An attitude of gratitude. A lifestyle of praise and worship. And prayer. Praying without ceasing. Communing with God. Hearing the Word of God--which is Jesus, which is love--and speaking that Word. Receiving and releasing the gift you've been given. Understanding that is IS a gift, and not something that can be earned. If you're trying to earn something that can't be earned, something that you've already been given in fact, then what you're really doing is robbing yourself from being able to experience and enjoy it. And, believe it or not, that's what life is all about. Its about enjoying the gift you've been given. By giving it away. By sharing it. Receiving and releasing the love of God. Receiving it by releasing it. Releasing it by receiving it. And that's not something we have to try to do. That's something that happens naturally. When you know and believe that the love of God is inside you--when you fill yourself to overflowing with what you've already been filled with--that when it comes out. With every move you make and every breath you take. That's when, and how, you can pray without ceasing. Its not about ignoring people so you can "spend more time with God." And, listen, I'm not saying there aren't times when you probably should get away by yourself. Jesus did it all the time. I'm simply saying, connecting with people IS connecting with God. Because God lives in people. He lives in us. When we connect with each other we are connecting with Him. Whatever we do unto the least of them we do unto Him, right? I think God would be offended if someone needed our help and we told them, "Sorry, I'm too busy praying." We think big long prayers will get God to move. But guys... He already moved! 2,000 years ago on an old rugged cross He did everything that needed to be done. He gave us everything we would ever need by giving us Himself. His Son. His Spirit. So that we might know what He's saying. So that we CAN listen to that still, small voice. Prayer is every bit as much about listening as it is about speaking. Look at Romans 8:26 in the Message Bible, "Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans." See, everything God requires from us, He first provides for us. Even prayer. When we don't know what to say, He does. And He only says one thing: I love you. That's the Word of God. That's Jesus--God in the flesh, love in a body. God in OUR flesh. Love in OUR body. So when God is doing the praying (for us and as us) then its easy to pray without ceasing. We don't even have to do anything. Just rest in His loving arms and let Him do what He's going to do in us, and as us, and through us. Its easy to be grateful when we know what God has done. He did it all so we could get it all. And now we have it all. Now we can GIVE it all. We are loved. That means we are love. And that means we CAN love. Everybody. All the time. No matter what. And that's kind of the best. That's my favorite.

Talking about my favorite verse, "Pray without ceasing," has brought me to share the revelation that, to me, praying without ceasing means loving without ceasing. Because as important as is it to speak to God... it is every bit as important to listen to Him. To have that dialogue. That communion. And when God speaks--when we listen--its always the same thing: I love you. So prayer is about speaking the language of God. Look at John 5:30, "I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me." Jesus didn't speak on His own. He listened to the Father's voice, and repeated what He heard. He heard His heavenly Father say, "You are my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased," and He let that love equip and empower Him to love everybody He came into contact with. Filled to overflowing with love, we let that love of God flow out of us. That's the secret of life. Being loved and loving others with that same love. That's what life is. Because to live is to love and to love is to live. They aren't just connected, they are the same thing. Now look at 1 Corinthians 14:1 in the Message Bible, "Go after a life of love as if your life depended on it--because it does. Give yourselves to the gifts God gives you. Most of all, try to proclaim his truth." And, as I always say, God's truth (the ultimate truth of the universe) is His love for us. God is love and He loves you. The Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into His hands. And we can't proclaim that truth until we know it. Know it and believe it. So, to me, that's what "going after" this life of love is all about. Not getting something we dont' have, but figuring out what we do have. Receiving and releasing the gift we've been given. Receiving it BY releasing it. Releasing it by receiving it. Letting what we've already been filled with fill us to overflowing. That's the life of love. And, to be completely honest, our life DOES depend on it. You can't live without love. I've been saying and saying and saying they are the same thing. You can't have one without the other. In order to truly live, to experience the gift of abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life that we've been given... we have to let God love us and we have to love each other with that same love. Now here's the cool part: When you let God love you, you don't have to force yourself to love anybody. It happens naturally. Because love is our new (true) nature. What's inside WILL come out. When we know and believe that its inside. So giving ourselves to the gift of God means praying without ceasing. Living in His love... all of the time. Dwelling in His love. I'm telling you right now, there's no better place to be. We live because of love. Because God loves us. We love, because He first loved us. We pray by listening to our heavenly Father tell us how much He loves us, and loving each other with that love. And we pray without ceasing by letting the love inside come out with every breath we take and every move we make. That's what life is all about. That's what life is!

