Because the LOVE OF GOD brings clarity to every command, life to every precept and brillance to every promise!

 “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.

Have you ever had an EPIPHANY?   I recently did during a teaching series my husband and I were doing together on Wednesday nights.  As we sat at our table going back and forth expounding on our chosen topic I read a scripture that I had pre-planned to elaborate upon focusing on the love of God.  That's when it happened; the epiphany.

An epiphany, according to dictionary.com is "a sudden insight into the reality or essential meaning of something that usually intiated by some simple, homely or commonplace occurence or experience".   Usually an epiphany is something that is already there, probably other people know it, maybe you thought you already knew it, but now all of the sudden - you REEEALLY know it!   This is precisely what happened.

A scripture that I had read thousands of times before, a truth I was already going to share,  but there behind my really good point was the epiphany!  A point that went so much deeper than I had ever seen it before, like it had been there for 30 years just waiting for me to see it for what it truly was.  Are you curious to know my epiphany?  Ok, here it is in two phrases:

"that ye, being rooted and grounded in love", and  "know the love of Christ"

I know.  Now you see why it had been so vague to me before, so let me epiphanize for you!

We as a born-again, believers and followers of Christ must be rooted (the source and origin of a thing) and grounded in love and know the love of Christ.  Love must be first and foremost above all things.  It's the primary thing, the kindergarten level of Christianity.  The absolute root level, the ground level that must be thoroughly worked in us before we can graduate to the "big" things in God.  We have to first learn and know the love of Christ! I know it is so tempting to want to rush on to the more glamorous things, but we have to stop and soak a while in His love first so we can know it better.

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Sure we think we "know" it, but do we?  Obviously it's pretty extraordinary because the author says it has breadth, the length, the depth, the heigth!  This is a love that is so unconditional, limitless, sacrificial, compassionate and unbreakable, it's like none we can experience fully on a human level.   I am sure that truly few have ever had a touch of it our natural relationships, especially in our generation.    So many people can't truly grasp this type of love that would seek and save the lost, lay down its own life and take the punishment, blame and condemnation upon itself so the most guilty and deserving one can walk free and be lifted up because we just don't see this characteristic in anyone or thing around us.

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Yes, right there it is...the epiphany!  What awesome love!  A great exchange!  Free elaborate gifting!  Yes, there it is again!  The epiphany of how amazing God is - how amazing this whole being a believer thing is!   And there it is again, back for it's final reveal;  Wow, if I can root and ground myself fully in that - well I can believe for just about anything.  If I can root everything else - every scriptural principle, every act of obedience, every ounce of my faith in that kind of understanding of all that was paid for me, all I that has been freely given to me, the amount of love God has for me...well, there is just no limitation, no holding back....

Yes, there it is again!  The same epiphany that Paul the author must of had as he penned the end of that paragraph that goes onto say...

"that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,"

When we truly catch with understanding the extraordinary immense LOVE of God, then we are ready for the fullness of who He is and THEN we can begin to embrace the incredible stuff He is waiting with expectation to do for us!  His LOVE opens the door to so much MORE!  His love works in us the impossible!

I believe that God's love is the basic element of everything we possess as a Believer in Christ.  Paul said "if we have not love" we are just a bunch of noise.    I believe he wasn't just referring to us loving - but us embracing, receiving as well as giving God's amazing love.  

Jesus said, in answer to the question of what was the greatest law, to love God and love your neighbor as yourself and that this was the command upon which ALL OTHERS existed!  In other words, it's the root level and the ground level of being a redeemed child of a living and loving God!  

John said in his book that "God is love" and everyone that knows Him knows love and they will be able to love like He does.  You could never love like that until you get blown away by the breadth, heigth, width and depth of His love!  So again, the love of God is the root and ground level of being a lover of people, a lover of yourself and a lover of God!

EPIPHANY!  I not only need to capture a glimpse of His love I need it to be the motivating force behind all I am and do and believe.  I need that kind of love to be the root to my faith for everything else.  Because the LOVE OF GOD brings clarity to every command, life to every precept and brillance to every promise!

Well - this may seem ordinary truth to you and this isn't all that extraordinary.  Perhaps you need an EPIPHANY!