What was hidden that needed (and in some cases still needs) to be uncovered (or revealed)? What are we talking about here? What's it all about? Well, in a Word... love! It's all about love. Everything we do is controlled by love. Because either we think we don't have it and we do everything we do in order to get it... or we know that we have it and we do everything we do in order to experience it by sharing it. By giving it away. And clearly one of those ways is better than the other. Giving what we've got (and, again, in that way experiencing it) is the more excellent way. Chasing the carrot but only ever getting the stick is no way to live. Trying to be someone we're not in order to get something we think we haven't got is doomed to failure. Because you can't earn someone's love. Love is unconditional. It is freely given. If it is conditional, it is not love. If it is not freely given, it is not love. Love is never about getting. Because love IS giving. That's why God first loved us--so we could have something to give. So we could have everything we need and we wouldn't have to chase it, or try to earn it, or try to get it. We've already got it. We've always had it. We just didn't know what we had. Because we didn't know who we were. Because we didn't know who God was. We were made in His image and likeness. As He is, so are we in this world. But it wasn't until we were conformed to the image of God's only begotten Son that things started to click into place for us. It wasn't until we began to see Him as He is--by HIM revealing Himself to us by Him appearing to us--that we could begin to see ourselves as we truly are. Jesus is the mirror. Jesus is our true identity. God in the flesh. Love in a body. God in OUR flesh. Love in OUR body. That's what was hidden. Christ in you, the hope of revealed glory. And now it (HE, LOVE) is not just hidden in you anymore. Now the mystery is revealed. Because now the love inside us can come flowing out of us. Because now we know and believe that it is in there. Here's the deal, guys: You can't give what you don't have. And you can only give what you do have. If you want to feel loved, the best way to do so is to love someone. Be the change that you want to see, I guess is another way of saying it. If you want revelation... reveal what you know to others. If you know it, throw it. "God loves you!" Well, how do you know? "Because I know He loves me!" Give what you've got. Be a witness to what you've seen, and heard, and experienced. Test the height, and length, and depth, and breadth of God's love by loving people bigger and stronger and harder than you ever thought you could. Love never fails. If you love someone, you're doing your part. And it might not always get you the result you think it should. But it WILL get the result God knows it should. You might not ever see that result--some plant, some water, but it is God who gets the harvest--but if you're giving in the hopes of getting something... that's not love. Love is (one more time) never about getting. Because love is (for the last time in this particular Rant) giving. God has revealed it to you. Given it to you. Reveal it to others by giving it to them!

I think it's kind of funny how religious folk always want to talk about God being a mystery. "The Lord works in mysterious ways." And I guess, to some degree, that's true in as much as the Lord works through people, and people are mysterious. But the only real mystery about God (LOVE) is "How could God love someone like me?" And the answer is that it doesn't have anything to do with our actions, and has everything to do with our identity. It has everything to do with God being our heavenly Father and us being His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. Look at Romans 16:25-26, "Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith." And, of course, the part I want to key in on for this Rant series is "The REVELATION of the mystery." It is now made manifest. The mystery is revealed. Which, by the way, is what the word revelation means. It is number 602 in Strong's Grek Concordance and it means, "disclosure:- appearing, coming, lighten, manifestation, be revealed, revelation." It is an uncovering of that which was hidden. God's "mysterious" ways of love being revealed to us. And in us. And through us. And as us. And I'm not necessarily saying it comes to you in a flash. It can happen like that, to a degree. When I became a father I immediately understood love on a whole different level. But at the same time, it is a never-ending life-long journey into the heart of the matter. Which is the heart. God's heart beating with love in our chests. And, in this case, it is all about the journey. We test the height, and length, and depth, and breadth of God's love for us... by loving each other bigger, and deeper, and stronger than we ever thought we could. We love each other as He loves us. And, in turn, that's how we love God. Love God, and love people. Love God BY loving people. That's what this life is for and that's what this life is all about. That's what God is revealing to us. We are His disciples, right? Disciples of God means students of love. Learning how to love as we learn how we are loved. Filling ourselves to overflowing with what we've already been filled with. Receiving and releasing His love. Letting it in and letting it out with every breath we take and every move we make. Letting God love the hell out of us, and then loving Him back by loving the hell out of the people we come into contact with. Revelation is all about that personal relationship with our heavenly Father. Not only, "Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so." But "Jesus loves me this I know for He has revealed it to me on a intimate, personal level." That's the kind of knowledge we need--not just head knowledge, but heart knowledge. A knowledge that passes knowledge. Knowing and believing that we are loved, and proving it by loving each other with that love. It's not really that mysterious. It's actually pretty simple...

