Recently I was at the College World Series with some of my friends.  As we arrived at our seats, one of my friends pulled out a Ziploc bag full of peanuts that she had brought from home and smuggled past the police officer who checked her bag at the entrance to the stadium.  When she offered me some, I politely declined stating that even though I thought that the prices of concessions were ridiculous and fans were being hosed, I just didn’t think it was right because the rules posted at the entrance to the stadium said fans were not allowed to bring in food or drinks.  She responded with the following statement: “I know it’s wrong, but I just don’t feel guilty about it.” 

Later that week I found myself driving to work on the interstate, when I glanced at my speedometer.  I was going right around 72 mph.  The speed limit posted was 65 mph.  The funny thing was there were people in the lane to my left passing me with ease and I was going the same speed as the rest of traffic around me.  I didn’t feel guilty at all by the speed I was going, even though I was clearly breaking the law.  It was easy to justify my wrongdoing because others were going faster and I was just driving the same speed as everyone else.   I was essentially saying: “I know it’s wrong, but I just don’t feel guilty about it.” 

That got me thinking… is this how we often view our sins?

Do we justify things by looking at others and saying “I’m not as bad as them” or “It’s OK because that’s what everyone else is doing “?  Do we excuse our actions by telling ourselves that others are taking advantage of us so it’s OK?  Do we just stop defining something as a sin so we can do it?

USA Today ran a story about what Americans call sin.  Here is the chart showing their findings:

Sociologist Barry Kosmin observes that “what is unacceptable has changed.  Racism and sexual harassment, which were not sins in the past, are now. Adultery and addiction are just bad or sad behavior. And commercial sex is a no, but breaking the bonds of marriage is not.”  Pope Benedict in one his prayers, said, “People who trust in themselves and in their own merits are, as it were, blinded by their own ‘I,’ and their hearts harden in sin. On the other hand, those who recognize themselves as weak and sinful entrust themselves to God, and from him obtain grace and forgiveness.”  Tim Keller said that the word ‘sin’ has become essentially obsolete and he’s had to explain what sin is.  “Around here it means self-centeredness, the acorn from which it all grows. Individually, that means ‘I live for myself, for my own glory and happiness, and I’ll work for your happiness if it helps me.’ Communally, self-centeredness is destroying peace and justice in the world, tearing the net of interwovenness, the fabric of humanity.”

As Christians, this should be concerning to us.  The enemy has been, and continues to, cloud the definition of sin.  We view sin not as God views it, but how we choose to view it.  And in doing so we are being deceived.  People all over the world are being deceived.

So what is sin?

“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)

“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives” (1 John 1:8-10).

 “Therefore no one will be declared righteous in His sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.” (Romans 3:20)

“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives” (1 John 1:8-10).

Sin is something we have all done.  It separates us from God.  It has been defined most often as a violation of the law of God.  As defined in the original translations of the Bible, to sin means “to miss the mark.”  Mark Driscoll takes it a step further and defines sin as “anything contrary to God’s will.”  It is something that the Holy Spirit convicts of us, through the Word of God.  The Bible is full of examples of sin, lists of sins, stories of sin.  Through our study of Scripture, our view of sin will become more and more clear and defined. 

But the greatest definition of sin goes to the very heart, to the root of sin.  It goes past the lists and the visual expression of sin. It captures the definition of sin through the definition of grace.

Sin is us taking the place of God. Grace is God taking the place of us.

How many Bibles do you own?  One? Two? Six? More?  How often do you read it (them)?  Better yet, how often do you use them to study, to arm, to prepare, to learn, to excite, to exhort, to encourage, to love? 
Do you use your Bible as you ought?

The Bishop J.C. Ryle wrote the following just over a century ago.  May it make your Bible leap back into your arms and into your heart.

You live in a world where your soul is in constant danger. Enemies are round you on every side. Your own heart is deceitful. Bad examples are numerous. Satan is always laboring to lead you astray. Above all false doctrine and false teachers of every kind abound. This is your great danger. 

To be safe you must be well armed. You must provide yourself with the weapons which God has given you for your help. You must store your mind with Holy Scripture. This is to be well armed. 

Arm yourself with a thorough knowledge of the written word of God. Read your Bible regularly. Become familiar with your Bible. . . . Neglect your Bible and nothing that I know of can prevent you from error if a plausible advocate of false teaching shall happen to meet you. Make it a rule to believe nothing except it can be proved from Scripture. The Bible alone is infallible. . . .

