Brennan Manning

If You Don’t Live It, You Don’t Believe It

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

I was struck by something in the sermon today.

Basically, the gist of what I heard is that people are hungry and yearning for God. What they’re wanting to see is an authentic witness by a Christian whose walk matches his or her talk.

Often, when people reject Christianity, what they’re put off by isn’t so much God as those who give Him a bad name by talking a good game of faith but living in a way that denies what they profess to believe.

Brennan Manning said that what the world can’t stand is people who profess Jesus but who deny Him with their lifestyle. That’s what an unbelieving world finds so unbelievable.

The key isn’t perfection. It’s authenticity.

I still say the best way to gain someone’s trust in order to share the gospel is to listen. Not listen to respond or to pass judgment. Simply listen to hear their stories and find out who they are.

I still remember the words that Pastor Mike said about having your testimony validated by your lifestyle– if you don’t live it, you don’t believe it.

That’s the simplest (and best) way to put it. If you don’t live it, you don’t believe it.

 

All of Me

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

“Give me all of you!!! I don’t want so much of your time, so much of your talents and money, and so much of your work. I want YOU!!! ALL OF YOU!! I have not come to torment or frustrate the natural man or woman, but to KILL IT! No half measures will do. I don’t want to only prune a branch here and a branch there; rather I want the whole tree out! Hand it over to me, the whole outfit, all of your desires, all of your wants and wishes and dreams. Turn them ALL over to me, give yourself to me and I will make of you a new self—in my image. Give me yourself and in exchange I will give you Myself. My will, shall become your will. My heart, shall become your heart” (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity).

That’s it.

God wants all of me so that all of me can become like Jesus.

God doesn’t just give me a part of Himself. God gives all of Himself to me.

Why should I not do the same?

It’s a Good Kind of Tired

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

Throughout the day, I had all these grandiose plans about what I was going to write about for tonight’s blog post, but here I am at 10:34 pm, completely pooped and having forgotten every single one of those wonderful ideas.

I know, I know. Write those ideas down. But for me, I always think of things when I’m in the car or some other place where I don’t have access to a pen and paper. I can’t exactly write stuff down when I’m in the middle of rush hour traffic on I-65, can I?

Anyway, I’m tired. It’s not the kind of tired I experienced when I was out pounding the pavement, looking for a job. That was a defeating, soul-weary kind of tired. I was tired when I felt like I hadn’t done anything all day. That’s the worst.

This is a good kind of tired. The kind that comes from putting in a full day’s work and knowing that I accomplished some good today. I made money, but I also made a difference.

The better kind of tired is the one where I get to turn off the alarm and sleep in tomorrow. It may be sad, but I actually fantasize about sleeping these days.

So, it was a good day, and I’m still living the dream.

Living the Dream

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

There’s nothing that’s more disappointing on a Friday than to realize it’s only Thursday. At least it’s not Wednesday.

I jest about wanting it to be Friday, but I really believe that there has to be more to life than merely existing from Monday to Friday and then really living on the weekend.

When you finally grasp how much of a gift each day is, then you stop merely existing during the weekdays and start living 24/7.

At least that’s the idea.

There are still some days when it’s all you can do not to count the minutes to 4 pm.

The real secret to living the dream is to not take any of your days for granted but to find ways to make each day matter by living out of the overflow of gratitude and thanksgiving.

So Happy Thursday. Tomorrow is Friday. Really and truly it is.

 

 

 

Recognizing Jesus

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 1 Comment

I was struck by something I’d never noticed about Jesus after the resurrection. For whatever reason after He rose from the grave, no one could recognize Him by His physical appearance. Even Mary thought He was the gardener when she first saw Him.

Maybe it was the fact that their senses kept telling them it really couldn’t be a risen Jesus. After all, they had seen Him die.

Or maybe Jesus’ glorified body was what threw them off.

I don’t know. The Bible isn’t clear on that one particular issue. I’ll have to find out when I get to heaven.

I learned something new today. There were three ways in which Jesus’ disciples could recognize Him post-resurrection.

First, they knew Him by His voice. When Jesus called Mary by her name, that’s the moment she knew for certain it was her Lord speaking. Jesus Himself said that His sheep know His voice and follow Him.

Second, they knew Him in the breaking of the bread. The two disciples on the Emmaus Road didn’t realize who they’d been talking to until Jesus took bread and broke it before them. Maybe their minds flashed back to that Lord’s Supper before Good Friday and the crucifixion.

Last, they knew Him by His miracles. When Jesus approached the disciples as they were fishing, they didn’t know it was Him until their nets were overflowing to the breaking point with fish. All the signs and wonders they had seem Him do came flooding back into their memories.

Since the ascension, we have the Holy Spirit who reminds us of all that Jesus taught us. It’s He who helps us to discern whether the spirits and voices are of Jesus or not. We know because we recognize His voice. We remember when we break bread together as the body of Christ. We affirm that it’s Him by the miracles we continue to see.

Still, we say with all believers everywhere, “Come quickly, Lord Jesus.”