People either love or hate the book of Revelation. Either use it as a club or avoid it completely. There doesn't seem to be much of an in between. Which is weird to me. Because I've read the book of Revelation. And it's the Revelation of Jesus. It's an in-depth look at the cross. It doesn't show what is coming. It shows what came. It shows where we are. And I think that is summed up pretty well in (you guessed it) one of my favorite Bible verses. "I heard a voice thunder from the Throne: "Look! Look! God has moved into the neighborhood, making his home with men and women! They're his people, he's their God" (Revelation 21:3 MSG). All throughout the Old Testament the cry of God's heart is for Him to be our God and for us to be His people. And then, in Revelation--again, an in-depth look at the cross--because of the cross, He IS our God and we ARE His people. The reconcilation that was always on God's heart... came to be. But here's the deal: It's too big. It's the biggest thing that ever happened. Back in the garden of Eden man disobeyed God. Believed the lie the serpent hissed in his (her... Adam and Eve together) ear. Thought he needed to do in order to be. Then thought he needed to hide from God. So many misconceptions. So many wrong moves built on false premises. Man believed a lie and everything went bad. "Here it is in a nutshell: Just as one person did it wrong and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, another person did it right and got us out of it. But more than just getting us out of trouble, he got us into life!" (Romans 5:18 MSG). And not just life... but HIS life! The abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of God! HIS life of love. That's what God gave us. That's what revelation is all about. He is revealing His life to us by revealing Himself to us. Showing us how to love by showing us His love. We learn how to love by learning how we are loved. That's why that personal relationship with our Heavenly Father is so vitally important. Letting Him love us so that we can love Him back by loving each other. Letting Him fill us up with His love so that we can fill ourselves up to overflowing with what He's already filled us with. If that makes any sense. And it all comes from Him. Every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights. He's the Father of LIGHTS because we are the light of the world and He is our Father. He has a father's love for us. And it is His heart to reveal it to us. To reveal Himself--His love--in us, and through us, and as us. That's what revelation is about--and that's what the BOOK of Revelation is about. It's about God showing us who we are by showing us who He is. It's about God showing us His love so that we can know it with a knowlege that passes knowledge. Not just "Jesus loves me, this I know... for the Bible tells me so." I don't have a problem with that. But it's more than that. It's not head knowledge. It's heart knowledge. It's not book knowledge. It's experiential knowledge. KNOWING what you know because you've experienced it. It has been given to you. Revealed to you. And now you have it. Now you know it. And now you can believe it!

