Archive for the 'Spirituality' Category

Prayer’s Conundrum: Does God Hold Off The Rain So Our Party Can Be A Success?

Published March 6, 2011 Spirituality 4 Comments

I’m looking forward to hosting something called the K-Club this Monday through Wednesday. The K-Club is made up of Evangelical Free Church pastors from around the nation who lead churches that have 1,000 or more in attendance – so all of them are truly gifted leaders in their own right.

This of course makes leading the discussions a real challenge – a lot like herding cats (or better yet, lions). By end of our time together I’m always wrung out.

But right now, the big issue I’m thinking about is a dinner party that Nancy and I always host on the opening Monday night. It’s a sit-down dinner in our backyard. We’re supposed to have 50 or more show up this year. It’s a big deal for Nancy – she works hard to pull it off. And the weather report says it’s supposed to rain. So of course we are praying that the rain holds off at least until late Monday night.

Which raises a deep theological question: Does God stop the rain for everyone else when we pray that our party – or picnic – or wedding goes off as planned? And what if someone else is praying for the rain to hit Monday night so their Tuesday morning event goes off well? Does the most spiritual one win?

IS THERE SUCH A THING AS FAITH WITHOUT OBEDIENCE?

Published June 1, 2009 Spirituality 13 Comments
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At North Coast Church I’ve long used the word picture of giving the steering wheel of our life over to Jesus to describe what it means to become a follower of Christ. Periodically I get emails, letters, and comments on this blog from folks who object to that imagery. Usually, it’s from someone concerned about one of two extremes – either that I’m over-simplifying the gospel or adding something extra to it. Recently someone wrote:

“I don’t see how Larry adheres to “faith alone in Christ alone.” In fact I expect he would admit that he sees that statement off the mark of accuracy. Alone still means “separate and by itself” right? It would be nice to hear that Jesus’ promise in John 3:16 is as simple as it sounds. Instead, I can grab a packet with hours of sermons to explain to me what “giving Jesus the Steering Wheel of my Life” means.”

Of course, “faith alone in Christ alone” is not a phrase found anywhere in the Bible. It’s a theological summation. And it’s always interesting to me how we can get all worked up and divided over terms the scriptures don’t even use. But, still, it’s a legitimate question. Is faith in Christ enough or isn’t it? Exactly how do faith and obedience intersect?

Here’s my response:

I’m sorry, but before I can claim to adhere or deny “faith alone in Christ alone” I need to know what you mean by “faith alone.”

If by “faith alone in Christ alone” you mean an intellectual assent that matches the way the demons believe in Jesus (James 2:19) then I have to plead guilty as charged. I don’t buy it. If you mean that we can claim to have faith in Christ and live like hell (and still count that empty faith as saving faith) then you can count me out.

But if you mean by “faith alone in Christ alone” that salvation can only be found through faith in Christ and can never be found or furthered by our good deeds or the works of the OT law – then I’m all in. And if your definition of faith matches that of Jesus and the NT writers, I’m there.

Bottom line: When it comes to trying to figure out how faith and obedience intersect, it seems to me that we can’t improve upon the Apostle John’s simple test to determine if we actually know God.

We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did. 1 John 2:3-6

I see no reason to redefine or tweak his words – after all, they are scripture, and all of our theological ruminations are not. 

And didn’t Jesus speak about a group of people who called him Lord but did not do what he said?  When it comes to determining the role obedience does or doesn’t play in our salvation, doesn’t it make sense to let his words speak for themselves?

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” Matthew 7:21 -27

And finally, doesn’t the Great Commission conclude with a command to teach those who have come to Christ to “obey everything I have taught you”? Apparently, Jesus considers obedience to be neither “adding to the gospel” nor an extra credit add-on for those who are really into it.

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20

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So, when I speak of stepping over the line and giving God the steering wheel of our life, I’m not suggesting that we somehow work our way into God’s favor or earn our salvation. I am suggesting that genuine faith, by definition, includes a pattern of obedience.

