Author: Ragamuffingospelfan

Something Better

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I think this is true. I also think that sometimes my idea and God’s idea of what “something better” means aren’t always the same. But every single time I find out that God’s idea was better.

Typically, I find looking back that what I thought I wanted wasn’t really what I wanted. You know what they say about being able to see 20/20 in hindsight. But I am grateful that God said no to a lot of what I prayed for, especially when I was younger.

Also, my idea of “something better” changes as I mature and grow more like Jesus. More and more, I am able to say with truth and sincerity God’s will be done. And I have noticed that the older I get, the more my will is slowly starting to look like God’s will. I am gradually beginning to want what God wants more than what I want.

Finally, I think sometimes I don’t think big enough. None of us do. God has an entire cosmos in mind and we so often have a very small spot in the universe. God is infinite and we are not. Yet I also think that what God has in mind for me down the road is not something I could presently comprehend. The waiting is God preparing me to be able to receive what’s coming. Right now, it would blow my mind. Or destroy me. Or both.

My ultimate hope isn’t some down the road amazing revelation or gift from God. It’s God. It’s less of me and more of God. It’s me stepping into all that God has made me to be and finding out He’s much bigger, better, stronger, kinder than I had ever imagined before.

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard
and no one’s heart has imagined
all the things that God has prepared
for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9, Complete Jewish Bible)

Face Like Flint

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“The heart of salvation is the Cross of Christ. The reason salvation is so easy to obtain is that it cost God so much. The Cross is the place where God and sinful man merged with a tremendous collision and where the way to life was opened. But all the cost and pain of the collision was absorbed by the heart of God” (Oswald Chambers).

I was blessed to be able to watch episodes 1 and 2 of The Chosen Season 5 in theaters. So far, it’s set during the Lord’s Supper with flashbacks to events earlier in the last week of Jesus’ ministry and life. I was able to more fully appreciate the totality of the weight that was on Jesus during these last days. In fact, you might even say that the weight of the world was on His shoulders.

He saw lost and hurting people. He saw misguided and corrupt religious leaders not only not helping people find salvation, but at times actively hindering people from doing so. He saw a temple that had become a market where money mattered over worship and where the house of prayer had become a den of thieves.

Jonathan Roumie portrayed all the inner turmoil that Jesus went through. Sometimes in movies about the Christ, I feel like the divine part gets played up at the expense of the humanity, and Jesus can come across as divinely disinterested and maybe a little bored. But this series has brought Jesus down to earth by emphasizing His humanness but not at the expense of his divine nature.

I remembered as I witness the emotions of Jesus during these first two episodes that Jesus was not called the Man of Sorrows for no reason. It wasn’t a catchy title. Jesus’ heart really did break over the lostness of the world He encountered — first, metaphorically during three years of ministry then literally on the cross when the spear pierced His side.

I can’t wait for the next episodes. And also, I’m dreading these next few scenes a bit. I know where this is heading. It’s not the rom-com portion of the program. In the next few days, we have betrayal, arrest, false trial, execution and death. All leading up to Good Friday. All leading up to Easter Sunday. But the good news is that as the old sermon said, it may be Friday, but Sunday’s comin’.

More than ever, I really can’t wait for that Sunday to get here.

So Close

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Every year, I dutifully fill in my brackets for the NCAA men’s college basketball tournament held around this time every year. Usually, I fill in quite a few — some serious, some off-the-wall, some in-between. Usually by this point, all my brackets are toast, and I’m hoping for some Cinderella team to pull off the improbable win.

This year, there were no Cinderella teams. No double-digit seeds that got to the Final Four. No underdogs tugging at everyone’s heartstrings. It was the usual top seeds that made it to the end. That made it a little less exciting for the games, but a little more helpful for the brackets.

One bracket was shaping up nicely. I had correctly picked all 8 of the Elite Eight teams, all 4 of the Final Four teams, and was one down, one to go for the Championship round. If it had all gone to plan, this would have been my best bracket ever.

Unfortunately, it did not go to plan. One of the teams I picked to advance, Duke, was actually leading up until the final few minutes. The other team, Houston, made an improbable comeback and won the game, dashing my bracket once and for all.

That’s life. At least a lot of life is like that. You almost get that one thing you really want, but not quite. You get the marriage or the house or the car, and it’s every bit of what you dreamed it would be — almost. It’s like we have desires that nothing in this world can quite satisfy.

C. S. Lewis said that if we have those desires that can’t be gratified by anything in this world, it means we were made for another world. Anything this side of heaven is only a type and a shadow of the real thing in heaven. Our ultimate longing and desire can only be found in God.

Of course, some of the things I really thought I wanted or needed to have I didn’t get because God knew better. Some of the kindest words God ever says to me are Him telling me no to a request that if I got what I asked for would destroy me. At least it would not be good for me. Also, I can’t really ask God to give me anything outside of Himself that’s as good as God, because that thing or person doesn’t exist. I think C. S. Lewis said that, too.