This isn't necessarily about the book of Revelation. Though we might go there. We'll see. This is about Galatians 1:12, "For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ." This is about our personal relationship with Jesus. About knowing what we know no matter what anybody else says because we've heard our heavenly Father say it. Because we are listening to that still, small voice deep inside that says "I love you" with every beat of God's heart in our chests. That is the revelation that we need. And that is who we receive it from. Neither of man, nor being taught. But listening to our heart. Letting the Word of God (which is Jesus, which is love) light our path and guide our way. I always say it like this, "Do it because it's in your heart to do it." Love should be our motivation for everything we do. Even taking care of business, as I like to put it. I work hard at my job so I can pay my bills because I love my family and it is important for me to help take care of them. Love is my motivation. And as good as "Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so" is... I think that should absolutely be the one and only thing we take out of the Bible; God love for us... it has to be more than that. The Divine Order of things is knowing and believing. Because you can't believe something you don't know. Faith comes from hearing and hearing from the Word (again, Jesus... love) of God. It is that revelation OF God, FROM God, that fills our WITH God. It is Jesus--God in the flesh, love in a body... God in our flesh, love in our body--revealing Himself in us, and to us, and throguh us, and as us that show us who we really are. His love reveals to us that as He is, so are we in this world. A man with love in His heart. That's who Jesus is. That's who we are. And that revelation can't come from anywhere or anyone BUT Jesus. Look at Romans 8:29, "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren." Think about this: We were created in the image and likeness of God. But we had a problem because we didn't know what He looked like. So we didn't know what WE looked like. So we were always trying to be someone we're not. That's why, on the cross, we were CONFORMED to the image that we were already created in. And not only that, but brought into the relationship of Father and Son. From that moment on we were equipped and empowered to know God as our Father. To cry out, "Abba, Father." To know ourselves as we are known. And that kind of knowing can only come FROM our Father. That kind of knowing can only come from personal revelation. From Father to Son. Passed down from heart to heart. And that is why our personal relationship with God is so important. Why it is so important to speak to God... and to listen to Him. Prayer is a dialogue. It's not about rubbing a lamp and getting three wishes. It's about God revealing Himself to us. And in us. And through us. And as us!

Laying your life down for your friends is the greatest love you can have. But that doesn't necessarily mean literally, physically dying. That does happen. Soldiers defending their nation, or religious martyrs. Things like that. But more practically, it simply means putting others first. Not worrying about yourself because you're too busy taking care of others. Presenting your body to the Lord as a LIVING sacrifice. Giving everything you have and everything you are. That's what this life is for. That's what it's all about. Remember a couple of days ago we looked at David desribing the lifting of his hands unto the Lord as a sacrifice? It doesn't always have to be the "traditional" idea of a sacrifice. Doing what someone else wants instead of doing what you want is a sacrifice. You're sacrificing yourself. Your wants. your desires. You're giving your Three T's (Time, Talent, and Treasure) to and for someone else. Esteeming them higher than yourself. Understanding, if I can say it this way, that it's not all about you. It's not about getting. Because love is giving. Again, giving everything you have and everything you are. Laying your life down for your friends. And that's pretty key when it comes to relationships. Because if you want to have a friend, you have to be a friend. It's that simple. People who are hard to love... are hard to love. And I'm not saying we shouldn't love those people. Quite the opposite. I'm saying we SHOULD love those people, because nobody else is. But it's hard to have relationships with people that only take. Sometimes it feels like you're shouting into the void. Or pouring yoruself into a black hole. That's exhausting. It can feel like you're giving and giving and giving and never getting anything back until you're empty. Notice I said "feels like." Because that's NOT how it really is. How it really is, is that we give ourselves to the Lord and then HE does what HE wants to do in us, and through us, and as us. We connect ourselves to the unlimited supply of love that IS God (the unlimited supply of love that HE has already connected us to) and then we can give without worrying about getting. We can give without worrying about running out. We can give, and we can experience what we have to give through the act of giving. It's all about love. Which means it's all about giving. Because love IS giving. But you can't give what you don't have. And you can only give what you do have. So you have to know what you have. You have to receive it before you can release it. You have to let God love you before you can love Him back by loving people. That's why the Bible speaks of God first loving us. He gave us what we needed. Now all we do is fill ourselves to overflowing with what we've already been filled with. Now all we do is give what we've got. Share what we've got. The New Commandment is to love one another as Jesus loves you. To give what you've been given. To receive it and release it. To present our bodies as a living sacrifice... so that we can truly live. By letting God live in us, and through us, and as us. God is love. That's what He has given us. That's what He's concerned with. When we sacrifice ourselves to God we are sacrificing ourselves to love. Letting love rule and reign in our hearts and minds and body. Letting the love that's inside come out by knowing and believing that it's in there. Letting the love of God control us. We are prisoners of Christ. Prisoners of love. If love controls you, you'll do whatever you do simply and only because it's in your heart to do it. If you present yourself as a love sacrifice to God, you'll present yourself as a love sacrifice to the people in your life. You'll love them. And you'll love them BY giving yourself to them. Your time. Your talent. Your treasure. You'll sacrifice yourself to God by sacrificing yourself to people. You'll love God and love people. You'll love God BY loving people!

