Hammer on Anvil '

This week at our church we have been having VBS. It is the first one that we have put on since I have been here (so it's been at least 3 years). I seriously couldn't be happier with how it is turning out.

Is it the largest VBS held in town all summer? Probably not.

Is it the most flashy VBS held here in Malden? Not even close.

But we have a great group of kids showing up every night who are having a blast.

It's more than that though.

Last night right after our closing, I saw something that melted my heart. A little girl ran right up to her dad and was so excited to share her Bible verse with him. He praised her for it and her eyes just gleamed.

I've seen other Facebook statues from parents excited their kids are coming to VBS and coming home telling their parents about the stories they learned and reciting their Bible verses.

How absolutely wonderful is it that these kids are so excited to be learning about God? If you have never helped with a VBS I would so encourage you to do it!

It makes me wonder when that joy fades. At what point in our lives do we stop being excited to learn about God? When did we stop memorizing Scripture? If you have lost the joy of seeking after God through His word, try to get that back.

If you have kids, you can work on it together. I can guarantee when you see how excited they are to be doing it, it will help you be excited as well.

So seek after God through His word and get excited about memorizing Scripture. The other thing I would say is make sure to invest in the life of a child.

It doesn't have to be a 5th grader. It doesn't have to be a 12th grader. But children of any age need to know there are adults in their life who care about them. Too many kids have one or both parents out of their lives for one reason or another. It can leave them feeling abandoned and even unimportant.

Find a kid to invest in. Encourage them on Sunday morning. Write an encouraging post on their Facebook wall in the middle of the week. Get to know them and be a beacon that shines God's light into their lives. Kids are missing out on adults who care for them with no other intent than just to love them because God first loved us.

Let's not miss out on raising up that next generation to know and love God. Parents were instructed to do just that in Deuteronomy. The responsibility is still the parents' to raise up their children right, but the church is there to help. It is not just events like VBS or camp where kids should be hearing the message of Jesus and seeing it lived out. They should be seeing that every single day.

And we can't show them, if we are not seeking after God ourselves.

"Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace" (Ephesians 4:3).

If you have been part of a body of believers for any length of time, you are well aware of the fact that sometimes unity seems hard to come by. We seem to forget that we are not our own, that we were purchased with the precious blood of Jesus. We push and shove and gossip and try to cause dissension when we don't get our own way.

First Peter 2:9 says we are "a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a  holy nation." Our mission is to "declare the praises of Him who called us out of darkness." The knowledge of who we are in Christ Jesus should bond us together in holy, brotherly love. What can be done to foster unity of the Spirit?

Nothing is more vital in this endeavor than to commit ourselves to lives of prayer. Remember the Upper Room? Christ's followers stayed there for ten days and "joined together constantly in prayer" (Acts 1:14). Jesus had exhorted them to not leave Jerusalem, but to "wait for the gift My Father promised" (Acts 1:4). I sense that in those ten days of united prayer, the disciples' hearts were knit together as one.

Unity to some people seems to be a distasteful thing; they are not happy unless they are churning things up. Perhaps they don't understand how vital unity is. Or maybe they think it means they will lose their identity as they join with other believers. On the contrary, unity is indispensable if we hope to live Christ-centered lives that "bear fruit in keeping with repentance" (Matthew 3:8).

I recently read an Andrew Murray devotional that painted a vivid picture of the importance of unity:

Because of the many mountains in Natal (a region in South Africa), the streams often flow down with great force. The Zulus join hands when they want to pass through a stream. The leader has a strong stick in the right hand, and gives his left hand to some strong man who comes behind him. And so they form a chain and help each other cross the current. When God's people reach out their hands to each other in the spirit of prayer, there will be power to resist the terrible influence that the world can exert. In that unity, God's children will have power to triumph with God.

Are you forming a chain today in your relationships with other believers? Or are you yanking and pulling and stubbornly trying to go your own way? My friends, the world will not know we are believers in Jesus when all they see is bickering and jockeying for position. John 13:35 says, "Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are My disciples."

