Author: Ragamuffingospelfan

Never Knowing

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“Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One who is leading” (Oswald Chambers).

My hope is not in a 5-year plan or a 10-year plan. My hope is in a Messiah. My hope is in an unchanging God in the midst of a chaotic and changing world. I’ve learned many times over that those crutches I lean on will eventually crumble into dust, but I know my God will never fail me.

I don’t trust in myself, because I know myself too well. I know how fickle and changeable I can be. But I trust the One who is working on me. I trust that He won’t stop until He’s finished the good work He began in me so long ago. He is faithful even when I’m not.

Lord, as always have Your perfect way in me. Do whatever it takes to make me more like You. I know from the years past that I can trust You for the years to come because as You have led me well in the past You will continue to lead me well all the way to glory and beyond. Amen.

We Remember 25 Years Later

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I can still remember where I was 25 years ago on 9/11/2001. That was the day that everything changed. I recall walking into the church office where I worked at the time and hearing about a plane that had flown into a building. It was so random and no one knew anything yet about who did it or why.

When the second plane hit, I think that’s when just about everyone figured it out. This wasn’t random. This was orchestrated. I spend the rest of the day in shock, feeling numb and disconnected and unable to process the scope of the tragedy that had just unfolded.

Those next few days were horrific as the rescuers combed through the wreckage looking for survivors but finding mostly bodies and debris. I can’t imagine being on the ground seeing what those people were seeing, especially when you consider how many were jumping from the towers because of the intense heat and flames.

Those days were also beautiful. We came together as a nation for the briefest of moments. For one shining moment, we weren’t white or black, male or female, young or old. We were all Americans. There was a spirit of cooperation and compassion that pervaded our way of life. Churches were full the next Sunday as people were seeking answers,

I can’t believe it’s been 25 years. It blows my mind that a significant portion of the population wasn’t even alive in 2001. So many know about the events only from reading about them in textbooks or seeing videos on social media. It’s easy for the next generation to forget and for all the lessons we learned to be forgotten.

That’s why it’s vital that we remember. It’s important that we pass on what we saw and what we learned. Life is precious and fleeting, and only a life that honors God is worth living. So many of those we lost were God-fearing men and women. We may never fully understand the why until heaven, but we can know that God took what was evil and made it into something good.

We can love each other well, never take those people in our lives for granted, and use every opportunity to tell people what’s most important to us — that Jesus still loves and saves sinners like us. We can keep the memories of those lost on 9/11 alive as we continue to remember.

Praying for Your Enemies

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“In prayer we go to our enemies, to stand at their side. We are with them, near them, for them before God. Jesus does not promise us that the enemy we love, we bless, to whom we do good, will not abuse and persecute us. They will do so. But even in doing so, they cannot harm and conquer us if we take this last step to them in intercessory prayer. Now we are taking up their neediness and poverty, their being guilty and lost, and interceding for them before God. We are doing for them in vicarious representative action what they cannot do for themselves. Every insult from our enemy will only bind us closer to God and to our enemy. Every persecution can only serve to bring the enemy closer to reconciliation with God, to make love more unconquerable.

How does love become unconquerable? By never asking what the enemy is doing to it, and only asking what Jesus has done. Loving one’s enemies leads disciples to the way of the cross and into communion with the crucified one” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer).

Dietrich knew a thing or two about enemies. He stood up to the Nazis and Adolf Hitler and spend the last few years of his life in prison, dying by execution literally days before the Allies liberated the camp. He felt it was his moral duty to speak out against the evils the government was doing, especially in regard to the millions of Jews who were killed.

Jesus also knows a thing or two about enemies. The religious leaders plotted to kill Him, arrested Him under false charges, put on a mock trial, and then had Him executed as a common criminal in the most tortuous and painful form of death ever devised by humanity. He even prayed forgiveness for those very people while they were in the act of murdering Him.

We are called to love our enemies. We are called to pray for them like we would want others to pray for us. Ultimately, the hope is that they can find forgiveness and redemption through Christ and become family instead of enemies.

