Recently I saw a post "I LOVE YOU COULD NOT BE SAID A BETTER WAY!" which has a picture of the back of Jesus whipped with the words "I Love You." While this is an interesting picture, the essence of this picture is focused on the torture of Yeshua (Jesus for the uninformed). God does not expect us to concentrate on this aspect, though it is true that "no greater love has anyone than this: that he lay down his life for his friends." But the true love shown to us is much greater than this.

The death of Yeshua does not show us true love, because I can die for you and it wouldn't change much. If he had just died, then what good is it to us? What is really important is that the tomb is empty. The resurrection is the good news, because it is the resurrection that says "All Things Are Reversible!"

It is this hope that we have, that all things are reversible. This is the good news, so that no matter who you are, what you have done, where you were going, it doesn't matter. All things are reversible. This is the true love that has come from heaven. This is the Love of God. Not the torture of his son, but the resurrection of the same son. Otherwise, all we hope for is nothing.

I'd love to go on, but I'll leave this here so that I can respond to comments.

In the 80’s, a song cameout titled “Heaven is a place on Earth” which was popular back then. I recallthis song today after some reflection on my past. You see, I knew a guy whocommitted suicide while listening to this song, over and over again, which puta taint on the song in my memory. I remember all the “adult Christians” backthen discussing how this “lie” promoted a demon to take control of this youngboy so he committed suicide, and rock music was taken away from us “impressionablechildren” which only increased our desire to listen to this “demon rock”instead of dissuading us from listening to the lies of the world.

I recall this vividly: thehurt, the frustration, the confusion. I always wondered if there was somethingI could have done to prevent it. The boy was a couple years my elder, so wewere not in the same circle of friends, but I still wondered if I could havedone something. It drove me to reach out to outcasts, I remember that. Evenduring my years in the pursuit to prove The Father didn’t exist, I still keptthat that one principle. Eventually the Father smacked me up the side of thehead and proved He did exist and, yes, I was an idiot.

So now I think back on thatsong. Was it a lie? Maybe it wasn’t a lie, but a misunderstanding. You see,heaven is here today, all around us, as is hell. We humans live between twoworlds, and we choose each moment where we dwell. Yeshuatold us about light and darkness, love and hate, inner and outer. He told us ofthe kingdom of Heaven and that it was at hand. Hebrought heaven to us, because before we dwelt in darkness.

We create heaven and hellin our own lives every day. When we choose to live by the law of freedom, wedwell in heaven. When we choose to live by the law of sin and death we dwell inhell. Those who are in the Messiah are free from the law of sin and death, andthere is no condemnation only life. Those who choose to live under the law ofsin and death dwell in hell, condemned already.

It is written that we arethe light of the world. In us is light, and the Father is the light. If wechoose to hide the light, the Father hides Himself from us. If we embrace thelight, He is faithful to make Himself known to us. When we walk in the light,the darkness hates us because the secret things in the dark are made known.

It is true that a newheaven is coming; this is written for our benefit and joy. Hell will bedifferent as well, but there is much debate as to how these new places willactually be and I do not wish to dwell on this future Heaven/Hell. What matterstoday is today, tomorrow will come soon enough. What I choose to focus on isthe current Heaven and Hell, which ultimately impacts our future positions.

We have all experienced aportion of hell at some point in our lives. David described it as “the valleyof the shadow of death” and that is a good description. It’s a place ofgnashing of teeth, and you have probably experienced it never knowing that iswhat it is. The phrase “that was hell” is appropriate here. So what is thedefinition of hell? A friend of mine calls it “outside the walls” but I defineit more clearly as any time we choose to walk outside the will (or way) of theFather.

Heaven is defined then aschoosing to walk inside the will of the Father. Paul calls this “living by thespirit”, James calls is “pure religion”, John calls is “walking in the light”and Yeshua referred to it as “abiding in me.” All ofthese are correct, and give a clue as to what this “looks like.” Yet religiousteachings over the centuries have clouded our thought process on what thisreally means.

Yeshua’s teachings were targeted to the heart of man and notthe actions of man. His main point was that the heart of man produces sin, notthe hand, eye, or any other outward part. If the heart is full of darkness,then the actions will be dark and full of sin. Yeshuaturned the focus from the outward to the inner, where the real struggle was. Indoing so, He negated the usefulness of the law, making it impossible to be justifiedby the law, only condemned. He didn’t change this, only made this known. Youcannot be righteous because of works; you are only righteous if your heart ispure.

When Yeshuawas asked what the greatest command was, he answered “Love the lord your Godwith all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and the second is like it, Loveyour neighbor as yourself.” Are the others not important? Well, that depends onyour perspective. How about this, the others are irrelevant if you are doingthese two because you will not do (or will do) the other commands. Yeshua is making a bold statement that when looked atflippantly will lead to misuse. His purpose for singling out these two is forthe focus not to be on what you shouldn’t do, but what you should do. As Paulputs it, “all the law and the prophets are summed up in this: Love yourneighbor as yourself.”

