Love can be an idea, right? A concept. That's why I believe the word "charity" is so important. Because charity is love in action. The love feast. Jesus prepared it for us, and all we have to do is sit down and eat it... and invite others to sit with us and eat with us. The ACT of sharing what God has given us. Being a witness means receiving and releasing the love of God. Sharing your experience. What you've seen and heard. Giving what you've got. Look at James 2:15-16, "If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?" Basically, put your money where your mouth is. Don't just talk the talk. Walk the walk. Remember our key verse for this Rant series? Colossians 3:14, "And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness." Love in action is the bond that ties us together. Seeing a need in someone and actually, physically meeting that need. And I'm tellng you, there's nothing worse than having an empty belly. Nothing worse than being out in the cold. Those are such basic human needs. Why do you think this question and answer with John the Baptist happened? "And the people asked him, saying, What shall we do then? He answereth and saith unto them, he that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none; and he that hath meat, let him do likewise" (Luke 3:10-11). Universal, basic human needs. If we can't help people with those things... how do we think we can help them with anything? So don't just flap your gums or slam your chicklets together. Actually do something. If you can meet someone's need... meet it. Don't over-extend yourself. Don't try to do things you can't do (or aren't supposed to do). Stay in your lane. Do what you can do. But DO what you can do. Don't just think about it, or talk about. Do it. Put your love into action. Build that connection with people. Build those relationships. Let love be that bond of perfectness. Look, we don't always have to agree on things... but we can always get along. I don't have to force my views and opinions on you, and I don't have to accept your views and opinions. As one of my old pastors was fond of saying, "Major on the majors and minor on the minors." Major on love. Because everything else is really pretty minor. If Jesus was talking about loving your enemies, I'm pretty sure that means we can love anybody. Simply by letting God love us, and then letting that love that is inside of us come out by knowing and believing that it is in there! By filling ourselves to overflowing with what we've already been filled with. Because you can't give what you don't have, and you can only give what you do have. That's why knowing what you have (the love of God), and believing that you have it is so vitally important. We don't need to prepare the meal. Jesus did that for us. All we have to do is sit down and eat. And invite anybody who is hungry to sit with us!

Charity is love in action. And I think that's a big part of why people are so hesitant to accept it. "I don't want your charity!" How many times have we heard that? I think it stems from being prideful--which, as we know, according to Proverbs 16:18, isn't great. "Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall." Which is why I've long said, "Asking for help isn't a sign of weakness. It is a sign of wisdom." Because, the truth of the matter is, we all need help. No man is an island. It is not good that man should be alone. We're all in this together. We need each other. Things work out better when we work together. Teamwork makes the dream work. All of that stuff. So we don't need to get down on ourselves for needing what we need. Denying that we need it and trying to plow on without it does more harm than good. Every time. In the same way that we are to see a need in someone else and meet it if at all possible... we need to be real about what WE need. We need to stop thinking we can do it all on our own. And, listen, I've preached and Ranted many times about being self-sufficient. About how we DO have everything we need... because we have God. I have no lack because my God has no lack. And because we have each other. There are things that I can't do that you can. And there are things that I can do that you can't. So only when we understand that we all, collectively, are one many-membered body... can we get done what needs to get done. I do my part and you do your part. I do my part and I LET you do your part. That's what it comes down to: Not being prideful. Admitting that I need help is one of the best ways to get it. My dad taught me a long, long time ago, "If you don't ask, they can't say yes." So don't be prideful. You need help. We all do. You need charity. Get over it. And then there's the other reason: We don't feel like we deserve it. We feel like we're a bother, or a pest. Like we're not worth putting someone out in any way, shape, or form. "I don't want to ask for help (even though I desperately need it) because I don't want to bother anybody." That can be just as harmful. Both to you, and to them. Because, watch this: "...remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35). When you don't ask for help, you're denying people the opportunity to help you. And helping people is important. I can think of the times I've needed help very clearly. Because I was in a bad spot. That sticks with you. But I can also think of the times I've helped someone very clearly. Because those instances of being able to be there for someone when THEY need help... that's so powerful. That, in fact, in large part, is what we were created to do. That is what allows us to fulfil our potential. To really give what we've been given. Freely we have been given, freely we can give. Knowing and believing that God can, and will, and has, helped us... equips and empowers us to help each other. His charity--love in action, dying on the cross--is what He gave us. Which means that is what we have. Which means that is what we can give each other. And that, friends, is the whole point of the whole thing. So don't look at charity as something bad when you need it. Look at it as something to give once you've got it!

