The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. That's where start. But it's not "I'm afraid of God because I messed up and He's going to punish me." God is not in the punishment business. He's in the chastening and correcting business. The purifying business. He's in the train a child up in the way they should go business. He wants us to succeed. What true Father wouldn't want His beloved Son (in whom He is well pleased) to succeed? But I think one of our biggest problems is that we've settled. We've accepted that "life sucks then you die." We've accepted so much less than what is available to us. Because we've listened to the lie that the world shouts at us from the top of it's lungs. The lie that says, "Whoever dies with the most toys wins." The lie that says, "You have to make other people look smaller in order for you to look bigger." We're so afraid that we'll miss out on something. Or that by giving (or using) what we've got we'll no longer have it. But I'm telling you, when it comes to love it really is a case of, "If you don't use it... you lose it." Because love is giving. Using what you've got--sharing it, giving it away--is how you EXPERIENCE what you've got. And since you're connected to the unlimited source--the God who IS love literally lives in you, even as you live in Him--you can't ever run out of it. Of Him. Of love. He has filled you with Himself. And all you have to do is receive Him and release Him. Let what's inside come out by knowing and believing that it's in there. If you're running FROM God you're missing out on everything that He has made available to you. If you're afraid of Him, you won't come to Him when you need Him. Look at Hebrews 4:16, "Let us therefore come boldy unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." When we need Him... that's when we ought to run TO Him. I'm trying really hard to teach my son the difference between, "I screwed up, my dad's gonna kill me" and, "I screwed up, I need my dad." One of those is wrong. Plain and simple. The other one is coming to Daddy when you need help. One of those is fear in the sense of being afraid. The other one is fear in the sense of reverence. Being still and knowing that HE is God. That God has your back no matter what. That He will never leave you nor forsake you. That when you're in need... there is grace to help. And where else, in all honesty, could we find grace other than the throne of grace? Other than where Noah found it. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. He is not just seated ON the throne... He IS the throne. He doesn't just HAVE grace... He IS grace. All the the things we attribute to God, to Jesus (God in the flesh, love in a body... God in OUR flesh, love in OUR body) are not just things that He has, or things that He does. They are things that He IS. And, because as He is so are we in this world, those aren't just things that WE have or things that WE do. Those things--mercy, grace, forgiveness, righteousness, love--are who we are! I've heard it said that the love chapter in First Corinthians is simply a personality profile of Jesus. Which means it's a personality profile of US. Seeing who He is let's us see who we are. We don't ever have to be afraid of God. That would be the same thing as being afraid of love. And there is no fear in love. Perfect love casts out fear. Love is our safe place. Our refuge. The place we run TO instead of running FROM. So fear not. That's the wisest thing we can do. That's where it starts. And when you start with love... you can't go wrong. Love leads us and guides us and gets us to where we're supposed to be!

When you afraid, you are not made perfect in love. Which is to say you don't fully understand love. I think a lot of the fear, and the misunderstanding, comes from being afraid to put ourselves out there. When you reach out your hand and someone slaps it away... that's excellent incentive to never reach it out again. When you touch the fire and get burned... that's a good way to stay away from the fire. But the fire is what MAKES us perfect. The fire is what purifies us. The fire is... God. Literally. "For our God is a consuming fire" (Hebrews 12:29). And what we see about this fire from the picture of the burning bush that spoke to Moses... is that the fire burns but isn't consumed. The fire consumes everything BUT itself. The finished work of the cross was the Messianic rebrith of the world. Stripping away--BURNING away--everything but Jesus Himself. Everything but LOVE Himself. Which means on this side of the cross there is nothing but love. Look at another passage in Hebrews, "Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man" (Hebrews 2:8-9). As He is, so are we in this world, right? So if everything is under His feet that means everything is under our feet. We are overcomers not because we can (maybe) overcome some day. We are overcomers because HE overcame. In us. And through us. And as us. The problem is that we don't always see everything under our feet. We don't always see things the way they are. BUT. We see Jesus. His strength is made perfect in our weakness. When we see Him--when He appears (again) in us, and through us, and as us--we see ourselves as we truly are. When we look in the mirror we see the beloved Son of God in whom He is well pleased. And we know that we are connected to that unlimited source of love. We know that we don't have to be afraid of anything. Certainly not of losing what we've got. We were given what we've got SO THAT we could give it away. If you don't use it, you lose it. But in this sense you use it BY losing it. By giving it away. By sharing it. Because love IS giving. Love is a love feast that everybody is invited to. Receiving and releasing the love of God is how we are perfect in love. Mature in love. Full to overflowing with love to the point that it comes out with every move we make and every breath we take. And that, friends, is why we're here. Not to fear an angry God who is out to get us. We are here to live! And to live is to love. To love is to live. They aren't just connected, they are the same thing. Giving what you've got will not leave you with nothing. Giving what you've got is how you experience and enjoy what you've got. A feast is best enjoyed when it is shared. When it feeds everybody. And that's what God is all about. That's what love is all about. Seeing a need and meeting it. Giving what you've got without being afraid that you'll lose it. Experiencing God's love... by giving it away!

