The Life part 2
Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. The Way to God. The Truth about God. The Life of God. The Way to Love. The Truth about Love. The Life of Love. That makes sense, right? Because God is love? If we're talking about God, we're talking about love. And vice versa. Yesterday we looked at the picture of light shining in order to to show us the way, reveal the truth to us, and BE the life IN us. John 1:4 says, "In him was life; and the life was the light of men." The light was IN Him because the light IS Him. "This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5). Jesus is the life. God is light. These are all just pictures of the same thing. Love. God's love. Agape love. Sacrificial love. Laying down your life for your friends. Giving everything you have and everything you are. Because love IS giving. So that means LIFE is giving. That means LIGHT is giving. That's why, when Jesus identified US as the light of the world, He spoke about a city on a hill that cannot be hid. That's why He taught about putting the light not under a bushel, but in a lampstand. Light is used to illuminate things. Not to be hoarded or hidden. Life is meant to be lived. Not wasted in the pursuit of things we think we don't have, but do in fact have. When Jesus spoke of the thief He spoke of someone trying to get into the sheepfold any other way but through the door. That's US, when we try to do things ourselves. When we try to do them our own way. There's a way that SEEMS right to man... but the end of it is death. And then there's a more excellent way. Jesus. Love. The straight and narrow path that leads to life. Jesus is that Way. He is that Truth. He is that Life. He leads us... to Himself. Draws us to Himself. Which, by the way, is a really good thing. Because, "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day" (John 6:44). If God hadn't put that desire in our hearts--the desire OF our hearts, to be loved, and to love--then we wouldn't even care. We wouldn't concern ourselves with anything except personal gain. Because while it might SEEM like trying to get love for yourself is selfish... the truth of the matter is that everybody--EVERYBODY--longs to be loved. The key is to give what you've got instead of trying to get something you think you haven't got. And that's what the light does: It shows us what we've got. Shows us who we are. Equips and empowers us to truly live Jesus' abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of Love by letting Jesus live it in us, and through us, and as us. When we know that the door to the sheepfold is open to us, we won't need to try to get in any other way. We won't rob OURSELVES of what we've already been given. We won't waste our lives trying to be someone we're not in order to get something we think we haven't got. Because we'll be able to enjoy what we have got by giving it away. By sharing it. Love is giving. Giving what you have. Giving who you are. Letting what's inside come out by knowing and believing that its in there. That's love. That's life. That's who Jesus was in His earth walk, and that's who Jesus is in us. In me. In you! Its His life... we just get to experience it!