I was driving down I-65 tonight when out of nowhere a solid sheet of rain came down. The lightning was so vivid and bright that it almost blinded me. I couldn’t see the lanes or where the road curved and I almost started to panick. Then the voice came.

It said, “It will not come near you.”

That’s all. Just that one phrase over and over. “It will not come near you.” I can’t say that I knew exactly what that means, but I know that at that point a peace came over me that defied the bad weather and my own iffy driving skills. I knew I would be alright because God had said I would be.

I think if you listen you can hear God’s voice telling you, “You’re safe with me. You can trust me in this. I’ve got this.” No matter what storm you’re in, or maybe if you’re in a calm right now, you still need to be reminded that your life is in Good Hands. I know I do. You need to hear as a believer that nothing touches you without God’s say-so and that heartaches and struggles often are blessings in disguise.

The question is not if God still speaks, but if we are listening. Are we open to all the ways God can speak to us? Obviously, He speaks foremost through Scripures, but He also speaks in many other ways. It could be a lyric from a song or a line from a movie or a quote from a book. It could be a small whisper in your head. It could be a church sign or bumper sticker or a random scribbling on a wall.

I miss about 90% of what God is saying to me. The good news is that He is patient to keep repeating what I missed until I finally get it. The better news is that what God is saying to me is not that you’re hopeless or that you’re one strike away from being done, but that you are more loved than humanly possible and more blessed than you have any right to be and you won’t spend one second outside of God’s watchful care and tender mercy.

Oh yeah, and He speaks through friends as well, through facebook posts and texts and emails and random conversations. I experienced that tonight as well.

May you have ears to hear what He’s saying and the ability to believe that it’s not anger, but absolute love and compassion being spoken over you.

Amen and amen.

I have to admit something. I have an absolutely ridiculous amazon wish list. I think it’s like 20 pages long and for every one item I buy from there, I add three more. I’m just crazy like that. But I also have a wishlist for my non-cyber world, too.

I wish that people wouldn’t be so quick to seek the negative and look for things to criticize in others, but would show more forgiveness and grace and look for ways to build each other up.

I wish people would stop using the Bible to prove other people wrong, to win arguments, to condemn, and to boast in their own knowledge, but instead would use it to glorify Christ, to seek to know Him more, and to show His love to the world.

I wish that we as Christians could talk less about what we believe and live it more. I wish I could do better about sharing what I believe with those I work with.

I wish we would stop using faith as a political platform or as a means to get “our” people elected, but instead live it as a lifestyle of thankfulness to the God who saved us.

I wish I were a whole lot better at trusting God and waiting on His promises instead of working so hard to help Him out and messing things up.

I wish my friends could see themselves the way I do, or better yet, the way God does. I wish they could see how much Jesus loves them and how He sees Himself in them and is very proud of them.

I wish chocolate was naturally fat-free. Ditto for all Italian food.

I wish and I pray and I hope that I see revival in my lifetime and that the Holy Spirit would burn inside us to love each other better and love the outcasts and downtrodden and needy in a radical way.

I wish everything on my amazon wishlist could be 90% off tomorrow (ok, that one was silly).

I wish all of you would fall in love with Jesus and see how crazy in love He is with you and be captivated and transformed by that love into people who are willing to live surrendered and give their lives away for the Kingdom of God.

Amen and amen.

What really is there that can separate me from God’s love? Is there anything? Theoretically, I’d automatically say no, but let’s make this more practical.

Can me totally failing at my job and getting fired cause me to lose God’s love?

Can the repeated times I’ve repented only to fall back into the very same sin pattern the next day earn me the boot?

Can my own deep insecurities and fears about me, others, and even God negate His love?

Can all the promises I’ve broken, even the broken promises to pray for others, or the general lack of discipline and passion drive God away?

Can anything in heaven or earth or in hell overcome the love of Christ?

