The Life part 1
To me, if we're going to talk about the Life that Jesus is... the abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of Love... one of the best ways to illustrate it is with John 1:4, "In him was life; and the life was the light of men." Light and life. Two pictures of the same thing. And even though religion will try to tell you that Jesus came to earth to save mankind from an angry God... what He really did was He came to earth and shined the light of the world so we could see things clearly. So we could see that God is not mad AT us, but mad ABOUT us. Head over heels in love with us. Jesus came to show us what God really looks like. By turning on the light. By revealing God's love to us. Because that's who God is; God is love. God looks like people loving people. That's how the invisible God expresses Himself. So if we want to live this life we've been given... it doesn't happen without loving people. It can't. How many times have I said life and love are not just connected, but the same thing. You can't have one without the other, and you can't do one without the other. The Life of God is the Love of God. And, like I said--like HE said--His life is the light of men. His love is what lights us up. And when that light shines... when that love shines... that's when we can see things clearly. Remember the difference between the Truth and the life? Love is the truth of the matter. Love is the Way. Love is the Life. Love is what makes the abundant life abundant. Loving people--laying our lives down, giving everything we are and everything we have--is how we experience Jesus' life. Because loving people is how we let Him live His own life in us, and through us, and as us. But just in the same way as how we'll believe the lie if its all we have... if the light isn't shining we'll stumble around like the blind leading the blind. Trying to be someone we're not in order to get something we think we haven't got. Because if the light isn't shining we can't see what we've got. We can't see who we are. And here's the key: Jesus is the light of the world, He said so in John 9:5)... which means WE are the light of the world. As He is, so are we in this world. And He said, in Matthew 5:14, "Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid." Light is love is life. We are the light of the word. The love of God. The LIFE of God. Again, we are how He expresses Himself. His love filling us up to overflowing and coming out of us. Look at Acts 17:28, "For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring." And I believe the reverse of that is true, too. In US He lives, and moves, and has His being. He lives in us. We live in Him. That's how we experience His life. That's how we truly live. And the light shining on us, and in us, and through us, and out of us, is one of my favorite pictures of that life. When light shines we can see clearly. That's as simple as I can make it. We can see God clearly--as a loving heavenly Father--and we can see ourselves clearly--as His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. Living a life of love because we are loved. Receiving and releasing His love. Receiving it BY releasing it. Releasing it by receiving it. That's what life is all about. That's what life IS. And when you see it... you be it. When you know and believe that you are loved, you can live a life of love!