Obedience is not a stairway to heaven – or the final steps that complete what Jesus started. But according to the Apostle John, it is the one test that distinguishes between genuine faith and counterfeit faith.

The Steering Wheel packets we provide at North Coast Church contain practical pointers to help new Christians know what following Christ looks like and how to grow in their  walk with God.

And according to Jesus and John (and the rest of the scriptures) this thing called obedience does seem to be a rather important by-product of genuine faith and belief.

WHY CULTURE IS NOT AN ACCURATE SCORECARD

Published May 16, 2009 Leadership , Spirituality 5 Comments
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In my last post (Why I’m Pumped about the Future of the American Church) I pointed out that most of those who bash the state of the church today don’t understand what the early church was really like. Their glorious descriptions of the church in Acts are pure historical revisionism.

But that’s not the only place they err. They also miss it when they bemoan our waning cultural impact as if cultural impact is an accurate scorecard of spiritual faithfulness. Culture is not and never has been an accurate scorecard of the church’s faithfulness.

That’s not to say that we’re not supposed to try. The Great Commission sends us all on a life mission. Salt needs to get out of the salt shaker. Light needs to be set on a hilltop. The gospel must be articulated and defended.

But the results are out of our hands. If you’re a Calvinist you know that the response of people depends upon God’s irresistible call. If you’re an Arminian, you know it’s determined by freewill and choice. If you’re neither – well, don’t worry about it.

Our Waning Cultural Influence

Admittedly, the American Church has lost much of its cultural influence. We are no longer the religion of power. We no longer determine cultural values or political correctness.

But does that mean that today’s Christians are any less godly or faithful?

I don’t think so.

Cultural impact has far more to do with who’s in political power than whether or not the church is living up to its calling. And those times of unique visitation we call revivals are much more about what God is up to than what we are up to. Fact is, the church of high cultural influence is just as likely to be filled with hypocrites and sin as the church of low cultural influence.

LOOK AT ROME: It took a few hundred years for the early church to spread its influence to the point of dominance (don’t miss that, we think in terms of what happens in a 20-70 year time span while history tends to play out in centuries). And once Christianity became the official religion of Rome it may have appeared that a faithful church was winning the day, but I would argue that it was actually losing – and losing badly.

The ascent of Christianity’s political and cultural power caused lots of people to claim to be Christians in order to gain the social acceptance and power that came with it. But the continued widespread moral decline, decadence, and eventual fall of the Roman empire leads me to believe that even as the church was growing more and more influential it was becoming less and less faithful.

LOOK AT AMERICA: Much the same thing holds true when we look back at the so-called heyday of the American church’s influence upon culture. I’m not so sure that we were as faithful or our culture as godly as we paint them to be.

Yes, Biblical values were more likely to be articulated than today. And our laws and courts were far more in tune with God’s laws – that is unless you happened to be a black man during the days of slavery; or later during the Jim Crow era; or a single mom seeking a good paying job; or a Jew trying to join the country club, or . . .

And as far as the glory days of Father Knows Best, Leave It To Beaver, and stay-at-home moms; were they really that great? And if they were, how did they end up producing a generation of sex-crazed, free-love, dope smoking hippies who grew up to be self-absorbed boomers?

Fact is, the heyday of our influence wasn’t necessarily the heyday of our faithfulness.

Faithfulness and Impact

In fact, if the faithfulness of today’s church is to be judged by the measure of our cultural influence, then Jesus, the prophets, and the Apostles have a lot of explaining to do.

Jesus drew big crowds during his earthly ministry. But they included lots of losers and sinners (not former losers and sinners, current losers and sinners). I’m sure some of the critics of today’s church would have lambasted him for the low quality of his followers. And no doubt they would have noted his dismal long-term impact as the crowds dwindled down to 120 hiding in an upper room after his death and resurrection.

The prophets weren’t much different. Take Jeremiah. He was no spiritual slouch. But his impact upon his contemporaries was practically nil. And the same goes for most of the others.

