It's about unity. A threefold cord is not easily broken. You and me and Jesus makes three. Wherever two or three are gathered, He is in the midst. Love is in the midst. Because where two are gathered there is the opportunity for relationship. Connection. Unity. We don't have to agree on everything (or pretty much anything, really). We can go along to get along regardless. We can love each other no matter what. And there is the one thing we CAN agree on no matter what; love. If I line up with God (Jesus, love) and you line up with God (Jesus, love) we will automatically line up with each other... in love. You don't have to "like" someone to love them. And I've found that when you love someone, it's hard to end up NOT liking them. Because a big part of love is affection. Giving people... yourself. Laying your life down for them. Giving everything you have and everything you are without worrying about getting anything back. Whenever I drop the memory verse about laying aside the sin and the weight that so easily besets us, I try to make sure we don't miss the part about being compassed about by a great cloud of witnesses. We're all in this together. We need each other. That threefold cord is us holding hands and binding together. Not in a bad way, or a "you scratch my back if you want me to scratch yours" way. Not in an obligatory way. But in a edifying way. In a building each other up way. If you want to go fast, go alone. But if you want to go far, go together. Things work out better when we work together. Like I said, unity. Helping each other. Not kicking someone when they're down, but picking up the slack when someone needs it. I've long said that the only time we should look down on someone is when we are reaching down to help them up. Taking their hand. Strengthening them. And, the cool part is, when we strengthen someone else we are not diminishing ourselves. We are also strengthening ourselves! The tide raises all ships! (Apparently I'm going for a record for cool sayings and metaphors tonight.) My point is: We're in this together. We need each other. And the only way to HAVE each other is not by demanding from each other. It's by giving to each other. Love is giving. You can give without loving, but you can't love without giving. They are not just connected. They are the same thing. So give what you've got. And don't worry about getting anything. Your heavenly Father--Creator of heaven and earth--has your back. You couldn't give anything unless He first gave you something. You have what you need. Use it. Share it. Give it away. And in that way you will build those relationships. It's really hard to NOT like someone who is loving the hell out of you. It's hard to walk away from that kind of love. So instead of focusing on what you don't have... focus on what you do have. And focus on it by giving it to those that need it. See a need and meet it. Don't worry about what you can't do, and just do what you can do. Get in where you fit in. Link up with people that come into your path. Love without condition or reservation. Line yourself up with the will of God by receiving and releasing His love!

Here it is, as simply as I can put it: "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee" (Isaiah 26:3). When I line up with God (Jesus, love), and you line up with God (Jesus, love), we will automatically line up with each other. And the only way to line up with God (Jesus, love) is to keep our mind stayed on Him. To let the mind of Christ, that's already in us, BE in us. To USE that mind that we've been given. And notice--HE will keep us in perfect peace. In this world there IS tribulation, but we can be of good cheer. Because HE has overcome the world. It's not what we do... it's what HE does. In us, and through us, and as us. It's not who we are... it's who HE is. Who we are IN Him. And it comes, as always, from trusting in Him. From faith. Have faith in God. Faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the Word of God. We hear that still, small voice of God saying, "I love you" with every beat of His heart in our chests and then we let that love that's inside come out. We receive and release His love. We trust in Him, and that's how we keep our mind stayed on Him. That's how we set our affection on things above, not things on the earth. We let HIM do what He's of a mind to do. God knows the thoughts that He thinks toward us--thoughts of peace and not evil, to bring us to His expected end. And the end... is the never-ending, eternal, abundant, everlasting life of Christ! A life of love. That's why we can trust Him: He has our best interests at heart. He loves us more than anything. We are His favorite. The apple of His eye. We can trust Him, because, over and over, He proves Himself trustworthy. Look at Romans 5:7-8, "For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Jesus loved us so much that He chose to sacrifice His life for us. And He didn't do it because we were good. He did it to MAKE us good, if I can say it that way. To shine the light on the goodness that was always inside, but was hidden underneath all of the stuff the world tries to bury us with. All the stuff that we get caught up in. Thinking the concerns of the world are so important. And, listen, it IS important to take care of business. I've always maintained that. But the MOST important thing is love. Remember 1 Corinthians 13:13? "And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity." It's all about love. Even faith and hope are all about love. Peace is all about love. God keeps us in His perfect peace by loving us. He equips and empowers us to trust Him by loving us. He fills us up with His love so that it can overflow out of us. All we have to do is fill ourselves to overflowing with what we've already been filled with. Trust Him. Keep out mind stayed on Him. Let Him love the hell out of us, and then love Him back by loving the hell out of each other. That's what keeps us in perfect peace--receiving and releasing His love! That's what keeps us in one accord--receiving and releasing the love of God!

