More and more lately I've been shifting my focus away from frivilous things and onto important things. I don't know if it's because I'm getting older or what, but I feel like I just don't have as much time to waste as I used to. I don't want to do things just to do them. Just because society expects me to do them. I don't want to go through the motions. I want to live. I don't want surface stuff. I want deep stuff. I don't want fake. I want real. And the only thing that's real to me... is love. Real life, true life, eternal, everlasting, abundant, Resurrection Life IS love. It's relationships that go further than just being someone's aquantance. Rather than just knowing ABOUT somebody... the real is KNOWING somebody. Not head knowledge, but heart knowledge. This can be tricky though, and that's why I'm going to explore it for the next couple of days. And I want to start with 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." Temporal. Fake. Eternal. Real. That's the difference. Let me say it another way: We're always told to "face the facts." But truth is HIGHER than facts. Because the fact of the matter may be that something LOOKS bad. But the truth of the matter is that ALL things (no matter what they look like) are working together for the good. So if it's working toward the good, no matter what it looks like, can it really be "bad"? When we step out of the appearance realm, the real of duality, the realm of good and evil, and step into the realm of LIFE then things get real. And isn't it interesting that Paul tells us to LOOK at the things which are not seen? That means we're not using our natural eyes. We're using our Spiritual eyes. The dove's eyes of the Holy Spirit. The eyes of grace. The eyes that see clearly because the light is shining to reveal things as they truly are. Not bad and getting worse, but perfect and complete. "And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power" (Colossians 2:10). So what's the real? WE are! We have this idea of, "Well, I'm not perfect." YES YOU ARE! Because the perfect One lives inside you. Lives through you. Lives AS you. What we need to do is redefine "perfect." Perfect doesn't mean, "Never make a mistake." If you never make a mistake you can never learn from your mistakes. Perfect means mature, complete. And while that may FEEL like a process of God maturing us or completing us--that idea that, "I'm a work in progress"--really all it is is an unveiling of our maturity and completeness. We ARE complete in Him. That's a done deal. It is finished. And as He reveals Himself TO us, He reveals Himself THROUGH us. That's where our love for one another comes from. And, as I said, that's what's real. Love. Something you can't always see, in the natural (until it becomes charity, love in action), but something that you CAN always be! SomeONE that you can always be as you let HIM be Himself in you and through you and as you.

They say the eyes are the windows to the soul. So isn't it interesting that Noah found GRACE in the eyes of the Lord? When Noah looked God in the face (Jesus is the visible face of the invisible God) he saw what was inside. He saw grace. And mercy. And love. And when you see it... you be it. What's inside, or rather what you BELIEVE is inside, is what comes out. Psalm 36:9 says it like this, "For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light." We see it in Him... when we see it in ourselves (and each other). Because He LIVES in us (all of us). Deep calls out to deep, right? In His light we see light. His life is the light of men. Now let me say this about the fountain, "And he said unto me, 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" (Revelation 21:6). It is done. It is finished. Now, on this side of the cross... BECAUSE of the cross... we can drink from the fountain of life FREELY. The price was paid, by Jesus, in full. He did it all so we could get it all. And now we have it all because we have Him. Now we have the light, and we can see clearly. We can see God clearly--our heavenly Father--and we can see ourselves clearly--His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased--and we can see each other clearly--all different parts of the same body. Here's the key though: We don't look AT things. We look INTO things. We don't use grace to sweep "sin" under the rug, but instead we understand that grace obliterated sin. So even when it LOOKS like someone is "a sinner" what we really need to do is see them as the righteousness of God in Christ. Whether THEY know who they are or not. And when we see them that way--when we see the hidden man of the heart, the inner man, the new man... even if He seems to be buried under surface stuff--then we don't have to judge according to appearance. Then we can judge righteous judgment. Instead of saying, "He's a liar, you can't trust him," maybe we can say, "He's learning and growing, just like I am." We're all on the same journey--an everlasting life-long journey into the heart of the matter, which is the heart--but we're all at different points on the journey. If we start with, "Daddy loves me. And He loves you," then we are building on the Rock. But if we start with, "You're a scumbag and unless you do this, this, and this God is going to punish you," then we're kind of starting at the bottom and working our way down. God doesn't see us as sinners, because God already took care of the sin issue. He was manifested to destroy the works of the devil. The works of the devil was lying to us in order to get us to DO in order to BE. We didn't know that we were already like God, because it was dark out and we couldn't see Him. So God said, "Let there be light." And now we know who God is. Now we know who WE are. We are the apple of Daddy's eye. He loves us unconditionally. Not because of what we do, but because of who we are. And because of who HE is. God is love. What else could He do but love us? What else could a Father do but love His Son!

