Whenever people talk about life on other planets, they almost always assume that whoever (or whatever) lives there must be smarter than us. Why? I mean, really. Who says that just because they’re not from Earth, they’re automatically of a higher intelligence? Maybe they’re like that John Belushi character from Animal House and are just out crusing for the next big intergalatic kegger? Maybe they have a 0.0 GPA. Ever thought of that?

And this idea that life got started by seeds from aliens. Where did that come from? Did some really bored aliens start looking for a planet to impregnate? Did they have to pull out the ol’ GPS to find us (’cause with their hyper-intelligence, they would have invented it long before we thought of it)? I can imagine them looking at some giant map and saying, “Hey, look at that little blue-green planet. No, not Mars, the blue one. Down there. Yeah, that one. Whaddya say we go down there and start a new species?”

I don’t know. Probably not. It just seems that if there really is life on other planets, maybe they’ve screwed up just as bad as we did. Maybe instead of a snake tempting Eve with forbidden fruit, it was a spider tempting someone with pasta primavera. ‘Cause I’d be much more tempted by that personally. Or some planet where chocolate was the cause of original sin.

Is there a point to this? No. I’m just thinking weird thoughts. Like maybe what we need more of is not more rules or a different President or a better ethical and moral code. Maybe what we need is more grace, mercy, and love.  To love each other, whether we are white, black. . . . or green. Love covers over a multitude of sins and love is the force more powerful than any weapon or group or ideology.

So until someone produces a hi-def photo of a UFO and not some blurry image taken in the 50’s, I will remain a skeptic when it comes to life on other planets. But never about God or about love. I know both of those are real because I see the proof in my life every day.

Amen and amen.

Tonight at Kairos, we talked about what the Gospel is and what it is not. We talked about the dangers of adding to it as well as of taking away from it. There are some out there who say we can never know what the Gospel is. I say we can, and here is what the gospel is: good news. Like my favorite radio host said, it’s not advice or self-help, it’s news and news is something that’s already been done.

The news starts off not so good. We are all messed-up sinners born crooked and wandering away from God the moment we can move. We are enemies of God and selfish. We need help and we can’t help ourselves or each other. It has to come from somewhere outside of us. It has.

The news gets a whole lot better. God came down and became a helpless infant, born of a virgin and without the sinless nature that the rest of us carry. He grew up and lived a sinless life and perfectly fulfilled the law that we could not even begin to keep.

He took our sins and died on a cross, punished even though He was completely innocent. He rose again, forever defeating death and and force that would seek to destroy us or hold us down. All disease, sickness, failty, death, addiction, stronghold or any other powers were defeated by Jesus on the cross and that defeat was sealed for ever when He walked out of the tomb three days later.

The best part is that no matter what you’ve done or how badly you’ve screwed your live over, you can start over. If you admit that you are a sinner who can’t save yourself and deserves at eternity in hell separated from God, believe that Jesus died for you and took all your failures and mistakes on Himself and paid for them, and confess that He’s the only One strong enough to save you and that you are His forever, He will save you.

Being forgiven is the best feeling in the world. To know that God sees you now as pure and righteous and holy and blameless, as if you had never sinned. This news is so good, in fact, that you and I should be beating down people’s doors to tell them about it. To love and forgive people radically because we’ve been radically loved and forgiven.

This is the Gospel, good news. It’s the best news the world has ever heard or will hear and I for one can say that it has changed my life and set me free and made me alive! I hope and pray it will do the same for you.

Amen and amen.

A few thoughts I had on the way home from the Mindy Smith concert.

1) Jesus is far better and far more trustworthy than I ever dreamed He could be.

2) He loves me way more than I ever thought anyone could love me and has made me into someone worth loving.

3) He may not go the way I want or take me where I think I should go, but He knows the best ways to make me more like Him and He will not fail to get me Home on time.

