A choir that can sing together but not pray together may excite an audience but it won’t revive them. A preacher with great oratory skills and an amazing persona but animated by the spirit of self rather than the Spirit of God may be able to get you to laugh, cry, scream or shout but not repent of your sins. Only God can do that.

Only Jesus can set your heart on fire, put your life on track, keep your ego in check, set your gossiping on mute, and turn your lust for self gratification into a passion to serve others! If you let him, he will give you a hunger for holiness, an appetite for prayer, and a heart for the truth. He will give you both a longing for heaven and desire to make this world a better place at the same time!

Jesus asked: “Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but division.” If we are stuck in our sins, comfortable in our complacency, content with our progress, indifferent to God’s will, the Truth of the Gospel will meet us with the gentleness of a sledge hammer! Jesus is the Prince of Peace but sometimes a kick in the pants is just what we need to shake us from our hypnotic gaze at the empty promises of this world.