I think this memory verse kind of says what I think I've been trying to say: "In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise" (Ephesians 1:13). You can't trust something you don't know, or haven't heard. This idea of a blind leap of faith doesn't work with me. Because faith is the substance, the evidence. Faith is knowing something is true because you've experienced it. Not head knowledge, but heart knowledge. You have heard that Word of truth. The gospel of salvation. Faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the Word (Jesus, love) of God. AFTER hearing... we believe. Sealed with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of Truth that leads and guides us into all truth. I guess what I'm trying to say, in a nutshell, is that seeing is believing. Experiencing the love of God is what equips and empowers us to love with the love of God. Receiving and releasing it. We hear it, we trust it, we believe it, we share it. That's the Divine Order of things. Knowing and believing. Because you can't believe something you don't know. How could you? So when we're talking about the Spirit of Truth--the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of promise, the love receptor--we're talking about listening to the still, small voice of God. That little voice deep inside that says, "I love you, I love you, I love you," with every beat of God's heart in our chests. Letting what's inside come out by knowing and believing that its (that HE'S) in there. Love is the Word of God. Love is the thought that He thinks toward us. Let me say it kind of boldly like this: Love is all God's got. Because love is all God is. Love isn't just what God does. Love is who God is. He is a Spirit, a consuming fire, a light... love. All pictures of love. The Spirit of Truth is the Spirit of love. Because love IS the truth. The ultimate truth of the universe. Jesus said He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Which means LOVE is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. We have to start looking at everything through the lens of love. Rose colored glasses, if I can say it that way. Looking at the Bible cross-eyed. Seeing everything through the finished work of the cross. Seeing (and believing) that we don't have to be someone we're not... because we are already exactly who we need to be. That's the truth of the matter. God made you exactly how He wanted you to be. You are perfect. Just the way you are. God loves you... just the way you are. He has never loved you any less than He does right now. Even at your lowest. His love is unconditional. Its not about what you do. Its about who you are. And who HE is. You can trust His love because it never waivers. Never fails. His love endures. No matter what. He always has and always will love you. That's what love is. And that's what the Holy Spirit shows us as He leads and guides us into all truth. The truth that we are loved. The truth that we can love. The truth that we ARE love! Hear it, know it, trust it, believe it. Receive it and release it!

Truth can be a little bit tricky, in the sense that the truth is always the truth no matter what... but if you don't believe it, it isn't true to YOU. Its like, if you have a million dollars in the bank, but you don't know its in there, you aren't going to spend it. You shall KNOW the truth, and the truth that you know shall make you free. Look at John 14:16-17, "And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you." The world cannot receive it. Because love seems to good to be true. It doesn't "make sense" that someone could give us everything they have and everything they are and want nothing in return. But that's where faith comes in. And not this idea of faith where we're supposed to "believe" in order to MAKE something happen. That's not faith. Faith is the SUBSTANCE of things hoped for, the EVIDENCE of things not seen. Because seeing is believing. The world cannot receive because it doesn't see or know. Faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the Word (Jesus, love) of God. What the world sees, and hears, and experiences, and knows, is the rat race. Climbing over people to make yourself look bigger. Knocking people down to make yourself like better. But if you win the rat race, what are you? King rat? Who really wants that? That's no way to live. A life worth living is a life of service. Giving what you've got, rather than trying to get something you (think you) haven't got. But you can't give what you don't have. And you can only give what you do have. Faith. Knowing and believing--with a knowledge that passes knowledge--that you are loved. And the "tricky" part, like I said, is that it comes from the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth. The Holy Spirit is our love receptor. See, the truth is that we are loved. Always have been, always will be. But without the Holy Spirit we can't receive that love. We aren't receptive to it. Again, it seems too good to be true. Its not until we hear that Word that we can experience the love of God. And I mean HEAR it. Really hear it. Because God only says one thing, "I love you." He says it, and He DOES it. He shows it to us. Jesus said there's no greater expression of love than laying your life down for your friends. And then He went to the cross and literally did it. He gave His life FOR us. But He also gave His life TO us. We simply have to let Him live His own life in us, and through us, and as us. Know what we've got so that we can give what we've got. Love is giving. That's the key. Its not about getting. Knowing what we've got equips and empowers us to give what we've got. Knowing the truth is what sets us free and makes us free. Even though we already ARE free. We experience the freedom when we know its available to us. Not for us to earn, but freely given. Simply needing to be received and released. The truth is the truth. Always. No matter what. But knowing the truth is what makes it true... for you!

