Christianity

The Next to Last Day of 2011

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 1 Comment

I heard a good joke today: What do you call the day before New Year’s Eve? New Year’s Adam, of course.

I can’t wrap my head around the fact that is is day 364 of 2011. It still feels like it should be August. Halloween and Thanksgiving and Christmas should all be months away.

But I’m looking at all those festive holidays in my rearview mirror and looking at 2012 coming up fast. Only one more full day and it will be a new year with all sorts of new potential and new possibilities and a whole slew of unknowns and variables.

Sometimes I wish I had a remote button for my life with an oversized pause button. That way I could stop everything and take it all in and appreciate all of it. I could stop and smell all those roses.

There is no pause button for life. There’s no way to stop time so you can really appreciate all you have. You have to let go of some good things that keep you from the better things and keep you from enjoying the little moments.

That’s why prayer is so important. It forces you to stop all the madcap rushing around and focus on what really matters in life and why we’re here. Prayer reminds us of two truths: 1) that we’re not in control and 2) God is. Prayer reminds us that we are still needy, dependent creatures who have nothing and can do nothing without God.

Life is too short for regrets and grudges and posturing and impatience. Life is now, and we miss it if we’re always looking ahead to the next big event. God is with us here in this moment where we are. We can’t hear Him if we’re dwelling in the past or always anticipating the future.

If you have a resolution for 2012, make it this: live each day as it comes and cherish every moment God gives you, for each moment is unique and will never come again in exactly the same way.

Happy New Year in advance from a nobody who’s still trying to tell everybody about Somebody who can save anybody.

Choices

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Life is full of choices. Some hard, some easy. Somtimes you get to choose between the better of two good things, and sometimes it’s between bad and worse.

You can choose vanilla or chocolate, although in my mind there is no choice there. Chocolate wins everytime, especially when peanut butter is involved.

You can choose Coke or Pepsi, or be like me and like ’em both. Or just be healthy and drink water.

In 2012, I think there are some choices we must make that will determine how those around us view our faith and how much or little it means to us.

You can choose to walk away from someone who’s struggling, or you can choose to walk the extra mile with them. You can choose to bail when the friendship takes work, or you can be like Jesus, the Friend who sticks closer than a brother or sister.

You can choose bitterness and anger, or you can choose to forgive. You can hold on to hurt until it consumes you alive, or you can release it and live the freedom God meant for you to live.

You can choose the safe and the known and the comfortable, or you can choose the road less traveled. You can seek out familiar friends and places and stay exactly like you are, or you can find Jesus in the hurting and broken and lonely and friendless and walk away changed and more like Christ.

You can choose to seek approval and affection and attention and always be striving to make people like you, or you can choose to seek first God’s kingdom and His approval and find out that people will be drawn to the difference they see in someone who is content with who they are and what they have.

You can choose to serve the gods of power and success and prosperity and fame and the in-crowd. You can choose to worship at the altar of money, sex, food, consumerism, and self. Or you can say, “As for me and my house, we will serve only Yahweh.”

To not choose is itself a choice. So choose life. Choose the narrow road that leads to life in the fullest sense, and not the broad road that leads to the death of your own identity at the hands of what you think everyone wants you to be. Choose Jesus, because He first chose you.

 

The Year of the Lord’s Favor

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“He came to Nazareth where he had been reared. As he always did on the Sabbath, he went to the meeting place. When he stood up to read, he was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll, he found the place where it was written,

   God’s Spirit is on me;
      he’s chosen me to preach the Message of good news to
       the poor,
   Sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and
      recovery of sight to the blind,
   To set the burdened and battered free,
      to announce, “This is God’s year to act!”
He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the assistant, and sat down. Every eye in the place was on him, intent. Then he started in, “You’ve just heard Scripture make history. It came true just now in this place.” (Luke 4:17-21)

I have a  few questions for you to ponder.

What if we choose to see 2012 as the Year of the Lord’s Favor?

What if we not only read these words as only words written 2,000 years ago, but as the very living and breathing words of God that still speak and resonate today?

What if we truly believed that we as Jesus’ body on earth, His hands and feet, could see these things happen with our own eyes?

I’ve been thinking a lot about a conversation I had with a good friend recently at Starbucks. The conversation was about how we could help people walking through struggles and issues and addictions and hurts and help them see that they’re not walking alone. About how we could come alongside them and walk with them and show them the way to freedom the way someone did for us.

