Relax. Don't put on your aluminum foil helmet. I'm not trying to use subliminal messages to control your mind. I'm simply saying, "You don't have to believe everything you think." I'm simply working on the theme found in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." Mind control. Thought control. I'm going to use a familar verse to show why this theme is so important: Proverbs 23:7, "For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he..." As you think, so are you. And more specifically as you think IN YOUR HEART so are you. I'm convinced that the Bible--every Word in every verse in every chapter in every book--is simply different pictures of the same thing. Pictures of God. Pictures of love. Becasue God IS love. So when we're talking about the mind of Christ, we're talking about the heart of Christ. We're talking about thinking with your (GOD'S) heart. UNDERSTANDING with your heart. Proverbs 15:14 tells us that, "The heart of him that hath understanding seeketh knowledge: but the mouth of fools feedeth on foolishness." And remember what 2 Corinthians 10 says, "Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God." The heart of him that has understanding seeketh knowledge, and casts down everything that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. Let me say it another way: Eat the watermelon and spit out the seeds. Be like the Bereans who, "...received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily..." (Acts 17:11). What I'm trying to say is: Just because someone says something doesn't make it true. What's the old saying? Believe half of what you see and none of what you hear. I know I'm starting this Rant series out with a lot, lot, lot of Scripture, but look at 1 John 4:1-2, "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God." There's your standard right there. But let me lay this out the way I always absorb it. Because "Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh" seems to have turned into, "If you don't confess that Jesus has come in the flesh you're on the highway to hell." It's become a religious hoop to jump through. Here's how I absorb it: Jesus is God. God is love. LOVE has come in the flesh. The Word (Jesus, love) became flesh and dwelt among us. Every SPIRIT that "confesses" (or agrees with) this is simply the Spirit of love. Every time we love someone with the love that we are loved with, the Spirit (love) becomes flesh. It's not about forcing "Jesus," or worse yet religion, down people's throats and making them choke. It's about loving people. We don't control the mind of Christ. The mind of Christ control us. Which is exactly what 2 Corinthians 5:14 says in the NLT, "Either way, Christ's love controls us..." That's mind control. Not warring against sin (or unbelief), but fighting the good fight of faith. Focusing only on what is good, and pure, and holy. LOVE!

I like the Law of First Mention. You know, where the first time a word is used in the Bible sets the tone for how it is used thereafter. So let's look at the first time the King James Bible uses the word, "alive." Genesis 6:19, "And of every thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female." To me that's pretty perfect. "Alive" means put in the ark. And it doesn't just mean struggling along. It means KEPT alive. Jesus, the lifter of our heads, keeps us from falling. The ark protected the people and animals from the flood. From the cleansing of the world. The ark brought them out of the old world and into the new world. The ark landed on Mount Ararat- the curse is reversed. Everything that had gone wrong because of Adam's sin--getting us into trouble with sin and death--was undone when we were put into the ark and kept... and MADE... alive! God put us in the ark when He put the Ark (Jesus) in us! Jesus is the quickening Spirit. That's why I always say, "God doesn't just want to be a PART of your life. He wants to BE your life, because He IS life!" We always seem to try to like fit God in to whatever else we're doing. Or "make time" for Him here and there. But He's so much bigger than that. LOVE is so much bigger than that. LIFE is so much bigger than that! I mean, what part of abundant do we not understand? What part of eternal, and everlasting, are we not getting? What part of Ephesians 3:20 are we missing? "Now unto him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us." We limit God... and we limit LIFE. We are capable of so much more than we think we are. Because we are in the Ark. Because the Ark is in us. Because we are in the Kingdom. Because the Kingdom is in us. Because we are in LOVE. Because LOVE is in us! That's what it means to be alive. That's the difference between life and death. And that's the difference between merely "living" (Adam was a living soul) and being truly ALIVE! Dead to sin. Alive unto God. Not aware of unbelief, but always aware of the love of our Father. Living, and moving, and having our being in Him even as He lives, and moves, and has His being in us! Brought into the Ark to be kept alive. Made alive. Brought out of the power of darkness and into the Kingdom. Brought out of death and into life. Unless you see "heaven" as life and "hell" as death then it's not really a heaven and hell issue. And if you see that death AND hell were thrown into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:14), then you see that it's not an issue at all. It's exactly what Jesus came to give us. "The thief cometh not, but to steal, and to kill, and destroy; I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly!" (John 10:10). We ARE alive. We ARE loved. So we ought to start living. Ought to start loving!