Think about this for a minute: I think we kind of all agree that God lives in us through His Spirit, right? I've heard it said like this, "I am a spirit, I have a soul, I live in a body." And I don't want to get into the soul deal right here. There's a lot that could be said about that. The point I'm trying to make is--God IS Spirit. He IS the Spirit of truth. And as He is, so are we in this world. We don't just HAVE the Spirit of truth (that He is), we ARE the Spirit of truth (that He is). Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Where the truth--the ultimate truth of the universe that God is love and He loves you--is, there is liberty. And that Spirit, that truth, is in us. IS us! So where WE are there is liberty. Because we don't just know the truth, we don't just tell the truth, we ARE the truth. We are the proof of God's love. We were created by the God who IS love... so that He could have soemthing TO love. God wanted to express Himself, so He created us. He expressed Himself TO us. And then He planted Himself IN us. So that He could express Himself THROUGH us. The truth is love. Where there is love, there is life. And we are loved, which means we are LOVE. Remember that God is a consuming fire. Love is a consuming fire. Whatever love touches, it consumes. Leaving only itself (HIMself). Love feeds on love and burns everything else away. That's why there is liberty where the Spirit is. Where the truth is. Where WE are. Unfortunately, we seem almost preprogrammed to have a slave mentality. Love--true, sacrificial, agape love--is such a radical concept that it seems too good to be true. We're so used to the world trying to crush us that we don't even really know what to do with freedom. Which is why we see people abuse their freedom. Give 'em an inch and they take a mile. But I'm telling you, even with that sort of thing happening... freedom is better. Liberty is better. If letting people be who they are and do what they do is too hard for you, then you need to take a long look in the mirror. Because how you treat people says more about you than it does about them. If your goal is to manipulate or control... you need a new goal. Love is giving. Never getting. We already have everything we need. Because we have the Spirit of the Lord. The Spirit of truth that leads and guides us into all truth. The truth that God always has, and always will, love us. That love empowers us. To live. To love. To be who we really are by knowing who we really are. When you know you are loved, everything else falls into place. Everything else reveals itself to be in Divine Order. And I say "reveals itself" because things ARE in Divine Order. Right now. Its just a matter of seeing it. Seeing is believing. What you see is what you be. What you magnify is what manifests in your life. What you focus on is what is, in a sense, real to you. So stop looking without, and look within. The truth lives in us. God lives in us. Love lives in us. When the Spirit of truth leads and guides us into the truth, it leads us deep inside. Into the heart of the matter. Which is the heart. God's heart beating with love in our chests!

