Praying aloud can be scary particularly in a group setting where others can agree or disagree.

Fear in Prayer

Praying out loud can hit the root of our insecurities. We fear man. We fear our own pride. But it is as we pray anyway that we begin to find true healing. What better way to find freedom from the fear of man than in prayer to God.

Remember, if you have turned from your sins and put your trust in Jesus Christ you have become a child of God (Romans 8:16, 1 John 3:1-3). This makes talking to God aloud no more strange than talking to a human father. Praying aloud forces us to view God as our Father for how else could we even approach Him?

Viewing God as our Father by no way diminishes his grandeur. Jesus knew the perfect balance when he prayed in this way “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Mathew 6:9b-10

Pride in Prayer

Sometimes people refrain from praying out loud because they don’t want others to think they are proud. This is a poisonous blend of pride and fear. The antidote for this toxin is faith and action.

We don’t want to be the pharisee who prays on the street corner just to be heard by men. But the solution is not to hide in fear. That is the Devil’s solution. The Kingdom path is the path of faith and action.

You won’t overcome this challenge until you start praying out loud. Ask God for humility. Fear God. Focus on Jesus. This takes a mental discipline that you only learn through practice.

What do you think?

• Are you afraid to pray out loud? Why do you think that is?
• For those of you who overcame this fear how did you do it?

Related posts:

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2. The Benefits of Praying Aloud: Power (Part 2) We live in a world spoken into existence. The power...
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Power of the Tongue

We live in a world spoken into existence. The power of God’s tongue created the world.

He made us in His image and our tongues have power as well. In fact, of all of the faculties imparted to mankind the tongue may be the most powerful.

“The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.”
- King Solomon

“The tongue that brings healing is a tree of life, but a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit.”
- King Solomon

The Sword of the Spirit

The Bible often compares the tongue to a sword Psalm 57:4, Psalm 64:3, Proverbs 12:18. Swords were the primary weapon in the ancient world and the tongue is our primary weapon in the spiritual war.

“For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” Hebrews 4:12.

Praying aloud allows you to brandish the sword of the Spirit. The unspoken word of God is about as deadly as a sword still in it’s scabbard. As you put His words in your mouth you will see the world change around you. When you pray in your mind only God hears you. But, when you pray aloud the unseen spiritual hears you, and trembles.

A Dangerous Weapon

Like a rudder on a ship the tongue can change the course of history. It can build up and tare down. Of the many uses of our tongue, prayer is the least likely to do harm and the most likely to do good.

But still we must be careful for as Saint James asks, “Who can tame the tongue?”

Jesus has given His followers the authority to influence the unseen spiritual realm in His name. We must be careful not to take his name in vain by doing something he wouldn’t do. If I have the authority to sign company checks I must buy only what my boss would buy.

If you are unaccustomed to praying aloud, praying the scriptures is a great place to start. Start by praying the Psalms. Then move into other books. For example, after you read about Jesus exhorting his disciples to preach the Gospel, pray aloud that God would give you boldness to obey.

A great book I would recommend on prayer is From Duty to Delight: Finding Greater Joy in Daily Prayer.

Walking in Victory

God has given you a mighty weapon. Will you achieve victory without using it?

Are you

• Struggling in your spiritual walk?
• Going through a tough season?
• Feeling defeated?

If so, brandish your tongue and pray out loud in boldness. You will see the world around you change. You will see yourself change. You may move the heart of God.

What do you think?

• Do you think that prayer effects the unseen world?
• When you fight spiritual warfare does it help to pray out loud?
• What keeps you from paying out loud?

Related posts:

1. The Benefits of Praying Aloud: Agreement (Part 1) Someone once asked me. “Why should we bother to voice...
2. Spoken Prayer and Our Insecurities (Praying Aloud Part 4) Praying aloud can be scary particularly in a group setting...
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Someone once asked me. “Why should we bother to voice our prayers when God already knows our thoughts?” In response I have come up with four benefits to praying aloud. This is an adaptation from a series I did on my old blog.

Silent Prayer is Fine

Using our tongue to pray is by no means the only way to pray. In fact, it is possible to pray aloud for the wrong motives Matthew 6:5-8.