The difference between life and death is love. We know that. We know that we have passed OUT of death and INTO life because we have love one for another. But there's also a big difference between "living" and being "alive." Look at Genesis 2:7, "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." Adam, the first man, was a LIVING soul. And what is the soul? The mind, will, and emotions. The Old Man, made of the dust of the ground, was tied to that earth realm. That soul ream. That five senses, judging things by appearance, trying to get enough knowledge of good and evil in order to earn God's love and affection and acceptance realm. And he was "living" but he wasn't alive. Especially when you consider that on the day that he ate of that tree of death... he died. But there's good news (the Gospel). Fast forward to Revelation 16:3, "And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea." Revelation being an in-depth look at the cross shows us that Jesus' blood being shed on the cross was the death of Adam. The death of the old man. The second death that was needed in order for the new birth. Out of death... into life. Out of Adam... into Jesus. And while, "The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit" (1 Corinthians 15:47). Adam and Jesus, the only two men who have ever "lived." They both died on the cross. And only One of them rose back to "life." But not life as we knew it. Not the life of the soul. Not the carnal mind. But the mind of Christ. The life of the Spirit. Abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life! I know I dropped this revelation a few days ago but I think it's important, and my dad taught me that the best way to learn something is repetition. Ok. When we see Hebrews 6:1 speaking of repentance, it doesn't speak of repentance of sins. It speaks of repentance of dead works. "Dead" is number 3498 in Strong's Greek Concordance and it means, "a corpse." While "works" is G2041 and it means, "to work, toil, an act." So repenting from dead works--being transformed (into what we've already been transformed into) by the renewing of our minds--really boils down to this: Stop acting like a corpse! Stop "living" like Adam. Stop trying to earn your bread by the sweat of your brow. Stop judging by appearance and judge righteous judgment! Reckon yourself dead to sin (unbelief) and ALIVE unto God! You can't live--really live--without being alive. Jesus is the QUICKENING Spirit. He brought us to life by GIVING US HIS LIFE. Because He IS life! And I can say that because He said it (John 14:6), and I can say it because God is love (1 John 4:8, 4:16). So being alive unto God means being alive unto love. Living and loving are the same thing. You can't have one without the other, and you can't do one without doing the other. They aren't just linked... they're the same thing! To live is to love and to love is to live. Adam was a "living" soul, but Jesus is the quickening (life giving) Spirit. We LIVE in Him and we are ALIVE because of Him! It's His love. It's all about love...!

Live for a little while... pay taxes... try to do more "good" than "evil" so your afterlife will be pleasant and not torment. Guys... I just don't buy it. There has to be more to it than that. And we KNOW that there is! Jesus came that we might have life, and have it ABUNDANTLY. He didn't come to warn us to behave or else. He came to free us from the bondage of sin and death! And as far as the "afterlife" goes... what part of eternal don't we understand? What part of everlasting? Now listen, I'm not claiming to know what happens after these mortal bodies die. I don't know. The best I can figure is, "We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord" (2 Corinthians 5:8). But I guess my point is: instead of worrying about "getting to heaven" why don't we start EXPERIENCING heaven on earth? That's what Deuteronomy 11:21 promises, after all: "That your days be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth." And that's what Jesus taught His disciples to pray: "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10). And listen, I know there are layers and layers to these verses. I can see where "absent from the body" is us operating outside of the senses, or appearance realm. And I can see where "in earth, as it is in heaven" speaks of the mind of Christ (new heaven) affecting the body (new earth). But again, my point for today is that we ought to live while we're alive. We ought to enjoy the gift that we've been given, and not worry so much about what's going to happen later on. Because, "Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed" (1 Corinthians 15:51). Whatever's going to happen is going to happen. And there's not a whole lot we can do about it. So why worry about it? "Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?" (Matthew 6:27). And isn't it interesting that we often hear "stature" preached as height? When really it is number 2244 in Strong's Greek Concordance and it means, "maturity (in years or size): - age, stature." By worrying about how mature you are can you become more mature? Or by knowing that you are complete--perfect, mature--in Him, and by Him revealing Himself to you, and in you, and through you, and as you can you, in a sense, "become" more mature? This whole life--BEING ALIVE--is about rest. That's the land that was promised back in Deuteronomy. The Promised Land. Rest. Jesus finished the work, and we get to enjoy the fruit of His labor. He died (both for us and as us) so we could die the second death. And then He rose again (both for us and as us) so we could walk in newness of LIFE. So that we could stop TRYING to live... or trying to make sure we have "somewhere to go" when we die... and we could start to rest in His loving arms. Partake of His divine nature. Live HIS abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life by letting HIM live HIS life in, and through, and as us. Experience life by experiencing His love. Stop trying to earn what can't be earned. Stop trying to be someone you're not and get something you haven't got. Just LIVE. Receive and release the gift that was freely given. And in that way experience and enjoy it. Love others and LIVE!

