I know what is wrong with religion. I know what it is that we're missing.

We are missing the most beautiful, absolutely necessary, wonderful, life bringing, life giving, meaning giving, critical thing in the world. It's the one thing that we, especially religious people, need more than anything else. But it's also what everybody needs.

It is the answer to life. It is what we are here for, and it brings life to our lives, and to everything that we do. It is the goal in life and it is the motivation behind life. (or at least should be.) It is the antidote to all of our ills, sins, screw ups, hangups, hurts, failures, mistakes, heartaches, etc. It is the one thing that would set religion on fire, and draw the entire world's eyes to us, as it is more beautiful, astonishing and captivating than anything they can come up with. It is the one thing that can change the world how it really needs to be changed.

It is to learn to allow ourselves to be loved. This, I am convinced, would light up our lives.

We need to learn to let ourselves be loved.

I am convinced that this single event, more than anything else we can do, would evangelize the world.

Because this is what everybody needs. Everybody.

Everybody.

And sometimes what we are doing now is not that. Sometimes, (not all the time), what we are doing now is what we think we are supposed to be doing. And that doesn't really work.

God is love. I don't care how many thousands of sermons you can listen to that lead you in every direction, I don't care how many interpretations of Scripture you learn and listen to, I don't care how much you read your Bible and know it inside and out, I don't care how many books you read, how many conferences you attend... none of it will change the fact of Who He Is. And He is love. I don't care how scared you get, I don't care how hard you try to perform. It will not change the fact that He is love, and because that's who He is then that's what He's going to do. TO YOU.

I DON'T CARE WHO YOU ARE. I DON'T CARE IF YOU ARE IMPORTANT OR UNIMPORTANT. I DON'T CARE IF YOU ARE THE WORST SINNER IN THE WORLD OR THE BEST PERSON IN THE WORLD. I DON'T CARE IF YOU ARE AN ATHIEST. I DON'T CARE IF YOU ARE AN AGNOSTIC. I DON'T CARE IF YOU ARE A GOOD OLD BOY FROM THE SOUTH OR A MUSLIM FROM THE MID-EAST. I DON'T CARE, AND IT DOESN'T MATTER. HE HAS ONLY ONE AGENDA FOR YOU, WHOEVER YOU ARE, AND THAT IS LOVE. I DON'T CARE IF YOU ARE IN PRISON OR IF YOU ARE THE CEO OF OF AN INTERNATIONAL BANK. YOU NEED TO BE LOVED.

What we are often doing, as a race, and as the church, is trying to love ourselves. And we've got to stop. IT HAS TO STOP. A lot of what we do is motivated out of fear. Because we haven't been loved right. And since we haven't been loved right, but are built to be, we act out in all manner of crazy ways. I mean in the world, and I mean in the church. We are all aching and longing to be loved, whether we recognize it, can name it, or not. IT'S THERE. IN ALL OF US. AND IT'S WHAT WE NEED MORE THAN ANY THOUSANDS OF BILLIONS OF SERMONS.

WE NEED TO BE LOVED, WE NEED TO BE LOVED, WE NEED TO BE LOVED!

IT'S THE ONLY WAY THAT IT'S GOING TO WORK. WE'VE GOT TO STOP WHAT WE ARE DOING AND LET OURSELVES BE LOVED! THE WORLD IS DYING BUT IT'S NOT GOING TO BE ATTRACTED TO FEAR. THEY'LL NEVER BE ATTRACTED TO BOREDOM! THEY'LL NEVER BE ATTRACTED TO RITUALS.

THEY'LL NEVER BE ATTRACTED TO MORE BURDENS WHEN ALL THEY ARE TRYING TO DO NOW IS DESPERATELY GET RID OF THE ONES THEY ALREADY HAVE!!!!!!!!!

THEY ARE HUMAN BEINGS JUST LIKE US AND IF WE DON'T LET OURSELVES BE LOVED, THEY'LL NEVER SEE THAT THEY CAN BE LOVED, AND COME.

You've got to stop trying to perform for Him. He doesn't need it. You've got to stop trying to work for Him. He doesn't need that either. You've got to stop being afraid of Him. It just isn't so, WHATEVER you are believing that causes that.

I don't really think we fully understand who we're dealing with here. I mean really. Now get ready for this, brace yourselves, cause it's going to be a shock. This IS GOD. I mean really!!! If we are really dealing with the infinite, all powerful, all loving, omnipresent being who fills the heavens and the earth, who created all life in the first place, who keeps it all going with His power, etc. etc. etc... I mean, if that's who we're really dealing with here, then what we are doing and how we are expressing Him to the world by our fears and insecurities is sad.