Let's try to do what the disciples did as they waited for the Holy Spirit. In the communion of loving, believing, faithful prayer, our hearts can be united for the one purpose of living for and glorifying God.

I have a little confession to make: I have gotten out of the habit of reading my Bible every day. It's not that I don't enjoy it or don't want to, I've just let other things get in the way. I read almost every night before bed, but a few months ago I got Netflix. I then made the mistake of keeping my computer in my bedroom and falling asleep to bad movies. I told myself that watching something helped me wind down at the end of the day. It may be true, but you know what else is true? Thinking about what I read is a much better way to drift off to sleep.
Reading the Bible daily is not just some legalistic rule made up by the Church; it's important, vital to our growth as Christians. Psalm 119:11 says, "I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you." The word of the Lord, the Bible, is where we get instruction on how to live a righteous life. Like the verse says, we must read it, study it, memorize it to do so. We must also read the Bible because it's part of the armor of God (the sword of the Spirit). The whole armor is needed in order to stand our ground against the devil's schemes (Ephesians 6:10-17). Going to church is important to our walk with God, too, but we can't just go and take what we're taught as gospel. We must do our part by comparing it with the word (1 John 4:1) to see if it really is from God or not.
I think 2 Timothy 3:16-17 explains the importance of reading God's word the best: "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work." I don't know how it can get any clearer than that. 


Just a little side-note on how I'm getting back into the habit of reading every day. I've taken my computer out of my room. No matter how I try to convince myself I can stay up and watch something and read my Bible, it's better to just remove the temptation. I'm not quite back in the habit, but I am reading more often than I was.

My wife and I are going through a one year Bible together. It is one of those Bibles that breaks every day down into an OT reading, NT reading, Psalms, and Proverbs (going through Psalms twice in a year).

Some days a verse just pops out at us. Such is the case from the other night. We read a verse from Proverbs and both said, "Wow!" Here it is, Proverbs 19:18

"Discipline your children, for in that there is hope; Do not be a willing party to their death." 

What a line of thought! He has made a connection between the lack of discipline and death.

In our world today we tend to let kids get away with quite a bit under the umbrella of, "they are just kids." That line is cute for a while, but when someone says it of their 17 year old trashing mailboxes, sleeping around, defacing public property, doing drugs, or getting drunk at parties, it becomes ignorance.

 In this post, I'm not going to spend time telling you how to discipline your children. What works for my children may not work for yours. Time out, spanking, gentle correction, or grounding may or may not all have a place in the way you discipline your children.

The important thing is to discipline your child when he or she does wrong. It is not helpful to the child to just let him continue to do wrong. It is not loving to keep allowing her to do things which will end up hurting her.

If you are a parent, you have been entrusted with the care of that child by God. He has given you this joyous responsibility and it is not to be taken lightly. It is a huge responsibility to raise up another human being!

It is alright if our children end up being mad at us every now and then. They do not yet have the hindsight to see that discipline was for their own good.

My oldest son, who will be 3 in a couple months, doesn't like discipline. Sometimes he cries, other times he yells. It breaks my heart to upset him in that way. But if I do not take the time to teach him right and wrong, he has a much greater chance at making some very wrong decisions that will negatively impact himself and possibly others.

As he grows if I let him get drunk or sleep around because, "that's what kids his age do," I am acting as a terrible parent. I'm not looking out for him at all. Saying, "okay son, you may go sin, but do it safely," doesn't make any sense! Poor decisions can actually lead to my child's death.

For me to just sit by and watch them make sinful decisions because I don't love them enough to stop them is throwing away the responsibility God has given me.

One day my boys will grow up and I won't be able to discipline them anymore. They will make their own decisions a part from me. Hopefully though, I will have raised them to know what God declares right and wrong. Hopefully, they will seek God's will for their life above all else because I have loved them enough to discipline them.

Let's raise our children to love doing what is right.

"I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5).

I love that Jesus gave us many parables in which He used principles of gardening/farming to illustrate the kingdom of God. He told us that if our faith was as tiny as a mustard seed, we could tell a tree to be uprooted and planted in the sea, and it would be so (Luke 17:6). He told a wonderful parable about seed sown on fertile ground, and seed sown in rocky soil. He told about a man who threatened to cut down his fig tree because it was unfruitful.

