Stick with me on this one. I always preach, "Receive it and release it. Receive it and release it." But I want to tweak that a little bit with this Rant series. Because, to me, there's almost an idea here where we are consciously DOING something. And that's the lie that the serpent told Eve way back in the garden of Eden. He told her, "You have to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil in order to be like God." He said, "You have to DO in order to BE." When the truth of the matter is, we do BECAUSE we be. We're not human doings. We're human beings. And the way this works is... God pours Himself onto us and into us--that's what happened on the cross, He poured His Spirit out on all flesh--and we simply absorb it. Like a sponge. And when a sponge gets too saturated... the thing that filled it up leaks out. Naturally. Remember when Jesus said, "And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these" (Matthew 6:28-29). Consider it for a minute. How does a lilly grow? By drawing water from the ground, and by absorbing sunlight. Remember again when Jesus spoke of the sower who sowed the seed? It had to be sown in good ground so it could put down some roots. Right? In that story WE are the ground. HE sowed the Word (which is love) and the WORD put down roots so the WORD could pull water--the healing rain of love. Get it? Love feeds on love and that's how it grows!--out of the ground! The Word is IN us, and the Word flows THROUGH us. LOVE is in us, and LOVE flows through us. The sun (the SON) shines ON us, and the sun (the SON) shines IN us. Jesus described HIMSELF as the light of the world, but He also described US as the light of the world. The lilly doesn't toil or spin. The lilly really just sits there and looks pretty. It brings joy to others. Not because of what it does, but because of what (who) it is! A lilly isn't trying to be anything else. It isn't trying to build it's own kingdom. But that's the lie that religion has sold us. "You have to be better that you are!" But if I'm not good enough to begin with, how could I be better than I am? "Try harder!" That seems pretty foolish. This thing was started in the Spirit but I'm going to make it perfect, or complete, in the flesh? It's takes ME doing something to finish the work that Jesus already finished? I have to consciously release what I've received? That's not what a lilly does. That's not what God wants us to do. We're not supposed to "try" to be a "good" Christian. We're supposed to rest in the arms of our loving heavenly Father. Cast your cares upon Him and stop trying to do everything--FIX everything--yourself. Even your cares about your own mistakes. ESPECIALLY those. I believe the worst kind of condemnation is self-condemnation. And I get it. You're with yourself all the time. You know the good, the bad, and the ugly. But you can't judge yourself--or anyone else--that way. You can't try to be "better." You have to just be you. Accept yourself. Accept others. Accept that God loves you and LET Him love you! Soak it up. Drink it in. Feast on it. God is love. A love feast. And you are what you eat. Get so full that God's love leaks out of you without you DOING anything. With you simply BEING who you are!

Don't let "stuff" (or people for that matter) live in your mind rent free. What you give your attention to is really what you empower. That's how you make mountains out of molehills--by focusing on them. Because what you magnify is what manifests in your life. What you feed is what will grow. And if you spend your whole life running around like a chicken with it's head cut off trying to "fix" every problem that comes your way--or worse yet trying to FIND problems to fix... you'll miss out on your whole life! Guys, we were not called to be world changers or history makers. We were called to be God's Son(s). We were called to be loved and to love another. Here's the sort of sneaky part though: When we let God love us and when we love one another with that same love... we, in a sense, change the world. History is HIS story, right? So when we are His witness, when we tell His story--again, by receiving and releasing His love--we BECOME history makers. The Word is the Word. The truth is the truth. Nothing can change that. But when the Word is made flesh... when love becomes charity (love IN ACTION)... that's when the Kingdom of God--which is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost--manifests! The Kingdom is within you. And when you set your affection on things above... when you SEE clearly with the eyes of the heart as the light of the world shines... that's when it starts to show up on earth as it is in heaven. That's when we start to EXPERIENCE the days of heaven ON earth. That's when all the surface "stuff" gets swallowed up by the REAL stuff. The deep stuff. The inner man, hidden man of the heart stuff. That's when what's inside (again, the Kingdom) starts to come out! And THAT'S how we cast our cares on Him. Not by going around whining and crying about everything and everybody. Not by looking for things to fight and conquer. But simply by letting all that stuff go. By laying aside the weight and the sin that so easily besets us. By understanding that everything is already UNDER our feet. How else could we be OVERCOMERS? Because Jesus came down to where we were and brought us up to where He is. You can't trip on something that's under your feet. Unless you focus on it, and make it bigger (more real) than it really is. In 1 Thessalonians 5:22 Paul wrote, "Abstain from all appearance of evil." And to me that never meant, "Stay away from something if it even LOOKS like evil." To me that always meant, Jesus dealt with good and evil BOTH. He cursed the fig tree--the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the tree of death--and now there's only the Tree of Life left. So stay out of the whole appearance realm. I could say it like this, "Abstain from all appearance of GOOD too." Stop judging things by appearance. Good and evil? No thank you. I'll eat from the other tree and experience LIFE and that more abundantly. I'll cast my cares on the Lord--because I know He cares for me--by setting my affection on things above. The unseen, eternal things. Righteousness, peace, and joy. Mercy, forgiveness, and grace. LOVE. We are the light of the world, which means there is no darkness in us at all. Jesus remade the world in His image. Which means He is the Alpha and Omega. Beginning and end. And everything in between!