My favorite Bible verse is, "Pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17). And, as usual, I think we misinterpret the Bible as much as humanly possible. Because I've heard this verse used to say we aren't praying enough. Usually along with the idea that we are supposed to P.U.S.H. Pray until something happens. As if our efforts could get God to move. As if God didn't move over 2,000 years ago on the cross. That, to me, is NOT what prayer is about. Its not about condemning people for how much (or how little) they pray. Its not about getting God to do anything. I've been saying this for I don't know how long now. Love is NEVER about getting. Because love IS giving! If you're praying in order to get, you've missed the whole point. The point that our focus shouldn't--can't--be on getting. The point that we already have everything we need. To me, prayer IS about communicating with God. Communicating with love. Communing with God. Communion. Eating His body, and drinking His blood. So to speak. The Lamb and the living water. The bread and the wine. I know I always say seeing is believing, right? But you are what you eat. What you put inside you, if I can say it that way. What you magnify is what manifests in your life. What you allow is what will continue. What you feed is what will grow. So this idea of praying without ceasing isn't about saying words until you get what you want. Look at Matthew 6:7, "But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking." The length of your prayer isn't what's important. In fact, and I mentioned this yesterday, as important as talking to God is... its equally, if not more so, important to listen. Because God is always speaking. And while He is always and only saying the one thing--I love you--He speaks in a still, small voice. The world screams at us at the top of its lungs. Trying to convince us that we aren't good enough. That we aren't enough. Trying to get us to believe the lie that says you have to do in order to be. Trying to get us to perform. Trying to get us to CONFORM to its idea of who and what we're supposed to be. Its a lot. Its loud. It can even be convincing. But that's why praying without ceasing is so important. Quite a few years back now I used to work with my pastor during the summer cutting grass for the City of Auburn Hills. And it was awesome. Because we would ride around in a truck all day talking about Jesus. And then I would sit on a lawnmower and cut grass... and pray. Just let all of the stuff in my spirit come bubbling out. It didn't matter what else in the world was going on. Because I was filled to overflowing with God. With love. I think, and this might sound radical, that we can pray FOR each other simply by loving each other. By listening to each other. By being there for each other. By building relationships with each other. To me, that's all prayer. Talking TO God, yes. Listening to God, yes. But speaking the Word of God to each other. Yes. Loving each other. Yes, yes, yes. So if we are praying without ceasing... we are loving without ceasing!

Every once in a while I like to dig into my favorite memory verse in the Bible. And I know I say they are all my favorite verses. But my mom got me this one in a frame for my office wall. And, while I don't have an office to speak of, that doesn't make it any less awesome. So. 1 Thessalonians 5:17, "Pray without ceasing." And, to be perfectly honest and transparant with you, the reason I first chose this verse as my favorite is because I always root against my dad. He's a life-long Yankees fan, so I adopted the Red Sox. His favorite verse (because he claims its the only one he can remember) is John 11:35, "Jesus wept." Two words. The shortest verse in the Bible. I love my dad. So I had to get the next shortest verse. Three words. Pray without ceasing. And, yes, I could have gone with 1 Thessalonians 5:16, "Rejoice evermore." But then we would have had the same number of words. And since I couldn't go lower than him, I went with a word count that is one higher. Now, let me be clear. I don't root against my dad. He's one of my heroes. I just root against his sports teams. The Red Wings and the Fighting Irish are about the ones we agree on. But I'm all for my dad. I pray for him. Without ceasing. Which--and this is what I actually want to talk about in this Rant series--does NOT mean (to me) that we forgo everything and anything else except talking to God. That would be a little bit strange wouldn't it? "Can't talk to you, I'm praying." "Can't go to work, I'm praying." "Can't even say I can't do anything... because I'm praying." That's ridiculous. I think its more of a lifestyle that we're talking about here. An attitude of gratitude. The next verse, 1 Thessalonians 5:18 says, "In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." Its a lifestyle. A lifestyle of prayer. Which, by the way, is just as much about LISTENING as it is talking. My prayer every night with my son is just thanking God. Thanking God for the day. Even on the hard days. Especially on the hard days. Thanking God for His presence in our lives. Thanking God of the bond that a father and son share. As Logan puts it, "The bond that cannot be broken." And that's what happens when you have an attitude of gratitude. That's what happens when you rejoice evermore (or no matter what). That's what happens when you give thanks in all things; you strengthen that bond. I'm convinced that God is holding onto us and will never ever let us go. And how much stronger--how much BETTER--when we're holding on to Him just as hard? When we run TO Him instead of running FROM Him when we get into trouble. When we ask Him for help when we need help. I've long thought that asking for help is a sign of wisdom, not a sign of weakness. And... when someone helps you (which is really God helping you through that person) you have something else to pray about. Something else to be thankful for. Soemthing else to rejoice about. So don't EVER throw someone over because you think you need to pray. Prayer, and again, I think this is where we're going in this Rant series, is communion with God. Talking and listening. Breathing in and breathing out. Receiving and releasing. Living and loving. So pray without ceasing. Live without giving up. Love at all times!

