There is nothing you can do to earn God‘s favor for the simple and profound reason that you already have it.

FAITH BECOMES FACT Marry two truths together in your thinking—one psychological and the other theological. “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7). “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). It is a law of the human mind that what you focus on expands to shape your reality. Attention is the currency with which we purchased meaning. Or, riffing on the apostle Paul, by beholding we become changed. If you focus on your defects, shortcomings, and failures, the focus itself will feed the repetition of the undesirable traits and behaviors. If you tell yourself, “I’m not…”, well, then, you’re right. If you say, “I can’t…,“ you’re right. But if you say, “I am… I can…,“ then your mind will adapt to your vision and move you in that direction. Of course, this only applies to that which is within the realm of possibility. You cannot say, “I am a bagel,” and expect to become a bagel, although eating too many of them will tend to make you resemble one, but that's a different topic. Bible psychology is about moral realities. If you focus on your sins, they will define you. But here’s where the good news of the gospel comes in: if you look at Jesus, assess who He is and what He has done for you, and identify with Him over and over again, locking your affections upon Him and believing that all He has done is for you—YES, FOR YOU—then your life will begin to be incrementally shaped in the direction of the moral beauty you see in Him. This mental identification process is what the Bible call “faith”—looking outside of yourself, away from yourself, above yourself to Him who loved you so much that He gave Himself for you, and simply saying, over and over again, “Yes, Jesus!”

Immersion in the principles of the gospel will gradually calibrate your mind to see people as they are by means of increasing your love and empathy for them. To love someone is the only way to see them accurately. Empathy sharpens spiritual vision. It is the ultimate superpower. People will begin to appear psychologically naked before you. This affords you tremendous opportunity to relate to people in a manner that nurtures security and openness in them, so that their own healing process can mature more rapidly. People will subconsciously get better from their traumas by association with you, or, more precisely, by the love of Christ moving through you to them. It also comes with inherent potential dangers, to yourself and to others. As you begin to see people more and more as they really are, you will start to feel their pain more and more deeply, which will be emotionally depleting unless you consistently engage in replenishing practices for both your body and your mind. There is also the danger that others will begin to feel so free and comfortable with you, by sensing that you see them and still love them, that you will have an increased potential for disappointing them. Those who see a lot, feel a lot, and bear a lot of responsibility. Nevertheless, it is the inevitable direction the gospel will lead you, so there’s no getting around it. You will simply find yourself loving people more and more acutely. “For behold, the darkness (of sin and shame, ignorance and insensitivity) shall cover the earth, and deep (delusional) darkness the people. But the LORD will arise over you (in Christ), and His glory (of radiant love) will be seen (by people) upon you (in the way you see and treat them). The Gentiles (those who feel like they are on the outside, on the downside, on the bad-side of life and God and others) shall come to your light (the radiance of His love shining through you), and kings (those in positions of power) to the brightness of your rising (with the greater power of being good to people)” (Isaiah 60:2-3).

REALITY CHECK Just beneath the surface of our daily interactions with one another, we are all united by secret shame and hidden suffering. All prideful posturing, all sense of self elevated above others, all wagging of the tongue in self-righteousness—all of it is completely delusional and therefore illegitimate. The only appropriate posture of mind for fragile and fallen little creatures such as we are, is, “God be merciful to me, a sinner!” (Luke 18:13).

WHAT I SAW TODAY Hey everybody, I got busy with deadlines while navigating some of life’s unexpected curveballs, and I kind of forgot about life over here on social media. Hi! Well, something landed with clarity upon my mind today, in the context of some craziness over the last few weeks, and it’s just too good to refrain from sharing with you all: I realized, all over again, just how blessed I am, right here in the midst of all the insanity of life. So here’s the prelude to the burst of clarity. My poor wifey, also now known affectionately as, The Klutz, is all laid up with a broken ankle, because somehow her multitasking skills went into remission and she couldn’t queue up her next Adventures in Odyssey story on her iPhone and at the same time pay attention to the hole in the ground in front of her while walking Bentley, her faithful canine friend. Thus unfolded a series of unfortunate events: foot goes in hole, bone snaps, fall to ground a great distance from house, severe pain, holding leash to retain Bentley, finally crawling and limping back to the house, pain escalating, rush to hospital, x-rays taken, cast on, surgery scheduled, cast off, surgery done, cast back on, foot above heart—you know, the whole 9 yards. And right there, in the midst of it all, day after day, there is laughter and love! I found myself just standing back in utter amazement, seeing this woman whom I always see. And then, with all this seeing going on, from somewhere deep inside me, something just had to be said, or, rather, declared: You are more glorious than you know. You can’t possibly know, because you are you, living your life as you, from the inside, and, therefore, can never observe yourself from the outside. You do not encounter yourself, experience yourself, see yourself. But here I am, most fortunate fellow, with a front row seat to the wonder of what and who you are. You are nothing short of astounding. You are witty and smart, funny and charming, full of laughter and unique articulations of the simple daily events that unfold around you. It is as if you are always noticing everything, taking it all in, processing it through the person you are, your heart a lens through which you see the world with such innocent eyes, reflexive kindness, and spontaneous joy. I have spent nearly my whole life observing you, experiencing you, never bored and always fascinated. You, my girl, my Klutz, my forever friend, you are my muse to all things innocent and beautiful. No, you can’t possibly know how glorious you are. But I do.

