In a world where people are so fixated on what they can give... flip the script. Give what you've got. Give what they need. Show them something different. Show them a more excellent way. When you hear, "Don't cross oceans for someone who wouldn't jump a puddle for you," respond with, "It's not about me." Love is giving. Which, by definition, means it is never about getting. And, yes, I understand that you can't give what you don't have. I understand that you can only give what you do have. That's why the Divine Order of things is so important. Receiving and releasing. Letting God love you and then loving Him back by loving people. Look at 1 John 4:19, "We love him, because he first loved us." In the Message Bible it reads, "We, though, are going to love. Love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first." That, to me, in a nutshell, is the secret of life. The purpose of life. Love and be loved. Know and be known. Fill ourselves to overflowing with the love that God has ALREADY filled us with. And that, friends, is why is always speak of receiving and releasing. Love is never about getting. I think I mentioned that. But when it comes to love we don't NEED to get it. We already have it. He gave it to us. For God so loved the world He gave us His only begotten Son. Jesus went to the cross and gave His life for us, right? He also gave His life TO us. Why? Simply because He wanted us to have it. Simply because He wanted us to experience that love-filled relationship between Father and Son. I always speak about how our true identity is Jesus. God in the flesh, love in a body. God in OUR flesh. Love in OUR body. WE are His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. WE are the vessel He has chosen to represent Himself as. He loved us... so that we could love. So that we could love Him back by loving each other. So it doesn't matter how people treat us. It matters how GOD treats us. That's the New Commandment, after all: "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another" (John 13:34). Loving others as Jesus loves us. It's that simple. And that takes all of the pressure off. It puts all of the emphasis where it belongs. Not on you. Not on them. On God. On the God who IS love. If Jesus expects you to love big... He has to first love you big. Because that's His commandment; love as I have loved you. Receive it and release it. Breathe it in and breathe it out. Let God love the hell out of you, and then love Him back by loving the hell out of the people you come into contact with. Don't worry about how PEOPLE treat you. Treat God the way HE deserves by treating people the way you would like to be treated. Give what you've got. Give what you've been given. Don't judge according to appearance. Judge righteous judgment. Love people simply because they are people. Not because they've "earned" it, but because they DO deserve it. And that deserve doesn't come from what they've done. It comes from who they are. It comes from who YOU are. It comes from who GOD is.

When we make our love towards other people dependent upon how they treat us... we are giving up all of our power. We are becoming reactive, instead of proactive. And, let me just say this: God is all-powerful, right? Which means love is all-powerful. Which doesn't mean MOST powerful. It means ALL of the power. It means nothing else HAS any power. Unless we give our power away. Unless we stop being who we are and let something (or someone) dictate to us who we should be. And that's never a good idea. When you know who you are, you can be who you are in every circumstance and situation. When you know what is inside you, you can let it out no matter what. Can... and should. Because the world needs what you have. My main theme in this Rant series has been debunking the idea of "Don't cross oceans for people who wouldn't jump over a puddle for you." And tonight I want to focus on something that I think is important. Why. Why won't that person jump over a puddle for you? And, honestly, in the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter. Because it's not about them. And it's not about you. It's about God. It's about love. But let's just think about it for a minute. To me, it comes down to this: You can't give what you don't have. How could you? You don't have it. So if someone "won't" do something... it's probably because they can't. Let me say this another way: The people who are the hardest to love... are the people who need love the most. Because they aren't getting it. Because they're hard to love. It's a self-defeating pattern. It's a slippery slope that once you get one it, it's so hard to get off. Things snowball. Good things AND bad things. You've probably had days where just one thing goes wrong after another. And the more things go wrong, the harder it is to deal with them. On the flip side, sometimes a small win can be the foundation that builds and builds into greater and greater successes. Here's what I'm trying to say: If you're reacting to someone else... you're not being YOU. If you're just trying to give them back what they've given you... you're not breaking the cycle. You're not helping. Not helping them, or yourself. The only way to get from one tree (the tree of death, which is the tree of knowledge of good and evil) to the other (the Tree of Life which is Jesus, which is love) is to stop trying so hard and accept the glorious truth that Jesus cursed the fig tree (again, the tree of death, the tree of knowledge of good and evil) because it couldn't bear any fruit. Stop trying so hard. Stop trying so hard to be someone you're not in order to get something you think you haven't got. Life is about living. Embracing your true self... and embracing others. Loving people no matter what. Turning the other cheek. Going the extra mile. Not worrying about whether they have "earned" or "deserve" your love. We didn't earn God's love. And, if it's about our actions, we proabably don't deserve it. But love isn't about what you do. It's about who you are. And who God is. He loves us. No matter what. All of the time. Which means we can love Him back. By loving each other. No matter what. All of the time!