Do you know what grace does? Or rather, what grace DID? It doesn't sweep sin under the rug. It OBLITERATED sin. Look at Romans 5:20, "Moreover the law entered, that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." Notice that this verse is PAST TENSE. Why? Because the law entered BEFORE the cross. Sin abounded BEFORE the cross. And then, ON the cross, grace abounded. Grace freed us from sin. "For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace" (Romans 6:14). And, again, this doesn't mean, "You can sin and not get in trouble because you're not under the law, but under grace." It means, "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, becuase he is born of God" (1 John 3:9). When we understand that sin is unbelief--not what we DO, but what we believe, because what we do FLOWS from what we believe--then it's easy to see that a believer cannot sin. By definition, a believer cannot unbelieve. Right? So what does this have to do with seeing ourselves how Daddy sees us? Simply this: He doesn't see as a sinner. So we need to stop seeing ourselves (and each other) as sinners. A sinner who was saved by grace (two thousand years ago on the cross) isn't a sinner anymore. A transformation took place. The old died and the new came forth. We were conformed into the image of God's Son. The image that we were created in in the first place, but couldn't see because the heaven and the earth (the mind and the body, US) was dark and void and without form. That's why God spoke and said, "Let there be light." That's why the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And that's why (again, on the cross) the Word stopped dwelling AMONG us and took up abode IN us! So that we would be able to see things clearly. And in seeing... believe. Because seeing IS believing. Jesus came to SHOW us the Father. Jesus came to SHOW us what love is by laying His life down for us. By giving His life FOR us, and giving His life TO us. He showed us the Father... by showing us our true selves. By showing us what it means to truly live in the context of that unconditional Father/Son relationship. And what did He REALLY show us? A man, "...who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him" (Acts 10:38). That's who Daddy is. Someone who so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, so that we could believe in Him and LIVE. Guys... to live is to love, and to love is to live. When we see through Daddy's eyes we don't see sinners who need to "shape up or ship out." We see all the different parts of our own body. HIS own body. And when we understand that connection of love, that connection of being part of the same body, then we can cherish each other (and ourselves) because the grace in His eyes lights everything up and makes the darkness flee. The grace in His eyes doesn't IGNORE sin, or sweep it under the rug. Love is NOT blind. Love sees clearly. The real you. The true you. The apple of Daddy's eye. The perfect One. Jesus. God in the flesh. Love in a body.

