Alive part 1
Jesus didn't come to make bad people good. He came to make dead people alive. This, to me, is such an important distinction. If you see yourself (or others) as good or bad, you're eating from the wrong tree. The tree of knowledge of good and evil is the tree of death. That is literally what happened when Adam and Eve ate of it--they died. And we, in them, died. That was what Jesus came to correct. Let me say it like this: "Here it is in a nutshell: Just as one person did it wrong and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, another person did it right and gout of out of it. But more than just getting us out of trouble, he got us into life! One mn said no to God and put many peole in the wrong; one man said yes to God and put many in the right" (Romans 5:18-19 MSG). The first Adam ate from the wrong tree and died. The last Adam IS the right tree (the Tree of Life) and has given His life both for us and to us. Jesus came that we might have LIFE and that more abundantly. Look at John 22:25, "Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." Now let's track this. To live is to love and to love is to live. They aren't just connected, they are the same thing. So if Jesus came to make dead people alive, to literally resurrect us, He came to bring us from a place where we thought we were unloved... to a place where we know we are loved. Because the truth of the matter is God loves you. He always has and He always will. We didn't need to change from "unloved" to "loved." There was never a time we were unloved. It may have felt like that, and we may have disqualified ourselves from experiencing that love because of mistakes we've made. But nothing can separate us from the love of God. Nothing. The God who is love lives in us. And we live in Him. The key is knowing and believing that we are loved. LETTING God love us. Look, Adam was God's son. But Jesus is God's beloved Son. Not because God loved one and not the other, but because Jesus allowed Himself to BE LOVED. He accepted His heavenly Father's love instead of trying to earn it. One more memory verse to really set the foundation for this Rant series: "We know that we have passed from death to life, beacuse we love the brethen" (1 John 3:14). In death there is no love. Because, again, love IS life. And love is giving. Living your life by giving it away. By esteeming others higher than yourself. By laying your life down for your friends. A life of service is a life worth living, and a life well lived. If you want to do more than just struggle through each day, stuck in a rut (which we know is just a grave with the ends kicked out) then you must give what you've got. You must let the love that is inside you come out. Receive and release the love of God. With every breath you take and every move you make. Breathe it in and breathe it out. Fill yourself to overflowing with the love--the life--of God!