Ravished part 4
Its all about receiving and releasing. Receiving BY releasing. That's what Jesus was talking about in John 13:34, "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another." Because we can't love each other until we know and believe that God loves us. We can't give what we don't have. And we can only give what we do have. That's why hurt people hurt people. But loved people love people. People who are caught up--enraptured, enclosed, transported... ravished--by love literally can't do anything else but share that love. Because its too big to keep to ourselves. Too good to not share with any and everybody that comes into our path. Did you ever think about that term "witness"? A witness can only share his experience. He can only tell what he saw, or heard. Or, in this case, felt. Someone who can only tell you what the book says isn't nearly as powerful as someone who can share what they have with you. And I'm not trying to go against "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so." Because faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the Word of God. But that Word is more than just the Bible. That Word is Jesus. That Word is love. When we heart that Word--or see it in action, which is charity--that's when we experience the everlasting, eternal, abundant, Resurrection Life of God. His gift to us. A life of love. Being loved, and loving each other with that same love. That's WHY He ravishes us with His love... so that we can ravish each other. He loves the hell out of us... so that we can love the hell out of each other. Receiving and releasing. Receving BY releasing. Being ravished... so that we can ravish. Being so caught up in God's love that there is nothing else. That's what happened on the cross--the Messianic rebirth of the world; Jesus, the consuming fire of love, consumed everything except Himself. Like the burning bush that burned but wasn't consumed. Love feeds on love. Jesus, on the cross, remade the world in His image. As He is, so are we in this world. And all that other stuff is just that--stuff. Noise. Its not real. It has no power. God is all-powerful. LOVE is all-powerful. And that doesn't mean MOST powerful. It means love has--love IS--all of the power. Nothing else really matters. I've always said there are only two important things in this universe: God and people. Loving God and loving people. Loving God BY loving people. Because He first loved us. Guys, God literally said, "I would rather die than be without you." He wanted us to experience His life of love so much that He gave His life for us, and He gave His life to us. He gave us everything He had and everything He is. Now watch this: "Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another" (1 John 4:11). To me, that's the whole point of the whole thing. God is love, and He loves you. So let Him love you, and love everybody else with that love. Let that love--that we've already been filled with--fill us to overflowing. And in so doing experience the fulness of that love. And since love is giving... we experience it when we give it away. When we share it. When we knock someone's socks off by loving them bigger and better than they could ever ask or even think. We live by loving. We love by giving. Giving what we've got. Letting God ravish us at all times with His love... and ravishing each other with that love!