. So afraid that God is mad at us that run FROM Him instead of running TO Him. Even though the truth of the matter is, He opened His arms wide on the cross and wrapped us in a loving embrace. "To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation" (2 Corinthians 5:19). Don't we get it? It doesn't matter what we've done. What we've done doesn't define who we are. JESUS defines who we are. He is our true identity. The inner man. The hidden man of the heart. And if He would go so far out of His way to prove His love for us that He would literally give His life for us and give His life to us... doesn't that say all that needs to be said? If, instead of delivering the punishment we so fully deserved He would run to us, and embrace us, and fall on our necks, and kiss us... if, instead of giving an eye for an eye He would turn the other cheek... if, instead of being mad AT us, He's actually mad ABOUT us... doesn't that free us up to treat each other in the same way? God didn't impute our trespasses onto us. Even though we rejected Him, and beat Him, and spat on Him, and mocked Him, and literally nailed Him to a cross and murdered Him. We did the worst thing you could do to somebody. And He cried out, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." He wasn't even mad. He didn't even fight it. He submitted. He surrendered. And in so doing He won. He finished the work. He took the accuser's best shot. He took DEATH'S best shot. And He rose again from the grave. Giving us--not the punishment we deserved but--everlasting life. Giving us abundant life. Eternal life. Resurrection Life. He gave us HIS life. Everything He has and everything He is, is everything WE have and everthing WE are. Because instead of disqualifying us, instead of punishing us, instead of ostracizing us... He embraced us. He forgave us. He loved us.

I find that if something is Spiritually true, the reverse is often true. Usually even more so. For example, Acts 17:28 says, "For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring." Absolute truth. We live in Him. But the reverse is also (even more) true. In US He lives, and moves, and has His being. We don't just live in Him. He lives in us. The NLT says, "For in him we live and move and exist." And, in the same way the the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (and then took a step further on the cross and began to dwell within us), God--LOVE--exists in us. But my point for today is not that we have what we need. I feel like I make that point loud and proud all the time. My point for today is that when we focus so much on "holding on to Him" the truth of the matter is... He's holding on to us. And He's never letting us go. Revelation 21:3 in the Message Bible says it like this, "I heard a voice thunder from the Throne: “Look! Look! God has moved into the neighborhood, making his home with men and women! They’re his people, he’s their God." God moved into the neighborhood--the house that He built for Himself, which is you--and He's never moving out. He might need to do some renovations, but He's happy with the house. He's happy with you. And the truth is, He made the renovations 2,000 years ago on the cross. So when we have these "growing pains" it's not REALLY a change taking place. The change already took place. What's happening is a revelation of the change. We be who we are as we learn who we are... who HE is in us, and through us, and as us. But I want to stress something before we go any further. I'm NOT saying you shouldn't hang on to Jesus as tightly as you can. There have been times in my life when nothing could have gotten me through what I was going through but God. What I'm saying is... we need to see the reverse of it. We need to see HIS arms stretched wide on the cross, embracing us. Because if we have this idea that we're hanging on to Him but He has a different agenda, then we're missing out on a lot. It's like when you're a kid and your parent is busy and your trying to get their attention. You might grab their hand, and try to pull them down to your level. And sometimes that's how it seems with God. Sometimes it seems like He's not listening. Or, at the very least, not answering. But... and this took me a LONG time to learn... sometimes no answer IS the answer. But, again, my point is that God is not a heavenly Father who is too busy for you. You don't have to hang on with all you've got. Because even if you let go... He won't. His embrace is one that is everlasting. Eternal. His embrace is loving the world--you and everybody else included--so much that He would literally give His only begotten Son. That the Son would literally give His life for you, and to you. That God would move into the neighborhood and say, "I'm home." He's not going anywhere. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. You might be reaching for Him, but He has already wrapped you in His loving arms. His arms were spread wide on the cross, and He wrapped up the whole world in His loving embrace. And He's never ever letting go!