To me, the key word in the phrase "living sacrifice" is LIVING. I know it seems too simple to be true, but the point of life... is living. Jesus came that we might have life, and have it more abundantly. We seem so preoccupied with the afterlife. To the point that we miss out on the life we've been given. Look at 1 John 4:9, "In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him." The point is life. A life of love. That we live through Him. Because He IS love. You can't have a life of love without love in it. Which means you can't have a life of love without God in it. We live through Him because He lives through us. Who we really are is who we are in Christ. Which is who Christ is in us. Presenting ourselves--our bodies--to the Lord as a living sacrifice simply means giving up control. Letting Jesus take the wheel. If we can stop trying to do it all ourselves and invite God (LOVE) into our lives we will be able to rest. And, as always, let me just say that rest is not inactivity. It is Holy Spirit directed activity. And, as always, let me just say that the Holy Spirit only ever directs us to do one thing: Love one another as Jesus loves us. That's the New Commandment for the New Man. Receive and release the love of God. Which could also be put as, "Receive and release the life of God." Present yourself to Him so that He can live His own abudant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of Love in you, and through you, and as you. The sacrifice is really just saying, "Here I am, Lord. Use me." Which really isn't much of a sacrifice at all, if I can be perfectly honest. Because our heavenly Father wants nothing but the best for us. Everything He has ordained for us will come to us in His perfect timing if we just stop trying so hard to get it. It's like the idea of a lifeguard who has to wait until the drowning person stops struggling. The more you struggle, the harder you make things for yourself. When, instead, you can just let go and let God. You can present your life to God and let HIM take you where HE wants you to go. It's not us trying (and failing) to follow in His foot steps. It's Him making His own foot steps in our feet. It's Him taking the sacrifice of our lives, and making something beautiful out of it. Taking the clay and molding it into what HE knows it should be. We try to make ourselves fit into what we think we should be. Or what the world thinks we should be. We try to conform. When really it's all about Romans 12:2, "And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." Two things here: There's only ONE will of God. And that one will is good, acceptable, and perfect. He's not double (or triple) minded. He knows the thoughts that He thinks toward you. Thoughts of peace and not evil. And the second thing: We have BEEN transformed, so being conformed to the world would be going backwards. We need to BE transformed into what we have BEEN transformed into. By the renewing of our mind. By the presenting of our bodies as a living sacrifice. So that we can be who we really are by letting Jesus be who He really is in us!

Somehow I think we still think of sacrifice--especially in the religious sense--as chopping up animals on an altar. Even though that's not what we do these days, even in church. That still seems to be the mindset. Somehow. For some reason. On the other hand, when I think of sacrificing something, it's usually my time or money. My Three T's. Time, Talent, and Treasure. Those are the things I have. Those are the things I can give. To me, that's what it means to lay your life down for your friends. To give everything you have and everything you are. To present yourself to the Lord as a living sacrifice. By living. Because living is loving. Loving is giving. So living is giving. It's a life of service that really matters. Not worrying about yourself, but taking care of others. Not trying to get something you think you haven't got (by trying to be someone you're not), but by giving what you've got (by being who you really are). Look at Psalm 141:2, "Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands at the evening sacrifice." David speaking here. The man after God's own heart. Speaking of raising his hands as a sacrifice. Not an animal in sight. See, we don't need all those old religious trappings in order to praise and worship. We have prayer. We have our hands and feet. We don't need to give a sacrifice when we understand that we ARE the sacrifice. Jesus said there is no greater love that a man can have than to lay his life down for his friends. That's what love is: Giving your life. Giving yourself. Giving everything you are and everything you have. Gladly spending it all and not worrying about whether or not you "get" anything from it. If you're giving in order to get... that's not a gift. That's an investment. And that's a gamble. Because giving doesn't mean that you WILL get. At least, not necessarily in the way that you think you "should." Because the goal of love is to edify others. To build up others. To help others. It's not about you. But the cool part is, if you have love to give... that means you have love. You ARE loved. Because you can't give what you don't have. And you can only give what you do have. Loving someone is the best proof of love that there is. It proves that on some level you know and believe that you are loved. Did you catch that? It's not by "getting" anything. It's by giving. It is more blessed to give than to receive. But you have to receive before you can release. You have to know what you've got before you can give what you've got. You have to understand what it means to give a sacrifice. To BE a sacrifice. It's like the difference between GOING to church (which, by the way, I don't have anything against) and BEING the church wherever you are at any given time. To live is to love. That's my refrain. If you want to truly live... you have to love. Love God and love people. Love God BY loving people. That's what it's all about. Putting others first is how we sacrifice OURSELVES on that altar. Giving what we've got. Being who we really are means GIVING who we really are to the people in our lives. Raising our hands unto the Lord and letting what's inside--the love that is inside--come out!