Your mind is like a goat, it'll eat anything. And that can be a problem, because what you magnify is what will manifest in your life. If you're mindful of all of the "stuff" going on around you--if you mind is full of it--then you'll miss out on the REAL stuff. Look at 2 Corinthians 4:18, "While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." There's an appearance realm full of surface stuff. External stuff. But we don't look at these things. We look a little deeper. We don't judge according to appearance. We judge righteous judgment. We don't get caught up in the storm, we speak a Word and command the storm to be still. And I'm not saying we try to "fix" the storm. So much time and energy is wasted with petty, pointless fighting. We try to make things better and end up making them worse. Or, like I said, we can speak a Word. We can cast our cares on the Lord because He cares for us. Not by whining and crying... not by lifting our problems up to Him... but by lifting HIM up in the midst of our problems. You know the old saying: Don't tell God how big the storm is, tell the storm how big God is! Casting your cares doesn't mean speaking about all the "stuff" and thereby giving it power. Casting your cares means trusting God to TAKE CARE of you. And it's easy to trust Him to do so when you understand that He always has and always will. I think we get mixed up when we think of God as, like, a genie in a bottle. We expect Him to do what WE want. When the fact of the matter is... God does what HE wants. Luckily for us, what He wants to do is love is, protect us, take care of us, lead us and guide us and teach us. He wants to do what any loving Father wants to do. But every time HIS plan doesn't fit OUR plan we fall to pieces. "Why would God let this happen to me?" Because all things work together for good. Because it's part of the bigger plan. And, listen, I'm not saying God MAKES "bad" things happen. I don't think He uses things like sickness to "perfect us." But I AM saying that God can use EVERYTHING that happens. He doesn't make the same distinction between "good" and "evil" that we do. Because both good and evil are on the same tree. The tree of death. And God is only interested in life. Remember when Cain brought an offering from the ground? From what he could produce? God didn't want it. It was only when Able brought a LAMB that God was satisfied. So instead of trying to please God with what we can do--which honestly isn't very much at all--and instead of coming to Him with our hands out like beggars trying to get scraps... instead of focusing on the problem that we can see... we ought to walk by faith, and not by sight. We ought to trust Him. Cast our cares on Him and don't even worry about them. Do our best and forget the rest. The things that are NOT seen--the inner man, the hidden man of the heart, the REAL you--are eternal. Those are the REAL things. Love is the real. And it's easy to get distracted from that, but with just a little bit of repentance (changing our minds) we can keep our affection on things above, NOT on the things of the earth!