I'm stuck on a truth kick. Because, as we just saw in the last Rant series, knowing the truth is what sets us free. But let's really look at this; set us free from what? Sin, of course. Because sin is unbelief. Believing that you have to do in order to be. Believing that you have to earn something from your heavenly Father. That's the lie that the serpent hissed in Eve's ear way back in Genesis 3:4-5, "And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." IF you eat the fruit THEN you will be like God. The serpent made it all about performance. Not about who you are, but about what you do. And here's the thing--Jesus came that we might have LIFE and that more abundantly. He wasn't concerned with good and evil, He cursed the fig tree (the tree of knowledge of good and evil) because it didn't bear fruit. He wanted us to stop jumping from one branch to the other, picking flower petals and saying, "I'm good, He loves me... I'm evil, He loves me not" and He wanted us to get onto the other Tree entirely. The Tree of Life. That's why, although there are two trees in the garden of Eden, by the time we get to Revelation only the Tree of Life remains. Jesus IS the Tree of Life. Jesus IS the vine that we are branches of. Jesus IS the love that makes His abundant life... abundant. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. The Way to God, the Truth about God, and the Life of God. The Way to LOVE, the Truth about LOVE, and the Life of LOVE! So now that I said all that, let me quote my key memory verse for this Rant series: "Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come" (John 16:13). This is the verse that I'm always referencing when I say, "The Spirit of truth that leads and guides us into all truth." This is where I get that phrase from. And its so interesting to me that the Spirit leads us into that ultimate truth of the universe (that God is love and He loves you) NOT by speaking of Himself--and that means speaking BY Himself--but simply by repeating what He hears His Father say. He hears the Word, which is Jesus, which is love, and He speaks that Word. That Word of God--Jesus, love--is the truth. That's ALL the Spirit of Truth says because that's all it (HE) needs to say. When we know the truth we can ignore the lie. When we know God loves us we can stop trying to be someone we're not, by doing what we think will earn us something that can't be earned, in order to get something we (think we) haven't got. The truth is, the thing we want most--the desire of our hearts--is to be loved. And that's what we have. That's what we are. God is love and He loves you. And because He loves you, you can love Him back by loving others. And we don't do it by speaking of (or by) ourselves. Simply by being a witness--repeating what we've heard from our heavenly Father--and receiving and releasing that love!

I've mentioned this a couple of times but I want to really hit it home as I end this Rant series: There's an old saying that goes, "Keep your words soft and sweet, because you might have to eat them." Which, to me, is really more about simple accountability than anything. "Did you say that?" Yes. Yes I did. And, just as a real quick aside, I think honesty is vitally important, because once trust is broken it is SOOO hard to put back together. But just as a practical nod, if you don't make up stories you don't have to try to remember them. You don't have to try to lie on top of a lie because you got caught in a lie. You can just tell the truth and let it stand for itself. And, yes, sometimes the truth will upset people. Sometimes the truth will ruffle some feathers. But it is still (always) better to stand on that Rock. If you're telling the truth, you can't be shaken. If you KNOW the truth, you can easily ignore the lie. But I'm talking about reaping what you sow, in a sense. One of my favorite lines from any movie ever is, "Don't start nothing... won't be nothing." And I've kind of modeled my life after that. I am perfectly content to stay on my side of the line and, for the most part, leave well enough alone. So if you still manage to cross the line... you get what you get. If you use your words to attack, to destroy, to hurt and to harm... its hard for me to have sympathy for you. Because you might not think they are, but words are important. What you say matters. I think at this point in my life people know two things about me: 1. I'm not going to say much. 2. If I say I'm going to do something... I'm going to do it. And this can surprise people, because a lot of people talk a lot of crap. They say things that they don't mean, or speak out in anger, and then get surprised when those actions have consequences. They use their words as sticks and stones and then can't understand why people don't want to listen to them. Well, they have to eat those words. Should have kept them soft and sweet. And I'm not saying if someone hits you you should hit back. I AM saying, fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice shame on ME. If you lie to me, why would I then believe you the next time? You've shown me what you're about. And, again, I'm not going to retaliate against you. I just don't have any interest in dealing with that kind of stuff in my life. Life is too short. We need to surround ourselves with people that are good for us. And I understand reaching out a helping hand. I understand trying bring people into the fold, if I can say it that way. But if someone's not picking up what you're laying down... and they're constantly using and abusing you... love everybody. But love some people from a distance. Try. Give it everything you have. But once you give something everything you've got its either enough... or its not. Sometimes you do more damage by hanging on than letting go. Words are important. Sticks and stones can break bones. Words can hurt. But they can also heal. They can also shield and protect. They can edify and build up. So, one more old saying, "Two ears, one mouth." Listen more than you speak. And make sure you want to say it before you do!

