Transition part 5
The biggest mistake I think we make--Spiritually speaking--is trying to do things ourselves. Trying to make things happen. And, worst of all, trying to make something happen that happened 2,000 years ago on an old rugged cross. I believe that when Jesus was speaking in John chapter 10 about the thief and the robber... He was talking about religion. He was talking about US trying to enter the sheepfold any other way but the door. After identifying HIMSELF as the door. Basically saying, "You can't do it yourself. And that's ok. Because I don't want you to do it yourself. I don't even want you to try. Because the harder you try to earn something that can't be earned... the more worn out and frustrated you're going to get." We rob OURSELVES of the gift we've been given by trying to earn it. You can't earn a gift. Period. A gift is freely given and must be received. So stop trying to make the transition. Stop trying to "turn over a new leaf" or any of the other self-improvement catchphrases we are so fond of. Its not about a new leaf. Its about a whole new tree. Get off the tree of death (the tree of knowledge of good and evil). Stop trying so hard to do good and not evil. Guys. Good AND evil are on the same tree. Jesus didn't come so that we could have a moral code to follow. He said it Himself like this: "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly" (John 10:10). And life--living and loving... living BY loving--is the only true moral code there is. Loving everybody no matter what. Turning the other cheek. Going the extra mile. Truly living by truly loving. Laying your life down for your friends. Giving everything you have and everything you are and expecting nothing in return. We don't love in order to get. We love because we have something to give. Because love IS giving. That's what God gave us when He gave us His only begotten Son. When He gave us His Spirit. When He gave us Himself. He gave us the ability to know and believe His love. And in knowing and believing it... we can receive it and release it. Receive it BY releasing it. Release it BY receiving it. Because when you receive it, there is too much of it to keep to yourself. And its too GOOD to keep to yourself. Remember the song lyric? "What you got if you ain't got love? The kind that you just want to give away..." That's what God gave to us when HE made the transition from Old to New. When HE did all of the heavy lifting to bring us out of death and into life. Before the cross we were dead in our trespasses and sins. And no matter how hard we tried there was nothing we could do about it. Until God Himself wrapped Himself in human flesh and took our sins away. Forgave us our sins. Brought us out of that bondage and into the freedom of the Promised Land. The land that flows with milk and honey. The days of heaven on earth. So stop trying to get something you think you haven't got. Stop trying to be someone you think you're not. God made you in His image in the beginning. And He conformed you into the image of His Son on the cross. You HAVE transitioned. You ARE who you need to be. Who you are in Christ, which is who Christ is in you. The Old HAS passed away and the New HAS come forth. That's where we are now. In a new dimension of life. A new dimension of love!