Think about this from God's point of view: He loves you so much that He gave His only Son for you. To bring you back into the fold. To get rid of any seperation that exists in YOUR mind that keeps you from experiencing everything He has and everything He is. And how do you treat Him? Like He's a mean, angry, distant taskmaster whose only goal is to punish you when you mess up. Think about the heartbreak that would cause. Someone reaches out their hand to help you, and you slap it away. Not only is that ungrateful on your part, but that's teaching the other party NOT to keep reaching out. It's not a perfect metaphor, because God will never stop reaching out to us. He will never stop loving us no matter how we react to His love. But the point I'm trying to make is... there is no fear in love. If you love someone, or if you know that you are loved by someone, that's the foundation that you can build a relationship on. That's a foundation that is strong enough to endure anything. If you're always afraid of what God will do... you're missing out on what He has already done. And what He has already done is the best thing anybody could ever do. He saved us. Forgave us. Cleansed us. Washed us with the Word (which is Jesus, which is love). Brought us out of death and into life. I think this is one of the biggest misconceptions in the religious world: Jesus did not come to make "bad" people "good." He came to make dead people alive. He came that we might have life, and have it more abundantly. He wasn't concerned with the afterlife. He didn't preach about what would happen after we die. He preached about what it meant to live! He was all about that abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life. He was all about love. Because to live is to love and to love is to live. He didn't come to scare us straight. He came to show us love. And, again, there is no fear in love. Love is our safe place. God is our refuge. He doesn't want us to obey out of fear. That's not sustainable. If you're not doing what you want to do because you're afraid you'll get into trouble... eventually you're going to do it. You're just going to try to make sure you don't get caught. See, it's not behavior modification that is needed. It is right believing. Because right believing produces right living. What you believe is what defines your reality. What you believe is what manifests in your life--either the lie of the world or the ultimate truth of the universe that God is love and He loves you. If you're goal is to get away with things you shouldn't be doing... you need a new goal. But when you understand how immaculately loved you really are... your goal will be to share that love with the people you come into contact with. When you know what you've got--and when you know how good what you've got really is--you'll want to share what you've got. You won't be afraid anymore. You won't be afraid to let people (and God) love you, and you won't be afraid to love people. I know it can be scary to put yourself out there. I know it can be scary to be open and vulnerable. To give what you've got is scary when you think you might lose it. But, in this case, if you don't USE IT you lose it. Love is experienced by the sharing. Because love is giving. We don't have to be afraid. Of God, or of each other. We don't have to be afraid of losing what we've got. We are connected to the unlimited source. The God who IS love lives in us! And love is giving. So just receive it and release it. Give it away. "Be careful for nothing, but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God" (Philippians 4:6). Don't be stingy with what you've got. Be generous. Have faith that in using it, you don't lose it. In using it, you experience it!

