"And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:32, NLT). That's pretty much all I want to say today. It is the goodness of God that leads men to repentance. It is the truth--the ultimate truth of the universe that God is love and He loves you--that sets us free and makes us free. Here's the key though--the truth HAS set us free and made us free. That happened. It is finished. Done deal. But it is the truth we KNOW that allows us, equips and empowers us, to EXPERIENCE that freedom. Because, well, look at it like this: Let's say you're in a prison cell. You're a slave to sin, and the law, and death. And you can't get out of that cell no matter how hard you try. Eventually you would give up and stop trying to get out of the cell. You would just accept that there's no way out. Now let's say that when you're sleeping someone comes by and unlocks the door. You wake up, totally unaware that you are all of a sudden free to leave the cell. Totally unaware that the door is unlocked and all you have to do is open it up and walk through it. The truth is... you're free. But the reality is, until you KNOW that you're free you're still going to behave as if you're not. It's the knowing that makes the difference. Which is why preaching the gospel at all times is so important. And why you should even use words to do so if you absolutely have to. Actions speak louder than words. The gospel is, again, "God is love and He loves you." When we SHOW people that truth, we free THEM from the bondage they are in. We show them a more Excellent Way. And when someone sees something that is better than what they have... when they discover a truth they didn't know... well, let me say it like this: When you know better you can do better. Knowing is half the battle, right? And applying what you know is the other half. The truth is the truth whether you know it or not or believe it or not. Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. But think about this: "Jesus loves me, THIS I KNOW, for the Bible tells me so." The knowing is so important. It's the first part of the Divine Order of things--knowing and believing. Because you can't believe what you don't know. Faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the Word (which is Jesus, which is love) of God. When you hear the still, small voice deep inside that is God telling you "I love you" with every beat of His heart in your chest... that gives you something to build on. Something to believe. That's when you can stand on the Rock and not be shaken. You will KNOW the truth, and the truth will set you free. God setting us free doesn't NEED to happen. It happened 2000 years ago on an old rugged cross. What needs to happen, in order for us to experience and enjoy the gift we've been given, is for us to know. If someone, right now, put two million dollars in my bank account, I'd be rich. It would have nothing to do with me. It would be a gift. But here's the thing: Until and unless I checked my account balance, I wouldn't know I was rich. And I'd have to act like I've been acting--living paycheck to paycheck. So we can't dismiss the importance to knowing. Once you know, you can believe. Once you believe... what is true becomes true for you. Knowing and believing the truth is what lets us--equips and empowers us--to experience the truth. And the truth... is freedom. Freedom FROM sin, and death, and the law. Freedom TO live and love. And that gift... man, that's priceless. It's available to us. It has been given to us. We have it. We just need to know it, so we can believe it!

Freedom isn't free. It comes at a cost. Spiritually speaking, it came at the cost of Jesus' life. He died so that we could die. Because a dead man is no longer responsible for the things that came before that death. And then He rose again so we could have NEWNESS of life. So we could stop struggling with all the things the old man struggled with. Freedom FROM sin, death, and the law. Freedom TO live and love. Look at Hebrews 2:14-15 (NLT), "Because God's children are human beings--made of flesh and blood--the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying." That puts a new perspective on what the slavery that held us in bondage is. Slaves to the fear of dying. And how did Jesus set us free? By dying! Because--look, the first death was when Adam ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the tree of death. From that point on humanity was the walking dead. We needed a second death so that death itself could die. So when Jesus was lifted up from the earth on the cross He drew all men into Himself. Out of Adam. Into Jesus. No longer did Adam's "fall" define us. Now it is Jesus rising that defines us! He gave His life FOR us on the cross, but He also gave His life TO us! So that we could have it. So that we could experience the gift of God that is the abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of God--life of love--as Jesus lives His own life in us, and through us, and as us. We were given this gift because God loves us and wanted us to have it. He didn't want us to be slaves. He wanted us to be Son(s). Which is why He sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts. It is this Spirit that allows us to cry out, "Abba! Father!" To know God as heavenly Father. To know ourselves as His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. It is this Spirit that has made us free. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Freedom. And what we are free from, specifically, according to our passage in Hebrews, is the fear of dying. When you know that you have eternal life, what could possibly be scary about dying? When you know that Jesus--and you IN Him--was crucified, died, buried, quickened, raised, and seated... at that point you have nothing to fear. Death, the last enemy, was defeated on the cross. It's not something we have to worry about anymore. What's that line from that old movie? "Either get busy living or get busy dying." If your focus is on dying, or what happens after you die, then you're missing out on, well, life. The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. WE are our own thief when we steal our own lives from ourselves by worrying about everything and anything else. That's not what our heavenly Father wants for us. Which is why He gave us what He DOES want for us. One more time: The abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of God! He gave us that gift. And when we focus on what we DO have--with an attitude of gratitude--that's when we truly experience what we do have. That's when we can enjoy the fruit of HIS labor. So instead of plodding on in the slavery of fear, look at 1 John 4:18 (NLT), "Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced perfect love." There is no fear in love. God loves us, so He took away the fear. Of sin. Of punishment. Of death. We are free FROM all of that, so that we can be free TO live and love!

