You all know I don't like to start a Rant with a memory verse... so I ramble a little bit about how I don't like to start with a memory verse, and then start with it. This is that. "For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condmenation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil" (John 3:17-19). There's a lot here. But I want to point out first and foremost that Jesus did NOT come to condemn us. He came to save us. Same thing we saw with the woman caught in adultery. He saved her life--literally--and He equipped and empowered her to truly LIVE by sinning (unbelieving) no more. That's key. Because He that believeth on him is not condemned. There is now no condemnation for those in Christ. And, listen, I believe we are all in Christ. When He was lifted up from the earth on the cross He drew us all into Himself and planted Himself in all of us. But there's a big difference between something being true and you not knowing that its true... and something being true and you knowing it. Because the truth HAS set us free and made us free. But knowing and believing that truth is what allows us to experience and enjoy the freedom. Love never condemns. So believing in God--in Jesus, in love--is what frees us from that condemnation. And, let me say it as strongly and clearly as I can: the condemnation of light coming into the world but men loving darkness rather than light... that's not condemning us. That's us condemning ourselves. Seeing a more excellent way but chosing to stay where we are... that's nobody's fault but our own. I want to say this too: Its only by us SHOWING people that more excellent way (that is Jesus, that is love) that they will be able to choose it. You can't scare people straight. You have to love the hell out of them. Fear is the opposite of love. There is no fear in love. If you're trying to intimidate or manipulate or control someone... that's not love. Love is not about getting anything from anybody. Love is not about getting your own way. Love is giving. Giving every thing you have and every thing you are. Doing for others. HELPING others. That's love. Seeing a need and meeting it. Did I already say helping people? Condemnation never helps. But it always hurts. We hurt ourselves when we choose darkness over light. When we choose to stay where we are instead of letting the Spirit lead us we are condemning ourselves. Robbing ourselves of the gift we've been given. It has never been God condemning us. Why would He? The God who is love created us in order to express Himself to us. In order to love us. In order to love in us, and through us, and as us. He came to save us from condemnation. To save us from ourselves. And I think that's really where I want to end this Rant series tomorrow--letting God get rid of our self-condemnation.

Condemnation never helps. It only hurts. Remember the example we looked at yesterday with the woman caught--in the very act!--of adultery. Jesus didn't condemn her. He gave her mercy and grace. And that's what empowered her to go and "sin no more." And, yes, its true that we don't know the rest of that woman's story. Did she mess up again in her life? Most probably. But what if we understood "sin" as unbelief, and not as messing up. I think if Jesus was saying, "Go and unbelieve no more," "Go and believe in me forevermore," "Go and believe in LOVE," then I think He had absolutely equipped and empowered her to live that life. By not condmening her. By showing her unconditional love in the face of a heinous act. He didn't kick her when she was down. Even though, under the Law, He was more than "justified" to do so. Instead HE stooped down to where she was... and lifted her up. I know its easy to attack things--and people. We seem to find it easier to tear down than to build up. But Jesus was a carpenter. He built things for a living. And in His ministry He took broken things and made them whole. He made the blind to see. He healed the sick. He didn't go around condemning people. Except, you know, religious folk who were keeping people from experiencing the abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life that He so desperately wanted us to have. Jesus wanted us to have that life--HIS life--so badly that He literally gave His own life for us and to us. He wanted us to have it... so He gave it to us. He didn't make us work for it. That's religion--making us jump through hoops and fit into boxes. And that kind of external pressure never works. Not really. Not for any extended period of time. Because its what's inside that comes out. Always. What you believe is inside WILL come out. It has to. Its too big to stay inside. What you do flows from what you believe. And--I think I mentioned this in part 1--that's why condemnation can be so dangerous. Because oftentimes it DOES strike a chord with what we believe about ourselves. You know you screwed up, and then someone slams you for it... tells you you'll never be anything but a screw up... that gets in there deep. I've heard it so many times, "Well, I'm going to hell anyway. What's the point in even trying?" And that's what Jesus COULD have said to the girl. He could have told her how bad she was. She knew. Again. She had been caught red-handed. But Jesus chose the more excellent way. He chose to set her on the right path, instead of sending her further down the wrong one. Because, let's be real, I'm not saying adultery is ok. I'm saying... we have to stop condemning people even when they're in the wrong. If we want them to "sin no more," if we want to get rid of unbelief, we need to give people something to believe in. SomeONE to believe in. LOVE to believe in. A little bit of condemnation goes a long way towards wrecking someone. But a little bit of love goes a long way towards healing someone. What are we trying to do? What's the goal? Helping or hurting? Condemnation never helps. It only hurts. Love never hurts. It only helps!