When you cast your cares on the Lord--which is only possible because you know He cares for you--what you're really doing is trusting Him to take care of things. Or, more accurately, trusting that He has already taken care of everything! God declares the end from the beginning. He finished the work 2,000 years ago on the cross. And guys... that WHY we can trust Him! I don't know where this idea of, "Praising God so He'll do something," came from. It's totally backwards. And not in the upside down backwards Kingdom way either. You know how you can't give what you don't have? Well you can't praise God unless He has done something praiseworthy. You can't trust God unless He has proven Himself trustworthy. You can't have faith in God unless He has proven Himself faithful. And that's what the cross was! The cross--among many other things--was God putting His money where His mouth was. Jesus told us what love is. He told us that there's no greater love that a man can have than laying down his life for his friends. And then Jesus went to the cross and did just that! He TOLD us what love is... and then He SHOWED us what love is. Which, when you consider that SEEING is believing, becomes vitally important. We SEE how much He loves us, and then we can trust THAT He loves us. We can stop trying to figure out the plan, and we can simply be led by the Spirit. Those that are led by the Spirit are the Son(s) of God. Not because letting the Spirit lead you MAKES you a Son, but because only a Son can be led by the Spirit! Religions says, "Do what God says or else He'll get mad an punish you." The Spirit says, "Daddy loves you." We don't do what we do out of fear. We do what we do out of love. Perfect love CASTS OUT fear. I know it's easy to get caught up in surface stuff. Because it's right there on the surface. The world is screaming for our attention. The devil goes about as a roaring lion. But there's something deep inside that allows us to rise above the surface stuff. Rise above the earthly realm and into the heavenly realm. And what's deep inside? The heart! Your heart. GOD'S heart beating with love in your chest. That still small voice that is always speaking the Truth. But there's the key. It's a still small voice. You have to be still and know that He is God. The deep calls out to the deep. A still small voice connects, or speaks, to a still, quiet Spirit. If you try to do it--whatever "it" is--by yourself then you're not giving God any room to operate. In a sense, you're quenching the Spirit. But if you know that His strength is made perfect in weakness--that He already did it all and doesn't really need your help--then you can enjoy the fruit of HIS labor. The fruit of the Spirit. Which is love. Love covers all sin right? Love is the solution to every problem, and love is what is needed in every situation. When you cast your cares on Him, He doesn't leave you empty. You give Him your mess and He gives you a message! You give Him your ashes and He gives you beauty. You give Him your cares... and He gives you His love!

You know the old saying, "Don't sweat the small stuff." Well... to God it's ALL small stuff. And I'm not saying that it doesn't matter to God. As a father myself I can tell you, if it matters to your kid it matters to you. I'm saying God-- LOVE-- is so big that there's nothing He can't handle. I'm saying we can cast our cares on Him because He cares for us. I'm saying, "Daddy's got your back." You are never ever alone. On the cross God took up abode, or dwelling, in you. He moved in and He's never moving out. Another old saying (or maybe it's a song), "Nothing you can do, could make him love you more. Nothing you can do could make him shut the door." God knows the end from the beginning. Nothiing takes Him by surpries. He's never scrambling to figure out what to do in response to what you do. He knows what the answer, the solution, is. It's love. It's Him. That's why He gave Himself FOR us and gave Himself TO us. He didn't want us running around like chickens with our head's cut off, trying to figure everything out. He gave us the answer. He equipped and empowered us to live His life by living His own life in us, and through us, and as us! He conquered, and made us MORE than conquerors in Him! He overcame, and made us overcomers by His blood and our (His) testimony! He did it all so we could get it all. He fought the war to end all wars so we could stop fighting. So we could start resting. Remember the parable of the sower? Mark 4:19, "And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful." We cast our cares on Him so they don't weigh us down or choke us out. It's so easy to get caught up in STUFF. Especially when it's right there on the surface, screaming for our attention. But that's when it's vitally important to be still and know that He is God. That's when we have to set our affection on things above, and not things on the earth. SET our affection. A preacher once said, "Your mind is like a goat, it'll eat anything." So we have to control our diet. We have to be selective about what we feed our mind... because we are what we eat. And listen, I think a HUGE part of not getting caught up in stuff is NOT looking for a fight. I've never seen people more ready to fight--over everything and anything--than "church folk." Religious dudes. We think we need to "defend the Bible," or "defend the Gospel." When really the Bible, the Gospel, God, LOVE, defends us! He is OUR shield, OUR refuge. He doesn't need us to fight for Him. In fact, Jesus said people would know His disciples by the LOVE they have for others. So I guess what I'm trying to say is: Be a lover, not a fighter. Don't worry about it. It's not your job to fix everything. It's your job to love people. Don't sweat the small stuff, or the big stuff either. Take a breath. Put your feet up and REST. Daddy can handle it. Daddy ALREADY handled it. It is finished!

