The only thing that never changes is that everything changes. Except for one thing. God's love never changes. Now, when I say that I mean it never changes from yes to no. It is always there. Never ending. Unconditional. But it CAN change what it looks like. It has to. Because people express love in different days, and people receive love in different ways. The five languages of love, right? So in an ever changing world God's love WILL shift in order to fit every person in every situation. If we will let it. If we are open to it. Proverbs 4:23 says, "Keep thy heart wtih all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life." That, friends, is how we let the light of love shine in every situation. We keep our heart... by keeping it open. The Amplified Bible renders it like this, "Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life." Think about that. If the springs of life flow out of it, then we can't keep it by keeping it closed. If it's closed... nothing can come in or out. We don't guard our heart by shutting it down. We guard our heart by opening it up! Letting love--in whatever shape or form it takes--in and out. Breathing love in and out. Being totally consumed with God's love for us. Both in receiving it and releasing it. Every breath we take and every move we make. Motivated by love. Done in, and through, and for love. Doing it because of love! Being steadfast in love (because God's love is steadfast in us) doesn't mean any one particular thing. It means doing for other what THEY need. Seeing a need and meeting that need. Looking past yourself--knowing that you have what you need--and giving others what THEY need. Loving people in the way they need to be loved. Giving what you've got because A. You know you've got it. And B. You know that they need it. It's that simple. See a need and meet it. It won't always look one certain way. And, honestly, every time you love... it won't always go the way you think it will. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't do it anyway. Love is about giving everything you have and everything you are without worrying about how it is received. As Paul wrote, "Even though it seems like the more I love the less I am loved." You're not loving in order to get anything. Not doing it for the applause. Not giving in order to receive. You're loving because you have love to give. Because God loves you. Receiving from HIM and releasing what you have received from Him. Giving what you've got. Giving what God has given you. Paying it forward. Being steadfast in love... by loving in lots of dfferent ways. Making a connection with people so you will know HOW to love them in the way that THEY need to be loved. Building relationships with people. Being there for people. Not demanding your own way, but putting others first. A life of service is a life worth living. Because a life of service is a life of love. To live is to love and to love is to live. So don't think you have to do things any one certain way. Let the situation be what it is... plus love. Inject love into every situation. That's how to be steadfast. Always let the love that's inside... come out!

Logan asked me what I was going to Rant about. I told him, "Being steadfast." He said, "What's that?" I said, "Standing strong no matter what." He said, "Oh, cool. I like that. I like that." And I hope he likes it because he's seen it. I hope he likes it because he's experienced it. A consistent love that never fails. from a steadfast God who will never leave us nor forsake us. That's what gives us faith. Faith isn't about getting something, or making something happen. Faith is about believing and trusting in what has already happened. Faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the Word (which is Jesus, which is love) of God. Knowing that in this world we will have tribulation, but we can be of good cheer because Jesus has overcome the world. Knowing that even on our darkest days... we are the light of the world because HE is the light of the world. And we live in Him. As He lives in us. We dwell and abide in Him, and He dwells and abides in us. I try to use James 1:24 as often as I can. Mostly because I never hear it preached, or even referenced. "Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy." He can keep us from falling. LOVE can keep us from falling. And did you catch that last part? With exceeding joy. His joy... and OUR joy! It's His divine pleasure to hold us up. And what could that do BUT make us happy? Being held up, I mean. Knowing that no matter what... our heavenly Father has our back. Knowing that we are the righteousness of God in Christ. Even when we mess up. We can't be disqualified. We can't be cast out. I like to say it like this: Revelation 21:3 in the Message Bible, "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." God has moved into the neighborhood and He's never moving out! He's right where He needs to be, and right where He wants to be! So rather than running around like chickens with our heads cut off, we can simply be still and know that He is God. He can keep us from falling, and all we have to do is stand strong in Him. Stand strong in LOVE! Let love lead us and guide us and direct us and protect us. Let the love of God fill us up to overflowing and come out of us. Naturally. It's a flow. From God. We love because He first loved us. We love Him back by loving each other with the love that He has loved us with. We let what's already inside come out by knowing and believing that it's in there. Not by trying to get it, but by trusting that we have it! Not by trying to earn it, but by receiving it and releasing it! Letting it flow through us as we let God love the hell out of us and then love Him back by loving the hell out of each other. He is steadfast in His love for us. He can keep us from falling. And that means we can be steadfast in our love for each other. We can keep each other from falling. Hold each other up. Edify and support and love each other no matter what. We can live that life of love by letting Jesus live it in us, and through us, and as us!