We could see people set free from bondage. We could see those who were blind to the truth all these years suddenly seeing the great love the Father has for them. We could see those crippled by the past suddenly walking in the liberty where there is no more shame or guilt, only forgiveness and joy. We could see Jesus healing people through us.

I think if we believe with radical and unquenchable faith in the Jesus who made these words come true, the same things will happen again. I believe if we are willing to stop merely assenting to our faith and live it out in the open for all to see, crazy things will happen.

I believe if you and I say “YES” to whatever Jesus asks us to do and wherever He asks us to go, whenever He asks, there’s no telling what He will do in us and through us. Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, as the Bible proclaims, what God has in store for us who believe with our hearts and lives and not just our heads.

Do you believe that? Then say “YES” to Jesus now.

December 27, or Christmas III: Revenge of the Mistletoe

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I have absolutely no idea why I came up with this title. It just felt good in a whimsical kind of way. And it will probably have nothing at all to do with the rest of the blog.

Today ends my Christmas vacation, or stay-cation, since I didn’t exactly go anywhere during my time off. It was also yet another memorable Christmas for me and once again, I’m still trying to wrap my head around the idea that Christmas Day has already come and gone.

The older I get, the more keenly aware I am of family and friends. The more I see how precious they are to me. The more I am aware of just how much God has blessed and encouraged and challenged and changed me through all of them.

I also see that while I take for granted that all my family and all my friends will always be there, I also know they won’t. This Christmas reminded me of how fragile this life is and how we must handle it with care. Life is much too valuable to be wasted on grudges and petty things and unforgiveness. The pain spent making a wrong right or mending a broken friendship or simply saying, “I’m sorry, I was wrong forgive me,” is much less than the pain of regret over words not spoken and forgiveness withheld.

I see that the most valuable things in life are too precious to hold on to with closed fists. I must hold them with open hands, always ready to let them go. Really, nothing in this life belongs to me, anyway. I’m just taking care of it. My job is  to make sure that everything and everyone in my life leaves me better off than when I received them.

My job is to make sure that in the time you know me and spend with me, I let you go looking more like Jesus than before I met you. That you run the race with more assurance and fight the good faith with more confidence and trust God more radically.

That’s where I am headed in 2012. Less of me and more of Jesus. Less of my own plans and more of surrender to whatever He wants. Less anxiety and craving and striving and more resting and trusting and believing the promises.

Most of all, I want to remain a Ragamuffin whose mantra is still “My Abba is very fond of me (and you)!”

 

Christmas Is Over?

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 1 Comment

I can remember on December 26 that I always had a sort of letdown feeling. It didn’t matter that I got everything on my wish list or that I saw all my family happy and together. I still couldn’t help but feeling a bit depressed on the day after.

If Christmas is just a day, then that’s a natural feeling. If we spend so much time and energy in anticipation for one day of presents and food, then there’s no way the actual day can live up to all the hype. Especially these days when there is more and more pressure to buy the perfect gift and to go into debt to do so.

But if Christmas is a frame of mind, then we know that the best gift has already been given. There’s no need to try and compete with the perfect first gift of Christmas, wrapped by a teenage peasant in swaddling clothes and laid in a feeding trough. This gift isn’t for just one day a year, but for all 365 days a year.

If Christmas isn’t just about giving and receiving, then it doesn’t disappoint. If Christmas is about honoring the first gift, about celebrating the birth of Emmanuel, then Christmas takes on a whole new meaning. If we strive to fill the stocking of the Christ-child, so to speak, we find ourselves asking a whole new set of questions.

What would He want most from us? What gift could we bring that would most honor Him who gave everything for us? Who came to earth on December 25 expressly for the purpose of taking our place and dying the death we deserved, so we could have more full and abundant life than our wildest dreams could conceive?

I think what Jesus wants from us is us. Not out wallets or our talents or our calendars, but us. Living sacrifices and vessels set apart for God to use whenever and however He chooses. Vessels of mercy, kindness, grace, and above all, love.

I want to wake up tomorrow and live out a thank you to Jesus. I want everything I do and say, everywhere I go, to be Jesus working and speaking through me. I want to live out the true meaning of Christmas, not just one day a year, but every day of every year for as long as God gives me breath.