The answer to all these is a resounding NO. There’s not even the possibility of a yes in any of these. Nothing else can even touch the power of God’s love or His ability to find and rescue you or the power of His love to hold on to you once you’re his. Nothing. His love overcame the cross, all our sin, the grave and death, and hell. Anything else is a piece of cake.

I like this version of the classic Romans verse:

“I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from his love. Death can’t, and life can’t. The angels can’t, and the demons can’t. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can’t keep God’s love away. Whether we are high above the sky or in the deepest ocean, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39, NLT).

Rest in His love. Believe in that His love can transform you. Let it enrapture and captivate your heart. And most of all, make yourself a vessel for His love to fill and flow through. Because those around you need His love, too.

Amen and amen.

I think Jesus is my favorite person. Really. I’m not giving you a Sunday School answer. You know, when you were little and no matter what the question was, some kid would inevitably yell out “Jesus!” This time I mean it. And the reason is that I know some really awesome things about Him.

1) Jesus is God. Period. He’s not just a really great teacher or moral example. If you take what He said seriously, either He’s psycho or He’s God. And I think He was telling the truth (and still does!)

2) Jesus always saves the best for last, like the wine at the wedding at Cana (see John 2:1-12). You can count on the fact that no matter what’s going on in your life, if you’ve trusted Jesus for salvation, He’s got some pretty amazing things lined up for you.

3) Jesus wins in the end. Read the Book of Revelation. It’s not even close. Jesus wins by a blowout landslide and we who are with Him get to share in the victory.

4) His arms are long enough to reach you wherever you are and strong enough to keep you safe and secure from anything and anyone who is against you.

5) He is bigger than your politics or religion. Jesus never calls you to a better morality or political platform or religion, but to a relationhip with the Father that surpasses relationship you could ever have and truly fulfills every longing you’ve ever had.

6) Jesus will push away anything that keeps you from God. He called His Church a house of prayer (not of preaching or worship or miracles or anything else) because He wants you to know Him and the Father and have the same joy He has in His Father.

7) Jesus would rather hang out with sinners who are truly sorrowful than the smug self-righeous churchgoers who look down their noses at everybody else and carry picket signs that say who God hates.

8) Jesus is the only way to heaven because only He is good enough to die for His enemies and strong enough to bear all our sins and reach down into hell and pull us out. Nothing and no one else is good or strong enough.

9) Nothing in heaven or earth or even in hell will ever stop Jesus from finding you. Nothing you’ve done or said or nothing that’s been said or done to you will stop Him. No matter what you’ve called yourself or what others have called you, Jesus has a new name for you written on the palms of His hands and He can’t wait to share it with you.

Those are some of what I know to be true about Jesus and if I focus on those things, I always fall more in love with Jesus. I hope you come to fall in love with this Jesus, because He’s fallen in love with you and is crazy about you. May that be the song of your heart, the same song He sings over you in the night while you sleep. May that be your testimony: I am My Beloved’s and He is mine (and He calls me beloved, too!)

Amen and amen.

3)

I’ve always heard that there’s no such thing as a dumb question. Ask any question and don’t feel foolish. For the record, there are dumb questions, such as the classic “When is the midnight buffet?” for example. Perhaps, we need to worry more about asking the wrong question.

The question isn’t how can you meet my needs, but how can I meet yours.

The question isn’t how can I make you see how you’ve wronged me and make you pay for it, but how can I seek to forgive you just as God in Christ has forgiven me.

The question is not how can I find the fulfilled life or my best life now, but how can I start giving my life away daily for the cause of Christ.

The question is not what will I get out of this Bible Study or service or event, but how can I give to someone else and share with them what God has shared with me.

The question is not how can God bless me, but how can God make me a blessing to someone else that I run into today.

The question (for single folk) isn’t how can I find the right person for a marriage partner, but how can I be the right person.

The question is when will sugar-free chocolate ever taste like real chocolate (and the answer to that one is the day after never!)

The question is not what plan does God have for my life, but how does He want me to be obedient and faithful and surrendered and available for Him to use right now in this moment.

