The Living God part 4
I know I've been stuck on this idea for a while now, but I can't understand our fixation with the "afterlife." It's like we waste the time we've got in order to hopefully assure our place in heaven someday when we die. Guys: Heaven isn't just a place you to to when you die. Heaven is where you went when Jesus died both for you and as you! He's not the God of the dead, and that's why He made us all alive in Him. Alive TO Him. Because to live is to love and to love is to live. So being alive--truly alive, not the walking dead "life" experience that Adam had after eating from the tree of death and then dying--means being loved and loving one another with that same love! God is the God of the living. God is love. The difference between life and death... is love! 1 John 3:14 says it like this, "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death." We were dead in our trespasses and sins before the cross. When God's love for us--His LIFE--seemed too good to be true. We tried to earn it, but since it's a gift it can't be earned. There was always "one thing we lacked." Always another hoop to jump through. Another mountain to climb. It wasn't until Jesus came and brought every mountain low and every valley high... until Jesus came and told us to tell the mountain of the Law to go jump in a lake (or in the sea, but you get my point)... that we were able to stop trying to earn His love. He poured His Spirit out on all flesh. He didn't come to make "evil" people "good" but He came to make dead people alive. Because He's the God of the living. Because He IS life. That's why Jesus didn't just give His life FOR us... He gave His life TO us. So that we could have it. Everlasting, eternal, abundant, Resurrection Life. Right here and now. Not something in our future IF we die. But something we can enjoy right now! Remember 1 Corinthians 15:51 (NLT), "But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed!" And how do we BE transformed? By the renewing of our mind. And how is our mind renewed? Where does our repentance (or mind change) come from? It comes from Jesus giving us HIS mind! We were freed from the bondage of sin (unbelief) when Jesus gave us something (love... Himself) to believe in. We passed out of death and into life when the Holy Spirit--our love receptor--took us by the hand and began to lead and guide us into all truth. The truth (that is Jesus) that the Father loves us and has given all things into our hands. The truth that we ARE loved empowers us TO love. And when we know and believe that we are loved... when we receive and release the love of the Father... that's when we truly live. That's when we truly experience the gift we've been given. That's when the living God lives... in, and through, and as us! It's not about getting somewhere someday IF we die. It's about being where we're at right now! The days of heaven ON earth. Living and loving right here and now!