"No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon" (Matthew 6:24). Ok. Before I get into this I want to make something clear: God is ALL powerful. And that doesn't mean He has the MOST power, it means He has ALL of the power. So when we're talking about these two "masters" we need to realize that only one of them is real, and true. See, there's the appearance realm, the world, external forces or circumstanes--mammon. And there's the invisible realm, the Kingdom, the inner man, or hidden man of the heart--God. One is real and the other isn't. One is true and the other is a lie. But you can believe a lie if you want to. And you can really believe a lie if you've never heard the truth. So to me, this idea of "serving a master," isn't about someone telling us to do something and we have to do it or else. That's religion. That's performance based works and labor. And that's NOT what God is all about. Jesus said, "For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45). So this idea of "Jesus is my boss," or whatever we think "serving" God is all about... He didn't come so we could serve Him. He came to serve us. He came to free us from bondage, not put us in bondage. So to me, "serving God" is about seeing and believing. What you believe is what you do. If you believe God loves you... you love people with that same love. It's not external. It's not, "God ordered me to love and I have to obey or else." It's, "God loves me so I love you." So I CAN love you! That mandate we have to present our bodies as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1) simply means that we should let God do whatever He wants to do in us and through us and as us. THAT'S how we "serve" Him. Not by trying to be Him, but by letting Him be Himself in us! And that's why we can't "serve" Him and "serve" mammon at the same time. Because while the world is screaming for our attention, trying to force it's way in from the outside, God is speaking in a still small voice from inside. And whoever you listen to... THAT'S your master. Romans 6:16 says it like this, "Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" Sin (unbelief) or obedience (believing the Word of God). Death or righteousness. The lie or the truth. Deuteronomy 30:19 is a fitting end to today's Rant: "I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore chose life, that both thou and thy seed may life." That's the choice that we have been given. Who to serve. What to believe. And in believing... doing. We don't do in order to be. We do what we be. We do what we believe. We ARE what we believe...

Before the cross we had what is commonly referred to as a "sin nature." It was our default setting to not believe. Because we really didn't have anything to believe in. The best we (thought) we could do was earn our bread by the sweat of our brow. The problem, of course, is that no matter how hard we tried... no matter what we did... there was always one thing we lacked. And the thing we lacked--again BEFORE the cross--was the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And that's what the cross accomplished. Jesus poured out His Spirit on all flesh. He gave humanity what it was missing. Not the love of God--God always has and always will love us--but the ability to RECEIVE the love of God. See, the cross did not turn us into something that God could love. He already loved us. What the cross did was move us out of the power of darkness--where we couldn't SEE His love--and into the Kingdom. It's so important to understand that darkness doesn't have any power of us because when the light is shining we can see clearly. And seeing is believing. We believe in God because He gave us something (Himself, love) to believe in. We love Him because He first loved us. That's our true nature. Not the Old Man selfish soulish beast nature that tries to get get get, but the New Man sacrificial love nature that has everything He needs so He can just give give give! Because that's what love is. Love is giving. Not trying to get something you don't have, but sharing what you do have! And that's what true human nature is. We were created to be loved and to love each other with that same love. This idea of, "Well of course I messed up, I'm only human. It's my nature to screw up. It's my nature to sin," is so damaging to our true identity. Because if we think we're sinners... we're going to sin. Whatever you believe about yourself is what your reality will be. (And, listen, I'm not saying you can believe that you're a millionare and then check your bank account and all of a sudden have a million dollars. I'm saying there's the truth about you--God's Word--and there's the lie about you--what the world tries to force you to accept. And whichever one you believe... that's what your reality will be.) Matthew 9:29 in the Message Bible says it like this, "He (Jesus) touched their eyes and said, "Become what you believe." " And that's what happens to us every day. We become what we believe. What we see--either the visible appearance realm of the world, or the invisible abundant everlasting realm of the Kingdom--is what we be. But I don't believe "human nature" is something bad that we need to overcome in order to be "more than human." I believe the beast nature was overcome on the cross when Jesus became who we were and was crucified, died, and buried. HE overcame the world and in HIM we are more than conquerors. We don't HAVE that nature anymore. It's gone. And when He was quickened, raised, and seated He gave us our NEW nature. Our TRUE nature. HIS nature. The love nature.