We must be careful how we pray but I am convinced that voiced prayer offers at least four benefits over silent prayer.

Team Prayer

Praying aloud allows those with you to agree with you in prayer. For some reason there is great power when people agree in prayer.

“Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.” Matthew 16:19-20

Perhaps, part of the power comes from numbers. We see this in nature. A pack of wolves are more powerful than a lone wolf. But there is a spiritual component as well.

“Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” Ecclesiastes 4:12.

Think of it this way, when people agree with you it is like they amplify your prayers. When you pray silently no one can agree with you because they do not know what you are saying. You might as well be praying in tongues or in a foreign tongue.

When you send a delegation to the king wouldn’t you want more than one person? God wants His body to work together. God calls us to pray in the closet but he also calls us to pray in agreement with each other.

What do you think?

• Do you find it easier or harder to pray with others? Why?
• What keeps you from agreeing with others in prayer?
• Do you feel your prayers are more effective when you pray with others?

Related posts:

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2. Spoken Prayer and Our Insecurities (Praying Aloud Part 4) Praying aloud can be scary particularly in a group setting...
3. The Benefits of Praying Aloud: Authority (Part 3) If you can write company checks in the boss’ name...

You may not know Charity Chambers but she is an up an coming poet. Unfortunately, she has no blog so it is hard to read her work. The good news is that she gave me permission to publish this poem. I think you will like it even if you’re not into poetry.

A Woman at a Well
By Charity Chambers

I was almost there,
I needed one more day.
I was following a vision,
and I was on my way.

Chasing after this dream,
I joined a mighty throng,
"If only…" was our anthem,
to this world did we belong.

Our thirst for happy living
kept us coming to this well.
But the waters left us thirsty;
that we’d drunk, we could not tell.

If only we drink faster!
If only we drink more!
We must get a bigger bucket!

And soon joy became a chore.

In the waters we no longer found
the satisfaction that we sought.
Still we drank, and deeply,
trusting joy these waters brought.

Then one day as I was drinking
of the water of the well,
a man sat down beside me.
The things that he could tell!

He first spoke to me of water,
his was living, so he said.
I couldn’t understand him,
Did he mean that mine was dead?

He seemed to fully know me;
he’d been watching all the time.
He showed me what I looked like,
that I now lived in crime.

I perceived that he was wise,
but still he didn’t understand.
I may not quite be worthy,
but I do the best I can.

"I worship on this mountain,
I give to God his due.
Because I’ve never seen his temple,
is there more that I must do?"

I trusted that I’d shown him,
there was nothing he could say.
But if only I had known him,
on my lips my hand would lay.

He said the moment hastened
when I would not be simple.
I’d not worship on my mountain,
nor yet in Jerusalem’s temple.

He said my worship was vanity,
for salvation was of the Jews.
My face grew hot in shame
as I thought "this is not news."

A child of illegitimacy,
how did I even think
that of life containing water
I could ever drink?

At once I was in confusion,
I stammered, then sat still.
My gaze fell on my waters
and I thought I’d drunk my fill.

He didn’t seem to notice,
for uninterrupted still he spoke.
And when he’d finally finished,
My heart I knew he’d broke.

For he said the time had come
when false worship was at an end.
I knew with painful conviction
that this rule I could not bend.

He said that God, who is a Spirit,
seeks for worship of one sort:
spirit and truth must meet
and fall adoring in His court.

At last, gathering my courage,
I spoke loudly, to be heard.
"I know Christ, Messiah’s coming
and Truth will be his Word."

Oh! How I should have known it!
I suspected it must be.
The man for whom we waited said,
"I that speak to thee am He!"

The pitcher I’d been holding
slipped unheeded to the ground,
and tumbled, spilling the water.
At last, true joy I’d found!

I rushed back to my village
with marvelous news to tell!
I found my friends still drinking
the dead water of the well.

Excitedly I told them
to hurry up and see!
Jesus Christ had come,
and the things he said to me!

The whole village turned out,
their parched throats drove them on.
Christ spoke to all who’d listen,
And for some, all doubt was gone.

Others wouldn’t listen.
Still others laughed and mocked.
They went back to their water,
and to us no longer talked.

