The Son's Responsibility part 1
The love of a Father always equips and empowers His Son. A few Rants ago we looked a little bit at how Jesus, knowing who He was from the very beginning, and knowing who His Father is from the very beginning, was about His Father's business from a very young age. In fact, when He was "lost" in the temple, He was suprised that His parents had to look for Him. To Him, He wasn't lost at all. He was right where He was supposed to be, doing right what He was supposed to be doing. And this, I think, is where some religious folk lose the thread. The idea of "Jesus take the wheel" kind of meaning we bail out of the car. Rest as inactivity. The abdication of personal responsiblity. We want God to take care of our problems, and by that we seem to mean we don't want to do anything about our problems. Even though, for the most part, we bring a lot of our problems onto ourselves. Look at 2 Thessalonians 3:11-13 (NLT), "Yet we hear that some of you are living idle lives, refusing to work and meddling in other people's business. We command such people and urge them in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and owrk to earn their own living. As for the rest of you, dear brothers and sisters, never get tired of doing good." Paul wrote in another place, "If you don't work, you don't eat," or something to that effect. My point is: Rest is NOT inactivity. It is Holy Spirit directed activity. And what the Holy Spirit directs us to do--the ONLY thing the Holy Spirit has or will EVER direct us to do--is love. Look at Mark 12:29-31 in the NLT, "Jesus replied, "the most important commandment is this: 'Listen O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.' The second is equally important: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' No other commandment is greater than these."" God and people. Love God and love people. Love God BY loving people. That's what this life is all about. That's the response to the Father's love. When He fills us up with His love, He equips and empowers us to love Him back by loving each other. It's not about refusing to work. It's about putting in maximum effort. It's not about crossing your arms and throwing a pity party and demanding that God do something. God DID something 2,000 years ago on the cross. He finished the work. He overcame. And now, becuase of what HE did, we can enjoy the fruit of His labor. We can receive and release His love. We can let what's inside of us--the love that is inside of us--come out by knowing and believing that it's in there. We can be responsible Sons and take care of the gift we've been given... by giving it away. We let what's inside of us come out by filling ourselves to overflowing with what God has already filled us with. Love God and love people. That's the Son's responsibility. And we love... because He first loved us. We give--which is what it means to love, because love is giving--because we have been given. Receive it and release it. Know it and believe it. Experience the gift (of God) that you have been given (which is His sacrificial, agape love) by giving it away. By loving people. And when you love people, you aren't judging people. You aren't holding anything back. Love is giving everything you have and everything you are without worry about being left with nothing. It doesn't matter if the more you love the less people seem to love you. What matters is experiencing life to the fullest. What matters is being able to truly live. To experience LOVE to the fullest. Again, by giving it away. We have been given all power and authority as the Son of God. That power... and that authority... is the Father's love. And that, friends, is the Son's responsiblity!