Our God is a happy God. I believe that this is because He is love. And love is not sad. Jesus said that we WILL have tribulations in this world, but that we CAN be of good cheer, because He has overcome the world. All throughout the Old Testament of the Bible the cry of God's heart was that He wanted to be our God and He wanted us to be His people. Then, in the New Testament--after, and through, and because of the cross--we see this: "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). God got what He wanted, if I can put it that way. I said all that to say this: Our key verse for this series, Philippians 2:2, starts with the words "Fulfil ye my joy." God is happy. He's joyful. Full of joy. But He wants us to fulfil His joy. Which, to me, means He wants us to EXPERIENCE His joy. Jesus said we can be of good cheer because HE has done something. Because He did it for us, yes. But also because He did it (and does it) in us. And through us. And as us. And if we continue on with our key verse, we fulfill, or experience, God's joy by being likeminded. By having the same love. By being of one accord, of one mind. By letting what is true for, and about God (love) be true for, and about us! By letting the mind of Christ that is already in us BE in us. By using the mind of Christ to think the thoughts of God. Look at Jeremiah 29:11, "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end." God knows the thoughts that He thinks toward us. WE need to know those thoughts. So that we can think those thoughts. So that we can experience the abundant life that Jesus came to give to us. What I'm trying to say, in my usual roundabout way, is that we need to line up with God. I mentioned this yesterday. If I line up with Jesus (love) and you line up with Jesus (love), we will automatically line up with each other. That's how we be likeminded. That's how we be of one accord, or one mind. We don't have to agree about everything. As long as we can agree on love. That's the foundation that we have to build our relationships on. Because nothing else will stand against the test of time or the tribulations of this life. We need to see ourselves the way God sees us. And we need to see each other the way God sees us. Not judging by appearance, but judging rigteous jugdment. And here, I'll make it easy: When God looks and me and you He sees Jesus. When God looks at Jesus He sees me and you. There's a passage in the book of Hebrews that talks about how everything is under our feet (we have dominion over it) but we don't see things that way. And then it goes on to say, "But we see Jesus." That's the key. That's what makes this all work. We see Jesus. In each other. In ourselves. We agree with the truth that says, "God is love and He loves you." We line up with His truth and let everything else flow from there. God is happy. If we want to be happy, we need to line up with our happy God. The happiness that love brings to our lives as we breathe it in and breathe it out!

