In the Kingdom of God (the Kingdom of Love) it is never about GETTING. Because love IS giving. And we have already been given the gift of God. It is, instead, about UNDERSTANDING. Knowing and believing what we have. Knowing and believing who we are. So that's why the Bible talks about perfecting the saints. We already ARE perfect. We are complete in Him. You can't get any more perfect than having the Perfect One live inside you. But what you believe dictates how you act. If you believe you're a sinner, you're going to act like one. You're going to run FROM God instead of running TO Him. A slave with a guilty conscience will run from his master. But a dearly loved Son in whom the Father is well pleased runs TO His loving heavenly Father. That's the difference between Adam and Jesus. Adam and Eve hid from the presence of God. Jesus embraced it. Adam and Eve tried to DO in order to BE. Jesus did because He knew who He was. He didn't do in order to be, He did because He be. So this idea of, "I'll clean up my act and then I'll go to church..." I can't tell you how crazy that drives me! How are you supposed to clean up your act on your own? Because, remember, it's NOT about getting. It's not about turning over a new leaf. It's about realizing (and understanding) that we are connected to an entirely different tree! Not the tree of death (the tree of knowledge of good and evil). Not judging things by appearance and trying to do not and not do evil. But the Tree of Life! Eating, and sharing, the fruit of the Spirit. Which is love. Which is what it means to be perfect! In the Bible perfect doesn't refer to never messing up. It refers to maturity. And maturity is a process of learning and growing. Perfecting the perfect. Apprehending what you've been apprehended of. Looking into the mirror with an unveiled face, seeing the glory of the Lord, and being changed into that image FROM glory TO glory! We start at glory! And then we end at glory! Jesus is the beginning and the end! The Alpha and the Omega. It's all Him. And He is love. So we start with an incomplete understanding of love--Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so--and then the Holy Spirit (our love receptor, the Spirit of Truth) takes us by the hand and leads and guides us into all truth. We begin "...to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge..." (Ephesians 3:18-19). We learn HOW to love by learning how we ARE loved. We let God love us, and that perfect love casts out fear. We don't have be afraid of making mistakes. You can't learn from your mistakes if you never make any. And we don't have to be afraid of losing what we've got, because we know (and believe) that we are connected to the unlimited source. He IS the Tree (of the Vine) and we are the branches. We don't produce the fruit. We simply bear it. We carry it to those who need it. And we partake of it with them. We give it away, and we share it. We experience love by loving others. We BE perfect, when we understand that we ARE perfect. Not less than, trying to get better. But exactly who we need to be, and simply learning who we are. Who we REALLY are. Who we are in Christ. Which is who Christ is in us! Absolutely perfect!

Perfecting something (someONE) who is already perfecting is NOT about getting something you haven't got. It's about understanding what you HAVE got. It's about Jesus revealing your perfection, which is HIS perfection, to you, and in you, and through you, and as you. And here's the deal: Perfection manifests in charity. Love in action. Look at Matthew 5:48, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." Once again, and as always, that's not Jesus giving us mission impossible. That's Jesus telling us HOW to do something. Remember, God told Abraham to walk facing Him and be perfect. It wasn't, "You better be perfect, because I'm watching you and I'll get you if you don't." It was, "Watch ME and SEE how to be perfect!" Because what you see is what you be. When we learn how we ARE loved by God, we learn HOW to love. Because His perfection is our perfection. We are not self-righteous. We are the righteousness OF GOD IN CHRIST. We are perfect, not because of what we do, but because of who we are. Let's link up that verse in Matthew with this verse in 1 John 4:17, "Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world." Our love is made perfect in Him. Because He is in us. When the Word (Jesus, love) is made flesh, or put into action. Charity. That's when our perfection (it's already inside) manifests. It comes out when we let ourselves be led by the Spirit. When we receive AND release the love of God. As He is. Be perfect as He is perfect. As He is, so are we in this world. He is perfect. And because of that we are perfecting. This idea of perfecting the saints isn't about taking something that's less than and somehow making it more. It's about unleashing what is inside us. Letting our true nature come forth as we begin to know and believe that He IS our true nature. Our true identity. The problem, as I mentioned a while ago in a different Rant series, is that human's have the ability of self deception. We can tell the truth, and we can lie. We can BELIEVE the truth... and we can believe a lie. So it's not, "I'm not perfect, but someday, if I work hard enough, I might be able to become perfect." That's the lie that the serpent whispered in Eve's ear in the garden of Eden. The lie that says, "You have to do in order to be." When the truth is, we do BECAUSE we be. We aren't perfect because of what we do. We're perfect because of who we are. Who we are in Christ. Which is who Christ is in us. And when we know that we are perfect (perfectly loved, if I can say it that way), we begin to do all of the things that (now) come naturally to us. We walk by faith. Because faith without works is dead. And faith works by love. So that works that work are not works and labor. The works that work are labors of love. There is nothing more perfect, or more holy, than one person loving another person. That's HOW we love God. We love Him by loving each other. And that's what HE does to us. He loves us. That's not just what He does, that's who He IS. And because that's who HE is, that's who WE are. We are perfect as He is perfect. Made perfect BY love, and made perfect through the ACT of love. Perfecting what is already perfect is just simply letting the love that's inside come out!

