Hand Full part 3
It's not about getting. It's about giving what you've got. USING what you've got. Sharing what you've got, and in that way truly experiencing it. Look at Matthew 4:17, "From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." I think this is such an important concept. Because A. The Kingdom is at hand. It's within your reach. And B. All you have to do in order to reach it... is repent. Think differently. And, specifically, think differently in light of something that has happened. That something that happened was the cross. The light of the world shining on us, and in us, and through us, and out of us, and as us! The greatest expression of love--laying your life down for your friends--showing us HOW to love. Showing us what love is. Not getting, but giving. Love IS giving. But you can't give what you don't have, right? You can only give what you do have. So you need to KNOW what you do have. You need to know what's in your hand. That's what God asked Moses. And that's what Moses used. God works in mysterious ways... because He works through people. Ordinary people doing extraordinary things. God's super on top of our natural making us supernatural. Not us trying to finish the work, but us knowing, and believing, that Jesus finished the work. Not trying to take the Kingdom by force, but understanding that it was the Father's good pleasure to GIVE us the Kingdom. Which He did... by giving us the King. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. So instead of trying to take the Kingdom through the violence of human effort... we can receive it and release it. We can stop trying to conform to the world and we can be transformed (into what we've already been transformed into) by the renewing of our minds. By repenting. By letting the mind of Christ (that's already in us) BE in us. Not trying to be someone we're not, but being who we really are by letting Jesus be who HE really is in us, and through us, and as us. Guys, the Kigndom isn't something external. It's not something you can get. It's within you. It's something you ARE. Righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. We're not just IN the Kingdom... we ARE the Kingdom. We're not just loved, and capable of love... we ARE love. That's our nature. That's what our hands are full of. That's what's inside us, and that's what--when we know it and believe it--comes out of us. Naturally. Your nature is what you do naturally. So now that the Old Man has been crucified, and the New Man has come forth, we don't have a beast nature. We have the love nature. We don't have to try to be someone we're not, because every day we're finding out who we are. Little by little. Line upon line. Precept upon precept. One day at a time. As we let God love us, we learn what love is. And then we love each other with that same love. That's what a disciple of Jesus is; a student of love. That's what "seeking the Kingdom" is all about. Not seeking it because you don't have it, but seeking it as in exploring it. Finding out what you do have. What you can give. What's in your hand.