Ditto for the Apostles. Didn’t all but one of them die a martyr’s death? That’s hardly winning the culture wars. I’m sure lots of books and conference talks could have ripped on their inability to win over the world around them.

Fact is: Sometimes culture responds to Godly living and truth – sometimes it doesn’t.

Yet the harshest critics of the church today seem to ignore this. They assume that if we’d just play all our cards right – and live out our faith exactly as God wants – then large numbers of people around us would automatically respond to the gospel. It’s an assumption that neither scripture nor history supports.

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None of this is meant to say that the American Church today is the epitome of spirituality. On the contrary, we’re messed up big time. But before we pick up stones and start throwing them at our brothers and sisters (have you noticed that all the critics always exclude themselves and their tribe or movement) we need to remember that struggling with sin and carnality has been the plight of God’s people throughout history. Maybe that’s why it’s called grace.

Jesus continues to build his church. He promised he would despite our failures and shortcomings. That’s why I’m an optimist. As I survey the national landscape, I see a new generation of passionate and godly leaders being raised up by God. Many are unknown at this point, some already have mega ministries. But these men and women are fully committed and well equipped to reach their own generation. I’m confident they will fight the good fight.

Will they win large crowds?

I don’t know.

Will they win the culture wars?

I have no idea.

But I do know that I won’t judge their faithfulness by the response of those they are trying to reach. Instead, I’ll let God judge it by the only thing that He’s ever held his people responsible for, their faithfulness, not their cultural impact.

WHY I’M PUMPED ABOUT THE FUTURE OF THE AMERICAN CHURCH

Published April 27, 2009 Leadership , Spirituality 16 Comments
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It’s fashionable to decry the current state of Christianity in America.

But frankly, I don’t buy it.

Some of the most popular conference speakers on the circuit today excel at drive-by-guiltings. They paint a picture of a church that lacks guts, cowers from dying to self, and lives out a self-satisfied, what’s-in-it-for-me Christianity.

In most cases, I like these speakers. They are good guys. I respect them. But I just don’t agree on this issue.

I’ve noticed that their audience is usually a room full of charge-the-hill-type young leaders who eat it up and then return home to look with disdain upon other churches, pastors, leaders, and often their own congregation (oblivious to how much they have in common with the self-congratulatory zealot in Luke 11: 9-14).

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Now don’t get me wrong, I’ll agree that we have lots of carnality and self-centered living in our churches today. But come on, that’s nothing new. It’s been like that from the beginning. It’s simply not accurate to paint a heroic picture of the early church without also pointing out its many failures. In reality, the early church was pretty messed up, about as messed up as the American Church.

Have we forgotten . . .

  • Those who willingly sold what they had to share with those in need thought Jesus was returning any day. So when the Pentecost pilgrims who stayed rather than return home ran out of money (no one carried a debit card) the Jerusalem Christians sold possessions, fields, and homes to meet their need. I’m sure I would too if I thought Jesus was returning in the next couple of weeks. 
  •  They ended up broke. So much so that the Gentile churches took up a special collection for the impoverished saints in Jerusalem. Between persecutions and previously selling much of what they had, the Jerusalem church ended up in poverty. Perhaps Acts 2:41-47 is descriptive rather than prescriptive. After all, I know of no one who suggests we should be meeting daily, in Jerusalem, in the temple courts.
  • The early church ignored Jesus’ command to take the gospel to the world. They flat out disobeyed. They stayed in Jerusalem. Eventually God had to send a great persecution to drive them out of their holy huddle and jump start the expansion of the kingdom. That’s the only reason they left according to Acts 8:1
  • The early church was unwilling to share the gospel with Gentiles. And once they did, they didn’t want to allow them full status as Christians. Only after a contentious debate at the Jerusalem council did things change. And even after that, the battle raged on. That’s one of the major reasons we have the books of Galatians and Hebrews in our Bibles.
  • The Apostle Paul’s church plants were so messed up (both doctrinally and morally) he later had to write a bunch of letters to get them back on track. The Corinthians were visiting temple prostitutes, ignoring sin in the name of grace, hoarding the good stuff at church pot-lucks. And they seem to have forgotten that the resurrection really mattered. Timothy had to be reminded not to appoint the town drunk as an elder. The Galatians’ and Colossians’ flirted with heresy. And that’s just the beginning of a long list of sins and goofy thinking that had to be corrected.
  • The early church leaders were as feisty and flakey as today’s leaders. Paul and Barnabas had a messy split over how to handle a young intern named John Mark. Peter fell into hypocrisy and pretended to be a legalist until called out by Paul. And didn’t everyone skip out on Paul during his time of greatest need?
  • Jesus also had some rather unflattering things to say to the New Testament churches. Most of the churches mentioned in Revelation 2-3 hardly set an example I’d want my church to follow. 