Words can be used to hurt or to heal. To tear down or to bind up. But look at Genesis 15:1, the first time the word "word" is used in the King James Bible. Which makes it the law of first mention, right? Sets the tone for how it is to be used? "After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward." I love that. Fear not. Encouragement. A shield. Protection. So that's how we ought to use our words, right? Because words are important. Powerful. Death and life is in the power of the tongue. Sticks and stones may break our bones, and words CAN hurt us... but they can also protect us. Shield us. Edify us. Especially when we understand what the Word really is. Its love. Period. When God first spoke He said, "Let there be light." Because God IS light. He was inserting Himself into our darkness. God is Spirit. God is a consuming fire. God is light. And God is love. Those pictures of Him are pretty much interchangable. So "let there be light" is the same as "let there be love." When God inserted Himself into our darkness, He was inserting love into our situation. Love is the solution. The answer. Love is the Alpha and Omega, right? Beginning and end? First and last? And everything in between. Its all about love. Because its all love. Love isn't just what God does. Love is who God is. Love isn't just what WE do. Love is who we are! And what's inside comes out. We express ourselves through our actions... and through our words. The Word Jesus spoke was Spirit and life. Because the Word Jesus spoke was "fear not." The Word Jesus spoke was, "I love you." And faith comes from hearing. Hearing from the Word of God. We hear that Word of love deep in our hearts and then we can express that love by receiving and releasing it. By filling ourselves to overflowing with what we've already been filled with. And we fill ourselves--look at Isaiah 12:3, "Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation." WE are the wells of salvation. Living water flows out of our bellies (our hearts, our innermost being). And it comes with joy. I've never felt more joy in my life than when I loved someone. Then when I gave someone just exactly what they needed and saw the joy on their face. That's the Divine Order of things--if you want to feel joy, give it to someone else. If you want to feel forgiven, forgive someone else. If you want to feel love, love someone else. Love is giving. We experience what we've got by giving it away. By sharing it. And words are such a powerful way to do that. They say actions speak louder than words, and oftentimes maybe they do. Because you can say one thing and do another, and what you do is what is done. But don't discount the power of words. Once you say something, its really hard to take it back. Words have power. Words can hurt or help. Build or destroy. So keep your words soft and sweet, because you might just have to eat them.

I pretty much only want to key in on one memory verse today. Its pretty simple, but incredibly powerful. "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32). The truth--the ultimate truth of the universe that God is love and He loves you--sets us free. LOVE sets us free. Sticks and stones may break our bones, and words CAN hurt us. But the right Word, which is Jesus, which is love, sets us free. But did you catch that first part? You shall know the truth. The truth is the truth. Always has been. Always will be. God's love is true. Always has been. Always will be. God--who IS love--always has loved us and always will love us. But its the truth that you KNOW that makes you free. Now don't get it twisted: We ARE free. That happened. But unless you KNOW you're free you'll keep acting like a slave. You can't believe something you don't know. The Divine Order is to know and believe. Faith comes from hearing. And hearing from the Word (Jesus, love) of God. You hear that Word, you hear your heavenly Father saying, "I love you" with every beat of His heart in our chests, and that Word fills us up--in a sense. I say "in a sense" because we ARE full of it. God filled us with His love. That happened. Jesus emptied Himself out and poured Himself into us. Filling us up with His Spirit. His love. But the Word is how we fill ourselves with what we've already been filled with. Knowing the truth, that has always been true, is what makes us free. We can experience that truth, that love, when we know it and believe it. When we let what's inside fill us up to overflowing and come out. And here's the deal, I say this all the time, what's inside WILL come out. Or rather, what you believe is inside will come out. It has to. Its too big, too powerful, not to. What you do flows from what you believe. What you believe is inside will come out. That's why behavior modification pales in comparision to getting your believing right. When you know that truth, that you are immaculately and unconditionally loved by the very God who IS love... everything flows from there. When you know you ARE loved... you CAN love. When you know you are loved, you begin to understand that you are LOVE. Its not just what God does. Its who God is. Its not just what YOU do. Its who you are. Love is our nature. Our new (true) nature. Putting on the new man and lying not is about getting comfortable with who we really are. Knowing the truth and telling the truth. Receiving and releasing the love of God. That's what life is all about. That's what life IS. To live is to love and to love is to live. They aren't just connected, they are the same thing. God came to us in human form to give us the truth. Tell us AND show us. He said there's no greater love a man can have than to lay his life down for his friends. Then He went to the cross and literally did just that. And because He did that, we can do that. Figuratively and literally. We can lay our lives down for our friends. Esteem others higher than ourselves. Put others first. Give what we've got when we see that people need it. Which, by the way, is what love is. Love is giving! Knowing the truth and giving that truth to others!

