I've Ranted on this memory verse at length, but I don't think I can skip it in this Rant series. Its one of my favorites. "Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart" (Psalm 37:4). And, contrary to popular belief, or "conventional wisdom," I do not believe that this is an if-then statement. I do not believe that this is a paint by numbers to get what you want deal. Because love is never about getting. Because love IS giving. I believe this is God showing us HOW to experience the gift that we've been given. Because, if you really think about it (and remember that it is the thoughts of our heart that control us) you'll see that the Lord--Jesus, love--IS the desire of our heart! So to me the Bible is saying, "If you want to have what you have, you need to know what you have. If you want to experience what you've got, you've got to give what you've got." The enjoyment of love is in the giving of love. The reward is in the doing. Things are more real when they are shared. Letting what's inside come out--by knowing and believing that its in there--is how we experience and enjoy this gift we've been given. Think about a TV show, or a movie, or a book (if anybody besides me still reads). Watching that show, or that movie, or reading that book is great. But watching it WITH someone just takes it to another level. Talking to someone who has read that book, sharing the experience, man... that's powerful. Because that's love. Giving what you've got. Sharing your life, yourself, with the people IN your life. That's what this life is all about. That's what this life is for. So in order to RECEIVE the desire of our heart (which is love), we need to delight ourselves in the gift we've already been given (which is love!). Stop searching without and let what's isnide come out! The desire of our heart is IN our heart. In order to "get" it, or experience it, we need to just look within. Look to the Lord. You know, the God who IS love that lives in us. And here's the deal: We live from the inside out. Even when we don't think so, or realize it. Whatever you believe--even on the smallest level--is what you experience in your life. No love, no life. KNOW love, KNOW life! Knowing and believing the truth is so vitally important. Letting what's inside--what's really inside--come out by knowing and believing that its in there is the key, or the secret, to life. If you want God to "give" you the desire of your heart, you need to understand what that desire really is... and understand that He has already given it to us. You need to receive it and release it. Let what's inside come out. Did I already say that? Good. Repetition. If you want to feel love... give love. That's as simply as I can put it. Be the change you want to see in the world. Let YOUR light shine and see things as they really are. Don't always try to get, get, get. But shift your focus to being able to give, give, give. Freely you have received, freely give. Well, first things first you need to receive what you've been given. Receive it and release it. Receive it BY releasing it. Release it by receiving it. Let God love the hell out of you and use that love to love the hell out of people!

I want to take a little bit of a detour today. We're talking about the heart, right? About how before the cross--or before you begin to know and believe that God has given you His heart and it beats with love in your chest--all we could think about was trying to get what we thought we didn't have. How a shift needed to happen. How it was only through the Holy Spirit--our love receptor, the Spirit of Truth that leads and guides us into all truth--that we could accept the gift we've been given. Accept it, by receiving it and releasing it. Before the cross, we wanted love, but we thought we didn't have it. We thought we had to earn it. After the cross, we were equipped and empowered to love by knowing and believing that we are loved. Love lets us love. Because you can't give something you don't have. God filled us up with His love, and now we can fill ourselves up to overflowing with that love and let it out. But like I said, I want to take a little side step today. I want to talk about 2 Samuel 24:10, "And David's heart smote him after that he had numbered the people. And David said unto the LORD, I have sinned greatly in that I have done: and now, I beseech thee, O LORD, take away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly." There's a lot of backstory here, but I want to cut through a lot of it. Basically, David wanted to count the people and see how powerful he was in numbers. God didn't want him to. He did anyway. And then his heart smote him. I think its funny that religious people think its their job to be like, Spiritual Cops. They think they can make people... be better. Or something. But I heard a preacher say it like this, "If the Holy Spirit can't change a person, what chance do I have?" Its like we don't trust the Holy Ghost to do His job. His ONE job! To lead and guide us into the truth that God is love and He loves you. Love is what "changes" us. And I put quotes around it because its not a change as much as it is just a revealing of the truth that has been covered up by all the world's... stuff. We pile up all our mistakes, and our expectations, and our misconceptions, and we get this twisted idea of how things are "supposed" to be, and this twisted idea of who we are. But then the wind of the Holy Spirit blows and gets rid of all that stuff and reveals God (LOVE) to us, by revealing God (LOVE) in us! David's heart smote him. There was something inside that wouldn't line up with "conventional wisdom." He didn't trust God--that time, at that point--at he immediately knew something was off. I call that trusting your gut. Listening to that still, small voice deep inside. That's our conscience. Or our compass. Whatever you want to call it. Its the heart. And as simply as I can put it: If its love, its all good. Love might not get you things your way all the time. But love WILL reveal things in Divine Order. All the time. Every time. Love is the answer. And that doesn't mean shoving your idea of love down someone's throat. It means listening to your heart. Letting the Word (which is Jesus, which is love) light your path. Letting your heart lead the way. Letting your heart rein you in. Or recalibrate you. Letting your heart correct you. Don't just plow ahead, I think is my point. My Bible case says, "God allows U-turns." So let your heart smite you. Let your heart heal you. Let your heart lead you!