But we no longer cared
for their water or their well.
We found the living spring,
and now in joy would dwell.

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In part one we talked about Spiritual Cancer and how to see if you are a cancer cell in the body of Christ. So now what do we do about the other cancer cells in the Body of Christ?

Here is what Jesus has to say about it:

“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field. But that night as the workers slept, his enemy came and planted weeds among the wheat, then slipped away.When the crop began to grow and produce grain, the weeds also grew.

“The farmer’s workers went to him and said, ‘Sir, the field where you planted that good seed is full of weeds! Where did they come from?’

“‘An enemy has done this!’ the farmer exclaimed.

“‘Should we pull out the weeds?’ they asked.

“‘No,’ he replied, ‘you’ll uproot the wheat if you do. Let both grow together until the harvest. Then I will tell the harvesters to sort out the weeds, tie them into bundles, and burn them, and to put the wheat in the barn. ’” Matt 13:24-30

Spiritual radiation treatment is not an option because it will kill good cells as well as bad cells. We often can’t tell between a true and false convert.

So this is what we should not do. So, What do we do?

Well, Saint Paul has some advice on this regard.

"When I wrote to you before, I told you not to associate with people who indulge in sexual sin. But I wasn’t talking about unbelievers who indulge in sexual sin, or are greedy, or cheat people, or worship idols. You would have to leave this world to avoid people like that.

I meant that you are not to associate with anyone who claims to be a believer yet indulges in sexual sin , or is greedy, or worships idols, or is abusive, or is a drunkard, or cheats people. Don’t even eat with such people." 1 Corinthians 5:9-11

So if someone is in open sin and calls themselves a Christian don’t have anything to do with them. You can’t make anyone do anything they don’t want to do . But you can pray for them.

Sometimes the clearest way to send a message is to avoid them all together.

One Last Note
Our value is based on who Christ is not on what we do. God has blessed the church with special people who are unable to give much because of an injury or physical or mental impediment. I belive that God has blessed the church with these people so that we can learn to be like Christ in how we treat them. There is a big difference between can’t and won’t .

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The problem with cancer is not that it causes harm (like a virus). The problem is that cancer cells do nothing.

Cancer cells take resources from the body and give nothing back in return. They just grow and take the place of functioning cells. Soon there are so many cancer cells doing nothing that an entire organ can die causing death in the whole body.

Unlike normal cells, cancer cells lack purpose. They don’t do anything and what they do do doesn’t help the body. Its not that they can’t do anything. They choose not to. Recent research indicates that cancer cells are actually stem cells gone bad . They are Stem cells that have denied their function to heal.

Sound familiar? Every cell in the body fulfills its function except for a cancer cell.

The Body of Christ has this same problem – at least in Texas. Many of us have no purpose. We just receive and receive but we give little or nothing back. Just as cancer can kill a human body, our spiritual cancer is killing the Church here in America.

Are you a cancer cell? Do you give (disciple others, serve, share the Gospel etc.) or do you just take? Does your whole spiritual walk revolve around partnering with God to help others? Or does it revolve around your own holiness and knowledge of God? If so you need to die, because you are killing the body.

There is only one thing you can do to fix a cancer cell. You must kill it.

"Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, [Jesus] said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul ?" Mark 8:34-37

The Apostle Paul gave a spiritual cancer test to help us examine our hearts. He laid out the fruit of wrath (signs of cancer) and the fruit of the spirit (signs of health).

So what do you do if you have cancer? Well, Jesus gave us some great advice.

"If you want to be my disciple, you must hate everyone else by comparison—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life . Otherwise, you cannot be even your own life . Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple. And if you do not carry your own cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple. " Luke 14:26-27

Let’s try that verse again with some ellipses:

"If you want to be my disciple, you must hate … by comparison … your own life. "

To be apart of the body you must love Jesus more than you love yourself. Normal cells have a self destruct mechanism called apoptosis . If they see they are doing harm to the body they will self terminate. It is when this self destruct mechanism stops to function that cancer begins to spread. Healthy cells must continually die and so do healthy Christians.

