The reason why it is so important to repent from dead works--to have our CONSCIENCE purged of dead works--is that this life is not supposed to be a struggle. And, as always, I'm not saying that once you get born again, or accept Jesus as your Savior, or whatever other way of saying it there is, everything will be exactly the way you want it to be. That's unrealistic. Even for a believer. Because things being in Divine Order doesn't MEAN that the are exactly the way YOU want them to be. Being in Divine Order means, "on earth as it is in heaven." And, believe it or not, that's how things already are. The Kingdom came when the King of kings took up residence in us. Because that's what the Kingdom IS; the realm where the King rules and reigns. The realm where LOVE rules and reigns. And one of the characteristics of love is that it (HE) doesn't demand its (HIS) own way. Doesn't demand His own way... and doesn't try to GET His own way. What I'm trying to say is... let me say it like this: I used to cuss like a sailor when I was younger. I thought, "words are words. What's the big deal?" And as I writer I thought it was pretty grown up to pepper my speech with adult language. But then, about the time I reconnected with the church and my pastor, something changed. And it didn't come from me WANTING to change, or TRYING to change. That's dead works, in a nutshell. If you aren't good enough to begin with, how can you somehow BECOME good enough on your own? Answer: You can't. But when you repent of those dead works... when you totally and completely shift your thinking and your focus from one thing to another... when you LET the mind of Christ that's already in you BE in you... that's when a real and lasting change comes. Not from the outside-in, but from the inside-out. From the heart. And that's why, when Logan started to talk, and to discover that there are some things you can say, and some things you probably shouldn't, I felt 100% comfortable telling him, "Little buddy, you can say ANYTHING you hear me say." Because my conscience had been purged of cuss words. And listen, I'm not condemning anybody. It doesn't offend me when someone says a four letter word. That's not the point. The point is that TRYING to change will get you nothing but frustration and failure. But RECEIVING the change that took place 2,000 years ago on the cross gets you totally and completely out of the old and into the new. Things that used to take up a lot of space in your head are squeezed out by things like forgiveness, and mercy, and love. No man can serve to masters, right? There isn't enough time, or room, for both. And here's where we can hang our hat: 1 John 1:5, "This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all." God is light. There is no darkness in Him at all. God lives in you. LIGHT lives in you. There is no DARKNESS in you at all. So stop struggling. Stop trying so hard. And just because swearing was turned off like a light for me doesn't mean it will be for you. The maturation process of understanding how perfect we are and understanding what it means to BE perfect takes time. But when your conscience is purged... that's when things DO, in fact, get easy. That's when life stops being a struggle and starts flowing out of our hearts!

What you DO flows from what you BELIEVE. That's why repentance--or changing your mind in light of something that happened--is so important. The cross brought us out of the Old Covenant of works and labor, and into the New Covenant of resting in the finished work of Jesus. So what really needs to happen is that we need to stop waiting for a move of God (or, worse yet, trying to make something happen in our own strength), and we need to get a revelation of Jesus. Because the cross WAS the move of God that humanity was waiting for (whether they knew it or not). And now ALL of creation is waiting for the manifestation of the Son(s) of God. We ARE the Son(s) of God. But we need to eat the body and drink the blood of Christ in order to get that truth down into us. So that it can come up out of us. Look at Hebrews 9:14, because it says it better than I can: "How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" And here's why that's important--if you're trying really hard to not participate in dead works... you're participating in dead works! Because you're trying to do it in your own strength. Its like going to the bathroom. The more you think about going to the bathroom, even if you're trying your hardest to think about NOT going to the bathroom... the more you think about it, the more you will need to do it. Because what you magnify is what manifests in your life. What you feed is what grows. So its not a battle against dead works. Its not this idea of "denying yourself" or, worse yet, "dying daily." Its not trying to be someone your not. Because by trying to be someone you're not (again) you're getting caught up in too much trying. Too much works and labor. And as a quick aside, I'm NOT saying you shouldn't try to do things. I completely believe in maximum effort. Rest is NOT inactivity. Rest is Holy Spirit directed activity. And the Holy Spirit always directs you to love. Which IS the maximum effort that you can give something; love is giving everything you have and everything you are. So I'm not saying you shouldn't try. I'm saying when it comes to Spiritual perfection you don't NEED to try. What you need is to LET the blood of Christ purge your CONSCIOUS of dead works. What I'm saying is that you ARE complete in Him. Right now. Already. With all of your "flaws" and with every mistake you've ever made, or ever will make. What you need to do is LET the mind of Christ that's already in you BE in you. How else would you change your mind other than letting go of the old and taking hold of the new? And did you notice WHY we let the blood of Christ purge our conscience from dead works? So that we can serve the living God! Dead works can't serve a LIVING God. But if you let go of those external, behavior modification laws... when you stop trying to be someone you're not... that's when you can actually BE who you are. When Jesus reveals Himself TO you, He also reveals Himself THROUGH you, and AS you! So instead of trying to get something you've already got... you can simply begin to enjoy it by receiving it and releasing it. By letting God love you, and loving others with that same love!

