A Final Word part 5
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!