I like this because I like a good turn of phrase. Let's link Philippians 2:2, "Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind," with Ecclesiastes 4:12, "And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken." A threefold cord. One accord. See what I did there? But let's get into this. It's about unity. It's about, as one of my old pastors used to say, "Majoring on the majors and minoring on the minors." One of the most important things I think I ever figured out (in ministry and in life) is that you don't have to agree with everything someone says in order to fellowship with them. In fact, you really don't have to agree with anything they say. And it's not my job--as a pastor, or as a human being--to change people's minds. I've never thought ministry should be about convincing someone that they are wrong and I am right. Because while I do have an unction from the Holy Spirit and I do know all things--because I know God is love and He loves me (and you)--that doesn't mean that I necessarily understand everything I know. I've Ranted before on the differece between knowing it all and being a know it all. Two very different things. And, again, it's all about attitude and unity. In my life I can say that I generally take things as they are. See things as they are. I don't get stuck too often in expectations or have many blindspots for people. People are who they are and they do what they do. Trying to change them only ever frustrates ME. So instead, I just love them. Unity comes from love. Relationship. Connection. All of those bridges that we need to build are built on, and with, love. It's all about love. Being likeminded means having the same love. Letting the ONE mind of Christ that is in ALL of us BE in us. Agreeing on what is truly important and not worrying about the rest of it. And I said earlier that you don't have to agree on anything in order to fellowship. Some of the people at work are decidedly NOT very "Christ-like." And they don't know that I'm a pastor. But we can still co-exist. We can still get along. I'll still help them whenever and however I can. Not because of who THEY are, or what THEY believe, or what THEY do... but because of who I am, and what I believe, and what I do. How you treat people says more about you than it does about them. Because you can't control what other people do. You can only control what you do. And self-control, by the way, is a fruit of the Spirit. It's important. So when we're looking to bind ourselves together as a threefold cord--look at Matthew 18:20, "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them"--when we're looking to bind ourselves together... here's how it works. If I line up with Jesus (LOVE) and you line up with Jesus (LOVE) then we will automatically line up with each other. In the one way that truly matters. So being of one accord, being that threefold cord, is you... me... and Jesus!

Remitting and retaining is kind of like binding and loosing. Let me explain: "And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matthew 16:19). But before we go any further we need to make something perfectly clear. We're not affecting heaven by what we do on earth as much as we're letting heaven affect earth. It's not, "If I bind this on earth heaven will line up with whatever I want!" It's, "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10). Heaven doesn't line up with earth. Earth lines up with heaven. That's why I've been trying to hit the truth so hard that Jesus enacted our forgiveness on the cross. We don't have the power to make someone forgiven or not forgiven. We DO have the power to make someone FEEL forgiven. Or not forgiven. We can either line the earth up with heaven... or not. Remit or retain. Bind or loose. We can let what's true BE true, or we can continue on with the lie. Listen to the lie of the world... or listen to that still, small voice deep inside telling us the report of the Lord. The ultimate truth of the universe. That God is love and He loves you. That we ARE forgiven. That everything that needs to happen... has already happened. Our part isn't making something happen. Our part is receiving (and releasing) what has happened. Laying hold of the gift of God and then giving away what we've got. And that's why it's so important to know the truth--because 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. Hurting people hurt people. But loved people love people. Forgiven people forgive people. I said earlier that we don't have the power to affect heaven. But we do have the power to bring heaven to earth. We have the power to affect PEOPLE. To let them know the truth (that has already set them free, and made them free) and to help them experience their freedom! And when we do that, WE experience that freedom. I mentioned before that forgiving someone is like unlocking the jail cell and then realizing that it was YOU who was locked up the whole time! You can lay aside that sin (unbelief) and that weight that does so easily beset you. You can stop holding grudges. Just let it go. Let go and let God. Remit what HE has remitted. Retain what HE has retained. On earth as it is in heaven! What's that old song, "Touching heaven, changing earth!" Letting what's true BE true. Not judging by appearance, but judging righteous judgment. Executing, or handing out, the judgment that has been passed down. Like what Jesus said about doing what He sees the Father do. Saying what He hears the Father say. Receiving and releasing the gift of God that is His love. Letting God love (and forgive) the hell out of us and then loving (and forgiving) the hell out of each other! That's what we can do if we want to affect things. Just let what's inside come out. Just receive it and release it. Bind it or loose it. Remit it or retain it!