Charity is love in action. Love--the agape, selfless, sacrificial God love--is a love feast. Love in action is feeding people. Giving them what they need. What they hunger and thirst for. And let me get this on the record: What you WANT and what you NEED are two very different things. You can't always get what you want. But if you try sometimes, you just might find... you get what you need. And to me, that's a big part of the difference and distinction between helping people and enabling them. Always giving someone what they want can be massively harmful. But seeing a NEED and meeting it is one of, if not the, purest expressions of love. So when we're talking about charity (and I think I'm going to spend tomorrow on the idea of people who are too proud to accept charity, and give it an almost negative connotation, but we'll get there), when we're talking about charity we're simply talking about acts of kindness. Acts of love. Inviting people to that love feast that Jesus prepared for us. Not shoving it down people's throats (and causing them to choke on it, spit it up, vomit it out of their mouths) but making it look attractive. Showing people that there IS a more excellent way and His name is Jesus. His name is love. And watch this, because this is one of my favorite parts: When you SHARE a meal with someone--a feast, an all you can eat buffet--you get to experience the food too. Let me say it like this: If you want to feel love... love someone. If you want to feel forgiveness... forgive someone. It is in the giving that we receive. That's why I talk about receiving and releasing. Receiving BY releasing. And releasing by receiving. It's all so wrapped up together that it is basically all the same thing. God loves me and because He loves me I can love you. And I love Him BY loving you because He loves me. It gets really sticky, if I can say it that way, but in a good way. Because we are all in this together. Stuck with each other, if I can say it that way. So making the best of it is beneficial for everybody. The tide lifts all ships. When I love you I might be filling you up with the love you need to love someone else. It's a Holy Ghost wildfire that feeds on itself with consuming itself (like Moses's burning bush), and grows and grows. It consumes everything else until there is nothing left but love itself (Himself). Look at Matthew 19:28 in the Amplified Bible, "Jesus said to them, Truly I saw to you, in the new age [the Messianic rebirth of the world], when the Son of Man shall sit down on the throne of glory, you who have [become My disciples, sided wtih My party and] followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones and judge the twelve tribes of Israel." The Messianic rebirth of the world. The new age. What happened when the cross brought us out of the old and into the New. Jesus remade the world in HIS image. In the image of love. And He conformed us to that self-same image. Our new (true) nature is the love nature. The love inside of us coming out of us as we know and believe and LET God love us. That's a big part of tomorrow's Rant. Letting the God who IS love... love us. Accepting His charity so that we have something to give to each other. Love in action. God's love flowing into us, and through us, and out of us... into each other!