John clarified this bysaying “if you say you love the Father but hate your brother, you are a liarand the light does not dwell in you.” Yeshua speaksof your heart being the source of all action for “out of the overflow of theheart, so the mouth speaks.” The inner light must become the outer man in orderfor there to be purity. If the inner light is hidden, then the darkness of lifeis hell. If the light shines, the darkness must flee and heaven is experienced.On this Earth, we experience heaven and hell with each choice.

One thing to note is thatheaven and hell are our choices, and are not environmental. It is the innerlight that defines heaven and hell, not the circumstance. This is the confusionof the world and the song “Heaven is a place on Earth.” It is not because wehave good friends, the best job, the best finances, and the best of everythingbut because of the inner light shining through our lives. If the Father islight, then there is no darkness when that light is shinning. Whether you haveor do not have means nothing, only that the light is in you and that it is nothidden. In this way, you can walk through total war in perfect peace.

The light is defined asfaith, hope, love, peace and grace. This is the will of the Father. To walk infaith is to be ever trusting in the Father for everything. To walk in hope isto see further than where you are and rest in His presence at all times. Towalk in love is to reach out to those around you, touching them personally andwithout reservations. To walk in peace is to hold no one as your enemy. To walkin grace is to give to those who don’t deserve anything from you.

“Where there is knowledge,it will cease. Where there is prophesying and tongues, they will be stilled.But these remain – faith, hope and love, and the greatest of these is love.”

Where there is love, thereis no hatred. Where there is light there is no darkness. Pursue love withpassion. God is love, God is light, and God is faithful.

If anyone rejects you, itis not you they are rejecting but your Father in heaven. If anyone hates you,it is not you they hate but your Father who is in you. Rest in your Father inwho is in heaven, and you will dwell in heaven with Him. (To clarify for theautomatic religious teachings of centuries) This means right now you can dwellin heaven, because heaven is in you. It is a place on earth, because heaven isanywhere the Father is. If you are in the Father, then you are in heaven, rightnow. This is our hope. This is our salvation. This is our promise. This isours, if we choose to walk in it.

Yes, a new heaven is beingprepared, but the current heaven now is in us. We can choose to be there everyday, or we can choose to dwell in darkness. It’s your choice. Where will you befor the rest of the day?

Recently a friend of mine asked me why we didn't see miracles like we see in the NT. He was unimpressed with the thought that it was our faith, because he thought he had faith in God to do all those things. His conclusion was that we were in a time of tabernacles, or some such (while probable I didn't accept it outright). So I asked the source of all knowledge what's up.

The response was unexpected: "You make the miracles because I made you in my image."

Again, I am perplexed. So I asked for clarification.

"I made you. You are mine and I am in you. You have not because you do not believe in me in you."

Shocked and slightly embarrassed at being exposed for a complete moron, I then asked my wife what she thought about the notion. She isn't where I am at right now, but she understood the context and agreed, while also placing some of her own doubts about her position like I think pretty much everyone that I ask this to would do.

So, what is faith? Faith is the evidence of things hoped for and the the assurance of things unseen. Yep, that's clear as mud. Really, what is faith? How is it evidence if it is just something ethereal? Mighty_Men_of_Valor posted recently on faith and deeds being combined, using the James text to explain. Using the same text I would like to expound on what faith is and what faith isn't.

Faith is not ethereal. It is tangible. When you have faith it makes you do something. If you have faith in Jesus (or Yeshua, Emmanuel, The son of God), then that means you believe in what he says, which changes how you act. If you have faith that you are now a child of God, then that means you begin to act as God does, which is not how those in darkness live.

God is love. God is patient, kind, not rude, not envious, not proud, does not boast, is not self-seeking, keeps no record of wrongs, is not easily angered, is willing to be wronged, considers no one his enemy, rejoices with the truth, always hopes, trust, preservers. God never fails.

John also speaks of this from the standpoint of love. If God's love is in you, you will not hate your brother. If you have fear, then God's love is not in you.

Jesus speaks of this in many of his parables, especially the parable of the good Samaritan and the parable of the rich man and Lazarus.

So faith and love are intertwined. Without faith there is no love, and without love there is no faith.

So faith = love. You can't have the one without the other. If you say you have faith, but do not have love, you are a lier.

So how does that tie to miracles? If you fear that it does not work, then you do not have God's love in you. Doubt is a form of fear. Fear and doubt are also equal.

So where are the miracles? When the love in you overcomes fear. Then you can do anything.

see it as this faith = love/fear

The more fear you have, the less faith you have. The more love you have the greater faith you have. Reduce fear to one, and you have the maximum amount of faith. Increase love and reduce fear to increase faith. As light disperses darkness, so does Love swallow up hatred and it is no more.

So in order to have faith you must have love. In order to have love you must accept it. To accept it you must die to yourself, the body of flesh and all it's baggage. You must be born again, totally new, a new creation born not of flesh but of spirit. Only when the inner has become the outer will you find true faith expressed in true love. He who has an ear, let him hear.