I think it's important sometimes that we take a minute to kind of reflect on what we are actually talking about. Especially when it comes to Christianity. Because we have this whole "insiders" language. And I'm not even talking about the "thous" of the King James version of the Bible. I'm talking about things we throw around and take for granted--assuming that everyone else knows what we're talking about, when most of the time WE don't even know what we're talking about. Things like grace. And mercy. Holiness. And discipleship. That's where I'm going to start. Because it seems to me (and I may be wrong about this but it SEEMS like), we think being a disciple of Jesus means being a robot. Fitting into a box and marching lock-step in Jesus' foot steps. But I've said it before and I'll say it again: Nobody can live Jesus' life except Jesus. His foot steps are too big for us to fill. And I know Jesus said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father" (John 14:12). But that's actually my point. We aren't supposed to do exactly what Jesus did. We're supposed to do greater things than He did. Why? And How? Because He went to the Father and gave us His Spirit. Because HE'S the One doing those great (and greater!) things in and through and as us. See, discipleship is not about trying to be someone you're not. Hopefully we're beginning to see that you can't truly experience an abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life by denying yourself... but you can only experience it by embracing yourself. I want to define discipleship in this way: "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another" (John 13:35). That's it. Pure and simple. To be a disciple is to love one another. That's what it's about. That's what it's ALL about. It's all about love. And watch this, because to me this is powerful: The word, "disciples" there is number 3101 in Strong's Greek Concordance and it means, "a learner, that is, pupil." Not someone trying to act like Jesus--because even if you could act like Jesus (which you can't), that's all it would ever be. An act--but someone LEARNING from Jesus. Learning who we really are as He reveals Himself to us and in us and through us and as us. All a disciple is, is someone who is learning how to love. Not someone who has it all figured out. Not someone high and mighty looking down on anyone else. I'm convinced that the only time we should ever look down on someone is if they've fallen. And the very next thing we should do is help them up. Because that's what love is. It's a big hug. A warm embrace. A helping hand. And that's what a disciple is. Someone who is learning how to love as he learns how loved he is. Someone who is learning how to love as he learns WHAT love is. WHO love is. That's what this (everlasting) life-long journey is all about. It's about God revealing His love (Himself) to us and it's about us (through the Holy Spirit) receiving it and releasing it. That's what a disciple does. That's who a disciple is. A student of love.

Wrapped up in a loving embrace you can't help but feel safe and sound. Like nothing can get you. Because somebody has your back. You're not alone. Somebody loves you. Somebody cares about you. That's what Jesus did on the cross. He showed us how much He loves us, and cares about us, and accepts us. He opened His arms wide and He drew us into Himself and He filled us with His Spirit. He equipped and empowered us with the ability to receive (and release) God's love. He brought us out of the external realm of religion--doing in order to be--and into the internal realm of relationship--doing BECAUSE we be. He showed us who we really are by showing us who God really is. By giving His life for us (and giving His life to us) when we were sinners. When we didn't--COULDN'T--believe that God loved us. When we were God's enemies in our minds because of our wicked works. When we were stumbling around in the dark, and couldn't see where we were, or WHO we were. That's what Jesus came right down into the middle of. He didn't wait for us to "clean up our act." He knew that the most important time to embrace someone is in the very midst of their mess. See, we have this idea where if we show weakness then we're not good enough. As if each and every one of us doesn't have weakness. We all struggle with things. We all mess up. Life is beautiful, but it sure is messy. So what we need is to be able to stop judging each other and start affirming each other. Don't slam someone for making a mess. Help them clean it up. Show them that you're right there with them. "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ" (Galatians 6:2). Guys, we're all in this together. And we're all a lot more alike than we think sometimes. I don't know why it seems like the best thing we can ever think of to do is to build walls. We always seem to want to separate ourselves from each other, even though what we are really looking for is acceptance. Get in where you fit in, right? But it seems like sometimes we don't WANT to fit in. We look for reasons to disagree rather than reasons to agree. ESPECIALLY in the Church world. Want to know a secret? I'm not terribly concerned with getting you to agree with me. I think Jesus took care of salvation on the cross and there's nothing to fear. It's a shame to me that so many people miss out on what's available to them right now because they're so busy fighting about what might happen someday when (if) they die. But it's not my job to force Jesus down anybody's throat. All that'll do is make somebody choke and gag. My "job" is to embrace people for who they are, where they are. My "job" is to love people the same way Jesus loves me. Period. That's the new commandment. That's why we're here--to receive and release the love of our heavenly Father. To wrap people up in a warm, loving embrace and let the Holy Spirit take care of the rest!