Once upon a time I didn't really understand why the King James Bible used the word "charity" a lot when it was clearly talking about love. Like, even the "Love Chapter," 1 Corinthians 13, Paul writes about charity, charity, charity. Then it hit me. Love is kind of an abstract idea for people. Romantic love... friendship love... there are lots of different expressions of love. Lots of different, I guess, facets of love. Like when you look at a diamond from different points of view and you see everything in a different light. Charity, though, is love in action. The rubber meeting the road. Putting what you believe into action. Which is what faith is, and what faith does. But, well, let me quote my key memory verse for this Rant series. Colossians 3:14, "And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness." Kind of a short verse, but so much there and so powerful! But let's build our foundation. In our verse in Colossians "charity" is number 26 in Strong's Greek Concordance. Which, by the way, is the same as most of the uses of "love." Same word, a lot of the time. And it means, "Agape. Love, that is, affection or benevolence; specifically a love feast." Which, of course, leads my thinking directly to the Six Steps to the Throne. I wrote a book with that same title, so I don't want to rehash it all here, but basically the love feast is the six course meal that Jesus prepared for us in the presence of our enemies when He was Crucified, Died, Buried, Quickened, Raised, and Seated. The love feast in which Jesus did all the work, and rang the dinner bell inviting everybody who was hungry. "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled" (Matthew 5:6). The table has been set. Jesus provided the bread and the wine. The Lamb and the living water. In order to get us on the right diet. Because you are what you eat. What you let inside (or what you believe is inside) is what will come out. When you let God love you... love comes out. Affection for people. It's really hard to love someone and at the same time not like them. Now, again, as I've been Ranting about in the past couple of weeks, it's unrealistic to think you can connect with everybody. I'm not for everybody. I know that. I've accepted it. That's ok. There are some people I can reach that you can't, and there are some people you can reach that I can't. That's ok. We're all in this together... but look at your body. Your elbow and your chin are both parts of the body, but they can't touch each other. Doesn't make one more important than the other. Each one is different, and that's on purpose. That's ok. That's how it's supposed to be. Love in action doesn't mean doing the same thing to everybody. It means seeing a need and meeting it. Giving specific people what they specifically need. And, if you remember our key verse, even though charity is love in action... it's not something we DO. It's something (someONE) we PUT ON. It's our nature. What you do flows from what you believe. If you believe the ultimate truth of the universe--that God is love and He loves you--then loving Him back by loving people will be the only action you want to take. It will look different all the time to all different people, but it will be His love flowing into you, and out of you, with every breath you take and every move you make!

All you can do is all you can do. And, yes, there are people out there who will want you, and expect you, to do more than you can do. That's where boundaries come in. Boundaries are healthy. Important. Vital. Turning the other cheek is not about letting someone keep slapping you. It is about not retalitating when they do. You don't have to fight with people. You don't have to bang your head against the wall. Do what you can do. Give it your maximum effort. And then let that be enough. Know when to say when. Do your best and forget the rest. Whether they listen or not... tell them. And then, once you've told them, let it be what it's going to be. If someone isn't picking up what you're laying down... shrug your shoulders and walk away. You aren't trapped. You aren't stuck. God allows U-turns. And, in fact, I believe He encourages them. What we need to do is come to a place where OUR love doesn't have any expectations attached to it. If we expect someone to react a certain way to our "love" for them... that might not really be "love" at all. It might be control and manipulation. Like, when you give someone a gift. Once you've given it, you don't have any say in what the person you gave it to does with it. You just give it because it's in your heart to do so. You can't make people... well... do anything, really. All you can control is yourself. And that goes back to the thing about boundaries. Setting boundaries isn't only about what you will accept from people. It is also about what you will do for people. Sometimes when you think you're helping... you're really hurting. Enabling people doesn't help them. Now, I don't believe it's our job to force people to "clean up their act." If the Holy Spirit can't convict them, I know I surely can't. What we can do, though, is not make things worse. We can limit contact with people who are harmful to us. We can say no. We can't "fix" them, but we don't have to let them hurt us, either. Sometimes walking away is the best way to love someone. Love them from a distance. Pray for them, but don't let them prey on you. I think a lot of the time we accept things that we, quite frankly, shouldn't... out of a misguided idea of "love." Saying, "That's just how they are" to excuse toxic behavior. And that's probably true. That probably IS how they are. But that doesn't make it ok. You don't have to let people abuse you just because you love them. Or just because they say they love you. That's not healthy. Not appropriate. And not ok. So shine the light. But if they refuse to see it once you've lit it up... what else can you do? Shrug your shoulders. Don't make a scene. Don't keep fighting. Walk away. Then you'll have peace. And peace is priceless. Peace is worth it. Knowing you did what you could do, and being ok with whatever that results in. "I tried." If you did your best, you did enough. They might not listen. Tell them anyway. And let that be enough. Don't keep shouting into the void. Don't keep banging your head against the wall. Give it all you've got... and let that be enough. 