Now there is a difference between a cell that won’t help the body and a cell that can’t hurt the body. There are some in the body of Christ who we could call God’s special people. These people have disabilities that limit their ability to contribute. There is a huge difference between "can’t" and "won’t." We have a lot to learn from God’s special people.

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Why is lying wrong? Because it hurts people or because God said not to do it?

Here are seven reasons why I think sarcasm is unhealthy and wrong. I would love to hear what you think by leaving a comment .

1. Sarcasm is a lie and not the language of the Kingdom.

When I make a sarcastic comment I lie, assuming my listener knows my words to be untrue. What a trick of the devil to put lies in the mouths of Christians! It is only when we are honest with ourselves and with others that we can speak the language of the Kingdom. If we cannot speak the language of the Kingdom, how can we expect to live at peace with its residents?

Who speaks lies as his native language? Hint: not Jesus.

Lies are the language of Satan. "He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies." John 8:44

2. Sarcasm fosters insecurity.
Sarcasm often comes either out of a place of insecurity or into a place of insecurity. Think of it like a bank, people deposit their insecurities into sarcasm and then get them back with interest.

3. Sarcasm interferes with authentic community.
The things we say sarcastically are often things we are unable to say seriously but still feel. True intimacy and community are hard to find because of this. It can often be a challenge to sort out the truth from lies when a sarcastic person speaks. The people making sarcastic comments sometimes are unsure of the truth themselves.

Buried within many sarcastic comments hides a small nugget of truth. Sometimes people say what they feel sarcastically so they can’t be held responsible for their true feelings. Their sarcasm allows them to maintain their mask of hypocrisy. This hinders both communication and authentic community.

4. Sarcasm discourages inquisitiveness.
In my experience sarcasm is often used to deride people for asking simple questions. It causes some people to be cautious to talk at all, particularly to strangers. I ask simple questions. When I reveal my ignorance on a topic I often must brace for the sarcastic blow that may or may not fall. My confidence is in Christ and not myself so these comments do not destroy me but are nevertheless unappreciated. I think we would all learn a lot more if we were a lot less sarcastic.

5. Sarcasm interferes with good leadership.
Secure people make good leaders. If sarcasm is a symptom of insecurity then the better a leader you are the less sarcastic you will be. Can you Imagen Moses, Jesus or William Wilberforce being sarcastic? Sarcasm is like a false save that temporarily numbs our pain of our insecurities but ultimately makes the root problem worse. One of the things I admire about John Moore, our college pastor, is how authentic he is. John is a speaker of the truth and I appreciate that.

The false save of sarcasm keeps dells our pain and keeps us from taking our insecurities to Christ. Sarcasm hinders communication and undermines trust. Vital elements of good leadership.

6. Sarcasm undermines true humor.
Some people are naturally funny. They put those around them at ease by finding the lighter side of life. Others, myself included, try to compensate for their lack of humor through sarcasm. Yet sarcastic "jokes" are rarely funny and they rarely put people at ease.

Sarcastic remarks are easy to make and keep us from cracking jokes that are actually funny. How many times have you ever belly laughed to a sarcastic comment? The best you can hope for from sarcasm is snicker.

7. Sarcasm is the language of bullies.

Sarcasm can be used as a way to attack other people without given them a chance to respond. It is like a kid with a bat in one hand and a trash can lid in the other. When he says a biting sarcastic comment (bat) he defends himself (lid) by saying he was only joking. He can then take a second swing with the bat by accusing the listener of having no sense of humor.

The only way the other children could play with such a bully is if they too get bats and lids. This is how sarcasm like a virus infects a community.

Do you ever remember coming home from school crying because a bully said something mean. What did he tell the teacher? "I was only joking." I contend that sarcasm is still a subtle form of bullying, regardless of age.

Conclusion

There is a difference between sarcasm and hyperbole. Hyperbole is the contrasting of extremes to make a point. So when God tells Job to tell him how the world was formed since "Job was there" God is using hyperbole to emphasize the fact that Job was not there and does not know. While like sarcasm hyperbole is different in the fact that it makes the truth clear instead of cloudy.

Do I make sarcastic remarks? Yes. In my insecurity I still speak lies instead of truth. But it bothers me. My conscience bugs me about it though and I try to apologize. I am a poor standard. But I ask that you keep me accountable to only speak the truth from now on.

