Ultimate Truth part 3
The truth is the truth. Always has been, always will be. The truth is immutable. Nothing can change it. And that truth is, "God is love and He loves you." God has always been love. And He has always loved you. He always has and He always will. Like Logan and I say every night before bed, "One more thing... I love you and I can't stop loving you." That's what love does. That's what love IS. That's what God does. That's who God IS. But there's something else at least as important as the truth being the truth. And that's KNOWING the truth. Look at John 8:32, "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Did you catch that? You shall know the truth. Because while the truth is the truth--always has been and always will be--if you don't know the truth it doesn't do much for you. If you're out there believing the lie--that says you have to do in order to be--you'll miss out on what's available to you. You'll waste your three T's (time, talent, treasure) trying to earn something that can't be earned. Something that has already been freely given to you. Something you simply need to receive and release. Receive BY releasing. Release by receiving. Because the best way to prove (to yourself) the love of God... is by loving Him back by loving people. But you can't do that until you know that He loves you. We love, because He first loved us. We can't give what we don't have. So we have to let God love us before we can even think about loving Him (by loving each other). Receiving comes first. Learning to love by learning how we are loved. Filling ourselves to overflowing by knowing and believing that God has already filled us up with Himself. With His love. He presented the truth to us so that we might be able to know it and believe it. Jesus said the greatest love a man can have is to lay his life down for his friends. And then He went to the cross and laid His life down for us. He gave His life for us, but He also gave His life TO us. Simply because He wanted us to have it. Simply because He loves us. When you love someone you want the best for them. God wanted the best for us, so He gave the best to us. He gave us His only begotten Son. So that we might not perish but have everlasting life. So that we might experience His abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of love by living it in us, and through us, and as us. That's the truth--Jesus. God in the flesh. Love in a body. God in OUR flesh. Love in OUR body. But knowing the truth is what makes the truth true... for you. If you don't know that you are Jesus--again, God in the flesh, love in a body--you'll spend your three T's trying to be someone you're not. But when you do know the truth you can be who you are. Who you really are. Which is who you are in Christ. Which is who Christ is in you. Christ in you the hope of glory. Love in you overflowing out of you. That's what freedom looks like. It looks like someone who is loved... loving people. Freedom FROM sin... Freedom TO love. That's what the truth made us. But its in knowing the truth that we can be what we are. Love. Who we are. God's beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. Jesus!