Do you really use your Bible as much as you ought? 

There are many today, who believe the Bible, yet read it very little. Does your conscience tell you that you are one of these persons? 

If so, you are the man that is likely to get little help from the Bible in time of need. Trial is a sifting experience. . . . Your store of Bible consolations may one day run very low. 

If so, you are the man that is unlikely to become established in the truth. I shall not be surprised to hear that you are troubled with doubts and questions about assurance, grace, faith, perseverance, etc. The devil is an old and cunning enemy. He can quote Scripture readily enough when he pleases. Now you are not sufficiently ready with your weapons to fight a good fight with him. . . . Your sword is held loosely in your hand. 

If so, you are the man that is likely to make mistakes in life. I shall not wonder if I am told that you have problems in your marriage, problems with your children, problems about the conduct of your family and about the company you keep. The world you steer through is full of rocks, shoals and sandbanks. You are not sufficiently familiar either with lighthouses or charts. 

If so, you are the man who is likely to be carried away by some false teacher for a time. It will not surprise me if I hear that one of these clever eloquent men who can make a convincing presentation is leading you into error. You are in need of ballast (truth); no wonder if you are tossed to and fro like a cork on the waves. 

All these are uncomfortable situations. I want you to escape them all. Take the advice I offer you today. Do not merely read your Bible a little—but read it a great deal. . . . Remember your many enemies. Be armed!

Cited in J. I. Packer, 18 Words: The Most Important Words You Will Ever Know, pp. 40-41.

HT: JT

I came across this unbelievable child of God purely by chance. While looking for more videos of Scripture being read I came across Amena Brown. A spoken word poet that captured my full attention with her words and her voice; her passion for Christ radiating through each one she spoke. The first video you see is Amena, the second is her voice, but the words as they appear bring even more glory and thought. Her website captures her well: “One thing remains front and center for her, no matter the venue or audience. She chooses to live a life driven by truth, and wants to challenge and inspire a generation to do the same. And for Amena Brown, that is the last word.”

Find out and see more of Amena : www.amenabrown.com www.bluefishtv.com

Recently I was at a conference in at Lincoln Christian College in Lincoln, IL and I had the pleasure of listening to James Emery White preach.  He told a story about a monk named Telemachus back in the 5^th Century.  This story captured my attention and drew me in, the way the great stories do.  So I did some research online and here is the story:  ( Imagine if we had the faith and the willingness to act on our faith the way Telemachus did, to live with the reckless abandon for Christ.  Imagine what the world would look like if Christians influenced culture instead of letting culture influence us )

Telemachus was a monk who lived in Asia Minor about the year 400 AD. During his life time gladiatorial games were very popular in Rome. The gladiators were often slaves or political prisoners who were condemned to fight each other unto death for the amusement of the spectators. The sight of blood and gore on the arena floor fascinated people. Telemachus was very disturbed that the Emperor Honorius (who was a Christian) sponsored the games and that many people who called themselves ‘Christian’ went to see them. What, he wondered, could be further from the Spirit of Christ than the cruelty of these gladiatorial games? The bishops and priests spoke against them, but most people were deaf to their message. Telemachus realized that talking about this evil was not enough. But what could he accomplish – one lone monk against the whole Roman Empire? He had no power and the games had been part an established part of Roman life.

One day in prayer, Telemachus sensed that the Holy Spirit was encouraging him to leave his community and go to Rome ~ which at that time was the metropolis at the centre of the greatest empire the world had ever known. When Telemachus arrived in Rome he was caught up into a celebration of a recent victory by the Roman Legions over the Goths. As a part of a holiday festival a circus was being staged for the jubilant multitudes. Telemachus didn’t know exactly where he was going in Rome… but he allowed himself to be swept along by the crowds. He soon found himself on the way to the Coliseum for the circus.

When the crowds arrived at the Coliseum they began to get excited by the sounds of the lions roaring their challenge and the gladiators preparing for combat. Telemachus followed the crowd into the Coliseum. There to his horror he was confronted with callous gut-wrenching carnage. Gladiators fought one another to the death. They slaughtered their hapless foes without pity as entertainment for the bloodthirsty crowds.

