Taste and See part 3

02/17/2021 17:38

The goodess of God leads men to repentance. Because repentance means thinking again about something in light of something else. The religious world has made "repentance" into the idea of "say you're sorry for sinning and get your soul saved." And, listen, moving past the things that you did in your life when you dind't know better is good. I'm not saying you shouldn't do that. But begging for forgiviness in the hopes that you get to go to heaven instead of hell when you die is not in my theology. Repentance is about a mindshift away from earning your (spiriual) bread by the sweat of your brow... and moving into a mindset of being still and knowing that HE is God. Not trying to be someone you're not in order to get what you think you haven't got... but receiving and releasing what you have already been given. Tasting and seeing what you already have instead of always trying to get, get, get what you think you don't have. We have what we need. We have no lack because our God has no lack. We have been given everything we could ever need when God gave us His only begotten Son. Repentance is a shift from perishing... to having everlasting life. A shift from death... to life. And, again, it is the GOODNESS of God that leads us to this. It is seeing that there IS something better available to us. There IS a more excellent way and His name is Jesus. His name is love. Love is literally the difference between death and life. No love, no life. Know love, know life! That's the key. That's the secret of life. It's all about love. When you're tasting and seeing that the Lord is good... you're tasting and seeing LOVE! Tasting and seeing that LOVE is good! And when you taste and see something that is better than what you have... why wouldn't you want it? In reality, you want something better already. Chances are you just don't believe that it's possible. Or you don't believe that it's possible for YOU to have. So you settle. You take what life gives you instead of seeking first the Kingdom. And, again, not in the sense of seeking the Kingdom in order to get something you haven't got, but seeking the Kingdom in order to explore what you have got! In order to see what's available to you. In order to EXPERIENCE the Kingdom. And, since it is the Kingdom of God--the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of Love--in order to experience that Kingdom, that love, we give it away. Because love is giving. You can give without loving, but you can't love without giving. And watch this: When you give the love that you've got... you are showing people the goodness of God! How else do you think it is seen and tasted? When you love someone, you are showing them God. Jesus told Philip, "If you've seen me, you've seen the Father." A man, like you and me, filled with love. That's Jesus. God in the flesh. Love in a body. God in our flesh. Love in our body. And when that love comes out--when we fill ourselves to overflowing with what we have already been filled with--that's when WE taste and see, and that's when we allow OTHERS to taste and see that the Lord is good! Jesus was given the ministry of reconciliation. And He gave that same ministry to us. Brought us back to Himself--after WE hid from His presence--and equipped and empowered us to bring others to Him. Not by scaring them into submission. But by showing them who God REALLY is. Taste and see... that the Lord is GOOD! The GOODNESS of God leads men to repentance. Seeing something BETTER than what you've got is what will bring about that change of mind in you. And by "better than what you've got," I mean seeing what you've REALLY got instead of what you've settled for. The Kingdom is at hand. It is available. It is, in fact, within us! We don't need it. We already have it!