You know how "religious folk" seem to make everything a heaven and hell issue? How what we do seems to be important only because of what it will mean in the afterlife? That's crazy to me. Bizarre. Life is not for making sure you take the elevator up instead of down after you die. (And just for the record, I don't believe in that idea at all.) Life is for living. We spend so much time sleep-walking through "life." Not even knowing what we're missing because we're so busy chasing something that we think we don't have. We've turned Jesus into a morality cop instead of seeing Him for who He is! Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the LIFE. He is the Way to the Father, the Truth about the Father, and the Life of the Father! He came to show us who God really is by showing us who WE really are. By bringing us out of the power of darkness and into His Kingdom. By bringing us out of death and into life! But think about that for a minute. Really think about it. If Jesus came to bring us out of death, that means that we were already dead. Which, by the way, is exactly what Ephesians 2:1 and Colossians 2:13 says. "And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins" (Ephesians 2:1). "And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses" (Colossians 2:13). We WERE dead in our trespasses and sins. Past tense. Before the cross. Adam ate from the tree of death and died. And since we were "in" him when he did it... we died. That's the first death. Then Jesus came, and drew us "into" Himself. Then HE died. That's the second death. We were dead in our trespasses and sins. Then sin died. Death died. And we were quicked together with Him. When Jesus died, we died. And when Jesus rose again, we rose again. Now we can RECKON ourselves dead to sin and alive to God. Now we can take an inventory of the finished work of the cross and come to the conclusion that we live in Him because He lives in us! We can stop trying to earn something--the gift of God which is eternal life, which is living in the context of the Father/Son relationship of love--that can't be earned. A gift can only be received. And in order to receive that gift, we needed a love receptor. We needed the Holy Spirit. Which is why God poured His Spirit out on all flesh. He gave us what we needed in order to EXPERIENCE His love. See, the cross did not change us from "evil" to "good." The cross did not change us into something that God could (finally) love. He already loved us. Always has and always will. He IS love. No, the cross changed us into something that could RECEIVE and RELEASE His love. Jesus brought us out of death and into life. And not just any life. Not the life that Adam experienced. No, He made us partakers of the DIVINE NATURE. He brought us into HIS life. Abundant, eternal, everlasting, Resurrection Life! And now, "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren..." (1 John 3:14). How do we know that we're not the walking dead anymore? Because we know (and believe) the love of Christ! What's the difference between life and death? LOVE! If you know and believe that you are loved... then you are alive. Because if you know and believe that you are loved, you CAN love. To live is to love and to love is to live!