In order to have any chance at experiencing the abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life that is the gift of God, we must learn to embrace ourselves. Here's the pattern: On the cross Jesus did it to us. Now we can do it to ourselves. And once we do it to ourselves we can do it to each other. This goes, first and foremost, for love. Jesus showed us the greatest expression of love that man can have by laying down His life for His friends. And because Jesus loves us, we can love ourselves. And once we love ourselves we can love each other. This also goes for forgiveness, and mercy, and grace, and all of those things that kind of define "the Christian life." We can forgive OURSELVES, because we are forgiven (and don't forget about not condemning ourselves. That comes with forgiveness too). And then we can forgive others. And on and on. But it's like the old saying, "Charity starts at home." They tell you if something happens on an airplane, to put your own oxygen mask on before you put your kid's mask on. Because if you don't take care of yourself you can't take care of anyone else. And I know there's a lot to be said about ministering out of your pain, and your hurt. I completely believe that a big reason we go through things in our life is so that we can help others through those same things. And I know that I preach all the time that if I take care of you, and you take care of me, then neither one of us has to take care of ourselves. But look at one of my favorite (I know, they're ALL my favorites...) verses in the Bible, "And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God" (1 Samuel 30:6). Sometimes it feels like nobody is embracing us. Sometimes it feels like no matter how hard we try, all of our efforts are for nought. Sometimes it feels like everything we do is wrong, and everybody is against us. And at those times, it's so important to encourage ourselves in the Lord. Because even when it feels like nobody else loves you... Jesus does. He always has and He always will. God IS love, so He would have to stop being God in order to stop loving you. And it doesn't matter what stupid thing you just did. He loves you regardless. So you can love YOURSELF regardless. You can see that "no condemnation for those in Christ" applies to YOU too. You can stop condemning yourself and start embracing yourself. People make mistakes. People are messy. But failing doesn't make you a failure. The only way to fail is to quit. As long as you're moving forward--upward and God-ward--it doesn't matter if it's baby steps, or crawling, or what. I tell Logan the most important things is to learn and grow every day. Don't we realize that we learn more from our mistakes than our successes? Don't we realize that love is needed the most when someone has fallen down? God's embrace allows you to embrace yourself. And that allows you to embrace anyone and everyone else!