I think this memory verse says what I'm trying to say: "There it was--the true Light [was then] coming into the world [the genuine, perfect, steadfast Light] that illumines every person" (John 1:9 AMP). The genuine, perfect, steadfast light that illuminates every person. That's God. That's love. A love that never fails. A love that endures. A love that we can depend on. Jesus referred to both Himself and us as the light of the world. Because it is one light. HIS light of life. His light of LOVE. He is steadfast, and that's why we can be steadfast. I know that I focus on the releasing aspect of receiving and releasing. Because love is giving. Because we are blessed to be a blessing. But the receiving aspect is just as important. 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. You have to be able to draw on it, if I can say it that way. Remember one of my favorite verses? About how when the people wanted to stone David and he strengthened himself in the Lord. When you need it... there's nothing more important than that break glass in case of emergency ever present help in time of trouble. Being able to run TO God instead of running FROM Him. Knowing that no matter what we get ourselves into, His love for us is steadfast. It never changes. Never wavers. Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. Nothing. And that blessed assurance is what allows--what equips and empowers us--to stop separating from each other. Now, let me say this: Some people you NEED to separate from. Some people you NEED to love from a distance. Because no matter how much you love them... a bad situation is a bad situation. And no father (especially not your heavenly Father) ever wants his child to be in a bad situaiton. Toxic people are no good. Period. So, again, you can still love them... but from a distance. You don't have to let them affect you and ruin your life. Love isn't about letting people abuse you. Love is about giving what you've got. And when you give what you've got it's either enough... or it's not. And either way you've done what you can do. Being steadfast in love doesn't mean steadfastly letting people use and abuse you. Turning the other cheek means not retalitating, not standing there and letting people slap you over and over and over. If someone isn't picking up what you're laying down... shrug your shoulders and move on. Sometimes people are a blessing in your life. And sometimes people are a lesson. That doesn't mean you stop loving. When you really understand who steadfast, and perfect, and genuine God's love for us is... you CAN'T stop loving people. It flows out of you. Naturally. His love for you is steadfast, and it fills you up to overflowing so that your love for Him (which is expressed by you loving people) can be steadfast. It's an unstoppable Holy Ghost wildfire that burns out of control. Totally consuming everything and everyone in its (His) path. Burning away everything else and leaving nothing but itself (Himself)!

