His Love Is Real

The fall of 1969....
"One way, Man!"
One Way!  
I saw him across the common at Gadsden State. I was headed to my next class and he came be-boppin' along...hair blowing in the wind....jeans and a t-shirt with a hand printed on it....the hand held aloft, with one the index finger pointed upward.
One Way, Man!
He smiled at me and said, "Heaven, dude!"
Oh...one way to heaven.
In a time where the universal was either two fingers held up like a "V" (Peace Baby) or the middle finger held up in rebellion to the status quo...here was this free spirit proclaiming ONE WAY. Just Jesus.
 That day still burns bright in my memory.
I never got the name of the T-shirted young man...but then again he never got my name either. But his message resonates inside me to this day.
You can dress up the message ever how you want to.
Mega light shows in huge concert halls,or small venues.
Big cathedrals or living rooms...
Thousands.....or just two.
Or, you can put it on a T-shirt.
The message never changes.

I'm not so sure the flower children didn't have the right idea....love.
But they never connected with the creator and dispenser of the real deal.
Larry Norman sang, "I Love You."
A band from California took the name "Love Song"
We had a coffee house in Montgomery, Alabama named "Love Notes".
But it all pointed to Jesus. He was (and continues to be) the way. He is the true and only source of life. The "One way" to heaven.

For God SO loved the world....humanity and all of His creation....
That He gave His only begotten Son...Sent Him to pay my debt that sin demanded of me. How can I ever repay this debt to God? I can't. He simply calls me to love Him and follow Him (follow as in let Him give me instruction and direction in my daily journey).  I don't respond to God because I have to. I don't respond out of some false sense of loyalty. I respond because I have fallen in love with Jesus. Strange as that may sound....if we dont' start from this place, loving Him, our journey devolves into a keeping of rules and regulations. Not so sure I can make that happen.
If you haven't guessed it by now....
I am all up in this "love" thang God has flung on me.
I've known it all along that this was the Father's heart...
But I  never really knew that it was the Father's heart....In other words...I have taken it to seriously.
I've made a ton of excuses as to why I haven't loved like I should have....
But my excuses are usually tinged with a religious taint. This keeps me from looking like some pagan goober. Trouble is, God sees right through my charade and I wind up looking like.......you guessed it........a pagan goober. 

I had a conversation via the phone this past week with a person who is a highly motivated follower of Jesus.
Think of it as sitting in a concrete room with a super ball going off all around...Ping! Pang! Padong! Kapow!....He shared with me a whole new level of love I'd never seen before. Love as the Father would have it...not as the church has created. Funny part is that it was there in Scripture all along...I just had not opened my heart to see it.
Love?
Love......
God love...
God loving me...
Me loving God back....
Is it really that simple?

God's love is the real "Thang"...
Accept no imitations....
God on you...
mb