“As He spoke these things, many came to believe in Him.” (John 8:30)

No magic is needed. At the moment we trust, we are alive in Christ for eternity. He is working out what He has worked in. Life is living from trust to trust. Our ability to let Him do what He does is from rest to rest. Our desire to become is extinguished by His having done. His ability to command us to perform is incomparable to His ability to perform through us what He has commanded. He has commanded us to love Father with all we are, to love ourselves as joined to His Spirit of Love, and then love everyone else as we love ourselves.

Can it get easier than this?

Lord, Your Love has no end to up nor down, right or left, front nor back, nor any other dimension. When we get this, we have all there is to have, ALL of You!

“Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.” (John 8:24)

This is not rocket science.

You will die in distrust unless you trust.

What comes of that trust is up to the one you trust. Jesus said we can trust Him just as we trust the Father who sent Him. Now, that talk is scary. We should trust a report of someone we do not see. What do we get if we jump that hurdle and trust Jesus is Life itself? Nothing new because you already have Him. But, we can receive and rest in this truth. He is Life, and trusting Him makes for a bountiful life.

In Christ are all the riches. No! Instead, Christ is the riches.

I receive our dwelling, Lord, as a one-room hut with one door and window. It contains eternity itself.

“No one of the rulers or Pharisees has believed in Him, has he?” (John 7:48)

If we wait for the rulers to trust Jesus before we trust Him…well, we are in for a long wait. Rulers trust in armies, lies, secrets, deception, chaos, and platitudes, not to mention taxes. Money solves every problem the last solution causes. More money always brings about the promise that the last promise failed to bring. Since childhood, I have been told that higher teacher salaries equate to better learning. Really? I have also been told that more money for policing prevents crime. Really? Prevents crime? Trust in self or some organized bunch of people and their resources will never deliver one heart from the fear of death.

Trusting Christ is better than raising taxes.

Father, my heart knew at six years of age You made everything good. Now, at 75, I know You are the Good everything is being made into.

“But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” (John 7:39)

It takes the death and resurrection of Christ to gain His right, authority, and ability to flood the world with His Spirit of love. Like in Noah’s day, everyone outside the ark of Jesus will unwillingly drown in His love. Those in the ark are those who have already, by choice, drowned in Jesus’ love. The ability to bring life out of death comes through Holy Spirit. What Holy Spirit has done to Christ, He is doing to the world.

Like it or not!

Your Spirit is baptizing me with the fire of Your love, removing all distrust in You.

“He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” (John 7:38)

Christ is declaring that our thirst for Him will produce life. What will come out will come from the center of the centers. The riches of God are ready to gush out like the rock in the wilderness, turning our desert into life, quenching all thirst for life and godliness. Our part is to trust each moment to Christ. Jesus can take that trust and transform it into a life-giving life, moment by moment. Standing in the sea of trust, we watch the world fall to its knees, proclaiming Jesus is the Christ and submitting to Him as the King of kings and Lord of lords.

Watch what happens!

When all things are subjected to You, Lord Jesus, then You will also be subjected to the One who has subjected all things to You, that God may be all in all. (See 1 Cor 15:25-28)

Jesus' teachings on nonviolence, often called pacifism, form a fundamental aspect of his message. Throughout the Gospels, he imparts a unique ethical code that challenges conventional notions of power, self-protection, and retaliation. The Sermon on the Mount is a central point in this perspective, where Jesus promotes peace, compassion, and reconciliation.

One of the most notable elements of this perspective is the famous saying, "Love your enemy." The quickest way to disprove Jesus's teaching is to practice it. But of course, most will not humble themselves to God's mighty hand and repent of their self-ruling arrogance.

The essence of Jesus's resident Spirit is His modeled transformative power of love and forgiveness. By advocating nonviolence, he invites followers to embody a counter-cultural ethic that seeks to reconcile, heal, and restore. This perspective aligns with the theme of God's love and mercy, emphasizing the possibility of redemption and transformation for all.

Justice, Mercy, Humility

In the realm of life, where shadows play,

Justice beckons in the light of day.

Fairness and equity, its guiding hand,

A beacon leading through the shifting sand.

Mercy, a stream of gentle grace,

Love's reflection in every face.

Forgiveness whispers, a soothing balm,

In its embrace, hearts find a calm.

Humility's path, a sacred art,

Walking with God, never apart.

In every step, a lesson,

Justice, mercy, humility, the blessing.

“But many of the crowd believed in Him; and they were saying, ‘When the Christ comes, He will not perform more signs than those which this man has, will He?’” (John 7:31)

What does it take to trust that Jesus can accomplish what He is doing? Nothing. But when you trust Him, you will realize He is worth everything you have and gain more than you can imagine.

I knew a man who stumbled upon a rich black marble deposit. That discovery cost him nothing. He calculated its worth in the billions, went home, sold everything, and made a down payment on the property. He claimed the mineral rights and mined the stone. You got it. He is worth billions, but it cost him everything to gain it all.

To find Jesus is free. To own Jesus costs everything.

Lord, now that I own You as You own me let me mine all Your riches and present them freely to the world.

“For not even His brothers were believing in Him.” (John 7:5)

If Jesus had come to transmit a set of teachings that enabled people to function with immunity toward God, we would have to conclude He failed. It takes words to illuminate the mind as to what the heart can act upon; the goal is a changed heart. At this point in Jesus’s story, His brothers did not trust He was the Christ or savior of the world. Later, James would be known as an apostle, though he did not follow or proclaim Jesus as the Christ during Jesus’s pre-resurrected life. Afterward, he proclaims Jesus as the Christ and lets us in on what we can assume were many of Jesus’s dinner table teachings.

Trust without the energy to act on that trust is nonsense.

Jesus, when I found You ruling my heart, I let the heart rule. Thank You for liberating me from the heart of stone to Your heart of flesh.

“We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:69)

What does holy mean? Essentially, something or someone is set aside for Father God’s use. You fit in His hand for His purposes, and no other hand has a right to hold you, much less use you. Jesus was God’s instrument to separate us from sin and death. Not death because of sin but the death that sin is. What, then, is sin? Jesus claimed it was not trusting Him and trusting Him for what? Everything. He is the total of Holy. His submissions to Father’s will placed His hands in the hands of Roman soldiers, nailing them to a cross.

We are set aside for Your glory, Lord.

At best, I start with hardened clay. Soak me in Your divine water of life, kneed me into a smooth, consistent texture, and turn me on Your wheel of love. Fire! Fire! Fire!