God told Jeremiah, "They aren't going to listen to you. Tell them what I say anyway." That has always been so powerful to me. Because it takes a lot of the pressure off. When I write these daily Rants sometimes I'll ask my kid, "What should I Rant about today?" Because I know he will answer either, "Family," or "Love." His two favorite subjects. But the truth is, I just write what's on my heart. I don't write because I think I have it all figured out. I write in order to figure stuff out. And to, hopefully, help other people figure stuff out. But I don't sit there waiting and hoping that I'll get a good response. Or a lot of likes. Of course it's nice when people respond, or interact. But, unlike Lady Gaga, I don't do it for the applause. I do it because it's in my heart to do it. Which is to say... whatsoever you do, do it as unto the Lord, and not unto men. Do it TO men, but not as unto them. Love God and love people. Love God BY loving people. Let God love you and then love Him back by loving the people that cross paths with you. And by "love them" I don't mean control and manipulate them. I don't mean pretend to be nice to them in order to get something from them. I mean... give people what you've got. See a need and meet it. And, if they don't pick up what you're laying down... do your best and forget the rest. Love is maximum effort, right? So give it everything you've got. But then let that either be enough... or not. Because once you've given something everything you've got... that, by definition, is all you can do. All you can do is all you can do. And not everybody will be able to accept, or appreciate that. And that's ok. You don't have to change the world. Look at Romans 13:8, "Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law." We get so worked up about following a law (that was never given to us in the first place, unless we are the literal people of Israel... and was completely fulfilled and replaced on the cross in any event) that we lose sight of what the law of Moses was trying to do. It was trying to teach a nation of slaves how to live once out of the bonds of slavery. And it was showing them that under their own power they couldn't keep it anyway. They--and we, I'll include us in this one--needed a Savior. God so loved the world that He gave us His only begotten Son. He filled us with Jesus. With love. With His Spirit. His life. His nature. So that we could stop trying so hard to get something we think we haven't got and just rest in the loving arms of our heavenly Father. So that we could do what is in our heart to do, give it that maximum effort, and let that be that. Hold our heads high. Shrug our shoulders and move on. Be at peace with doing what our hearts--our God--told us to do. I've tried a lot of things in my life. Not all of them worked out the way I hoped they would. But at least I tried. More is lost by indecision than wrong decision. Grace to grow gives us the room to operate. To make mistakes and learn from our mistakes. To know better, and then do better. This never ending eternal life is made for us LIVE. Which means it is made for us to LOVE. To give what we've got and be content that we gave what we got. No matter how it is received. Wisdom helps us help people receive it, but at the end of the day it is God who gets the harvest. We simply plant, or water, the seed!

I truly and deeply believe in the concept found in Mark 6:11 in the Message Bible, "If you're not welcomed, not listened to, quietly withdraw. Don't make a scene. Shrug your shoulders and be one your way." I mean, if I didn't I wouldn't be Ranting about it, right? But the reason it's so important to me is because I believe peace is so very very important. Stress literally kills people. It is so bad for us. And when you're fighting a battle that you can't win... that's stressful. That's frustrating. When you're banging your head against the wall, all you're going to get is a headache. So it's imperative that we get to the place where we know when to say when. And, in all honesty, I'm not great at this. I'll probably try too hard, for too long, until I reach my "limit." I'll probably keep fighting past the point where it will make any difference, if it ever made any difference at all. But here's the thing: The ONLY fight we're supposed to be involved in at this point, on this side of the cross, is the good fight of faith. Laying hold of eternal life. Not getting it. Because we already have it. But receiving it. And releasing it. Experiencing it. By giving it away. Receiving it BY releasing it. Releasing it by receiving it. Filling ourselves up so much that what God has already filled us with flows out of us. Naturally. Not because of what we try to do... but simply because of who we are. Loving people because it is our nature to love. I remember watching a TV show one time, and two brothers were hunting frogs. And the older brother was just snatching them up one after another. And he goes, "It's just not in my nature to miss." That always stuck with me. When something is your nature, or is natural to you, you don't even have to think about it. You just do it. Love is nature. That's what comes natural to us--when we get to the place of maturity and understanding that allows us (equips and empowers us) to believe in that love. The ultimate truth of the universe is that God is love and He loves you. That's where everything else comes from. That's the foundation we can build on. And God loves us no matter what. He doesn't expect us to do anything... except love Him back by loving people. That's where the (maximum) effort that is love comes in. Giving everything you have and everything you are to the people in your life. Without expecting anything from them. Because love is never about getting. Because love is giving. But here's my point. Here's what I wanted to say tonight: When you've given it all you've got... you can be at peace with whatever happens. If you do your best, you can forget the rest. Will everything always work out the way you want it to? Of course not. That's just life. You won't always be welcomed. You won't always be listened to. You can have the right answer and it might not mean a thing. But that's ok. They might not listen. Tell them anyway. And then leave it in the hands of our heavenly Father. If you try to shove Jesus--God, love... anything, really--down somebody's throat, they won't receive it. They'll gag on it. Puke it up. And they'll resent you for choking them. So just do what you can do. If it "works," great. If it doesn't, that's ok too. At least you did what you could do. You can hold your head high. You can be at peace. And that, friends, is priceless.