There's a pretty big discrepency between the Old Testament of the Bible and the New Testament of the Bible. For example, there are three verses in the Old Testament with the phrase "The fear of the LORD of the beginning of wisdom." Psalm 111:10, Proverbs 1:7, and Proverbs 9:10. Any time the Bible repeats itself, it's pretty important. So on the surface it seems like the idea here is that it's wise to be afraid of God. Which is what a lot of religious folk still preach to this day. "Get right or get left." Clean up your act or suffer for eternity. Be afraid of a mean, angry God. But let's contrast that. Psalm 27:1 says, "The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?" Or Isaiah 41:10, "Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness." Just to name a few. And those are Old Testament verses. See, the tricky part about the Old Testament is that without the indwelling Holy Spirit... there was a lot more of man making God in OUR image than the revelation that God made us in HIS image. We filtered everything through our own experience and our own understanding of things. And can I just say, clearly, for the record, that "fear" in Psalm 111:10 is number 3373 in Strong's Hebrew Concordance and it means, "Moral reverence." There are connotations of dread or fear, but it's not supposed to be us running FROM God because we're afraid of Him. It's about us taking Him seriously. Taking God seriously--giving Him reverence--is the beginning of wisdom. Because if you start at the right place, it's much easier to get to (or stay in) the right place. From glory to glory, right? Where you start has a big impact on where you go. And, listen, what I'm saying is... start where you're at. Don't wait for... anything, really. God can turn your mess into a message. He can bring you out of, and through, and into. He allows U-turns. So right where you're at is the best place to start. Don't be afraid of Godly rejection. I don't believe there is any such thing. I believe God loves us all. He created us so that He could express His love. To us, and in us, and through us, and as us. We were created to be loved, and to love. To be known, and to know. That's our purpose. And everything else flows from that. And true love will never cause you to be afraid or to run away from it. Look at 1 John 4:18, "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love." There is no fear in love. Fearing God is not about being afraid of God. Almost every time an angel of the Lord appeared to someone it started with "Fear not." Our "natural" inclination is to be afraid of things we don't understand. But that's why the reverance of God is the beginning of wisdom. That's why we can start to understand Him on HIS level. When you be still and know that HE is God, things really start to come into revelation. You really start to see things clearly--because the light of the world begins to shine. It shines on you... and in you... and through you! We don't have to be afraid of our heavenly Father. We can run TO Him instead of running FROM Him!

I think it's funny (in an ironic, not in a haha, sort of way) that people seem to think there is a big struggle between God and sin. Or God and the devil. Or, really, God and anything. Like the Creator of the universe would (or could) ever struggle against anything. Kind of absurd. And Jesus showed us this when He cursed the fig tree (the tree of death, the tree of knowledge of good and evil). He didn't struggle with it. Fight with it. Mess with it. He simply saw that that tree could not produce any fruit... and got rid of it. He spoke, and it withered and died. There was no cosmic battle. The war to end all wars was fought on the cross, but even that one was never in doubt. When it looked like things were at their worst, and the literal Son of God was being hung on a cross to die... things were actually at their best. God was bringing us out of the old and into the new. I love the verse that says, "Morever the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound" (Romans 5:20). Gives us the point of the Law--condemning us all as "sinners" so that we could ALL be transformed into saints by the redemptive, finished work of the cross--and points out, in the past tense, that sin only abounded until grace did much more abound. Sin was the rule of the day... before the cross. Then Jesus came and took it away. If sin is the ticket to the "eternal fires of hell," and Jesus took away the sin of the world, then... if that version of hell does exist, wouldn't it have to be empty? How do you get there if Jesus asked His Father to forgive us... and our heavenly Father DID? But I digress. Hell as a destination is not my theology. I think in a lot of ways hell can be a present reality. But even more so... the days of heaven on earth can be our present reality. It all depends on what you know and believe is inside you. Because what you believe is inside WILL come out. It has to. It's too big not to and your faith in it is too powerful not to force it out. What you believe WILL manifest in your life (either the lie of the world or the report of the Lord). So sin is not the problem. Sin was dealt with. Grace obliterated sin. Jesus took away the sin (unbelief) of the world by giving us something (someONE, Himself, LOVE) to believe in. Have faith in God. That's what Jesus said. And that's what we CAN do now that the light of the world, the light of life, the light of love, is shining. We can experience everything Jesus's everlasting, abundant, eternal, Resurrection Life of love had to offer. Because we are no longer slaves to sin. We are no longer bound under that bondage. We are free FROM sin, and we are free TO love. To live. To experience Jesus's life by letting Him live it in us, and through us, and as us. We are free to be who we were created to be. No longers slaves, but Sons! No longer in bondage, but free. And, again, freedom CAN be abused. But only by people that don't truly understand it. You can do whatever you want, but that doesn't mean you should, and that doesn't mean there aren't consequences to your actions. So use your freedom FROM sin... as freedom TO love! That's what this life is all about. It's all about love. Receiving and releasing the love of God. Letting God love you and loving Him back by loving each other. Sin isn't even in the equation!