Let's just get right into it: We are free. Free FROM sin and death and the law... free TO live and love. Look at Romans 6:14-16 (NLT), "Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God's grace. Well then, since God's grace has set us free from the law, does that mean we can go on sinning? Of course not! Don't you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which deads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living." There's a lot there, but it's so good. And I like the link Paul is making between freedom and grace. I know there's this "religious" idea of "greasy grace." I know people will use "grace" as an excuse to get away with things. But that's not what grace is, and that's not what grace is about. Grace is the enabling power of God. Grace is what, in a very real sense, changes our appetites. Because here's the deal: You CAN do whatever you want. As long as you're willing to pay the consequences. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 10:23 (NLT), "You say, "I am allowed to do anything"--but not everything is good for you. You say, "I am allowed to do anything"--but not everything is beneficial." In other words, just because you CAN do something doesn't mean you SHOULD. Freedom FROM sin is very different than freedom TO sin. Which is what some would have you believe grace is. Read that passage in Romans again. "God's grace has set us free from the law." Hold on to that for a second. Add this to that: "For the law always brings punishment on those who try to obey it. (The only way to avoid breaking the law is to have no law to break!)" (Romans 4:15 NLT). Where there is no law there can be no transgression. If you're worried about do's and don'ts, and only focused on what you can get away with... you're missing out on everything God has made available to you! The thief and the robber in John chapter 10... is you! You steal the gift of God from yourself when you try to enter into the sheepfold any other way but through the door. You rob yourself of what you've been given when you neglect it in order to try to get what you think you haven't got. And, Biblically speaking, the only way to "fall from grace" is to put yourself under the law! So instead of abusing your freedom, or instead of rejecting your freedom... what you ought to do is use your freedom for what it was intended! You ought to leave behind the law, and sin, and death... walk in newness of life... and receive and release the love of God! That's what this life is all about. Because that's what this life IS! To live is to love and to love is to live. They aren't just connected. They are the same thing. And that's what true freedom is. It's not about being able to do that bad things you want to. It's about knowing, and believing, and understanding that you don't really want to do those things at all! It's about knowing your purpose, and being free to live that purpose. Which, in a Word, is love. Your purpose--the reason you were created--is to receive and release the love of God. That's the New Commandment for the New Man and that's what God's grace--which is suffiecient for thee, and which is made perfect in your weakness--is all about. God's grace empowers us to be who we really are by throwing OFF the rules and regulations that only lead to death! We were made to live! We were made to love! And now, because of His grace, we are free to live and love!