Sometimes I think about growing my hair back out, just so I can say, "Long hair, don't care." I know I've mentioned that I have two lists in my life: A list of things that are important that includes God and people, and a list of things that aren't important that includes just about everything else. I honestly just don't have the time, or energy, to get involved in a lot of "stuff" that people seem to get involved in. And it's really not that I don't care about anything. It's really just that I'm selective about how I manage my 3 T's. My time, talent, and treasure. I'm selective about what I choose to read--what I put into my mind--and I'm selective about what I choose to deal with. Basically, I "try" as hard as I can to set my affection on things above, not on things on the earth. I try to, "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: Casting all your cares upon him; for he careth for you" (1 Peter 5:6-7). Long hair, don't care. Let go, and let God. I don't have to fight every battle when I know that Jesus fought (and won) the war to end all wars on the cross (see Zechariah chapter 9 in the Message Bible). The ONLY fight we need to be fighting--where we need to put our 3 T's--is the good fight of faith. Laying hold of eternal life. And eternal life is the gift of God, right? So we're not GRABBING hold of it. We're not trying to GET it. We're LAYING hold of it. From a posture of rest. We're RECEIVING the gift that we've already been given. Receiving it and releasing it. But this is where it can get kind of tricky. Because eternal life is believing in the Father and the One whom the Father sent. Eternal life is living in the context of Sonship. Living Jesus' eternal, everlasting, abundant, Resurrection Life by letting HIM live His own life in, and through, and as us. And that means loving people. So, like I said, God and people are on my list of things that are important. But the trick comes in "loving people" without getting caught up in all the other "stuff." Humbling yourself, which doesn't mean thinking less of yourself, but simply means thinking of yourself less. Letting God take care of whatever needs taking care of. Doing what you gotta do, but doing it from that posture of rest. Casting our cares on Him--and I don't think that means whining and crying to God all the time (I believe He hears us when we whine and cry, but I believe He's happy when we have that attitude of gratitude). I think casting our cares on Him simply means trusting Him to take care of us. Instead of running around like chickens with our heads cut off, trying to do everything for everybody, I think we just need to be still and know that He is God. Just do what you can do, with what you have, where you're at. One of Logan's favorite cartoons, Paw Patrol, has a puppy who always says, "Do your best, and forget the rest!" And to me, THAT'S what casting your cares on Him is all about. Not that you don't care about anything. (Really, I DO care.) But simply that you understand that you can't do EVERYTHING. And do you know what you get if you work your fingers to the bone? Bony fingers. We're going to keep looking at this for a few days, but I don't think we're supposed to wear ourselves our trying to do everything. Or fix everything. I don't think we're supposed to find darkness to fight. I think we're supposed to be lighthouses and just shine wherever we are!

The Kingdom economy may be upside down and backwards. The first may be last, and the last first. You may have to lose your life to save it. It may not make sense to the carnal mind--and it's certainly not supposed to. But one thing that IS clear about the Kingdom economy is the currency used. The Kingdom currency... is love. But here's the backwards part: We don't "buy" with it. We give it away. I want to look at Revelation 3:17-18, but it takes a little bit of explaining. "Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased in goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see." Ok. First things first. We ARE rich and we DO have need of nothing. We have it all because we have Jesus. But that's not what Jesus was talking about here. He was talking about a preoccupation with natural riches. That's why He said they should buy these things. The things of the Spirit can't be bought with gold or silver. In fact, when beggar came to Peter expecting something, "...Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk" (Acts 3:6). Really, you can't buy what you need. Because what you need was given as a gift. And if you can buy it, it's not a gift. Now look at what Jesus was telling them to "buy." He didn't even tell them to USE gold, He told them to BUY gold. And guess what: WE are the gold that goes through the fire and is purified. He told them to buy white raiment, when in fact HE clothed us with Lamb skin way back in the garden of Eden. HE gives us HIS white raiment. Revelation 3:5, "He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment..." HE anointed our eyes so that we could see. In the Kingdom it's not about getting. It's not about buying and selling. That's the way of the world. That's why those we are lukewarm--which is who Jesus was addressing in Revelation chapter 3--are still in that realm of give and take. In the Kingdom we don't give in order to get. We give because we have. We love Him, because He first loved us. We love Him, by loving one another. Love doesn't HAVE a motive, love IS the motive. Love is giving. Love is NOT buying. Love is NOT getting. We have already been blessed with all Spiritual blessings, and we have already been GIVEN all things that pertain to life and godliness. Everything Jesus told those lukewarm people to "buy" He had already freely given to those that overcome. To those that believe. I said the Kingdom economy is love. And it is. But maybe more accuractely the Kingdom economy is faith, hope, and love. And, of course, the greatest of these is love. The best thing we can do is love. But, in a sense, our love flows from our faith and our hope. Our love is a manifestation of what we believe, and what the Word says is true!