I'm just going to throw this out there and then move on. If all of our sins are forgiven... how, then, could someone end up in what many people believe is the eternal punishment for sin known as hell? Just something to think about. Moving on. To 1 John 3:9, "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." Does not sin because he cannot sin because he is born of God. That, to me, is so powerful. That, to me, is what we should be preaching. Not, "Stop sinning or else." But, "The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). If the sin of the world--which is unbelief--has been taken away... then how could we possibly continue therein? A believer, by definition, cannot unbelieve. One born of God, then, cannot sin. So why are we still struggling so hard with an issue that has already been dealt with? Why are we still using the concept of eternal fiery prison to scare people? Instead of being on a sin hunt we ought to be on a righeousness hunt. Instead of focusing on what's wrong with people we ought to be telling them what's right with them. One of my favorite verses in the whole Bible talks about training up a child in the way he SHOULD go. Building people up instead of tearing them down. Teaching people who they are instead of telling them what to do. When you know who you are, you will do what's natural to you. When you know your new (TRUE) nature is the love nature of Jesus... you will love with every breath you take and every move you make. Sin won't even be an issue. (By the way, I explore a lot of this in my book "The Sin Issue.) Here's the point: God not only took away the sin of the world (unbelief) by giving us something (someONE, Jesus, love) to believe in, but He forgave us for our sins. Took any sort of idea of punishment for sins out of the equations. Gave us a system of animal sacrifice to kind of continually sweep them under the rug, and then brought that animal sacrifice to its ultimate conclusion with the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world. Before there was ever a "sinner" there was a Savior. Before we were ever in trouble, we were out of trouble. God doesn't want us to fear Him. Or run from Him. Or be afraid of Him. He wants us to run TO Him when we need help. He wants us to cast our cares upon Him, because He cares for us. God doesn't want us to suffer. So in what world would He create a place for constant torment and suffering? It doesn't add up. And if you have to "believe in Jesus" in order to go up on the cosmic elevator instead of going down... that's a work. By grace we are saved. It's nothing that we've done, or will do, or could do. It's what Jesus did. For us and as us. On the cross. It's the Lamb of God taking away the sin of the world and purifying our conscience with a hot iron. I'm already neck deep in this so let me drop one more memory verse. "And death and hell were cast into the lak of fire> This is the second death" (Revelation 20:14). If hell was cast into the lake of fire, it seems doubtful to me that hell IS the lake of fire. And the second death, by the way, was the cross. The first death was when Adam ate of the tree of death (the tree of knowledge of good and evil), and the second death was when Jesus died on the cross. The cross is when everything happened. The cross is when sin and death were defeated. Stop fighting a defeated enemy. Stop fighting anything except the good fight of faith. Laying hold of the gift of eternal life that you have already been given. Experiencing the gift of God by letting Jesus live His own life in you, and through you, and as you!

Let'strack this thing. In the Old Testament there was a Law. The Law of Moses. The Ten Commandments. And a complete system of animal sacrifice for when the Law was broken. Look at Hebrews 10:1-2, "For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the thing, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins." Get it? If the animal sacrifice worked, they wouldn't have had to keep doing it. It was more a sweeping under the rug than anything. It certainly wasn't any sort of deep cleaning. It certainly didn't change anyone's behavior or anything like that. It didn't purge anybody. And look at what that purging--that came from the ultimate "animal" sacrifice when the Lamb of God was slain--completed: No more conscience of sins. Not being conscious of something means not being aware of it. Your conscience is that still, small voice deep inside telling you what's right and wrong. Sin is "wrong" because it is unbelief, or wrong believing. It is, in a nutshell, believing that we are sinners. I can't tell you how much it bothers me when people identify themselves that way. "Well, I'm just a sinner. I'm already going to hell when I die." People who have given up. People who have no hope. People who define themselves by the worst things they've done. Let's be honest for a second--we've all done things we're ashamed of. We've all made mistakes. We've all made bad choices. That's just part and parcel to living. Nobody is perfect (in the Mr. Perfect, never messes up or does anything wrong sense). But at the same time, those we are in Christ (and to me that means those that KNOW and BELIEVE they are in Christ and have received the glorious message of the gospel) ARE perfect. In the sense of Spirtual maturity. In the sense of knowing who we really are, because we know who God really is. It is that identity that equips and empowers us to live the abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of God (life of love) that is the gift of God. And we live that life by letting Jesus live His own life in us, and through us, and as us. First Timothy chapter 4 speaks of having your conscience seared with a hot iron. Which to me is connected to Paul writing this in Romans 12:20, "Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head." But if you're loving someone (even an "enemy") perhaps we aren't heaping firey coals on their heads in order to burn them. Perhaps it is to melt their hearts. Perhaps that's what the hot iron searing our conscience is all about. Burning away that consiousness of sin. We don't need to focus on it, or really deal with it at all. Because Jesus dealt with it. He took away the sin of the world. He took away unbelief by giving us something (someONE, Himself, love) to believe in. He was the ultimate sacrifice that needed to happen so we could stop trying to make sacrifices over and over again. We don't have to come to God begging Him for forgiveness. Jesus asked for it on the cross, and I believe it was granted. Before the cross you forgave in order to be forgiven. You had to try to earn your bread by the sweat of your brow. On this side of the cross you forgive BECAUSE you are forgiven. You let what's inside come out and you don't worry about the rest of it. That's the best (only) way to live. It's not about sin at all. It's about your sin consciousness, about having no more conscience of sins!