The first picture we looked at was a house. And the carpenter (Jesus) built the house, and furnished it how HE wanted it to be. The house was perfect, but some things didn't fit inside it. The second picture we looked at was a garden. And the gardener (Jesus) planted it, and pruned it how HE wanted it to be. He nurtured those things that He wanted to grow, and He got rid of those things that were not beneficial. Today I want to look at the most blatant picture in the Bible: A Father and His Son. And, as a father, I can tell you that when my son was born the first thing I ever said to him was, "I've been waiting for you my whole life." And the second thing I ever said to him was, "You're perfect." Now think about that for a second. This little blob of humanity who was utterly and completely helpless. Couldn't do a single thing for himself except poop, and pee, and cry. Couldn't even hold his own head up by himself. Couldn't walk, or talk, or... DO anything. And yet, completely, utterly perfect. Not because of what he could (or couldn't) do. But because of who he WAS. And he's still perfect. Because of who he IS. Not because in the last almost six years he has continued to learn and grow every single day. Not because he has one of the softest, and sweetest hearts in the world. But simply because he's my son. The apple of my eye. I tell him this all the time, "Logan, you are my favorite thing." Which is kind of the equivelant to, "...Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased" (Luke 3:22). And in the same way, that declaration of love from the Father didn't come because of anything Jesus had DONE. He hadn't even started His earthly ministry yet. It came after the Holy Ghost (the love receptor) descended on Him. It came when He (and in our cases when WE) could receive it. When it stopped being too good to be true and became so good that it MUST be true. See, unlike that old wrestler Mr. Perfect, our perfection doesn't come from what we do. It comes from who we are. Who we are in Christ. Which, of course, comes from who Christ is in us. He is the perfect One. He told Abraham HOW to be perfect when He told Abraham to walk facing Him. That's where grace is found--in the eyes of the Lord. And grace is ALLOWS us to learn and grow. No parent punishes their child when he is learning to walk and he stumbles and falls. A good parent helps him up and encourages his to keep going. The just man falls seven times and gets up every time, right? It's not about never making a mistake. That's not what perfection is. It's about LEARNING from your mistakes. It's about trying, and then trying again. I've found that in this life you almost always have to do it wrong before you can do it right. Every expert was once a beginner. It's ok to start at the bottom. As long as you're moving upward and God-ward. And even baby steps are steps in the right direction. So my point is, don't judge yourself against an impossible standard. That was the Law of Moses and Jesus nailed that Law to the cross because it was contrary to us and against us. It could only point out what we did wrong. It couldn't help us do right. That's what Jesus living inside of us does. We are the righteousness OF GOD IN CHRIST. We ARE complete in Him. Even when we mess up. Even when we stumble and fall. Because it's not about what you do. It's about who you are. And you are the beloved Son of your heavenly Father. You are Jesus--God in the flesh. Love in a body!