Sometimes I really almost get discouraged by "theology" and "religion." I constantly find myself asking, "What are we talking about?" We seem to have totally and completely missed the point. "Christianity" is not a moral code to live by. We are not supposed to follow the Law of Moses in order to be "good people." Jesus did not come to make "evil" people "good." He came to make dead people alive. He came that we might have life, and that more abundantly! But it seems like we're either so preoccupied with the afterlife that we miss out on the actual life, or we're so busy trying to earn something that can't be earned that we miss out on what is freely given. Here's what happened: God told Adam that on the day he ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil (the tree of death) he would surely die. And that's exactly what happened. Adam ate from the tree of death... and he died. And that's not God punishing Adam for disobeying Him either. That's the natural consequences of eating from the tree of death. What else could have come from that decision? So from that day Adam was the walking dead. The "living" dead. Because he "lived" until he was 930 years old. He lived... but he wasn't alive. Another way to say it is that he was sleepwalking. And that fits with what Jesus said in John 11:11, "...Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awak him out of sleep." Lazarus was dead. Jesus came to make Him alive. That's what the cross was all about. It wasn't about God absolutely positively being so angry that He HAD to kill someone in order to satisfy His wrath. And it wasn't about Jesus taking what we had coming to us. We didn't have any punishment coming. The wages of sin is death, and we WERE dead in our trespasses and sins! It's not, "If you sin you have to die." It's, "Sin (or unbelief, or the knowledge of good and evil and the dead works that flow from that) had you in the bondage of death." Jesus became what we were and died so that WE could die. Not as a punishment, but as a release from the death that we were already in! Jesus became sin and died so that sin could die. So that DEATH could die. And then, after the second death... a new birth. That's why Romans 6:11 says, "Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." It doesn't say, "Die unto sin." It says, "RECKON yourselves to be dead unto sin." We ARE dead to sin. Because sin died. But if you don't know that glorious truth, it can't do a whole lot for you. Which is why we need to reckon ourselves. The word "reckon" is 3049 in Strong's Greek Concordance and it means, "to take an inventory: - conclude." And remember how we're supposed to measure the temple (ourselves and each other)? With the reed that is Jesus! And remember how we're NOT supposed to measure the outer court? The dead old man that was buried in the watery grave of baptism? Take an inventory of Jesus, and the work He finished on the cross (both for you and as you) and the only conclusion you can draw is that you ARE dead to sin and you ARE alive unto God! Not an "evil" person trying (and failing) to be "good." But a person who WAS dead in trespasses and sins but who has now been raised up to walk in newness of life! A person who is now alive in Christ as Christ is alive in him!

We all want... ALL we want when you get right down to it... is to be accepted and loved. That's it. That's the desire of mankind's heart. That's why we're willing to DO in order to BE. We're willing to earn it, because we want it that bad. But there's the rub. You can't earn a gift. And the gift of God is eternal life. Eternal life is knowing the Father and the One who the Father sent--living in the context of the Father/Son relationship. Knowing that you ARE loved and accepted. Which is where the Holy Spirit (our love receptor) comes in. God didn't declare that Jesus was His beloved Son in whom He was well pleased until AFTER the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus like a dove. It was always true, but until the eyes and ears of the heart were opened, it couldn't be known and believed. It couldn't be received. It was always true, but it seemed to good to BE true. It seemed like something that had to be earned. Earning our bread by the sweat of our face made perfect sense to the carnal, unregenerated mind. The Law of Moses made perfect sense to the natural mind. Do good and be rewarded. Do evil and be punished. Ignoring for a second that God went as far as He could to NOT punish us, by giving the system of animal sacrifice. Grace was always present, even when we didn't see it. And why didn't we see it? Because we weren't looking for it. Noah found grace IN THE EYES of the Lord. Because that's where grace is. That's WHAT grace is. If I hear grace described as "a license to sin" one more time I think I'm going to lose it. Who is talking about trying to get a license to sin? Honestly. Who wants to "sin" so badly that they are trying to get a license to do so? And why do we think anyone would need a "license to sin"? Before the cross sin abounded. Then grace much more abounded. And now sin has no dominion over us because we are not under the law, but under grace. Grace doesn't excuse sin. Grace obliterated sin. Sin, of course, being unbelief. Not what you DO, but what you BELIEVE. Because what you do FLOWS from what you believe. If you believe you want to sin... or if you believe that you ARE a sinner... then you're going to sin. Whatever that word means to you. That's not the focus of the Gospel though. That's not the good news. The good news is that the Word (Jesus, love) became flesh and dwelt among us, and then took it a step further and took up abode within us! Now we don't TRY to be accepted and loved by the Father (or each other). Because now we KNOW the Father. We KNOW the Son--we know that we ARE the Son--and we know that the work is finished. We can rest. We can stop looking for love in all the wrong places because we are connected to the source. The source lives in us. LOVE lives in us! And that's why we understand His love. It's not from the outside-in. It's from the inside-out. We have what we've always wanted. And in knowing that we have it... we can share it. We don't need to try to be accepted and loved by others, because we can accept them and love them no matter how they treat us. And when you accept and love someone it's kind of funny but before you know it they accept and love you too...! And I'm not saying we love IN ORDER to be loved, but it is a nice fringe benefit. No, we love BECAUSE we are loved. And that love just grows and grows and grows.