Telemachus felt he had to do something. He simply couldn’t stand by while human beings were being beheaded, disemboweled and dismembered before his very eyes. He ran down the steps of the stands, leapt into the arena, and began darting back and forth between the fighters crying: Stop, Stop, in the name of Christ I beg you to stop!.’

When the crowd saw the scrawny figure of the monk running frantically about the arena, ducking and weaving between the combatants – they took Telemachus to be a bit of welcome comic relief and roared their approval. But as time went on some of the people in the crowd began to hear what ‘the mad monk’ was saying and more and they came to realize that Telemachus was actually trying to spoil their bloody fun. Then they turned against him, hissing and booing, and bellowing at the top of their voices for his quick dispatch.

The gladiators lunged at the monk with thrusts of their swords… and the audience buried him under a hailstorm of projectiles and stones. When the furore was over Telemachus lay dead in the middle of the arena.

During the silence that followed his death – it was as if the monk’s last cry began to echo around the arena: ‘Stop, Stop, in the name of Christ I beg you to stop!.’

Telemachus died – but not in vain. His work was accomplished the moment he was struck down. The shock of his death changed the hearts of the crowd. Then they saw the hideous aspects of this vice to which they had surrendered themselves. Emperor Honorius issued an edict that day – forbidding all future gladiatorial games. 

-          From Fox’s Book of Martyrs

Quick! Put on you armor….your shield of faith, helmet of salvation, breastplate of righteousness, and the sword of the Spirit.

Run out to the battle lines and pick your side!

Are you part of the Emergenites or the Reformers?!?!  For you must pick a side!!!  You must enter into the battle!!!  Otherwise you will be quickly disposed of by both sides.

How to pick a side?  Simple:

1.       Pick your favorite pastor(s) and see which side they are on and run to their defense.  Sometimes you may have to look further into the battle lines, for your pastor may be sharpening their sword behind the great Reformer warriors like MacArthur, Piper, Packer, Carson, Sproul, Keller or Driscoll.  Or maybe they are strapping on their shields behind the powerful Emergenite soldiers like Bell, MacManus, Kimball, Pagitt, McLaren, Claiborne or Hybels.

2.       If you can’t find your pastor, then you may have resort to other means to pick your side.  Run over to the computer and sift through the endless blogs (which much like Wikipedia is the best and most accurate way to find out actual facts)

3.       Still can’t decide?  Quickly run to your local Christian bookstore and grab the best selling books by the Reformers or the Emergenites.  If you can grab the books that point out all the weaknesses of the other side, the ones that explain and accuse the other side of heresy or conformity.

At this point you should be able to pick your side and take your place. Preparing for battle – by learning from the hearsay of your fellow combatants why the other side is false, why war must be waged and how you can defend your side by aggressively attacking the other side.  After all we must defend ourselves from the enemy, and the enemy is clearly those in the Christian faith who are on the other side.  This has been building for years with so many different names…The great Armenian Calvinist Wars, the Battle for Health and Wealth at Fundamentalist Beach, Instrumental War I & II.  No matter what the name of the battle it is vitally important that every Christian both new and old pick a side so that we can weed out the false soldiers from the real ones.

And all the while, up on the hillside Satan and his army wait…rallying up their troops.  Laughing at the battle below.  Pillaging and plundering back in our hometowns. Destroying the beauty of the gardens.  Ravaging our children – taking them captive, training them to rise up against us, showing them the Christian  war – calling us fools.  And they do this with little resistance for we wage war against each other.

How much do we truly care about the Gospel?

Do we really believe in God’s transforming power even if we don’t understand everything about Him?

Are we able to see that we are all part of the body, some created by God for His Kingdom more intellectually driven towards theology and evangelism and some created more servant driven towards discipleship and compassion?

Will we ever get to know that Jesus’ His sacrifice (both on the cross and in His incarnation)was far greater than we can ever comprehend?

This is to Christians everywhere…no matter what denomination or theological understanding…no matter what Church you attend or what it’s mission statement is…no matter what translation you read or what state or country your in…please, stop fighting. 

Please love one another.

Although you may not see eye to eye on everything, please stop with the battling and hatred. 

As we celebrate Good Friday and Easter, the culmination of the glorious life of Jesus, and a reminder of His unimaginable death, please stop and love one another as Christ loved us.

Prepare yourself for battle for the war is waging, but turn your eyes towards the hill and focus on the real enemy.