So when we call for a return to the New Testament church, do we really know what we’re asking for? In many cases, I think not.

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And in light of that, here’s why I’m so pumped about the future of the American church.

  1. Jesus said he would build his church and the gates of hell could not hold it back. So I’ll bank on his promise despite some occasional setbacks.
  2. As seen above, things might not be as bleak as they appear. Yes, we’re messed up, but so was the early church; and God used them to turn the world upside down.
  3. God has already hand-picked a new breed of leaders and shepherds to care for his flock and beautify his bride. In my travels around the country, I run into them all the time. I wish everyone could see what I see and spend time with them as I do. They are the real deal. Many are already leading huge churches at a young age. Thousands more are heeding the call to become church planters. A plethora of church planting networks and organizations have spontaneously formed to recruit, train, and deploy these folks into ministry. It’s not only encouraging, it’s humbling.

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Does that mean they will win our nation back?  

I don’t know. That’s out of their control. They can only be faithful and prepare the horse for battle. God will determine the outcome.

I said I was pumped about the future of the American church – not America.

So what do you think?

JUST RELEASED – My Latest Book

Published April 14, 2009 Leadership , Spirituality 8 Comments
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Over the years, I’ve focused my teaching and writing ministry on two broad categories: Leadership and Spiritual Formation.

 

10 DUMB THINGS SMART CHRISTIANS BELIEVE is my latest book in the spiritual formation category. It was finally released today (that’s author speak for the long wait between finishing a manuscript and finally seeing it released to the public). I think you will find it to be a careful and approachable look at ten of the most dangerous spiritual urban legends of our day.  

 

I call these dumb ideas spiritual urban legends because like all urban legends, they’re widely believed and quickly passed on by otherwise smart people who hear them, think it makes sense, and then pass it on without checking the facts – in this case, checking to see what the Bible actually says about these issues.

 

But unlike the typical urban legend, spiritual urban legends are dangerous to our spiritual health. They don’t just misrepresent the facts, they set us up for profound disappointment and disillusionment with God when he doesn’t come through on a promise he never made.

 

Here is a list of the big ten. See if you don’t agree with me that lots of us have come to think and believe these things – so much so that calling them dumb ideas is a bit of a fashion (and friendship) risk.

 

  1. Faith Can Fix Anything  

  2. Forgiving Means Forgetting

  3. A Godly Home Guarantees Godly Kids

  4. God Has A Blueprint For My Life

  5. Christians Shouldn’t Judge       

  6. Everything Happens For A Reason

  7. Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide

  8. God Brings Good Luck

  9. A Valley Means A Wrong Turn           

10. Dead People Go To A Better Place

 

At the end of the book, you’ll find study questions for each chapter. They are designed for individual reflection or a group study. And for those of you who are teaching pastors, these ten chapters can be a springboard for a powerful and fun sermon series.

 

You should be able to find a copy at your local Christian bookstore, Amazon, and all the usual places. If not, they can order one. Here’s a link to Amazon if you’re interested. (By the way, it’s also available in a Kindle edition.)

 

I had a blast writing this book. The pre-release reviews have been especially gratifying and exceptionally kind. I know you’ll find it personally challenging and helpful in your own spiritual walk. And after you’ve read it, let me know what your think either here or in an Amazon review post.

 

And just for fun, here’s a list of the chapters with all the teasers and subheadings included.