What does it mean to be perfected, in the sense that we are already perfect? Well, in the picture of us as the house that God lives in, it means "complete furnishing." Where the carpenter Jesus tore down the old house (old man) and raised up the new house (New Man) and decided what fit inside and what didn't. So it's not that we need MORE perfecting. It's simply that we need to let go of some things. Like... our past. Or dead works. Religion. Our view of ourselves outside of God. You know, the sin that so easily besets us. And I love that picture of us as the house that God built. I love it in the Message Bible where it talks about God moving into the neighborhood. But there's another picture I like probably just as good. The picture of the garden. Look at John 20:15, after Jesus rose again from the grave: "Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away." The first thing that popped into Mary's head was, "This must be the gardener." And in fact it WAS the gardener. Because WE are the secret garden in the Song of Solomon. And what happened on the cross, in a sense, was that the garden got pruned. Now, look, I say it happened 2,000 years ago, and it did. But it also FEELS like it is happening day by day. When in fact what is really happening is the REVELATION of what already happened. The MANIFESTATION of what took place on that old rugged cross. Jesus doesn't need to prune you. The work is finished. But this "perfecting," or this maturation process, is when the light shines and shows you what has already been done. John 15:2 says, "Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit." So it feels like there's this constant ebb and flow. Where some things are being pruned back and some things are being nurtured. It feels like we're not complete, but we KNOW that we ARE complete. So what's really happening is, as we become of aware of what HAS been taken away, and what HAS been purged (with fire, perhaps? The consuming fire that IS God...), we aren't becoming MORE perfect. You can't BECOME more perfect. What's happening is that you're beginning to SEE what perfection IS. God told Abraham, "...I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect" (Genesis 17:1). And He wasn't giving Abraham mission impossible. He wasn't saying, "Walk in front of me and don't mess up or I'm going to get you." He was telling Abraham HOW to be perfect. Because the word, "before," is number 6440 in Strong's Hebrew Concordance and it means, "the face." He was telling Abraham, "Walk facing me." Or, "Look me in the face. And see MY perfection. Look in the mirror and see my perfection... in you. And then BE what you SEE!" The gardener lovingly worked until the garden was finished. Until it was perfect. And now--as the wind of the Holy Spirit blows, and stirs up what inside the garden--He can enjoy the fruit of His labor. As WE enjoy the fruit of His labor. The fruit of the Spirit. Which, of course, is love!

I preach this all the time, because I think it's so very important to understand: We ARE complete in Christ. It's not a junior Jesus living in us. He is complete in us. Speaking of Jesus, Colossians 2:9 says, "For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." And He lives in us. So in US dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead in a body. Our body. Both corporately and individually. Let me say it another way, "According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue" (2 Peter 1:3). In other words, He did it all so we could get it all. And the "all" that He did was to give His life for us, and to us. And the "all" that we have is... Him. So what, then, does the idea of "perfecting" have to do with anything? For example, Ephesians 4:12, speaking of the five-fold ministry: "For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ." Well, in order to understand that we need to look at some different pictures in the Bible. And the first one is the picture of a house. (There is a picture of a garden that I like a lot, and I think we'll get to that. And also a picture of a baby. But for today...) The house of the Lord. And I'll just give the ending away first: The house... is you. Jesus was a carpenter, right? A builder. And what better thing to build than a house for Him to live in. You, in other words. Us. We. 2 Samuel 7:27, "For thou, O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, hast revealed to thy servant, saying, I will build thee a house..." And I can see that God was saying, "I will build a house FOR you." But I can also see that He was saying, "I will build a house out of YOU!" I think the cross is a pretty good picture of this too. The Old Man died--the old house was knocked down--and the New Man rose again. A new house was built. But here's the thing about moving, and if you've ever done it you know what I'm talking about; sometimes when you move you find that you don't have room for all the stuff you let pile up. And, I mean, it CAN happen where you move into an even bigger place. But there's still a cleaning process that goes on where you get rid of the junk you don't need. THAT'S the process of perfecting that we go through! The word itself, "perfecting" in Ephesians 4:12 is number 2677 in Strong's Greek Concordance and it means, "complete furnishing." Basically... the master of the house (Jesus. It's HIS house. He built it.) choosing what belongs and what doesn't. That's what it means to be changed FROM glory TO glory. We start at glory. We start at complete. We start at perfect. How much more perfect could you be than to have the Perfect One living in you, and through you, and as you? It's not about getting MORE perfect. It's about getting rid of some stuff in order for our perfection to be REVEALED. It's like when you move into that house, and rip up the nasty carpet, and there's beautiful hardwood floor underneath. It was there all the time, just hidden. It was a mystery. And the mystery has been revealed! Christ in you, the hope of glory. God getting rid of some stuff that doesn't fit anymore. Stuff that never REALLY fit in the first place, but it was all you thought you could get so you settled for it. Well... out with the old and in with GOD! Out with works and labor, and in with rest! Out with looking for love in all the wrong places, and in with receiving and releasing the love of God!