I think it's easy to get to the place where you've been hurt by someone you loved. Not because you loved them, but because of the expectations you put on them. And when that happens I think it's easy to blame love. "Love hurts." No, it doesn't. Love heals. Love edifies and fortifies. What hurts is getting let down. What hurts is feeling like we are not loved. What hurts is loving someone with the expectation that you will get what you want from it. Guys... love is unconditional. It doesn't demand anything. It's not about getting. Because it IS giving. You can give without loving, but you can't love without giving. Look at my key memory verse for tonight: "But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you" (Matthew 5:44). Jesus. Telling us how to treat people that treat us poorly. Jesus. Telling us that it doesn't matter what other people do. That it matters what YOU do. Telling us that all we have to do is let what's inside--what's really inside... His love--come out. By knowing and believing that it's in there. Telling us to cross oceans for people whether they are willing to jump a puddle for us or not. Telling us to go the extra mile even when it's someone compelling us to go that first mile. It wasn't our idea. We didn't necessarily want to do it. But someone needed us to. We can look at that as "a friend in need is a pest," or we can look at that as an opportunity to love someone. We can look at it as an opportunity to preach the gospel. To show people who God is. We can look at it as an opportunity to be who we really are. To put our true nature on display. And, for the record, our true nature is the new nature. The nature of God. The nature of love. Love is not something we have to try to do. Love is not something we do in response to someone else's actions. Love is what we do in response to GOD'S actions. We love because He first loved us. We give what we have because He first gave it to us. We let Him love the hell out of us and then we love Him back by loving each other. We do what we do as unto the Lord, not men. So it doesn't matter how people treat us. It matters how our heavenly Father treats us. That's the midset shift that we need. That's what we need to focus on. Let God be true and every man a liar, right? Don't worry about what people are doing, or not doing. Don't put expectations on things. Take things as they come, and improve them by letting the light of the world shine on you... and out of you! Shine through you! That's what this life is for. That's what this life is all about. And, unlike people, when you turn your expectations to God... he never lets you down. You might not always get what you want, but your heavenly Father will always give you what you need. So DO cross oceans. DO judge righteous judgment. And DO love people no matter what. I think it was Abraham Lincoln who said he destroyed his enemies by making them his friends. That's the only way to truly "fix" or heal the world. It comes from loving people no matter what. Giving what you've got no matter what. Letting the love of God--which is already living inside you--come out... no matter what!