We started this Rant series with the bronze serpent. With the truth that we have to look in order to live. Because seeing is believing. Now look at John 11:25, "Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." Seeing is believing. And believing is living. Look and live. Listen and live. Experience the love of God, and then be a witness to it. Receive it and release it. Let what's inside come out by knowing and believing that its in there. Before the cross we were dead in our trespasses and sins. Because of the cross, we have been quickened. Made alive. And in order to experience that life--the abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of God--we let Jesus live His own life in us, and through us, and as us. In order to experience the gift we've been given... we give it away. We share it. But, like I always say, you can't give what you don't have. And you can only give what you do have. So instead of looking for something we think we don't have... we need to look at what we DO have. We need to look inside ourselves. That's where love is. God lives in us. And God is love. He is the resurrection AND He is the life. He brought us out of death and into life. And He IS our life. Its His life. Nobody can live Jesus' life except Jesus. So instead of trying to do something we can't do... instead of trying to earn something that can't be earned... we need to just believe. Have faith in God. That's the key to this whole life. And, again, since God is love... that means we are to have faith in love. When we look at the bronze serpent on the pole, that is a type and shadow of Jesus on the cross. When we look at Jesus on the cross we see the greatest expression of love that a man can have. Laying His life down for His friends. Giving everything He has and everything He is. That's what we see when we look at love. We see sacrifice. We see Jesus. God in the flesh. Love in a body. God in OUR flesh. Love in OUR body. Living is loving. Loving is living. You can't do one without the other. You can't have one without the other. Living and loving are not just connected. They are the same thing. To live is to love. To love is live. You can't live without love. Think about it. The most miserable people in life are people that have things, but don't have relationships. Love doesn't come from exterior things. Love doesn't come from having stuff. Love comes from within. From knowing and believing that you are loved. From letting the love that's inside fill you to overflowing and come out. Naturally. That's how we truly live. We let God love us and we love each other with that same love. And that's why we have to look in order to live. Faith comes from hearing and hearing from the Word (Jesus, Love) of God. What we see and hear, what we experience, is what manifests in our lives. Either the lie of the world (do in order to be), or the truth of the Lord (God is love and He loves you). Whichever of those two you choose... that's what you experience. So choose life. Choose love. See love in your life and let what you see BE what you be!

This is kind of interesting to me, because while we seem to usually take it in a negative way, to me this is a simple truth of life. John 4:48, "Then said Jesus unto him, Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe." And that's kind of the attitude that we have about "ye of little faith." We make it seem like needing to see is bad. But, guys, seeing IS believing. You can't believe what you don't know. Look at Hebrews 11:1, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Faith isn't hope. Those are two very different things. Faith is the SUBSTANCE of things hoped for. Faith is believing that what God says is true. If He says He's going to do it... He's going to it. In fact, He's already done it. The Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world. Before there was ever a sinner, there was a savior. But here's my point for today: Faith is evidence. Seeing IS believing. You have to know it before you can believe it. Faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the Word (Jesus, Love) of God. You have to see it and hear it. Experience it. Then you can believe it. You can't give what you don't have. You can only give what you do have. So you have to KNOW what you have before you can believe it. Because the believing part is when what's inside comes out. What you do flows from what you believe. You can't walk by faith without walking. Of COURSE you need signs and wonders before you'll believe. And God has never shied away from giving us those signs and wonders. Even with our story in John chapter four... the nobleman came to Jesus because he had heard about the things Jesus could do. And in verse 50 we see this, "Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way; thy son liveth. And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way." Jesus wasn't condemning the man by saying, "You have to see it to believe it." Jesus didn't condemn anybody (except maybe religious folk). I think, if anything, He was--as usual--showing us the way. Remember the story in Judges where Gideon needed sign upon sign with the wet fleece, the dry fleece, on and on. God didn't get mad at him. He just gave Gideon what he needed. God is a loving heavenly Father. He always gives us what we need. He always provides for us. How could God expect us to have faith in Him unless He first proved Himself faithful? It doesn't work any other way. Faith is substance. Faith is evidence. Faith is believing what you know. Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe. I think that makes sense. And I don't think that's something God is mad about. I'm convinced that God has no problem proving Himself. Because love never fails. Because love endures. Love stands strong no matter what. Love shines a light. Love IS the light. Love doesn't hide. Love wants to be seen. And not in a braggy way. But in a, "Here's a more excellent way... come and get it... its available," way. So don't get down on people (or yourself) that need to see it in order to believe it. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. See it and believe it. Look... and live!

