Alive part 3
Jesus came that we might have life. He knew the problem wasn't good vs evil. Both of those are on the same tree. The tree that can't bear any fruit. We keep trying to turn over a new leaf, but until we get onto an entirely different tree there can never be real, true, lasting change. That's why Jesus cursed the fig tree. That's why even though in the garden of Eden there were 2 trees, in the true paradise of God in Revelation there is only the Tree of Life. The tree that Jesus is! He is the vine and we are the branches. He produces that fruit--the fruit of the spirit which is love--and then we bear it. He makes it available to us and then we make it available to each other. We experience and enjoy what we've got by giving it away. By sharing it. Because it's all about God, and people, and love. Loving God and loving people. Loving God BY loving people. Letting what He has put inside us come out, and in that way experiencing the gift we've been given. Listen guys: 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. I think a big part of why people struggle so much is that they try to fill a God-shaped, love-shaped hole inside themselves with anything other than. We look for love in all the wrong places. Or we give up on love and try to fill ourselves with anything else. Nothing can fill a God-shaped hole except God. Nothing can fill a love-shaped hole except love. My son would tell you that's "Logan logic." Something that just makes sense. So if we want to truly live--and I think we ALL want to truly live--we need to focus on what matters and let go of what doesn't. Colossians 3:1-4 says, "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory." So much good stuff there. I like, "For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." If you want to truly live you have to understand that you are dead. That it's not about you. It's about HIM. He is our life. Nobody can live Jesus's life... except Jesus. It is Him living His own abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of love in us, and through us, and as us. We don't have to look for love in all the wrong places. We can go straight to the source. We can look inside. Because that's where love is. Because that's where Jesus is. We can rest, and let God do what He's of a mind to do. Which, of course, is love. What else could the God who is love possibly want to do? He wants to love. He wants to take care of His children. That's what God does because that's who God is. That's what WE do because that's who we ARE! The difference between life and death, quite simply, in a word, is love. We know that we have passed from death into life because of the love that we have for one another. It's like this: No love... no life. Know love... know life! One more time: To live is to love and to love is to live. You can't do one without the other because they are the same thing. So stop trying so hard. Stop trying to "figure it out." Or "earn it." Just be still and know that HE is God. Be still and know that you have what you need. We love because He first loved us. We don't need love... we have love. We ARE love. So just live, man. Just give what you've got. Let what's inside come out by knowing and believing that it's in there. Fill yourself to overflowing with what you've already been filled with and live your best life by giving your best love!