Have you ever heard that phrase, "Don't cross oceans for someone who wouldn't jump a puddle for you"? Yeah... I don't like that phrase. I guess, with my Will Graham super-empathy I can see where it comes from. You want to protect yourself, right? You want to make sure you're putting your three T's (Time, Talent, Treasure), your effort, into people that deserve it, right? You don't want to just pour yourself into a black hole where you feel like you're just giving and giving and giving and it isn't making any sort of difference at all. But here's the thing: Love isn't about getting. Anything. Ever. Love isn't about getting the result you think you should get. Love is giving. Period. Giving what you've got by knowing and believing that you've got it. Receiving it and releasing it. Receiving it BY releasing it. Letting what's inside come out and in that way experiencing it. And, as I think I've been saying recently, it's not about them. Really, it's not even about you. It's about the God who is love. It's about HIM working in you in order to will and to do of HIS good pleasure. That's where our focus needs to be. Not self-centered, but Christ-centered. Which means people-centered. Not judging people by appearance, but simply judging righteous judgment. Loving everybody you come into contact with regardless of whatever else. Going into all the world (or at least your world) and preaching the gospel to every creature you encounter. Loving people no matter what. Whether or not they would jump over a puddle for you. Because it doesn't matter what they would or wouldn't do. What matters is what YOU do. All you can control in this life is what YOU do. That's your sphere of influence. And that's important. Because what you do matters. You have a bigger affect on people than you might think. So it's important that we cross those oceans. It's important... well... let me drop my memory verse before I run out of room. "And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain" (Matthew 5:41). Going the extra mile. Putting that extra effort in. Bending over backwards in order to give someone else what they need. That's what love is all about. Seeing a need and meeting it. And the part I like about this verse, that doesn't necessarily seem to be preached very often, is the part about being compelled. Jesus was talking about helping people, right? But He was also talking about how we deal with people who... let me say it this way: Another well known saying goes like this, "A friend in need is a pest." We all have those people in our lives who only ever hit us up when they need something from us, right? Like we won't hear from them unless and until we can do something for them. Jesus was saying, "Even with those people... give them everything you've got. Don't look at it as a hardship. Look at it as an opportunity to love. And we need all the opportunities to love that we can get. Because loving people is how we feel alive. Because to live is to love and to love is to live. So even when (espeically when) someone is compelling us... go the extra mile. Don't look down at them unless it's to reach out and help them up. Asking for help is hard. If someone's doing it, it's probably because they really need it. So cross that ocean. Jump that fence. Give that maximum effort that is love!

The tricky part about motive is that it's so easy to get it twisted. To do something, but to have an ulterior motive. Or to do something because you have the wrong motive--which, at the time, feels like the right motive. The ONLY motive. It's so easy to let our emotions control us. Or to let them bubble out because they're right there on the surface. Or to try to bottle them up and then watch helplessly as they explode. Emotions are big. And powerful. So here's what I always say to that, "Feel what you feel, but don't let it control." Nobody can tell you how you should feel. For 1, they aren't you so they can't say. And for 2, you're going to feel however you feel regardless. So it's pointless to try to tell someone else how to feel. The key is to empathize with them. To LET them feel what they feel without taking it personally--even if it is personal. Sometimes people just need to let those emotions out, and sometimes you might find yourself caught in the crossfire. Here's my point: Just because someone takes something out on you doesn't mean they hate you. You might just be in the way of their emotional outburst. That doesn't make it "right" for them to treat you like a punching bag, but it's important to remember that the way someone treats you says more about THEM than it does about you. Normal people don't go around destroying other people. And people who are filled with love simply go around loving other people. That, then, MUST be our motivation. God working--LOVE working--in us to will and to do of HIS good pleasure. Jesus living HIS abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrction Life of love in us, and through us, and as us as we know and believe that that is what He is doing. God's motive is that He wants the best for us. That's why He gave the best to us. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). See, He wanted us to NOT perish. To NOT struggle. He didn't want us to merely survive. He wanted us to thrive. He wanted us to have everlasting life. HIS life. A life of love. Knowing that we are loved (by God) and loving Him back with that same love. Knowing what we have (and who we are, and where we are, and why we're here) so that we could share what we have (and who we are). So that we could receive and release the gift He has given us and in that way experience and enjoy that gift. The gift of life. Freely we have been given, freely we can give. That's our motive. Doing things because they are in our heart to do them. Doing things heartily--to the best of our ability, and because they are in our heart to do them. That HAS to be the motivation. Not getting... giving. Because love is never about getting. Because love IS giving. So don't get it twisted. Don't focus on what you (think you) don't have. We have no lack because our God has no lack. He gave it all to us when He gave His only begotten Son to us. And now, because of that, we have something to give. In the same way that Jesus gave Himself, we can give ourselves. Everything we have and everything we are!