In John 15, Jesus tells us that we (believers in Him) are branches, and that He is the vine. He tells us, "If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned" (John 15:6).

A couple of summers ago, we had a beautiful plum tree in our yard. It was a young tree, and we never even got to enjoy the fruit of it due to an infestation of Japanese beetles. They literally ate the life out of our little tree. We thought about cutting it down, but decided to wait and see if it bore fruit the next year. Then web worms attacked it, and our little tree just wasn't strong enough to withstand it.

As happens quite frequently, this series of events inspired a spiritual application. It made me wonder how closely I am abiding in Jesus. I have often been like our little plum tree, in that I have allowed pests to come and devour me. Instead of abiding in the vine, I allowed the stresses of life to overcome me to the point that I bore no fruit.

The Greek word for "abide" in these verses means to "dwell" or "continue" or "endure." This speaks of staying power, my friends. This is not a butterfly flitting from place to place. Remember Mary and Martha? Mary's fault was not so much that she was busy. In fact, it wasn't about what she was doing nearly as much as it was about her posture. She was like the butterfly, flitting here and there in a frenzy to make everything perfect. Conversely, Mary's posture was one of worship; she sat at the feet of Jesus, realizing that nothing was as important as simply being in His presence.

Which are you today, my friend? Is your posture one of worship and communion with your Lord? Are you like Martha, busily working but not stopping to abide in Jesus? Or are you like the seed in Matthew 13:22, allowing the cares of the world to render you unfruitful?

I am learning the blessedness of abiding in Jesus. Things that normally would upset me or cause me to lose my temper simply don't affect me the same way when I am truly abiding in Him. When He is first and foremost in my thoughts, I find I can see things through His eyes, rather than the filters of my own frailties and sinfulness.

If you have not "turned off the world" in a while, I encourage you to begin today. Your text messages and tweets and Facebook posts can get along without you for an hour or two, I promise.

A very old hymn (from 1922, to be exact), is titled "Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus." The lyrics to the refrain fit this blog to a tee:

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace.

Turn your eyes upon Him today, my friends. You will be surprised at how things you thought were insurmountable suddenly shrink in size. He is almighty God, and He knows your every need. "Cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you" (1 Peter 5:7).

Our church has been doing a study about what you need to carry around with you in life, taking Colossians 3 as its base scriptures. The sermons have really been hitting home and it's been awesome watching God work in our individual lives as a body of believers.

Also, it's been incredibly painful.

"Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful" (Colossians 3:12-15).

"Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid" (Proverbs 12:1). And if that one doesn't smack you in the face, read Proverbs 13:4, too.

"Sing praises to the Lord, O you His saints, and give thanks to His holy Name" (Psalm 30:4).

Grouchy people are not a new phenomenon. And when it comes to grouchy, I must -- as did Paul in his epistle to Timothy -- confess "I am the worst of all." Those of us who profess to know Jesus are supposed to look strikingly different from those who don't. So why are many of us cranky complainers?

Facebook has unfortunately become a venue for us to air our gripes and frustrations, and that is why I felt compelled to blog about this. On more than one occasion I have attempted to exhort brothers and sisters who seem to only post negative things. You know the type: something always "sucks" or they post about every physical ailment they have. Some use their smart phones to let the whole world know every time they're at the emergency room. Others even post photos of themselves in a hospital bed to elicit sympathy.

Don't get me wrong; I see nothing wrong with soliciting prayer support if you are going through a crisis of some sort. I'm referring to the people who have victim mentalities. They seem to thrive on repeated trips to the doctor/emergency room/hospital, and grouse about other circumstances that of course only happen to them. The long line at the grocery store, someone pulling out in front of them in traffic, or their dog messing on their carpet -- all of these are carefully orchestrated to aggravate them.

My heart grieves when I read these things. Honestly, I have hidden all the complainers from my news feed, but still get a dose of their negativity once in a while if they comment on somebody else's post.

