I want to talk about the wind today. And I'm going to get into something really cool (I think) with it, but first I want to just say, "For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind..." (Hosea 8:7). I've been talking about how every action has a equal reaction. Or consequence. Some good, some bad, depending on what you sow. Because you reap what you sow, right? But I think there's also a snowball effect. And sometimes we don't think about this. Sometimes what we do escalates things. Sometimes a wind becomes a whirlwhind. Sometimes the smallest stone produces the biggest ripple. Sometimes a wind produces a whirlwind. So we need to really count the cost. I think, if anything, that's my mantra for this Rant series. Your actions have consequences. Make sure the juice is worth the squeeze. But now let me show you something that I think is pretty amazing. "And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance" (Acts 2:2-4). The wind is the Holy Ghost. The Holy Spirit! So when you sow the wind, you're really sowing the Spirit! And where the Spirit of the Lord is... there is liberty! A whirlwind of love that comes from the smallest wind of love blowing. And I know that the people in that house were literally speaking different languages... but what about the different languages of love? What about the Holy Spirit--the Spirit of truth that leads and guides us into all truth--teaching us how to speak to each other as we need to be spoken to? What about the Spirit giving us utterance by showing us how to love each other? Showing us how our fellow man needs to be loved--because not everybody receives love in the same way. That's how the Spirit leads us. He leads and guides us into the truth of love. How we are loved and how we can love each other. There is no bigger, or better, consequence than that which flows from love. And love certainly grows and grows. Love feeds on itself (HIMSELF) and grows. A Holy Ghost wildfire that burns out of control and starts with the smallest spark. A tiny act of love can snowball. A hug can mean all the difference in the world. Making someone feel heard can go such a very long way. I think sometimes people yell (and kick and scream) because they don't think anybody is listening to them. And the only thing they can think to do is escalate. "You can't hear me? I'll be louder." Makes a certain kind of sense. But, like I said, its an easy fix; give them your ear. Give them your full attention. Sow the wind. The wind of the Spirit. And then when YOU reap the whirlwind, you'll be GIVING the whirlwind. You'll be helping people see God by helping them see love. Showing them who God is by showing them what (WHO) love is. Sowing love has the best consequence ever. Because when you sow love you reap love. When you give it away... you experience it. You feel happy when you make others happy. You feel love... when you love!

I know I'm taking this verse slightly out of context, because I'm not talking about communion tonight, but the phrasing is so good I want to use it to illustrate the point I'm trying to make in this Rant series. 1 Corinthians 11:29, "If you give no thought (or worse, don't care) about the broken body of the Master when you eat and drink, you're running the risk of serious consequences." So, like, take out the "broken body of the Master when you eat and drink" part, and insert literally whatever you're doing. Because if you don't think about--or don't care about--the consequences of your actions... you just might find yourself in a place you don't want to find yourself in. And, guys, come on. I'm not talking about hell. At least not as a destination. I'm talking about how sometimes we make things harder for ourselves. Because we don't think about the consequences. We don't... let me quote the red letters. Jesus. Luke 14:28, "For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?" Sometimes we don't count the cost. Sometimes we don't seem to worry about whether or not the juice is worth the squeeze. Remember yesterday? You can do anything you want, but that doesn't necessarily mean you should. Some things aren't worth doing. Some things hurt and don't help. And if your goal is to hurt... you need to reevalute your goal. I truly believe that hurt people hurt people. Because you can't give what you don't have. And you can only give what you do have. If all you have is hurt... that's all you can give. But I don't believe ONLY hurt people hurt people. I think sometimes people can't look past themselves. Can't get over themselves. Selfish and immature, unfortuately. And they end up doing the very things that will ensure that they DON'T get what they want. Squeezing too tight and not realizing that its all slipping through their fingers. They don't count the cost of their actions. They can't see that what they're doing is hurting and not helping. If you give no thought--or don't care--about the consequences... if you light everything on fire... chances are YOU are the one who will get burned. And this may seem like a bit of a downer Rant, but I'm trying to give almost a cautionary tale. Because what you do matters. It really, really does. All we have is our word and our actions. And if one doesn't back up the other, we really don't have anything. If we don't think about the consequences of our actions we're going to find ourselves face to face with them pretty quickly. I saw something funny the other day. It said, "Well, well, well. If it isn't the consequences of my own actions." And, like I said, pretty funny. But also completely true. You can't run from it. What you do affects things. If you sow love you will reap love. If you sow the wind, you will reap the whirlwind. (And I think that's where I'm going with this tomorrow, because I think it can mean two different things. But we'll get there.) Actions have consequences. Good, bad, and ugly. What you do matters. You can create a living hell for yourself (and others) if you don't count the cost of what you're doing.