You can't do it all on your own. And that's ok. Because you are not expected to. Or required to. In fact, when you begin to understand the finished work of the cross you will see that everything that needed to happen... already happened 2,000 years ago. Look at Revelation 12:11, "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death." Now a lot of people will tell you that this is HOW you overcome. But really--since Revelation is an in-depth look at the cross--this is telling you exactly what it SAYS its telling you. They OVERCAME. Past tense. And the "him" that they overcame is, according the verse right before the one that we quoted, is the accuser of the brethren. And, according to that verse, he is cast down. What am I trying to say? We are overcomers not because we have the ability to overcome, but because Jesus already overcame! Because there is nothing left TO overcome. Jesus already brought every mountain low and every valley high. He made the Way straight so that we could we could walk in. Not in our own power--and thank God for that, because REALLY we don't have any power of our own. Until we understand that we are loved. Because love is all powerful. Which means love has ALL of the power--but by walking by faith. Faith in God. Faith in love. Following our heart. Letting the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, lead and guide us. Dedicating all of our ways to the Lord and letting His Word (again, Jesus... LOVE) be a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. Not fighting AGAINST things, but fighting the good fight of faith and laying hold of eternal life. Laying hold of the GIFT we've been given. Guys. We have to stop trying to earn the gift of God. If you can earn it--or, worse yet, if you HAVE to earn it--then its not a gift. A gift is freely given, and must only be received. Adam was under the cursed dimension of earning his bread by the sweat of his brow. Jesus sweated great drops of blood in order to redeem us from that curse. And, by the way, that's how the accuser was overcome; by the blood of the Lamb. By Jesus laying His life down and showing us that death was not the end of the story. By showing us that life trumps death every time. Love trumps everything else. Every time. All powerful. All of the power. Nothing can stand against love. So when we are looking at the question of: "What am I supposed to do?" The simple answer is: Love. Wherever you are. In whatever way you can. Whoever you come into contact with. If you don't know what to do... do what you know. Let what's inside come out. And notice that I didn't say MAKE what's inside come out. Don't force it. LET it come out. From a posture of rest. This little light of mine... I'm gonna LET it shine. Right? When we fill ourselves to overflowing with what we've been filled with, that's when this life stops being a struggle and starts being a flow. Its a river of living water that FLOWS out of your heart. Because that's what's already IN there. You don't have to (and can't) earn it. All you can do is receive it and release it. Receive it BY releasing it. Let go and let God, right? Let it go, and let it flow. Don't try to do it all by yourself. And don't try to earn something that can't be earned. Don't try to be someone you're not. Just let God show you who you REALLY are... and BE who you really are!

