The Conclusion part 4
Here's the conclusion. The thing that's above all else. The thing that's the most important. Here's the bottom line. Ready? In a Word... love. It's all about love. Love is what we crave. What we NEED. Without it, we have nothing. Without it, we abide in death. Which is why we're willing to spend our three T's (Time, Talent, Treasure) trying to get it. It's that valuable. That important. That vital. But here's the problem: If you work for a living, why do you kill yourself working? If love is a gift that is freely given, why do you think you can earn it? And if God IS love, why do you keep looking for love in all the wrong places? Remember Psalm 37:4? "Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart." Which, as I've Ranted on at length, does NOT mean if you delight yourself in the Lord He'll give you all the "stuff" you want. It's not a formula. Not a genie in a bottle that grants wishes. It's not an "if then" statement. It's, in fact, the same thinig. BY delighting ourselves in the Lord we RECEIVE the desire of our heart. Because love is what we desire. And love is who God is. And watch this: He already gave it (love, Himself) to us. So it's not at all about getting. It's about receiving that which we've already been given. It's about receiving it, and releasing it. Receiving it BY releasing it. I'm convinced there are only two important things in the universe: God and people. Love God and love people. Love God BY loving people. But you can't give what you don't have. That's why it's so important to receive His love. Adam was God's son but didn't know it. Jesus was God's BELOVED Son because He let Himself be loved by God. God loved Adam, but Adam didn't have the Holy Spirit--the love receptor--so it seemed too good to be true. It seemed like something that needed to be earned. Which is exactly the lie that the serpent hissed in Eve's ear. Do in order to be. But that's never what God wanted. He wanted us to rest in His loving arms. To have faith in Him. To know and believe the love of God. To fight the good fight of faith and lay hold of eternal life. Lay hold of the gift we've been given so that we can enjoy it. So that we can experience it. So that we can share it. The conclusion is not "Work real hard and earn it." The conclusion is fear (revere, be in awe of) God and obey His New Commandment. The New Commandment is to love one another as Jesus loves you. And those two--just like delight and desire--go hand in hand. We obey Him BECAUSE we are in awe of Him. Not because we're afraid of Him, in the sense that He'll "get us" if we don't obey, but because His love is literally the best thing going. It's the Way, the Truth, and the Life. It's the more excellent way. A life without love is not life at all. It's a struggle to try to get the carrot, but the stick always moves it just out of reach. Without love there's always "one thing you lack." And that one thing, of course, IS love. Love covers the multitude of sins. Love is the answer. The solution. Love is what life is all about because to live is to love and to love is to live. Love IS life. It's all about love. There's nothing else that matters. We try to get it until we understand (with heart knowledge, not just head knowledge) that we already have it. And then we stop working and start resting. Then we start to share what we've got. The love inside us fills us to overflowing and comes out naturally!