What if "sin" ISN'T our default setting? What if it's not something to be overcome, but something to lay aside? What if our nature ISN'T to do "bad stuff" but instead is to love each other with the love that our heavenly Father loves us with? What if we're not under the Law but under grace? What if the work really is finished and we don't have to do anything but receive it and release it? To me that sounds like freedom. Liberty. Abundant life. To me that sounds like truly LIVING instead of just being alive. (Because you guys know I believe to live is to love and to love is to live, right?) I think there's this idea where we have to deny ourselves, and take up our crosses and follow Jesus in order to stop doing "bad stuff" and start doing "good stuff." But if it's good and evil then it's the wrong tree. Neither good deeds nor evil deeds lead to life. It's a straight gate and a narrow way that leads to life... and His name is Jesus. His name is love. Jesus: God in the flesh, love in a body. God in YOUR flesh. Love in YOUR body. That's the ONLY way to live. A life of love. And that's what the cross accomplished. God poured His Spirit out on ALL flesh. He gave us ALL the gift of eternal life (knowing the Father in the context of knowing that we are His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased). He brought love out of the realm of relgion--where WE had put it, by the way--and into the realm of relationship where it belongs. The unregenerated mind hears the lie that says, "Do in order to be," and thinks, "Well that makes perfect sense. Let's try that." But therein lies the problem. Because the harder you try to earn something that is freely given, the more you rob yourself of enjoying that priceless gift. The truth is: You are unconditionally loved by the God who IS love. Not because of what you do, but because of who YOU are, and because of who HE is. Basically God says, "I love you, and there's nothing you can do about it." But before the cross (when sin, or unbelief abounded) we didn't KNOW God loved us. And because we didn't know it we couldn't believe it. THAT'S what a "sin nature" is. It's the inability to believe because you have nothing to believe IN. So God, at the appointed time of the cross, sent His only begotten Son to become sin so that we could become the righteousness of God. He TOOK AWAY the sin (or unbelief) of the world by giving the world something (someONE, Jesus, love) to believe in. And He gave us His Spirit--our love receptor--so that we COULD believe in it. He showed us love, and He equipped and empowered us to receive and release that love. He did everything that needed to be done to bring us out of the power of darkness (the bondage of sin and death) and translate us into His Kingdom. He did it all so we could get it all. And that all that we got... was Him. His nature. The love nature. We were made new. Regenerated. From the inside out. No longer do we have to let the world dictate to us. No longer are we slaves to outside forces or circumstances. No longer do we have to simply accept the things that the world offers to us. We are planted on the Rock. We have something to believe in. It's not outside in. It's inside out. The love inside of us overflows out of us. THAT'S our nature. Love isn't something we use to overcome who we "really are" (sinners). Love IS who we really are. Where sin abounded (before the cross) grace much more abounded! The old man and his beast nature was buried when Jesus was crucified, died, and buried. And the New Man with His love nature came forth when Jesus was quickened, raised, and seated. We aren't "sinners saved by grace." We WERE sinners before the cross. Now we are saints. We are His Son(s)!

