If you’re looking for a way to present the gospel to your friends and family, point them to Smash the Lies at: godisnotlikeyou.wordpress.com
It’s all there, including an opportunity to engage in the conversation.
We hope you like it!
Jesus
Help for a Struggling Prayer Life
If you’re like me, you struggle with your prayer life.
I go from faith to unbelief every day.
It’s an all out war that wages in my mind.
God calls me to prayer, I pray, and then I don’t expect anything to happen.
That’s disgusting. 
It’s also sin. It disgraces God who tells me he’s the God who hears prayer – Psalm 65:2.
So what do I do about it?
I need to understand God better.
God is not a Buddha statue who dispenses favors for the best tummy rub.
Nor is he a short-order cook writing down my laundry list of wants.
He’s also not a jolly grandpa in a rocking chair waiting to indulge me.
He’s God Almighty, the maker of heaven and earth, who, if I am his child in Christ, is my Heavenly Father, and as such he pledges to be my Covenant God.
What does that mean?
It means that God is ready to hear my prayer, like a father is eager to hear what his son has to say.
He is ready to hear and grant my prayers.
My problem is that I may not perceive his answers.
By giving me a heart to pray and inflaming my desire to pray is an answer to prayer. Psalm 138:3
Also, I do not pray alone. Christ, my mediator, prays over my prayers. He takes the dross out of my prayer and presents it as pure gold to the Father, making my prayer powerful and mighty.
Just like a farmer who sows seed into the ground and then waits for the harvest, my prayers are the seeds I sow in faith and I wait in anticipation for God to send me a harvest of blessing, knowing he has heard and acknowledged each prayer.
If I remind myself of these truths, I have hope my prayer life will improve and the Lord will be pleased with me.
United You Stand
Have you had days or maybe weeks of yelling at your kids over the littlest things, or experienced intense jealousy over your best friend’s gorgeous new house or wanted to curse God because you just got laid off from your job again?
I have. More than once. 
That’s when you ask yourself, “Am I really saved or is this all make believe?”
If you look at your Christian performance, you’re in big trouble. If you’re honest, you’ll have to admit it’s sketchy at best. Hardly the stuff God is looking for in your life.
So where do you look for reassurance that you belong to God when you are experiencing your worst moments?
No further than the gospel.
Let me explain.
Jesus not only paid the price for your redemption with his perfect life of obedience and then his death on the cross for your sins, but he also secured your perseverance and heavenly inheritance.
You were united to Christ (Romans 6) at the moment of your coming to faith, and once united you cannot be un-united.
You will never, ever, be separated from Him no matter what befalls you.
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?” – Romans 8:35
What about weakness, failure, deliberate sins, sins of neglect, unbelief, ungratefulness, or a cold heart?
Jesus died for all those, too.
Is it possible for any member of Christ’s body to perish?
Unthinkable!
God guarantees that you will persevere in this life. That’s why he has given you his Holy Spirit to be your guide, teacher, and encourager.
Not one of his children will be lost.
And that includes you.
In the Thick of It
If you’re like me, when I get sick I pray. When there’s an accident in the family, I pray. When someone is discouraged, I pray.
But when I sin badly, I don’t pray.
Why do I do that? I think it’s because my conscience tells me God is angry with me and I better not go near him. Just like Adam and Eve did in the garden when they sinned and then ran into the bushes.
As an aside, if you stop and think about it, that’s pretty funny because God is near to you and me all the time. He sees everything, hears every thought, knows every feeling.
And he doesn’t disengage and retreat! Just like he didn’t flee from Adam and Eve. In fact, the text tells us, he went looking for them. See Genesis 3:8-9.
So why don’t I run to God when I sin badly? Because at that moment I don’t believe the gospel. Instead I believe in the law, and the law tells me I’ve blown it, God is going to punish me, and I better get out of town.
But what does Paul say about the law? It’s meant to drive us to Christ! It takes us by the hand and turns us in the direction of our Savior, who bled and died precisely for those sins I committed. See Romans 7:4.
God hasn’t moved.
Are you ready to come back?
The Sympathy and Tears of our High Priest
I took notes on a sermon I heard recently on that two word description of our Lord’s in John 11:35 – “Jesus wept.”
Christ’s goal at Lazarus’ tomb was to glorify God. See verses 38-44.
Jesus in life and death lived for the glory of God. I exist for the glory of God. 
My life is custom made in the wisdom of God to conform me to the image of Christ.
God’s no’s in my life are a comfort to me if my goal is the glory of God.
The dead man obeys the voice of Christ, sometimes better than those who don’t come to Christ.
Why did Jesus weep at Lazarus’ death? He’s not a cold, distant God. He is a compassionate Savior who sympathizes in my grief and sorrow, and in my trials and distresses.
I cannot understand my blessings any more than I understand my trials.
Jesus burned with anger in his spirit at Lazarus’ death, and he wept. (verse 33) Why? Lazarus reflected a spoiled creation that wasn’t meant to be. The nations were destined for Christ. He was deeply offended. Sin ruined everything. He was angry at sin and Satan.