"How long will you wander, my wayward daughter? For the LORD will cause something new to happen--Israel will embrace her God" (Jeremiah 31:22 NLT). This really kind of sums it up for me. We  have it so mixed up that we are running FROM God instead of running TOO God. But--and this is so interesting, so important to me--GOD is causing something new to happen. He caused it to happen on the cross, and is continually causing it to happen in us and through us and as us. See, it's not a move of God that we need. God already moved. He did everything He's going to do. Everything He NEEDED to do. What we need is a revelation of Jesus. What we need is to know and believe (to understand) what that move of God called the cross was all about. And notice what our verse says: The LORD will cause something new to happen--Israel will embrace her God. Jesus said it like this, "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day" (John 6:44). For way too long we've been trying to scare people straight. We've been trying to make them so afraid of some eternal firey hell that they clean up their act and come to God. Deny themselves and pick up their crosses in order to follow Him. But guys... that's NOT the right message. The message isn't, "God will save you if you do this, this, and this." The message is, "God saved you. Now you CAN do this, this, and this." The message is, "Jesus' arms are open wide, and you can let Him embrace you." The cry of Jesus' heart was to keep us under His wings like a momma chicken. To protect us. To keep us safe. But since we saw Him as a distant, angry taskmaster we were His enemies in our minds because of our wicked works. We didn't understand forgiveness, or grace, and God loving us seemed just too good to be true. So what happened was, at the appointed time, Jesus came to us and told us what love really is--laying down your life for your friends. Then He SHOWED us what love really is by laying His life down for us. He was lifted up on the cross and He drew us into Himself. He wrapped us up in that loving embrace and He will not let us go! I heard one preacher say it like this: God's a stalker. He won't give up on you. No matter what you do or where you go He's always got His arms open wide, just waiting for you to accept His embrace. He's not waiting for you to EARN it, because you can't earn a gift. You can't earn love. He's waiting for you to ACCEPT it. By accepting yourself. Embracing who you really are isntead of trying to be someone you're not. Letting Him live His life in you and though you and as you instead of you trying to live His life. Nobody can live Jesus' life except Jesus. Nobody can be you except... you. And when we figure out how special we are--that we are fearfully and wonderfully made--then we'll be able to stop wandering around in the wilderness and we'll be able to receive what GOD caused to happen. We'll be able to embrace Him, because He's been embracing us this whole time!

When we were yet sinners--when we were unbelievers, and literally couldn't believe that God loved us--He showed us love for us by opening His arms wide on the cross. By gripping us in a loving embracing and proving that He will never let us go. God didn't wait for us to "clean up our acts," or, "walk an aisle" and come to Him. He came to us. He came right down into the mess that WE had made of our lives and He presented us to Himself as a bride without spot, wrinkle, or any such thing. He said, "I know you can't see how beautiful you are, but let me shine my light so you can see clearly." And, as the New Covenant economy always goes, what HE did equipped and empowered US to do the same thing (and greater things)! Let me say it like this: We love others BECAUSE we are loved. We forgive others BECAUSE we are forgiven. We embrace others BECAUSE we are embraced! It's all about receiving and releasing. Sharing the gift that we've been given with thos who don't know they've been given the same gift. That, to me, is what Jesus meant when He said, "Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained" (John 20:23). It's not like we could undo the cross, right? Not like Jesus could take away the sin of the world and then we could give it back... but in a sense, that's exactly what we do when we condemn people. I preach, and rant, a lot about our duty to EXECUTE judgment instead of judging according to appearance. And that's what we do when we preach the gospel. We "forgive" people, in a sense, by telling them that they are forgiven. By telling them that God isn't mad AT them, but that's He's mad ABOUT them. That He would rather die than live without them. That they don't have to change, but instead they need to SEE the change that took place on the cross. And that change was NOT bad people turning into good people. That change was NOT God changing us into someone He could love. He always has and always will love us. The change that took place was from death to life. From someone who didn't have the Holy Spirit and couldn't believe that God loved us... to someone who is filled (to overflowing) with the Holy Spirit and not only KNOWS and BELIEVES that he is loved, but loves others with that same love! Someone who has experienced that loving embrace, and is now fully capable of embracing others. Not trying to change others. Not condemning others. But accepting others. Loving others. I quote this verse whenever I can--even though I never hear anybody else quote it--Revelation 22:11, "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still." Love isn't about changing people. It's about letting people be who they are while they figure it out. SHOWING people who they really are by showing them love! Embracing them whether they "deserve" it or not. Whether they've "earned" it or not. Understanding Jesus' loving embrace and simply receiving it and releasing it!