Jesus took away the sin of the world. He fulfilled the law. So why in the world are we so obsessed with those two things? Why are we still putting ourselves under a law that was never given to us (and falling from grace in so doing) and why are we always on a sin hunt? Look at Romans 4:15, "Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression." Think about that for a minute. You can't break the law when there is no law. Right? That tracks. But that doesn't mean we are lawless. Look at James 1:22-25, "But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed." There's a lot there. But basically, behavior modification doesn't work. If you're hearing the truth about yourself--that you are God's beloved Son in whom He is well pleased--but not applying it, then the truth isn't helping you because it isn't true... to you. And we know that the truth (that we know and believe) will set us free and make us free. Faith working by love is what makes everything happen. Walking by faith and not by sight. Living by faith. Living out of our abundance. But here's the thing: If you think of freedom as freedom TO sin instead of freedom FROM sin... that's where things get twisted. And, yes, freedom is easy to abuse. But it's still better than bondage. Look at 1 Corinthians 6:12, "All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any." Just because you CAN do something doesn't mean you SHOULD. Sin is unbelief. Believing anything other than the ultimate truth of the universe that God is love and He loves you. And those transgressions, those acts, are what flows from that unbelief. Trying to get something you think you haven't got. That's why people do things--not because they think it's bad, but because they think it will get them what they want. Love, however, is never about getting. Ever. Because love IS giving. Always. So we dont' have to worry about getting, because our heavenly Father has already given us everything we need. He made the Way of Grace. We respond with the Walk of Faith. We receive and release what He has given us. And that's how we experience what He has given us. It's not about trying to act a certain way. It's about giving what you've got. By knowing and believing that you've got it. It's not about being on a sin hunt and trying to get the sin out of the camp. It's about being on a righteousness hunt and letting that righteousness of God in Christ (that we are) shine through. It's about being who you are, not about trying (and failing) to be who the world tells you to be. You were created for a purpose. And that purpose is to let God love you and love Him back by loving people. Sin isn't even in the equation. Jesus took away the sin (unbelief) of the world by giving us something (someONE, Himself, LOVE) to believe in. The problem, as I think I mentioned yesteday, is our sin consciousness. Which we will address tomorrow. That's what we need to deal with it. Because Jesus already dealt with sin. Put it as far away as the east is from the west. Threw it into a sea of forgetfulness. And, most importantly, forgave us for it. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. He did. And now that we know better, we can do better. We're not constrained by an external law. We are led by an internal law... of liberty!