Words are important. That's my focus for this Rant series. What you say matters. Being a man of your word. We touched on this verse in the "Put On" Rant series, but it fits here too: "Lie not one to another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his deeds" (Colossians 3:9). One of the best--perhaps THE best--way to show people that we have put on the new man is by not lying to them. Telling them the truth in love. The truth that God is love and He loves you. The truth that God loves ME and because of that I CAN love you. Here's the Divine Order of things: God loved us first. We love Him back. By loving each other. How you treat people is how you treat God. Jesus said whatever you do unto the least of them you do unto the King. How you deal with people is how you think God deals with you. If you're hard, and mean, and distant with people, always out to get them, to get one over on them, to exalt yourself at their expense... its because that's how you see God. We are created in His image. How we see Him is how we see ourselves, and each other. Its all about relationship. And our relationship with each other mirrors our relationship with our God. The God who is love. That's where it has to start and end. The Alpha and Omega. Love. And, by the way, its not just the beginning and the end. Its everything in between. Its all about love. Because its all love. Look at John 6:63, "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." The Word (which is Jesus, which is love) IS life. Love and life aren't just connected. They are the same thing. So follow me on this one--"Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" (2 Corinthians 3:17). The Word (Jesus, love) is Spirit. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Where the Word is, there is liberty! Telling someone you love them--and then showing them what that Word means, charity, love in action--brings so much freedom. And liberty, freedom, isn't freedom TO sin... it is freedom FROM sin. It is freedom TO love! To be loved. To receive and release the gift we've been given. To experience that abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of God by letting Jesus live it in us, and through us, and as us. By letting Jesus love people in us, and through us, and as us. By speaking the truth. Speaking the Word--which, one more time, is Jesus, is love. So I'm not saying we need to go around shoving Jesus down people's throats. They'll choke on Him. The harder you try to force something down someone's throat, the more they throw it back up. So instead of saying, "Jesus," maybe just say "love." I love you. Sticks and stones may break my bones, and words CAN hurt me. But they can also heal me. They can also bring freedom. Liberty. Joy. Happiness. Words can tear people down. But they can also build people up. Edify them. Heal them. There is power in words. Death and life is in the power of the tongue. Let me end it with this old saying, "Keep your words soft and sweet, because you might have to eat them."

