What Else? part 1
I asked Logan what I should Rant about today (as I often do) and his answer was the same as it always is: "Love. What else?" And while I know I make mistakes... that right there makes me feel confident that I've at least got him focused on the right thing. If I had to quote a Bible verse for what's on my heart I guess it would be 1 Corinthians 13:13 (NLT), "Three things will last forever--faith, hope, and love--and the greatest of these is love." There is a lot of pretty great stuff in life. Mountain Dew. Chocolate. A good book by your favorite author. But when you get right down to it, the bottom line (or, as Logan points out, the TOP line, because you put the most important thing first) is love. Love is the greatest. And while faith and hope are directly CONNECTED to love... Jesus said, "Have faith in God" and God is love... "O Lord, you alone are my hope. I've trusted you, O LORD, from childhood" (Psalm 71:5 NLT)... its all about love. Love is our faith and our hope. Every truly good story is a love story. Because love is what matters. Even the Bible is "just" one big love story. From Creator to creation. From Father to Son. From Bridegroom to bride. Love is the very center of everything. What else matters? Sure, you need money to pay bills. Sure you need food and clothing and shelter. But look at Matthew 6:31-33 (NLT), "So don't worry about these things, saying, 'What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?' These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need." The concerns of this world pale in comparision to the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of LOVE. And I'm not talking about "getting" to the Kingdom on some glad morning. I'm not talking about what happens when (IF) you die. I'm not talking about seeking the Kingdom because its something you don't have but need to get. I'm talking about the exact opposite. Because the Kingdom is here. The Kingdom is now. The Kingdom is the realm where the King rules and reigns. The King of kings rules and reigns in us! We are the kings of the Kingdom. And not only that, we ARE the Kingdom. Love is not just what we do, love is who we are. Because God is love. Our Father is love. And we have His DNA. The Divine Nature of the Almighty. We don't seek the Kingdom in order to get something we haven't got. We seek the Kingdom in order to EXPLORE what we HAVE got. In order to EXPERIENCE the gift we've been given by sharing it. By giving it away. And we share the gift of love--we remain in God's love--by loving each other. We love God by loving each other. We love God because He first loved us. We live Jesus' abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life by letting HIM live His own life of love in us, and through us, and as us. Because to live IS to love and to love is to live. They aren't just connected. They are the same thing. And what we're going to look at a little bit in this Rant series is just how central love really is. To everything. God--love--doesn't just want to be a PART of your life. He wants to BE your life because He IS life. True life. And when we're talking about living... what else matters? When we're talking about ANYTHING... its all about love. What else?