I'm going to start this Rant series the same way I ended the last one: The only way to stop the struggle (of trying to be someone you're not) is to embrace who you really are. So that's what we're going to focus on in this series. The embrace. And I'm going to give it away right at the beginning. Jesus' arms were open wide on the cross in an eternal embrace. Romans 5:8 tells us, "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." God wasn't waiting for us to "clean up our acts." He didn't expect us to earn His love. He loved us even when we were sinners (unbelievers). This is so beautiful to me: When we didn't know (or believe) what love was... God showed it to us. In the person of His Son. In the act of laying His life down for us. Giving His life for us, and giving His life to us. Opening His arms wide and drawing us to Himself. Not telling us what to do. Not telling us how bad we were. But doing it Himself. Telling us how good we are. How beautiful we are. Presenting us to Himself as a bride without spot, wrinkle, or any such thing. From the moment Eve listened to the hissing of the serpent in her ear and swallowed the lie that says you have to do in order to be, from the moment Adam ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, all of mankind has been trying to earn something it thought it didn't have. And in order to earn it, man has been trying to be something it's not. Trying to be a "good" Christian. Trying to follow in the foot steps of Jesus. Trying to earn Daddy's love. But love can't be earned. It is a gift. And a gift can only be received. And that's where faith comes in. Because while Jesus' arms are open wide, He's not grabbing us. He stands at the door and knocks. But we have to open the door and let Him in. His arms are open wide, but we have to let Him hug us (if I can say it that way). That's the difference to me between "believers" and "unbelievers." Believers know and, well, believe. Unbelievers don't. And to me that has nothing to do with a place of eternal damnation called hell. It has to do with experiencing what's available to us right now. If you believe God loves you, then you'll stop struggling to earn His love. You'll accept His embrace. It's that simple. WE are the ones who make it hard. WE are the ones who set up all kinds of hoops to jump through in order to "deny ourselves" and be someone worthy of love. Which is what it comes down to. If you believe God loves you then you don't need to change into someone worthy of love. Then your worth COMES FROM the love that you already have. It's not about what you do, it's about who you are, and who God is. God is our heavenly Father. We are His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. My son, Logan, has taught me one thing more than anything else in the almost four years since he's been born: the most pure way to show someone that you love them... is with a big hug. A loving embrace.

If you're trying to be someone you're not--even a "better version" of yourself--then you will never be able to stop struggling. It's impossible to be someone else. And it's not what God wants for us in any event. He made you. And He made you specifically... YOU. I think one of the biggest keys to experiencing and enjoying the abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life that is the gift of God... is embracing ourselves (and each other). There's no condemnation. There's no need to "change." There's grace and acceptance. There's the revelation of a change that already took place. There's not a struggle, there's a finished work. It's not about what WE do, it's about what Jesus did both for us and as us. It's not about trying it's about resting. It's not about living Jesus' life--nobody can live Jesus' life except Jesus--but about letting Him live His own life in us and through us and as us. Because when God gave us that gift of Resurrection Life it came in the form of His only begotten Son. Jesus didn't just give His life FOR us, He gave His life TO us. He laid His life down so that He could pick it back. And since He had drawn us into Himself... when He died, we died. And when He rose again, we rose again. That's how He presented us to Himself as a bride without spot, wrinkle, or any such thing. And THAT'S why there's no condemnation! He took away the sin of the world. He took away the seperation that WE had inserted between ourselves and God. He nailed the Law (the ministry of condmenation) to the cross because it was against us. And now we are free. Free from the struggle. Free to BE who we really are. Free to love--not in order to GET love, but because we HAVE love. Because we ARE loved. Because we are LOVE. When we stop trying to be someone else we can start to be ourselves. Our true selves. That thing (or those things) that make us... US can start to come out when we stop trying to force other things out. When we stop trying we can start resting. Start flowing. When we know what we've already been filled (to overflowing) with... then it starts to come out naturally. That's why faith without works is dead. Because what you believe is what manifests in your life. If you know and believe that you are loved, then that love manifests. You receive it... and release it. It's not about faking it until you make it. It's not about scratching someone else's back so they'll scratch yours. It's about having something--BEING something--that is too good to keep to yourself. But it doesn't come from struggling. It doesn't come from trying to take the Kingdom with force of the violence of human effort. It comes from knowing who we are in Christ. And THAT comes from knowing who Christ is in us! Letting Jesus be Himself in and through and as us is the only way to end the struggle. Seeing the finished work is the only way to rest. Being yourself--EMBRACING yourself--is the only way to truly live!