I've said for a long, long time that I believe God is too much of a gentleman to force His will on us. And, I mean, on the cross God did what He was going to do. He drew us all into Himself and planted Himself into all of us. We had no say in that matter. The second death--the death OF death on the cross--and the new birth three days later were God's gift to us. God's expression of love to us. But, for the most part, I believe God will let us do what we're of a mind to do. Look at Acts 7:42 in the Message Bible, "God wasn't at all pleased; but he let them do it their way, worship every new god that came down the pike--and live with the consequences, consequences described by the prophet Amos: Did you bring me offerings of animals and grains those forty wilderness years, O Israel?" Did you catch that? God wasn't happy about it... but He didn't punish them. He didn't even stop them. He let them do it their way, and live with the consequences. And I think the best part of that verse is that the prophet Amos described the consequences beforehand. He laid out what would happen. I think God is very much into informed consent. He tells people what He's going to do... and then He does it. Tells people what is going to happen... and then it happens. He gives warnings, but He doesn't force people to do what He says. Let me say it another way. Speaking of love in 1 Corinthians 13:5 in the MSG, "Doesn't force itself on others, Isn't always "me first," Doesn't fly off the handle, Doesn't keep score of the sins of others." Love doesn't demand its (HIS) own way. Love doesn't manipulate and control. If its manipulation and control... its not love. Period. And while love only wants the best for us... where the Spirit of the Lord is (where the Spirit of love is) there is liberty. Freedom. And I always describe freedom as freedom FROM sin and freedom TO love. But, in truth, well, 1 Corinthians 10:23 says it better than I can, "All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not." I can do whatever I want. But that doesn't mean I SHOULD. Because actions have consequences. Every action has an equal and opposite (or magnified) reation. No man is an island. Nothing happens in a vaccuum. Butterfly effect, right? A butterfly flaps its wings and because of that halfway across the world there's a tornado. That tiny gust of wind becomes something huge. A tiny stone in a body of water can cause a huge ripple. So I guess what I'm trying to say today--and in this entire Rant series--is count the cost. Make sure the juice is worth the squeeze. Because what you do matters. And if you're waiting for God to stop you... I don't necessarily think He physically will. I think He'll speak in a still, small voice and tell you what love is all about... but at the end of the day you're gonna do what you're gonna do. And you're going to have to face the consequences. So let me end with this: Consequences aren't necessarily bad. They can be good. But you reap what you sow, in a sense. What you plant is what you will harvest. You can plant love and harvest love. That's a great consequences. Or you ignore the warnings and do things that will hurt instead of help. You can do whatever you want. But that doesn't mean you should.