In the Kingdom, you start at the end. Which is actually very encouraging when you understand Jesus' words in Revelation 21:6, "...It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely." Starting at the end is starting at Jesus. Starting at the beginning is starting at Jesus. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). The Word is Jesus. The Word is love. That's where we start, and that's where we end. I've heard this phrase applied to prayer, but I think it fits LOVE even better: Let's make prayer (LOVE) first choice not last chance. Even though God WILL save us when we break the glass in case of emergency and cry out to Him... how much better if we just started with Him and didn't get into an emergency situation in the first place? There's a more excellent way. It's love. It's starting at the end and knowing (and believing) that we have everything we need. Jesus did it all so we could get it all. And now we have it all, because we have Him. We have been blessed with all Spiritual blessings. It is done. We have been given all things that pertain to life and godliness. It is finished. The latter rain came and God poured His Spirit (His love, HIMSELF) out on all flesh. He EMPTIED Himself out ON us and INTO us. We have been FILLED with the Holy Spirit. We don't need to wait for the latter rain to bring the harvest. That happened 2,000 years ago on the cross. And now the former rain is coming on a continous basis, softening our hearts so that we can receive what we have been given. So that we who are thirsty--and come on, we are ALL thirsty--can come to the source and quench our thirst. I'm not talking about quenching the Holy Spirit. I'm talking about being baptized, or immersed, in it. In HIM! In LOVE! I'm not talking about getting something we don't have. I'm talking about coming into the realization that we have it all. Not seeking the Kingdom in order to "get it." But seeking it, exploring it, because we HAVE it. Because we ARE it! We aren't changed from crap to glory. We're changed from glory to glory as we behold the image of His glory in the mirror. When He appears (in, and through, and as us) we know who we really are because we see Him as He really is. When the Word is made flesh... when love is made charity... when we begin to walk in the glorious truth of the finished work... that's when front to back, or back to front, it really doesn't matter. Jesus is the Alpha and Omega. Beginning and end. And He is everything in between. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. The Way TO the Father, the Truth ABOUT the Father, and the Life OF the Father. Manifested in the Son. In us. Jesus is God in the flesh. Love in a body. God in OUR flesh. Love in OUR body. That's how this thing all ends... "Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls" (1 Peter 1:9). It ends with salvation--which, again, happened 2,000 years ago on the cross. It ends with Jesus. It ends with love. And, on this side of the cross, that's where it begins. The work is finished. It's in your past, not in your future. And it's manifesting in your present, because it's the GIFT of God! Eternal, abundant, everlasting, Resurrection Life. No beginning or end. Just Jesus. Just love.