I hope and pray that every day for you will be Christmas where you seek to give Jesus the best present you have to give Him– your heart.

It’s Christmas Day and Emmanuel is Here

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 2 Comments

On Christmas Day, we celebrate Emmanuel, God with us. God for us, God on our side, God over us, and (thanks to Jesus’ final and finished work) God in us. That means

The Light of the world has come into our darkness and all the darkness in the world could not comprehend or conquer this Light. The way to God has forever been illuminated.

The glory of God has come and, as one pastor put it, He is the only one strong enough to take all the pieces of our lives and hold them together. Only He can fill the God-shaped void inside us when no one and nothing else will.

Perfect Love has come and that love casts out all fear. Doubts vanish as we have beheld this one and only Son of God who pitched His tent among us.

This Jesus has come to give us a hope and a future, as Jeremiah promised, and give us each a new name . . . Beloved. We have more than a chance at something better, we have been adopted as sons and daughters and given an eternal inheritance that will never be taken away.

This God in mortal form has come for the sick and lonely and scarred and (best of all) broken. All those broken relationships and hearts and dreams and psyches find healing and wholeness as we find a stronger Love inside us that can pour out through us to those we love.

Death no longer has the final word. The Word, Jesus, has spoken victory forever over death and hell and the grave. He holds the keys to all of the above and His love is stronger than anything we will ever face.

When we could not get to God or bridge the gap that separated us from Him, He came to us and not only showed us the way Home, he became the Way. He has reconciled us to God by His own blood and turned us from enemies and outcasts and strangers into sons and daughters of the King over Everything.

Celebrate Emmanuel, God with us. The God who will be with us on December 26, and on every day after that, too!

The Night Before Christmas

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 3 Comments

‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the world

People groped their way blindly in the dark, searching for the smallest hint of light.

People walked around with gaping holes in their souls that they tried to fill with careers, pleasures, sex, money, fame, and all sorts of little trinket gods that promised big but never delivered.

People lived in bondage to fear and doubt, looking to spouses or significant others or children to be their saviors, looking to medicate in any way those terrible feelings away.

People had no hope, no future, no name, and no chance at anything better.

People’s lives were filled with the debris of broken relationships, broken hearts, broken lives, broken dreams, broken psyches, broken promises and only memories of what it meant to be whole and healthy.

Death was the final horror, something to be avoided at any price, and its shadow cast pallor over even the brightest and best moments of life.

People were cut off and alienated from God, not only strangers but enemies to the One who made them, and there didn’t appear to be any remote possibility of reconciliation.

But then one December night long, long ago, a star shone brightly in the night sky over a lowly stable where the impossible became possible and everything changed . . .

Tonight’s Theology Lessons from George Bailey

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 2 Comments

If you have a pulse and you’re over 30, chances are extremely good that  you’ve seen It’s A Wonderful Life at some point in your life. Even if you’re one of those Undead Americans like the Cullens family, you’ve probably seen it, too. I personally lost count of how many times I’ve seen this holiday classic around 20.

There are some remarkably good theology lessons to be gleaned from this film:

1) The world would NOT be better off without you in it. The world would not have been better if you had never been born. Lots of lives are connected with yours and what you do DOES make a difference. You may not see it, but what you do and say affects so many others.

2) Sometimes the biggest changes in the world come from those nickels and dimes. You may feel like you’re stuck in a tiny corner of the world with a very small area of influence, but if you’re influencing one person, you’re influencing the world. At the very least you’re influencing that person’s world.

3) You are NOT a failure if you have friends. Notice, I did not say failure means having loads of money or power or influence or fame. You can have all those things and still fail miserably, missing the whole point of it all. Just ask Jacob Marley about that one. If you have friends, you have something infinitely more valuable than any amount of treasure or possessions you could ever own.

4) Sometimes, it DOES take a supernatural event to get you to see how much you matter. You may not get a visit from Clarence, Angel Second Class, but you will get something far better. You have God’s written Word, that says God so loved the world (which includes YOU) that He gave His one-of-a-kind, never to be duplicated, Son. You have the Community of Faith, that says, “We need you and we can’t function without you. It’s like we’re missing a limb or an eye without you.” You have the voice of Your Abba Father, saying, “This one’s Mine, the one whom I created and redeemed. The one I died for. This is my beloved child, in whom I am well-pleased because I see Jesus in that person.”