Here's a simple fact of life: Actions have consequences. But that doesn't necessarily mean something bad or negative. According to dictionary.com "Consequence" is "the effect, result, or outcome of something occuring earlier." Natural consequence. Natural reaction. It has nothing--necessarily--with the negative connotation we sometimes give it. And it CERTAINLY has nothing to do with God punishing us. Because... let me say this as clearly and strongly as I can: God does not punish His children. He chasens and corrects them. Of course. What good parent doesn't? Its a parent's job to train up their children in the way they should go. But, like, the way they SHOULD go. Teach them to do the right thing instead of getting to the point where you have to always stop them from doing the wrong thing. But--and this Rant series comes from this quote, really--I once heard a preacher say, "If you cheat on your wife, God won't be mad at you. But SHE will." Because punishment isn't what we should be concerned with. The consequences of our actions should be. Putting a little forethought into what we're doing is, well, smart. Let me quote my memory verse before I get too far into this. "Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same" (Job 4:8). Reaping and sowing. And, listen, I know Jesus spoke about birds not sowing or reaping but being taken care of. I get that. I'm all about NOT trying to earn something from our heavenly Father. Because what He has for us is a gift that He has already given us. But, in our lives, in connection with each other, everything we do has a consequence. There is an effect, a result, an outcome from everything we do. If you lie to someone, the consequence is that they might not believe you anymore. Trust broken. And that's not punishment. That's just taking things as they come. But we can dictate--to a degree--what happens. Sowing and reaping are farming terms, right? Psalm 126:5 says, "They that sow in tears shall reap in joy." If you plant the right seed you'll get the right crop. If you're honest with people--to continue my thought--your word will mean something. A natural consequence of honesty is people believing you. See what I'm trying to say? Consequences aren't inherently good or bad. They simply follow from the actions we choose. If you sow wickedness, you reap the same. And my favorite one, "For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind..." (Hosea 8:7). Like my grandpa always says, "You can do anything you want... as long as you're willing to pay the consequences for it." Unfortunately, people don't always think about the consequences. They don't always count the cost. But what I'm trying to say, for the next few days, is that we really, really should. We need to think about what we're doing before we just barrel ahead and do it. Because every action has a consequence. Every action has an equal and opposite (or magnified) reaction. Love, for example, grows and grows and grows whenever it is released into the world. That's the best action, and the best consequence!

I hope I'm doing an ok job of trying to explain the difference between "life" as we know it... and the abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of love that IS the life of God. One is us trying to do the best we can with what we have... even though we don't think we have anything. The other is us experiencing Jesus' life of love as HE lives His own life in us, and through us, and as us. Works and labor (which don't work)... or rest. And, as always, rest is not inactivity. Loving someone is the maximum effort that you can give. Rest is Holy Spirit directed activity. And the Holy Spirit--the Spirit of Truth that leads and guides us into all truth--only ever directs us to love. That's the truth of the matter: God is love and He loves you. Its all about love. Which means its all about God. Because God IS love. Look at 1 Corinthians 1:30 in the Message Bible, "Everything that we have--right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start--comes from God by way of Jesus Christ." Jesus is the Lamb of God that took away the sin (unbelief) of the world... by giving us something (someONE, Himself, LOVE) to believe in. He wiped the slate clean, not holding our sins or transgressions against us. When we were dead in our trespasses and sins... He died for us (and as us)... so that we could die TO sin. And then He rose again--and us in Him--so that we might walk in newness of life. We have been given a new life--HIS life--we ought to experience it. We ought to enjoy the gift we've been given. We ought not to waste the fresh start we've been given by making the same mistakes. And, listen, my dad always said he was smart enough to make a mistake once and learn not to do it again. I, on the other hand, usually like to make the same mistake three or four times just to be really really sure. But the point is: You can't learn from your mistakes unless you make mistakes. Unless you operate in an atmosphere of grace where you CAN live and learn. Life is all about learning and growing. When you know better, you can do better. Because what you do flows from what you believe. And you can't believe something you don't know. If you're believing the lie that says you have to do in order to be... if you're believing that you have to atone for all of the "bad" stuff you've done--either here or in some afterlife--then you've missed the point that Jesus came to give us LIFE and that more abundantly. Jesus came to give us a gift. And you can't earn a gift. You can't be disqualified from getting a gift. A gift is given simply because someone wants you to have it. God wanted the best FOR us, so He gave the best TO us. He gave Jesus to us. He gave Himself to us. He gave His Spirit to us. The love receptor. So that we might be able to know and believe--receive and release--His love. Everything we have comes from God. He wiped the slate clean. He gave us a fresh start. A new life. HIS life. Where all the things that have tried to drag us down can just be laid aside. When God--when LOVE--is holding you up... nothing can drag you down. He gave us what He wanted us to have. And now we have it. Now we can enjoy it. Now we can experience it. By giving it away. By sharing it. Because love is giving. And, as I mentioned, its all about love!