If there is no condemnation in Christ, why do we go around condemning everything and everybody? It makes no sense to me. And I mean, we want to condemn EVERYTHING. Its like we look for things to fight against. We make mountains of out mole hills, and then complain about how high our mountains are. We don't seem to understand Isaiah 40:4, "Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain." Its a straight and narrow way. And while people always seem to use that in a sort of negative connotation, I think if the way is straight and narrow that ought to make it easy to walk. One foot in front of the other. And real quick, can I just put it on the record that the straight and narrow way leads to LIFE? Because the straight and narrow way is the highway of holiness. And true holiness is love. Loving somebody is the most holy thing you can do. I think its the only holy thing you can do, to be honest with you. And if we were all as holy--as loving--as we pretended to be... there wouldn't be anything to condemn. But we condemn music, clothes, food... if it exists we'll condemn it. There are even religious folk who condemn other relgious folk. "That music is too contemporary." "That church is too big." "That music is too old fashioned." "That church is too small." Yet Jesus came that we might have life, and have it more abundantly. Jesus came that we might live and let live. Remember the old story about the religious folk who were going to stone the woman who was caught in adultery? Jesus told him who was without sin to cast the first stone. And then this happened, "When Jesus had lifted himself up, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more" (John 8:10-11). I think part of the point was that when you point a finger at someone, you point three back at yourself. The whole, "we look for a speck in someone else's eye when we have a plank in our own," deal. But then Jesus took it even a step further. He said, "Neither do I condemn thee." And if anybody could... it was Jesus. He was without sin. But He didn't use His status to bring us down. He used it to lift us up. He who was without sin BECAME sin, so that we who were dead in our trespasses and sins might be the righteousness of God in Him. Jesus knew that scaring people straight doesn't work. He knew that kicking someone when they're down only hurts and never helps. He knew that reconciliation can only come from a place of mercy, and grace, and love. And when He DIDN'T condemn the girl, He EMPOWERED her to sin no more. It wasn't a threat. It was Him showing us a more excellent way. Mistakes get made. But they don't have to define us. We can learn from our mistakes, if we are in an environment of no condemnation. If we are not afraid to make mistakes. If we know that we are loved no matter what. That's freedom. Freedom to live!