This is one of my favorite pictures in the Bible: the former and latter rain. Or, in light of our upside down, backwards economy of the Kingdom, the LATTER and the FORMER rain. Let's look at it right side up first. "Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month. And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the fats shall overflow with win and oil" (Joel 2:23-24). The former rain is what makes the ground soft so you can plant the seed. The latter rain is what brings the harvest. The harvest of wheat, wine, and oil. Jesus is the corn of wheat that had to die in order to bring forth a great harvest. His blood is the wine of the New Covenant. His Spirit is the oil that was poured out on all flesh. It's all (always) pictures and pictures of Jesus. But this order--former THEN latter--was before the cross. Leading up to the cross. And then the harvest, of course, WAS the cross. So on THIS side of the cross, now that the Kingdom has come and the King is here, we can't keep going along in Old Covenant ways. We can't keep waiting for the harvest. Which is why Hosea 6:1-3 says, "Come, let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth." The cross. After three days we were raised up in Him as He was raised up from the dead. He came as the daystar, as the dawning of the morning of the New Day. That's not something that's going to happen. That's something that happened 2,000 years ago. And that's why the order changed. On the cross it was the latter rain. The rain that brings the harvest. God poured Himself out on us. He gave us everything He had by giving us Himself. And now, when the former rain comes to soften our hearts, it's not coming so that we could GET something. We already have everything. The softening of our hearts by the former rain is what equips and empowers us to RECEIVE what we've already been given. To come into maturity. Not to BE perfected, because we are already perfect and complete in Him, but to begin to UNDERSTAND our perfection. Where it came from and what it means. We're not waiting for a harvest anymore. Remember Jesus told the disciples, "...The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few" (Matthew 9:37). We aren't waiting for anything. He did it all so we could get it all. And now we have it all. What is continually happening is a revealing of what we have. Of who we are in Him and who He is in us. The latter rain brought the harvest. The cross finished the work. And now when the former rain--the healing rain--falls it is simply washing away the surface stuff and revealing what is deep inside. The inner man. The hidden man of the heart... but no longer hidden. Christ IN you the hope of glory. REVEALED glory. Christ IN you coming OUT through you. Not getting anything, but experiencing, and enjoying, and sharing what we've got!

Here's why I think it's important to understand the upside down backwards economy of the Kingdom: "And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power" (Colossians 2:10). Our journey is not to BECOME complete, or perfect. We already ARE complete, and perfect. Our journey is understanding what it MEANS that we are complete and perfect. It's the picture of running the race with patience, even though we know we are already at the finished line. We are not trying to get to the Promised Land. We are already IN the Promised Land. And that, to me, is the only way a verse like Philippians 3:13 makes any kind of Kingdom sense. "Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." We're pressing toward the mark. But God declares the end from the beginning. We have already received the mark! It's the idea of, "I want more of you, God." How could you get any more of Him than Him living in, and through, and as you? How could you get any more perfect than having the perfect One live inside you? We're pressing toward the mark, but we're not trying to get something we don't have. We're not trying to be somebody we're not. And this is one of my favorite revelations: What is the mark we're pressing toward? The mark that we've already received? Psalm 37:37, "Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace." JESUS is the mark! And as He is, so are we in this world! We don't try to be like Him, we simply mark Him so that we can see what we're already like! He is the truth. If it's true about Jesus, it's true about you. We ARE complete in Him. We don't need to run the race in order to win something. We need to run the race simply to see how we BECAME complete. Simply to see how complete we are by seeing how complete HE is! We mark Him, we see the truth about Him (the truth about US) and the end of man is peace! The end of that man is righteousness, peace, and joy! The end of that man is the Kingdom, because He is the King! The Kingdom is the realm where the King rules and reigns. We are kings and priests equipped and empowered to rule and reign on this earth. We are IN the Kingdom, because the Kingdom is within us, and we ARE the Kingdom, because Jesus rules and reigns in and through and as us! It works from the inside out. From the back to the front. On the cross God CONFORMED us to the image of His Son--the image we were made in, in the beginning, but the image we couldn't see because it (we) were dark and void and without form. Then the light of the world shined. And the light didn't CHANGE anything, but the light REVEALED things as they truly are. Jesus, the light of the world, revealed that WE are the light of the world! With this back to front understanding we can stop trying to change, and we can begin to understand the change that took place 2,000 years ago on an old, rugged cross. We can stop trying to "be a better Christian" (as if there is such a thing) and we can just be who we are. We can be WHAT we are. And, again, what we are... is complete in Him. WHO we are... is Jesus. God in the flesh. Love in a body. God in YOUR flesh. Love in YOUR body. The end happened before the beginning, the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world. That's how the Kingdom works!