I always say freedom comes in two forms. Freedom FROM sin... and freedom TO love. And I think those two things are both equally important. Because sin (unbelief, or not knowing and believing the love of Christ) keeps us in bondage. Keeps us from experiencing the gift we have been given. Keeps us from, well, living. Because to live is to love and to love is to live. You can't have one without the other and you can't do one without the other. But what I want to dive into for the next few days really comes from Galatians 4:4-8 (NLT), "But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children. And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, "Abba, Father." Now you are no longer a slave but God's own child. And since you are his child, God has made you his heir." Interesting that the phrase here is not "slaves to sin" but "slaves to the law." I think it's kind of bizarre that people in this day and age, on this side of the cross, still want that law so bad. But then again, people still want hell to be a place of eternal concious torment, but I digress. The point of the law is that it kept us in bondage. A list of do's and don't's that nobody could follow. Especially when you consider Jesus saying something along the lines of, "If you hate someone you've murdered them in your heart." Like... He REALLY made it impossible to keep the law. Because He took it to the root, or the heart, of the matter. Which, of course, is the heart. An external list of rules does not address what is going on inside your heart. Jesus came and nailed the law to the cross. Fulfilling it and taking it out of our way. Giving us a New Commandment for a New Man. The commandment to love one another as HE loves us. The commandment to receive and release His love. Which frees us from everything else. The fire that is God (that is love) has consumed everything but itself (Himself). Love is all that's left and love is all we need. True freedom is knowing what we have been freed FROM, and what we have been freed TO. Freed FROM sin and the law--the wages of sin (or, again, unbelief) being death. And freed TO love. Freed to live. We know that we have passed from death unto life because of love. The love that God has for us. The love that we return to Him by giving it to each other. Receiving it and releasing it. Receiving it and releasing it. I'll keep saying it. Receiving it and releasing it. We're not trying to earn anything. We have been given a gift. Adopted, so to speak, into a royal family. Now we can know God as something other than a distant, angry taskmaster. Now we can know God as... Father. Abba. Daddy. No longer a slave (to sin and death and the law) but a Son. God's own child. And, if that's not enough, not only a child, but an heir to the throne! I have no lack because my God has no lack. And, like I've taught my own son his entire life, "What's mine is yours." God isn't holding anything back from us. He wants us to experience everything He has and everything He is. That's why He gave us His only begotten Son--so that we might know that WE are His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased! So that we might know (and believe) the truth, and that the truth might set us free and make us free. Well, let me restate that. Because the truth HAS set us free and made us free. He has given us His only begetten Son so that we might KNOW (and believe) that we ARE free! So that we can experience and enjoy the freedom that is God's love!

Let go and let God. That's literally the best advice I can give. "Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you" (1 Peter 5:7, NLT). Trust in the Lord and the power of HIS might. Stop trying to control everything. Because you can't. Self-control is a fruit of the Spirit. Which means--with the Holy Spirit's help--you can control yourself. You can bring every thought under captivity to the obedience of Christ. You can react in a suitable and appropriate manner. Which means, think about love, and react with love. What you feed is what will grow. What you magnify in your life is what will manifest in your life. Look at Psalm 37:5 (NLT), "Commit everything you do to the LORD. Trust him, and he will help you." Obedience is a trust issue. If you believe your heavenly Father has your best interests at heart, and if you believe that He knows the end from the beginning, then you won't have any trouble doing what He says. Which, again, is love. Rest is not inactivity, it is Holy Spirit directed activity. And the Holy Spirit--the Spirit of love--can only and will only ever direct you to do one thing: Love! Either way, Christ's love controls us. Either we don't know (and believe) that we are loved, and we do everything we do in order to get what we think we don't have... or we do know (and believe) that we are loved and we do everything we do in order to share that amazing love! I'm telling you, love is too good to keep to yourself. It is what everybody needs. When you know (and believe) that you have it... you can't help but share it. What's inside--what you believe is inside, that's where faith comes in, and faith is incredibly important--will come out. If you're filled with worry and anxiety and hurt and bitterness... there isn't a lot of room for anything else. But the same goes for love. When you're filled with mercy and grace and forgiveness and love there isn't room for anything else! God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. Jesus is the light of the world. WE are the light of the world! In Him... in us... there is no darkness at all! But seeing is believing. If you're running around like the proverbial chicken with its head cut off, looking for love in all the wrong places, then you aren't experiencing the gift you've been given. Which is the gift of God. Which is love! So what I'm saying is... give up the reins. Let Jesus take the wheel. Stop trying to even follow in His foot steps. Let Him make His own foot steps in your feet. Be still and know that HE is God. Be still and know that God is love. And then... take the ball and run with it. Self-control, to me, is about NOT trying to control everything, AND about controlling yourself. Being who you really are (which is who you are in Christ, which is who Christ is in you) by letting your light shine. By letting the love inside come out, by knowing and believing it's in there. So don't freak out. Give your worries and cares to God. Trust Him. He cares about you. He's got your back. He wants what's best for you... and He KNOWS what's best for you. So just let go. Let things be what they are. Let PEOPLE be who they are--even when they don't know who they are. Beating them over the head isn't going to turn the lightbult on. Shining your light of love might. And even if it doesn't, some plant... some water... but it is God who gets the harvest. So don't worry about it. It's not your job to change people or fix people. It's your job to love people. Period. It's your job to be who YOU were created to be. It's your job to receive and release the love of God! That's really all you can control. So focus on that, and focus on love!