I really want to destroy this idea that we are born with a "sin nature." That "human nature" is to do all of the bad things that think of as "sin." And I want to destroy this idea because I think it's damaging. I don't want to hear people say, "I'm just a sinner saved by grace." Because if you think of yourself as a "sinner," you are giving in to the fact that you are GOING to sin. And then you shrug your shoulders and say, "Of course I messed up. I'm only human." But if we can STOP defining ourselves that way... if we can stop believing the lie... then we can begin to experience what it means to truly be humans. We can begin to enjoy ABUNDANT life. Eternal life. Everlasting life. Resurrection life. I did a quick Bible search on my computer today and I found out that the words, "sin" and "nature" never occur in the same verse in the King James Version of the Bible. So this idea that we base so much of our lives on--that we are born with a sin nature and have to overcome that "human" side of ourselves in order to be holy--doesn't really hold any water. Let me quote 1 John 1:8 before I go any further, because I want to build something here. "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." That verse LOOKS like it says either we admit we're sinners, or we're liars. Which SEEMS to give credence to the idea of a sin nature. But you have to understand that John was writing to unbelievers. He was writing to say that until you acknowledge your own failure, you'll never be able to accept Jesus as your Savior. Which, really, was the whole point of the Law of Moses. The Law wasn't given so that we might keep it, and earn righteousness through our actions. The Law was given as a school master to bring us to Christ. To show us that we CAN'T keep it in our own power, and to produce faith in the One who DID fulfill the Law. Basically: Jesus did it (for us and as us) because we couldn't do it. He finished the work. He did what needed to be done in order to bring us out of the power of darkness (the bondage of sin and death) and into His glorious Kingdom. He who was without sin became sin so that we might become the righteousness of God. Not self righteousness earned through our actions, but God righteousness received through our faith. Let me ask you this: Did Jesus--the Lamb of God who TOOK AWAY the sin of the world--take away all of the "bad actions" that people do that we usually associate with sin? Of course not. Look around and you will see people doing "bad stuff." Jesus didn't take away our actions. He took away our unbelief. That's what sin is: Not what you DO, but what you BELIEVE. And Jesus took away our sin (our unbelief) by giving us something (Himself, love) to believe in. He filled us with His Holy Spirit--our love receptor--so that we could know and believe the love of God. So that we could stop looking for love in all the wrong places and instead go straight to the source. On the cross Jesus showed us what love really is. He destroyed sin (unbelief) and He showed us who we really are. Not an Old Man with a beast nature, but a New Man with a love nature!

"This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?" (Galatians 3:2-3). The way I see it, if we're still (on this side of the cross) born with a "sin nature" then there work left to be done. There's something we need to DO in order to BE. But, since Jesus finished the work and poured out His Spirit on ALL flesh... we don't need to DO anything in order to BE anyone. We can be who we are. Who we REALLY are. Who we are in Christ because of who He is in us. Listen, if you're trying to be someone else then you can't be yourself. And God made you... you. He loves you just the way you are. He doesn't need you to CHANGE, He simply wants you to know the truth--the truth about Him and the truth about you. And here's the rub: The truth about Him IS the truth about you. Our true identity is Jesus. God in the flesh. Love in a body. That's who we really are. That's what it means to be human. To live is to love and to love is to live. So without this revelation of a Father who unconditionally loves us we try to earn something that is freely given. When we don't know the source of love we look for love in all the wrong places. And when we look for love in all the wrong places we make a mess of things. And then we blame that mess on our human nature. "Of course I messed up. I'm not perfect. I'm only human." We have this idea of ourselves as imperfect, incomplete screwups. But the Bible tells us something different: Colossians 2:10 declares, "And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power." We ARE complete. We HAVE BEEN made new. The work is finished! When Jesus died (both for us and as us) He dealt with that old nature, that beast nature. That selfish, sinful, soulish nature. And then when He rose again (both for us and as us) He gave us HIS nature. He filled us with the Holy Spirit--our love receptor--so that we could receive and release the love of the Father. So that we could live--truly live--in the context of a relationship between a heavenly Father who loves His Son and is well pleased with Him. And that's TRUE human nature: To be loved and to love with that same love. That was Jesus' new commandment: Love one another as He loves us. Receive it and release it. He filled us to overflowing so that we wouldn't have to TRY to make it happen. We're not made perfect by the flesh. We're made perfect by the truth that the perfect One lives inside of us! So on this side of the cross, "human nature" isn't about messing up. Or about getting something you think you don't have. Human nature is about knowing and believing that God loves you... and sharing what you do have with those around you! Tomorrow we're going to look at the whole idea of a "sin nature." Because sin is unbelief, right? So before the cross, before Jesus gave us something (someONE, Himself, love) to believe in... we DID have a sin nature. But no longer!