Anyway, I’m already looking forward to filling out multiple brackets in 2026 and hoping for that one miracle bracket. My golden ticket, if you will. I suppose I can dream, can’t I?

A Prayer for the Church

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“Lord, bless this people, this our beloved church. You have been very gracious to us; be gracious to us still. Oh that we had health and strength to labor here as our heart desires: may it please you yet to give us these! But if not, use what there is of us until the last is gone, and be pleased always to find someone to go in and out before this people, to feed them with knowledge and understanding. “Father, glorify your name.”
May we not be ashamed to be old fashioned and to be thought fanatical. May we not wish to be thought cultured, nor aim to keep with the times. May we be side by side with you, oh bleeding Savior and be content to be rejected, be willing to take up unpopular truth, and to hold fast despised teachings of sacred writings even to the end. Oh make us faithful—faithful unto death.
Amen” (Charles Spurgeon).

That prayer was true for Spurgeon and the 19th century Church in Great Britain, and it is just as true for 21st century Church in America. These days, there are fewer and fewer ministers and churches willing to stand for biblical truth in the face of increasing hostility. The cost to be faithful is increasing. The temptation to compromise and water down the message is always crouching at the door of each and every church.

Yet Jesus promised that there would always be a faithful remnant who would not bow the knee to Baal or to Rome or to any other ideology apart from Scripture. As the song says, may all who come behind us find us faithful.

A Good Word from Brennan

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“Do you believe that the God of Jesus
loves you beyond worthiness and unworthiness,
beyond fidelity and infidelity,
that he loves you in the morning sun and the evening rain,
that he loves you when your intellect denies it
your emotions refuse it,
and your whole being rejects it.
Do you believe that God loves without conditional reservation,
and loves you this moment as you are,
and not as you should be?” (Brennan Manning)

I’m not quoting this because I think Brennan Manning had all his theological ducks in a row. I think he had some questionable doctrines, but I also think that no one was better at explaining grace than he was. Maybe that’s because he had experience it as an alcoholic.

The whole point of all these blog posts I write isn’t how great Brennan Manning was but how great God is. It’s really about how the love of God changes everything. How the love of God can change you as it has changed me.

That’s the real truth of the story. And God still remains the main character and central hero of this story. It’s not and never has been about us. It’s always been and will always be God first and God always.

Stormy Weather

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‘Tis the season yet again. Not Christmas. Not Easter . . . yet. I’m talking about storm season, when all the TV shows are preempted by special weather announcements about possible severe thunderstorms with hail and lightning and such. If we’re really lucky (said sarcastically), then we might get a tornado watch.

But lately, it’s been a bit much. Sunday night, there was a tornado warning complete with sirens going off in the neighborhood that interrupted my nightly sleep and made me super tired the next day. I thought surely that can’t happen again for a while.

Lo and behold on Wednesday it happened again. Three times. Three separate times the tornado sirens went off, and I had to trudge downstairs and wait it out. Each time, I was increasingly annoyed. I knew that I’d be a real zombie the next day.

Storms are no fun. Truthfully, I’d much rather watch a storm from inside a safe place than to be out in the middle of it trying to drive home. But if I really had my pick, I’d go for option #3 which is None of the Above, thanks all the same.

hThen I remembered the scene in the Gospels where the disciples were out in the middle of the lake during a ginormous pop-up storm and were on the verge of capsizing. They were freaking out (as I would have been) and watching the water enter the boat faster than they could bail it out.

But then in one account, Jesus is right there in the boat, asleep. Such a perfect picture of the serenity that comes from absolute trust. Then in another storm, He comes out to them, walking on the waves of water.

Sometimes, the best place to find Jesus is in the middle of a storm. Probably we wouldn’t be looking for Him otherwise. We might give Him a token shout-out of praise or a nighttime prayer, but otherwise we’re trusting in our day planners and our itineraries and our gumption. Often it’s only in the midst of the waves and the wind that we cry out to Jesus in desperation.

I love how Psalm 77 is telling of the goodness of God, yet also the imagery is prophetic:

“The waters saw You, O God,
the waters saw You and writhed,
even the depths shook.
The clouds poured out water,
the skies resounded,
Your arrows flashed back and forth.
The sound of Your thunder was in the whirlwind.
Lightning lit up the world.
The earth trembled and shook.
Your way was in the sea,
and Your path in the mighty waters,
but Your footprints were not seen” (Psalm 77:17-20, TLV).

When we’re in storms, we might not know it, but Jesus is on the way. His way is still often through the sea and His footsteps are still unseen.

Praying for Muslims During Ramadan

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This year, I tried something new. I signed up through the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention to pray 15 minutes a day for Muslims during the season of Ramadan (February 28-March 30).