Have we forgotten our Lord? Have we forgotten to open our Bibles and read about His magnanimous love for us? His stupendous mercy and grace? James 3:10 says, "Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be." Yet we do precisely that. We may stand up on Sunday mornings and worship God, but what does the rest of our week look like?

Yes, the world we live in can be aggravating. Other people may drive us crazy. But we can discipline ourselves to respond differently. We can live every day with hearts that breathe praise to God.

You may recall that Psalm 51 is the one David wrote after the prophet Nathan confronted him about committing adultery with Bathsheba. Most of the psalm illustrates David's contrite heart. He confesses his sin, asks God to forgive him and pleads, "Do not cast me from Your presence or take Your Holy Spirit from me." Then, in verse 15, David utters this wonderful prayer that I try to remember to pray on a daily basis:

Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare Your praise.

Friends, our lives and our attitudes can change drastically for the better if we cultivate the spiritual discipline of gratitude. Begin each day, before you even roll out of bed, to remember Psalm 118:24: "This is the day the Lord has made; I will rejoice and be glad in it!" Psalm 29:2 exhorts us to "Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His Name." Think about that. How much glory do you think God deserves? If we lived to be 100, that wouldn't be enough years to give God "the glory due His Name."

Dear brothers and sisters, it is time we ask God for a true spirit of repentance about our sin of ingratitude. Think about how much breath we expend complaining and criticizing. What would happen if instead that same breath was used to give God praise, and to thank Him for His never-ending love and grace? It grieves the heart of God when we take our eyes off Him and allow circumstances to turn us from joyful Christians into griping grouches.

We are supposed to be people whose joyful countenances draw others to us. If we are grouchy and negative and constantly complaining, who is going to care what we believe?

The difficult circumstances in our lives all have a purpose. We couldn't possibly be transformed into the image of God if we never had any struggles. Remember Jesus and what He suffered? That was all a part of Him yielding to His Father's will. If we profess to follow Jesus, we must yield to God in the same way. Trust that He knows what is best. Living a victorious Christian life doesn't mean everything will go our way. The victory is in maintaining a close relationship to God regardless of the circumstances.

"This is what the Lord says: Don’t let the wise boast in their wisdom, or the powerful boast in their power, or the rich boast in their riches. But those who wish to boast boast in this alone: that they truly know me and understand that I am the Lord who demonstrates unfailing love and who brings justice and righteousness to the earth, and that I delight in these things. I, the Lord, have spoken!"  (Jeremiah 9:23-24)

Have you ever started an activity only to quit after a short time because it seemed too impossible? I'm talking anything:

Learning a new style of dance

Knitting

Crochet

Cricket

Croquet

Running

Learning an instrument

Picking up a new job

ANYTHING.

Often times we become interested in learning something new because we have witnessed someone else performing their trade perfectly. As we watch, in the back of our minds we think, "It would be so cool to be able to do that! I think I'll try to learn."

The problem is, we are left in awe by people who have been doing those things for years and have learned to perfect their art. We are just beginners, and as beginners often are, we are messy, awkward, and down right not any good.

So we get frustrated and we quit.

But we have forgotten something. Most of those people who left us inspired, have been working hard at it a long time and started out just as frustrated and terrible as we currently find ourselves.

Deciding that we are going to live our lives completely sold out for Christ is a big decision. We might make this decision at a big Christian conference or after a great service on Sunday morning.

There may be someone who is leaving a great example for us to follow and we are left inspired by them.

Whatever the case may be, we decide to strive forward and leave our entire way of living behind.

At some point in our journey we realize just how messed up we are. It could be at the very beginning or after a few months. We see how much God is calling us to change. There is so much to take in and we feel like we need to change it all right away.

And that's frustrating.

It seems impossible.

So some people quit.

I'm not saying that everyone completely gives up the Christian name. But some people just opt out of complete change. They pick and choose what they feel are the most important aspects of the Christian walk and just live and teach those. Everything else is just subtitles. It's not as important.

Because the life God seems to be calling us to seems way to impossible and and loving God wouldn't do that to us.