The struggle is real. I know that it is. I see it every day. Because it's so easy to believe the lie. The lie is right there on the surface, and if you want the truth you have to dig a little deeper. The lie says you aren't good enough. The lie says you have to DO in order to BE. The lie says you have to earn love and acceptance. And the whole world--even, unfortunately, most of the church world--is screaming this lie from the top of it's lungs. Which can make it hard to hear the still, small voice deep inside. The voice of the Holy Spirit that leads and guides us into all truth. The still, small voice that whispers--with every beat of God's heart in our chest--"I love you, I love you, I love you." That's the truth of the matter. God loves us. He always has and He always will. God IS love. In order to stop loving us He'd have to deny HIMSELF and stop being God. We aren't "bad" people who need to deny ourselves in order to somehow change into "good" people in order to earn something from an angry, distant, tyranical taskmaster. We are fearfully and wonderfully made. We are exactly who we are supposed to be. And when we KNOW this--when we know who we are in Christ (and that knowledge comes from finding out who Christ is in us, letting Him reveal Himself to us, and in us, and through us, and as us)--then we can stop struggling to be someone else and we can just be ourselves. Our true selves. The inner man. The hidden man of the heart. When we get past the surface stuff--the struggle against circumstances, and outside forces, and judging by appearance--then the deep stuff flows out of us like that river of living water. But we can't force it out. It only comes out naturally when we know and believe that we are filled to overflowing with it. We don't produce the fruit. We simply bear it. We don't take the Kingdom of God by force, we understand that it is the Father's good pleasure to GIVE us the Kingdom! All we have to do is receive it and release it. Which leads me to my verse for today. The ONLY fight we're supposed to participate in. 1 Timothy 6:12, "Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto tho art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses." Eternal life is the gift of God, right? Not something we have to (or CAN) earn. Something that He gave us. The fight, or the struggle, isn't to GET something. It's to lay hold of what we already have. To RECEIVE the gift that we've been given. The good fight of FAITH is to BELIEVE the truth. To BELIEVE what God says about us. That we are who HE says we are, not who the world says we are. And HE says we are His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. HE says He presented us to Himself without spot, wrinkle, or any such thing. HE says it is finished and the struggle is over! HE did the work and now we can rest and enjoy the fruit (of the Spirit, which is love) of HIS labor! He did it all so we could get it all and now we can stop struggling because we have it all!