This Christmas Season, celebrate the fact that the world IS better with you in it. You may be the only Jesus some will ever see, the only Bible some will ever read, and the only Faith some will ever see lived out. How well you represent Jesus will determine if someone else will choose to follow Him or not. And those little random acts of kindness that seem so insignificant to you at the moment will live long after you’re gone.

So, thank you, George Bailey. And in those immortal words, “Atta boy, Clarence!”

What I Really, Really Want for Christmas

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I thought about calling this my grown-up Christmas list, but for that to work, I’d have to feel grown-up. Most of the time, I still feel like a 10-year old stuck in a 30-something year old body, a la Tom Hanks in the movie Big. So that bit of nonsense is to lead in to the fact that I do have a Christmas list for 2011.

Instead of tolerance, I want love. I want all people to know that they are loved. God loves all those He made and His love makes you loveable, even if nothing you do or say does. That love makes you valuable, even if you don’t have worth or value according to the current standards that weigh everything by money and power.

I want more forgiveness and second chances. Not just for the ones who are in the wrong. The ones forgiving find such freedom in the act that they will wonder why they didn’t do it sooner. Forgiveness is hard, but I think not forgiving and holding onto the bitterness that eats you alive is harder. It certainly takes more out of you.

I want people to look past the surface more and see real beauty. God is the master of wrapping the best presents in homely packages. True beauty is seen with the heart and not with the eyes.

I want people to get out of their comfort zones and cliques and go to those who are lonely and hurting this Christmas season. If God has a special place in His heart for the outcast, broken, needy, poor, and destitute, then why shouldn’t we. If we want to be like Christ, we will have that same heart He has. After all, we all were once broken and needy and poor and destitute.

I want it to be that if there is to be any finger-pointing, it should be into a mirror. We all are to blame for the mess the world is in and the sooner we say, “I am responsible,” the better. Then we can say truthfully, “I am only one person. I can’t undo all the wrong that’s been done, but I can do one right thing. I can’t change the world, but I can change one person’s world, and, by the grace of God, I will.”

Most of all, I really want people to see themselves as God sees them. I want to see that God loves them. I want them to understand that God likes them. I want them to know that God offers healing and freedom and ultimate forgiveness for sins. I want them to see that it’s never too late to turn around and be all that God made you to be.

That’s really all I want for Christmas.

That, and maybe a set of Ginzu knifes, ’cause they can cut through tin cans and still slice a tomato. That’s just sheer awesomeness!

Word Now Breaking Heaven’s Silence

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“Bring your peace into our violence
Bid our hungry souls be filled
Word now breaking Heaven’s silence
Welcome to our world
Welcome to our world” (Chris Rice)

Maybe you’ve experienced silence recently. The kind of silence that is almost deafening and that pervades every part of you.

The silence of a friend who deserted and abandoned you and you’re still wondering why.

The silence of a parent who cut you off and doesn’t want anything more to do with you.

The silence of a prodigal son or daughter who, despite all your pleas and prayers, still won’t come home.

The silence of a spouse who decided you weren’t worth the effort anymore and left you.

The silence of a loved one who left you too soon and you had to say your final goobyes to a marble headstone.

The silence you feel in the middle of the night that keeps you awake with the fear that all that you are and have and do will never be enough and you will never be good enough for anyone, not even yourself. Much less God.

This Advent season, we celebrate the end of Heaven’s silence. For 400 years, God didn’t speak through prophets. For 400 years, the people waited and waited. Some lost hope. Some were barely holding on.

Then on a dark night in a remote village, a sound broke through the silence once and for all. It was the cry of an infant born to an infant virgin teenager in a backwoods village just south of Nowhere.

In that tiny cry, God was speaking to you, saying, “I’m here. I will be your God and you will be my people. I will never ever leave you or forsake you. I have set my affections on you and I will never take them away.”

It is the still small voice that speaks good things about you, that says that you are more than good enough– you are worth dying for. The voice that calls you Beloved. The voice of your Abba Father.

Remember this Christmas, we celebrate more than just a day. We celebrate the one event in history that changed absolutely everything. We celebrate the birth of hope that never dies, of joy that no one can take away, of peace nothing can shake, and of love that never lets you go or leaves you. We celebrate Jesus, the Word breaking Heaven’s silence.