Another one of my all-time favorite verses: "And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men" (Colossians 3:23). Puts us in the right frame of mind, right? Because sometimes we think people don't deserve our love, or our effort, or what have you. Sometimes people do us wrong and we think "an eye for an eye!" Or, in my case, I think, "Ok. Smell ya later." Because I've been making conscious choices in my life to not let toxic people into my life. I'll turn the other cheek. I'll refrain from retaliating. But I'm not going to stand there and just let someone keep slapping me over and over and over again. Now, at the same time, that doesn't mean I wouldn't help that person, if help is what they really wanted. But a lot of the time it's like how they train lifeguards, or other rescue people, not to engage with someone who is drowning until they stop flailing and fighting. Because if someone isn't ready to receive your help, they might hurt you in the process. Take you down with them. And that's not good for anybody. So my point is, "Judge not according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment" (John 7:24). My point is, go into all the earth and preach the gospel to every creature. Love everybody. Wherever you are. Because it's not about them. And, really, it's not that much about YOU either. It's about God. It's about love. It's about the love inside of you coming out of you (naturally) with every breath you take and every move you make. Receiving and releasing God's love. We love... because He first loved us. We love... because He has filled us with His love. He loves us, and we love Him back by loving each other. So, really, it's all about God. Doing whatever we do as unto HIM. Heartily. To the best of our ability, and because it's in our hearts to do it. Do it TO men, but not UNTO me. See a need in someone and meet it... but don't do it because you think they deserve it. Do it simply because it needs to be done. Do it, as I said yesterday, for one of two reasons: 1. Someone didn't do it for you and you know how that feels and want to correct it Or 2. Someone did it for you and you know how it feels and want to pass it along. There is no reason not to love someone--when you are judging not by appearance, but by righteous judgment. There is no reason not to love someone when you are doing is as to the Lord. Jesus has given us every reason to love Him. He literally gave His life for us, and to us, and as us. He gave us everything He has and everything He is. Loved us with the greatest love a man can have. Gave us everything. So that we could have it. So that we could enjoy it. So that we could give it away. Freely you have received, freely give. Our motive should not be hidden. It should not be an ulterior motive. It should be right out there in the open. "Why did you do that?" "Oh, because I love you." And, again, that love for others comes from God's love for us. What He has already given us simply needs to be received and released. And, the cool part is, we receive it BY releasing it. By knowing and believing that we have it. Giving it away. Sharing it. And in that way... experiencing it!

It is God working in us that gives us the want to, and the power to. In short, He is our motivation. Which means LOVE is our motivation. Because God is love. Love working IN us, in order to come OUT THROUGH us. That's what this life is for--letting God love the hell out of us, and then loving Him back by loving each other--and that's how we experience this gift of God (which is the abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of God) that we've been given. We receive it and release it. Breathe it in and breathe it out. We love... because He first loved us. We love Him back (after receiving His love) by loving people. Whatsoever you do unto the least of them you do unto the King, right? It's all about love. His love fills us up, then we fill ourselves up to overflowing with that same love. And the best part is (because love is giving) we experience that love, that gift, by giving it away. I say that's the best part because it means we don't have to chase it. We don't have to try to earn it. We already have it. All we have to do--again--is fill ourselves up to overflowing with what we've already been filled with. All we have to do is let what's inside come out. By knowing and believing that it's in there. I always say, "If you don't know what to do... do what you know." Which is to say: You can always love. Love is the solution to the problem, right? Every situation needs love. Because everyBODY needs love. And situations are more about people than anything else. I believe there are only two truly important things in this life. God and people. Loving God and loving people. Loving God BY loving people. And, listen, I just Ranted about loving the environment. Taking care of the people, places, and things wherever you find yourself. Preaching the gospel to all creatures in all the earth. But I don't believe we should ever lose sight of how important WE are. We are all in this together. We all need each other. We all need to take care of each other. That should be our motive; not getting... but giving. Giving what has been given to us. Letting what's inside come out by knowing and believing that it's in there. Receiving and releasing the love of God. Letting Him love the hell out of us and then loving Him back by loving the hell out of each other. That's our motive. That's God--love--working in us. Giving us the want to. "I want to love people." And giving us the power to. "I CAN love people." And watch this: I believe Christ's love controls us. No matter what. Either we don't think we have it and do everything we do in order to get it... or we know that we have it and do everything we do in order to share it. I think it's so powerful to be able to love someone. It comes from having love. Having something to give. And knowing what we have. "I felt like nobody ever loved me, so I'm going to love you in order to make sure you never feel that way." Or, "I always felt like I was loved, and I want you to feel that way too." No matter who we are, or where we come from, or what we've been through... it's all about love. Giving the love that we have to those people that we come into contact with. Letting what's inside come out. Letting God work in us, so that He can work through us!