Do you agree/disagree? Leave a comment and let me know what you think .

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"Success is a poor teacher." My dad must have repeated this maxim a hundred times as I grew up. There are some lessons that only failure can teach. If you want to mature, you need to fail. Jesus failed. So should we.

Jesus’ Failure
After bringing Jesus out of the desert, God calls Him to preach in Nazareth where he is unable to do many miracles because of their lack of faith (Matt 13:58). But it gets worse. He then preached in the synagogue and offended the people (Mark 6:3). They were so incensed by His sermon they tried to push him off a cliff (Luke 4:14-30).

So, Jesus was unable to do many miracles, offended the congregation, and angered the people into a murderous riot. If that is not a failure, what is? You could try to twist this passage to find some sort victory. But to do so you would strip the word failure of its meaning. If any of those things happened to you I doubt you would consider it a success.

Why did God have Jesus preach such a provocative message to such an unreceptive audience? Why did an all knowing God orchestrate this?

I think one of the reasons was to test or to prove him. God wanted to prove Jesus through failure. Jesus, the man, needed to know He could take it. Jesus, the Son, needed to know His Father loved him whether people were healed or not (and they weren’t). Jesus, the Most High God, needed to feel what it was like to be human so he could sympathize with us (Hebrews 4:15).

The Cup of Failure
In order to walk in confidence, we need to know that we are loved even when we fail. The only way we can know we are loved in our failure is to fail and be loved. Words are not enough. We must taste the cup. Failure is like hot, bitter coffee. It’s too hot to touch but not too hot to drink.

Children who never fail begin to fear it because they don’t know if they would be loved despite their failure. Parents who love conditionally often have cowardly children who take few risks and try to please everyone. Praise God we have a Heavenly father who loves us unconditionally!

In order to build self esteem, we have raised a generation that rarely tastes failure. We don’t keep score in sports and everyone gets a trophy. The result is a generation that fears failure, avoids risk and lacks ambition. We are raising a generation of cowards. When we yank the cup of failure from the hands of our children we splash them with the hot liquid in the process. By trying to help them we train them to hate failure.

The result? Our Churches are filled with cowards instead of men of God. Our statehouses are filled with cowards instead of statesmen. We have abandoned personal Evangelism because we lack the guts to risk rejection.

Failure is not sin. Disobedience is.
If God allowed Jesus to fail, should we not allow our children to fail? If failure has so much to teach us should we not embrace it? The path to success is paved with the stones of failure. We must be willing to walk that path if we want to reach the destination.

We need to stop giving trophies to the losers and start keeping score. Parents should love their children in their failure instead of protecting their children from it. When you don’t keep score you prevent winning and loosing and your children will flock to activities like video gaming where success and failure are both clear.

"If something is worth doing, it is worth doing poorly! " – G.K. Chesterton
You could call America the land of perfectionists. Many of us strive for perfection in everything we do. We apply this desire to our spiritual lives as well. The result is if we can’t do something well we don’t do it at all. This is just the opposite of walking in faith. Jesus modeled for us what walking in faith looks like. It means going to Nazareth, knowing failure is eminent. Success or failure didn’t matter to Jesus. They shouldn’t matter to us. Only doing the will of our Father. "For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me" (John 6:38).

If you want to walk in faith, if you want to walk like Jesus, you must be willing to walk in failure.

Success not Guaranteed
Just because God calls you to do something it does not mean you will succeed. Otherwise the prophets would have succeeded and swayed the children of Israel to repent. Joseph would have succeeded is staying out of jail. And Paul would have succeeded in convincing the people of Athens that Jesus was alive.

God sometimes calls us to do something because He wants us to learn the lesson that failure will teach us. We must learn some things the hard way, from the cruel tutor of our own mistakes. Paul learned a lot in Athens about preaching the Gospel. Joseph learned humility in that prison. And the Prophets are our example of faithfulness.

God has a way of taking our failures and using them for good. Yet we still avoid failure. We need faith. We need to trust that God uses us despite our best efforts.