At most you can control only yourself. But, I'm convinced you can't even do that. Not on your own. Not without the help of the Holy Spirt. If self-control is a fruit of the Spirit (and it is), then you need the Holy Ghost to help you control yourself. Here's the key, "For the grace of God has been revealed, bringing salvation to all people. And we are instructed to turn from godless living and sinful pleasures. We should live in this evil world with wisdom, righteousness, and devotion to God" (Titus 2:11-12). It's one thing to be instructed to turn from something. And it's another thing to know that, in turning FROM godless living we are turning TO, well, God. But it is even more important to know and believe and understand that it is His grace, revealed to us, that brings this salvation. Grace is so important to this "Christian" walk. And let me say this: Mercy is not getting what you deserve, and grace is getting what you don't deserve. Look at Matthew 11:28-30 in the Message Bibe, "Are you tried? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me--watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly." The unforced rhythms of grace. I love that phrase. If you have to force it, it's not rest and it's not grace. I love the idea of getting away with Jesus. Sometimes we look at Him--as the entire "Christian" life--as a ball and chain that holds us back and drags us down. Especially in the context of self-control. But I'm telling you... grace doesn't stop you from doing anything. Grace simply shows you what you REALLY want to do. I've heard it said before that Jesus is not a window that you look through in order to see what you're "supposed to be." He is a mirror you look into to see who you really are! But that takes time. Rome wasn't built in a day. We are on a never-ending eternal life-long journey into the heart of the matter. Which, of course, is the heart. God's heart beating with love in our chests. You can't control love. But love DOES control you. You can't serve two masters. But you WILL serve one. So walk with Jesus and work with Jesus. Learn how to live freely and lightly. Here's the deal--remember when Paul wrote about how under the Law you do the things you hate and you can't do the things you really want to do? Grace is the power of God inside you that equips and empowers you to do the things you ACTUALLY want to do. Like, you know, experiencing His love... by letting Him love you and loving Him back by loving the people you come into contact with! It's all about love. Self-control is about giving what you've got--the love of God--instead of trying to get what you think you haven't got. If you're always spending (wasting) your three T's (Time, Talent, Treasure) on trying to get something... you're robbing yourself of what you already have. And you experience what you already have by operating from rest. By simply letting what's inside come out by knowing and believing that it's in there. Self-control is knowing what you have and giving it away. Letting what's inside come out by filling yourself to overflowing with what God has filled you with. When you can stop trying to get, get, get... that's when you can give. And when you know what you have, that's when you can give what you have. And when you give what you have, that's when (and how) you can experience what you have!

I'm so live and let live that sometimes it's hard for me to even understand the lure of being in control. I feel like it's way to stressful to freak out when things aren't going exactly the way you think they should. It's exhausting. Especially when you understand that it's not your job to make things go any certain way at all. It's your job to love people. Period. That's what I've been trying to really hit on in this Rant series: Love is what matters... and you don't control love, love controls you. If you are doing things from the heart, you are doing them because of love. Look at Philippians 2:13 (NLT), "For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him." It all comes from the heart. Both the want to, and the ability to. Love is our strength. I know sometimes it is looked at as a weakness. Being vulnerable. Opening yourself to people. But--while that CAN put you in a position to get hurt... it can also put you in a position to fully experience everything you were created for. You were made to love. Made by love. And it is love (God) working in you. Listen: Your behavior flows from your belief. You don't do in order to be. You do because you be. When you know and believe the love of God, you have the desire and the ability to share what you've got. You can fill yourself to overflowing with what you've already been filled with. You can let what's inside come out by knowing and believing that it's in there. That's how you "control" your life. You make sure that you are focused on what really matters. That love is not only your goal, but it is your reality. We spend--waste--so much of our time, talent, and treasure looking for love in all the wrong places. Look inside! It's in there! We already have it! God (love) isn't going to work in us someday. God (love) is working in us right now! To will and to do of His good pleasure. To bring out of us what He has put in us. And when you know and believe that it's in there--when you bring all your thoughts under captivity to the obedience of Christ, by simply knowing and believing the ultimate truth of the universe that God is love and He loves you--that's when it comes out naturally. You don't have to force it out. You don't have to fake it 'til you make it. You can simply let what's inside come out. Let it flow. Do what you do from a posture of rest. Focus on God's love for you, and then love Him back by loving the people you come into contact with. That's the key to this whole thing: Receiving and releasing the love of God. Receiving it BY releasing it. Releasing it by receiving it. One more time: Filling yourself to overflowing with what God has already filled you with. You can't control much in this life, but you can control... you. Self-control, believe it or not, is a fruit of the Spirit. My uncle once said, "Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you react to it." You can't control what happens to you. Life happens. Every single day. All you can really control is whether or not you meet those challenges with love. And when you inject love into a situation, that situation WILL work out the way it's supposed to. Not necessarily the way you think it should, but certainly the way God knows it should. So give up the reins. Give up that false sense of control. Stop trying to hammer the world into your idea of what it should be. Let it be what it is, and find the good in it. Find the love. Find the silver lining in every cloud. And if you can't find that love... create it. Let it out from deep inside. You have love because you are loved. You CAN love because you have love. Breathe it in and breathe it out. Live from the inside out. From the heart!