In order to HAVE a friend, you have to BE a friend. In order to forgive, you have to know that you ARE forgiven. In order to love you have to know (and believe) that you ARE loved. This is such an important concept. We don't DO in order to BE. We do BECAUSE we be. We want to be known. We want to be accepted. We want to be loved. (And in Jesus we find that we ARE all of those things.) But in order to have that relationship with other people it's critical that we KNOW, and ACCEPT, and LOVE others. Know as we are known. Accept as we are accepted. Love as we are loved. Let me say it another way. The only chance you and I truly have of lining up with each other is if we both line up with Jesus--with love. Because then, instead of judging by appearance and trying to be someone we're not, instead of conforming to this world, we will automatically line up with each other. Naturally. The Jesus in me connecting to the Jesus in you. Surface stuff isn't real. It's the unseen that is eternal. The inner man. The hidden man of the heart. But there's only one way (Jesus, THE Way) to truly connect Spirit to Spirit, holy to holy. And that's by knowing no man after the flesh. Look at Revelation 11:1-2 in the Weymouth translation, "Then a reed was given me to serve as a measuring rod: and a voice said, "Rise, and measure God's sanctuary--and the altar--and count the worshipers who are in it. But as for the court which is outside the sanctuary, pass it over. Do not measure it..."  Jesus is the reed. He is our measuring stick. And NOT in the sense of trying to live up to His "standard." That was the trap of the Law of Moses. The Law demanded perfection but couldn't produce it. Jesus IS our perfection. WE are God's sanctuary. WE are the temple of the Holy Spirit. We measure ourselves BY Him. What's true about Jesus is true about you. And we DON'T measure the outer court. The outer man. We DON'T judge by appearance, but we judge righteous judgment. We don't TRY to be perfect. We simply mark the perfect man. Because the end of THAT man is peace. The thoughts that God thinks toward us are thoughts of peace and not of evil. Daddy thinks you're perfect! And His opinion is the one that really matters. Because His opinion is the truth (Jesus, THE Truth). So we don't worry about external stuff. Ours or other people's. We don't know each other after the flesh. We don't measure the outer court. Actions don't define you. Jesus defines you. The only reason our actions seem messed up is because we don't know and believe that the work is finished. If you're trying to finish a finished work then you're robbing yourself from resting. Robbing yourself from the gift of eternal life (Jesus, THE Life) that was freely given by trying to earn it. Robbing yourself of BEING by trying to DO. Sometimes I think we try way too hard to GET people to like us. Love is isn't about getting. Love is giving. Don't worry about what other people think, or what other people are doing. Just focus on how GOD--who IS love--loves you and then BE that. Because just as He loves because He IS love... WE love because we ARE love. Love isn't just what you do. Love is what (WHO) you be! It's your nature. And when you understand that, you don't have to TRY to love. You just do it naturally. You love because you ARE loved, and you love because you are LOVE!

