The Truth part 2
The ultimate truth of the universe goes like this, "God is love and He loves you." That's where we stand. That's the Rock that we build on. That's our foundation. And until we not only KNOW that truth, but BELIEVE that truth--get it past head knowledge and into heart knowledge--we will forever try to get something that we think we don't have. Because we, as a species, don't just want love. We need love. We were created to love. And you can't give what you don't have. So feeling like we are not loved--believing the lie (which is sin, by the way... unbelief)--keeps us from loving. Keeps us from living. Keeps us buying into the whole man-centered, performance-based religion of doing in order to be. Guys, we don't do in order to be. We do BECAUSE we be. We don't love in order to get love. Can I say it again? You can't give what you don't have. And love is never about getting. Because love IS giving. So we need to start to understand what we have. Jesus said, "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matthew 6:33). Unfortunately, I think we've twisted that to mean, "Try to get the Kingdom first, and then you'll get everything else." We turned it into an if-then statement. If you get the Kingdom, then you'll have it all. When, in truth, we already have it all. And we didn't have to get it at all. It was a gift. Freely given. We have already been given all things that pertain to life and godliness. We have already been blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly Christ. We are, right now, kings and priests equipped and empowered to rule and reign on this earth. The days of heaven on earth. The Kingdom of Heaven... the Kingdom of God... The Kingdom of love... right here and right now. So instead of seeking to get something we think we haven't got, what we really ought to do is seek in order to understand what we already have. Explore the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness, if I can say it that way. Test the height, and depth, and length, and breadth of His love. And the way we do that is by loving bigger than we ever thought we could. Seeing how much we can love people. That's how we see how big God's love is. And I've said many times that if you take that step of putting love into action--charity--then you are proving that you know and believe His love for you. Because if you didn't believe God loved you... at least on some level... you couldn't love anybody else. One more time: You can't give what you don't have. Only by filling yourself to overflowing with what you've been filled with can you let what's inside come out. Only be receiving and releasing the love of God can you be a witness to the truth. God is love and He loves you. Love one another with the love that He loves you with. That's the whole point of the whole thing. That's what its all about. That's what Jesus' abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life is all about. And that's how we experience His life--as He lives it in us, and through us, and as us. So, as Romans 3:4 says, "...let God be true, but every man a liar..." When you know the truth you can ignore the lie. You can embrace the truth. You can live the truth. You can BE the truth. Jesus is the Word--which is the truth, which is Jesus, which is love--of God. God in the flesh. Love in a body. God in YOUR flesh. Love in YOU body. The truth is, you are loved... so you can love! You are loved... so you ARE love!