The great news is...it is pretty near impossible!

We can't change all on our own. That's why we need Jesus. Even when we have been living and walking the Christian life for 50 years, there are going to be moments when we mess up and fall. But God extends grace to us.

Something we can do to make this Christian life seem a little more easy is break our change into smaller bites. Take the Fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23. There are seven different fruit listed there, "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control." Instead of trying to be all those at once, work on one at a time.

Decide for a couple weeks you are going to be more loving to everyone. At the end of the couple weeks, evaluate and see where you are. Then decide if you want to work exclusively on love for a couple more week or add joy to the mix.

Starting any new project or activity can be frustrating. In order to become great at it though, we must persevere. It is no different with our walk with Christ.

It can seem like an impossible task, but when we break it down in small steps, it is made easier. Even when it seems like you are making no headway, keep pushing on.

Finally, surround yourself with other like-minded individuals (aka, the church). Having other people who are doing this journey with you, helps tremendously.

Decide you are going to live for Christ.

Don't try to change everything all at once.

Surround yourself with others

And persevere.

A person's pride will bring about his downfall, but the humble in spirit will gain honor (Proverbs 29:23).

My blog this week addresses one of the most insidious, yet perhaps the most prevalent sin in the church: pride. Thoughts started taking shape after an encounter I had while hiking recently. I met up with a woman whom I knew slightly from a former work relationship, and she had her grandson with her. She introduced her grandson to me, and then took me aside and said, "He's the only one of my grandchildren with my DNA, so he's special." She proceeded to explain that her other grandchildren were foster kids or adopted. And yes, this woman is a Christian.

The pride in her statement was appalling! She barely knew me, yet it was important to her that I know that this grandson had her DNA -- as if foster children and adopted children are somehow not as worthy of the title "grandchild."

Fortunately her grandson came back right away, and I continued on my walk with my son and his fiance. I don't think this woman would have wanted to hear what I could have said had other people not been around.

Pride. It is what made Lucifer fall from grace when the world began, and people have been tripping over it ever since.

A pastor's wife that I know (I'll call her Julie) is very prideful of her particular choice of denomination. When I chose to pursue a different path, she incredulously said she just didn't know how I would be able to enjoy a church that didn't focus on certain spiritual gifts. Never mind that those same churches are so prideful that they would not permit me to facilitate an abortion recovery ministry (saying it was "too shameful and embarrassing") -- which is why I went elsewhere.

Julie and I worked together briefly, and she answered the phones in our office. I'll never forget the day I overheard one of her conversations. It was obvious that the caller to whom she was speaking was Catholic, and Julie felt the need to ask her if she was really a Christian. She then made some sweeping generalization that she didn't think most Catholics are truly saved.

When her conversation ended, I made my way over to her cubicle. I politely told her that it was not professional (or godly) to assume that a caller is not saved simply because they are Catholic. She had never heard that before, and seemed a bit taken aback. Apparently she had heard that lie her whole life, and chose to believe it.

In yet another venue, Julie and I were in a focus group hammering out a women's Bible study that was soon to be published. The whole point of the study was for women to be able to be transparent and address real issues in their marriages. When we got to a chapter about adultery, Julie piped up, "Well I don't think we really need to address this chapter. We're all Christians." I waited until the study was over, and again took Julie aside. I explained that this study was going to women of all walks of life -- women who have perhaps had abortions, women who have been divorced, and yes -- women who may have committed adultery. I told her that if we hope to truly minister to hurting women, we can't have that attitude that she voiced -- as if surely "a Christian woman would never do such a thing." I explained that women would shut down immediately because they would not feel safe sharing their hurts.

Again, Julie seemed incredulous. I was amazed that a pastor's wife would be so clueless and unaware of the hurts and sorrows that women experience. Yet often people like her, whose only exposure to the Christian faith is their own narrow denomination, don't care to learn about other expressions of faith, and sometimes are shockingly intolerant of the sins of others.

