forgiveness

Nothing is Impossible

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 3 Comments

Do you really believe that nothing is impossible with God? I for one pay lip-service to the idea, but usually in my day-to-day life, I don’t believe it. In fact, many times my life says exactly the opposite.

 But this is the same God who caused Elizabeth to be pregnant in the geriatric ward. The same God who brought forth the Savior of the World from a penniless 13-year old virgin.

Don’t you realize that you yourself are living proof that nothing is impossible with this God?

Weren’t you once dead in sin and shame but are now alive to God and everything good in this life?

Weren’t you a stranger to God, to everyone else, and especially to yourself, but now you belong in a forever family with God as your Abba Father and Beloved as your new name?

Weren’t you without a hope in the world and headed for a dead-end destination but now you’re future is secure and the promises of God toward you as true as the God who made them?

Didn’t you at one point have nothing to offer anyone but now you are a living testimony of God’s grace and His very hands and feet to the world?

You are more than your net worth. You are more than your social status or your marital status or your assets.

You are proof that absolutely nothing is too hard for God. That what seems impossible to us is ridiculously easy for God.

You are living proof that no one is beyond hope of redemption, that no one is too broken to be made whole or too used to be made a new creation or too unloveable to be made beautiful.

Just remember that when someone else tells you you’re a nobody. Remember that when you are far down on someone else’s list of priorities.

Jesus thought you were worth dying for. And you are the evidence that the impossible became reality and the unthinkable happened.

Because nothing– not one thing– has ever, is, or will ever be impossible for this God who saved you. Period.

More Glorious Impossibilities

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 2 Comments

First of all, yay for vacations. And boo for places that don’t have free wi-fi. Hence, the lack of blogging the last 4 days.

I did read an Advent devotional that pretty much rocked my world. It’s from a fantastic little book called The Christ of Christmas by Calvin Miller. It’s a 31-day devotional that covers the month of December. I shamelessly urge you to go out and buy it today.

The devotional I read centered on Elizabeth, who was geriatric and pregnant, and Mary, who was a virgin and pregnant. Two opposite ends of the spectrum, yet still recipients of the miraculous. The glorious impossible.

Like when you were once dead in sin and to every thing that really mattered in life, including God, but now you are gloriously more alive than you’ve ever been and awake to all the riches God has for you. Glorious impossibilities.

Like when you were stamped with failure and disaster, but God stamped you with His own signature, making you priceless, and called you BELOVED. Glorious impossibilities.

Or when you were a stranger and alone and had no one who understood you or your pain, but God has given you a forever family who walks with you through every possible joy or trial, where your joys are multiplied and your sorrows divided (my kind of math). Glorious impossibilities.

Like where the King of the Universe whom creation and everything in it could not possibly contain coming down as a tiny fetus into the womb of a 13-year old. This same God who knows your name, who saw your face in your darkest moment of weakness when even you couldn’t love yourself, and loved you and thought you were worth dying for.

Glorious impossibilities. The kind that you will see every day of your life if you keep your eyes open to all that God is up to in and around you. The kind that He will accomplish through you if you just give Him the tiniest bit of room to work and offer to Him the frailest of agreements.

The kind that made the Christmas season a reality.

Stopping the Parade

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Some moments are so precious and rare that they stop you in your tracks. Some are so beautiful that they become engrained in your mind the same way an image is burned on to a strip of film.

Today, as I wached the Christmas parade in downtown Franklin, I noticed a man standing with his arms around a little boy who had Down’s syndrome. I watched how loving the man was toward the boy and assumed he was the boy’s father.

At one point, an older man stopped the parade, got out of his car, walked over to the boy, and handed him a stuffed toy dog. I think that image will be forever in my memory.

At one time, we were all in a parade like that. Slowly marching through history, trying anything and everything to fill the deep aching inside. None of the flashing lights or sounds could fil the void or fix the brokenness inside.

Then God stopped the parade. He entered human history in a hidden corner of the world in a lowly barn to a peasant couple in backwoods Bethlehem. God became one of us to find us and rescue us from our sins and ourselves.