I might be able to quote more Bible than you (actually, my memory is pretty bad. So I probably can't. But even if I CAN), that doesn't make me any better than you. Not even a little bit. And when I think it does, that's when I really get off base. When I think I'm on a higher level than you, that's when I start looking down on you. 1 Corinthians 8:1 tells us that, "...knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth." (And yes, I DID have to look that up.) That's the difference right there between SELF-righteousness, and the righteousness of God in Christ. One puffs you up, and sets you up for a fall. The other BUILDS people up, and gets us where we're going TOGETHER. Look at Ephesians 4:13, which is the tail end of the passage of Scripture about the five-fold ministry: "Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knoweldge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." There's a lot here, but I want to unwrap some of it in order to put a bow on this Rant series. First of all, WE come into the unity of faith. Together. Because Jesus is altogether lovely... and since we are all different parts of His body, that means WE are lovely all together! Next, WE come into the UNITY of faith. Which doesn't mean I have to believe everything you believe and you have to believe everything I believe. It simply means when it comes to faith, we have faith IN GOD. We are unified by the One who reconciled us to Himself. Unified IN the One. Because the unity of faith is the knowledge of Jesus. The perfect man. THE. Singular. ONE perfect man. ONE new man. Who we all are. We ARE complete in Him. Because HE is complete in us. Which is where the last part, "the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ" comes in. 1 John 3:2 says it much better than I can, "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." We ARE the Son(s) of God. That's a done deal. That happened over 2,000 years ago on the cross when He drew us into Himself and planted Himself in us and conformed us to His image (the image we were made it, but couldn't see because it was dark and the light of the world wasn't shining). But as we go through this never-ending eternal-life long journey we are learning what it MEANS to be the Son(s) of God. We are learning what it means to love, by learning what it means to BE loved. We are not trying to walk in Jesus' foot steps, but we are letting Him make His foot steps with our feet! We are not TRYING to be like Him. We are finding out that we ARE like Him as we find out what He is like. As He appears... to us, and in us, and through us, and as us. It's the outworking of the indwelling Spirit, if I can say it that way. It's the love inside--that's who God is. Jesus. God in the flesh. Love in a body--coming out as we fill ourselves to overflowing with it. As we receive it and release it. As we receive it BY releasing it. As we know (and believe) what we have, and as we give it away! That's the ONLY level. Love is a fire that consumes everything except itself. It feeds on itself and grows, and grows, and grows until we couldn't keep it in if we wanted to. And what we find is that it (HE) is so good that we don't WANT to keep it in! We want to share it. We want everybody to experience that unconditional love relationship between heavenly Father and His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased!

I happen to believe that we are all in Christ. I believe that when Jesus was lifted up from the earth He drew us all unto Himself. And from that moment on humanity was no longer in Adam. But that is NOT to say that we all know this glorious truth called the Gospel. That is NOT to say that even those who DO know it always ACT like it. Because in this never-ending life-long journey into the heart of the matter called life... we are all at different levels. We ARE complete in Him. But we are also learning what it MEANS to be complete in Him. We are going through a maturation process. And the important thing to remember is: People learn at different paces. People learn in different ways. My dad always talks about how he has made a lot of mistakes in his life... but never the same one twice. While I, on the other hand, like to make the same mistake seven or eight hundred times. Just to be sure. Different strokes for different folks. But the point is, you can't learn from your mistakes if you never make any mistakes. And more is learned from "failure" than from success. (I put failure in quotation marks because the only REAL way to fail is to fail to keep trying.) So if someone is struggling with something that you find easy, you really shouldn't condemn them for it. You really should stoop down to their level and help them out. That's why we quoted 1 Corinthians 8:13, "Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend." I think that's what it means to deny yourself. I mentioned a few Rants ago that you can swear and still love people. But I want to add that you should be careful about what you say and do. Not because you will make God mad, but because you might make people mad. If it offends someone... don't do it around them. That's called esteeming others higher than yourself. That's called putting others first. That's called... love. Understanding that even though, "I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean" (Romans 14:15). Basically, while the truth IS the truth, as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. The truth HAS set us free. But in practicality it is the truth YOU KNOW AND BELIEVE that sets you free and makes you free. So if someone is not "on your level," be sensitive. If someone doesn't know who they really are, don't condemn them. Show them who they really are. By showing them who YOU really are. Because who you really are, and who they really are, is Jesus. God in the flesh. Love in a body. Remember, there were only ever two "levels." Two men who ever lived. And they both died on the cross. But only one of them rose again to live in us, and through us, and as us. So, really, we're all on the same level. All on the same journey. And it's ok to be at different points of the journey. It's ok to take your time and learn at your own speed. We have to give people room to be who they are. When we expect them to be someone they're not (or someone they ARE, but don't KNOW yet), we are setting THEM up for failure and we are setting OURSELVES us for frustration. So let people learn and grow. Even as you learn and grow. With the assurance that, because we are all aready there--we ARE complete in Him--we'll all get there. And we'll get there even better if we get there together. Helping each other instead of hurting each other. Loving each other.