I've had a fresh start or two in my life. Probably because I'm not afraid to try things. I've got a lot of milage on my tires, if I can say it that way. I've been around. Done some stuff. And when you try things... sometimes they work out and sometimes they don't. But either way you live and learn. A big part of the process is just going for it. Its not always the destination. Its the journey. And sometimes you have to hit rock bottom before you can change course. That's what happened to the woman in John chapter 8. Literally. They were going to stone her. And Jesus, of course, was there for salvation and not condemnation. So He had something else in mind. He had a fresh start for her in mind. When Jesus asked if, after His "whoever is without sin can cast the first stone" speech, there was anybody to accuse or condemn her... "She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more" (John 8:11). Not because what she did was ok, but because people can't change unless they have an opportunity to change. And an atmosphere to change. That's what grace is all about. Grace equips and empowers us to be able to try things. To make mistakes and learn from our mistakes. Let me say it like this, "Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" (2 Corinthians 3:17). Liberty. Freedom. And freedom works two ways. There is the freedom FROM sin, where we can lay it aside and walk in newness of life. And there is freedom TO love. Freedom to live. If those religious folk--who, according to the law, were in the right to stone her--had killed that woman... that would have been the end of her story. Game over. Do not pass go, do not collect 200 dollars. But because Jesus--God in the flesh, love in a body--was there... her story had a different ending. And, when you understand the everlasting part of everlasting life, you understand that her story really didn't have an "ending" as we think of it at all. Because love never stops. A chapter may end. And that's good. Because not every chapter is a greatest hits compilation. Some chapters NEED to end. Some doors need to close before others can open. But while we don't let the past drag us down... we can learn from it. Learning and growing is what life is all about. A fresh start comes from knowing what you did wrong and then being able to do it right. When you know better... you can do better. Knowledge is power. You can't believe what you don't know, but knowing and believing the love of God that is inside you is what lets it come out through you. Love renews us. Revitalizes us. Love makes life worth living... and love is what makes living possible. So if you think you've screwed up too much... you haven't. My dad always says every day above ground is a good day. Endless possibilities. Another chance. And if you mess up... get back up. Dust yourself off. Every new beginning is some other beginning's end, right? You can't walk in newness of life without walking. Don't worry about messing up. Learn from your mistakes. Leave behind what you don't need. Learn and grow. A fresh start can be a good thing. A great thing. A GOD thing!

When you leave the old behind you can experience the new. Look at Romans 6:4, "Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." And there's a lot here, but it starts with the cross. The second death. The death OF death. Before the cross we were dead in our trespasses and sins. Because of the cross we are alive in Him. And because we are alive in Him we SHOULD walk in newness of life. We don't have to... I believe God is too much of a gentleman to force His will upon us. I believe He will let us do what we're gonna do--to a certain extent. But if you've been given a gift you ought to enjoy it. That's why, when someone asks me what I want for like Christmas or birthdays or whatever I always tell them gift cards. You can't spend a gift card of bills. You HAVE to do something fun with it. And in this world that we live in where so much of our three T's (Time, Talent, Treasure) are spent simply getting from the start of the day to the end of the day... sometimes we almost need to be FORCED to do fun things. Almost like how in Psalm 23:2 how the Shepherd MAKES us lie down in green pastures. Sometimes we need someone to almost give us a reality check. Shake some sense into us. We have been given newness of life. We died with Jesus on the cross, and were raised again with Him by the Father. So we should experience and enjoy that life that we've been given. And, because I like words, I looked up "newness" in Strong's Greek Concordance. It is number 2538 and it means, "renewal." And that clicked in my brain with Revelation 21:5, "And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he side unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful." Notice that Jesus didn't say, "I make all new things." He said, "I make all things new." It isn't just US... its EVERYTHING. The cross was the Messianic rebirth of the world. Look at 2 Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." And that phrase, "are become" means HAVE become, ARE becoming, and WILL become. It is a perpetual renewal. Of everything. Everything in your life. Everything in the lives of the people you come into contact with. Because love... love is the creative force of the universe. Love renews and restores. Love, quite literally, is the difference between life and death. No love, no life. Know love, know life. Life and love aren't just connected. They are the same thing. God is love. God is life. Love is life. So walking in newness of life is walking in newness of love. Keeping your heart open so you can receive and release the love of God. So you can let what's inside come out, by knowing and believing that its in there. That HE'S in there. Because its His life. And nobody can live Jesus' life except Jesus. In order to experience this fresh start, this renewal, this abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of God we simply let HIM live His own life in us, and though us, and as we. We simply let Him love us and then we walk in that love!