There are certain themes I like to revisit often, because I think they're important. Like receiving and releasing. I think that's important. Or how the light of the world--the light that Jesus is... the light that WE are--shines so that we can see things clearly. I think that's important. Or how God is love. Which is pretty basic, but sometimes seems to get lost in the shuffle. I think that's important. Another one, and the one I want to dive into for the next few days, comes from Romans 8:1, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Which seems like its a kind of bizarre thing for the Bible to say. Because it seems like condemning people is most "Christians" full time job. It doesn't really surprise me that religious folk have a reputation for being men, judgmental, hypocritical, condemning bullies. And, unfortunately, I think the idea that we have to be "perfect," as in, never messing up, comes from our perception of Jesus. We think we're supposed to live His life. But I'm telling you, no one can live Jesus' life except Jesus. He gave His life to us, because He wanted us to have it, but He doesn't expect us to live it. He lives it in us. I've always thought it was interesting that David is referred to as a man after God's own heart. Because David made his fair share of mistakes in his life. Including having a man killed so he could steal the man's wife. Yikes. But I think the key is in the phrasing. He was AFTER God's heart. He didn't necessarily have it, but he wanted it. He prayed, "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me" (Psalm 51:10). Which, as I see it, is what we're talking about in our verse in Romans. Walking not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. That doesn't mean never making a mistake. I always tell people, "If you never make mistakes, you can't learn from your mistakes." This impossibly high standards that we put on ourselves--and I believe self-condemnation is the worst kind of condemnation. The things people say about us that hurt the worst are the things that we already think about ourselves--really just keep us from doing anything. "I can't do it right, so why even try?" Well, most of the time you have to do it wrong BEFORE you can do it right. That's called learning. And that's what life is all about. Learning and growing. Learning how to love by learning how we are loved. That's what it means to be a disciple of Jesus--a student of love. A never-ending life-long student. Letting God love us, in the midst of our mistakes, is how we walk after the Spirit. One more verse for tonight: "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God" (Romans 8:14). We walk after the Spirit by letting the Spirit lead us. And the Spirit of God--the Spirit of love--only leads us to one place: He leads us to love. There is no condemnation, because there is only love. And I'm planning to get into this too, it isn't because love is blind. Its because love sees clearly. Love doesn't judge according to appearance. Love judges righteous judgment. Not what you do, but who you are. Not when you fall, but when you get back up. When you keeping moving... upward and Godward!

God has always been at peace with us. He always has, and always will, love us. He created us in order TO love us. The God who is love created us so that He could express Himself--express His love--to us. The problem was... we weren't at peace with Him. We didn't know who we were, because we didn't know who He was. We were double minded, and unstable in all our ways. Picking flower petals and hoping we ended up on "He loves me," instead of, "He loves me not." And that's not a very peaceful way to live. Wishing and hoping we had something we didn't think we had. Trying as hard as we could to get that thing (that love) that we didn't think we had. That's no way to live. That's not living at all. 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, because they are the same thing. So what God did was... He made us to be at peace with Him. He gave us His peace. So that even though in this world you WILL have tribulation... you can be of good cheer. You can, in fact, MAKE peace. Because you HAVE peace. We go through things, but we don't have to let things go though us. We can rise above the things that are trying to drag us down. We can let the peace that's inside come out. Simply by knowing and believing that its in there. Look at Psalm 29:11, "The LORD will give strength unto his people; the LORD will bless his people with peace." And to end this Rant series I want to make that connection between peace and strength. Because we seem to think that if we're not fighting someone or something we're weak. "Spiritual warriors." And always looking for a war to fight. Zechariah 9:15 in the Message Bible says, "God-of-the-Angel-Armies will protect them--all-out war, The war to end all wars, no holds barred." That was the cross. God protecting us from death by dying for us (and as us). God defeating the last enemy, which is death, and leaving no more wars to fight. Let me say that last part again--leaving no more wars to fight. The only fight we're supposed to participate in is the good fight of faith--laying hold of eternal life. Which, since eternal life is the gift that we've already been given... the good fight of faith is simply knowing and believing that we already have it. Simply experiencing and enjoying the gift that we already have. By sharing it. By giving it away. Giving ourselves away. That's how we make peace--we lay our lives down for our friends. We stop fighting. God won the only battle that mattered--the war to end all wars. And because He fought it, and won it, He not only made us at peace with Him, but He made peace FOR us. So that we can be at peace with each other. We don't have to worry about God being out to get us... because He already got us. In the best way. On the cross. He got us by drawing us into Himself, and planting Himself in us. Peace with God has never been an issue for God. And it doesn't have to be an issue for us. By receiving it and releasing it, we can settle the issue. We can be peacemakers, and be called (or identified as) the Son(s) of God. We can be of good cheer. We can enjoy that peaceful, easy feeling no matter what happens.