Either way Christ's love controls us. Either we don't know (and believe) that we have it, and we do everything we can in order to get it... or we do know (and believe) we have it and we do everything we can in order to share it. Those are basically your two masters. I know the Bible talks about "God and mammon" or God and money. But I think money is just a substitution for love. If you think you can't have love, you try to fill that void with anything and everything else. The book of Ecclesiastes, right? King Solomon tries to find the meaning of life. Vanity, vanity, all is vanity. But when he gets to the end of his experiment he says, "That's the whole story. Here now is my final conclusion: Fear God and obey his commands, for this is everyone's duty. God will judge us for everything we do, including every secret thing, whether good or bad" (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14, NLT). And you guys probably know by now how I feel about the judgment of God. "As we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world" )1 John 4:17, NLT). The KJV says, "because as he is, so are we in this world." We don't need to fear God in the sense of being afraid of Him. He has nothing but love for us. His judgment was not against us. It was for us. His judgment was not a death sentence, it was an abudant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life sentence! So we don't need to be afraid of God. The "fear" here is a reverence. And His command is the New Commandment: Love one another as Jesus loves you. That's what we were created to do. Receiving and releasing God's love is how we experience His life. That is how we enjoy the judgment that was passed down. It's all about love. This idea of control that we think we have... man, it's an illusion. It's not something that we can really ever have at all. The only thing I can control is what I believe, and what my belief allows me to do. What you believe WILL manifest itself in your actions. Behavior modification doesn't work. Right believing produces right living. So if you want to try to control anything... control your beliefs. Set your affection on things above, and not on things on the earth. Let Christ's love control you by receiving it and releasing it. Breathing it in and breathing it out. Filling yourself to overflowing with what you've already been filled with. Experiencing the love of God by giving it away. Because that's what love is--love is giving. You can give without loving, but you can't love without giving. So if the conclusion--the final word--is fear God and obey His commands... that's not a "do it or else" situation. That's a "this is what's best for you and everybody else" situation. If you want to experience life to the fullest... it's love. Love is what makes the abundant life abundant. And love is giving. You can't give what you don't have, and you can only give what you do have. So make sure you know what you have. You don't have to--and in fact can't--be in control of everything. But you CAN be in control of what you focus on in your life. What you feed is what will grow. What you magnify in your life is what will manifest in your life. Set your affection. Do things with purpose. For purpose. On purpose. Do things in love. For love. Because of love. Let the love that is inside flow out of you. And in that way, give up the control you think you need in order to experience the life of God!