You had to know I was gonna pull on this thread a little bit. I truly think one of the things the world is most desperate for is a loving embrace. And it drives me absolutely bonkers crazy when we put up hoops for people to jump through in order to earn they thing they NEED. Notice--I didn't say want. I said need. Remember the old song, "What the world needs now... is love... sweet love..." For real. And since we have it, we ought to give it. Which is literally what it says in my verse for today. 1 John 3:16, "Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren." It's the same idea behind the New Commandment. Love one another AS Jesus loves you. It's receiving it and releasing it. Letting it fill you to overflowing and come out naturally. What Jesus did for us, we can now do for each other. We can give the world what it needs. (Again: A loving embrace.) Look at what might be the most famous verse in the Bible, John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (And to me it's no coincidence that both of my verses for today are 3:16s.) Notice who God loved--the world. It seems like the only people Jesus actually had a problem with were the religious folks. The folks who thought they were "up here" while the rest of the world was "down there." And isn't that kind of the same religious mindset we see all the time? "We're going up and you're going down." "Get right or get left." But let me tell you something: You can't scare someone straight. People are who they are--or rather, who they think they are--and they do what they do. Behavior modification is not an effective form of... anything, really. But teaching someone who they really are (by, you guessed it, wrapping them in a loving embrace... by being who YOU really are and SHOWING them a more excellent way) equips and empowers them to BE who they really are. But here's the scary part: People won't change on your timetable. And even when they make some progress, they're also going to make some mistakes. Sometimes it feels like one step forward and two steps back. Sometimes it feels like people always let you down. But that doesn't mean you give up on them. Jesus said the greatest love a man can have is to lay down His life for His friends. He didn't say it was to give them three strikes and then they're out. In fact, He had this exchange with His disciple in Matthew 18:21-22, "Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven." Basically: Don't stop forgiving. Which brings us back to our "receive it and release it" principle. You don't forgive in order to be forgiven. You forgive BECAUSE you were forgiven. You simply give what you've got. You simply open your arms wide--like Jesus did on the cross--and give people what they need. Can I say it one more time? A loving embrace!

The thing is... we have everything we need. But if we don't know what we have, it doesn't do us very much good. And, listen, I KNOW that God is always looking out for us like the amazing Father He is. I KNOW that He does things behind the scenes that we might not be aware of. But what we've been looking at the last few days is really OUR part of the bargain. Jesus made the Way of Grace (He IS the Way). We respond with the Walk of Faith. Believing that we have something equips and empowers us to give something. Because--I say it all the time--you can't give what you don't have. And you can only give what you do have. So you need to KNOW what you have... and you have to BELIEVE that you have it. Know it, with a knowledge that passes knowledge, and believe it. Receive it, and release it. Give what you've got. Give it ALL you've got. God wanted Moses to do something that Moses didn't think he could do. And God's question was, "What's in your hand?". We come to Him from that place of need, and He responds by directing us to what we already have. I have no lack because my God has no lack. And He love me and has given all things into my hands. He has filled me to overflowing with His love by giving me His Holy Spirit (the love receptor). Now, instead of trying to fill my hands with something... instead of trying to GET something that I think I don't have... instead of looking for love in all the wrong places... I know that my hands are full. When something is a handful--more than I think I can do--all I need to do is use what's in my hands. When God asked Moses what was in his hands, it was a rod. And then the rod became a serpent, and Moses ran in fear. He didn't know what he was capable of, and when it manifested it was almost too much for him. That's the way it is a lot of times. We try so hard to "make something happen." To fix things (that may or may not be broken) to OUR satisfaction. We run around like chickens with our heads cut off trying to get something. We bang our heads against the wall and inevitably end up with a headache. We get discouraged. And bitter. And then we give what we have. We discourage others. "I failed, so what's the point of you even trying?" We spread our bitterness like a virus. Because it's like this: What you feed is what grows. But if you realize how full of it you are--the Holy Spirit, God's mercy, and grace, and love--then out of your abundance you can give mercy, and grace, and love! We love God (by loving each other) because He first loved us. He made the first move. He finished the work. He gave all things into our hands. And what we do is respond. We walk by faith, not by sight. We receive that love and we release it. We let what's inside come out. Not by trying to force it out, but simply by filling ourselves to overflowing with what we've already been filled with. Letting God love us to the max so we can love each other to the max. What's in your hand? Even if it's empty, it's really not. Because a helping hand sometimes needs to be empty. So that you grip someone else's hand and help them up. You can use your hands to embrace each other. And I think, most of the time, that's what we need more than anything else. We need to know that we are loved. We ARE loved... so we CAN love!