There was a time--cosmically speaking (if that's the right term)--where there was nothing in man's heart except, "I want, I want, I want." We were ruled by our desire because we thought we were missing something. And it was so important to fill that hole inside of us. The thing about that hole though, is that it is a God-shaped (love-shaped) hole. And only one thing can fill a God-shaped (love-shaped) hole. God. Love. So even while we were doing everything we could think of to do in order to fill that hole--look at Ecclesiastes for a pretty good example of looking for love in all the wrong places--the cry of our heart was, "Love me. Hear me. See me. Embrace me. Please..." Look at Psalm 51:10, "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me." And this is David, the man who is described as being after God's own heart. That doesn't mean he HAD it. It means he was AFTER it. He wanted it. He cried out for it. He knew enough to know that he needed something. So something had to change. Something had to give. And that was God... giving His only begotten Son... to us. He wanted us to have that clean heart. That right Spirit. So He gave it to us. No strings attached. A gift is not a gift if you have to earn it. Or pay for it. A gift is freely given and must be received. Received and released. Because love is giving. God didn't give us His abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life so that we could hoard it to ourselves. He gave it to us so that we could give it to others. We are blessed to be a blessing. You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving. We have something to give, and we have... not an obligation, but an opportunity... to give it. When Jesus ascended and the Holy Spirit descended the cry of our heart was answered. The Holy Spirit is the love receptor. He is the Spirit of Truth that leads and guides us into all truth. The ultimate truth of the universe that God is love and He loves you. So rather than chasing that love--and I know Genesis describes it as wickedness in our hearts, and it could be seen as selfishness, I think more than anything it's just that need. That need to be loved that makes us do anything we think might fill that hole--but on this side of the cross, rather than chasing that love we can receive it. We can let God love us because the Holy Spirit is speaking in that still, small voice and telling us that He loves us with every beat of His heart in our chests. Our cry was, "Love me... love me... love me..." And now, every beat of God's heart in our chests says, "I love you... I love you... I love you..." The call has been answered. The cry of our heart has been answered. The hole in our heart--that God-shaped, love-shaped hole--has been filled. We ARE loved. And that means we CAN love. Blessed to be a blessing. Receiving and releasing. Letting God love us and loving Him back by loving each other. That's what this life is all about. That's why we were created. That's our purpose. And it all comes from the heart!