Dead works. Trying to perfect yourself through the flesh of human effort. Trying to do what needed to be done (before the cross) without receiving the gift that was given THROUGH the cross. Trying to do it yourself. We looked Galatians 3:3 yesterday, "Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?" And today I want to link that up with Psalm 53:1, "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God..." And while that IS pretty foolish to deny the existence of love... the words "There is" are in italics. Which means they weren't in the original writing. Which means, "The fool hath said in his heart, no God." My point is, it's foolish to try to do what has already been done. Its foolish to try to do it on your own. And saying no to God... well, Biblically that makes you a fool. Because your heavenly Father has your best interests at heart. And while we THINK we know what's best... He KNOWS what's best. Because He knows the end from the beginning. He knows the Way we should go because He IS the Way we should go. The straight and narrow way that leads to life. And, contrary to popular belief, just because something is straight and narrow that doesn't mean its hard. I think its hard to carry around the corpse of the dead Old Man who died in the watery grave of baptism. I think its hard to try to be someone you're not. I think Jesus offered us rest because He saw how hard we were trying, but He knew that all of our effort wasn't able to get us what we desired. Look at Psalm 37:4, "Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart." In Him we find the desire of our heart. Because what else could our heart desire... but love? And where else could we find it... but at the source? In the God who IS love! I'm telling you, we spend so much of our time, talent, and treasure looking for love in all the wrong places. We rob ourselves from experiencing the gift we've been given by trying to enter the sheepfold any other way but through the Door. THAT to me is the hard life. THAT to me is what dead works give you. Because, "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death" (Proverbs 16:25). What else could dead works get you but death? What else could eating of the tree of death (the tree of knowledge of good and evil) get you but death? One more Bible verse for today: "In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths" (Provebs 3:6). If you say there is no God, or if you say no TO God, then you're kind of putting yourself in position where you're on your own. And life is too big to do all on your own. Now don't get me wrong, God swore He would never leave you nor forsake you. But I believe God is too much of a gentleman to force Himself on you. When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden of Eden they hid from the presence of God. My point is, even though He's always there--He lives inside of us--sometimes we try things the hard way. The story of Jonah comes to mind. And, to some degree, God will LET us do what we're of a mind to do. Of course, Jonah was... convinced... to do what God had for him to do. But that's another story for another time. My point is: No man is an island. Its not good that man should be alone. We need each other. And we need God. Because we need love. Love is what connects us TO each other. Love is what its all about...

Its funny to me the way we twist things around--usually after saying, "The Bible clearly says!" For example, we have almost made repentance a bad word. At the very least a misunderstood word. Here's the way the "church world" seems most excited about using that word, "Repent of your sins or you're going straight to hell!" Get right or get left. Straighten up and fly right or else you're in for a world of hurt. Do better so you can be better. But... wait a minute. Isn't that the lie that the serpent hissed into Eve's ear back in the misty gardens of Eden? And, shockingly, when the Bible talks about repentance it doesn't mention sin at all. Look at Hebrews 6:1, "Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God." What this says to me is that repentance is a foundation of our "Christian walk." Its something that comes very early in the process of perfection, or maturation. It is NOT the be-all end-all of what we're trying to do here. And the thing we need to repent of is not sin. Sin is unbelief. And Jesus took away the sin of the world when He gave us something (someONE, Himself, LOVE) to believe in. What we need to repent--or change our minds about--is OUR part in this whole thing. The lie was, "Do in order to be. You're not good enough right now, but if you try hard enough maybe someday you will be." But here's the problem with that: When there's a carrot on a stick, you usually end up getting BEATEN with the stick, instead of ever getting to enjoy the carrot. Jesus said it like this to the rich young ruler, "...Yet lackest thou one thing..." (Luke 18:22). In that case it wasn't that the man had a lot of possesions. It was that his possesions had him. He wasn't willing to let go of the world. And we know that we cannot serve two masters. That doesn't work. And here's the point of this Rant series: Works don't work! Because, in the same way that faith without works is dead... dead works don't get us where we want (or where our heavenly Father wants us) to go. You can't earn a gift. And that's what God gave us when He gave us His only begotten Son. That's what Jesus gave us when He gave His life for us, and to us. He gave us a gift. The gift of eternal life. The gift of living and loving, because we know that we ARE loved. And yet we still spend so much of our lives--our three t's; time, talent, and treasure--looking for love in all the wrong places. I'm telling you: Dead works are working hard to earn something that can't be earned. Dead works are working hard to earn a gift that has already been freely given. Let me say it another way: "Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?" (Galatians 3:3). It's not what you do that matters. It's who you are. Because what you do FLOWS from who you are. When you repent from dead works, and stop trying to be someone you're not in order to get something you think you haven't got (but something you really DO already have) that's when you can start to live from a posture of rest. That's when what's inside of you can start to come out. Naturally. As you fill yourself to overflowing with what you've already been filled with. When you know and believe that the love of God is in you... that's when you receive it and release it. That's when your works stop being dead and start giving life!