Let me drop a little bit of Scripture and then build on it. 1 Corinthians 13:4-5 in the Message Bible, "Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn't want what it doesn't have. Love doesn't strut, Doesn't have a swelled head, Doesn't force itself on others, Isn't always "me first," Doesn't fly off the handle, Doesn't keep score of the sins of others." And, of course, with our idea of a fresh start, the part I wanted was at the very end there. Love doesn't keep score of the sins of others. One of the worst things I've ever heard in my life was when someone I love told me, "I'm going to hell anyway, so what's the point?" That'll break your heart, man. Someone giving up because they've bought into the (in my opinion erronous) idea that God punishes sinners with eternal hellfire. I've noticed that there aren't really many people that have been scared straight by this kind of religion. Mostly it seems like people who grew up in this kind of religious background are people who don't even practice religion anymore. They get so discouraged that they just give up. "What's the point in trying when I've already screwed up so much?" Well, let me say it again: Love doesn't keep score of the sins of others. And, by the way, God is love. So GOD doesn't keep score of the sins of others. Psalm 103:12 tells us, "As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us." And check this out--you can only go so far north before you start going south. But you can go east forever and never go west. So this OLD TESTAMENT verse shows us a loving God who isn't interested in our sins or transgressions. It never seems to occur to anybody that even in the Old Testament, the Old Covenant, God set up an entire system of animal sacrifice so that we wouldn't be judged or punished for our sins and transgressions. And, of course, this was fully manifested in the sacrificial Lamb that is Jesus. He became sin so that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ. He took away the sin--unbelief--of the world. And He did so by giving us something--someONE, Himself, love--to believe in. So here's what I'm trying to say, both today and in this Rant series as a whole, if God has forgiven and forgotten... if God isn't interested in our sins and transgressions... why are we? We let that stuff drag us down when we don't have to. We let our past--specifically our past mistakes--define us. We let what other people say about us define us. Listen: You are not what people call you. But you ARE what you answer to. What you believe about yourself is what defines you. And you can either believe the lie of the world... or the report of the Lord. You can either experience the mess you've made... or let God make your mess into a message. You can use what you've been through as a testimony to help other people through it. Because we all go through the same things. The human condition. But we don't have to let things go through us. We can rise above what's trying to drag us down. We can walk in newness of life as new creature's in Christ. We can experience and enjoy a fresh start and a new life. Jesus' abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of love!