If I'm struggling to deny myself and be somebody else then I must believe that there is something inherently wrong with me. I'm not good enough, and I need to DO better in order to BE better. But here's where that idea falls apart: If I'm not good enough to begin with, how in the world can I do better? But that's the religious trap of "do in order to be." That's the lie that Eve swallowed way back in the garden of Eden that got everything so messed up. Because you can't do in order to be. You do BECAUSE you be. It's the same idea that says you can't give what you don't have. How could you? You can't love until you know and believe the love of Christ... until you know and believe that you ARE loved. Because only by knowing and believing that you are loved, do you then have any love to give. That's what John the Revelator is trying to help us understand with verses like, "We love him, because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19). We don't (somehow) love Him in order to be loved. We love Him because we ARE loved. We simply receive it and release it. And when we start to do that, when we start to rest, then we stop struggling. We stop seeing ourselves as unworthy of love--as someone bad who needs to change into someone good--and we start seeing ourselves the way God sees us; as His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. And here's what I really want us to understand today: That thing about you that you're trying to deny... God put that thing within you when He created you! He made you specifically you. He doesn't want you to be somebody else. He wants you to be... you. Let me give you an example--and I always use myself for this example so nobody can get mad at me. I'm a writer. That's a big part of who I am. And all my life I struggled with this gift. I would try to write "my" kind of stuff (which my grandma loving referred to as trash) but I would never be able to finish anything, or produce anything, that was worth anything. So instead of denying myself guess what I did: I presented my body as a living sacrifice to the Lord. I said, "I'm a writer. Let me write for God." And then I wrote Identity Crisis in two weeks. Got it self-published. Wrote half a dozen more books. Am still writing books to this day. Why? Because instead of struggling to deny myself, I embraced myself. We all have that thing that we feel driven to do. The problem is that until we invite God into the situation (if I can say it that way), that thing that's inside of us usually gets twisted on the way out. It doesn't manifest right. And then we feel like failures. I certainly did when I would start to write something and it would fizzle out. I felt hopeless. Because I KNEW I was a writer, but it wasn't working right. And I think that's how we all feel when we're struggling to deny ourselves. Or struggling to be who we are without fully KNOWING who we are. Because while I AM a writer, who I REALLY am is a JESUS WRITER. It lines up when you stop trying to do it yourself. When you stop struggling. When you stop trying to be Jesus and just let Jesus be Himself in you and through you and as you. When you let what's inside overflow out of you naturally. Not trying to force it. Not trying to do it yourself. But letting the One who put that desire in there in the first place manifest it! That's rest. That's abundance. That's what it's all about!

Trying to be somebody you're not is a struggle that is doomed to end in failure, frustration, and ultimately death. Why do you think so many people leave the church? Because (for some reason) we are still preaching the Law of Moses. Still trying to get people to behave in a certain way. And the way we teach it is: You're a dirty sinner. You need to deny yourself and be more like Jesus. But whenever you deny yourself you're literally working to undo the finished work of the cross. It's like we don't understand that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. God made you specifically YOU. He put talents and desires in you. To say, "I can't be me, I need to be someone else--even a "better version" of me," is to say that what God did when He made you isn't good enough. That's why life seems like such a never ending struggle; because we're caught in a cycle of guilt, and shame, and condemnation because we're being told that we're not good enough. And no matter how hard we try we can never BE good enough. There's always one thing we lack. The carrot is always out of reach because the stick keeps moving. The Law of Moses demands perfection without being able to produce it. And the world has it's own idea of perfection--or beauty--that no one can attain. Yet we've made that idea of perfection the goal. If we mess up we think of ourselves as failures. When really... most of the time you have to do something wrong before you can do it right. That's called learning. I like to use the example of a baby learning to walk. Does a father get mad at his baby when he falls? Or does he pick him up and root him on? He certainly doesn't punish his son for stumbling as he learns to walk. But that's the idea of God that we have. We have to struggle to be whatever the current idea of "holy" is, and if we slip up then we're on the highway to hell. The God that we've been presented is a really mean, really distant tryrant making impossible rules and then slamming us when we (inevitably) fail. A creator who made crap and expects it to better itself somehow before he will accept it. Guys. That's not God. That's not love. And that's not the gospel. The good news is that even though we were God's enemies IN OUR MINDS because of our wicked works HE reconciled us to Himself. The One who would never leave us nor forsake us drew us into Himself. Made us one with Himself. Showed us who we really are by showing us who He really is in the person of His only begotten Son Jesus Christ. Jesus, who went to the cross and fought (and won) the war to end all wars. Jesus, who went to the cross and finished the work. Jesus, who brought us out of the bondage of sin and death and into the promised land of rest and abundant, eternal, everlasting, Resurrection Life. If you're resting, you're not struggling. If you know who you are in Christ--who Christ is in you--then you're not trying to be anybody else. You're not even trying to be Jesus, because you understand that He is being Himself in and through and as you. And then the struggle ends and life begins!