The Resurrection part 5
The thing we seem to miss about what Jesus said in John 11:25, "Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live" is the part after "and." The part where Jesus said, "I am the resurrection AND the life." He wasn't talking about afterlife. He wasn't talking about life after death. Well, in one sense He was. He was talking about the new life that came after the second death. The death OF death. Which took place on the cross, when Jesus defeated death by dying, and being buried, and rising again. So, I guess, if you want to look at it that way, this IS the afterlife. The days of heaven ON earth. Heaven isn't just where you go when you die. Heaven is where you went when Jesus died. Because His death was our death. And now His life--His abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of Love--is our life. We experience it by letting Jesus live His own life--because nobody can live Jesus' life except Jesus--in us, and through us, and as us. Its not us trying to be like Jesus. Its Jesus showing us who we really are, by showing us who HE really is (one more time) in us, and through us, and as us. Jesus being Jesus in us is how we be who we really are. Because who we really are is who we are in Christ. And who we are in Christ is who Christ is in us. Jesus is God in the flesh, love in a body. God in OUR flesh. Love in OUR body. That's what it means to be who we really are--to do what we do in love. Because of love. When people ask me for help making decisions I always default to: Do what is in your heart to do. Let love lead the way. The Word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path, right? And the Word is Jesus. The Word is love. If we can stop waiting for a resurrection and understand that we have already BEEN resurrected--quickened, brought back to life--then we can start to enjoy the gift of life that we've been given. The gift of love that we've been given. Because to live is to love and to love is to live. You can't have one without the other because they aren't just connected... they are the same thing. Coming back to life (after being dead in our trespasses and sins before the cross) means coming back to love. That return to the Spiritual truth. The ultimate truth of the universe that says, "God is love and He loves you." And because He is love, because He loves you... you can love. You can love Him back by loving those people that you come into contact with. You can live a life of love when you know and believe that you are loved. You can give what you've got when you know what you've got. What's inside--or, more accurately, what you BELIEVE is inside--WILL come out. So when you know and believe that love is inside... love will come out. The old song says, "What you got if you ain't got love? The kind that you just want to give away." Because that's what love is: Love is giving. Receiving and releasing the love of God. Giving what you've got. Sharing it. And in that way experiencing it. Experiencing life. Living. Now. Today. Because of the resurrection that occured 2,000 years ago!