I don't believe anybody on this side of the cross is born with a "sin nature." I know that goes against a lot of "traditional" preaching, but I'm of the opinion--and remember, this IS my opinion--that what Jesus did on the cross is a lot bigger than we give it credit for. And since this is a controversial thing I'm saying I put it through my, "Should I say this out loud," test. And basically the test is this: If I think it's what God is telling me to say, I'll say it. If I think it'll help someone, I'll say it. And I think an understanding of what it means to be a new creation will definitely help people. I think truly understanding what our human nature is--not the beast nature of Adam but the love nature of Jesus--will help people. All I ever hear about regarding "human nature" is someone messing up and then saying, "I can't help it. It's human nature." We use this idea of a "sin nature" as an excuse. As if that is our default setting, and we need to do something to rise above it... we need to do something to be "more than human." But here's the interesting part: When Jesus came to show us the Father... when He came to give us life and that more abundantly... He came just as we were. With only one small difference. While in the Old Testament God's Spirit would fall on someone, for a time, in order to empower them to do something... when Jesus was baptized the Holy Spirit RESTED on Him. And we just spent a whole series on rest--our abode, or home, which is love--so we know that the difference between Adam and Jesus is that Jesus was FILLED with the Holy Spirit. Jesus was FILLED with the love nature of His Father. Jesus was a human being to the fullest. He lived the total and complete human experience while the rest of humanity was working as hard as it could to get as much as it could. Now watch this: In Joel 2:28 God promises, "And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh..." And then in Acts chapter 2 when the Holy Spirit filled the believers on the day of Pentecost, Peter said, "...this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel," (Acts 2:16) and quoted Joel 2:28! So the "afterwards" was referring to the cross, and the prophecy has been fulfilled! God poured His Spirit out on ALL FLESH! Not on some flesh. Not on some people. All. Now, listen, I'm not saying everybody has received this gift. I'm not saying we all know this truth. I'm simply saying nothing has to happen for us to "get" this new nature. Because we already have it. And while it might be buried beneath the surface, while we might not know what we have or who we are or where we are... all it takes is the light shining to reveal things as they truly are. Here's what I'm saying: We already have it. We simply need to recieve what we have. We're not old. The old has passed away. ALL things are become new. Human nature isn't about what passed away on the cross when Jesus died. Human nature is about what came forth when He rose from the grave!

