Alive part 4
No love... no life. Know love... know life! That's about as simple as I can make it. To live is to love and to love is to live. But here's the important part: We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren. We have to understand that we were dead. That, in fact, we ARE dead and our life is hid in with Christ in God. Our life is hid in love. We have had two deaths. The first death was when Adam (and all of humanity in him) ate from the tree of death. And that, by the way, was not God punishing anybody. That was the natural consequence of eating from that particular tree. Because you are what you eat. What else could come from the tree of death... but death? Which is why Jesus cursed the fig tree. He knew that it couldn't bear fruit and He didn't want us messing with it. So He got rid of it. That was the second death. The death OF death. The cross. When we were crucified with Him. First we were identified by Adam. Then Jesus was lifted up from the earth and drew all men into Himself. From that point on what happened to Jesus happened to us. When He died, we died. And when He rose again... we rose again. To walk in newness of life. To know and be known. To love and be loved. When the light of the world shined, that was when we could begin to see things clearly. To see things as they truly are. To understand that we ARE the Son(s) of God. To understand that even though we might not always feel like it... we ARE the righteousness of God in Christ. We live in Him because He lives in us. And that, friends, is what it means to be alive. To be in the light as He is in the light. To know that we ARE the light. It shine on us, and in us, and through us... because it IS us. Jesus described both Himself and us as the light of the world. It is the same light. The light of life. The light of love. It is that light shining that reveals things to us. So that we can know who He is, and in that way know who WE are. When we look into the mirror with an open face we are changed into the image we see from glory to glory. We magnify the love--the God--in our lives and it manifests in our lives. We stop focusing on what we DON'T have and we enjoy what we DO have. We live with an attitude of gratitude. Experiencing and enjoying what we have by sharing it. By giving it away. Love is giving. You can give without loving but you can't love without giving. So if you are talking about life... talking about love... you're talking about giving what you've got. Laying your life down for your friends. Gladly spending everything you have and everything you are no matter what. And if someone doesn't pick up what you're laying down... don't sweat it. Just shrug your shoulders and move on. All you can do is all you can do. Don't try to overreach or overextend. Stay in your lane. Love those you can love by being who you are. Do what you do heartily--to the best of your abililty and because it is in your heart to do it. Let love guide your way and you will live a full life. A life of service is a life worth living. Not being selfish, but being selfless. Not being self-centered, but being Christ-centered (which means being people-centered). Focusing on living. What's that old phrase, "Get busy living or get busy dying." We're alive now. We ought to live now. Give what we've got in order to experience what we've got. That's what this life is for--it's for living. It's for giving. It's for loving!