Star Searc Series

On Columbus Day 1992 American scientist launched the greatest search in history. NASA called

it Search For Extra Terrestrial Intelligence, or SETI for short. Frank White in his book The Seti

Factor tells us this project using radio scopes and newly developed computer technology was

designed to scan the sky for signals that may be sent by any civilization beyond our solar system. It

is estimated that in 25 years man will know if there are other intelligent beings in our universe.

They began by searching the thousand sun-like stars within 80 light years of earth. They had

hoped to pick up signals that may come from a star that has a planet like our own sun has. The

amazing computer is able to process an entire encyclopedia full of random noise per second. It is 10

billion times more comprehension than the sum of all previous searches. They began this search on

Columbus Day in honor of a man who went searching for a new world and found it. Man is a

searching being by nature. God made him as curious as the cat, but with more tools to search with,

and the result is that man has searched the microcosm and the macrocosm for life invisible to the

naked eye.

This literal star search is fascinating to scientists and theologians as they speculate about life on

other planets. My only problem with the search is that it is another of man's efforts to find the

meaning of life by searching in all the wrong places. Man has searched the planet for a paradise and

has not found it in materialism, hedonism, or any other ism. Like the Prodigal Son, man has wasted

his substance in riotous living, and instead of going home to the Father he is hoping to find an elder

brother somewhere out in space who will give him a lift, and give him the hope of finding meaning

without going home.

Man continues to side step the one search that God wants all men to get into, and which He

reviewed through Jeremiah the prophet. God says in Jer. 29:11-14, "For I know the plans I have for

you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a

future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will

seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. I will be found by you declares the

Lord." Wow! Here is a search guaranteed to succeed and put you into communication with the

most intelligent life in the universe.

Many are the stories that parallel that of the Academy Award winning actress Joan Fontaine.

She was sickly from birth and spent her life searching for health. Her stepfather was a military man

who had all of life regimented, and with no warmth and affection. She spent her life searching for

love. All her success and riches and fame never met her need. It was only when she found Christ

and joined the body of Christ that she felt her search was completed, for she finally felt that she

belonged.

If we expect the coming year to be a good one, then we have to be committed to be searchers.

Only searchers find the best. All of the lost and hidden stuff in the world is found by searchers. That

is why God is Himself the Sovereign Searcher. As soon as Adam and Eve fell God came searching

for them in the garden. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. None are wiser than those who seek

to be found by the searching Savior. And for those found and saved there is still the need to be

searched by the Lord's laser light so they can be cleansed. Psa. 139 begins, "Oh Lord, you have

searched me and you know me." And it ends with, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me

and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way

everlasting." This is a prayer, not only for every New Year, but for every new day as we call on

God to do a sin search and get it out of the way so we can see the way to go to please Him.

While man is searching the heavens for a sign of intelligent life heaven is searching earth for a

sign of intelligent response to God's communication. In Jer. 17:10 God says, "I the Lord search the

heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds

deserve." God has a scanner going at all times trying to pick up signals from everyone of His