In the name of Jesus Christ… Please

The other night I was up at work and my friend Nancy sent me a simple IM…

God is Love.

Three simple words. Words that I’ve heard hundreds, probably thousands of times together. Three words that I often find myself anticipating a cheesy, cliché, surface level, health and wealth type statement, and I usually find myself tuning out what comes soon thereafter.  After all these three words are such a Sunday school answer, such a basic, simple, new to Christianity, feel good combination and I am so far superior in my intellect and theological studies.

You see, lately I have been spending a great deal of time wrestling over theology.  What exactly do I believe? Why exactly do I believe it? Do I believe merely what I’ve been taught and thus am simply a product of my church’s denominationalizing? Is Calvinism a false teaching or is Armianism or neither? Who is right and why do we battle each other as we do? All this came from my desire to preach the truth, and my fear that I could potentially become a heretic and not know the difference! (And then the next thing you know Mark Driscoll will be putting my name in with Rob Bell and Brian McLaren as heretics) So I have been consumed by the desire to figure out God.  (Theology is literally the study of theos (God) No matter where I’ve been; in the car, in bed at night, in class, at work, while eating, while sitting on the toilet, everywhere I have been trying to figure out God – and I have to admit, it has taken it’s toll. And through it all, I lost sight of God.  As I built my Tower of Babel to try and get everything figured out and establish my theologian side, I lost sight of God.

 In his book The Pursuit of God, A.W. Tozer wrote:

“As with everything good in human life, at the back of this receptivity is God. The sovereignty of God is here, and is felt even by those who have not placed particular stress upon it theologically.  The pious Michael Angelo confessed this in a sonnet:

               My unassisted heart is barren clay,  
               That of its native self can nothing feed:
               Of good and pious works Thou art the seed,
               That quickens only where Thou sayest it may:
               Unless Thou show to us Thine own true way
               No man can find it: Father! Thou must lead. 

These words will repay study as the deep and serious testimony of a great Christian.

Important as it is that we recognize God working in us, I would yet warn against a too-great preoccupation with the thought.  It is a sure road to sterile passivity. God will not hold us responsible to understand the mysteries of election, predestination and the divine sovereignty.  The best and safest way to deal with these truths is to raise our eyes to God and in deepest reverence say, “O Lord, Thou knowest.” Those things belong to the deep and mysterious Profound of God’s omniscience. Prying into them may make theologians, but it will never make saints.”

Three simple words brought God back into view. God is Love. I thought about what that meant to me. That in the midst of all my chaos and searching and analyzing and seeking and wrestling and debating with trying to study God, I forgot that the heart of my study should bring me to God and His Love.  Not a denomination.  Not a final conclusion.  Not a perfection of understanding.  But rather just as Love is unexplainable and a mystery, so too is God, and I need to embrace that and become like Him.

So instead of letting my desire for knowing all answer to all the questions that could potentially be asked, today I am just basking in the glory of God’s Love which what I do understand about it, I am able to show Love to my wife, to my girls, and although I struggle occasionally to show Love to my neighbor, and regularly to those I would call my enemies, at the core I know I can show them all Love.  Because God Loves me.  Because He has, does and will continue to Love me and you, all of us…I believe that I too can. 

So Lord, thou knowest all.  And I know so little.
Thank you for letting me know Love.

I just returned from Alaska and it was beautiful.  I found myself on multiple occasions marveling at God’s glorious creation, and I kept thinking to myself how much fun God must have had as he created the world and how awful it is that we have destroyed and abused it since.  As I stood in a back road carved through a magnificent forest with the brisk chill air on my cheeks staring up at the snow capped mountains, it was impossible not to sense God there and know that there is no way something that breathtaking could have come together by chance. 
We truly serve an amazing God! 

When I returned to the office later that day I was still in awe.  I went to check my email and saw a story about a man in Honolulu Hawaii who dropped a 2 ½ year old boy (not his child) off an overpass down 30 feet to the highway below.  Then the report says he walked away as if unfazed. I was horrified.  How could someone do such a thing?  How could this guy, created in the image of God, the same God who I was just marveling over His creation, have so much hatred and destroy the life of a child?   

It was as I lay in bed that night that I realized the magnitude and importance of what God has called us, as His children, His apprentices, His disciples, His followers, to be in this world.  We are called to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ and in doing so, battle and overcome sin.  But I realized something else about sin.