The Word of God is love. Right? Jesus: God in the flesh, love in a body. So its no surprise that Jesus said, "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life" (John 6:63). Because to live is to love and to love is to live. Of course the Word of love is the Word of life. Its the same thing. Living and loving is the same thing. But we spend so much time listening to anything and everything else. And, unfortunately, a lot of times we claim what we hear is God. Look at 1 Kings 19:11-12, "And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind and earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice." The world will scream at the top of its lungs to try to get you to believe its lie. And that's easy to do. Especially if its all you ever hear. What you magnify is what manifests in your life. If all you ever hear is what a scumbag you are... you'll probably end up believing it. But. There's a more excellent way. "From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life" (John 6:66-68). When you know the truth you can ignore the lie. When that still, small voice inside you leads and guides you into all truth by speaking the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth... that's when (and where, and how) faith comes. Faith comes from hearing. And hearing from the Word of God. The Word about Christ. Which is the Word about you. God in the flesh is God in YOUR flesh. Love in a body is love in YOUR body. Because when God said, "Let there be light," He was saying, "I love you." He was inserting HIMSELF into your darkness. So that you could clearly see. Jesus told Philip, "If you've seen me you've seen the Father." Jesus came to show us who God really is, and to show us who WE really are. A heavenly Father who loves His Son(s). A beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. Listening and living is about knowing the truth and that truth setting us free and making us free. Free FROM the bondage of sin and death. Free TO live and love by letting God love us and loving Him back by loving each other with that same love. Knowing and believing the Word. Receiving and releasing the Love. That's HOW we live; by loving each other. That's how we know that we have passed from death unto life--because we love each other. And that's HOW we love each other--because we ARE loved by God! His love fills us to overlowing and comes out. Naturally. Which, by the way, is how we are SUPPOSED to live. Its not supposed to be a struggle. Its supposed to flow from a posture of rest. Its supposed to be natural. Just being who we really are (who we are in Christ, which is who Christ is in us). That's why the Word is so important; it (HE) tells us who we really are. By telling us who HE really is. That's why listening leads to living. Because we aren't listening to the world's report, but we are listening to the Word of God. The Word of life. The Word of LOVE!

If you want to live... you have to love. Because living and loving aren't just connected... they are the same thing! To live is to love and to love is to live. But you can't give what you don't have. So if you want to live (by loving) you have to first know that you ARE loved. That's why faith comes from hearing. Remember, God dealt to every man the measure of faith (Romans 12:3). He gave us something (someONE, Jesus, love) to believe in. By giving us the Word. Let me say it like this: "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32). And notice that its the truth you KNOW that makes you free. The finished work of the cross is, well, finished. God did everything He needed to do over 2,000 years ago. We don't need a move of God. God already moved. What we need is a revelation of Jesus. What we need is to KNOW what that move of God was! We need to KNOW the truth so that what's already true can be true... for us. And we know the truth when we hear it. When we see it. Right? Eyes to see and ears to hear. We know the truth when that still, small voice inside us whispers, "I love you." Because that's the Word. That's the truth. That's Jesus. A heavenly Father loving the Son in whom He is well pleased. And that Son--US... His body--living because of that affirmation. Because of that love. Look at John 6:57, "As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me." I think this is important. Because it seems like so often we have the (slave) mindset of living FOR God. As if He's giving the orders and we better follow them or else. When the truth of the matter is, Jesus lived BY the Father. And when we eat of Him--the bread of life... the Lamb... the six course love feast prepared for us in the presence of our enemies--we live BY Him. Because then we know what's inside. We've eaten it. Consumed it. And what's inside WILL come out. Or rather, what you know and believe is inside will come out. The truth that you KNOW sets you free. The Word that you've HEARD gives you the measure of faith. And then that faith grows and grows as God continues to prove Himself faithful. That's the biggest problem I see with "praise and worship"... we use it as a way to try to get God to move. You don't praise someone to try to get something from them. That's called flattery, and its usually pretty fake. Manipulation. If you're trying to manipulate God I think you've probably taken a wrong turn somewhere. (But its ok, because God allows u-turns.) Praise isn't about what someone WILL do, or MIGHT do. Praise is about what someone HAS DONE. The FINISHED work. That's why we praise God. Because He did what needed to be done. Because He gave us what we needed to have. Which is Him. He gave His only begotten Son. And then Jesus gave His life FOR us, and TO us. So that we might have it. So that we might live, by letting HIM live in us, and through us, and as us. So that we might be made free. Freed from the bondage of sin and death. Freed from the lie that says you have to do in order to be. Freed by the truth. What else could defeat the lie but the truth? What else could defeat death but abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life? That's what we've been given. That's what's available to us. If we will listen... and live!