We present our bodies to the Lord as a living sacrifice... by living. That's the thrust of what I want to say in this Rant series. Because I think too often we get so caught up in the afterlife--"do you know where you're going when you die?"--that we lose sight of the life that we have now. And let me just drop a quick memory verse before I get into what I want to get into tonight. "We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord" (2 Corinthians 5:8). And I'll tell you what, I heard a great message one time from an amazing preacher who talked about how we can be absent from the body--the natural way of thinking--even IN our physical bodies, and in that way be present with the Lord--Spiritual way of thinking, using the mind of Christ--at all times. Good stuff. Point being, I'm not worried about what comes after I die. I'm more concerned with living while I'm alive. I'm more concerned with being a LIVING sacrifice. I'm more concerned with what Jesus came that I might have--life and that more abundantly. Which means love, and THAT more abudantly. Because to live is to love and to love is to live. You can't have one without the other and you can't do one without the other. They aren't just connected, they are the same thing. So when I say we present our bodies to the Lord as a living sacrifice by living... I could just as well be saying we present our bodies to the Lord as a living sacrifice by LOVING! I believe the two most important things in the universe are God and people. Loving God and loving people. Loving God BY loving people. Because it's all about love. And love is that bond, that relationship, between God and man. Between the God IN me and the God IN you. Letting God love the hell out of us and loving Him back by loving the hell out of each other. Think about this: All throughout the New Testament--the letters that Paul wrote to the different churches--Paul referred to himself as a prisoner of Christ. He wrote about not being able to do anything except what the Holy Spirt allowed (equipped and empowered) him to do. The love of God constraineth, or controls, us, he would write. Why? Because we give ourselves over to it. We let Jesus take the wheel, if I can put it that way. We present ourselves to Him. He bought and paid for us on the cross. But He is not the type of master that rules through fear and intimidation. He is the kind of master that leads by example. He never expects us to do anything He wouldn't first do. He never expects us to do anything He hasn't equipped and empowered us to do. Even the New Commandment says that we ought to love one another as Jesus loves us. Simply receive and release God's love. Breathe it in and breathe it out. Let the Holy Spirit lead us, guide us, direct us, and protect us. And know that the only thing the Holy Spirit ever leads anybody to do... is love one another. That's what God wants from us, and for us. So that's what He gave to us. And because He gave it to us, that's what we can give back to Him by giving it to each other! That's how we love... and that's how we live!