The key idea for today’s sermon: LOVE IS the foundational principle that encompasses all data pertaining to the character of God and those who operate in sync with His character.

Today, a friend texted me the following question: If you were to sum up your life with one word, what word would it be? Here’s the word that came to mind: Hiraeth (pronounced heer-eyeth). It’s a Welsh word with no English equivalent. It means a deep longing for a place you’ve never been, a person you’ve never met, a feeling you know exists but you’ve never fully experienced. The English word homesick refers to a place you once were in the past and remember, and so it comes short of expressing a longing for a place you’ve never actually been but you know is there. Hiraeth attempts to capture that feeling, and it is the one word that best sums up my life.

And suddenly, just like that, everybody now understands the God of the Old Testament and wishes He would make an appearance to smite evildoers. #EpsteinFiles

Hello lovers of Jesus and lovers of music that glorifies Him! I want to share something exciting and important with you. A dear young friend of mine and former student in our ARISE discipleship course, Phoebe Entermann, along with her brother and a friend, all happen to be extremely talented musicians and vocalists. They have formed an amazing trio and are launching a music project, calling themselves ATONE. They will be recording reimagined versions of old hymns. What a great idea! And they have the talent to do it. All they need is our help. They have launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise the money to do the professional recording of their first album and launch the project. I believe very strongly that we, the church, should support young artists to fill the world with beautiful art that glorifies God. I’m asking you to please make a contribution so they can bring this project to life. Here’s the link for the Kickstarter campaign. Thank you in advance for helping these young artists magnify the beauty of God‘s character in song. When you go to the Kickstart page, even if they are already meeting the goal amount, please give anyway so they have the ability to immediately move forward with the next album. kickstarter.com/projects/ato…

Not until you get to forgiveness are you really free, really alive, really operating at the majestic peak of your potential as a human being made in the image of God.

ON JUDGING THOSE WHO SIN DIFFERENTLY THAN YOU I heard someone say, "there is no virtue in resisting a sin that does not tempt you." Exactly! This is so obviously true, and such a vitally important insight, that we would all do well to keep it uppermost in our minds as we witness the failures of others. If we really internalized this fact, we would find it nearly impossible to speak badly of a person for their particular sins and imagine ourselves better than them because we don't do such things. We would know that all of us are sinners sinning in areas we find tempting while judging others for sinning in ways we don't find tempting. Nobody occupies moral high ground. Nobody is better than anyone else. What you find easy to resist, someone else finds hard to resist, and what someone else finds easy to resist, you find hard to resist. C.S. Lewis got to the core this idea: "Some of us who seem quite nice people may, in fact, have made so little use of a good heredity and a good upbringing that we are really worse than those whom we regard as fiends. . . That is why Christians are told not to judge. We see only the results which a man’s choices make out of his raw material. But God does not judge him on the raw material at all, but on what he has done with it. Most of the man’s psychological make-up is probably due to his body: when his body dies all that will fall off him, and the real central man, the thing that chose, that made the best or the worst out of this material, will stand naked. All sorts of nice things which we thought our own, but which were really due to a good digestion, will fall off some of us: all sorts of nasty things which were due to complexes or bad health will fall off others. We shall then, for the first time, see every one as he really was. There will be surprises." When see someone sin and you hear yourself say, "What a sinner! I can't believe he/she would do such a thing," maybe say back to yourself, "Why not! You'd do the same thing if you had the same history, genetics, and pressures as them, and besides, you have sinned in areas they have not, so shut up and be kind rather than condemning, you self-righteous moral snob."