Our key verse for this Rant series, John 20:23, "Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained," is the only verse in the King James Version of the Bible that has the words "remit" or "remitted" in it. The only time Jesus mentioned it. And I've heard that when a theme is repeated over and over in the Bible it is important. Which makes sense. Repitition is the best way to learn something. But I also think that if it made the cut, so to speak, it's pretty important too. I said all that to say this: You don't always know or understand the power you have. Look at Proverbs 18:21, "Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof." Or Ecclesiastes 8:4, "Where the word of a king is, there is power: and who may say unto him, What doest thou?" We are kings and priests, right? Equipped and empowered to rule and reign on the earth. What we do matters. What we SAY matters. Faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the Word (which is Jesus, which is love) of God. Jesus Himself said, "...Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise" (John 5:19). It all comes down from the Father. He fills us up with everything we need. He has forgiven our sins. That's a done deal. And now, because of that, we can remit each other's sins. We can judge that righteous judgment. Execute the judgment that was handed down. We can bring what is already true... to life. By knowing it and believing it. By receiving it and releasing it. We can take the ball, so to speak, and run with it. God forgave us. Now we are forgiven. Now we can forgive each other. We can stop holding grudges. We can stop using people's mistakes against them. And, remember, I put the caution out there the other day that once someone has burned you... you don't have to punish them... but you don't have to keep touching that fire either. You can love people from a distance sometimes. Turning the other cheek means not retaliating, not standing there and letting someone slap the mess out of you. If someone keeps slapping you, you should probably move out of range. But I digress. Today is about filling ourselves with what we've already been filled with so that it overflows out of us. Giving what we've got instead of trying to get something we think we haven't got. Remitting people's sins--laying them aside, letting go of them--instead of retaining them. So that both we ourselves, and the ones who have wronged us can be free. We already are free. That happened 2,000 years ago on the cross. Done deal. But if we want to experience that freedom we have to use that freedom. Share that freedom. Give that freedom away. Love is giving, right? Giving what you've got. Letting what's inside come out. Loving people no matter what. Giving them grace to grow. A chance to learn from their mistakes. I think it's important. I think it's a big deal. We have the power to free people--and free ourselves--because Jesus has already freed us. We ought to use that power!

If you remit someone's sins, they are remitted. That's the good news. Jesus has set us free and made us free. Now we can let people know they are free by treating them like they're free. On the flip side of that coin, if you retain someone's sins... they are retained. If you can't let it go, chances are they won't be able to either. I mentioned this verse already in this Rant series (it's one of my favorites, so I reference it a lot) but I want to quote it here tonight: "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us" (Hebrews 12:1). Set aside the weight that so easily besets us so that we can run the race set before us. I like it. Because that weight--that sin... that unbelief--can trip us up. We focus on the snakes around our ankles instead of fixing our eyes upon the serpent on the pole. It's an easy thing to do--focusing on the wrong things. Seeing people for and as the mistakes they've made instead of seeing them as... people. We are complete in Him. But that doesn't mean we don't mess up sometimes. That doesn't mean we don't do dumb things. Make mistakes. Make bad choices. But none of that disqualifies us in any way, shape, or form. You ARE the righteousness of God in Christ. Every day. All the time. Even when you mess up. Messing up doesn't change who you are. Nothing can change who you are. You are fearfully and wonderfully made. You are exactly who God wanted you to be when He created you. And, yes, there may be some surface stuff piled up making it hard to see what's really in there. But that doesn't mean it isn't in there. It simply means we need a revelation. An uncovering. We need to get past all that stuff so that what's deep down inside can come out. And it comes out when we know and believe that it's in there. When we see it and believe it. Because what you see is what you be. What you remit is what is remitted. What you retain is what is retained. We have so much power. In our words, and our thoughts, and our deeds. What we say and do matters. And it comes from what we believe. What you do flows from what you believe. If you believe God DOESN'T love you, you will do whatever you do in order to earn that love. Because love is the one thing we can't live without. We've got to have it. On the other hand, if you DO believe the ultimate truth of the universe--that God is love and He loves you--then you will do everything you do in order to share that love. Because it's too good to keep to yourself. It's the best thing going. When you love someone, you want what's best for them. You want to take care of them. And that's what remitting--or letting go of--people's sins is all about. It's freeing them (and yourself) from the guilt and the crushing weight that comes from those things. Letting it go so it doesn't crush us... or them. So we can run the race together. If you want to go fast, go alone. But if you want to go far... go together. Don't make people feel bad about what they've done. That's not going to help them do better. Show them something better. A more excellent way. Jesus. Love!

