To be honest, the title of this blog is based off of a song by Nate's favorite band:
Tenth Avenue North.
Maybe you've heard of them, but if you haven't you should really check them out.
The band has a song on their first album entitled, 'Times' in which the lyric 'Your love is over, it's underneath, it's inside, it's in between' is sung.
That phrase is the inspiration for this blog.
That phrase creates a whole new outlook on the Christian faith... at least, for us.
These words are descriptions of God, and they are rooted in the Bible as to God's character and nature.
Any good Christian knows that we are to love God, and that He loves us.
But do we believe it?
We are told we are to Love the LORD our God, and that He loves us like a father, through Moses in the Old Testament. We are told that we are to love the LORD our God and that He loves us by Jesus in the New Testament.
But Jesus has come to make all things new. All things? All things.
Wait, so I don't have to love God?
I can't love God.
And honestly coming to grips with that gives me more freedom than anything.
We've proven that time and time again... We can't love God. From the fruit in the Garden of Eden, to the lie we told just yesterday, the lustful thought, the jealousy, the laziness.
If the best we can do is give God our half love: 'Yes God I love you, BUT I can't control myself.' We can't truly love God.
That's not the love that God is interested in.
If God is EVER going to get a decent "Hallelujah!"... He has to come down and do it Himself.
I want my life to constantly revolve around HIM, to be entirely focused on Him, on His love, His Grace, and His will. I want my life to be characterized as others seeing Jesus truly live in and through me, my actions, my thoughts, my passions, and my desires. It's a want, a cry of desperation.
But before Jesus this was impossible.
And God knew that if He was EVER going to get a decent "Hallelujah!"... He had to come down and do it Himself.
SO...
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.
I like the Message version of this verse found in John 1:
"The Word became flesh and blood,The Word became one of us, and moved right on in to our neighborhood...
and moved into the neighborhood.
We saw the glory with our own eyes,
the one-of-a-kind glory,
like Father, like Son,
Generous inside and out,
true from start to finish."
So that He could teach us how to properly love and worship Him.
"But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him." -John 4:23 ESV
In Spirit and in Truth.
God is Spirit
Jesus is the Truth.
We will worship, we will love... in Him...and through Him. For the father is seeking such people to worship Him.
"And so, this changes things. This means that it doesn’t matter how much Scripture and philosophy I know, what matters is what I do with it. Ironically, having a lot of information about Jesus can often be the very thing that keeps me from Him. I delude myself into thinking that Jesus is nothing more than a fact on a page. An idea to comprehend, a moral to ascribe to. And believe me, He’s much more than that. He is our life, our breath, and the pulse within our veins. He is before, behind, and all around. Over. Underneath. Inside. In between. And I want to KNOW Him this way. As bread and wine. As flesh and blood. As a lover, a wife, as the life within. I’m tired of my knowledge turning to arrogance. I’m tired of information turning to superiority. I want to encounter Him, and have that encounter change the way I see the world." -Mike DoneheyGod received the best kind of "Hallelujah!"... When he came down to show us Himself.
'This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. We love because he first loved us." -1 John 4: 13-17,19 NIV
His love is inside of us, because He is inside of us.
He is over every situation. Guiding us.
He is underneath, holding us up.
He is both at the same time.
He is in control of everything.
He is Overneath anything we deal with.
So let us explore God, let us dig down deep into His word.
Not skipping over the surface, but just making sure we don't stay there.
The Bible is God's song. A song of a story. A story of failure, our failure. A story of redemption, a story of Grace. Every song needs an audience, every lyric means something different to everybody. The chorus stands the same: Love is here. Love is all around us. Love is guiding us. Soothing us. Giving us rest.
Love has come down to save us.
But not only that...
Love has come down to shout to our Maker, Creator, and Sustainer...
"HALLELUJAH, WE ARE FREE TO STRUGGLE, BUT WE ARE NOT STRUGGLING TO BE FREE!"
"HALLELUJAH TO OUR GOD!"