If you say that’s unfair, remember that’s what God did for you. While you were still enemies and sinners, God in Jesus died for you. While you were living in complete rebellion against the Almighty, He sent His only Son for you.

Even if your enemies never change, forgiving and loving them frees you from the captivity of toxic bitterness and hatred. They no longer occupy your every waking thought. Plus, forgiveness shows more than anything what God’s love looks like. That’s the best reason of all.

Upward, Outward, Stooping

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“Love that goes upward is worship; love that goes outward is affection; love that stoops is grace” (Dr. Donald Barnhouse).

I agree with all this. I also think that when we love others well as God loved us, then that’s worship. When we worship, we are giving God back the very breath He blew into our lungs, so that’s grace. . . I could go on and on.

Really, all three are interchangeable. Worship is not a separate category from serving or giving grace. Affection, or as I prefer to call it, charity (in the old sense of the word) begins in worship that stems from grace and goes outward in service.

At the end of the day, all that matters is how well we have loved like God has loved us.

Being Right Vs. Being Righteous

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I think Tim Keller said that you can speak the truth, but present it in such a harsh way that it turns people off. That’s not loving. That’s about ego and wanting to be proven right more than helping others to find the right path. I saw something today that said that no one was ever argued into a change of heart. Let that sink in for a bit.

I’ve been guilty of wanting to win an argument or two back in the day, especially when it comes to theology. But at the end of the day, it really didn’t matter. It’s no good to win an argument over someone about faith if you lose the battle for their soul. Not that we win anyone to Jesus or save anyone, but we can sure be a roadblock or a hindrance to someone coming to faith.

That’s why it’s vital to speak the truth in love. In love. We do need to speak the truth. Otherwise, we’re just enabling bad behavior and allowing lost people to remain lost. But if we speak the truth in an unloving way, it’s just as dangerous because they associate the gospel with judgment rather than love.

Be merciful. St. Isaac the Syrian once said, “Let mercy outweigh all else in you. A hard an unmerciful heart will never be pure.”

Yes, speak the truth. Live your convictions. But always, always remember to be merciful. Be loving. Remember how patient God was toward you while you were still an enemy and far from the truth. Remember how many times people loved you enough to share with you that you were a sinner but that God still loved you.

Above all, be merciful just as your Father in heaven is merciful.

How You’ve Overcome

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I love the idea that while our trials and suffering aren’t something we’d wish on anyone, God can use them to help anyone who’s going through the same kind of testing. So often we’re tempted to hide our testimony due to shame or regret, but we forget that those very moments might be what God uses to set someone else free from a similar kind of shame and guilt.

If you think hard enough, you can probably bring to mind at least one person who walked with you through a hard season. It was their experience and wisdom that helped you navigate the tricky terrain of your circumstances. You have been blessed to be a blessing to others, and you have received encouragement so that you can pass it on to those in your life who need it at least as much as you did.

My pastor used to say that grace means that the part of your story that you swore you’d never tell anyone becomes the first part of your testimony. It’s never to highlight your sin but to showcase God’s grace in how He pulled you out and redeemed you from your sin.

God doesn’t waste your pain. Nothing you go through is ever in vain. He works all things — even your worst moments — for your good and His glory. I just love the way God works!

Sneaking Up

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As usual, Labor Day weekend snuck up on me. I never remember that it’s an actual holiday until the Friday before. The same goes for Memorial Day. Not in anyway to diminish either of these holidays, but I can be a little thick sometimes.

I am thankful for Labor Day (or should it really be called Labor-Free Day?) and for the extra day off. Even if it’s 145 degrees outside in the shade. And no, I’m not counting down the days until fall starts (15).

Today, the sermon at church was on Luke 10:1-2 where Jesus says that the fields are ready for harvest but the laborers are few. According to multiple studies, 20% of church people do 80% of the work. Most people are content to occupy a space on the pew or the chair and spectate rather than participate.

But God created all of us with unique gifts and passions that bless those within and without the walls of a church gathering. Plus, there’s joy in finding your place of serving and ministry in God’s kingdom. Not all of us are called to preach from a pulpit or lead worship, but we can all worship in our own way, no matter how small it seems to us or to others.