The Challenge
Are you willing to live your life in such a way that it may take hundreds of years for people to realize your life was not an absolute waste? Jeremiah was. So were Isaiah, Ezekiel and Joel. These are our heroes of the faith. They resolved in their hearts that success or failure they would do the will of God. We should do the same.

We need to stop thinking in terms of success or failure and switch to a one of obedience and disobedience. It is only in doing this that will be like Christ

What do you think?
Do you embrace failure and try to learn from it or do you try to avoid it? What is the biggest lesson you have learned from failure? Leave me a comment and let me know!

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In recent years religion has become the whipping boy of society. The left says that organized religion is the root of all evil. The right considers religion a bad word insisting that “being a Christian is all about a relationship and not about religion.” Some Christians even go so far as to pray against the “spirit of religion.”

The Bible disagrees with both of these views.

“If anyone among you thinks himself to be religious while he doesn’t bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, this man’s religion is worthless.

Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” (James 1:26-27)

God has given us a model for what true religion is and yet we de-emphasize it to the point of near extinction. This can allow us to avoid those things that religious people must do. Religion will not get us to heaven but it should govern our earthly actions.

The Biblically religious man must control his tongue. We live in a world spoken into existence and we must be able to control language in order to change the world. Controlling the tongue is not just keeping one’s foot away from one’s mouth. It means that we must learn how to wield the tongue for the kingdom and not against it. If the tongue, like a rudder, can direct a large ship, we must plot a good course for our words or suffer the consequences.

We also must learn to visit and care for widows and orphans. The church in America does this less than almost any other nation. We vote in leaders who take our money away and then give it to widows and orphans in the name of the government, not in the name of Jesus, who they most desperately need. You see, we can feed someone straight into hell. Only Christ can truly save. Virtue cannot exist in the absence of free will.

Good works can be either a bushel hiding the light of the Gospel or a mirror reflecting it far into the distance. The choice comes in how we wield the tongue. When we allow others to visit widows and orphans we silence our tongue and darken our light.

In past when a king became angry he would beat his whipping buy until he felt better. The king that is, the whipping boy rarely felt better after a visit with the king. This abuse didn’t solve any problems, but only made them feel more distant.

As we beat religion we alleviate the felt need of direct service to widows and orphans. We don’t feel that we need to care for our needy because the government does it for us by taking 10-15% of our paycheck before we ever get to see it and before we pay the income tax.

Finally, religious people must keep themselves unspotted from the world. I contend that this means there are things the world does from which we should abstain. This does not just include avoiding sin but also avoiding folly such as debt and short term romantic relationships. We should not walk as fools but as wise.

Remaining unspotted does not mean we should avoid interaction with the world. We must go into the world in order to reach it. But, we must not sprinkle the holy water of evangelism on the dung pile of sin in order to justify our disobedience.

Jesus never went into a prostitute in order to reach her with the Gospel. In that same way we should not err in order to do good. Going to an inappropriate movie just to spend time with a lost friend is not the path of righteousness. The end is only as just as the means to achieve it.

We must stop beating the whipping boy of religion. Instead of praying against the “spirit of religion” we should ask God to raise up religious people once again. We must live in such away so that the definition cannot become tainted with dead works and empty rituals that find no precedent in the scriptures.

As we live religious lives by wisely wielding the tongue, helping widows and orphans and staying unspotted from the world we will see the world around us change for the better.

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Since we are on the topic of confidence, here is another post from the archive.
The world says, “be self-confident.”
Jesus says, “put your confidence in me.”

The world says, “you can do anything you put your mind to.”
Jesus says, “you can do nothing apart from me and all things through me.”
The world says, “look out for number one.”
The Word says, “think of others as more important than yourself.”
The world says, “believe in yourself.”
Jesus says, “believe in me.”
The world says, “you deserve it.”
The Word says “you deserve hell for breaking God’s law.”
The world says, “trust your feelings.”
Jesus says, “trust in me.”

The world says, “enjoy entertainment.”
Jesus says, “enjoy me.”
The world says, “follow your heart.”
Jesus says, “follow me.”
The world says, “have fun and enjoy your best life now.”
Jesus says, “Deny yourself, pick up your cross, and come follow me.”
The world says, “you’re a good person.”
The Word says, “your heart is deceitfully wicked.”

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