I started this Rant series with Romans 5:1, "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Today I want to add the next verse, Romans 5:2, "By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." And I think the most important thing--the thing I want to key in on tonight--is "wherein we stand." Because, as I've tried to illustrate in this series, peace with God isn't something we need. Its something we have. And because we have it... we can "make" it. Or give it away. Share it. When you're at peace, you can make peace. But if you're trying to get it--if you think sometimes God is mad at you and sometimes He's not--you're double minded, and unstable in all your ways. So. Faith. Knowing and believing that we have what God says we have. Knowing and believing that we are who God says we are. And standing in that grace. Grace, by the way, is the unmerited favor of God. Mercy is not getting what you deserve, and grace is getting what you don't deserve. God gave us this gift--of HIS abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life--simply because He wanted us to have it. Simply because He loves us. He didn't make us work for it, or jump through hoops for it. Because love is not about what you do. Love is about who you are. And what you do flows from who you are. It flows from what you believe. Your faith works, because faith without works is dead. You do what you believe. What's inside--what you believe is inside--comes out. It has to. Because its too big to keep inside. Because faith activates it. So instead of chasing something we think we don't have, instead of trying to GET something... we need to stand in what we do have. Stand on the Rock. Be firmly planted on the foundation that is Jesus. The foundation that is love. Look at John 16:33, "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." Jesus never said things would always go the way we want them to. In fact, the word "tribulation" there is number 2347 in Strong's Greek Concordance and it means, "pressure (literally or figuratively):- afflicted, anguish, burdened, persecution, tribulation, trouble." Life, right? And life happens every day. If its not one thing, its something else. We all go through things. But the key is to make sure things don't go through you. To have peace and be of good cheer. To know that no matter what happens... love will get us through it. And, listen, sometimes you have to go through this to get to that. So it might seem "bad" but its all working together for the good. Learning and growing. Maturing. You know how people say, "If you pray for patience, God will give you opporitunites to be patient"? Well, He didn't give us peace because we wouldn't need it. He gave us inner peace--peace with Him--so that we could stand firm and make peace whenever and wherever it is needed. We ARE at peace with God. Because He wanted it that way, and made it that way. He gave us His peace. And now we can give it to those we come into contact with!

Here's what I think I'm trying to say in this Rant series: God has made us to be at peace with Him, and because of that we can be at peace with each other. We are AT peace, so we can MAKE peace. And I say God has made us to be at peace with Him because He has always been at peace with us. This idea that God was mad at us before the cross... I just can't see it. Because even when He gave the people of Israel the Law of Moses, He also gave them the system of animal sacrifice. He has always bent over backwards to try to keep His people out of trouble. Even though it was the people themselves getting themselves (ourselves) INTO that trouble. God, like any good heavenly Father, has always been ready, willing, and able to help us clean up our messes. He was never at odds with us. Even when we were at odds with Him. When Adam and Eve hid from the presence of God after eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, God didn't punish them. He wasn't mad at them. He DID send them out of the garden of Eden, but that was to protect them. God didn't want them to eat from the Tree of Life in their "fallen" state. But He left an angel to show the way back into the garden. Anyway. Look at Ephesians 6:23, "Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." Peace to the brethren and love with faith FROM God the Father. When we ran from Him, He reconciled us back to Him. He swore He would never leave us nor forsake us. And He never did. I heard one preacher describe God as a stalker. No matter what we say about Him or do to Him, He just keeps on loving us. Because that's who He is. God IS love. Its not just what He does... its who He is. And that peace--HIS peace--that He gave to us... that's what allows us be peaceful. To be peacemakers. We CAN love because we ARE loved. We can MAKE peace because we are AT peace. Because God has made us to be at peace with Him. When we were double minded, and unstable in all our ways, God gave us a Rock to stand on. Jesus cursed the fig tree--the tree of knowledge of good and evil--so that there would only be one tree left; the very Tree of Life that God protected us from in the garden, now available to us because of the finished work of the cross. See, when Jesus died (so that we could die to sin and death), and then rose again (so that we could rise again and walk in newness of life), He didn't just give us another chance at our old life. He gave us HIS life. His abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of love. He pulled us out of the grip of the tree of knowledge of good and evil--double minded, good vs evil--and gave us the fruit of the Tree of Life. The fruit of the Spirit. Which is love. You are what you eat. Love means a love feast. A feast is for people to share with each other. So as good as being at peace with God is--and it is so, so good--there's more to it. What you have isn't as important as what you do with what you have. What's inside has to come out in order for you to experience it. And what you have--what you believe you have--WILL come it. So let the peace that God gave you come out! Be at peace with each other. Make peace with each other. Its a more excellent way to live.