Death is a disturbing, shocking interruption against the natural process of life. Death always puts an end to life.
Praise God that for the Christian death is a gateway into eternal life where there is no more sin and death.
Be encouraged by the future, read Revelation 21.
Hope for the Heart
Do you have a guilty conscience?
Do you look back on your past and cringe?
What if you really committed some hideous things and you continue to live with remorse and shame?
On top of that, the enemy never forgets and delights in reminding you that you’re no good, God never loved you, and everything you believe in is a lie.
How do you respond to these accusations?
Do you get busier than ever at work? 
Or do you drink more, do more drugs, and entertain your life away hoping this will numb you from the guilt you feel?
Perhaps you’ve doubled up in church attendance, bible studies, and doing good works hoping that these will outweigh your rotten record.
The truth is none of these things is the solution.
There’s only one fix and you know it.
It’s blood of Jesus Christ that blots out all your sin.
Past. Present. Future.
“…let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” – Hebrew 10:22 ESV
If you’re in Christ, all your sins are washed away in his blood.
Your rotten record is now a clean record. It’s Jesus’ record and you own it.
Tell the devil that. Out loud.
Now tell yourself.
And then go out and live like the new person God has made you to be.
Messy Christians on the Go
For those of you who would like a handy reminder of the truths contained in this blog, you can buy it as an eBook on Amazon:
After you’ve read it, send us your comments. We promise to respond!
How To Have a Winning Resume
Have you read some online resumes lately?
The candidates sound like they walk on water.
By the time they’re 25, they have a Master’s degree and a PhD, with work experience since kindergarten. 
And let’s not overlook the myriad of tech certificates that make them eligible for the most exciting jobs out there.
Have you ever read a resume that included a person’s failures? Of course not. That would be suicide.
Everybody wants to be perfect.
Some people want it so badly they’re willing to lie and cheat to appear that way.
In today’s competitive job market, unless you dazzle and out-perform your competitors, you could end up on the street before you even get a chance to start.
In case you’re thinking this is only true for recent college graduates seeking employment, the truth is all of us are crafting our resumes internally so we look our best.
The fact is we’re addicted to perfection.
You and I know we can’t be perfect, but we try anyway. We labor for a verdict of approval from all who matter in life.
Except there’s a huge problem with that.
Our mothers might give us high marks because they love us no matter what, but if we look to God, who is the ultimate approval giver, his verdict is not so good.
In fact the verdict stinks.
“None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” – Romans 3:10-12 ESV
We’re in deep weeds and no amount of charitable deeds is going to convince God otherwise.
The truth is we were made to live with God’s acceptance.
“Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God…” – Psalm 146:5 NKJV
Who you are in Jesus defines you.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ…” – Ephesians 1:3 NKJV
By accepting God’s provision for sin in Jesus,
God smiles on you.
God welcomes you.
And Jesus’ perfect record becomes yours.
I don’t know about you, but that sounds like a winning deal to me.
How To Deal with Christmas Letdown
The day after Christmas.
That’s when Letdown slips in.
Usually around 7 a.m.
It slithers under the door wearing grey.
“You dashed expectations for another year,” Letdown whispers in my ear.
I slice through the wrapping paper, limp bows, and empty boxes on the living room floor on my way to the kitchen for coffee.
Come to think of it, gifts and food and twinkling Christmas lights are appealing but there’s no magic in them. 
The magic comes in the shape of people, with one person in particular, and he was poor and marginalized from birth.
“I’m in good company. Jesus dashed all expectations, too,” I tell Letdown.
He has no response and slinks away.
Even Though You Fail, But God
The gospel shows us that we fail to obey God.
Not sure that’s true?
Try this on for size: How well have you loved God and your neighbor today? Yesterday? How about last week?
If you’re like me, you must admit your failure. 
But not only do we fail to obey God, we dupe ourselves into believing that our imperfect obedience somehow is sufficient for God to fully accept us.
That’s because we’re trusting in our own performance.
We insist on being our own Messiahs.
Even people without faith in Christ are believers – in themselves, their performance, or the idols of their own making.
Christians struggle with the same issues.
Failure to believe the gospel results in our problems in church, in our relationships, and in our work.
We all agree that belief in the gospel is the way into the kingdom of God, but then we forget it’s also the way of life in the kingdom.
We never graduate from the gospel.
It’s essential for kindergarteners as well as PhDs.
It’s the only way to grow and be transformed by Christ.
So what is the gospel again?
To quote Question 60 of the Heidelberg Catechism:
Only by a true faith in Jesus Christ; so that, though my conscience accuse me, that I have grossly transgressed all the commandments of God, and kept none of them, and am still inclined to all evil; notwithstanding, God, without any merit of mine, but only of mere grace, grants and imputes to me, the perfect satisfaction, righteousness and holiness of Christ; even so, as if I never had had, nor committed any sin: yea, as if I had fully accomplished all that obedience which Christ has accomplished for me; inasmuch as I embrace such benefit with a believing heart.
Messy Christians 