We ended the last Rant series with a memory verse about "purpose of heart." So I thought that was a good transition from a series about purpose to a series about the heart. And in order to really do the heart justice, I think we need to start at the beginning. The first time the word "heart" is used in the King James Bible is Genesis 6:5, "And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." Wow. There's a lot there. Let's define heart. It is number 3820 in Strong's Hebrew Concordance and it means, "the heart; also used (figuratively) very widely for the feelings, the will and even the intellect; likewise for the center of anything." So its more than just "that loving feeling," if I can say it that way. Because love is more than just a feeling. Love is a decision. Love is a conscious effort to give everything you have and everything you are. To lay your life down for your friends. Purpose of heart, right? It is the center of everything. Proverbs 4:23 says, "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life." The issue (singular, in my opinion) of life... is love. And love comes from the heart. Its all about love. I believe this everlasting, eternal, abundant, Resurrection Life is a never-ending journey into the heart of the matter. And the heart of the matter is the heart. God's heart beating with love in our chests. The still, small voice of truth telling us the ultimate truth of the universe with every beat of God's heart in our chests. Every beat saying, "I love you. I love you. I love you." It doesn't come from without. It comes from within. It comes from the heart. That's why its so important that we keep our heart will all diligence. Keep it OPEN. Don't shut it down because we've been burned. Don't close it off so we'll never be hurt again. Trust in God. Trust in love. Now before I run out of room today, I really want to hit this idea that every imagination of the thought of man's heart was only evil continually. Like I said, to truly understand where we are now its important to understand where we've come from. And I believe that before the cross--before we were gifted the Holy Spirit, our love receptor--the problem that mankind has was that we wanted to be loved, but we couldn't believe that God loved us. We were reaching for the carrot but we felt like all we ever got was the stick. We were trapped in "religion" where we had swallowed the lie that says you have to do in order to be. The lie that says you have to earn your bread by the sweat of your brow. And no matter how hard we tried, we always fell a little bit short. There was always (at least) one thing we lacked. That's frustrating. That will lead someone to try to get what they think they don't have by any means necessary. Take it. Steal it. Swindle people out of it. Whatever it takes. Isn't that what we see so often in the Old Testament? But that's not what God wanted for us. He wanted us to be able to love. And in order to be able to love we needed to know we were loved. And in order to know that we always have been and always will be loved... we needed a new heart. I guess that's where I'll pick up on this tomorrow.

Trusting our purpose. Trusting that all things work together for good. Trusting God's grand scheme. That's what faith is. When Jesus said, "...Have faith in God" (Mark 11:22), He was saying, "Have faith in love." Because God IS love. And that's our purpose. That's why we were created. That's our EPIC (Eternal Purpose In Christ) destiny. We were created to be loved by God and to love God back, by loving each other, with that same love. To receive and release His love. To give what we have by knowing and believing that we have it. Because you can't give what you don't have. And you can only give what you do have. So while the world can, and will, lie to you and try to drag you down... Jesus--love--can, and will, hold you up. The truth allows you to ignore the lie. To stop giving power to things that have no power. But while God made the Way of Grace, we need to respond to what He's done. That's the walk of faith. That's giving Him our trust. Setting our affection on things above (love), not on things on the earth. Purposefully choosing what is important in our lives. What is allowed in our lives. Because what you allow is what will continue. What you feed is what will grow. But what you starve... will die. You don't have to fight it. You just have to deny it your three T's (time, talent, treasure). And the best way to do that is to simply focus on the things in your life that DO matter. Its literally mind over matter. If you don't mind, it don't matter! So don't let every little thing that comes across your path trip you up. Know your purpose--again, love... but specifically to you its that thing that makes you... you!--and embrace it. Be the best you that you can be by doing everything you do heartily--to the best of your ability, and because its in your heart to do it. If you want to get the most out of life you have to put all of yourself INTO life. Give it all you've got. Go big or go home. But let me say this: Once you've given it all you've got, that HAS to either be enough... or not. And if its enough, great. But if its not, you have to learn to walk away. Turning the other cheek doesn't mean you stand there and let people slap you over and over. It simply means you don't retaliate. If you fight fire with fire (in the natural) everybody burns. But Romans 12:21 exhorts us to, "Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good." When you're heaping fiery coals on your enemies head, that's not to burn them. Its to melt their hearts. To destroy our enemies by making them our friends. To love people no matter what--even if its from a distance. Forcing your way into people's lives doesn't work. Any time you try to force anything down anybody's throat they gag, and choke, and vomit it up. So do small things with great love. I think that's the best way I can end this Rant series. Your purpose isn't to change the world, necessarily. But if you love someone--give them everything you have and everything you are in a way that they can receive and accept--you CAN change their whole world! It comes down to faith. It comes down to trust. It comes down to love. If you know, and believe, that God loves you... you can fulfil your purpose and love Him back by loving people!

