Waketh part 2
Jesus came to wake us from sleep. Because even while we slept, our heart waketh. Before the cross, when we were dead in our trespasses and sins, we KNEW there was something better out there. That's why we spent so much of our three T's (Time, Talent, Treasure) trying to get that something better. Trying to earn that love and acceptance we so desperately desired by the sweat of our brows. We thought we didn't have it, but we needed it, so we tried to get it by hook or by crook. By any means necessary. So when a serpent came and hissed in our ear and said, "Eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and you'll be like God," we said, "Of course! That makes sense. We aren't like Him now, but if we get enough information--enough knowledge--we can do good, stop doing evil, be like Him, and be accepted by Him!" But here's the flaw in that plan: "And God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth" (Genesis 1:26). We were already like Him. Made in His image. Which means there has never, and will never, be anything we can do to be like Him... except BELIEVE that we are like Him! And that's where the cross comes in. That's where Romans 8:29 comes in, "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren." See, first we were made in His image, but we were asleep. We didn't know what HE looked like, so we couldn't know what WE looked like. But on the cross we were CONFORMED to the image of His Son. Jesus came to wake us up. To show us who WE are, by showing us who GOD is. And God... is love. WE... are love! That's what awakening to righteousness and sinning not is all about--its all about love. Awakening to the truth that God is love and He loves you. And since sin is unbelief--believing anything other than that glorious truth--we sin not by letting Him love us and loving Him back by loving others with that love. What is it that young people say these days? Get woke! Get with the program. Stop waiting for God to move and start to understand that He already moved. He moved 2,000 years ago on the cross. By shining the light of the world, so that we could stop sleepwalking, see clearly, and start walking in newness of life! So that we could stop trying to earn something that can't be earned and simply begin to receive it and release it. We need to wake up to who we really are. Embrace who we really are. Stop trying to fill ourselves up with something we think we don't have and let what's already inside come out by knowing and believing that its in there! The difference between being awake and being asleep is literally the difference between life and death. But that's for tomorrow. Let me end tonight by saying, the light is shining. The night is over. Wake up! Make hay while the sun is shining. Experience and enjoy what you have by giving it away. By sharing it! Your heart has always been awake. Now the rest of you can catch up!