There are two ways I want to go with this Rant series. Which is pretty much the Divine Order of things, as I understand it. First there is the God aspect, and then the human aspect. One way of saying this is: God made the way of grace and we respond with the walk of faith. His finished work, and our response to it. So basically, as simply as I can put it, God is steadfast, we ought to (and can) be steadfast in Him. Genesis 15:6 (AMP), "And he [Abram] believed in (trusted in, relied on, remained steadfast to) the Lord, and He counted it to him as righteousness (right standing with God)." There's so much in this verse. But I want to point out what a pretty good definition of righteousness, or right standing with God, is. Trusting Him. Period. No matter what. Believing in Him. Relying on Him. Remaining steadfast to Him. That's what it means to be righteous. And, as I've said many times, the most righteous thing someone can do is to love people. The most holy thing someone can do is love people. It's all about love. And love is giving, not getting. Giving what you've got, once you know that you have it. Receiving and releasing the love of God. But the trick is, you can't give what you don't have. And you can only give what you do have. So unless and until you really know and believe that God loves you... you'll always be trying to get what you think you haven't got. You'll always be chasing the carrot but only ever getting the stick. Trying to get something you think you haven't got (the love of God) by being someone you're not... is about the biggest recipe for disaster that I can think of. Because at that point you're a thief and a robber. You're robbing yourself of what you HAVE got, and you're robbing the people in your life of who you really are. You are God's love letter to the world. I've preached and Ranted on that before, and probably will again. We are God's expression to the world. When He wants to express Himself--His love--He does it to us, and in us, and through us, and as us. And, as I was planning to try to make clear, He is steadfast in that expression. He only HAS one expression; love. He only has one Word; Jesus... love. So we don't have to spend as much time as we seem to spend (waste) trying to figure God out. God is love. What does God want me to do? He wants me to love people. Period. How do I do that? By staying steadfast in Him. By trusting in Him. In His love. Letting Him love the hell out of me and then loving Him back by loving the hell out of the people He puts in my path. It's pretty simple. And, really, the more you do it, the easier it gets. Because love is our nature. It comes naturally to us. If we'll let it. If we'll look past ourselves--trust God that He has our back, and has us clothed and covered--and see other people's needs. If you see someone's need and you can meet it... meet it. That's the simpliest, and best, way to love someone. Just see a need an meet it. Do that enough times and you won't even have to think about it. Because that's not just what God does, that's who God is. So that's not just what we do. That's who we are. He is steadfast in His love for us. So we can be steadfast in, well, His love for us. We can receive it and release it. Let it in and let it out. With every breath we take and every move we make!

God wrapped us up in Himself. Clothed us with Lamb skin. And He also wrapped HImself up in us. In order to show us how to live. In order to show us what it means to be clothed with His life. His love. Look at Colossians 2:9-10, "For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power." All the fulness of the Godhead in a body. God--who is Spirit... the Holy Spirit... the Spirit of Truth that leads and guides us into all truth... the truth that God is love and He loves you--wrapped up in a body. Which is who Jesus is: God in the flesh, love in a body. God in our flesh. Love in our body. That's what Jesus meant when He told Philip, "If you've seen me you've seen the Father." Because we are the visible expression of an invisible God. We are what people see when they are searching for God. Or searching for love. Looking for love in all the wrong places. Trying to earn something that can't be earned. Trying to get something they've already got. They look, and they seek, and they search... and they find... us. We find each other. What did Philip see when he saw the Father? When he saw Jesus? He saw a man who knew who He was. A man with love inside that came out with every breath He would take and every move He would make. He filled us up with Himself, and that's why we're complete in Him. Complete. Full. Lacking nothing and needing nothing. When you have love you have everything you need. You ARE everything you need to be. Not because of what you do, or try to do, or think you should do. Because of what you have been filled with. Because even as God was clothing humanity with Himself, He was clothing Himself with humanity. Jesus said in another place, "I and my Father are one." There is no difference between Father and Son. No separation. There is no difference between God and man. No separation. Look at John 14:20, "At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you." Basically we are all in this together. Because He is in us all. In all the through all all of you all! So it's not like God just wound us up and sent us out on our own. All the Scripture about having a High Priest that knows what we've been through... because He's been through it. He wrapped Himself up in us and had a human experience. He knows what we're going through. He's been there, done that, got the t-shirt. So I think what I'm trying to say is: We don't have to figure it all out. He already figured it out and He's going through it (again) with us. Helping us through it. Holding our hand. Keeping us from falling. Holding us up. LOVE is holding us up. Because love is the only thing that can. Love is the only thing strong enough to hold us up. Because love never fails. Because love endures. Love will stand when no one and nothing else will. Love will give everything He has and everything He is. He will wrap us up in Himself even as He wraps Himself up in us. Getting rid of anything that we could think of to put between ourselves and Him. Giving His life FOR us, but more importantly giving His life TO us. So that we can have it. So that we can experience it as He lives it in us, and through us, and as us!

