Now What? part 3
Let's try to look at this in a different way. We're talking about what to do with our lives, kind of, right? Talking about what has happened and what CAN happen because of what has happened. And, really, that's the cross. The cross is the biggest thing that has ever happened. The God who is love expressing His love for His creation by giving His life for us and to us. God literally laying His life down for His friends. Dying, if I can say it this way, so that we could live. Look at Hebrews 9:27, "And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." And notice, it is appointed unto men ONCE to die. That, again, was the cross. Jesus drew us all into Himself and died. That was our death. The second death, if I can muddle things up a little bit. The first death was our death in Adam. When he ate of the tree of death (the tree of knowledge of good and evil). The second death--the death OF death--on the cross. Led to the judgment of God. So, clearly, death can't BE the judgment of God. First death, then judgment. I've died. Now what? Galatians 2:20, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." I died... now I can live. The old died... now the new can come forth. The New Man that is Jesus. God in the flesh. Love in a body. God in OUR flesh. Love in OUR body. Let me say it another way. "Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another" (1 John 4:11). Receiving and releasing. God loves us. Now what? Now we love Him back by loving each other. We died in Him. Now He lives in us. To live is to love and to love is to live, right? Living and loving aren't just connected. They are the same thing. This abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of God is a life of love. Love is what makes the abundant life... abundant. Love is what makes life worth living. Love is what makes it possible to live. It's all about love. We died. Now what? Now we live. How? By letting God love us and then loving Him back by loving people. We love because He first loved us. He loves us, so we ought to love each other. Receiving and releasing. Letting what's inside come out by filling ourselves to overflowing with it. By knowing and believing that God's love--God Himself--is in us. What you believe is inside WILL come out. It has to. Because whatever it is, it is too big to stay inside. Think about when you try to repress things. Anger, sadness, bitterness, whatever. When you try to hold it in... it just ends up exploding out. We have to find a way to express ourselves in healthy ways. Self-love, if I can say it that way. Self-care. Letting what's inside come out, but doing it in a way that is helping and not hurting. Because that's all a part of life. And we've already died. At least twice that I can see. After death comes the judgment. God's judgment. Not a death sentence, but an everlasting life sentence! We've died. Now what? Now... we live!