Our purpose is to be loved and to love. Period. To let God love us and let that love (that He has put in us) come out of us. To fill ourselves to overflowing with His love. To receive it and release. We get so twisted around so often though. We get caught up in things. We wreck ourselves instead of checking ourselves. We walk by sight and not by faith. We "trust," in a sense, what is happening in the moment instead of trusting God's master plan. Because we KNOW that all things work together for good for those who love God and walk according to His purpose. But we sometimes seem to forget this glorious truth. That brings me to my memory verse for today. "Who, when he came, and had seen the grace of God, was glad, and exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord" (Acts 11:23). It is the GOODNESS of God that leads men to repentance. It is His grace, and the gladness that comes with that grace, that equips and empowers us to cleave to Him with purpose of heart. It has to come from the heart. And it has to be purposeful. You can't live your best life unless you are focused on what matters. That's why SETTING your affection on things above, not on things on the earth, is so important. We can choose what we allow in our lives. And that's vitally important. Because what you allow is what will continue. If there's something in your life that doesn't belong there, the best way to deal with it is to starve it. To deny it your attention, or affection. What you feed is what will grow. But if you don't feed it, it will whither and die. You don't have to fight. I believe the only Biblical fight there is, is the good fight of faith. Laying hold of the gift you've been given. Believing that what God says is true. So you don't have to fight the darkness. You can simply let your light shine and watch the darkness disappear. You can just walk away from things, instead of thinking, "Its more noble to make this better by fighting and conquering it." Some things can't be conquered in that manner. Some things just need to be excused. "You're gonna do what you're gonna do but I'm not going to be involved in it." Sometimes that's all you can do. And cutting that cancer out of your life, if I can say it that way, allows you to give your three T's (time, talent, treasure) to the things you CAN affect. Rather than banging your head against the wall (and only getting a headache for your troubles), you can simply walk away from the wall. Not everything is for you. Not everything deserves, or needs, to be in your life. Its ok to say no. Its ok to stop putting yourself in a bad position. I don't think "turn the other cheek" means stand there and let someone keep slapping you. Your purpose is to enjoy the gift you've been given--Jesus' abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life--not to suffer abuse from people. So, like I always say, give it everything you've got. And let that either be enough... or not. And if its not... its not. That's ok. If its not enough, and its a bad situation, you can (and should) walk away.

On purpose. For purpose. By purpose. Knowing who we are, and knowing why we're here. And doing what we were created to do. Not doing things just to do them, but doing them purposefully. That's the difference between a wasting time and redeeming the time. Look at Ephesians 5:15-16, "See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil." Walk as wise. Walk by faith. Not as fools. Not by sight. Don't let every little setback wreck you. As we know, a setback is just a setup for a comeback. And who doesn't love a good comeback story? Our purpose is not to live a life in which we never make any mistakes. If you never make a mistake, how can you learn from your mistakes? And if you never make any mistakes that means you never try anything. That's one thing you can say about me: I'm willing to try. I may not always get it right. I'm a firm believer that you often times have to do it wrong before you can do it right--that's called learning and growing. But not making a decision IS making a decision. More is lost by indecision than wrong decision. At least making a decision allows you to move. Hopefully forward, yes, but even if not you can learn the way. Learn the way not to go. And, listen, I think letting God lead is a much easier way to go. Letting His Word (which is Jesus, which is love) be a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path is a more excellent way. But rest is not inactivity. Rest is Holy Spirit directed activity. And the Holy Spirit always (only) directs us to love. Charity. Love in action. Putting your money where your mouth is. Putting others first. Laying your life down for your friends. That's what this life is all about. That's what this life is for. To live is to love and to love is to live. You can't do one without the other because they are not just connected, they are the same thing. And a purpose-filled, purpose driven life is a love-filled, love driven life. Our purpose--the reason we were created--is to be loved by God and to love Him back by loving each other with that same love. To receive and release the love of God. That's it. That's as simple as I can make it. Let God love the hell out of you and love the hell out of the people He puts in your path. I heard a quote the other day that goes something like this, "If you're 'wasting' time doing what you love, then its not really wasted time." Its important that we prioritze our three T's (time, talent, treasure) and use them to do what we were put here to do. As always, I'll say for me that's writing. For most of the women in my life--my wife, my mom, my other mom--that's teaching. But for everybody--EVERYBODY--that's loving. I try to spread love with my writing. Teachers spread love to their students. For a couple of examples. So do what's in your heart to do. Do it to the best of your ability. Do that thing that makes you... you. That's your purpose. That's why you're here. You're not here to be someone you're not. You're here to be who God created you to be. To embrace your EPIC (Eternal Purpose In Christ) destiny. To be loved, and to love with that love!