We have been clothed in the Lamb skin of God. The life of God. The very love of God. And because of that we will never be exposed. We will always be covered. We have what everybody needs. So we don't need to worry about getting anything. We can simply give what we've got. Share it. Spread it around. And in so doing we can experience and enjoy what we've got instead of chasing it. We can receive it and release it instead of trying to earn it. You can't earn a gift. You can only earn wages. And the wages the Bible speaks of are the wages of sin. Which is death. So we don't even need to go there. We ought to just concern ourselves with living the life of God by letting HIM live it in us, and through us, and as us. Resting in Him. Flowing in Him. Hiding and abiding in Him. When Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they hid from the presence of God. They were naked and ashamed. They tried to cover themselves with fig leaves. But as we see in Matthew chapter 21, Jesus cursed the fig tree because even though it looked good... it couldn't bear any fruit. So even though we might look ok when we're trying to hide our... well... humanness, really... it doesn't actually do us any good. We don't need any kind of covering that we could make for ourselves. We need the Lamb skin that God covered us with. And I put that in the past tense intentionally. Because it's already a done deal. We have what we need to have and we are who we need to be. The trap we fall into is trying to be someone we're not in order to get something (love) that we think we haven't got. Looking for love in all the wrong places. Chasing the carrot but only ever getting the stick. That's not what God wants for us. That's not what any father would want for his son. So we need to let go of that worldly preconceived notion of the "natural order of things." And, listen, I'm not saying you shouldn't work hard. I'm saying you shouldn't work hard in the hopes of earning love. Love can't be earned. Respect must be earned, but love cannot be. Love is freely given and must be received. The harder you try to get it, the more you rob yourself from experiencing it. Because you already have it. Have always had it. Will always have it. The trick is, in order to experience what you have, you have to give it away. Because we're talking about love. And love is giving. We're talking about laying our lives down. Esteeming other people higher than ourselves. Being clothed in righteousness--there is nothing more righteous than loving people. Being clothed in holiness--there is nothing more holy than loving people. I think tomorrow I want to end this Rant series with the idea of Jesus wrapping Himself in human flesh. In a sense clothing Himself with US so that we could understand what it means to be clothed with Him. "If you've seen me, you've seen the Father." What did they see? A man who loved people. A man who was willing to give everything He was and everything He had for people that didn't even (consciously) want it or accept it. Because that's what love is. Love is giving. And when you're clothed in it... then you have something to give!

There's this idea that we need to change. To stop being who we are and be someone else. To somehow make ourselves better than we are. But the truth of the matter is that anything that needed to happen... happened. 2,000 years ago on an old rugged cross. That's why Colossians 3:9-10 are in the past tense. "Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him." Again--past tense. We HAVE put off the old man. We HAVE put on the new man. We ARE clothed in God. In love. And the key is simply to renew ourselves in the knowledge of Him. If we want to experience love we have to stop chasing it. We have to instead receive it and release it. Let God love the hell out of us and then love Him back by loving each other. We HAVE put on the new man. Look at Ephesians 4:23-24, "And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." And this is what I love so much: The phrase "put on" is number 1746 in Strong's Greek Concordance and means, "In the sense of sinking into a garment; to invest with clothing (literally or figuratively)." It's not about getting new clothes. It's about getting comfortable IN your clothes. Sinking into the new man. Letting what's inside come out by knowing and believing it's in there. Getting comfortable with love... by loving people. Testing the height and length and depth and breadth of God's love by loving people bigger and stronger and harder than we ever thought we could. See, from our perspective we wanted to be clothed because we were ashamed of our nakedness. But from God's perspective HE wanted us to be clothed--yes, so we wouldn't be ashamed, but more than that. God wanted us to be clothed so that we could clothe each other. He covered us so we could cover each other. He gave us what He wanted us to have so that we could share it with each other. So putting on the new man (that we have already put on) is simply using the gift we've been given. Giving it away. Sharing it with each other. We are blessed to be a blessing. We ARE a new creature in Christ. We HAVE been conformed to His image. When Jesus cried out from the cross, "It is finished," that's what He meant. HE did the work. HE did the heavy lifting. And now we can enjoy the fruit of HIS labor. We don't have to finish the work. It is finished. We don't have to change. We are who we're supposed to be. We always have been. What we needed was to KNOW who we really are--Jesus, God in the flesh, love in a body. God in OUR flesh, love in OUR body. We needed the light to shine. We didn't need new clothes. We simply needed--and to some degree still need to--sink into the clothes we've been clothed with. Stop trying to be someone we're not and embrace who we really are. By knowing and believing that we are who God says we are. Knowing and believing that we are His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. Knowing that we can love because we are loved. Because we are love!

