Sticks and Stones part 3
I pretty much only want to key in on one memory verse today. Its pretty simple, but incredibly powerful. "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32). The truth--the ultimate truth of the universe that God is love and He loves you--sets us free. LOVE sets us free. Sticks and stones may break our bones, and words CAN hurt us. But the right Word, which is Jesus, which is love, sets us free. But did you catch that first part? You shall know the truth. The truth is the truth. Always has been. Always will be. God's love is true. Always has been. Always will be. God--who IS love--always has loved us and always will love us. But its the truth that you KNOW that makes you free. Now don't get it twisted: We ARE free. That happened. But unless you KNOW you're free you'll keep acting like a slave. You can't believe something you don't know. The Divine Order is to know and believe. Faith comes from hearing. And hearing from the Word (Jesus, love) of God. You hear that Word, you hear your heavenly Father saying, "I love you" with every beat of His heart in our chests, and that Word fills us up--in a sense. I say "in a sense" because we ARE full of it. God filled us with His love. That happened. Jesus emptied Himself out and poured Himself into us. Filling us up with His Spirit. His love. But the Word is how we fill ourselves with what we've already been filled with. Knowing the truth, that has always been true, is what makes us free. We can experience that truth, that love, when we know it and believe it. When we let what's inside fill us up to overflowing and come out. And here's the deal, I say this all the time, what's inside WILL come out. Or rather, what you believe is inside will come out. It has to. Its too big, too powerful, not to. What you do flows from what you believe. What you believe is inside will come out. That's why behavior modification pales in comparision to getting your believing right. When you know that truth, that you are immaculately and unconditionally loved by the very God who IS love... everything flows from there. When you know you ARE loved... you CAN love. When you know you are loved, you begin to understand that you are LOVE. Its not just what God does. Its who God is. Its not just what YOU do. Its who you are. Love is our nature. Our new (true) nature. Putting on the new man and lying not is about getting comfortable with who we really are. Knowing the truth and telling the truth. Receiving and releasing the love of God. That's what life is all about. That's what life IS. To live is to love and to love is to live. They aren't just connected, they are the same thing. God came to us in human form to give us the truth. Tell us AND show us. He said there's no greater love a man can have than to lay his life down for his friends. Then He went to the cross and literally did just that. And because He did that, we can do that. Figuratively and literally. We can lay our lives down for our friends. Esteem others higher than ourselves. Put others first. Give what we've got when we see that people need it. Which, by the way, is what love is. Love is giving! Knowing the truth and giving that truth to others!