Peace isn't something to chase. Because peace comes from within. Jesus said, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid" (John 14:27). Its HIS peace. Being at peace with God is being at peace with peace. He IS our peace. And notice that Jesus said He left it with us. He gave it to us. We don't need to "get" peace because we already HAVE peace. I think the key is found in Matthew 5:9, "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God." And I think "called," to me, is more "identified." People will KNOW us as the Son(s) of God because there is peace wherever we are. But you can't give what you don't have. And you can only give what you do have. You can't make peace for others unless you have peace for yourself. That's the whole receiving and releasing dynamic. Let's what inside flow out as we fill ourselves to overflowing with what we've already been filled with. And we fill ourselves to overflowing with what we've already been filled with simply by believing. By knowing and believing that its in there. Jesus gave us His peace. His Spirit. The Holy Spirit. The Spirit of truth that leads and guides us into all truth. When we know we are loved, we are at peace. Period. And when we have that love issue settled, when we are rooted and grounded in His love for us, that's when everything else can flow. Its not a struggle. Its not even "fake it 'til you make it." Its just the children of God being who we really are. Praying without ceasing. Living a lifestyle of praise and worship. Loving God (back, because He first loved us) by loving each other. Whatever we do unto the least of them we do unto the King, right? How we treat others is how we feel about ourselves. Hurting people hurt people. But loved people love people. And how we feel about ourselves is how we feel about God. Because, as Jesus said, I and my Father are one. There's no separation between God and man because God lives IN man. No separation between LOVE and man because LOVE lives in man! And living isn't about sitting around not doing anything. You can't walk by faith without walking. Charity is love in action. Faith without works is dead. So having the peace of God is just step one, if I can say it that way. What we do with what we have is what's important. Making peace is how people will call us, or identify us, as the Son(s) of God. Jesus said in yet another place, "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another" (John 13:35). Our love is what identifies us. And, really, I'd rather people say, "Tom's nice," than, "Tom's a Christian." Because at this point (unfortunately) "Christian" is almost a dirty word. People think hypocrite. Judgmental. Mean. Bully. And whether its true or not, that's not very peaceful. And I mean, people act like that when they're unsettled. When they don't know who they are. When they think they're lacking something, or missing something. But when you know you are are, when you know what you have, you can rest. When you're at peace with God--and you ARE at peace with God--you can make peace. You can be peaceful!