Let's talk about sin. This is something I don't really do very often. Because it causes quite a controversy. Same thing if you try to talk about hell. Religious folk get all up in arms about it. Which is odd to me when John 1:29 says, "The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." Or a passage like Romans 6:20-23, "For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life." To me it's pretty clear that sin has been dealt with. Taken away. We've been freed from it. So I constantly question why we're still so hung up on it. And the answer is the sin consciousness. Which I'll get to. Today I just want to say loud and proud, "Whoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the trangression of the law. And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin" (1 John 3:4-5). See, we need an understanding of what sin is. And, in a nutshell, it is the trangression of the law. But what law? The law of Moses? A law that was given specifically to the people of Israel under an old, obsolete covenant? Or, perhaps, the perfect law of liberty. I'm convinced that "sin" is simply unbelief. Believing anything other than the ultimate truth of the universe that God is love and He loves you. The only way we can fall from grace is by putting ourselves under that law. The law, by the way, that Jesus fulfilled in order to put it away and bring forth that new law which is, again, the perfect law of liberty. Not the ten commandments that were given in order to show us that we can't keep them... but the New Commandment for the New Man. Loving one another as Jesus loves us. Receiving and releasing His love. That's the law. That's what we are commanded to obey. You are loved... love. Give what you've got. Let what's inside come out by knowing and believing that it's in there. Don't struggle with things that are not an issue any longer. Don't beat yourself up or disqualify yourself when you mess up. Just learn from it and move on. When you were servants of sin you couldn't be righteous if you tried. But where sin abounded (before the cross) grace did much more abound (on the cross). Then we were planted as trees of righteousness. Sin was taken out of the equation. A "sinner saved by grace" is not a sinner anymore. Can't be. A transformation took place. The scales fell off of our eyes so that we could see things clearly. The light of the world shined so that we could stop stumbling around in the darkness. It absurd to me when people talk about grace as "license to sin." Because that implies that our whole goal is getting away with stuff we shouldn't be doing. And if that's your goal... find a new one. Our goal should be living life to the fullest. Which means loving people to the fullest. Because living and loving aren't just connected--they are the same thing. To live is to love and to love is to live. If you're always preoccupied with sin you're missing out on the gift of God. Which is life, and that more abundantly. Transgressing the law is simply believing anything other than that still, small voice deep inside you that says, "I love you." Our heavenly Father's voice saying, "You are my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." When we hear that voice, and know that voice, and believe that voice... that's when we can truly live. By being who we truly are! By laying aside the sin (unbelief) and the weight that so easily besets us and walking in newness of life!

The secret of life, in my humble opinion, is receiving and releasing the gift of God. Breathing His Spirit (of love) in and out with every breath we take and every move we make. Understanding who WE are by understanding who HE is. Because as He is, so are we in this world. Jesus is our true identity. He is God in the flesh. Love in a body. God in our flesh. Love in our body. Look at 1 John 2:29, "If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him." When you know better, you can do better. When you're stumbling around in the dark it's hard to get anywhere. But when the light of the world (that He is, that we are) shines... that's when we can see clearly. When love guides our way we WILL get where we're going. Even if we make some wrong turns. Even if we get lost sometimes along the way. God is more powerful than our mistakes. He can get us--and keep us--on the right path. God allows U-turns. And, in fact, I believe He encourages them. He doesn't want us to suffer. He wants us to thrive. He wants us to have an abundant life. And He knows that love is what makes life abundance. Living out of your abundance means living out of the love that He has given us. Receiving and releasing His love. Knowing and believing it is inside so that it can come out naturally. Because whatever you believe is inside WILL come out. It has to. It's too big not to. The key, as I said, is knowing and believing. If you know HE is righteous, you can begin to understand that YOU are righteous. Because we are the righteousness of God in Christ. It's not our own righteousness. It's HIS righteousness. It's all about God because it's all about love. He planted us in His garden. Trees of righteousness for His glory. And He planted Himself in us. So that HE can come out of us. Everyone who does righteousness--which says to me that your actions matter. What you do matters--is born of God. Because true righteousness can only come from Him. He is the Gardener. He casts the trees that don't produce fruit into the fire. So that the only tree left is Him. The Tree of Life. Which produces the fruit of the Spirit. Which is love. He is the vine and we are the branches. We bear the fruit that He produces. He gives us the ball and we run with it. All the deeds that He did and greater deeds. Because the Holy Spirit dwells in us. Because LOVE dwells in us. Think about it--there are people in your life that nobody can reach... except you. That's why God put you where you are. That's why He made you WHO you are. Love isn't just what you do, it is who you are. Trees of righteousness born of God displaying His mercy, and grace, and forgiveness, and righteousness, and holiness, and love! That's why we were created. We are God's love letter to the world. We are the way He expresses Himself. Expresses His love. He expresses Himself to us, and in us, and through us, and as us. In Him we live, and move, and have our being. We can't live without Him because He is life. To live is to love and to love is to live. He loves us (first) and because of that love we love Him back by loving each other. We make the fruit that He has produced available to each other. We let Him fill us up with Himself, His Spirit, His love... and then we fill ourselves up to overflowing with what we've already been filled with so that it can come out of us into each other! Love is giving. You can give without loving but you can't love without giving. So give what you've got. Be who you are. And do whatever you do heartily--to the best of your ability, because it's in your heart to do it!