We need to stop looking without, and start looking within. We need to stop acting like we ARE without, and start enjoying the gift we've been given. Don't seek the Kingdom as if you don't have it. Seek it--EXPLORE it--to find out what you DO have! I liken it to the admonition in Ephesians 3:17-19, "That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." It's not about GETTING anything. It's about filling yourself with what you've already been filled with. Letting what's inside come out as we know and believe it's in there. As we let it overflow and come out naturally. God asked Moses, "What's in your hand?". He was about to do something special, but He was going to do it with what was readily available. Remember we always say, "God is more concerned with your AVAILABILITY than your ability." And then when Moses told the people God would fight for them, God told the people, "Don't just stand there. Move forward." We're always waiting for God to do something. For God to give us something. Guys. God did what He was going to do. It's called the cross. He gave us what He's going to give us. He gave us Jesus. He gave us His Spirit. He gave us Himself. He blessed us with all Spiritual blessings and gave us all things that pertain to life and godliness. The Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into our hands. We don't need to get God to love us. He always has and always will. What we need to do is begin to comprehend that love. What we need to do--through the Holy Spirit, our love receptor--is let God love us. Let Him love us so big that we couldn't contain it if we tried. Jesus said when we believe in Him a river of life will flow from our bellies. From our innermost being. That river of life is a river of love. Because to live is to love, and to love is live. Love comes from our innermost being. It's already in there. We don't need it. We have it. We need to SHARE it. Love is real when you give it away. That's when it manifests. That's when YOU experience it, and others experience it. When you take what's in your hand, and use it. When you stop waiting for God to do something FOR you, and you let Him do something IN you. THROUGH you. AS you. That's when we know the love of Christ--when we love each other. That's the New Commandment: Love one another as Jesus loves you. That's how people will know you are Jesus' disciple: That you have love one for another. It's all about love. That's what the Kingdom of God is; the Kingdom of love. That's where we live, and that's who we are. We love, because He first loved us. He gave it to us. He filled our hands with it. And now we can do something about it. We can do something WITH it. Jesus told the people to repent--think differently in light of something that has happened--because the Kingdom was at hand. And now, on this side of the cross, it's not just AT hand... it's within us. It's not close. It's filling us to overflowing. We are literally full of it. So now we have something to give. Something that EVERYBODY needs. If you know it... throw it. If you have it... give it away. Share it. Experience it. Love it!

It's not about getting. It's about giving what you've got. USING what you've got. Sharing what you've got, and in that way truly experiencing it. Look at Matthew 4:17, "From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." I think this is such an important concept. Because A. The Kingdom is at hand. It's within your reach. And B. All you have to do in order to reach it... is repent. Think differently. And, specifically, think differently in light of something that has happened. That something that happened was the cross. The light of the world shining on us, and in us, and through us, and out of us, and as us! The greatest expression of love--laying your life down for your friends--showing us HOW to love. Showing us what love is. Not getting, but giving. Love IS giving. But you can't give what you don't have, right? You can only give what you do have. So you need to KNOW what you do have. You need to know what's in your hand. That's what God asked Moses. And that's what Moses used. God works in mysterious ways... because He works through people. Ordinary people doing extraordinary things. God's super on top of our natural making us supernatural. Not us trying to finish the work, but us knowing, and believing, that Jesus finished the work. Not trying to take the Kingdom by force, but understanding that it was the Father's good pleasure to GIVE us the Kingdom. Which He did... by giving us the King. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. So instead of trying to take the Kingdom through the violence of human effort... we can receive it and release it. We can stop trying to conform to the world and we can be transformed (into what we've already been transformed into) by the renewing of our minds. By repenting. By letting the mind of Christ (that's already in us) BE in us. Not trying to be someone we're not, but being who we really are by letting Jesus be who HE really is in us, and through us, and as us. Guys, the Kigndom isn't something external. It's not something you can get. It's within you. It's something you ARE. Righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. We're not just IN the Kingdom... we ARE the Kingdom. We're not just loved, and capable of love... we ARE love. That's our nature. That's what our hands are full of. That's what's inside us, and that's what--when we know it and believe it--comes out of us. Naturally. Your nature is what you do naturally. So now that the Old Man has been crucified, and the New Man has come forth, we don't have a beast nature. We have the love nature. We don't have to try to be someone we're not, because every day we're finding out who we are. Little by little. Line upon line. Precept upon precept. One day at a time. As we let God love us, we learn what love is. And then we love each other with that same love. That's what a disciple of Jesus is; a student of love. That's what "seeking the Kingdom" is all about. Not seeking it because you don't have it, but seeking it as in exploring it. Finding out what you do have. What you can give. What's in your hand.