Your EPIC destiny, your Eternal Purpose In Christ, is to be loved by God and to love Him back by loving people. That's as simple as a I can make it. That's why you were created. The God who is love created you in order to express Himself--His love--to you, and in you, and through you, and as you. So our purpose is two-fold: We must first receive God's love, because you can't give what you don't have. And we must release God's love, because love is giving. But in this Rant series I want to focus on some other aspects. Like yesterday we looked at how all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose. How when we are walking in love, we can let things play out. We can see the bigger picture. We don't have to attack eveybody and everything. We can live and let live. Support people no matter what. And I don't mean enable people. I mean be there for them even if we don't agree with everything they say or do. God doesn't want robots. And we shouldn't either. We should celebrate the differences in ourselves and each other. Variety is the spice of life. Today I want to talk about purposing to live in our purpose. Colossians 3:2 (one of my favorite verses), "Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth." And the key word, to me, is set. Now in that memory verse, it is the whole phrase "set your affection on" that is defined in Strong's Greek Concordance. It is number 5426 and it means, "to exercise the mind, that is, entertain or have a sentiment or opinion; by implication to be (mentally) disposed (more or less earnestly in a certain direction); intensively to interest oneself in (with concern or obedience)." Wow. That's a lot. But basically it means "Focus on." It means choose what's important to you. Set your affection. Be purposeful in what you do. Be purposeful in what you allow into your mind, or your heart. Let the mind of Christ (that's already in you) be in you. And use that mind of Christ! God knows the thoughts that He thinks towards you--thoughts of peace and not evil to give you an expected end--so we need to know the thoughts that we think towards each other. We need to... I always say it like this, "You don't have to believe everything you think." And rather than using a verse like 2 Corinthians 10:5, "Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ," as an excuse to go thought chasing... I think we should just let things go. If we have a "bad" thought... just let it go. Just focus on the things we ought to be focusing on. Purpose to make the important things important. Don't let things that don't matter wear you out. Don't give power to things that don't have any power. Love is all-powerful. Which doesn't mean MOST powerful. It means nothing but love has any power. So don't give things power that don't have any power. SET your affection. Live with a purpose. Our purpose is to be loved and to love each other with that love. That's what matters. That's what important. That's our purpose, and that's how we live on purpose, by purpose, and for purpose!