Three words. Eight letters. Probably the most powerful thing one person can say to another. "I love you." And yet, when we hear it, it almost seems like we immediately want to dismiss it. Because it seems like its too good to be true. We don't often see ourselves as worthy of love. So even though its the most basic human desire... even though its the entire reason we were created--to be loved and to love each other with that love--even though we look for love in all the wrong places and try everything we can think of in order to "get" it... we seem to have a big problem actually receiving it. Thank God for the Holy Spirit, right? The Spirit of truth that leads and guides us into all truth. That leads and guides us into the truth that God loves us. Always has and always will. And that, my friends, is why faith comes from hearing the Word (which is Jesus, which is love) of God. Because God has only ever said one thing. One Word. In the beginning He said, "Let there be light." He interjected something powerful into the darkness. Something that in fact makes (MADE) the darkness flee. When we were dark, and void, and without form He filled us up. With Himself. He dealt out THE measure of faith by giving us something (someONE, Jesus, love) to believe in. That's one of the reasons Jesus died on the cross; to prove to us that God would literally rather die than be without us. When we were yet sinners (unbelievers) and had nothing to offer... God gave us everything He had. He wanted the best FOR us, so He gave the best TO us. He wanted us to have LIFE, and that more abundantly. So He gave us His only begotten Son, so that we might know ourselves AS His Son(s). So that we might know HIM as Father. So that we might receive that gift of God that is eternal life. That is knowing the Father through the context of being His Son. So that we might know that we are loved... and in that way we might love. Because you can't give what you don't have. And you can only give what you do have. Hurting people hurt people. But loved people love people. What you know and believe is inside you WILL come out. It has to. Because its too big to keep bottled up. So we hear that Word, "I love you." The light begins to shine in an otherwise dark and hopeless existence. We give up on the rat race (because who wants to be king rat, really?) when we are presented with a more excellent way. THE Way. The TRUTH. And the Life. Jesus. God in the flesh. Love in a body. God in YOUR flesh. Love in YOUR body. And when we hear that Word, "I love you," something leaps within us. Much like in Luke 1:41, "And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost." The right word, in the right season, from the right person, can really fill you up. It can spark a Holy Ghost wildfire that burns and burns and consumes everything but itself (Himself). And here's the best part: What if we hear that Word, and DON'T believe it? Or grab it, but then let the cares of the world choke it away? What happens is this: God says it again. "I love you." And again. "I love you." With every beat of HIS heart in OUR chests, that still small voice tells us exactly what we need to hear. Because love isn't just what God DOES. Love is who God IS. And WHO God loves... is you!