When you have your hands full... use what's in your hand. I hear this phrase it seems like every day, "God works in mysterious ways." And I always have to ask myself, "Really? He does?" Because it seems to me like MOST of the time God works through people. Even when something miraculous happens, like, say, the calming of a storm, it's usually a man who calms the storm. My ultimate truth of the universe is that the Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into His hand. God love us. He has given us everything we need. He has blessed us with all Spiritual blessings. He has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness. He gave us His only begotten Son. His Holy Spirit--the love receptor, the Spirit of truth that leads and guides us into all truth. What else could we possibly need? And yet we walk around with our hands out like beggars waiting for God to do something. Waiting for God to move. Guys... God moved 2,000 years ago on the cross. We don't need a move of God. We need a revelation of Jesus. We need to know what the move of God was, and what it means for us today. God finished the work. And now we get to enjoy the fruit of His labor. Which is the fruit of the Spirit. Which is love. He did it all so we get it all. And now that we have it all, we don't need to keep waiting for God to do something. Especially when we realize that God is waiting for US to do something. Let me use Moses for my example again. Exodus 14:13-15 "And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever. The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace. And the LORD said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward." The people of Israel were literally up against it. They had the Red Sea in front of them, and the Egyptian army behind them. They didn't know what to do. There was nothing they COULD do. So they cried out to God. Smart. When you can't... that's when He will. His strength is made perfect in weakness. But, rather unexpectedly, God flips the script. Moses said God would fight for them. But God said, "YOU do something." He told them to go forward. And then if we continued with the story we would see that Moses used the rod (that was in his hand) to part the Red Sea and make a way where there was no way. Something unexpected came from what God had already given. God didn't need to supernaturally supply something. Even though, again, He can, and will, and has done that. He simply instructed the people to do what they needed to do. To not be afraid. To go forward. Upward and God-ward. To trust the promise of the Lord. The Word of the Lord (which is Jesus, which is love). To be bold in the Lord and the power of HIS might. To take what we've been given and use it. Receive it and release it. Let what's inside come out, naturally, by believing it's in there. Don't stress about it. I've heard "worry" be described as praying for what you don't want. But instead of that, just use what's in your hand. Use what you've been given. Don't take what the world gives you, but USE what your heavenly Father has given you!

I always think it's interesting--and a little bit tragic, really--that people (especially religious folk) are always waiting for God to do something. Because God did what He was going to do. He gave His only begotten Son. And then Jesus did what HE was going to do. He went to the cross and finished the work. I think while we are waiting for God to do something... He's waiting for US to do something. Look at John 3:35. I believe this is the ultimate truth of the universe. What everything we believe is built on. "The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand." And I believe this truth is so vitally important because if the Father loveth the Son... and if the Son is our true identity... that means our heavenly Father loves us. AND it means He has given all things into OUR hand. It means we have everything we need. We can do everything we're called to do. We have all these sayings like, "God never demands anything that He doesn't first provide." "God made grass for a cow to eat before He made a cow." Even going as far back as, "...the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Revelation 13:8). But then every time a situation comes up we run to God like a beggar with our hands out praying for Him to swoop in and save the day. And, listen, I'm not saying God can't or won't swoop in to save the day. And I'm not saying we shouldn't cast our cares on Him because He cares for us. What I'm saying is... a lot of the time we make mountains out of molehills. A lot of the time we give things power that have no power. We stress out about things that don't deserve our three t's (time, talent, treasure). It's about understanding what we have, and what we're capable of. Exodus 4:1-5 illustrates my point. It's a little lengthy, but bear with me. "And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The LORD hath not appeared unto thee. And the LORD said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod. And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it. And the LORD said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand: That they may believe that the LORD God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee." Moses needed help. He didn't think he was capable of doing what he was called to do. And God asked him a very important question: "What's in your hand?". And I don't believe it mattered what was actually in Moses's hand. The point was: You have what you need. Remember? He has given all things into our hand. We have what we need. But even when Moses USED what was in his hand... it terrified him. He fled. Because it wasn't what he expected. This is what I want to explore in this Rant series. A. We have what we need. It's already in our hand. B. It might not be what we expect. It might surprise us. Startle us. Even scare us. But that's kind of the point. If it was something we could figure out on our own, we wouldn't need God. His strength is made perfect in weakness. He can do what needs to be done WITH our hand. In us, and through us, and as us. So when we think we have our hands full, when we think it's too much, we need to remember. Our hands... ARE His hands!