The Three L's part 10
LIfe, light, love. Three L's that desribe God. Three things that look different, but are really the same thing. Living in the light is living a life of love. God has shined His light on us--INTO us. He has given His life for us--and to us. He has filled us with His love, so that we can love Him back by loving people. This is important to understand, because when we look in the mirror we see Jesus. As He is, so are we in this world. The Three L's that describe God... are the Three L's that desribe US. I know I quote this memory verse a lot, but I'm going to keep doing it because it's one of my favorites: "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is" (1 John 3:2). We know who we are... but we don't yet know exactly what it means to be who we are. We ARE the Son(s) of God. He created us in His image in the beginning, and then conformed us to His image on the cross. That's all a done deal. We don't need to change. We are who we were created to be. What needs to change is our understanding and our mindset. And we don't need to wait for some "second coming" for Him to appear. He appears to us all the time. LOVE appears to us all the time. People living their lives in the light by loving us appear all the time. And when we see that love, we can be that love. When we know what we have we can experience it and enjoy it by giving it away. By sharing it. Guys, we have been blessed to be a blessing. To let what's inside come out. We have been given everything we need to experience and enjoy Jesus's abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life by being still and knowing that He is God. By letting Him live His own life in us, and through us, and as us. Nobody can live Jesus's life except Jesus. And that's ok. Because that takes the pressure off of us. It's not by our might, or by our power. It's by the Spirit of God. The power of God working in us to will and to do of His good pleasure. It's Jesus living His own life... in us. That's what it means that He gave His own life TO us. Jesus said HE is the light of the world and He said that WE are the light of the world. It's the same light. The same life. The same love. And, again, those things aren't just connected. They are all the same thing. We live in the light by loving people. Love God and love people. Love God BY loving people. Let God love the hell out of you and love Him back by loving the hell out of the people we come into contact with. That's what this life is for. That's what this life is all about. So instead of chasing something you think you're missing--instead of trying to be someone you're not in order to get something you think you haven't got--embrace who you really are. Which is who you are in Christ. Which is who Christ is in you. He has brought us out of the darkness and into the light. By appearing to us. By shining that glorious light on us, and in us, and through us. And when that light shines... we can see clearly. We can understand the Divine Order of things. Knowing and believing. Receiving and releasing. Letting what's inside--the love of God--come out. Filling ourselves to overflowing with what we've already been filled with. Experiencing God's love for us... by giving it away. By loving people. Shining our light on them. Helping THEM to see God's love. Helping them be in the light, as we are in the light, as He is in the light. That's how we can truly live. Truly experience life to the fullest. You are loved. Which means you can love. Because it means you ARE love. So be who you are and give what you've got!