ON PRESENT STAGE God Almighty, ineffably holy, Great in weakness, immeasurably lowly, Across the ages, I see You moving, Sinners running, Lover pursuing Take me into Your story now, I resist no longer, Your will to allow, Not mere words on ancient page, But present Word on present stage Gentle love, with fury dripping, Hunt with passion, tenderly ripping, Into my soul, where lies reside, Pierce the darkness of shame I hide Capture my vision, which strays to illusion, Regard not violent mercy’s intrusion, Cease the knocking, break the door, I want You less as I want You more Enthrall my desires, brutalized by lust, Rapture my emotions, divinized by trust, Lure me, lure me, far away from me, Slave to Your love, yet finally free As minutes unfold and hours fly by, As years make older and I age to die, Younger with innocence I become with time, My wounds are healing by grace sublime Deeper, yet deeper, in Your love I repose, Lesser and lesser Your will to oppose, ‘Til I am truly myself in Christ, Your love forever alone to suffice

She's always in the process of keeping things alive: plants, flowers, fish, birds, turtles, me.

—VS— “He who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes” (1 John 2:11). It’s not right vs left, conservative vs liberal, Republicans vs Democrats. It’s good vs evil, both of which battle for supremacy on the right and the left. It’s lovers vs haters, both of which exist on the right and the left. Until we get this accurate binary firmly fixed in our thinking, we will remain enslaved to simplistic blame-casting and ignorant hate, while harboring the illusion that we are enlightened and feeling justified in our divisive posturing. HATE=DARKNESS=EVIL LOVE=LIGHT=GOOD That’s Bible!

THE SERMON AS SACRED ART The pulpit is a holy place and the sermon is sacred art. To stand in front of a congregation and preach must be approached with conscious reverence and intelligent preparation, because two extraordinary things are taking place in those moments: First, people are granting you access to their inmost being, to the most vulnerable, hungry, and private spaces in their souls. You must not violate their trust by failing to feed their longing to hear from God through His word. The sermon is not your personal time. It's God's time and, as such, it is holy time. Your job is to become a semi-invisible point of entrance into the mind and heart of God for the people gathered before you. Secondly, the Holy Spirit is expecting you to faithfully discharge the task of magnifying the love of God as manifest in Christ. You simply are not at liberty to preach whatever you want. You are on mission for God, and the mission He has assigned you is to preach the gospel, not whatever speculations, personal grievances, extra-biblical ideologies, or cultural fads you happen be into. Preach Christ! Christ incarnate! Christ crucified! Christ risen! Christ ascended to the right hand of the Father! Christ ministering the endless flow of God's grace as our heavenly High Priest! Christ coming again to receive His spotless bride into eternal matrimonial union!

CALIBRATED FOR PAIN It’s love that calibrates our capacity for pain, isn’t it? Do I have that right? To the degree that I am divested of myself and invested in you, the more sensitive I’ll be to your experiences. The more purely and deeply I love you, the more I’ll hurt when you hurt. Such is the nature of love. This is why we feel such acute pain when our children suffer, especially when we feel powerless to relieve their suffering. Nothing comes close to the emotional turmoil of seeing your son or daughter be trapped in mental anguish or engaging in self-harming actions with a wall up that won’t let you in to help. Certainly this is a reflection of God’s infinite pain as He watches us suffer as we shut Him out. “You keep track of all my sorrows,” King David sings to God. “You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book” (Psalm 56:8). “My heart churns within Me; My sympathy is stirred,” God says as He looks upon Israel pursuing a self-destructive path (Hosea 11:8). He is “touched with the feeling of our infirmities,” says Paul (Hebrews 4:15). “God is love” (1 John 4:8), therefore God is infinitely emotional. We were made in “God’s image” (Genesis 1:27), so we, too, though broken, are emotional creatures who are susceptible to pain when those we love suffer. As hard as life in love can be, life without love is completely undesirable. Better to love and hurt than to not love at all.

THE SINGULARITY OF THE LAW According to James, if you've broken even one of the Ten Commandments, you've broken all Ten (James 2:10). But how can that be? Just because I've told lies doesn't mean I've committed murder, does it? Just because I've coveted things that belong to my neighbor, that doesn't mean I've committed adultery, does it? There is an extremely significant sense in which the answer is, "Yes." James is getting at something of vital importance: The Ten Commandments are a moral singularity. All Ten are of the same moral essence—love. We can logically deduce, then, that all sins are of the same moral essence—selfishness. To commit any sin at all, is to commit all sins in principle. Any sin, and every sin, violates the fundamental structural integrity of the whole moral universe. And this means there is no fundamental difference between any of us. "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). By committing any sin, I have committed all the sins of the world at the essence level. No human being is morally superior to any other person. As sinners among sinners, all judgment rings silly, like a white collar thief sitting in judgment on a bank robber as the two of them share the same jail cell. The fact that you and I have committed even one sin, is proof that we would commit every other sin, for which we condemn others, if left to ourselves and given the opportunity. Humility is the only non-silly frame of mine a human being can occupy. The truth is, your situation if far worse than you've imagined. But thankfully, your situation is also far better than you've imagined, because, knowing all of this, God still loves you and sent Christ into the world to be your Savior.