One of the most self-righteous things a person can do is to look down on someone else. Get all haughty and think, "I'm at a higher level than you, so that makes me better than you!" Because here's what Isaiah 64:6 says about OUR righteousness: "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags..." One qualifier here--that was BEFORE the cross. Before Jesus washed us with the Word (of love). Before, "...he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; so that we might be made the righteousness of God in him" (2 Corinthians 5:21). Did you see the small, but crucial difference there? OUR righteouesness is as filthy rags. Useless. Worthless. Until they were cleaned. Until we were made the righteousness OF GOD in Him. Out of the Old Man and into the New Man. Out of Adam and into Christ. Because realistically there are only two levels. Only two men that have ever lived. Adam and Jesus. And they both died on the cross. But only one of them rose again. Jesus drew us all into Himself when He was lifted up from the earth. He brought us out of death and into life. Into HIS life. The abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of God. A life of love. Life... on a whole different level. I guess what I'm trying to say is, we always want to put people in little boxes. "Sinner and saint." But even that isn't enough. Because we want to talk about how "good" of a Christian we are. Or how "bad" of a Christian Brother So and So is. I don't think there's such a thing as a "good Christian." Because Christian means "Christ-like," right? And, believe it or not, we ARE complete in Him. When we look into the mirror with an unveiled face--Moses put a veil over his face so the people wouldn't be afraid, but now we take the veil AWAY so people won't be afraid!--we see the glory of the Lord. And we're changed into that same image FROM glory TO glory. We start at glory. The ground is even at that the cross. Doing religious jumping jacks doesn't make you better than someone else. It simply makes you more self-righteous. And according to Galatians 5:4 that's the only way to fall from grace: to try to justifiy yourself by the law. To say, "...God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even this publican" (Luke 18:11). That Pharisee was NOT justified. Because he was judging himself (and everyone else) according to the Law. And that wasn't the point of the Law. The point of the Law was that something needed to lead us to Christ. To show us that we can't, so we would trust that HE would. Romans 3:19 says it like this, "Now we know that what things so ever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God." I think tomorrow I'm going to get into how we deal with people under the Law (and how we deal with people who could care less about the Law). But for today I'm trying to say--the Law was given to shut us all up. So we wouldn't have anything to brag about. To show us that we are utterly powerless to do anything on our own. And to show us that we are MORE than conquerors through Him that loves us. We couldn't do it. So He did. For us, and as us. And now we're all (in a sense) at the same level. Because, again, we are all COMPLETE in Him. We start at glory and we move deeper into glory. That's THE level!