Forgiveness is a done deal. Jesus took away the sin of the world. Cried out from the cross, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." Put us in a place where we don't have to fear God. We can run TO Him instead of running FROM Him. The problem that we seem to find ourselves in is that even though we ARE in that place... a lot of the time it doesn't seem like it. At all. A lot of the time it seems like God is holding a grudge. Because WE are holding grudges. And we are God's representatives on the earth. Religious folk especially, are like elephants--they never forget. And rarely ever forgive, if we're being honest. Religious folk will remember stuff that you're not even sure you did. And they'll beat you bloody with it. You talk about condemnation. Whosoever's sins you don't remit... are not remitted. If you won't let it go, how are they supposed to? So even though they ARE forgiven, if you don't let what's true BE true... it sure doesn't feel like forgiveness. If you treat someone like they aren't forgiven... what does it mean to BE forgiven? And, yes, I'm sure there are a lot of people out there who will point to God giving us a pass on the old eternal punishment deal. But if you know me at all you know my focus is on LIFE. Living. Jesus came to give us LIFE and that more abundantly. We were given this life in order to LIVE, not just to try to ensure a good seat in the afterlife. So my question remains: What does is mean to be forgiven? On a daily, rubber meets the road, person to person level. I think it means restored relationship. On a person to person level. Not holding things against people. And, listen, this can be really tricky. I know it can. Burn me once and I'm that much less likely to get near the fire. Lie to me once and it's that much harder for me to believe you. Actions do have consequences. That's just a fact of life. What's that old saying? "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on ME." Turning the other cheek isn't about standing there and letting someone continually slap the mess out of you. It's about not retaliating. It's about giving people a chance. But you know what I've found to be better than apology after apology? Changed behavior. If you lie to me, and I trust you again... don't lie to me again! Take that chance--take the remittance of your sin, if I can say it that way--and do something good with it. Let me say it like this: I heard a preacher once say, "If you cheat on your wife God will NOT be mad at you. But your wife certainly will be!" Not being afraid of God isn't supposed to give us "license to sin." It's supposed to give us freedom to love. That's what grace is! It's freedom FROM sin... and freedom TO love. There's the key. Forgiving people is about loving people. Remitting their sins so that they aren't stuck in them. AND so that WE aren't stuck in them. One more quote for today: "Forgiving someone is like unlocking the cell door, only to realize that YOU were the one in prison." Forgiving people set the FORGIVER free. WE don't have to hold on to those hurts anymore. WE can be free. We can experience freedom in the act of forgiving others... and it comes from the place of knowing that we are all forgiven!