I started this Rant series with the line: Don't stress about rest. And that's where I want to end it. Because if we're stressing, we're not resting. If we're trying to do it ourselves then we don't believe that it is finished. You can't force the rhythms of grace. You can't live up to the impossibly high standards of the Law of Moses. You can't take the Kingdom by force. And you aren't expected to. Jesus did it all so we could get it all. The "all" that He did was the cross. And the "all" that we got... is Him. His life in us and through us and as us. So remember this: Rest is our abode. It's our home. It's the Promised Land. It's where we live. We live in Him because He lives in us. We live in LOVE because love lives in us. So if rest is where we are, rather than what we do, all we have to "do" is be who we are. Be where we are. We've been equipped and empowered to know and believe the love of God. To receive it and release it. To let it overflow out of us naturally. I think my next Rant series, starting tomorrow, is going to be "human nature." Because we excuse a lot of deplorable behavior by writing it off as human nature. But the truth of the matter is... we have a new nature. Not a beast nature that tries to selfishly get whatever it can for itself... that tries to earn it's bread by the sweat of its brow... but a love nature that is more interested in GIVING than GETTING. But that's for tomorrow. To finish up this series... I just want to say works don't work. Trying to force yourself to be someone you're not will only end in failure and frustration. Why do you think people leave churches? And I realize there are a LOT of reasons that happens, but I'm convinced one of the biggest ones is all of the religious hoops we expect people to jump through in order to be accepted. The Father accepts us because of who we are (HIS), not because of what we do. And this acceptance is what helps us BE who we are, without fear of condemnation. People will hide things if they think they will be persecuted for them. They'll point fingers at others, trying to get the heat off of themselves. That's why "sin hunts" are so prevalent in some churches. But God forgave our sins. And took them away. And forgot about them. He doesn't expect us to earn anything from Him. Everything He has for us is an inheritance passed down from Father to Son. It is freely given. It can't be earned. It can only be received. And we receive it... we learn how to live this life (or rather, let Jesus live HIS life in and through and as us) simply by spending time with Him. It's not about religion, or rules. It's about relationship. It's not about forcing it. It's about letting it happen naturally. It's not about changing. It's about understanding the change that took place on the cross. It's about seeing through the eyes of grace, as the light of the world shines and reveals things as they truly are. It's about the unforced rhythms of grace allowing us to LEARN how to rest and how to truly live!

You can't force it. The Kingdom, the Promised Land, rest, our abode, love... is not something that can be earned. The biggest and first lie ever told was that you have to DO in order to BE. Eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil THEN you'll be like God. WRONG! We were made in His image. We didn't need to do anything to be like Him. What we needed was to KNOW who He is, and in so doing know who WE are. That's why Romans chapter 8 verse 29 is so important. Speaking of the cross Paul writes, "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren." See, we were MADE in His image, but we didn't know what that image was. Not until Jesus came and showed us. He showed us the Father. He showed us what it means to be the Son. He CONFORMED us to the image that we were made it. He shined His light and showed us how things really are. He shined His light and showed us that the work is finished. That it was finished from the foundation of the world. That He is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world! The work is finished. And Jesus did it both for us and as us. He did the work so that we could stop trying in vain. So that we could stop trying to take the Kingdom by force. So that we could rest. And here's the best part: He didn't just finish the work and then leave us to rest if we could somehow figure it all out ourselves. See, He didn't just give His life FOR us, He gave His life TO us. He died and then rose back up from the grave. He invited us to come away with Him and LEARN how to rest. LEARN what it means to be loved, and to love with that same love. He made abundant life available to us, and He stands at the door and knocks, just waiting for us to invite Him in so He can sup with us. So He can spend time with us. Have a relationship with us. That's all a Father really wants FROM His Son. To spend time with Him. And on the flip side a Father wants the very best FOR His Son. He wants to provide for Him, and take care of Him. He wants His Son to be able to enjoy the life that He has given Him. But when we try to earn what is freely given--what can only be received--we rob ourselves from experiencing it. We miss out on what is available to us by trying to MAKE it happen. By trying to force it. You can't force it. It has to flow. It's the river of life and you can either try to swim up stream, or you can let it carry you wherever it wants you to go. You can try to be like Jesus, or you can let Him be Himself in you and as you and through you. And the difference is faith. Either you believe the work is finished--because you've seen how it got finished--or you try to finish it yourself. One way works and the other doesn't. Works don't work. Earning and gift doesn't work. But learning of Jesus--learning who you really are, who you are in Him and who He is in you--that's where true rest comes from. True life. True love!