I love my church. I love that I get to sleep in tomorrow, even though it’s a Monday. I love that every day God wakes me up is a gift and I find that I take it for granted less and less as I get older. Too many people I know who are my age or younger have passed away for me ever to think that I’m guaranteed 80 years in this world.

So happy Labor Day! May you enjoy a restful day — and if you’re one of those who don’t get a day off, may you find joy in your labors, knowing that you’re not really working for a human boss or a human organization ultimately, but for God and God alone.

An Excerpt from The Magician’s Nephew

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If you want a good read (and you’re okay with reading children’s books), then I suggest The Chronicles of Narnia. It’s best to start with The Magician’s Nephew, a story which tells of the origins of Narnia. I’ve included an excerpt to give you an idea. Also, good books are good books, no matter who the intended target audience is. I’ve learned that much in my life so far:

“Well,” said Aslan, “can you use a spade and a plough and raise food out of the earth?”

“Yes, sir, I could do a bit of that sort of work: being brought up to it, like.”

“Can you rule these creatures kindly and fairly, remembering that they are not slaves like the dumb beasts of the world you were born in, but Talking Beasts and free subjects?”

“I see that, sir,” replied the Cabby. “I’d try to do the square thing by them all.”

“And would you bring up your children and grandchildren to do the same?”

“It’d be up to me to try, sir. I’d do my best: wouldn’t we, Nellie?”

“And you wouldn’t have favorites either among your own children or among the other creatures, or let any hold another under or use it hardly?”

“I never could abide such goings on, sir, and that’s the truth. I’d give ’em what for if I caught ’em at it,” said the Cabby. (All through this conversation his voice was growing slower and richer. More like the country voice he must have had as a boy and less like the sharp, quick voice of a cockney.)

“And if enemies came against the land (for enemies will arise) and there was war, would you be the first in the charge and the last in the retreat?”

“Well, sir,” said the Cabby very slowly, “a chap don’t exactly know till he’s been tried. I dare say I might turn out ever such a soft ’un. Never did no fighting except with my fists. I’d try—that is, I ’ope I’d try—to do my bit.”

“Then,” said Aslan, “you will have done all that a King should do.”

C. S. Lewis, The Magician’s Nephew

Entirely Yours

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“To say, ‘I am not my own,’ is to have reached a high point in my spiritual stature. The desire that comes into a disciple is not one of doing anything for Jesus, but of being a perfect delight to Him. The secret is truly being able to say, ‘I am His, and He is accomplishing His work and His purposes through me.’ Be entirely His!” (Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest)

Lord, I am not my own. I have been bought with a price. I belong to You. Help me not so much to seek to do things for You but to be available for You at any moment to use as You see fit. Make me a vessel through which to pour Your love. Work Your purposes in me and work through me so that I might be a channel of blessing from You to others. Make me more like You every day. Amen.

Water from the Well

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“‘So the three mighty men . . . drew water from the well of Bethlehem . . . and brought it to David. Nevertheless he would not drink it, but poured it out to the Lord.’ (2 Samuel 23:16).

What has been like ‘water from the well of Bethlehem’ to you recently–love, friendship, or maybe some spiritual blessing? Have you taken whatever it may be simply to satisfy yourself? If you are always keeping blessings to yourself and never learning to pour out anything ‘to the Lord,’ other people will never have their vision of God expanded through you” (Oswald Chambers, from My Utmost for His Highest).

How has God blessed you lately? The tendency is to hoard blessings in case there aren’t any more in the future, but that is a miserly way to be. God blesses us so that we can be a blessing to others.

I think there’s a Scripture about sharing all good things with your teacher. If you gain wisdom, it’s good to let your pastor or teacher know. You can take what you learn and pass it on to others. I’ve learned that when you learn something in order to teach it to someone else, what you learn stays with you more than if you just learned it for yourself.

May we be a blessing conduit instead of a blessing reservoir, so that God’s goodness won’t just stop with us but keep flowing through us to those who need it. May we be channels of blessing every day that God gives us breath.