4) Every day without a toe tag is a good day. Every moment with breath in my lungs is a good moment. Every second Jesus gives me to live and love and be loved is one I don’t deserve, but one I get anyway– all that is called grace.

5) See 1-4. Keep reading 1-4 until you finally see how good God is and how wonderful Jesus is and how amazing grace is.

I learned tonight that the word integrity derives from the same word for integer, a whole number. If we have integrity, we’re not fragmented, one way around a certain group or on a certain day and another way with a different group or on a different day. We’re always the same. Who we are in the spotlight is the same as who we are in the dark when we think no one sees. Who we are matches what we profess to believe and how we live matches what we say we believe.

I think that only love that is radical and unconditional will change the world. Not the generic love of Hallmark or those sappy movies on Lifetime. Only love that lays down its life and serves the beloved will grab the world’s attention. Only love that blesses the ones who curse and goes the extra mile and turns the other cheek will cause people to notice.

That kind of love can’t be self-generated. I can’t possibly love like that. All I, or anyone else, can do is receive that love from God and let it flow through me. The best kind of love is when God loves His people through His people. When I am filled past what I can receive and the overflow reaches those around me.

If we are already victorious and the battle is already won in Christ, why are so many living defeated lives? Where is the joy? If we’ve been shown grace, why do we turn around and give people a bunch of rules to follow? I wish I knew.

I do know that fellowship and community are beautiful things to behold. Believers gathered together in the name of Jesus and loving each other are a powerful witness to the transforming love of Jesus. No other force or power or personality could bring people together like that.

So what? The more we give Jesus room to work, the more amazing things He will do in and through us. All He needs is a place to start, as Mike Glenn once said. Let our hearts be your starting point in the days to come.

Amen and amen.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about grace. But when it comes to defining grace, I’m unable to come up with an answer that truly encompasses all of what grace means. I’ve heard grace stated as “God’s riches as Christ’s expense” or “God’s unmerited favor” or “Getting what you don’t deserve.” All well and good, but none seem to really capture all of what grace is.

I do know that I need grace. Not just me, but anyone who professes the faith and is truly seeking to go beyond surface, shallow Christianity to the faith that Jesus lived. We all desperately need grace on a daily basis.

For me, grace is the means by which I am saved through faith. Grace is what allows me to wake up every morning. Grace is the reason that I can claim the peace that passes all understanding. Grace is what keeps me believing and grace is what will finally get me Home.

I may not have a tidy definition of grace, but I know grace. I know the Giver of Grace who calls me friend and who has declared me pure and righeous and holy and victorious for all time. It’s His grace I’m talking about, after all.

So maybe that’s all I need to know. I certainly don’t have to understand all the different aspects of gravity for it to work. I don’t have to understand all the properties of wind to feel it in my face. And I most definitely do not need to completely understand all that encompasses the character of God to know Him. As if I could even begin to do that.

All I have to do is be like a little child and receive Him and His grace. To take Jesus at His word and follow Him. To make myself a surrendered and willing vessel for Him to use however He wants. To believe that it is only by grace that I can do any of these things.

Amen and amen.

I think it was Bono who talked about how too many American believers are part of a “bless me” club, where it’s all about how God can bless us financially and materially. Almost like God is a kind of vending machine who dispenses whatever we want when we want it. A good job, good health or a good marriage are just a prayer away, according to some.

Biblically, the idea of blessing has more to do with relationships than stuff. Blessing in the Bible carries with it the idea of having God’s favor on you. That God is with you and for you. Not so much that He gives you things, but that He gives you Himself. It’s not about seeking His hand as it is seeking His heart.

Still, maybe that’s not enough. I was convicted today that maybe instead of seeking blessing, we should seek to be a blessing. Maybe we make ourselves available and willing vessels through which God can bless others. And the biggest blessing of all is to know God, Ultimate Blessing. We are blessed in this way as we see God bless others and see them come to be all God made them to be.