The idea of sacrifice is pretty important to this "Christian" way of life, isn't it? (And, yes, I put "Christian" in quotation marks because I don't like the religious connotation that term seems to bring with it. When you say that you're a Christian it seems to me that people immediately roll their eyes and look at your like you're a hypocrite. So. Yeah.) Jesus sacrificed His life for us. Gave it for us, and to us. Told us that the greatest love a man can have is to lay his life down for his friends... and then literally went to the cross and laid His life down for us. Told us that we ought to love one another as He loves us. Told us that we would do all the works He did AND greater works. Love is giving. That's what I'm trying to say. Giving everything you have and everything you are. Giving your life for people. But while that might sometimes mean literally dying for people... also look at Romans 12:1, "I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." Did you catch that? Paul is beseeching us to present ourselves as LIVING sacrifices. Emphasis on living. Look at John 10:10, which is one of my favorite memory verses, "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." I think religious folk fixate upon the afterlife, at the expense of... life. Jesus was all about life. He didn't come to make sure we got to heaven when we died. He came to bring heaven to us so that we could experience heaven while we're alive! The days of heaven on earth. It's available right now. We can enjoy it right now. Abundant life. A life of love. And, again, since love is giving, it's a life of sacrifice. Not getting something... but giving what we've got. Jesus gave it all. Paid it all. Sacrificed it all. LIterally laid His life down, and then picked it back up again. So that we could have it. So that we could experience it to the fullest. Because if Jesus had just given His life to us... we probably would have flubbed it. Be honest. But since it is Jesus Himself living His own life in us, and through us, and as us... we have a blessed assurance that we will be able to enjoy the gift that we've been given. Here's what I'm trying to say: The best--really, the only--way to present our bodies as a living sacrifice unto God is to live. Because to live is to love. And to love is to live. They aren't just connected. They are the same thing. You can't do one without the other and you can't have one without the other. A living sacrifice is a loving sacrifice. For God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son. Jesus gave His life for us and to us because He loves us. Because He wanted us to have it. And He lives it in us, and through us, and as us because He wants us to experience what we've got. He doesn't want us to flub it. He wants us to experience it to the fullest. Abundantly. So He gave it all to us. So we could give it all to each other. We present ourselves to God by presenting ourselves to each other. We love God by loving each other. We live by living for and with each other!

I think one of the best ways to knit yourself together with someone is to go along with them. To let them do what is in their heart to do, and to support them while they're doing it. Like Isaac with Abraham. And that doesn't mean enabling people. Enabling someone will never help them. Ever. And if you're not helping, you're hurting. But what I want to talk about tonight, to end this Rant series, is supporting people. Look at Romans 14:19, "Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another." Follow after peace. Stop trying to make people fit into your idea of who or what they should be. Let people be who they are and love them for who they are. Edify them. And that word, by the way, is number 3619 in Strong's Greek Concordance and it means "confirmation." Building people up. Not telling them what's wrong with them all the time, but telling them what's right with them. Giving THEM something to build on. If someone is always telling you you're worthless... that doesn't really give you anywhere to go from there. That's like starting at the bottom and working your way down. Now look at 1 Thessalonians 5:11, "Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do." The tide raises all ships. We're all in this together. If you want to feel comforted, comfort someone. Give what you "want" in order to find out that you have it. Like the Wizard of Oz. They went on a journey to get something, but if they hadn't have had it in the first place they never would have been able to complete the journey. And did you catch that? It's the JOURNEY. This life is a never-ending, eternal life-long JOURNEY into the heart of the matter. Which is the heart. God's heart beating with love in our chests. Which, by the way, is how we edify each other. Because you can't give what you don't have. And you can only give what you do have. God has to first edify you--and He might do that by having people in your life edify you--before He can expect you to edify someone else. That's called "comforting yourselves together." Helping each other. Building those connections and relationships that are so important. Not demanding anything from anybody, but getting in where you fit in. I Ranted a while back about how some guys at work were so excited for new music coming out from this certain band. A band that I don't care about one way or the other. But what I did was, I let them be excited. I shared in their excitement. Because it's not all about me. I can be involved with something and not be the center of attention. I can do things for other people because I know it makes THEM happy. I can support them. Go along with them. Edify them. Make peace. And in that way, I can HAVE peace. If you want peace... make it. Be the change that you want to see in the world. If you don't want to be alone, or lonely, be friendly. If you want a friend... be a friend. If you want to feel loved... love someone. If you want to feel edified... edify someone. By giving what you've got, you experience what you've got. Go along. Together. Knit yourself. Together!