How Daddy sees you is how you need to see yourself. Because Daddy is the light that reveals your TRUE self. Look at Deuteronomy 32:9-10, "For the LORD'S portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye." We talk a lot about OUR inheritance, or OUR portion. But look at GOD'S portion... US. Which means, as simply as I can put it, that our inheritance is HIM. And notice this: HE found us. We weren't even looking for Him. We were piling up trouble and heartache looking for love in all the wrong places. We were running FROM Him instead of running to Him. We were wandering in the wilderness. We were in the desert of sin. If--and that's a pretty big if--we had even heard of the Promised Land we surely didn't know where it was (WHO it was) or how to get there. But that has never stopped God. In fact, "...God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). Why? Because He loves us. Unconditionally. All of the time. When we weren't even looking for Him... we were still the apple of his eye. He saw us for who we ARE, not for what we were doing. He SEES us. With the eyes of grace. Noah found grace in the EYES of the Lord, because that's where grace is found. Grace is how we see clearly. Grace is what happens when the light shines and reveals things as they truly are. And isn't that ironic? Because we seem to think we need to, "expose sin." We think we're supposed to be on a sin hunt, and bring all of the bad things to light. But guess what: When the light shines, the darkness flees. It doesn't HIDE, it disappears! God is light and there is no darkness in Him at all. Jesus is the light of the world. And so am I. And so are you. So if grace is what happens when that light shines... then grace is what allows us to see--ourselves, and each other--clearly. Not the surface stuff, but the deep stuff. Sometimes people need to wander around a little bit before they find where they belong. And that's ok. Everybody is on a journey, but everybody's journey is different. (Let me just insert here that in truth we have already arrived. We ARE where we need to be. Sometimes it just takes some time to figure out where we are.) I think what I'm trying to say today is: When I look at you through the eyes of grace, not judging you but accepting and celebrating you, THAT'S when I see you for who you really are. I think so many times people disappoint us because we have unrealistic expectations. They aren't who we want them to be so we end up missing out on who they are. Daddy knows exactly who you are. I'll say it again, you're the apple of His eye. You're His favorite (and so am I), because you (and I) are His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. Guys... knowing that true identity equips and empowers you to BE who you are. To stop trying to be someone you're not and to just BE yourself. The self that God fearfully and wonderfully made. The self that God loves so much... that He would rather die than be without you!

In order to see clearly, the light has to shine. Otherwise we are just stumbling around in the dark. Trying to "do the best we can with what we've got." Or rather, what we THINK we've got. Because when it's dark we can't SEE what we've got. We can't SEE who we are, or who God is. And really, one defines the other. How we think of God is how we think of ourselves. And how we think of ourselves is how we think of God. If we see Him as Daddy, we see ourselves as His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. If we see ourselves as sinners, we see Him as an angry taskmaster who punishes sinners. It's all about what you see. HOW you see. Because what you see is what you be. Because seeing is believing. But here's where it can get a little bit tricky: In order to get to the real, you have to dig a little bit deeper. The surface stuff screams at you, but only because it really doesn't have anything to say. Deep inside there's a still, small voice leading and guiding you into all truth. This voice is the Holy Spirit. And it leads and guides us by testifying of Jesus--our true identity. The inner man. The hidden man of the heart. The new man. The true man. Jesus... God in the flesh. Love in a body. God in OUR flesh. Love in OUR body. And this is what Daddy sees. He doesn't see what we do, He sees who we are. Look at 1 John 1:5, "This, then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all." See, God doesn't just USE light to see clearly, He IS the light that allows US to see clearly! And, guys, there's no darkness in Him at all. So, since He lives in us, there's not darkness in US at all. How could there be? How could you be any more perfect than having the perfect One live inside of you? Light shines and darkness flees. WE are the light of the world. He is the light, and we are that same light because He is shining in us and through us and as us! Now the wonderful part of my Rant (as if all of that wasn't good enough): This light that we shine--this light that we ARE--allows us to see each other as Daddy sees us. It allows us to look past the surface stuff and see the real. See the heart. I found a quote the other day that really sums this up: "The light in me thinks the light in you is freaking awesome." Why? Because deep calls out to deep. Because we're connected by this light--this LIFE--of love! And when we can put aside (or look past) all of the differences that really don't matter anyway, then we can see the connection. Then we can see that we're all members of the same body. Different members with different functions, yes, but only one body. HIS body. A body that CAN love because it IS loved. This is what Ephesians 5:29 means, "For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church." When we see ourselves correctly we won't NEED to fight with each other. We'll nourish and cherish each other. We'll love each other. As a Father loves His Son. As the Bridegroom loves His bride. And with that kind of love, what else could the darkness do but flee? With that kind of love what else could we do but experience the abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of the Lord Jesus Christ!

