That's where City Church comes in. Dean breaks it down to the simplest terms. It is so easy that it sometimes angers me that I never saw it. Probably the most impactful series for me has been the Southern Comfort series. It was really a kick in the butt when I listened to that and knew I was guilty of that, and to think of how many people I know that are or were the same way. It is really refreshing to hear messages that are relevant and backed up with scripture. Dean and the staff put on no "aires" that they are any better or different than anyone else.   I look at the people that I thought were good Christian folks, and I see that most of them think and preach that acts get you where you need to be. I've come to believe that the motivation for being a good example as a Christian is your personal desire to please God. I seldom feel like a good example. But that's ok because I've learned that in God's eyes I'm pleasing to him. I'm a loathsome sinner, but through Christ I can have a relationship with God.

I've gone through times in my life where I felt closer to God. That was usually when I had a better prayer life and was reading my bible more. I think it is common to have cycles like that. The times I felt further from God, and things just didn't seem to go my way, I believe God was trying to draw me back. To show me that if I try to rely on myself I was just gonna screw things up, which I've done too many times. As we've heard recently that's where my pride came in. If I'm not careful I will let pride get in my way every time. And after the messages Michael preached on prayer the last 2 Sundays, I know I've got to get my prayer life back in order. I had an AWESOME Sunday school teacher tell us one day, "We need to stop letting our life get in the way of our prayer, but our prayer should get in the way of our life". In other words, we should NEVER be too busy to pray. We must make it a priority. Thank you Michael Mears for reminding me of that!