Like a Sponge part 1
Stick with me on this one. I always preach, "Receive it and release it. Receive it and release it." But I want to tweak that a little bit with this Rant series. Because, to me, there's almost an idea here where we are consciously DOING something. And that's the lie that the serpent told Eve way back in the garden of Eden. He told her, "You have to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil in order to be like God." He said, "You have to DO in order to BE." When the truth of the matter is, we do BECAUSE we be. We're not human doings. We're human beings. And the way this works is... God pours Himself onto us and into us--that's what happened on the cross, He poured His Spirit out on all flesh--and we simply absorb it. Like a sponge. And when a sponge gets too saturated... the thing that filled it up leaks out. Naturally. Remember when Jesus said, "And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these" (Matthew 6:28-29). Consider it for a minute. How does a lilly grow? By drawing water from the ground, and by absorbing sunlight. Remember again when Jesus spoke of the sower who sowed the seed? It had to be sown in good ground so it could put down some roots. Right? In that story WE are the ground. HE sowed the Word (which is love) and the WORD put down roots so the WORD could pull water--the healing rain of love. Get it? Love feeds on love and that's how it grows!--out of the ground! The Word is IN us, and the Word flows THROUGH us. LOVE is in us, and LOVE flows through us. The sun (the SON) shines ON us, and the sun (the SON) shines IN us. Jesus described HIMSELF as the light of the world, but He also described US as the light of the world. The lilly doesn't toil or spin. The lilly really just sits there and looks pretty. It brings joy to others. Not because of what it does, but because of what (who) it is! A lilly isn't trying to be anything else. It isn't trying to build it's own kingdom. But that's the lie that religion has sold us. "You have to be better that you are!" But if I'm not good enough to begin with, how could I be better than I am? "Try harder!" That seems pretty foolish. This thing was started in the Spirit but I'm going to make it perfect, or complete, in the flesh? It's takes ME doing something to finish the work that Jesus already finished? I have to consciously release what I've received? That's not what a lilly does. That's not what God wants us to do. We're not supposed to "try" to be a "good" Christian. We're supposed to rest in the arms of our loving heavenly Father. Cast your cares upon Him and stop trying to do everything--FIX everything--yourself. Even your cares about your own mistakes. ESPECIALLY those. I believe the worst kind of condemnation is self-condemnation. And I get it. You're with yourself all the time. You know the good, the bad, and the ugly. But you can't judge yourself--or anyone else--that way. You can't try to be "better." You have to just be you. Accept yourself. Accept others. Accept that God loves you and LET Him love you! Soak it up. Drink it in. Feast on it. God is love. A love feast. And you are what you eat. Get so full that God's love leaks out of you without you DOING anything. With you simply BEING who you are!