Rest results from the unforced rhythms of grace. We learn to rest as we spend time with the One who finished the work. But what, exactly, IS rest? We know rest is the promised land. The land that flows with milk (righteousness) and honey (revelation). And we know it's connected to faith--trusting God and believing His Word (Jesus, love). Look at Hebrews 4:1-3, "Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world." And the word, "rest," is number 2663 in Strong's Greek Concordance and it means, "reposing down, that is, abode." It's LITERALLY the Promised Land. It's where we live. Where we dwell. Not WHAT we do, but HOW we do it. Because rest is NOT inactivity. Rest is simply Holy Spirit directed, and Holy Spirit powered, activity. The works were finished from the foundation of the world. The Lamb was slain. Sin was taken away. And because of that we have been equipped and empowered to believe the truth. The ultimate truth of the universe that the Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into His hands. The truth that we are His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. That truth that Daddy loves us. You have to have faith to enter into rest. And faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the Word of God. We enter into our abode, or our dwelling place, or our home, by spending time with the carpenter Jesus who built that home. Built US into that home! God took up abode in us on the cross. The Message Bible says it like this in Revelation 21:3, "...Look! Look! God has moved into the neighborhood, making his home with men and women! They're his people, and he's their God." So what is rest? It's God. It's love. It's our home. And the best part is, we can't force our way in (and don't need to)... because HE already moved into us! We dwell in Him because He dwells in us! Look at 1 John 4:16, "And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." You can't believe something you don't know. That's why faith comes from hearing. That's why we learn to rest by spending time with the One who finished the work. The Kingdom (righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost), the Promised Land, rest... these are all terms, or pictures, used to describe love. The unforced rhythms of grace allow us to see things as they truly are. To see God's love for us and to BE God's love one to another. To receive and release the gift of eternal life. To be loved, and to love one another with that same love as it flows out of us naturally. We are filled to overflowing. We don't have to force it out. It's in there... so it going to come out!

You can't force grace, or rest, or mercy... or love. Up until John the Baptist the Kingdom suffered violence and the violent took it by force (or TRIED to take it by force). But then Jesus came and showed us a more excellent way. He came and showed us that we don't have to earn Daddy's approval, or love. Daddy always has and always will love us. We just didn't know it. So Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit--HIS Spirit--which is our love receptor, so that we could RECEIVE and RELEASE the love that has always been present. See, the cross didn't change you into something that God could love. He already loved you. The cross changed you into something that could receive His love. That's the difference between Adam (the son of God) and Jesus (the BELOVED Son of God). God loved them both. But Jesus let Himself be loved. He knew that Daddy loved Him. He knew who He was. The biggest problem I have with religion is that it tries to force you to be someone you're not. It basically says, "You aren't good enough right now, but if you do this this and this (whatever your culture has decided holiness is) then someday you might be good enough." It's the carrot dangling on the end of the stick, but it's always out of reach. There's always, as Jesus put it, one thing you lack. Not even Moses, the mediator of that Old Covenant, could get into the Promised Land on his own merit. It can't be done. With man it is impossible. But with God ALL THINGS are possible. The Law wasn't given so that we could try to keep it and thereby earn our own righteousness. The Law was given to show that we CAN'T keep it. It was the schoolmaster that brought us to Christ. Because while we couldn't do it... He did it. He finished it. And He did it both for us and as us. He brought us out of the world's economy of works and labor and He brought us into rest. That's what the Promised Land IS. It's the rest of God. (And if I can say it like this... in the Old Covenant we had some of Him, a limited understanding, but now we have the rest of Him. Now we have all of Him. Now we are filled to overflowing with Him!) But even still we try to force it. We try to be a "good Christian" according to what we do. It's not about what you do. It's about what you believe. Because what you do flows from what you believe. You might have some limited success at the beginning with behavior modification, but at the end of the day you are who you are. So the real trick is finding out who you REALLY are. The real trick is getting away with Jesus so you can LEARN how to rest as you spend time with the One who finished the work. Not trying to be someone else, but letting Jesus (God in the flesh, love in a body) be Himself in you! That's when it's real. That's when it stops being religion and starts being relationship. That's when you get gripped by grace instead of trying to grab it with your own power. That's when it flows. That, my friends, is when it's unforced.