I try not to do this very often, but I have a decent sized passage of Scripture I want to use for tonight. Bear with me. 2 Corinthians 5:1-5, "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Not he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit." Clearly there's a lot there. But here's what grabbed me: Yesterday I opened this Rant series talking about how God clothed us with Himself. With Lamb skin. I think this passage takes that even to another level. Perhaps the obvious conclusion, but one that we don't always seem to get to. When God clothed us with Himself... He clothed us with... life. Because He IS our life. LOVE is our life. To live is to love and to love is to live. If our earthly tabernacle were dissolved... we would still have--we would still BE--the house of God. The church. The dwelling place of the God who is love. The God who is life. Being clothed with Him we are not found naked. Being clothed in Him our mortality is swallowed up with life. Let me say it like this: God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. God is life and in Him is no death at all. When we are clothed in Him--and I think tomorrow I'm going to focus on what it means to clothe ourselves in Him, since we are already clothed in Him--we will never be "found naked." In a negative sense. We don't have to be ashamed of our nakedness, our vulnerability, our openness. We don't have to be ashamed to be who we are. That's not what being "found naked" is about. That's more like the story in Genesis chapter 9 when Noah's sons found him drunk and naked. When we're clothed with God--with love, with life--we will never be found that way. We will be able to be naked and NOT ashamed. When we're clothed with God... we're covered by God! Your heavenly Father has your back. He will never leave you nor forsake you. He will keep you from falling. He has given us the earnest of His Spirit. Given us everything we need in order to get through what we need to go through. And then to help others get through what we've been through. That's what it means to be blessed to be a blessing, right? Receiving and releasing what we've been given. Knowing that we've been clothed... so we can clothe others. We're covered... so we can cover others. OUR mortality is swallowed up in life... so we can help others live! That's the whole point of this whole thing. Not just what God has done for me, but what I can do for other people BECAUSE of what God has done for me. Letting what's inside come out so that other people can experience that same love of God that I experience on a daily basis. Receiving and releasing. Giving what you've got. Sharing what you have and who you are. Living and loving. Living BY loving!