I've noticed that in this human race of ours, most people feel the need to be in control. Of everything. All the time. As someone who (in the minority) doesn't feel that way, I find it fascinating. It's interesting to me that people find it so hard so often to just live and let live. To accept that things are outside of their control. And, listen, I think it's important to affect what you can affect. Especially in a positive way. If you can make someone smile... do it. Because the world needs more of that. But there's a difference between seeing a need and meeting it and crushing everything around you into the shape that you think it should be in. Think about this: Your idea of what is "right" might be right... for you... but that doesn't mean it's right for everybody. We can have different opinions and different views and we can still get along. And here's the thing about control--whether you realize it or understand it or not... YOU are being controlled. Look at 2 Corinthians 5:13-14 (NLT), "If it seems we are crazy, it is to bring glory to God. And if we are in our right minds, it is for your benefit. Either way, Christ's love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life." I love that phrase, and that idea, "Either way, Christ's love controls us." Whether we're crazy or in our right minds. Whether we know that God loves us, or not. And here's the deal: If you know the love of God, it controls you in the sense that you will use that love to love others. If you don't know the love of God, it controls you in the sense that you will do anything you can to get what you think you don't have. People need love. That's just how--and who--we are. Look at Matthew 6:24 (NLT), "No one can serve two masters. For you will hate the one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money." You can't serve TWO masters... but you WILL serve one. Luckily for us, we get to choose our master. We can either cling to the false sense of control that we think we have when we do things our own way... or we can let go and let God. We can choose to serve love. Choose to know and believe that we are loved, and in that way experience the love we have been given by giving it away. Let me say it like this: "Tha's why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God. But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.)" (Romans 8:8-9, NLT). Control. Are you controlled by your sinful nature? Which is simply unbelief, or not knowing and believing that God is love and He loves you? Or are you controlled by the Holy Spirit? The Spirit of truth that leads and guides you into all truth. So really, "control" is about faith. The faith in God that comes from hearing the Word (which is Jesus, which is love) of God. Letting Christ's love control you, and in that way obeying the New Commandment for the New Man--loving people as Jesus loves you. Letting the love inside "control" you by letting it come out onto everybody you come into contact with. Be in control by focusing on love. Be in control by not being thrown about by any wind of doctrine, but by standing firm on the Rock on which you have been planted. It's all about love, guys. I've said it many times. When love is in control, things will work out the way they are supposed to. Because love never fails. Because love endures. Let the love inside you come out by knowing and believing it's in there. That's how to serve ONE master... God... and that's how to be in control!

Someone once asked me, "If you could only tell somebody one things about... God, or the Bible, or theology, or whatever... what would it be?" Basically asking for my final word on the matter. And I thought about it, but not very long and not very hard. It seemed more like a shoot from the hip type of deal. More of a, "what's right there in your heart?" kind of answer. So I said, "God is love and He loves you." Because, to me, if you know that... you can build from there. You can go deeper into that love. It's like 1 John 2:20, "But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things." Or, in the NLT, "But you are not like that, for the Holy One has given you his Spirit, and all of you know the truth." We know the truth. The ultimate truth of the universe. God is love and He loves you. That is GOD'S final word on the matter. That is what HIS heart in our chests says with every beat. "I love you, I love you, I love you." We know all things, because we know God is love and He loves us. The "problem" (and I put it in quotes because it is a problem that God has already solved, and I'll get to that in a minute) is that even though we know all things, we don't necessarily understand everything we know. All things are under our feet, but we don't SEE all things under our (HIS) feet (Hebrews chapter 2). So if the problem is that even though we have heard the final word on the matter--God is love and He loves you--and we know all things, all truth, the problem is that we don't necessarily understand everything we know. We might even know it in the head... but not in the heart. Head knowledge is good, but heart knowledge is REAL. Experiencing the love of God is what gives us faith in God. And a man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with an argument. If I've been there, done that, got the t-shirt... and you "think" you know... that's a big difference. So while I like, "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so," what I like even better is testing the height and depth and breadth and width of God's love for us. Testing it... by using it. By giving it away. Because love IS giving. You can give without loving, but you can't love without giving. So what we need to do is take that final word... and run with it. God is love and He loves you. God and people. Loving God and loving people. Loving God BY loving people. Letting God love the hell out of you and then loving Him back by loving the hell out of the people that you come into contact with. Receiving and releasing that love that HE has given us. Filling ourselves to overflowing with what He has already filled us with. Breathing it in and breathing it out. Taking that final word... and sharing it! Be strong in the Lord, and in His mighty power. Let His strength be perfect in your weakness. And then share that love. That light. That life. That strength. Give what you've got. Because I guarantee you the people in your life need what you've got. It's in there. Let it out. By knowing and believing it's in there. By hearing that final Word--which is Jesus, which is love. Faith comes from hearing and hearing from the Word of God. You can't believe something you don't know. You can't give something you don't have. You can only give what you DO have. So you need to know what you have. You need to believe that you have it. When you cut through all the noise, you can hear the still, small voice deep inside that says, "I love you" with every beat of God's heart in your chest. You can receive that good news of the gospel--that final word on the matter--and you can experience it by sharing it!