Break Glass part 5
If you have an emergency, you should break the glass and call on the name of the Lord. He's got your back. He's always with you. And that, actually, is the point of this whole Rant series. Because SINCE God is always with us--He swore that He would never leave us nor forsake us--I truly believe that we could avoid a lot of emergencies in the first place, simply by making God first choice and not last chance. And by that I mean make LOVE first choice and not last chance. See, there was this Old Covenant mindset in which God was for "us" and He was "against" our "enemies." Which is really kind of funny for a Gentile to think, because the "us" was the people of Israel and the "them" was everybody else. But somehow--in our own minds--we've kind of taken up the top spot, so to speak, and turned everybody who doesn't agree with us into "them." I don't know why this is, but religious folk ALWAYS seem to be up for a fight. If it's not the devil, then it's sin. And if it's not the sin or the devil then it's the anti-christ. There always has to be something to fight. Always has to be something to be against. Check out this little Bible verse though, "...if God be for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31). And that verse ISN'T saying, "Who can prevail against us?" It's saying, "God is for ALL of us, so there's nobody who CAN be against us." It's saying, "We're all on the same side." We're all parts of the same body. Jesus won the war to end all wars on the cross. He conquered, and made us more than conquerers. There's nothing left to fight. Nothing left to overcome--when we understand just how finished the Finished Work is. I'm trying to say, this emergency that we got ourselves into by trying to do it ourselves... probably could have been avoided simply by acknowledging God in ALL our ways. Starting with love instead of trying to use it as a "get out of trouble free" card. Doing whatever it is that we do because we are moved with compassion and motivated by love. Love doesn't break things apart. Love is the glue that holds everything together. Love doesn't draw lines of exclusion. Love is the open arms of INCLUSION. I don't know. I just think there's enough going on in our lives that we don't have to make things worse by looking for trouble. God defends us. We don't need to attack people in order to defend Him. So. Jesus broke the glass. He took the "insiders" and the "outsiders" and made one New Man. He drew us ALL into Himself. There WAS an emergency, and it was called, "We were dead in our tresspasses and sins." Then Jesus came and saved us. He made us whole. He brought us out of death and into life. He gave us HIS life! And His life is a life of relationship with our heavenly Father who loves us. His life is one that is abundant. Full of love. Not a roller coaster ride where we get into trouble and God bails us out, but a river of life that flows (effortlessly) exactly where God wants it (us) to go!