Not too long ago I Ranted about nakedness. About how being naked it being vulnerable. Uncovered. Open and honest. Starting today I want to Rant about what it means to be clothed. So let's start with the beginning. After man realized and became ashamed of his nakedness--MAN was ashamed, not God--this happened: "Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them" (Genesis 3:21). One more time: God didn't have a problem with man's nakedness. He created us that way. He wanted us that way. But when MAN had a problem... God still stepped in and fixed it. Because He loves us. Man tried to cover himself up with fig leaves. But if you remember the story of Jesus and fig tree... Jesus cursed that tree because it doesn't bear fruit. He covered us up with animal skin. In my opinion... Lamb skin. He covered us up... with Himself! So that we wouldn't be ashamed anymore. So that we could continue to function. So now let's fast forward all the way to the end. We'll do the bookends today and then dig in to the middle for the next few days. Revelation 3:5, "He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels." Now I know that I look at "overcoming" differently than most folk do. I think most folk see it as the power to overcome. Whereas I see it as not needed to overcome. Because Jesus already overcame. He told us to be of good cheer because He HAS overcome the world. He already brought every mountain low and every valley high. He already placed us on the straight and narrow way that leads to life. We don't need to struggle all the time with every little--or every big--thing. Remember when Jesus was sleeping in the boat when the storm was raging? He wasn't worried about it. And then He just spoke the truth of the matter, "Peace, be still," and handled it. Probably thinking to Himself, "Any other problems you need solved?" Because, unlike Adam, Jesus knew who He was. Because Jesus knew who His Father was. He was comfortable in His own skin, if I can say it that way. He wasn't ashamed of who He was. He who overcomes. That's Jesus. Jesus is the overcomer. He who overcomes will be clothed in white raiment and His name shall be written in the book of life. In another place in Revelation it talks about us getting a white stone with our new (true) name written in it. I believe that is ONE white stone with ONE name written in it. The name of Jesus. Our true identity. God in the flesh. Love in a body. God in OUR flesh. Love in OUR body. See, when God clothed us in Lamb skin He wasn't just covering up our nakedness. He was imparting something to us. He was, as Romans 8:29 puts is, conforming us to the image of His Son. He wasn't just getting rid of who we weren't... He was showing us who we are. Who we really are. Which is who we are in Christ. Which is who Christ is in us. Clothed with white raiment. Giving a white stone. Clothed with Lamb skin. Christ in you the hope of glory. You in Christ, abiding and dwelling in His love. In the God who IS love!

We all want to be loved. That's the basic human desire. The desire of our hearts. So treating others how we want to be treated is just loving people. That's as simple as I can make it. It's not about, "I like cookies so I'm going to give people cookies." Because not everybody likes cookies. And it's not about giving in order to get something. "I want someone to give me cookies so I'll do what I need to in order to make that happen." No. Love is never about getting. Because love IS giving. Just giving what you've got. But doing it in a way that benefits the people you are giving it to. Using a little bit of wisdom. Making the connection that allows you to know what they really need. Not necessarily what you want them to have--or what YOU want to have--but what THEY need. That's true love. Seeing a need and meeting it. Not forcing yourself on anybody. But making what they need available to them. Offering what you have, but being ok with it if they aren't picking up what you're laying down. Being ok with it even if it seems like the more you love, the less you are loved. Because sometimes that happens. Sometimes you reach a hand out and it gets slapped down. That doesn't mean you should put your hand in your pocket and never reach out ever again. The tricky part about loving people is balancing wanting the best for people with the truth that we can only do so much for people. You can't make someone do the right thing. You can't make someone "change." Only the Holy Spirit can do that. And only by revealing the change that has already taken place. The Holy Spirit testifies of our true identity by testifying of Jesus. He tells us who we really are by telling us who HE really is. Jesus. God in the flesh. Love in a body. God in OUR flesh. Love in OUR body. That's the key to this whole thing: Christ in you the hope of (revealed) glory. The glory of God--which is His love--in us, coming out of us. If we want people to treat us with love... we have to operate in love. Not because loving people will make them love us, but because loving people is the only way to experience this abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of love that is the gift of God! And, by the way, I've found that the more you love people, the better they WILL treat you. Love is hard to stand against. I think in some measure love seems too good to be true. Because we think we don't deserve it. But if someone loves you... and loves you... and loves you... I think that kind of love will melt people's hearts. So while it is not the goal--we don't do unto others SO THAT they will do unto us--it might have the somewhat unexpected result of building and improving relationships with people. A fringe benefit. But whether or not, it's not about us. It's about giving what we've got. Treating people with kindness because we would like to be treated with kindness. Again, not so that we will be treated that way. We're not trying to control or manipulate people. But simply because God loves us. He loves us, so we ought to love each other. Receiving and releasing the love of God. Letting what's inside come out by filling ourselves to overflowing with it!