Sin is not just something that we do, it is something that we are. 

We compartmentalize our life, much like the cubicles that we live in, going from our church cubicle to our work cubicle, to our materialism cubicle, to our family cubicle, to our pride cubicle, to our lust cubicle, and on and on.  And all the while we view sin as just a mistake or slip up, something wrong that we did are are doing.  What we fail to see is how it consumes us and becomes a part of who we are.  And through us sin corrupts others, it corrupts the world, it corrupts us.  And we become oblivious to its consequences.  And the next thing you know cars are screeching to a halt in the middle of a highway as an innocent young child lies dead because of a sin corrupted man 30 feet above. 

And yet as Christians we are washed of the corruption of sin, we are freed from sin’s hold, yet often we slip back into cubicle mode.  We live our lives for Christ when we are in that church or Jesus cubicle and if we aren’t careful we soon find ourselves spending little time there.  And as C.H. Spurgeon said, “We do little; very little…the love of Christ doth not constrain us as it should.”  Why? 
Is it because we don’t understand the magnitude of sin? 
Is it because we don’t understand the magnitude of Christ sacrifice and grace? 
Is it because we love ourselves, we love our sins? 
Or is it because we do not love Jesus, rather we are simply thankful and are merely trying to pay Him back? 

I want to feel as the apostles, martyrs and holy men of old did, I want embrace Jesus Christ and hold Him close, allowing Him to fully penetrate my heart, to take His rightful spot on the throne of my heart.  I want the Scriptures, the Word of God, to engrave themselves on people’s hearts and free them of sin’s hold.  No matter what it takes, no gift too great, no suffering too overbearing, sacrificing everything that I desire that is not of Him.  I want to follow Christ and tell others about Him to set them free from sin.  I want out of Cubicle Christianity. 

When you see His name, what do you think?  What emotions flood over you?
Stop whatever you are doing for a minute and just look at His name.

David Crowder sings in his new CD, “there are so few words that never grow old.” It truly is a magnificent name.  A life changing name. A breathtaking name. A name like no other. Every time I see or hear His name my heart races, a smile creeps to my face, and tears well up in my eyes.  When I stop and just think about His name, I am overwhelmed.

Close your eyes.  What images flood your mind?

o   The newborn baby Jesus wrapped up in His mother’s arms…

o   John lifting Jesus out of the water and the sky opening, Father speaking, Spirit descending…

o   Jesus teaching on a mountainside…feeding 5000…healing the sick…raising the dead…

o   Jesus eating with tax collectors, religious leaders sneering outside…

o   Jesus sweating blood, crying out to the heavens, His disciples sleeping nearby…

o   Hanging on the cross, covered in blood, wearing a crown of thorns and my sins…

o   Standing with His disciples, teaching them the Great Commission, before ascending to the throne…

How glorious.

What a Name!

Jesus.

(Leave a comment. I would love to hear what thoughts, what emotions, and what images flood your mind)

“What did you get for Christmas?”

I remember this question ringing through the classrooms in elementary school when you returned from Christmas break.  If you could bring it to school, it was in your backpack for recess or before and after school or in some cases during class.  If it was sweet new threads or new kicks, it was a must that you wear them that first day back.  Ah yes, the joy of showing off all the stuff you raked in for Christmas and marveling at what the other kids got. 

And of course, there were always those kids who wore the same old clothes and didn’t really answer or get in the conversations about what they got because they hadn’t gotten much, if anything.  There was always a part of me that felt bad for them, probably because as excited as I was going to school to show off my Christmas gifts, there seemed to always be so many kids that got so much more and it always bummed me out when kids would laugh at what I thought was a great gift, because they had gotten better stuff.

So it is no wonder that now as an adult, I find myself astonished at the amount of money, materialism, glamour and busyness that this season brings with it.  We create lists of what we “want” for Christmas, and most of us hope to get everything on the list or at least hint greatly at the thing or things we want the most.  We got so caught up in what we got as kids and often it seems now as adults we get caught up in what we give.  I on more than one occasion have been very proud of an expensive gift that I was giving, because I knew that they would love it and I would be the greatest gift-giver ever!  But ultimately gifts (whether given or received) seem to always be about what we get.

In all gifts, we forget what gift is the most incredible and greatest gift.
In all the “getting”, Jesus gets lost.