I want to build off of our key memory verse from yesterday. Philippians 2:13 says, "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." that, in a nutshell, is our motive. God working in us giving us both the want to and the ability to. That's why--and how--we do what we do. Now look at the very next verse, "Do all things without murmurings and disputings." I think that says a lot about God's good pleasure. He is the God of peace, not of confusion, right? "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God" (Matthew 5:9). What I'm trying to say today, I think, is this: If you don't know what to do... do what you know. Don't try to get your own way in every situation. That's selfish, and love is not. Try to make peace in every situation. Do all things without murmurings and disputings. And, listen, I'm not saying you should accept every single thing. Some things are unacceptable. What I'm saying is, you don't have to fight about it. Even those things that you can't accept. Because--here's the straight truth of the matter--you can't change people. You can't make people be who you want them to be. The best you can do is be who God wants YOU to be. The best you can do is love people no matter what. Even if that means loving them from a distance. Sometimes you have to turn the other cheek. Choose to not retaliate. But that doesn't mean you should stand there and let people keep slapping you and slapping you. It means don't slap back. Shrug your shoulders and move on. Don't murmur about it. Don't dispute with them. Let people be who they are. But, again, that doesn't mean you have to a part of it. Or a party to it. You don't have to go down the road with someone if you don't like where that road is leading. But you can't necessarily stop THEM from going either. You have to let people be who they are. While still being who YOU are. Your motive should not be to change people. Your motive should be to love people. And I know we have this idea of "tough love" where we think we're supposed to squash people into our box. Into our idea of who they're supposed to be. Guys, the only person I take that much responsibility for is my son. Who, at the time of this wriiting, is nine. So I think it's my job to exert some parental control over him. Set the rules, and the boundaries. But at the same time, I don't force him to like the things I like, or anything like that. I let him be who HE is. And I love Him no matter what. I'm trying my best to train him up in the way he should go. Because he's mine. He's my responsibility. When he gets older he'll have to make those choices for himself, and I'll have to let him. Point being--when we're dealing with people its not our job to make them be who we think they should be. It's not our job to force people to be anything or anybody. If the Holy Spirit can't convict them, what chance do we have? Not much. So don't get into disputes with people. Let them be who they are. Love them no matter what, even if it has to be from a distance. Don't accept anything and everything, but don't think it's your job to control everything and everybody either.