That man, Jesus, lived a life we could never hope to live and satisfied the requirements of God that we never could. He climbed up a hill and died a criminal’s death that should have been yours and mine and rose from the grave, leaving all our sin and brokenness and fear of death behind in the grave.

Where were you when God stopped your parade? Where were you when Jesus entered into your history and became something more than a historical figure or religious icon? Where were you when Jesus saved you?

I know at the end there will be a different kind of parade. We will all be in it, along with every saint who ever lived and followed Jesus. It will be a triumphant parade with songs of victory and shouts of joy. Jesus will be the grand marshall and this parade will never end.

I hope during this frantic Christmas season, Jesus will stop your parade and speak peace over you in the few moments of stillness. I pray He will remind you that it’s His birthday we’re celebrating and what He wants more than anything is your heart surrendered and you being a vessel that He can love and reach and heal people through.

Advent Thoughts

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I love Advent. Even though I grew up in a Baptist tradition that didn’t include Advent, I am so glad I have found the joy and anticipation that Advent brings. Christmas isn’t a day on a calendar or even a season; it’s an event that changed absolutely everything.

I love the fact that God Almighty became a fetus inside the womb of Mary. I love that He was born to Mr. and Mrs. Nobody in a barn trough and grew up in Nowhere and chose other nobodies and nowheres to be His disciples and first missionaries. I, too, once was a nobody and an outsider who didn’t fit in. In some ways, I still am.

I love the fact that Jesus walked in my shoes and felt all my feelings and saw the same kinds of troubles and pain that I see. I love the fact that He walked my road perfectly and offered up to God for me the kind of obedience I could never even dream of, much less carry out.

I love the fact that God still has a heart for the orphan and the widow, the homeless and the outcast, the broken and the ignored, and all those who don’t fit in anywhere. I love the fact that God has His affections set on me and an loved me with an unquenchable love that I can’t lose or destroy or run off.

I love the fact that while people are human and will eventually fail me and I will fail them, my Jesus never will. While everyone I know, including me, is fickle and changeable as the wind, Jesus is the same in all my yesterdays, todays, and tomorrows, and forevers.

I love the idea that we are celebrating this Christmas season the impossible becoming possible, the unthinkable becoming reality, and all lost causes finding hope again. I love to think that God did this to show that yes, Love would go that far.

I love most of all that today after I forgot again the reason for this Season, You reminded me. You always do. I’m always running away and You’re always waiting for me with open arms. I’m always breaking promises and being weak and denying You, but You are always ready and more than willing to forgive and to finish this great work You’ve started in me.

These and so many other reasons are why I love Advent.

Unclean

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 2 Comments

For the better part of two days, something that Mike Glenn said at Kairos has been running around in my brain.

He related the story of how God showed Peter a vision in which a whole assortment of food came down from heaven and God said, “Eat.” Peter said, “But that’s unclean and against my religion (I’m paraphrasing a bit here).

God said, “What I have made, don’t you dare call unclean.”

Did you catch that? Let me put it this way. “God said, “I made you, and what I have made, don’t you ever call unclean or ugly or second-rate or worthless or no good. Don’t you dare put down the one I made, because when you do, you’re insulting Me.”

God made you. That gives you great worth. After you fell into sin and brokenness, He redeemed you. That makes you priceless.

Hear this. You are not what you own. You are not what you do. You are not what you drive or where you live or what you wear.

You are not the names people call you or the names you call yourself. You are not your past or your failures or your shortcomings.

You are not your usefulness or your abilities or your net worth or your talent level. None of these things.

You are who God says you are. You are His child, Ransomed, Redeemed, Living Temple, Saint, Saved One, and, my favorite, Beloved.

I love what Henri Nouwen says. Prayer is listening to the One who says good things about you. The One who calls you Beloved and invites you to His lap time and time again.

The Creator God who made all that is knows your name. He knows every deep, dark secret you keep and every promise broken and every lie told and every intention unfulfilled.

And He loves you anyway.