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. Right? What a load of junk. Words are so powerful. What we do, what we say, matters. Actions have consequences. You can't just pretend like you haven't done the things you have done. And I'm not saying we condemn people. I'm not saying we punish people. But I AM saying we don't have to associate with people. Look at Ecclesiastes 8:4, "Where the word of a king is, there is power: and who may say unto him, What doest thou?" 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." And look at Proverbs 15:4, "A wholesome tongue is a tree of life: but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit." I like it even better in the Message Bible, "Kind words heal and help; cutting words wound and maim." There is power in our words. The power to heal or to hurt. The power, quite literally, of life and death. And that's why I think I abhor dishonesty so much. The fact that people can be so careless with their words. Say things that aren't true in order to manipulate and control people. In order to hide things that shouldn't be going on. And, yes, if you can't tell, I've been on the receiving end of a lot of lies from a lot of people. And that makes it hard for me to trust people. Once you've been burned, its hard to get close to the fire. You have to try really hard to keep your heart, by keeping it open. Try really hard to avoid closing it down. We all have issues. We all have baggage. And a lot of it comes from the words people fling at us. Its amazing to me how often I say something nice to Logan, just little things, "You look sharp today, bub." And he lights up. "That really means a lot to me, Dad!" Words. Powerful, powerful words. So when someone acts like words don't matter... that's not ok. When someone tries to excuse what they say (or do), because they did it out of anger... that's not ok. Like I always say, "Feel what you feel but don't let it control you." Self control is a fruit of the Spirit, by the way. Its like my grandpa says, "You can do whatever you want, as long as you're willing to pay the consequences." But most people don't even think of the consequences. They don't count the cost. They burn bridges and then wonder why they've become isolated. Integrity. Honor. Honesty. Standing up for what's right no matter what. Maturity. Mercy. Grace. These are the things--the words--that are important in life. Love... which is the Word of God. Do all things as unto the Lord, right? Receiving and releasing His love. Not "His" wrath, or anger, or whatever. God isn't angry. He's not even in a bad mood. God is NOT mad at you. He's mad ABOUT you. Head over heels in love with you. And He tells you that with every beat of His heart in your chest. He tells you how He feels so that you can know it. And believe it. Faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the Word (love) of God. So be careful with your words. They mean something. They mean everything. They are so important. So powerful. And once you let them out, you really can't get them back. Once trust is broken, its almost impossible to put back together...

A soft word (Word, love) turns away wrath. We don't have to retaliate when someone does something we don't like. We can turn the other cheek, let people be who they are, and still love them. We can live and let live. Which is where I want to end this Rant series. Three memory verses. Rapid fire: "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death" (1 John 3:14). "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passesd from death unto life" (John 5:24). "Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof" (Proverbs 18:21). The difference between life and death is that soft word. Love. Love is literally the difference between life and death. Know love, know life. No love, no life. And love is the Word of God. Love is the Word that has power. We can empower people to live by loving them. We CANNOT empower people to live by condemning them. By judging them according to appearance. It is only by juding righteous judgment--by applying, or handing down, the righteous judgment that has already been passed down from Father to Son. Not a death sentence, but a life sentence. An abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life sentence! Jesus didn't just give His life FOR us, He gave His life TO us. So that we could have it. So that we could experience it by letting Him live His own life of love in us, and through us, and as us. I can't stress how important love is to life. I feel like its all I ever Rant about. And love is so important TO life because love IS life. They aren't just connected, they are the same thing. So, like I said, let's live and let live. Let's love people and let them do their thing. Let's take it easy on people. Esteem people higher than ourselves. Put others first. If something you want to do is going to cause someone to stumble... don't do it. Its not worth it. People are most important. God and people. Loving God and loving people. Loving God BY loving people. And while charity is love is action, words go a long way. Faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the Word (again, Jesus... love) of God. Telling someone "I love you" and then backing that Word up with your actions is really the only way to have a real, meaningful, lasting relationship with them. Love is the foundation that relationship is built on. And relationship is about partnership. About sharing your lives. Sharing yourself. Its not about manipulation and control. Its not about someone dominating someone else. Its about doing things FOR people, not getting things FROM people. Love is giving. Never getting. And while love can be hard, you can still take it easy. You don't have to fight in order to compromise. Relationships ARE hard, but they don't have to be a battle. Easy does it. Speak love. Speak life. Let what's inside flow. Don't worry about getting, just give what you've got!