You can only do what you can do. Seems simple, right? Logical. The problem is when we allow people to push and pull us past what we can do. And, yes, I understand that the Lord will stretch us. I think you have to go out on a limb sometimes, because that's where the fruit is. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about letting your maximum effort be enough. The part of our key memory verse that I want to focus on today is, well, let's get the whole verse again first. "If you're not welcomed, not listened to, quietly withdraw. Don't make a scene. Shrug your shoulders and be on your way" (Mark 6:11 MSG). And the part I want to focus on today is "not listened to." Because I've found, in my own life, that "being right" can be one of the most frustrating things ever. Having the answer, and giving the answer, and having it fall on deaf ears. Because you can't MAKE someone listen to you. Really, you can't make anybody do anything. And if you do make them do it, against their will, is it really worth it? Is it really real? If you have to beg someone for something, is it worth having? I don't think so. And if you have to cajole, or manipulate, or bully, or trick someone into giving you something, or doing something... it's not worth it. People are who they are and they're going to do what they're going to do. Sometimes the best thing YOU can do is just get out of the way. Don't make a scene. Don't keep fighting when the battle is lost. Do what you can do. Give it your all. Give what you've got. And let that be enough. Because it either will be... or it won't be. And either way, that's all you can do. The old Arkansas wisdom, right? You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it float on its back. You can be right... but if you can't get through to the person you're dealing with... does it really matter? If you're shouting into the void... just stop shouting. Realize and understand that it's not your job to fix everything. You were not created to save the world. That's not your job, or your calling. You were created to be loved and to love. And, I've said this before, by loving someone you might just save THEIR world. So love IS important. I'm not trying to say that it isn't. What I'm trying to say is... no matter how good your message is, no matter how right you are, there are people out there who simply aren't going to listen. And that's ok. Look at Jeremiah 7:27-28, "Therefore thou shalt speak all these words unto them; but they will not hearken to thee: thou shalt also call unto them; but they will not answer thee. But thou shalt say unto them, This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the LORD their God, nor receiveth correction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth." Basically God was telling Jeremiah, "They aren't going to listen to you. Tell them anyway." Because once you've done your part... it doesn't matter how people respond to it. Because at least you did your part. You can hold your head high knowing you did that much, at least. So, yes, give it all you've got. But after that... let it be what it's going to be. Do what you can do. But don't try to do more than you can do. Don't try to do what you can't do. If someone can't, or won't, pick up what you're laying down... shrug your shoulders and move on.

