Waketh part 3
The difference between being awake and asleep is literally the difference between life and death. Sleep walking. The walking dead. Going through the motions. Stuck in a rut--which is just a grave with the ends kicked out. Stumbling around in the dark. Trying the best you can with what you've got (which you believe to be nothing at all) to get something that you think you haven't got (which, tragically, you've had all along). And religion is the blind leading the blind, causing everybody to end up in a ditch. But, as always, there's a more excellent way. THE Way, the Truth, and the Life. Jesus. Love. Jesus came to wake us from sleep. And look at the connection here: "These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep. Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. Howbeit Jesus spake of his death: but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep" (John 11:11-13). Sleep = death. And, see, the disciples thought of death as permanent. They couldn't even begin to grasp the concept of Jesus waking us from death. But that's what the cross was--Jesus died so we could die (to death) and then he rose again so that we could awake to righteousness and sin not. So that we could wake up to the truth... the ultimate truth of the universe that says "God is love and He loves you." He came to wake us from sleep. To bring us out of death and into life. Now watch this--this is one of my all-time favorite memory verses: "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death" (1 John 3:14). And let's connect it with John 5:24, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath evelasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life." Its that Word (which is Jesus, which is love) of life that gives us life! Knowing and believing that God loves us. Because faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the word of God. When we were asleep our heart was awake. And that voice of truth was Jesus standing at the door (of our heart) and knocking. Just waiting to be let in so that He could sup with us. So that He could share that love feast that He is, and satisfy our appetite. He has the thing our heart desires, because He IS the thing our heart desires. Love. Love is what makes life worth living. Love is what makes the abundant life abudant. Love is what makes it POSSIBLE to truly live. Because to live IS to love and to love is to live. They aren't just connected, they are the same thing. Before the cross we were sleepwalking. Dead in our trespasses and sins. But that Word quickened us. Made us alive. Woke us up. So that we could live. So that we could be loved, and love God by loving each other with that same love. So that we could stop trying to be someone we're not in order to get something we think we haven't got. So that we could walk in newness of life. Newness of love!