There are probably many many other questions along these lines. The point is not about me, or my life, or my problems, but about God and His Kingdom advancing in the world and His glory displayed and His love winning the hearts of His people. The main question is how can I be a part of that and how can I be Jesus to someone in my world wherever I am.

Amen and amen.

Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don’t see many of “the brightest and the best” among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these “nobodies” to expose the hollow pretensions of the “somebodies”? That makes it quite clear that none of you can get by with blowing your own horn before God. Everything that we have—right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start—comes from God by way of Jesus Christ. That’s why we have the saying, “If you’re going to blow a horn, blow a trumpet for God” (1 Corinthians 1:26-31, The Message).

This  blog was inspired by both Bill Wellons and Mike Glenn. Thanks to both of them for being faithful stewards of God’s Word.

Back in Jesus’ day, most other disciples were men who were the cream of the crop, so to speak. They were the very finest, brightest. Those who were the elite, those who survived when many did not and went back home to learn their fathers’ trades. They became the rabbis that everyone looked up to, the who’s who of their day.

But not so with Jesus. He chose people like Peter. Peter, the uneducated fisherman who had been eliminated for the possiblitiy of discipleship long ago. Peter, who when He saw Jesus’ authority over nature and, in this case, fish, fell down and declared himself an unworthy sinner. Jesus chose a tax-collector, two zealots, and other fisherman, among others. No one that had any of the credentials to be a disciple.

What Jesus essentially told Peter (and what He tells us his children today) is that He wants us just like we are. Who you are right now is good enough for Jesus to use and you admitting your sinfulness qualifies you best for a relationship with Him. He wants your mess to become your message (taken from another pastor who faithfully preaches God’s Word).

Jesus saw you struggling with your chains and bondage and saw your broken heart. He called you and loved you as you were right then. He took your place, took your chains and your bondage and sin, and bore them to an instrument of torture called a Cross where He paid your debt once and for all, making  you forever free.

So, I’m thankful Jesus chose me. I’m equally glad He chose you. Neither one of us deserved to be called or had earned it, yet here we are due to the grace of God. Let our response, our worship, be to give our lives back to Him for Him to use however and whenever and wherever He wants. Let the only song we sing be one of a heart that’s been set free! Believe that Jesus loves you and His love is changing you. Believe that God looks at you and sees Jesus. Let your life from here on out be a living hymn of gratitude and thanksgiving.

Amen and amen!

I personally think knowledge is way 0ver-rated. All that book learnin’ so you can learn to speak English good and to spell korrectly. Who needs it? Have you ever met one of those people who are so stinkin’ smart that they have gone past common sense and being able to tie their own shoelaces? Seriously.

I do think that there’s a whole lot I don’t know. You could fill entire libraries with all the stuff I don’t know. I’m okay with that. After all, it’s not what you know but Who you know that will get you where you need to be in life. And God knows everything (including all my junk, yet He loves me still).

I don’t know why God loves me like He does or why He still loves me when He has had many reasons to quit. I don’t know why He blesses me like He does. I certainly don’t know why He chose me out of all the people in the world, but I know He did. I don’t know where I am being led in this life, but I know and trust the One leading me (thanks, Oswald Chambers for that one!)

I don’t always know what to say or how to act in social settings. I have created many awkward moments with my lack of social grace. But I know that when I most need it, the Holy Spirit puts the words in my mouth just as He did for the early leaders when they spoke before kings. And He gives me very gracious and forgiving friends who look past my sometimes social nerdiness.

I do know that Jesus is madly in love with me and won’t let me go.  I know God looks at me and sees Jesus and thinks that’s pretty awesome. He sees all the perfection of Jesus when He sees me. I do know that no matter how rocky or winding the road I’m on can be, it will get me Home. I know that Jesus won’t just just me the way; He is the Way.

I don’t know whether 2 or 500 people will read this, but I know that I have to share what God puts on my heart, even if it’s only for me. I know that when my blog is long gone, when I am long gone, when my name is forgotten, God will still be faithful and true. And that will end the day after never.

Amen and amen!