This kind of goes along with what I was Ranting about last night. That double mindedness that so many people see to have. Thinking God's against them. "Why does God hate me?" Or, at best, that its the flip of a coin. He loves me, He loves me not. We think its behavior based. We think God deals with us the way we deal with each other. That's one of the biggest things I've noticed about "theology" (or the study of God): We tend to create God in OUR image instead of realizing that we were created in HIS image. Or, rather, what we THINK our image is. Its impossible to see yourself clearly without seeing God clearly. That's why the light of the world needed to shine. His light of love lets us see clearly. His light of love shines to reveal things in divine order. We spend so much time trying to "get right with God." Trying to find peace with God. Because we think we don't have it. Because we think we aren't right with Him. We spend so much time trying to be someone we're not because we don't understand who we are. Look at Romans 5:1, "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Let me emphasize "...we HAVE peace with God..." That's not something we need. That's what we have. So we don't need to pick flower petals. We don't need to try really hard to be someone we're not. We don't need to GET peace with God. We don't need to GET right with God. He made us right with Him through the cross. And, really, I'm not convinced that we were ever "wrong" with Him, if I can say it that way. I'm not convinced that God was EVER against us. This idea that He was "out to get us," in a negative sense... I don't buy it. But He DID get us. On the cross. In the best way. When Jesus was lifted up from the earth He drew us all into Himself. And He planted Himself in all of us. We were conformed to the image of God's Son. His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. You can't be more at peace with someone than for them to love you and be well pleased with you. And if you notice, we have this peace through faith. We already have it... and we experience it when we believe it. One more memory verse for tonight: "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him" (2 Corinthians 5:21). On the cross Jesus became sin... and then died. So that sin might die. So that DEATH might die. And because sin and death were cast into the lake of fire (the second death), we were able to experience the new birth. Again, we were made in the image and likeness of God in the beginning, and then conformed to the image of His Son on the cross. We were dead in our trespasses and sins before the cross, and then made alive through the cross. We were at war (in a sense, and this is where I think I'm going with this Rant series) with God and ourselves before the cross. And now, because of the cross--because of our faith IN the cross, in the blood of Christ, in Jesus... in love--we are at peace with God. And at peace with ourselves. The war is over. Love won. And now love reigns!

It saddens me to see that people still struggle with duality. With good and evil. Because, as James 1:8 says, "A double minded man is unstable in all his ways." Like we have "Christian times" and then the idea--and I saw this in a movie, so I'm pretty sure its a common idea--that sometimes "God's gonna sit this one out." We have this idea, even IN church, that we need to "make" the Holy Spirit move. MAKE the Holy Spirit show up. When, in reality, there is NO separation between God and man. To the point where God LIVES in man. He lives in us. So what we need to do is settle that issue. Look at these two verses so I can kind of try to tie this thing together. First, John 10:30, "I and my Father are one." Jesus said that. In the red letters. Now add this to that: "Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world" (1 John 4:17). As Jesus is, so are Jesus. Jesus and the Father are One. WE are one with the Father. We don't summon His presence. Its not "break glass in case of emergency" and then genie God shows up to grant our wishes. Its Him living in us. All of the time. Us living in Him. All of the time. Praying without ceasing. And, just for kicks, I looked up the meaning of the word "pray" in my favorite Bible verse, 1 Thessalonians 5:17, and "pray" means, "to pray to God, that is, supplicate, worship." And here's the thing about worship--you don't worship in order to get something. You worship because you have something. This idea that we have to do something in order to get God to do something has to go. That's not how it works. We love because He FIRST loved us. We love because HE filled us with His love. And now we love BY filling ourselves to overflowing with the love that we've already been filled with. You don't praise someone in order to get them to do something. That's not real praise. That's manipulation. You praise someone because they've done something worthy of praise. You worship someone because they deserve it, not SO THAT they'll deserve it. That's backwards. So when we pray--talking AND listening... supplicating and worshipping--without ceasing, its really about being aware of God at all times. That attitude of gratitude. That lifestyle of praise and worship. Giving thanks for what we've got, instead of trying to get stuff we think we haven't got. Love is never about getting. Because love IS giving. We'll always be swinging from one branch to the next on the tree of knowledge of good and evil--He loves me, He loves me not--until we completely get off that tree. Its not about turning over a new leaf as much as its about getting on the right tree. The Tree of Life. Eating the fruit of that Tree, the fruit of the Spirit, which is love. Feasting on love. Knowing and believing that we have the love of God. That's worthy of praise and worship, isn't it? That can erase the duality, can't it? Because its ALL about love. Life is all about love. To live is to love and to love is to live. We can't do one without the other because they are the same thing. So praying without ceasing is loving without ceasing. Living without ceasing--which sounds to me like the abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of God!