New levels, new devils... is NOT what I'm talking about in this Rant series. At all. What I'm talking about is how the human condition is completely universal--we all go through the same things--but also completely individual--we go through them at different times and in different ways. So in order to truly be Christ-like, what we need to do is go down to the level other people are at, instead of insisting they come up to our level. That's what we saw yesterday when Moses covered his face with a veil so that the people of Israel wouldn't fear him. And that was Moses. The mediator of the Old Covenant. You know the old saying, "The Law demands, but grace provides." But even the bringer of the Law was sensitive enough to give grace and mercy. That, unfortunately, is something we seem to have lost, for the most part. We seem--and by "we" I mean religious folk--to be some of the most hypocritical, judgmental people around. "Do as I say, not as I do." Well guess what, buddy, actions speak louder than words. In the five years my son has been alive he's copied me a lot more than he's listened to me. Which is why we made the deal, when he asked me what a four letter word meant, that he could say anything he heard me say. I'm comfortable in that position of role model for him. (Which is not to say that I never make a mistake. I just take my parental responsibility very seriously.) My point is... the way you treat people says more about YOU than it does about THEM. So, "Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man" (Colossians 4:6). Right? Keep your words soft and sweet, in case you have to eat them. My dad says it like this, "You can never be too nice to people." I've seen this quote about a million times: "Everybody is going through a battle you know nothing about. Be kind." And it really IS that simple. Just err on the side of kindness. Because if your stomach hurts... you don't punch it. You don't need to kick people when they're down. You don't need to pile on. You need to stoop down and help people up. Jesus, in a sense, modeled this in John 13:5, "After that he poureth water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them wit the towel wherewith he was girded." Jesus came down to where His disciples were at. He fed people, and healed people. He understood the human condition and He set to work IMPROVING it. He didn't expect, or even want, any special treatment. He didn't expect people to wash His feet. He simply did what was necessary to make people clean. He came down to OUR level. He wrapped Himself in human flesh. When man tried to build a tower up to the heavens and make a name for himself, God basically said: Pass. He didn't want us to make a name for OURSLEVES. He wantes to give us HIS name. Remember the white stone in Revelation that has a new name on it that nobody knows until they receive it? I believe that name is Jesus. One new name for one New Man. But until you receive it (by releasing it) it doesn't mean anything to you. Until the Word becomes flesh IN YOU (when love is put into action and becomes charity) you don't really understand who you are. Who you are in Christ. Which is who Christ is in you. You don't really understand love until you get down on someone else's level and simply love the love the hell out of them!

It is becoming increasingly important to me to not only UNDERSTAND that everybody is at different levels--different parts of the journey, if I can say it that way--but also to MEET people right where they're at. Because when we put expectations on people, what we're really doing is setting them up for failure and ourselves up for frustration. Because people are going to do what they're going to do no matter what you want them to do. That's called "human" nature. The beast nature. And it's only when we understand our new nature, our TRUE nature, the love nature that we can stop trying to GET people to do things and we can start DOING things for people. "For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others..." (Matthew 20:28 NLT), is basically what I'm tryinig to say. When we shift our focus OFF of ourselves and ONTO others, that's when we become capable of making the sacrifice that is love. Glady giving everything we have and everything we are, no matter how it's received. And for this Rant series I want to focus on what might be an aspect of what Jesus said in Matthew 16:24, "The said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." Now I've said many times that I don't think we're supposed to deny who we are. We're supposed to embrace who we are. But at the same time, "...if what I eat causes another believer to sin, I will never eat meat again as long as I live--for I don't want to cause another believer to stumble" (1 Corinthians 8:13 NLT). It's about loving people more than you love anything else. About loving people more than you love yourself. Esteeming others higher than yourself. Thinking about others first. Let me show you the example that prompted this Rant series: "When Moses came down Mount Sinai carrying two stone tablets inscribed with the terms of the covenant, he wasn't aware that his face had become radiant because he had spoken to the LORD" (Exodus 34:29). Moses was at a level that few people will ever get to. He stood face to face with God. He didn't even have to eat or drink, because he was completely sustained by the presence of the Lord. And his face shone with the brillant glory of the Lord. But he didn't even realize it. For him, it was just business as usual. But, "...when Aaron and the people of Israel saw the radiance of Moses' face, they were afraid to come near him" (Exodus 34:30 NLT). The people were NOT on Moses' level. At all. they were still running FROM God instead of running TO Him. They were still more interested in an external, performance-based, man-centered, behavior modifying religious system than a relationship. Moses was God's friend. And the people of Israel were afraid to come near him. But watch this, beacause this is the point. This is where I'm at: "When Moses finished speaking wtih them, he covered his face with a veil" (Exodus 34:33 NLT). Moses didn't demand the people come up to his level. He did what was necessary to come down to theirs. "Oh. You're afraid of the glory in my face? I can't connect to you the way that I am? Ok. Let me deny myself. Let me cover up so that I can make YOU feel comfortable." It was a sacrifice, but it was one made out of love. And that's what I think the world needs a lot more of. Meeting people on THEIR level, instead of demanding that they meet you on yours!