I've said this many times, and will undoubtedly say it many more times: The truth--that God is love and He loves you--HAS set us free and made us free... but, unfortunately, so many of us are not experiencing this freedom. Because while the truth HAS set us free... in reality it is the truth you KNOW and BELIEVE that equips and empowers you to EXPERIENCE that freedom. So many times we let the past dictate the present and future. And even though there ARE mistakes in your past--and in my past, in everybody's past--they don't have to define us. On the cross, well, let me quote a memory verse, "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" (Romans 8:29). See, in the beginning we were made in the image and likeness of God. But it was dark, and we didn't know what that image was. We didn't know who WE were, because we didn't know who HE was. And then on the cross, the light of the world shined. We were conformed into the image of God's Son. In a very real way the truth (that had always been true) BECAME true... to us. We understood that He is our heavenly Father and we are His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. And here's where I'm going with this Rant series: When that truth about who you really are... that truth about who God really is... when that truth hits you, you get a fresh start. And not just a new lease on life, but a totally and completely new life! Jesus' life! His abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of love! The life that we experience, not by trying really hard to be like Jesus, but by simply letting Him live in us, and through us, and as us. And if Jesus takes the wheel, so to speak, and if He's taking us upward and God-ward... then we don't need to worry about what has come before. We can leave a lot of stuff behind. Lay it aside. Look at Psalm 25:7, "Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness' sake, O LORD." And while that is an Old Covenant verse where David was asking for something... on this side of the cross all of the promises of God are yea and amen. He doesn't remember the sins of our youth. He isn't holding our transgressions against us. Love doesn't keep a record of rights and wrongs. When we were made new creatures in Christ we were given a fresh start. When we were conformed to the image of God's Son we "got" everything He had for us. He wanted the best for us so He gave the best to us. He gave HIMSELF to us. So we don't have to try to be someone we're not. We don't have to let the things we've done drag us down. If Jesus--if LOVE--is holding you up NOTHING can drag you down. And Jesus (love) IS holding you up! You HAVE been given that fresh start. I think there's probably some value in getting healing and closure from the past... but I also believe you can't always get that. Sometimes you just have to let go and let God. Let what's in the past BE in the past. And just keep moving forward!

I want to finish this Rant series strong. So let's jump right into it. "Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servant ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" (Romans 6:16). I think that's what I've been trying to say this whole time. Because sin is unbelief. So if your choices are sin or obedience... your choices are believing or not believing. Obedience isn't doing what you're supposed to (even though you don't want to) or else. Obedience is believing that what God wants for you is what's best for you. Jesus didn't say, "Obey me or else." He said, "If ye love me, keep my commandments" (John 14:15). If you trust me... do what I'm doing. Because His commandment is love. Love one another as He loves us. That's it. That's the new commandment for the new man. Let God love the hell out of you and love Him back by loving others with that same love. We obey God by believing God. And did you notice that it is "obedience unto righteousness"? The most--perhaps the only--righteous thing you can do is love. And don't forget that we ARE the righteousness of God in Christ. Righteousness is not just what we do. Its who we are. Love is not just what we do. Its who we are. Where we get into trouble is when we yield ourselves to unbelief. When we, as we saw yesterday, don't cast down the imaginations and the high things that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God--the knowledge of love. I'm trying to say this strong: If it ain't love... it got to go. And letting people use and abuse you is not how you let people love you. Because love doesn't use and abuse. Love doesn't demand its (HIS) own way. Love nurtures. Love edifies. Love protects... while letting people be who they are. Love doesn't control or dominate. All of that stuff is sin and death. The world telling you how you have to be is death. Because at the end of the day you are who you are and you can't be anybody else. But love TELLS you who you are. Who you really are. By telling you who God really is. A heavenly Father who unconditionally loves His Son. A Son who is equipped and empowered by the love of His Father. Its so important that we know who we are. So important. Because, as I mentioned we ARE the righteousness of God in Christ. Our obedience doesn't make that true. Its already true. Our obedience lets what's inside come out. So when we yield ourselves to the truth... we experience the truth. We experience Jesus' abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life by letting Him live it in us, and through us, and as us. We let the love that is inside come out by obeying God. By BELIEVING God. By knowing and believing that His love--which IS life--is in there. Its too big to stay in there. It HAS to come out. Whatever you believe is inside WILL come out. So believe the truth. The truth that God is love and He loves you. Yield yourself to the right master. You can't serve two masters. But you DO serve one. Sin unto death. Or obedience unto righteousness.