What it comes down to is receiving and releasing. That's the Divine Order of things. That's what we see--see what I did there?--when the light of the world shines. When the light of LOVE shines. And here's the key: WE are the light of the world. Look at Ephesians 3:8-9, "Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ." Paul received that grace so that he could make us see. And, listen, if you know me at all or follow my ministry at all, you know that I don't try to make anybody do anything. I'm perfectly happy with you believing whatever you want to believe. (Probably in large part because my "theology" doesn't end with anybody--ANYBODY--burning in eternal conscious torment. But that's not for today. Don't worry about all that.) In fact, I generally don't even tell people what I believe unless they ask me. And even then I think long and hard and try to discern whether they really want to know or if they just want to argue. Because, ask my kid, I'm NOT going to argue with you. Believe what you want. I'm ok with it. Now, having said that, I preach the gospel--that God is love and He loves you--at all times. And, yes, sometimes I even use words. You can make people see things... by showing them things. Make people see love... by showing them love. If a picture is worth a thousand words, how much is charity (love in action) worth? Priceless, is the answer. Love is priceless. There is nothing more important, or more powerful, than love. And there is no better way to express that love than to show people. That's what Jesus did. He came to SHOW us the Father. And He did that by letting the love inside His human body come out. He showed us a man who loves people. That's who Jesus is: God in the flesh. Love in a body. God in YOUR flesh. Love in YOUR body. And when He see Him, we will be like Him. Because we will see our true selves. We will see love. Human acts of love. We are witnesses, right? And a witness simply reports what he has seen and heard. He simply releases what he has received. And like I always say, you can't give what you don't have. And you can only give what you do have. You can't release until you receive. Because until you receive you don't have anything TO release. Until you look, and see, you can't live. Because to live is to love and to love is to live. You can't do one without the other. So you can't live without looking. Without seeing. If you go through "life" with blinders on you miss out on... everything. Everything worth having. If you shut your heart down--even in defense against being hurt, or being hurt AGAIN--you miss out on what life is all about. But if you let God love you... you can love people. By the way, God loves you... through people. So if you let PEOPLE love you... you are letting them make you see. And once YOU see, you can make others see. You can be loved and you can love others. And that, friends, is what its all about!

What you magnify is what will manifest in your life. What you see is what you be. What you believe is what you experience. Again, with the understanding that you can't just "believe" whatever you want. Or, more accurately, wish and dream and hope for whatever you want. "Believing" you have a million dollars won't make it so. There are two choices: 1. The lie of the world. The same lie that the serpent hissed into Eve's ear way back in the misty garden of Eden that says you have to do in order to be. We don't do in order to be. We do BECAUSE we be. We don't run around (like a chicken with its head cut off) trying to get something we haven't got. No, we give what we have got by knowing and believing that we've got it. By hearing it. By seeing it. You can't believe something you don't know. That's the Divine Order of things; "This things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God" (1 John 5:13). That you may know... and believe. Faith comes from hearing. You have to hear God saying, "I love you," before you can believe that He loves you. You have to see it to believe it. And I'm going to use one of my favorite (I know, I know) verses to illustrate this truth. 1 John 3:2, "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." And that's the thing. NOW we are the Son(s) of God. Right now. Currently. Not because of anything that we've ever done, or could ever do. But until you see yourself (and others) that way... Look. The truth is the truth whether you know it or not. Whether you believe it or not. But while the truth HAS set us free and made us free... its only when we know and believe the truth that we EXPERIENCE that freedom. Its the truth you know that you can believe. And its the truth you believe that manifests in your life. Number 1 was the lie of the world. That's one choice. The other choice, the better choice, the more excellent way, is the report of the Lord. The ultimate truth of the universe. God is love and He loves you. The Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into His hands. When He appears... when LOVE appears... we shall be like Him. Because we will know (and believe) that we are loved. We will stop trying to get something we think we haven't got. We will stop trying to do in order to be. We will BE able to rest in the loving arms of our heavenly Father and we will BE able to let what's inside come out. Not by forcing it out. Or faking it 'til we make it. But by letting it flow, naturally, by filling ourselves to overflowing with what we've already been filled with. By letting God love the hell out of us, and loving each other with that same love. If you magnify love in your life--one more time, by knowing and believing that God is love and He loves you--love will manifest in your life. You will be able to experience the gift you've been given by giving it away. By sharing it. If you look at Jesus, you see love. And living is loving. Loving is living. So look... and live!