I think this Rant series is important, especially on the heels of the last one about crossing oceans for people who wouldn't jump a puddle for you. Because it is our mandate, our calling, our purpose for being to love people. That's why we were created. That's what this life is for. That's why we're here. God loves us, and we love Him back by loving each other. The tricky part comes when people aren't ready, willing, or able to pick up what you're putting down. And, quite frankly, there's an easy solution to that problem. "If you're not welcomed, not listened to, quietly withdraw. Don't make a scene. Shrug your shoulders and be on your way" (Mark 6:11). Know when to say when. Do your best. Give it all you've got--because that's what love is: giving everything you have and everything you are. But let that be enough. You literally can't give more than all you can give. How could you? As my Arkansas raised daddy likes to say, "You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it float on it's back." You can shine the light of the world, but you can't make people see. Especially if they insist on squeezing their eyes shut. And, listen, as hard as that is--having the right answer but shouting it into the void--it's not your job to fix every problem that exists. It's not your job to force people to do, well, anything really. Love doesn't demand its (HIS) own way. I like to say it like this: God knows what is best for you. He has seen the end from the beginning. But He is too much of a gentleman to force His will upon you. Sometimes He can get pretty persistent--just ask Jonah, right? But at the end of the day we have a measure of free will. Like my grandfather always said, "You can do anything you want, as long as you're willing to pay the consequences." That's why it's so important to count the cost. To think about what you're going to say or do before you say or do it. So here's the point: You can't help everybody. You won't get the result you want every single time. And that's ok. Sometimes all you can do is plant a seed. Then hope that someone else will water it. Or perhaps someone else has planted a seed and you get to water it. The point is, it's God who gets the harvest. It's the goodness of GOD that leads men to repentance. Not the effort of man. So, yes, love people. All the time. Do whatever you do heartily--to the best of your ability and because it's in your heart to do it. But don't keep banging your head against the wall. Listen. I know I'm not for everybody. There are people in this world that I can pour myself into and really see that I'm doing something posititve. And there are people in this world that wouldn't take my hand if they were falling off a cliff. So the best thing I can do--for them AND for me--is to continue to pour myself into those people that I CAN reach. Those people that DO hear me, and respect me, and think I have something worth offering. And to the rest of them--not hating, not punishing--I have to just shrug my shoulders and move on. There's no sense trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. It doesn't fit. It doesn't work. And the more you try the more frustrated you'll get. So, again, give it all you've got. And then let that either be enough... or not.

We are a very conditional society. We like to draw lines in the sand. Or build walls. Members Only clubs. And I think, in reality, all of that comes from the place of wanting safety. Wanting to protect ourselves. To surround ourselves with like-minded people in the hope that there is strength in numbers. So, really, it comes from a place of fear. It comes froma  place of thinking we need something. Thinking we don't have something. It comes from a place of lack. "If I can get people to agree with me then I won't be all alone." And, when that doesn't work, we flip it. "You can't be with me because you don't agree with me." Because it might feel like having nothing is better than having the wrong thing. Which, in large part, I agree with. Having the wrong thing is the worst. But having the right thing... well... now we're talking. 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." Maturity. Knowing that we have no lack because our God has no lack. Knowing that we have already been given everything we need. Knowing that we don't need to fear. Giving what we've got by knowing what we've got. What is inside you WILL come out. It has to. It's too big not to. What you know and believe is inside comes out. That's how important faith is--what you believe, be it the report of the Lord or the lie of the world, is what manifests as your reality. There is no fear in love. Saying, "Don't cross oceans for someone who wouldn't jump a puddle for you" is a very fearful attitude. You're afraid that loving them will... what? Not get you what you want? Love is never about getting. Ever. Because love is giving. If you're worried about what you're trying to get... love isn't involved in any way, shape, or form. And, yes, I know that people use the idea of "love" to try to get what they want all the time. Control and manipulation. Trying to get, get, get. Here's the deal: if you're loving people conditionally... you're not truly loving them. Not perfectly loving them. Because love isn't about what someone does, be it to you, or for you, or what. Love is about who YOU are. And who your heavenly Father is. Love is receiving and releasing the gift of God (which is His abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of love). Love is letting God love the hell out of you and then loving Him back by loving all the people you come into contact with. It doesn't matter if they've "earned" it or not. They deserve it simply by being human. We all deserve love. That's why we were created--to be loved and to love. To be known and to know. God first loved us so that we could love Him back by loving people. Love is fearless. Because love is unconditional. It doesn't matter what someone does, or doesn't do. What matters is what YOU do. Giving what YOU have inside. Letting that love that's inside come out. No matter what. To no matter who. For the simple reason that it's in there. For the simple reason that you have what they need. You have love. So jump that puddle. Cross that ocean. Go the extra mile. Turn the other cheek. Give what you've got and love people!