Receive part 4
I think what I was trying to say yesterday is that it's important to receive. Because in order for you to be receiving something, someone has to be giving something. And that's not always easy for people. Reaching out makes you vulnerable. It gives someone else the chance to slap your hand away. And, believe you me, that happens sometimes. Sometimes people WILL slap you away when you reach out. Don't stop reaching out. The power isn't in how someone reacts to you. The power is in giving what you've got--everything you have and everything you are--no matter how they react. Receiving and releasing. Receiving BY releasing. But, like I keep saying, we're going to get to that. My focus for this Rant series is the importance of receiving. Because you can't give what you don't have. And you can only give what you do have. So... either you know and believe that you have something (because you know that God has given it to you, and you've received it), or you spend your Three T's (Time, Talent, Treasure) trying to get something. That's the difference between the truth and the lie. The truth says, "The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand" (John 3:35). We already have everything we need. There is no earning involved. It was a gift. An inheritance, if I can put it in those terms. So we don't need anything. But the lie says, "You have to do in order to be." You have to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil in order to be like God. WRONG! LIE! We were created in His image. And then, on the cross, we were conformed to the image of His Son. And WE didn't have to do anything in either event. When Jesus was lifted up on the cross He drew us all into Himself. He did it. He finished the work. Everything that was necessary... was necessary for JESUS to do. Not for US to do. And thank God for that. Because we couldn't do it. Break part of the Law and you've broken the whole Law, right? "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). We were sinners in need of a Savior. We couldn't do ANYTHING to get ourselves out of the mess Adam had made for us. And that was the point. The point was, "You can't, so I will." The point was for us to stop trying. God doesn't want what we can produce on our own. He made that clear with Cain and Able. He wants the Lamb. He wants His Son. He wants us to know ourselves AS His Son. That's why Jesus didn't just give His life FOR us. He gave His life TO us. So that we could experience it. As He lives it in us, and through us, and as us. Did you catch that? Jesus does the living. Its HIS life. Nobody can live Jesus' life except Jesus. God in the flesh. Love in a body. God in YOUR flesh. Love in YOUR body. Living a life of love because you've received the love--the life, the light--that He has given you. Letting what's inside come out, simply by knowing and believing that its in there. Filling yourself to overflowing with that love and letting it come out. Naturally. But you can't believe something you don't know. And you can't release something you haven't received. It starts with a gift. The gift of God. Eternal life. The way of grace. And the receiving of that gift. Believing you have it. The walk of faith. The response of someone giving you a gift... is receiving it!