We want to be accepted, and loved. That, I believe, is the most basic human desire. The most basic human NEED. We NEED to be accepted, and loved. But that will never happen if we stay in the appearance realm. The world realm. Judging by appearance. Judging by what we see. "You lied to me so you're a liar." And isn't it funny that--generally speaking--we label people by their mistakes, but not by their successes? We never seem to notice somebody doing their job... until they don't do it. Like in the realm of "good and evil" (and, again, we need to understand that we are no longer in this realm, but I'm just making a point), evil is bigger and stronger than good. Or at the very least it's easier to see. But we HAVE to understand that good and evil were on the same tree. Jesus didn't come to make "evil" people "good." He came to make dead people alive. He came that we might have life, and that more abundantly. Which is why we have stopped eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, stopped operating in the appearance realm, and moved over to the Tree of Life. Jesus cursed the fig tree (the tree of knowledge of good and evil, or the tree of death) because it couldn't produce any fruit. That was the problem with the Law of Moses. It demanded perfection without being able to produce perfection. Now, in the New Covenant, we know our perfection comes from Him. We MARK the perfect man, because the end of that man is peace! And when we mark the perfect man, we do so by looking in the mirror. Because He lives in us. And you can't be any more perfect that the perfect One living in you. We know OURSLEVES that way... and we know EACH OTHER that way. "Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more" (2 Corinthians 5:16). And let me just say... THIS is why I don't believe we're supposed to "follow in Jesus' foot steps." We don't even know JESUS after the flesh. The last part of 1 John 4:17 says, "...as he is, so are we in this world." Not as He WAS. As He IS. And as He IS is seated at the right hand of the Father (in a posture of rest). As He IS is living inside us. And that's WHY we are as He is. Because He IS in us, and through us, and as us. So in order know others... accept and love others... it has to be the connection (of love) that is the Jesus in me connecting to the Jesus in others. And I don't care if they know He's in there or not. Because I know He's in there. And when I look with the eyes of the heart--not the appearance realm, but the eternal realm of the unseen--then I can see HIM in EVERYBODY. I always tell people, "If you want to have a friend you need to be a friend." If we want to be known as we truly are then we need to know others as THEY truly are. And that's the Kingdom economy. Forgive BECAUSE you are forgiven. Love one another AS Jesus loves you. Accept because you ARE accepted. Know because you ARE known. We don't know people after the flesh. Not even Jesus. Not who they act like. Not who Jesus WAS. Who they ARE. Who He IS. That's how we rest. We stop trying to be someone we're not and we stop expecting other people to be who they're not. We just be. And we just let others be. And we love with the love we are loved with!

I think people just want to be. Be accepted. Be loved. Be known. And I think that's why people are willing to DO in order to be. We think the juice is worth the squeeze. "If I have to work for what I want... at least I'll get what I want in the end." The problem is... there never seems to be an end. The carrot is right there in front of us, but the stick keeps jerking it away at the last minute. Mark 10:17 puts it like this, "And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?" See the problem? Eternal life is a gift. You can't arn a gift. And you don't get an inheritance because of what you DO. You get an inheritance because of who you ARE (and because of who your Daddy is). But Jesus, teaching the Law to those under the Law, told the man to obey "the commandments." And the man said he did. "Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me" (Mark 10:21). One thing thou lackest. There always seems to be one more thing to do in religion. One more hoop to jump through. One more labour. One more work. Guys... the work is finished! Before Jesus told the man that there was still one thing he lacked... Jesus looked at him and loved him! The man already had the very thing he was looking for! But he was looking for something external. Something to be added to him. He was looking to earn his bread--the love and acceptance of God--by the sweat of his brow. He didn't know God already loved him. Always had and always would. So he was robbing himself from his inheritance by trying to earn what is freely given. That's what makes sense to the carnal, unregenerated mind: Do good and be rewarded, do evil and be punished. Makes sense. But there's a more excellent way. And that more excellent way is Jesus. That more excellent way is love. Remember, Adam was the son of God, but he didn't know who he was, and he didn't know who God was. Jesus was the BELOVED Son of God because He knew exactly who He was and He allowed Himself to BE loved by God! That's the importance of the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 1:13-14 describes the Holy Spirit as the earnest of our inheritance. Because the Holy Spirit--our love receptor--is what opens up our inheritance. The Holy Spirit is what allows us to receive and release, experience and share, our inheritance. The inheritance of eternal life. Because life IS love. To live is to love and to love is to live. We are human beings, not human doings. We don't do in order to be. We do BECAUSE we be. We have been given something--the gift of God, eternal life--and now we have something. Something so good that we can't keep it to ourselves. Something so good that we can't help but share it. We ARE accepted in the beloved. We ARE loved. And we are known, on that deep inner man, hidden man of the heart, level. And that's why we can accept, and love, and know one another. Accept as we are accepted. Love as we are loved. And know as we are known. And that's what tomorrow's Rant is going to be about.