 

1. Faith Can Fix Anything

John’s faith and Susan’s cancer – Why positive thinking can’t change anything - The big problem with faith in faith - How the English language mucks up everything - How faith sometimes makes things worse - One story you can bet the kids in Sunday school will never hear - The one thing faith can always fix  - What a geographical moron and a GPS have in common with a life of faith

 

2. Forgiving Means Forgetting

Four goofy ideas about forgiveness - The myth of a forgetful God - The two realms of forgiveness - Are justice and forgiveness mutually exclusive? – The  strange math of score keeping—why it is nearly always inaccurate - The power of a good mirror – Something for Calvinists and Arminians to fight about  - The prayer of Permission - Why you might want to take a sin walk—and how God will meet you there

 

3. A Godly Home Guarantees Godly Kids

Why Don and Sharon hate it when their friends pull out the pictures - Mike and Rhonda’s head-in-the-sand optimism - The one promise lots of parents count on that isn’t really a promise—and why it doesn’t say what most people think it says - How B. F. Skinner snuck into our churches - Mitch’s foolish pride – How Ten Rules for Raising Godly Kids became Three Suggestions for Surviving Parenthood - Why bad kids often make great adults

 

4. God Has a Blueprint for My Life

Why does the search for God’s will feel like an Easter egg hunt? - Why a blueprint is a bad metaphor for God’s will—and why a game plan is a great metaphor for God’s will - Is there a reason why the New Testament ignores the kind of decisions we typically stress over? - Why God doesn’t do consulting, and what happens when we think he does - How obedience makes everything (even some pretty lousy decisions) better

 

5. Christians Shouldn’t Judge

How to get your non-Christians friends to quote the Bible - Why “Do not judge” doesn’t mean what most people think it means - When and how the idea of tolerance changed from “You have the right to be wrong” into “Nobody is wrong” - Log-in-eye disease - Did God really forget to put some important stuff in the Bible? - Why it’s a bad idea to judge non-Christians by Christian standards - Are judgment and grace incompatible?

 

6. Everything Happens for a Reason

Nancy’s cancer  ¡ Happy talk and other stupid things people say - How Romans 8:28 became the most misunderstood and misquoted verse in the Bible - Two conditions most people don’t seem to notice - Are self-inflicted wounds God’s doing? - Why Murphy matters - Can a bad thing be a good thing? - Why we might want Jesus to wait a while before coming back - The power in a path called obedience

 

7. Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide

The one type of person I’ve never been able to help – The musings of a tax dodger -A Jiminy Cricket code of ethics—why so many people trust it and why that’s not a smart thing to do - How our conscience is more like a thermostat than a thermometer - Blind spots and bad software - What heart disease does to our conscience - The one thing everyone’s conscience does with unerring accuracy

 

8. God Brings Good Luck

Why I worry when someone angles to be last in line - Tim’s rather “unusual” choice of words - The high price of unrealistic and unfounded promises - Job’s wife and Asaph’s journal ¡ Eddie Haskell Christians—do they really think God is stupid? - Do we? - Why it’s never a good idea to judge a king’s banquet by the finger food - One cliché that’s not only wrong but flat-out absurd - Why an abundant life might not be so abundant

 

9. A Valley Means a Wrong Turn              

Why my Dark Years had nothing to do with a wrong turn. - How extended valleys can make our friends’ advice nearly worthless - Three simple but profound fog-cutting questions - The kind of valley we never want to leave prematurely - Shortcuts we don’t want to take, even if they work - The day a bunch of guys with iron chariots proved to be stronger than a bunch of guys with God on their side - What to do when God says, “Get someone else to help you”

 

10. Dead People Go to a Better Place

How to start a mini riot - The truth about wicked Uncle Ernie - Funeral assurances and the frantic search for a nod-to-God - Blame Jesus – The myth behind the myth - A rather testy e-mail - How and when did obedience become an extra-credit assignment? - Why Mickey Cohen couldn’t be a Christian gangster - The big difference between struggling and setting up camp - The one tell-tale sign of whether or not we love God

 

Take me to Amazon.com

 

 

Is Faith No Longer The Right Word?

