The Story of the Real Christ

This month is Revival month for Ray of Hope Church in Comanche, OK. Last weekend Jason Crabb

preached for A.M. service and sang for P.M. service. Let me say for the record that the boy has a set of lungs on him that won't stop! He can sing! He wasn't just raised under a pew, he was raised on stage and he can preach as well as he can sing.  For the second week in a row we had someone preaching about..... Being Real! I seriously about fell off the pew when he was talking about how Christians put on fronts like we got it all together, when really we got stuff falling apart just like everybody else.... Churched or unchruched! That's pretty much been my mantra over the last year! Take down the facades and show people that we have stuff just like they have stuff and yes..... We struggle.  I don't care who you are, I don't care if you go to church or if you've never darkened the doors, we all struggle with something, regardless of how perfect we might think we are.  Some struggle with addictions, some with pornography, some with self-esteem issues and some with pure old self-righteousness. We all struggle with something... Because we are human.  We smile for our friends, we go through the motions, we strive to overcome, but we struggle and often pretend that we don't! Why, why, why do we do that? Pride. Simple and hard to swallow.... At the core of our being we struggle with selfishness (the cause of sin) and pride (which God opposes) and then have the audacity to pretend to others that we don't.  I suppose we want to look or sound more superior than we really are.... Sad but true. We pretend we don't want to be put on a pedestal and then we try to hoist ourselves up on one. The thing about pretending we don't struggle or haven't been delievered from anything, is when we do that others who are in the middle of their sturggle or in the pit of their addiction don't understand that delieverance is possible, redemption is possible. They look at all the pretty people in church, doing all the right things and think to themselves.... I'll never fit in, or I have to get over this by myself first or they will never accept me, or worse, Christ will never except me... I'm not perfect. That's

exactly like Christ rising from the grave but pretending he was never dead!!! What good does that do anyone? Not only did Christ rise from the dead, he had the scars to prove it. Christ used those scars to minister to others, that's what Christ did. Why do we want to pretend we are something more than what we really are? Christ found each and every Christian in the pit of their sin and he brought them out or is in the process of bringing them out. News flash!!! Forgiveness is instant, delieverance most often takes time, it is a process.  I don't have to worry about feeling like an angel unless you're talking about the fallen kind. I'm flawed with much forgiven, which is the story of Christ!!!! I couldn't be happier to be in that position because there is nothing to live up to, he's already done it for me.  All I have to do is let his mercy and his grace flood my heart until it penetrates the marrow of my bones. It doesn't matter that I was raised under a pew or followed the 29 prominent teachings of the church; all that matters is that I'm forgiven.... That's as good as it can get!