Listen

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

“Listen, Israel! The Eternal is our True God—He alone. You should love Him, your True God, with all your heart and soul, with every ounce of your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5, The Voice).

When asked about which is the greatest commandment, Jesus quoted this verse. In essence, the first and most important command from God to us is to LISTEN.

To listen is more than just to hear. It’s more than just to accumulate more information.

When you listen, the object is to take what you hear and to put it into practice.

Jesus’ ministry was filled with invitations for us to listen. Note how many times He said things like “let those who have ears, let them hear.” He meant more than just hearing what He was saying. Many people heard Jesus’ words but did nothing with them and so remained untransformed by them.

What Jesus meant (and still means) is to take in His words with the intent of obeying them. To have knowledge disproportionate to our obedience will lead to an inability to receive new truths.

I confess that I’m not always the best listener, particularly when it comes to listening to God’s voice. I try to sit in the silence and be still, but my mind goes into overdrive. Random songs pop into my head, as well as snatches of conversations. It’s almost like when you have an old-fashioned radio that’s in between two stations.

To hear means to take in sound through your ears, but to listen is a discipline. You could say it’s an art. To listen to God better, you simply need to live out what you know for sure that you’ve already heard from God.

Loving God means listening to His words and allowing them to transform you. Loving people as you love God means listening to their stories and letting God’s light shine into them.

May we all learn to listen well.

 

A Change of Scenery

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 2 Comments

Boom. That says it all.

Gratitude won’t instantly transform your scenery into something else entirely. You won’t be instantly whisked away to a tropical island with a hammock and fruity drinks that come in coconuts.

Gratitude will change how you see your scenery. Suddenly, you can see clearly all the blessings you have. You especially see all the little miracles that you missed before when you were caught up in greed, envy, bitterness, and general dissatisfaction.

Gratitude helps you see God in your scenery. Every thanksgiving is a reminder of God’s provision for you and God’s promises to you.

So, give thanks. Even on a Monday.

Humbling Yourself

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

“So bow down under God’s strong hand; then when the time comes, God will lift you up. Since God cares for you, let Him carry all your burdens and worries” (1 Peter 5:6, The Voice).

It’s easy to talk about humility as a virtue in the abstract. It’s an entirely different matter to work it out practically in your own life. I know for a fact that my personality default type is definitely not humility, especially when it comes to being corrected and rebuked by others (which I mentioned a few days ago).

I read this passage and I see that to bow down under God’s strong hand is to live in an unconditional surrender. It’s to confess, “Thy will be done,” even if it means that my will be undone (to borrow from Elisabeth Elliot).

It’s an open-ended YES to Jesus for whatever He asks of me, whenever He asks, wherever He asks. Again, that means even if I have to let go of my own plans and desires and hopes and dreams.

For the early Christians, it meant enduring horrific persecution and suffering. It often mean martyrdom. Yet in light of the eternal glory, it seemed to them only a light and momentary affliction.

May we have that kind of faith that is willing to live surrendered so that Jesus might be glorified and lifted up in our lives.

 

 

 

 

Thoughts on Grief

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 1 Comment

“I don’t believe grief passes away. It has its time and place forever. More time is added to it; it becomes a story within a story” (W. Berry).

Don’t worry. No one I know has died lately.

I was just missing my old cat Lucy a bit today after seeing an old video of her and ran across this memory on Facebook.

How true it is.

Grief never passes away. You never completely get over the sadness.

I heard that grief and loss is somewhat like losing an arm or a leg. You don’t go back to the way you were before, but you can learn to live with a new normal.

Even though I haven’t been touched by grief lately, I know several who have. I also know that this life is fleeting, so grief is inevitable for any of us who haven’t completely closed off their hearts to love.

I also know that we serve a God who in Jesus is completely acquainted with grief. Isaiah called Him a Man of sorrows.

This same Jesus also took the sting out of grief and death when He burst out of the tomb on that Easter Sunday morning. Now those of us who belong to Jesus don’t have to grieve as those who have no hope. We have hope.

I still don’t know how it works with animals. I’d like to think there’s that rainbow bridge and I’ll see Lucy again one day. I do know that all the best parts of what we had will live on in my memory and what awaits in heaven will be far better than anything I could ever possibly imagine.

In the meantime, grief and loss are a part of life. Right now, I wish they were not. One day, I know for certain that they won’t be.

 

Well, It’s Friday

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

All this week for some reason, I thought it was a day later than it actually was. On Tuesday, I kept thinking it was Wednesday, and so forth. Today, for some reason, it felt like a Thursday. Thankfully, it was not.

I don’t make a lot of phone calls during a normal work day. During one particularly fun call, I started coughing during the call, which led to the hiccups. That was an especially fun conversation for the person on the other end of the line.

Anyway, it’s Friday. And my Never-ending Crud might finally be going away.

Oh, I woke up this morning, so that automatically makes it a good day. I never get tired of saying that.

I’m looking forward to turning off the alarm and sleeping in tomorrow. Even though I’ll probably wake up at 5 am per habit, I’ll just roll back over and go back to sleep. It will be  glorious.

After that, I’m planning on being completely spontaneous this weekend. It’ll be great.