The bottom line here is that we ALL are sinners. And the fact that we call ourselves Christians does not mean we will never struggle. It does not necessarily mean we will never commit adultery or have an abortion or become addicted to something ungodly. Many times a person shares a wonderful story of redemption from alcohol or drugs or pornography or sexual addiction, and a listener automatically assumes that the person "did all that" before they were saved. And it simply isn't true, my friends. Our hearts are desperately wicked, and sometimes we allow circumstances to lead us down unsavory paths. The fact that we sin does not mean we were "never truly saved" (messed-up theology I have heard more times than I can count). It doesn't mean we are not Christians; it means we have chosen to give in to our flesh rather than follow Jesus in that particular instance.

Jesus tells us that if we come after Him, we must take up our cross daily and follow Him. It's not a one-time decision; it is a choice we make every minute of every day. Yes, His Holy Spirit empowers us to live godly lives, but that doesn't mean we will never sin. And we set ourselves up for a fall when we make statements like, "I could NEVER do (fill-in-the-blank)." That's precisely what today's Scripture means: Pride goes before a fall.

Remember the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector in Luke 18? The Pharisee "prayed" by thanking God that he was "not like other people" -- and then named off a few choice sins that others were guilty of but that he was not. The tax collector, on the other hand, wouldn't even lift his eyes to heaven, and prayed simply, "God be merciful to me, a sinner."

Let's endeavor to be like the tax collector, rather than the prideful Pharisee. We have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Have you ever been lied to? No, like, "Whoa. There is no way anything you're saying is right" kind of lied to?  I have. Honey, I grew up in church. We are all magnificent liars.

It's easy to lie, because we do it every day that we pretend we don't have a problem. We want to make church and Christianity look like that one R.E.M song sounds, but believers, we are not all Shiny, Happy People. We all have battles.

Sometime the hardest thing to be is transparent about the things you are still fighting.

1 John 1:8- 10 says, "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us."

Don't let my cartoony nature fool you, sucka. I still wear the scars from when I found some kind of comfort in a razor across my skin. I like to pretend that you all don't know I'm crazy, but the truth is this girl was Mayor of Crazy Town. I went there. I got elected. I made Britney look like a little case of PMS.

I don't diminish what God has done in my life, but I want you to know how badly I still need the Lord. Friends, I've been to crazy and back, and it's way to easy to hop on the train back to crazy town. I have to submit to the Lord and daily ask for His strength and guidance. And the one thing I learned is that regardless of how much I love Jesus, I can not change myself. So I lied, and hid, and cried. And when people asked me how I was doing, I learned to say, "Good. And you?" And then I learned to do that with enthusiasm. It's a coping mechanism. You become a character. And then it's easy to pretend that you aren't struggling with something dark, dealing with something mean, dying on the inside. The world is your stage. The church is full of actors.

I played that part for 15-plus years, but God never wanted me to play that part. God helped me break through this cement mask. I opened up about my rape and the hurt I still carried and my life began to change. I am still Hannah, but I have hope. I found that opening up helped others begin to open up. And then my church, where I've been attending for nearly 12 years, became less like a country club and more like a support group of weirdos, ready to bond together and go where God leads. And when my church started clearing the proverbial stage, things got real.

God becomes real with you when you get real with God. Admit, confess and do that daily. Find others believers who can admit they're broken, too, and then pray for God to bind you together, to weather this storm. I've been reading Colossians 3 a lot. Read that.

Listen, I've played church my whole life. I've seen every sin in the book, and I've done most of them, and all within the church. Let me assure you that your personal struggles do not Houdini out of your life the minute you admit that you love Jesus. Jesus is magic, ya'll. He came to show us how to act and direct us to the Father, but we are still the same people. God can't make us new until we confess that the yuck we are carrying around is getting real old.

And we don't want to admit we're broken and hurt. We have learned to adapt to this kind of hurt,  to survive, not talk about it, and pretend to fit into the mold of  "We don't rejoice in struggles, because we have no struggles." The truth is, we're all a hot mess. Everyone is dealing with something, and it's easier to pick out the smudge on your brothers face than deal with your own gaping wound.