So in order to get that Rant series across, I have to kind of mix my metaphors a little bit. But, really, I hope we'll see that its all the same thing. Kind of like how its all about love. Everything in the Bible is just Jesus. The Old Testament is Jesus concealed, and the New Testament is Jesus revealed. So when we're talking about faith, and Romans 10:17 says, "So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God," we can also include seeing in with that. Because seeing is believing. And when we're talking about how there are really only two choices of what to believe--what to see and hear... what to experience in our lives--well, let me quote my other memory verse for today. "No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon" (Luke 16:13). Its either the world... or God. Those are your choices. You can either believe the lie of the world, or the truth of God. The truth of love! Because the lie of the world is, "You are not loved, but if you do x, y, and z, maybe some day you can earn love." Love cannot be earned. It is freely given and must be received. Received and released. Because love is giving. You receive it BY releasing it. By giving it away. But before you can give it away, you have to know that you have it. Because you can't give what you don't have. And you can only give what you do have. We are witnesses of the Kingdom, right? And a witness simply recounts what he has seen and heard. Look at Numbers 21:8. Its the story of the bronze serpent on the pole. And its a powerful story. But for the sake of time I just want verse 8. "And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live." And, specifically, I want that phrase, that idea, "look and live." God is constantly revealing Himself. All of the time. Revealing Himself to us. And in us. And through us. And as us. But sometimes we put our blinders on and we miss what's right in front of us. We spend so much time trying to earn something that can't be earned that we miss out on what we've already been given. What we've already got. We miss out on the gift of God. Which is knowing the Father and the One whom He sent. Knowing God as heavenly Father and knowing ourselves as His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. Now let me circle back around to where we started. Faith. Have faith in God. Have faith in love. Have faith by seeing love. By hearing the Word (which is Jesus, which is love) of God. When the blind lead the blind everybody ends up in a ditch. But we have something else available to us. A more excellent way. And (again) His name is Jesus. His name is love. Love is available to us. Love is everywhere. All we need to do is open our eyes and ears. Hear our heavenly Father saying, "I love you, I love you, I love you" with every beat of His heart in our chests. All we need to do is look... and live!

This is one of my favorite stories about faith. Matthew 9:28-30, "And when he was come into the house, the blind men came to him: and Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto him, Yea, Lord. Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you. And their eyes were opened; and Jesus straitly charged them, saying, See that no man know it." Kind of a simple story with a simple message. If you believe God--LOVE--can do it... He will. And, listen, this doesn't mean you can say, "I believe God will make me a millionaire," and then check your bank account and see all those zeroes. I've been tryinig to bring out this idea--and I might Rant on it starting tomorrow--that when it comes to faith, you really have two choices. 1. Believe the lie of the world. 2. Believe the report of the Lord. You can't "believe" just any old thing in the world. And by "believe" I mean make up in your brain. You can't just wish things into existence. What I mean is, there is the truth... and there is the lie. And you CAN only believe one or the other. But, like I said, I think I'm going to dig into that next. For tonight, let's end with the blind being made to see. Which is one of the promises of God, right? Opening the eyes of the blind? Even as far back as Job 29:15 Job says, "I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame." That has always been a theme in the Bible. And its so important because what you see is what you be. Seeing is believing. Faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the Word of God. The Word of Love. So if God says He can (and will) open your eyes... you can take that to the bank. Believe ye that I am able? That's the key. Because according to your faith be it unto you. If you believe God's Word--His truth--then it becomes true... to you. See, the truth is the truth whether you know it or not. Whether you believe it or not. But if you don't know it... if you don't believe it... then the truth isn't true TO YOU. It doesn't do you any good. Its like this: There is so much available to us. But if we don't know we already have it... we'll spend our Three T's (Time, Talent, Treasure)... we'll waste our entire lives... looking for it. Trying to get what we've already got. And robbing ourselves of what we've already got in the process. You can't earn a gift. So when you try to earn something that can't be earned, when you try to earn something that you already have... that's when you miss out on experiencing it. Guys, love is giving. If you're trying to GET... you've completely missed the point. If you're trying to get, you're doing the opposite of love. Which isn't hate by the way. The opposite of love is fear. And when you're afraid that you don't have love, that's when you'll try anything and everything to get it. When all you really need to do is believe. Know it and believe it. Settle the love issue by knowing and believing the ultimate truth of the universe: That God is love and He loves you. Do you believe it? Good. Because according to your faith be it unto you.