My prayer for you is that God blesses you. But more than that I want to see you be a blessing to those God puts in your life. What I want for you is that people see Christ in you and are drawn to Him. That they see your changed life and hear your testimony of transformation and want not just what you have, but the God who could do such amazing things in you.

I may never be rich or famous. My blog may never hit the big-time. That’s OK. I just want to be obedient and faithful. I want to boast in my weakness so that God’s strength is made perfect in me. I want Him to use me in any way He chooses and to bless others through me.

I hope that’s what you long for. In the end, true riches are all about who will be in heaven because of your obedience and faithfulness. It’s not about what you have or who you know, but how much you love and how available you are to be the blessing someone needs to see.

Amen and amen.

I have to admit that I have become a numbers junkie when it comes to my blog. Every time I write one lately, I come back several times to see how many people have viewed it. I think it’s become a pride thing for me and I’ve caught myself thinking that all these people are reading these blogs because I am such an incredible writer. Wrong. It’s all God’s doing.

I write blogs because it helps me articulate my own feelings about myself and God and others. It’s very therapeutic and healing. Even if I were the only one to read my blog, I believe it would be worth it for the catharsis that comes from putting words to what I’m feeling and thinking.

I write blogs because I want people to know how deeply God loves them. Not that He loves them in an dry academic or stuffy theological way, but in a passionate, crazy, “I’m head over heels in love with you” kind of way. I desire for people to see themselves the way God sees them. If you are in Christ, you are already pure and righteous and holy and victorious and forgiven. God sees you and sees Christ in you and is pleased with you.

Even if one person reads my blog, it’s worth it. As I typed that last sentence, I could feel my pride taking a hit. Part of me will always want legions of fans, but that’s the part of me that has to die. The part of me that lives knows that honoring and pleasing God is what matters, not numbers.

So if you’re my number one fan out there reading this blog, thank you. If you’re my lone reader, I hope God blesses and encourages you through this blog. Ultimately, anything that speaks to you from this is God and not me. That’s not false modesty. That’s true of anyone who communicates God’s truths.

So thank you for reading this, whether you’re the one lone reader or whether you’re part of 100 people reading it. It really doesn’t matter. What matters is that I continue to be faithful to put on here what God puts on my heart. By the grace of God, I will continue to do just that.

Thank you, God, for speaking to me so much lately. Without you, I have no blog. Without you, I have no breath in my body. Thanks for that, too!

Amen and amen!

For the record, I don’t claim to be the expert on anything but on this: that I know for sure that my God is crazy about me and loves me as though He were lavishing all the love in the world on me, but with still more love to go around to all His children. I know that.

But I was thinking about the passage of Scripture where Jesus states that wherever two or more are gathered in His name, there He is in the midst of them (Matt. 18:20). I think it has to mean more than Jesus merely being present when two believers show up at the same spot. Jesus is present in one believer all by Himself.

I think maybe it means that when two or more believers get together for the purpose of glorifying God, Jesus is more than just present. He shows up in the sense of coming in power and authority. There is something about a group of believers gathered together that can’t be explained by any human or natural means.

Acts 2 records that the effect of the early church gathering together frequently and sharing everything and loving each other was to turn their world upside down. Thousands of people were being drawn to Christ through these believers’ testimony and love put into action. Signs and wonders and miracles followed the believers everywhere. But I think the key part is that they truly loved each other. They were vessels through which God poured His love into others.

That’s what I want. I want more than just to be doctrinally right. I want more than to have all the knowledge. I want more than to have my spiritual to-do list checked off. I want to see the power of the Holy Spirit manifested through believers gathered together in His name. I want a love so strong that the world won’t be able to ignore it or explain it away.  A love that is so different than any other that it captivates those who witness it.

Again, I am far from perfect and I get a lot of things wrong. But like the old saying goes, it’s not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog. It’s not my great faith in God that moves mountains, but my faith in a great God. Even if that faith is mustard seed-sized.

Amen and amen.