It was the first time I’d ever signed up to pray daily for any length of time. I quickly learned that 15 minutes of praying can seem like a loooong time when it’s just you trying to pray what’s in your head. Thankfully, the IMB posted daily reminders to pray with several prompts to guide my intercession. Plus, I found some other helpful websites to guide my prayer time.

Hopefully, this is not a humble brag. It should be something like if I can do this, so can you or anyone else. I believe that all of the greatest revivals in history began with people on their knees in prayer (or in my case laying in bed in prayer). I believe this time is no exception.

One particular website that caught my attention was from an organization called Missio Nexus. They have a radical prayer goal of seeing 10% of all the Muslims in the world come to saving faith in Jesus by 2028. By my reckoning, there are 1.8 billion Muslims in the world currently, so that would mean 180 million worshippers in heaven who formerly prayed to Allah. Or better yet, round that number up to 200 million. Can you imagine how amazing of an impact that would have on the entire world?

I hope every one of you will find a prayer passion, whether it be for an unreached people group or people from a different religion or even people whose paths you cross wherever you live, work, or play. It really does open your eyes to the great big world that exists outside of your and my needs and wants. Definitely keep praying for those needs and wants because God tells us to do that, but also be mindful of the Great Commission to take the gospel into all the world and the Revelation 5 scene with worshippers from every people group, language, continent, color, and nationality. That’s truly where God’s heart lies.

Lent Prayers

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“Gracious Father, 
whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world: 

Evermore give us this bread, 

that he may live in us, and we in him; 

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, 
one God, 
now and for ever. 
Amen.“

Thank you, God, for Jesus.

No Fear

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“The remarkable thing about God is that when you fear God, you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God, you fear everything else” (Oswald Chambers).

That was a hip slogan back a few years, I think. No fear. I think it needs to make a comeback.

These days, fear is used as the supreme motivator when it comes to politics and marketing and just about everything else under the sun. It seems like so many are still living under the fear of 2020 and the pandemic.

Another saying that I like better from back in the day went like this: “No Jesus, know fear. Know Jesus, no fear.”

It might be a tad simplistic, but the general idea is good. To know Jesus as the Prince of Peace is to be free from a life dominated by fear and anxiety. I don’t think any believer ever is completely free of fear this side of heaven, but he or she is not a slave to it any longer.

I also recall an acronym used by a black preacher that I have always loved. He said that F-E-A-R stands for False Evidence Appearing Real. Nearly all of fear is based on a lie. Nearly all the lies based on fear tell you that either God is not there or He doesn’t care. Fear says that you have to figure it out and solve it all yourself because there is no one else. Fear isolates.

But Jesus calls us to the Father and to one another. Peace comes when we are right with God and right with each other. Peace doesn’t come when you feel super relaxed and calm. Peace comes when even in the midst of feeling afraid you also have certainty of hope at the center of your core.

There’s an old chorus that came to mind when I was typing out these words. I can’t for the life of me find it anywhere, but I think the words are along these lines:

“There is no fear in Jesus Christ
And by his grace we’re made new
And it’s the cross that reminds us
That in him no fear.”

Anyone who remembers this, if you can reply with the correct lyrics (or better yet, the worship artist), I would so greatly appreciate it.

What’s It Worth?

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Today, I saw a house for sale in the neighborhood where I go to church. It had been listed for a while, and I noted that the price had been reduced recently. So being eternally curious, I googled the house for fun and giggles to see what it was worth.

It was just shy of a million dollars. It was a nice house, but by no means spectacular. I think it had about 2600 square feet, so it wasn’t a big house. It was just a normal-sized house in a good neighborhood in the insane housing market of Nashville.

It seems that when I was growing up, a million dollars could get you a mansion. If you spent a million dollars on a house, you were rich. At least that’s what 10-year old me thought at the time.

But now money is worth less than it used to be. Back in the day, currency was based on a gold standard, but now it’s just paper. And every day that paper grows less and less valuable.

I think that’s pretty much the tale of everything that we tend to prize and value on this side of heaven. Eventually, those things depreciate. They rust, get eaten by moths and other critters, and get stolen. Technology is the worst because the top of the line product quickly becomes outdated and soon after obsolete. Soon after that, it’s junk.

But things eternal only grow in value. If you treasure what is heavenly, as the verse in Matthew 6:19-21, you will find joy both now and hereafter. If you value what the Heavenly Father values, you will find you are rich in those things that no amount of money can buy. Those are the things that truly matter.

I heard a pastor say that the streets of heaven are paved with gold, because gold up there is worth about as much as pavement down here. It would be dumb to walk around with pits of asphalt in your pocket thinking you were wealthy. In the same way, gold isn’t the true currency of heaven. Love is.

If you love God wholeheartedly and love others the way that God has loved you, you are valuing the right things. If you value possessions, remember that he who dies with the most toys is still dead, but what you take with you are those who are following and trusting in Jesus because of your faithfulness and your testimony.