PLEASE, TELL YOUR PASTOR, TELL YOUR PARENTS, TELL YOUR FRIENDS, TELL EVERYONE YOU CAN THINK OF TO STOP WHATEVER IT IS THAT THEY ARE DOING THAT IS BORN OUT OF ANYTHING ELSE, AND LET THEMSELVES BE LOVED BY HIM.

It's the only way the world's going to be fixed, and,... it's the only way that YOU are going to be fixed!!

Faith works through love. I DID'NT MAKE THAT UP!! It says so right in the Bible!! Think your faith is not working? Then it's probably due to the fact that THERE'S NO LOVE IN IT!!! Feel guilty? Feel afraid? Feel unworthy? Feel anything but precious in the sight of your creator? Then your faith can't work!! Faith does not work through work, faith does not work through fear, FAITH DOES NOT WORK THROUGH ANYTHING BUT LOVE!!

TO WIT. Take Jesus, as our ultimate example. We would probably all agree that His faith worked pretty well. He had no challenges trusting God, no problems healing the sick, raising the dead, feeding the hungry, loving every single person He ever ran across, laying down His own life for us, and knew absolutely no fear whatsoever. Wouldn't we all like to be like this? So how was He able to be like this and to do all this? It's because His faith was worked. And it worked through love!! I present the following for your consideration...

"And the glory which you have given me I have given them, that they may be one, JUST AS WE ARE ONE; I in them, and YOU IN ME, that they may be perfected in unity, that the world may know that You did send me, and did love them, EVEN AS YOU DID LOVE ME. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me be with Me where I am, in order that they may behold My glory, which You have given me; FOR YOU DID LOVE ME BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD. O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, YET I HAVE KNOWN YOU, and these have known that you did send me; and I have made your name known to them, and will make it known; THAT THE LOVE WHEREWITH YOU DID LOVE ME may be in them, and I in them."

and...

"Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? ... Believe Me, that I am in the Father and the Father in me."

And, the coup de gras of all the love scriptures in the entire Bible;

"This is My Beloved Son, IN WHOM I AM WELL PLEASED."

Now, the greatest thing about this last verse, is that GOD SAID THIS ABOUT JESUS BEFORE HE EVER DID ONE THING.

BEFORE HE BEAT THE DEVIL IN HIS TEMPTATIONS, BEFORE HE HEALED ANYBODY WHO WAS SICK, BEFORE HE RAISED LAZARUS FROM THE DEAD, BEFORE HE SUCCESSFULLY DISCIPLED TWELVE OR MORE DISCIPLES, BEFORE HE FED NINE THOUSAND PEOPLE, BEFORE HE WALKED ON WATER, BEFORE HE CALMED THE STORM, BEFORE HE KICKED THE MONEYCHANGERS OUT OF THE TEMPLE, BEFORE HE DIED FOR YOU AND ME, BEFORE HE ROSE FROM THE DEAD, BEAT THE DEVIL, AND SECURED EVERLASTING SALVATION FOR THE SOULS OF ALL THE PEOPLE ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH, PAST PRESENT AND FUTURE... God said that He was pleased with Him!

This tells me something about the nature of love. Namely, that it values the person most of all. It values you because you are you. Period. It doesn't depend on what you do. God is willing, longing, and able to love you regardless of what you do. And, it values you, as I've said before somwhere in the annals of this blog, over and more than getting what it wants done. We, as humans, have a yardstick by which we can measure love. And it is this. Am I valuing you over getting what I want, and subjecting my wants to your value, or am I subjecting you to my wants, and therefore using you in order to get what I want? This is always the litmus test of love. And where did this standard came from? From ourselves? From some renowned psychologist somewhere?? From a self help book? No, this standard comes straight from the One Who is love. The One who is Himself the epitome of love. He is not just the epitome of love, he IS love. And this is how He treats people. No matter what you've been told before, that makes you try to earn it, He loves you perfectly already. Simply because you are who you are and He made you!!

Think of it in heaven. Do you believe that there will not be any stress and strain due to trying so hard, to do all the things we think we're supposed to do and try to be all the things we think we're supposed to be? I believe that. Which tells me that this is the way God works, as heaven is certainly under the rule of Him nd His Kingdom. And which tells me that you can begin to relate to Him like this now. And this is how you will bring God's Kingdom to earth, and His will be done here as it is in heaven! Pretty neat, huh??

Allow yourself to be loved by Him!! It's really neat!