Look and Live part 1
So in order to get that Rant series across, I have to kind of mix my metaphors a little bit. But, really, I hope we'll see that its all the same thing. Kind of like how its all about love. Everything in the Bible is just Jesus. The Old Testament is Jesus concealed, and the New Testament is Jesus revealed. So when we're talking about faith, and Romans 10:17 says, "So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God," we can also include seeing in with that. Because seeing is believing. And when we're talking about how there are really only two choices of what to believe--what to see and hear... what to experience in our lives--well, let me quote my other memory verse for today. "No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon" (Luke 16:13). Its either the world... or God. Those are your choices. You can either believe the lie of the world, or the truth of God. The truth of love! Because the lie of the world is, "You are not loved, but if you do x, y, and z, maybe some day you can earn love." Love cannot be earned. It is freely given and must be received. Received and released. Because love is giving. You receive it BY releasing it. By giving it away. But before you can give it away, you have to know that you have it. Because you can't give what you don't have. And you can only give what you do have. We are witnesses of the Kingdom, right? And a witness simply recounts what he has seen and heard. Look at Numbers 21:8. Its the story of the bronze serpent on the pole. And its a powerful story. But for the sake of time I just want verse 8. "And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live." And, specifically, I want that phrase, that idea, "look and live." God is constantly revealing Himself. All of the time. Revealing Himself to us. And in us. And through us. And as us. But sometimes we put our blinders on and we miss what's right in front of us. We spend so much time trying to earn something that can't be earned that we miss out on what we've already been given. What we've already got. We miss out on the gift of God. Which is knowing the Father and the One whom He sent. Knowing God as heavenly Father and knowing ourselves as His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. Now let me circle back around to where we started. Faith. Have faith in God. Have faith in love. Have faith by seeing love. By hearing the Word (which is Jesus, which is love) of God. When the blind lead the blind everybody ends up in a ditch. But we have something else available to us. A more excellent way. And (again) His name is Jesus. His name is love. Love is available to us. Love is everywhere. All we need to do is open our eyes and ears. Hear our heavenly Father saying, "I love you, I love you, I love you" with every beat of His heart in our chests. All we need to do is look... and live!