Fresh Start part 5
I hope I'm doing an ok job of trying to explain the difference between "life" as we know it... and the abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of love that IS the life of God. One is us trying to do the best we can with what we have... even though we don't think we have anything. The other is us experiencing Jesus' life of love as HE lives His own life in us, and through us, and as us. Works and labor (which don't work)... or rest. And, as always, rest is not inactivity. Loving someone is the maximum effort that you can give. Rest is Holy Spirit directed activity. And the Holy Spirit--the Spirit of Truth that leads and guides us into all truth--only ever directs us to love. That's the truth of the matter: God is love and He loves you. Its all about love. Which means its all about God. Because God IS love. Look at 1 Corinthians 1:30 in the Message Bible, "Everything that we have--right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start--comes from God by way of Jesus Christ." Jesus is the Lamb of God that took away the sin (unbelief) of the world... by giving us something (someONE, Himself, LOVE) to believe in. He wiped the slate clean, not holding our sins or transgressions against us. When we were dead in our trespasses and sins... He died for us (and as us)... so that we could die TO sin. And then He rose again--and us in Him--so that we might walk in newness of life. We have been given a new life--HIS life--we ought to experience it. We ought to enjoy the gift we've been given. We ought not to waste the fresh start we've been given by making the same mistakes. And, listen, my dad always said he was smart enough to make a mistake once and learn not to do it again. I, on the other hand, usually like to make the same mistake three or four times just to be really really sure. But the point is: You can't learn from your mistakes unless you make mistakes. Unless you operate in an atmosphere of grace where you CAN live and learn. Life is all about learning and growing. When you know better, you can do better. Because what you do flows from what you believe. And you can't believe something you don't know. If you're believing the lie that says you have to do in order to be... if you're believing that you have to atone for all of the "bad" stuff you've done--either here or in some afterlife--then you've missed the point that Jesus came to give us LIFE and that more abundantly. Jesus came to give us a gift. And you can't earn a gift. You can't be disqualified from getting a gift. A gift is given simply because someone wants you to have it. God wanted the best FOR us, so He gave the best TO us. He gave Jesus to us. He gave Himself to us. He gave His Spirit to us. The love receptor. So that we might be able to know and believe--receive and release--His love. Everything we have comes from God. He wiped the slate clean. He gave us a fresh start. A new life. HIS life. Where all the things that have tried to drag us down can just be laid aside. When God--when LOVE--is holding you up... nothing can drag you down. He gave us what He wanted us to have. And now we have it. Now we can enjoy it. Now we can experience it. By giving it away. By sharing it. Because love is giving. And, as I mentioned, its all about love!