Sure we try and put the focus on Him.  We give our old clothes and toys to the Open Door Mission or “less fortunate people”.  We put up Nativity scenes, and play Christian hymns and carols.  We go to a Christmas Eve service, and spend the weeks leading up to Christmas celebrating Advent or learning about the real “Reason for the Season.”  Sometimes we even bake a birthday cake for Jesus and buy gifts for Jesus (which we give to those “less fortunate”).

But if we were to be honest about it, I think most of us would agree that Jesus is not the focus in our Christmas.

I was reminded of this the other day by my oldest daughter Faith.  Heather (my wife) told me this story and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since.  At Faith’s preschool they are having a birthday party for Jesus, with cake and everything.  They asked each child to buy a present to give to Jesus.  So Heather went out and bought Roscoe the Dog for Faith to give.  (By the way, Roscoe is a pretty cool dog for any toddler to have.  I found myself scoping it out and thinking about playing with it on more than one occasion.)  So later that night, Heather told Faith that she had gotten Jesus’ present and showed her Roscoe.  Faith smiled and looked at her Mom and said:

“That’s cool Mom.  But I was going to give Jesus my heart.”

In the midst of all the business this Christmas season may we remember that we have been given the greatest gift ever.  It wasn’t on our Christmas lists or wrapped in pretty wrapping paper.  It wasn’t the best seller or must have of the season at the stores.  But it was the most costly gift and was by far the most beautiful gift. 

Thanks Faith for reminding Daddy that Jesus is the greatest gift ever and the only gift I could ever give is my heart.  May I live everyday with that in mind.

So What did you get for Christmas?

I got Jesus.

Our children grow up so fast. 
It seems like just yesterday that I first walked over to the scale to my firstborn crying baby girl and said to her “Hi Faith, it’s your Daddy,” and she stopped crying. From that moment on I was forever wrapped around her little finger.   It seems like everyday she does something that blows my mind, whether it’s telling me that “Apparently she thinks it’s magnificent” or telling me the story of Saul on the Road to Damascus or simply rolling over when I get home from work at midnight, and saying “I love you Daddy” in that quiet, squeaky voice while wrapping her arms around my neck. 
I’m putty when it comes to my girls. 
Yes, I said girls; my youngest, Hope, is 20 months old.  She is my little tank.  She and Faith were playing on and around the couch the other day and in their fun, Hope lost her balance and fell off the couch.  I ran over, prepared to comfort her, and she stood up, looked at me and then crawled back up on the couch laughing.  She loves to wrestle.  Wrestle her Daddy, wrestle her Mommy, and wrestle her sister, her dolls, pillows, even the cat.  And I think usually she wins.And in the last two weeks she has blown my mind…twice.

Two weeks ago, we were gathering around the table for lunch and we had all just sat down when suddenly we heard this little voice.

“Pray?”

I looked at Hope, ready to ask the question that all parents ask when they think they heard their child say something: “What did you say Hope?”

“Pray?” she repeated

As she said it the second time I noticed her hands were together and on the table and her little head went down, bowing for prayer.  My heart leapt and I found myself completely amazed.  My beautiful baby girl who says hardly any words said “pray” and knew exactly what to do.  So I prayed, thanking God for the amazing family we had and how incredible He had created them.  I finished with “Amen” and I heard the little voice again.

“Ay-man”

My heart leapt again and I spent the rest of the meal just staring at my little girls.  But wait, there is more…
Just the other day we gathered around the table again and we asked Hope, “Pray?” And she responded back with, “Pray?”  I smiled and prepared to thank the Lord for our food, when I heard her little voice again.

“Ah bay gef th agg ay doe tabay a shy o baba no ght ay doo ah pth atay.” (That is a basic translation) 
And we all said “Amen.” “Ay-man”

Now I have heard a lot of prayers in my life, and I have no idea what she said; but I cannot remember hearing a more beautiful, wonderful prayer in all my life.

I wonder if God feels the same way when we pray.  He watches us…His creation, His children…He watches us grow up, living the way we want to, making mistakes, wrestling through life and falling off couches. But when our little voice speaks out through the busyness and noise, I wonder if His heart leaps for joy and a smile creeps across His face. 

And He thinks that prayer, from our quiet little voice…spoken from our heart…no matter how plain it may seem…is the most beautiful, wonderful prayer He has ever heard.