In Believing part 2
In believing the truth, we make it true... for us. Because the truth is the truth. Always has been, always will be. But if you don't know it and believe it, you won't be able to experience it. And look at 1 John 4:16, "And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." I think that Divine Order--knowing and believing--is so important. Because you can't believe what you don't know. Faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the Word (which is Jesus, which is love) of God. First you hear it. You know it. Then you can believe it. And, in believing, experience it. Jesus' eternal, everlasting, abundant, Resurrection Life of Love is the gift of God. He gave it to us. And you can't earn a gift. But you have to receive it. Let's say someone puts a million dollars in your bank account. If you don't know its there you're not going to use it. Furthermore if, say, you check you're account balance and see a million extra dollars in there... you're probably going to freak out. Assume its a mistake. Which is why we need to see the finished work of the cross in all its magnificent glory. Its one thing for someone to tell you God loves you. Even, "Jesus love me this I know, for the Bible tells me so," is only part of the way there. But when you understand that Jesus said there is no greater love that a man can have than to lay his life down for his friends... and then He literally went to the cross and laid His life down for us... that's where the rubber meets the road. That's when its more than just an idea. Charity is love in action. And there is no greater action of love than giving everything you have and everything you are. That's what love is. Love is giving. You can give without loving, as they say. But you can't love without giving. It is in believing that we are loved... that we have something to give. We hear the Word, and we know the Word, and we believe the Word, and we live the Word. Walking by faith--living by faith--is how we prove our faith. And when I say "prove" I mostly mean... proving it to ourselves. Because if you can't give what you don't have, and you can only give what you do have, then if you love someone (and love is giving) that means, on some level, that you believe you are loved. So when you know the truth--and believe the truth--that's when the truth (that has already set you free and made you free) sets you free and makes you free! That's when you can experience that freedom! That's when you can be free FROM sin and free TO love. That's when you can experience the gift you've been given by receiving it and releasing it. By sharing it. By giving it away. God wants us to live out of our abundance. That's why Jesus came; so that we might have life, and that more abundantly. Love is what makes life abundant. Love is what makes life worth living. Love is what makes it possible to live. Its all about love. In believing the truth, we make the truth true... for us. In believing in love we experience love by letting God love us and loving Him back by loving each other!