Fullness part 5
When you are filled with the fullness of God--the fullness of love--you can experience the abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of God. Because that's what the fullness is. It is the abundance that Jesus spoke of in John 10:10, "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." The NLT puts it like this, "The thief's purpose is to steal and kill and destory. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life." Abundant. Rich and satisfying. Full. Not just life... but Jesus' life. And here's the key: Nobody can live Jesus' life except Jesus. WE are the thief when we try to live His life. When we try to be someone we're not in order to get something we think we haven't got. When we try to enter into the sheepfold any other way but through the door. That's when things get messed up. But I'm here to tell you there's a more excellent Way. We can be still and know that HE is God. We can let Jesus live His own life... in us, and through us, and as us. We can stop trying to be someone we're not and we can be who we are by letting Jesus be who HE is... in us. We can stop running around like chickens with their heads cut off, looking for love in all the wrong places, and we can simply be still and listen to the still, small voice deep inside of us that is saying, "I love you," with every beat of God's heart in our chests. We can let God love us, and we can love Him back by loving people. It's really that simple. If you want to live a full, satisfying life... obey the New Commandment. Love others as Jesus loves you. LET Jesus love you, and love Him back by loving people. Receive and release God's love. Breath it in and breath it out. Don't get stuck on things that ultimately really aren't that important. Be who you are. Who you really are. Which is who you are in Christ. Which is who Christ is in you. Let the love that is inside you come out, by knowing and believing that it's in there. Fill yourself to overflowing with what God has already filled you with. That's how you experience the abudant life that Jesus came for you to have. Because love is what makes the abundant life abundant. Love is what God has filled us with. And love is what we fill ourselves with when we fill each other with it. Because love is giving. You can give without loving, but you can't love without giving. So make sure when you're focusing on the fullness of God... you're focusing on filling up yourself... by filling up other people. That's how this all works. Being Christ-centered (rather than being self-centered) means being people-centered. Whatsoever we do unto the least of them we do unto the King. How we treat people is how we treat God. So look outward. Look past yourself. Trust in the glorious truth that God has already provided all your need, and live out of your abundance. Experience what you've got by giving what you've got. Let what's inside come out by knowing and believing it's in there. I know I probably sound like a broken record with some of this stuff, but I'm going to keep saying it until someone hears it. Because I believe in this stuff. God's love is the Rock that we can stand on, and build on. God's love is the whole point of the whole thing. God's love is why we were created in the first place. We were created to live a full and satisfying life. A life of love. Because, one more time, God's love is what makes the abundant life... abundant. God's love is what makes life worth living. And God's love is what makes it possible to live!