I think a question people ask--especially when they begin to really take this "God" thing seriously--is, "What's my purpose?" Why am I here? What's this life for? And I wrote an entire book about this very subject. Its called EPIC (Eternal Purpose In Christ). Spoiler alert: Our purpose is to be loved, and to love. That's it. That's as simple as I can make it. Its all about love. The New Commandment is to love one another as Jesus loves us. To receive and release His love. To fill ourselves to overflowing with what we've been filled with. To let what's inside (the love of God) come out by knowing and believing that its in there. But for this Rant series I want to kind of look at different aspects of this Eternal Purpose In Christ. I want to look at different... factors, if I can say it that way, in our EPIC destiny. And I want to start with Romans 8:28, "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose." I like this verse. I actually hear it quite a bit. Because the idea that even when things look bad, they are really working for good... that's powerful. That's a way to stay strong even when things, well, look bad. A way to see the bigger picture. For example: If you lose your job, that might look like a bad thing. But if your job was killing you, and now you can find a new (better) job... things work together for good. And I want to point out the "to them that love God" part. Because I think some people think loving God means being as religious as possible. Even to the point of throwing people over. "I can't help you. I have to go to chruch." Well, what's the point of going to church if it doesn't fill you up SO THAT you can help people? Going to church isn't as important as BEING the church. Taking that love of God with you wherever you go and giving it to those that you come in contact with. That's what church is all about. And if you're doing what you do heartily--to the best of your ability, because its in your heart to do it--you're ensuring that things will work out. Maybe not exactly the way you think they should, because God KNOWS best even when you THINK you have it all figured out, but love never fails. Because love endures. I always says, "Things work out in the end. If it hasn't worked out yet, it isn't the end yet. " Love can see the big picture. Because love isn't in a hurry. And love doesn't demand its (HIS) own way. Love can let things play out. Our purpose is not to hammer things into the shape we think they should be in. Our purpose is to lay our lives down for each other. To give what we've got. To see a need and meet it. To make ourselves available. I always tell people, "I've got your back." Because I do. But having said that, I don't go around forcing myself or my opinion on people. Unasked for advice is unwanted advice. But people know I'm there for them. If you ask me to help, and I at all can, I will. Our purpose is to be who we are and give what we've got. And when we do, we can enjoy God's grand scheme. We can be a part of the big picture, instead of letting every little thing wreck us. We can endure. We can... love!

A lot of verses in the Bible seem to contrast humbleness and pride. For example, "A man's pride shall bring him low: but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit" (Proverbs 29:23). So, as I've stated many times, being humble isn't thinking less of yourself. Its just thinking of yourself less. Thinking about others instead of yourself. Not worrying about getting anything for yourself, but instead knowing what you've got and giving what you've got. Seeing a need and meeting it. Letting what's inside come out by knowing and believing its in there. Going about your business and being quiet about it. You don't need applause. Your honor shall uphold you. Love will hold you up. Look at Jude 1:24 (and I try to use this verse as often as I can because I never really hear anybody else us it), "Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultness before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy." Everybody wants to talk about Jesus picking us up after we fall. But nobody wants to acknowledge that we don't, in fact, have to fall. Nobody seems to think Jesus is strong enough to KEEP us from falling. But my thing is... if love is holding us up, what could possibly drag us down? Love is all powerful, right? And, as always, that doesn't mean MOST powerful. It means love has all of the power. Because love IS all of the power. Nothing else has any power over us (unless we give it power over us). Nothing can trip us up when we walk by faith and not by sight. Nothing can trip us up when we let His Word (which is Jesus, which is love) be a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. Walk in love and you'll get to where you need to be. Because you'll always BE where you need to be. You'll be in the right position to fulfill your EPIC (Eternal Purpose In Christ) destiny. You'll be able to be humble. Because you won't be chasing. You won't be trying to get. You'll be able to give. Because you'll be able to know what you have. You'll be able to know that you have something to give. Something worth giving. Something that everybody else needs. That's what this life is about. Its more blessed to give than to receive. Living is loving. Loving is living. You can give without loving, but you can't love without giving. And here's the key: When someone blesses you, never forget it. But when you bless someone, never remember it. Don't keep score. Don't hold what you've done for someone over their heads. Be cool about it. Be humble. All you did was release what your heavenly Father gave to you. It came from Him. So realize that in our own strength we can do nothing. But we can do all things through Him that strengthens us. His love in us comes out through us. Being humble, being honorable, is simply doing what you can do and letting it speak for itself. Actions speak louder than words, right? Saying you love someone is amazing. But showing them... that's even better. Be honorable. Do the right thing--the love thing. And let God hold you up!