I say this a lot, "When God looks at us He sees Jesus, and when He looks at Jesus He sees us." And that's basically what I'm going to Rant about in this series. How things look through Daddy's eyes. So first things first, let's look at the Scripture that I'm basing this on: 1 John 4:17, "Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world." Ok. I'm NOT going to go into the "boldness in the day of judgment" part. I've Ranted it and preached it a bunch, and probably will again, but for now I'm focusing on the "as he is, so are we in this world" part. The no separation part. The Him in me and me in Him part. The "I and my Father are one" (John 10:30) part. Guys, we HAVE to identify ourselves as the Son. Otherwise how can we identify God as the Father? Jesus said eternal life is knowing the Father, and the One the Father sent. Living in the context of the Father/Son relationship. To live is to love, and to love is to live. We love because He first loved us. That Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into His hands. That's the ultimate truth of the universe. Daddy loves us. And He gave us everything we need. He blessed us with all Spiritual blessings. He gave us all things that pertain to life and godliness. Jesus did it all so we could get it all. A gift. An inheritance. Life, and that more abundantly. But, again, as long as we don't know who we are, we can't experience what we've got. As long as we don't know how Daddy sees us, we can't see ourselves, or each other, in that way. So I guess the question is, how does Daddy see us? "And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:17). And, listen, I know that the Father was speaking of the physical Jesus. But... as He is, so are we in this world. Right? So what's true about Jesus is true about us. He IS our true identity. He came to show us the Father. Not "God" as we thought of Him--a far away, distant, moody, and usually angry taskmaster who was just waiting for us to mess up so He could get us--but the FATHER. Jesus said no man comes to the FATHER but by me. Because how can you know God as Father unless you know yourself as Son? Only by the total and complete identification of Jesus as our true selves can we begin to understand who we are, where we are, and why we're here. Only when we see things through Daddy's eyes can we see things clearly. That's why Jesus, the light of the world, came to us. That's why the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. So that we could come out of the power of darkness and into the Kingdom of God's dear Son! There are a lot of pictures of God in the Bible. God is light. God is a Spirit. God is a consuming fire. God is love. But the biggest, best picture we have of God is a Father who loves His Son. And WE are that Son! I'm telling you: God is pleased with you. WELL pleased. Not because of what you do, but because of who you are. And because of who HE is. He sees us the way a Father sees His beloved Son. That's who He is, and that's who we are!

Here's my thought for today, "Let all your things be done with charity" (1 Corinthians 16:14). Now let's track this. Charity is love in action. And Paul wants us to let everything we do be done with charity. Let everything we do BE charity! Remember that love doesn't HAVE a motivation, love IS the motivation. I'm convinced that Jesus did everything He did because He was moved with compassion and motivated by love. He didn't do anything unless He saw the Father do it. And He didn't say anything unless He heard the Father say it. Well, God is love, right? So Jesus didn't do anything unless He saw LOVE do it. He didn't say anything unless He heard LOVE say it. Which, to me, kind of goes against the universally accepted (in the church world at least) idea of, "hate the sin, love the sinner." If everything I'm doing is done with love... then where is there room for hate? And I know in Revelation 2:6 Jesus speaks of hating the deeds of the Nicolaitans. In fact, I'm pretty sure that's where we get the justification for "hating sin." But it seems to me like most of the time hating the sin feels a lot like hating the "sinner." ESPECIALLY to the ones who are doing something we don't approve of. Listen, condemnation won't ever get anybody to change. Telling someone they are wrong, or dirty, or bad is a good way to get them to reject what it is you're trying to say. Condemnation doesn't work. It can't. That's why there's no condemnation for those in Christ. For those who know Christ is in them. And--I'm getting a little ahead of myself here, but I already know what the next Rant series is going to be so--when we start to see the Christ in EVERYBODY (even if they don't see it in themselves), then we can stop telling people what to do and start telling people who they are. Then we can truly begin to draw out of people what's inside them. I know that it's buried sometimes. Hard to find sometimes. But the deep calls out to the deep. God poured His Spirit out on ALL FLESH. He took abode, or dwelling, in ALL of us. The difference is that some people know this glorious truth and some people don't know it yet. That, to me, is what baptism is all about. It's about acknowledging what happened on the cross. Almost... activating it, if I can say it that way. Not about GETTING anything, but about RECEIVING what we've already been given. And the best way to show people what they've been given--what they already have--the best way to show people Jesus... is to love them. No matter who and no matter what. Every day in every way. We are living epistles. We are God's love letter to the world. People ARE going to read us, whether we want them to or not. So we're in a unique position to show them something different. Something better. A more excellent way. We can show them love. And not the kind of love that requires something FROM them. Love is not getting. Love is giving. We can show them the kind of love that overflows naturally out of us... in everything we do. I think if everybody would just do what they can do, with what they've got, where they're at... then the love of God (the love that IS God) would cover the earth like the water covers the sea!