This one takes some getting into, but we've got a few days for each Rant series so that works out. I want to start with the end and then work backwards. 1 John 2:12, "I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake." Realistically, that's all I need to say. Our sins ARE forgiven. That doesn't need to happen. That has already happened. It happened on the cross. It happened when Jesus took away the sin (unbelief) of the world. And He did that by giving us something (someONE, Himself, His love) to believe in. He told us the truth so that we could stop being a slave to the lie. Showed us the truth--that God is love and He loves you--by laying His life down for us. Forgiveness of sins. So important. Because when we understand that our sins are forgiven, we can move past them. We can, as the book of Hebrews says, lay aside the sin and the weight that so easily besets us. And that's a true statement. It's easy to get caught up in things. To let things snowball. To make mountains out of molehills. I always say, "Feel what you feel, but don't let it control you." Emotions aren't bad. Emotional responses sometimes are. So we can't bottle that stuff up (eventually it WILL explode), but we can't let it lash out either. We have to find healthy ways to release that stuff. To deal with what we're feeling. Hurting people hurt people, right? So we need to let God heal us. Or, more accurately, accept the healing that He has already done for us. But here's where I wanted to get to today, and to really dig into for the next few days. Jesus said, "Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained" (John 20:23). Now, to be clear about what we're talking about, the word "remit" is number 863 in Strong's Greek Concordance and it means, "to send (forth): - cry, forgive, forsake, lay aside, leave, let (alone, be, go, have), omit, put (send) away." I think that's important. Because Jesus wasn't saying, "If you don't forgive someone they won't be forgiven." It's not up to us to decide who is forgiven and who isn't. Jesus took away the sin of the WORLD. He did it for all of us when He was raised up from the earth on the cross and drew all of us into Him. What He was saying was, we have the power to, in a very real sense, release people from the sins they've already been forgiven of. That might be a little confusing, but that's why I want to hit it hard for the next few days. Because if God forgave someone, but you're still holding a grudge against them... do you think they feel forgiven? We are God's representatives on this earth. "Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matthew 18:18). We are the spout where the glory comes out. We have so much power. What we say and what we do matters. We can help people feel the freedom of God. The forgivness of God. The LOVE of God. By judging righteous judgment. Look at Psalm 149:9, "To execute upon them the judgment written: this honour have all his saints. Praise ye the LORD." Judging righteous judgment is simply executing the judgment that God passed down! Not, "you need to be forgiven," but, "You ARE forgiven!"

Let's do a little Message Bible to end this Rant series, "God's wisdom is something mysterious that goes deep into the interior of his purposes. You don't find it lying around on the surface. It's not the latest message, but more like the oldest--what God determined as the way to bring out his best in us, long before we ever arrived on the scene" (1 Corinthians 2:7). And, let's be real, the oldest message is the New Commandment. To love one another as Jesus loves us. Look at 1 John 2:7-10, "Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning. Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth. He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him." Much in the same way that our "new" identity is really our TRUE identity, the New Commandment is, and has always been, the TRUE commandment! It's mysterious because it goes deep. It's not on the surface. It was once hidden under cover of darkness, but now the light of the world shines to reveal it to every thing and every body! It is God's love. Period. His wisdom is that He loves everybody. No matter what. His widsom is that love has nothing to do with earning or deserving. Love is freely given. Because love IS giving. Giving everything you are and everything you have without worrying about what comes next. Letting what's inside--what's really inside--come out by knowing and believing that it's in there. Letting God love the hell out of you (NOT punish the hell out of you) and then loving Him back by loving the hell out of the people that you come into contact with. Listen, I know I'm not for everybody. There are people out there who think I'm horrible. And I can't do anything about that. All I can do is focus on the people in my life that I CAN touch. The people that I CAN reach. The people that I AM for. If you want to change the world, go home and love your family, right? Loving those people in whose lives you can make a difference causes a ripple effect. You love your family and then they go out and love the people THEY come into contact with. It's a Holy Ghost wildfire that feeds on itself and grows and grows until everything is consumed except the love itself that is doing the consuming! And that's why it's so mysterious: Because it's people loving people. And people can be a mystery. But as important as it is to build those connections and be able to love people the way THEY need to be loved... we don't have to figure out each and every single aspect and action a person does. We can let people be who they are and love them anyway. We can understand that the mystery has been revealed. God's love to us, and in us, and through us, and as us. Filling ourselves to overflowing with the love that we have already been filled with. Living in the light and seeing things clearly. Loving people because God loves us. It's really that simple. The mystery... revealed. Christ in you, the hope of glory... coming OUT of you and getting into and onto everybody in your life!