I think human beings, as a species, are pretty susceptible to outside forces. I'm not saying we're all gulibe, but we tend to (at the very least) believe what our five senses are telling us. For example (and I know most of you will probably find this weird) I've never tried coffee. Ever. Because I don't like the way it smells. And I trust my nose. So there are sayings like, "the proof of the pudding is in the eating." The idea that we have an idea of what's right, or true, and we'll know it when we see it, or hear it. But one big problem with human beings is that we set the bar really, really low. Especially when it comes to ourselves. There is NO condemnation like self condemnation. Because we're with ourselves all the time. I know exactly how low I can go. Cuz I was there with myself at rock bottom. I think a lot of the time we see ourselves as so much less than what we actually are. We see our own flaws, and blemishes. We see what we're NOT good at so much more clearly than what we ARE good at. And that's why Eve immediately and easily swallowed the lie that the serpent hissed into her ear. The lie that says, "You're not good enough, but if you try hard enough maybe someday you can become good enough." The lie that says you have to DO in order to BE. When the truth is, you don't do IN ORDER to be. You do BECAUSE you be. You give what you have. You live out of your abundance. And that's why Jesus (more or less) said, "Listen and live." He said the dead would hear His voice and they would live. Before the cross we were ALL dead in our trespasses and sins. Because Adam, our representative at the time, sinned and died. He ate of the wrong tree. The tree of knowledge of good and evil. The tree of death. But Jesus came that we might have LIFE, and have it more abundantly. He came to give us something. A life filled with love. A life lived BY loving each other with the love that God loves us with. But faith comes from hearing. So its by LISTENING to that Word (again, Jesus... love) that we begin to live. Its by listening to that Word that we can walk by faith. I'm convinced that when Jesus was walking on the water and called Peter out there with Him, it was really the Word that Peter was walking on. I don't think the water had a whole lot to do with it. But I digress. My point is that when we hear something, it resonates with us. Either as the truth--which oftentimes seems too good to be true--or as a lie--which is sometimes easy to swallow because it matches up with our own twisted self-image. Now here's where I wanted to get to: Romans 10:16-17, "But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." I included verse 16 because it goes along beautifully with James 1:23-25, "For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed." Basically, what you feed is what grows. What you listen to--either the world's report or the gospel, the Word of the Lord--defines your reality. If all you ever hear is the lie, you WILL believe it. BUT there IS a more excellent way. The voice of truth speaking from inside with every beat of God's heart in your chest. Saying, "I love you!"

There's a cool story--in the sense that it is a type and shadow of Jesus, and He in fact refers to it when He is talking about the cross--where a serpent was lifted up on a pole in order to save people who were bit by snakes. And the moral of the story was, "Look and live." Because what you see is what you be. When you see the finished work of the cross you can begin to experience the fruit of Jesus' labor. Which is the fruit of the Spirit. Which is love. So for a long time I've had that phrase, "look and live" in my Spirit. Then, the other day, I came across John 5:25 in the NLT, "And I assure you that the time is coming, indeed it's here now, when the dead will hear my voice--the voice of the Son of God. And those who listen will live." Which makes sense when you consider how important it is to have eyes to see AND ears to hear. And when you consider--and this is the point of this Rant series-- that, "...faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10:17). Yeah, I'm still stuck on faith. The same faith that grows like a mustard seed comes from HEARING the WORD. And, as we know, the Word of God is Jesus. The Word of God is love. So when we put these two ideas together what we see is that the dead (those who were dead in their trespasses and sins before the cross) hear the Word of God and live. Because they have something to believe in. They have someONE to believe in. They have LOVE to believe in. Guys, as simply as I can say it: Love is the difference between life and death. Look at 1 John 3:14, "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death." Love is what makes the abundant life that Jesus came for us to have... abundant. Love is the truth that the Holy Spirit--the Spirit of truth--leads and guides us into. And love is THE measure of faith that God has dealt to every man. Jesus didn't just tell us about this love either. He put His money where His mouth was. He said, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay his life down for his friends" (John 15:13). And then He went to the cross and did that very thing! He TOLD us and SHOWED us. Eyes to see AND ears to HEAR. What we see is what we be. But when we hear the Word of God faith explodes in our hearts. Even though that kind of selfless agape God-love can seem too good to be true, it is precisely what our hearts desire. And I'm convinced that no matter how hard someone heart is, no matter how much they think they are "guarding" their heart by keeping it closed off and shut down, when you hear, and see, and experience that kind of love from someone... it melts that hard heart. I personally think that was what the Apostle Paul was talking about when he said, "Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head" (Romans 12:20). I don't think its about burning people, or punishing them. I think its about giving them what we've got. Because GOD is consuming fire. And if we're heaping GOD on someone's head that means we're heaping LOVE on someone's head. We hear the Word that we ARE loved, and then we live BY loving! That's what I'm trying to say in this Rant series. Listen... and live!