Charity. Love in action. The act of love. Not just talking about how much you love someone, but laying your life down for them. Not just saying, "I'll pray for you," (and I have absolutely NOTHING against praying for people) but seeing a need and meeting that need. Look at what John the Baptist said in Luke chapter 3:11 when the people asked him what they should do, "He answereth and saith unto them, He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none; and he that hath meet, let him do likewise." If someone's cold, and you have the ability to meet that need... meet it. If someone's hungry, and you can feed them... do it. That's what love is. That's what CHARITY is. Just simply doing what you can do, with what you've got, where you're at. I think sometimes we almost get intimidated by the idea of love. Like it's almost too big for us. Sometimes I think we're afraid to love, because we're afraid to lose what we've got, but sometimes I think we're afraid to love because we think we're not good enough to love. At least that's what I always think. No matter what I do, I always worry that it's not enough. Like I not only could do more, but I should do more. And I know that this is probably a form of self-condemnation, and I have on pretty good authority that I AM doing what I'm supposed to be doing, but it doesn't often feel like that. In fact, I find that many times the most giving people seem to be the most unhappy. Because a lot of times you give without getting anything back. You give, and give, and give, and nobody seems to appreciate it. But that's when we absolutely need to understand the flow of love. We don't give it in order to get it. We give it because we have it. Even if we love and never "get anything out of it" from people... we started with everything we needed in the first place. So be encouraged. Your love--your CHARITY--is not in vain. The Word of the Lord (which is Jesus, which is love) does not ever fall void. It ALWAYS accomplishes what it sets out to do. That's the key though: understanding what love has set out to do. And what love HASN'T set out to do. Love has set out to help people. To meet the human condition and improve the human condition. Abundant life, right? Abundance. But what love hasn't set out to do is get you something in return. Love is GIVING, not getting. So when we understand the selfless nature of love, then it doesn't matter if it seems like love is received or not. Love doesn't HAVE a motive... love IS the motive. I have a picture on my phone that sums it up. It says, "Love made me do it." THAT'S why we do what we do. Not because we're tying to GET something, but because we already HAVE something. And when we give away what we've got, what we find is that we don't lose it... we share it. We experience it and enjoy it by giving it to those that need it. Remember the vine and the branches? We don't produce the fruit of the Spirit (which is love). The vine, Jesus, produces it. He is the source because He IS love. All we do, as the branches of the Tree of Life, is bear the fruit. Carry it to those who need it. What good is fruit is nobody eats it? What good is faith without works? What good is "love" if it isn't charity?

