Why blog about Christmas in January? Because we’re all too emotionally invested in it in December! I’m sure you’ve heard of, read about, or conversed about “The War on Christmas” - popular culture’s obsession with removing Jesus from the biggest annual holiday in western civilization. It’s “Happy Holidays” not “Merry Christmas” we are repeatedly told by our human resources departments.

Since the birth of the Church, one of Satan’s favorite tactics has been condemnation. I know you’ve experienced it. Those thoughts that run through your mind… that voice in your head that tells you what a failure you are… that looping video footage in your brain… past and present failures, screw-ups, and sins that tell you you’re too messed up to be close to Jesus and until you fix yourself, you should just stay away from Him.

I grew up in an expressively Pentecostal church, where almost anything could happen on any given Sunday. No matter how weird it got, the proceedings were almost always explained away with some variation of, “Do not quench the Spirit”.

In Sunday’s message, we heard from guest speaker Pastor Craig Groeschel of LIFECHURCH.tv on the subject of “Bold Prayers”… and there was one specific point Craig shared that stuck out to me. He pointed out the implications of the statement, “All we can do now is… pray.”