Published February 13, 2009 Leadership , Spirituality 9 Comments
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One of the most frustrating things for me as a communicator occurs when I realize that my audience and I are using the same words but different dictionaries. It happens more often than we realize. And when it does, it can result in true words leading people down a false path.

 

For instance, tolerance used to mean allowing people to be wrong. Now it means acknowledging everyone is right. So if I take a passage like 1 Corinthians 5:9-13 or 2 Timothy 2:24-26 and plead with my congregation to be more tolerant, they don’t hear gentleness, humility, and patience toward those who don’t yet know the truth. They hear a call to support and defend the gay agenda.

 

I’m convinced the same thing has happened to the word faith. It no longer means what it used to mean.  Worse, for most people, it conjures up an image that has nothing to do with the Biblical concept of faith.

 

I find that most people today (Christians and non-Christians) define Faith as a feeling of optimism and confidence. It means believing we can still win the game even though we’re five runs down with two outs in the ninth. It means planning a three year project even though the doctors have given us two months to live. It’s the mental gymnastics of positive thinking that rejects all thoughts of defeat.

 

That’s why I’m not using the word faith much these days. Instead, whenever possible, I’ve started to use the word trust. It’s much closer to what Jesus and the apostles had in mind.

 

No one thinks of trust as magically shielding them from defeat. Instead, we think of it as something people have in the midst of defeat – when things don’t make sense – when nothing works out as expected.

 

It’s what Job had when all hell broke loose. It’s what Jesus had in the garden. It’s what the ancient prophet Habakkuk had when he penned these powerful words: Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign LORD is my strength . . . Habakkuk 3:17-19

 

And isn’t that what we and our people need in these challenging times?

 

What do you think?

GOD’S WILL – Clarity In The Rear View Mirror

Published February 3, 2009 Leadership , Spirituality 4 Comments
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I’m convinced that one of the greatest sources of spiritual disillusionment for leaders is the goofy idea that God’s plan for our life – or for that matter, his plan for the next three weeks – should be easily and clearly discernable.

Over the years, I’ve watched more than a few friends and godly leaders wade into the deep weeds of an irreversible decision convinced that they knew exactly what God wanted them or their ministry to do. So, like the Spanish explorer, Cortez, they burned their boats and charged ahead, leaving themselves no way out.

(By the way, I’ve never understood why Cortez is put forward as an example of great leadership and motivation. Have we forgotten that he and his crew were all killed off with nowhere to go?)

Recently, while working through Acts, I was reminded again how hard it can be for even the best of us to discern with certainty exactly what God is up to. Paul’s final journey to Jerusalem is a prime example (Acts 20-21). 

  • Paul felt compelled to go. He was absolutely certain he knew what God wanted next.
  • His entire entourage, including Luke and all the prophets they met along the way, saw it differently. They warned and begged him not to go. And don’t forget, Luke was no spiritual slouch. He wrote two books of the Bible.
  • When Paul arrived in Jerusalem, James and the elders presented him with a plan to win over his enemies and skeptics. No doubt it was a plan they had prayed over and were convinced would work.
  • Their plan backfired. Paul’s enemies weren’t won over; they were provoked. They became angrier than ever.
  • After a near riot and an attempt on his life, Paul spent the next five years in legal limbo – surely not the outcome he or anyone had in mind.

So who was right? Who was wrong? Even with 20/20 hindsight it’s hard to know. The text doesn’t tell us. Perhaps Paul missed it. Maybe Luke and the prophets did. Certainly, James and the elders got it wrong; at least in terms of the results they envisioned. Seems to me the whole story serves as a warning to all of us who lead to be a little more cautious and humble the next time we’re certain that we’ve figured out God’s game plan or the next step for our family, our life, our church or the body of Christ at large.  It’s certainly a lesson James had learned by the time he penned these famous and powerful words:

Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. James 4:13-16

What do you think?

 

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