We've been lied to, guys. And we've been lied to for so long that we've begun to get comfortable with lies. We think this is how the church looks, how Christianity should feel. We play church, pretend through faith, and honestly, it's starting to look like we've just become comfortable with being miserable.

And yet, we still don't want to admit we're miserable. "Nah, I got this." Guys, God is not glorified in the pretty picture you pretend and project. Remember what Paul said, "But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me" (2 Corinthians 12:9).

Maybe it's time we get real, honest and transparent about the fact we are still people. People who still need the Lord. People who love Jesus, but still have addictions, hurts, failures and faults. Don't fear who you are, fear the Lord and what He says will happen if we don't turn back to Him. The Lord means it.

Last week I was driving home from the store and flipped on the radio. I shouldn't have been surprised at what I heard, given that it was CCM (contemporary Christian music), but occasionally I am fortunate enough to turn it on and hear Matt Redman or Gungor.

This was not one of those occasions, though. It was an advertisement of an upcoming interview with the woman Sandra Bullock portrayed in "The Blind Side." This woman said, and I kid you not, "The Bible says to pray about everything, and I want a good parking space!" My heart sank, and I said aloud, "God, forgive us."

Prayer is an amazing privilege to me, and I take it very seriously. How does something so sacred, something so powerful, get skewed to be an instrument to satisfy our lazy, sinful flesh? James 4:3 clearly states, "When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures."

When the disciples asked Jesus how to pray, Jesus gave them what we now call The Lord's Prayer as an example to follow. In it, it is clear that first we are to worship God in our prayer, acknowledging that He is holy, and praying for His will to be done, and His purposes accomplished. Then we are to ask for "our daily bread," which simply means trusting God to provide your basic needs (food, money to pay your bills, etc.). We are to ask forgiveness for our sins, and be sure that we are not holding anyone else hostage by not forgiving them. Finally, we are to pray that we are not led into temptation, and ask God to deliver us from evil.

We live in a sad, tired world full of people who need God's redeeming grace. How can you pray about a good parking space when brothers and sisters in Christ are being tortured and persecuted for their faith? According to Christian Alliance for Orphans, some 153 million children are without homes and loving families. Some 27 million people are enslaved by human trafficking. The divorce rate is astronomical, even in the church. More than a million abortions are performed yearly in our country, and many post-abortive women are desperate and hurting, yet feel like they couldn't possibly come to the church for help.

We should be drawn to crisis situations like a moth to a flame, bringing the compassion and love and peace of Christ to the suffering. When Jesus sent the disciples out, He commissioned them not only to bring the good news of the gospel. He said, "Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons" (Matt. 10:8). James 1:27 exhorts us to care for widows and orphans.

Are you beginning to see the picture here? We are to be God's hands and feet in this hurting world, and if our focus is on our own comfort, we have missed the boat big-time. Timothy tells us to "pray for all people, asking God for what they need and being thankful to Him. Pray for rulers and for all who have authority so that we can have quiet and peaceful lives full of worship and respect for God" (1 Tim. 2:1-2, New Century Version). Paul exhorts us in Colossians 4:2 to "continue steadfastly" in prayer. The Greek word for "continue" in this verse means to be constantly diligent and to persevere.

If your prayers are rather self-centered and the net you cast isn't very large, I encourage you today to ask God to expand your vision. We serve a big God, and if your prayers are mainly geared toward your own family and friends, your God is too small. He cares about every person on the face of this earth. Pray for the millions who are perishing without hearing about Jesus. Pray for those who go to bed hungry every night. Pray for those in prison, and those who take the gospel inside those dark walls. Pray for the persecuted church.

It may sound like a daunting task, but the Holy Spirit is ready to help you. Romans 8:26 says, "We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans." He will bring to your mind who and what to pray for. Sometimes it helps to make a list of prayer needs, and you could start by including some of the things I have mentioned in this blog.

I believe when we begin to pray as God intends us to pray, we will never utter lame prayers for good parking spaces. We will be so caught up in the wonder of partnering with God in bringing His purposes to pass in the world that self-serving prayers will no longer be in our vocabulary.