I'm stuck on this idea of why we do what we do. And, as I was taught by my pastor, I'm going to preach it until my heart is empty on it. The cool thing about that is that I don't write because I think I know everything. I write, in large part, to explore. To find things out along the way. It's like this: We have an unction from the Holy One and we know all things, right? (1 John 2:20) But what is really important in this life is understanding what we know. We know the ultimate truth of the universe: God is love and He loves you. The Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into His hands. But until we understand what it truly means to be loved... until we understand that all things have been placed into our hands because the Father's beloved Son in whom He is well pleased is our true identity... until we begin to mature in that truth... well... let me say it this way: The truth is the truth whether you know it or not. Whether you understand it or not. But when you know it and believe it and understand it... that's when the truth is true... for you. That's when you can experience and enjoy the gift you've been given. So. Let's look at my key verse for this Rant series, Philippians 2:13, "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." To me, that pretty much says it all. Why do we do what we do? Because it is in our heart to do it. How did it get there? God put it there. It's that simple. And, really, what else could the God who IS love put into our hearts (which are only concerned with love)? What else could His good pleasure possibly be? He, like any true Father, wants to see His Son succeed. That's why He gave us everything He has and everything He is. Literally handed us the keys to the Kingdom. Gave us that mustard seed of faith. Provided for us the Way of Grace. And all we have to do is respond to it with the Walk of Faith. Let His Word (which is Jesus, which is love) be a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. And I'm telling you, when you experience God's love it provokes that response all by itself. We don't "praise" Him in order to get Him to do something. We praise Him because what He has already done is worthy of praise! We don't rub a genie bottle and hope for three wishes. That's not faith. Faith is the SUBSTANCE of things hoped for. Faith is trusting God--love--because He has proven Himself trustworthy. So our motive is never to get. Love is giving. It's not about getting. Love is not selfish. It (HE) does not think about itself (Himself). Love is giving. Love is giving. Love is giving. Freely we have received, freely we are to give. God is working in us BOTH to will AND to do. Not just the want to, but the power to. Not just the idea of love, but charity--which is love in action. It's easy to think about things sometimes. But we don't always take that next step. When we understand that it is Jesus living His own abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of love in us, and through us, and as us... that's when we stop trying to follow in His foot steps and just simply let Him make His own foot steps with our feet. That's when our motive becomes easy. We don't even have to think about it. We don't have to fake it 'til we make it. We can simply let the love that is already inside come out by knowing and believing that it's in there!

I always find the story of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane interesting. And I've heard quite a bit of preaching about what Jesus actually meant when He asked for the cup to pass from Him. I don't want to get into all of that tonight. I simply want to focus on the truth--the immaculate, undeniable, unstoppable truth--that love is giving. Which means it's not about you. It's about the people you are giving yourself to. Love is never about getting. If you're "loving" someone in order to get what you want from them... that's not love. That's manipulation. I've seen people do this, and it sickens me. And, let me just say, I've seen people "give" someone a gift... and then get mad about how that gift was received, or enjoyed. Once someone gave me a hat. Which was nice, because I like hats. But I also knew someone who wanted that same type of hat and didn't have one. I had more than one. So I gave the hat to the other person. And the person who gave it to me flipped out. Now, with my Will Graham super empathy where I can almost always see both sides of the story... I can see where the gift giver was coming from. They wante ME to have the hat. But at the same time--and this is important--once you give someone something... your part is done. You can't control what happens next. Trying to just leads to anger and frustration. It's the same thing with love. You can't force people to pick up what you're laying down. The best you can do is give what you've got and then keep on giving it. Don't worry about what you get out of it, or what you want out of it. The reward is in the giving, not in what happens next. I say all this, to end this Rant series, to say that we make labors of love much harder than they have to be. We get so caught up in what WE want out of the situation that we lose, sometimes, what GOD wants out of a situation. Not MY will, but YOURS be done, Father. See? I brought it back around to Gethsemane. Love is not about getting what you want. But perfect love is about wanting... to love. There is no fear in love. You don't have to worry about what will happen next. My personal definition of love is 2 Corinthians 12:15 in the New Living Translation, "I will gladly spend myself and all I have for you, even though it seems that the more I love you, the less you love me." Giving everything you have and everything you are without worrying about getting anything out of it. Because it doesn't matter if you get anything out of it. What you're supposed to get out of it is the edification of someone else. Loving someone is about THEM getting something out of it. And, by the way, when you look at it that way, you DO get something out of it. The tide lifts all ships. We're all in this together. Helping someone else succeed is, in a very real sense, succeeding yourself. That's our job. Our purpose. Our mission in life. Our calling. That's why we were created--to be loved by God and to love each other with His love. And we can do that with every breath we take and every move we make... when we put others first. When we get over ourselves, or get past ourselves, and look for what others need. Seeing a need and meeting it is a labor of love. Doing for others because God has done for you (probably THROUGH others)!