It's all about love. We ARE loved, so we CAN love. It flows from the God who IS love, THROUGH us. That's how we partake of the Divine Nature. That's how we enjoy the gift of God--which is eternal life. We don't TRY to live Jesus' life (that's impossible. Nobody can live Jesus' life except Jesus), we simply let Him live His own life in and through and as us. That's what it means to present our bodies as living sacrifices. My hands are His hands. Whatever He wants to do, He does it in me, and through me, and as me. My feet are His feet. That's why I don't have to try (and fail) to follow in His foot steps. I can just let Him make His own foot steps with my feet. Look at 1 Timothy 1:5, "Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned." I like it even better in the Message Bible, "The whole point of what we're urging is simply love--love uncontaminated by self-interest and counterfeit faith, a life open to God." And here's what hit me: A life open to God is a life open to love! I think so many times we're afraid of love. Afraid TO love. Because we think if we give what we've got and don't get anything back... then we won't have anything. But perfect love casts out fear. And what is perfect love? God's love for us. Jesus laying down His life on the cross. God Himself giving His life FOR us, and giving His life TO us. Loving us... so that we can love each other. And don't get me wrong, there's a lot to be said for the receiving part of the Kingdom economy. There is no better feeling than knowing (and believing) that you are loved and accepted. But that's not the be-all end-all. Because love is giving. And Jesus said it is more blessed to GIVE than to receive. You have to receive first, so that you have something to give, but you aren't receiving just for the sake of receiving. And that's what CHARITY is all about. Love in action. Not just talking the talk, but walking the walk. Putting your money where your mouth is, if I can say it that way. Taking what we've been given... and sharing it. And to me, the mindset that I'm SHARING what I've got is pretty powerful. Because when I'm sharing something with you... we BOTH get to experience it. We BOTH get to enjoy it. I'm convinced that the best way to "feel" loved is to love someone else. I think the ACT of charity is what makes love real. That's why faith without works is dead. Because we WALK by faith. We ACT by faith. Faith propels us forward. And so does love. We love because we are loved. Love almost FORCES us to love, because we are filled to overflowing. Because we couldn't keep it inside, keep it to ourselves, if we tried. It's too good to keep to ourselves. Too good--and too BIG--to keep inside!

Charity is love in action. Which, to me, is really what love is all about. Because love is giving. God so loved the world that He GAVE His only begotten Son. Sometimes I think we get so caught up in the lofty idea of love, that we forget about the practical application of love. We forget about charity. Look at James 2:15-16, "If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to body; what doth it profit?" Food and clothing. Basic human needs. That's how James paints a picture of loving your neighbor. Pretty simple, when you think about it. Someone has a need, and you fill it. Wait a minute... you're saying all I need to do is be nice? Pretty much. Jesus said, "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another" (John 13:35). And think about it for a minute. If God is love--and He is--then what better way is there to show Him to people than by loving people? In fact, that's the only Way to do it. Not talking the talk, or telling people about Jesus, but walking the walk and SHOWING people who Jesus is. Showing people who Jesus in you, by letting the Jesus in you come out! Not by condemning people. Not by judging people, or trying to "scare them straight." But simply by loving them. By helping them. By being nice to them. Listen, if "Christians" had a reputation for being the nicest people around (instead of the most hypocritical people around) we wouldn't have trouble getting people to come to church. We wouldn't be chasing people away from God, we'd be drawing people TO God. Simply by expressing Him--or, more accurately, by letting Him express Himself in us and through us and as us. Because watch this: James spoke about clothing the naked. That's one of the first miracles God ever performed! That's His nature. When Adam and Eve knew of their nakedness, and were ashamed by it, and tried their best to cover it up with fig leaves... God met the need and covered them with Lamb skin. And that was when God was SUPPOSEDLY mad at them and punishing them. I'm convinced that God WASN'T mad, and wasn't punishing anybody. He never told Adam that the consequences of eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil would be punishment. He warned Adam that eating from the tree of death would result in death. God didn't kill Adam. Adam died because only death can come from the tree of death. And God didn't cast Adam out of the garden in order to punish him. He cast Adam out of the garden in order to protect him. Not to mention that God went with Adam everywhere he went. Adam and Eve HID from the presence of God, but God never left them nor forsook them. When the people of Israel were hungry... He fed them with bread from heaven. When they were thirsty... He gave them living water from the rock. He showed His love through simple acts of charity. Meeting basic human needs. That's why faith without works is dead. Because we WALK by faith, not by sight. If you're not walking, then it's not faith. If you're not DOING, then it's not charity. We don't do in order to be... but since we already be... we do!