Because of what He did sending Jesus to the cross for you in your place, you are holy, righteous, blameless, innocent, perfect, and His forever.

You are unclean no more. You are the BELOVED!

Going Deeper

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 1 Comment

I’m not one to call myself a prophet or to claim I receive prophetic words from God. I think He speaks to me, like He did today, but I’m not the one to judge whether what He said to me was prophecy. The word was “Go deeper.”

That’s what I believe the Spirit of God is telling the people of God: “Go deeper.”

You can stay in the shallow end of your faith and stay comfortable and have one foot in the kingdom of God and one foot in the flashy, multimedia world. You can stay where the water is only ankle-deep and where what you say doesn’t have to match up with how you live.

But You will always live defeated. You will always be a victim and never a victor. Your worship will always be dead, your prayers cold, your Bible just words on a page. You will always be ruled by fear and doubt. You will always give in to temptation and never see deep healing in the deepest , darkest places of your heart.

Going deeper means that maybe you have to sacrifice the hip and trendy crowd for the homeless and the broken crowd. You may stop hanging out with the oh-so-cool artsy crowd and go to the outcasts and the hurting and the shamed.

Going deeper means trading in a feel-good sentimental kind of love for a selfless sacrificial kind of love. It means that you give without any expectations of ever getting back. It means you are willing to lay down your life in a million tiny deaths each day.

Going deeper means that you say YES to Jesus, no matter what. You go where He says go, you give what He says give, you love who He say to love, and you do what He calls you to do.

I will be the first to admit that I have been a casual fan of Christ far more than I have been a follower. But that’s what going deeper means– to stop being a sideline fan who roots for the Home Team and be a follower who gets your hands and feet dirty and messy, but find out that those are the very hands and feet of Jesus touching, reaching, and healing a broken world through you.

This isn’t my normal positive, encouraging blog. This is my blog that says that if you want to know more of this love that is deeper than your sin, wider than your understanding, and higher than your imagination, you have to surrender.

As always, I’m just a nobody trying to tell everybody about Somebody who can save anybody. I’m just one beggar telling other beggars where to find the Bread of Life. I’m a ragamuffin who has joy because my Abba Father calls me His beloved.

The Word Became Flesh (As You’ve Probably Never Heard It Before)

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 1 Comment

John 1:1-14 is probably a very familiar text that you’ve probably read many times. I know sometimes I tend to glaze over at passages like this that I’ve heard the same way many times before. Sometimes, you just need a fresh perspective. Here it is, thanks to Eugene Peterson and the Message translation:

“1-2 The Word was first,
      the Word present to God,
      God present to the Word.
   The Word was God,
      in readiness for God from day one.

 3-5Everything was created through him;
      nothing—not one thing!—
      came into being without him.
   What came into existence was Life,
      and the Life was Light to live by.
   The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness;
      the darkness couldn’t put it out.

 6-8There once was a man, his name John, sent by God to point out the way to the Life-Light. He came to show everyone where to look, who to believe in. John was not himself the Light; he was there to show the way to the Light.

 9-13The Life-Light was the real thing:
      Every person entering Life
      he brings into Light.
   He was in the world,
      the world was there through him,
      and yet the world didn’t even notice.
   He came to his own people,
      but they didn’t want him.
   But whoever did want him,
      who believed he was who he claimed
      and would do what he said,
   He made to be their true selves,
      their child-of-God selves.
   These are the God-begotten,
      not blood-begotten,
      not flesh-begotten,
      not sex-begotten.

 14The Word became flesh and blood,
      and moved into the neighborhood.
   We saw the glory with our own eyes,
      the one-of-a-kind glory,
      like Father, like Son,
   Generous inside and out,
      true from start to finish.”

More About Blessings and Such

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 1 Comment

For the record, I thought about calling this blog “Mo Better Mo Blessings,” but decided against it. Be thankful for that.

I had some more thoughts about blessings earlier today when I should have been paying more attention to the sermon. That’s actually where some of my best ideas for blogs come from. Shhh, don’t tell anyone, okay?

Some blessings are only found through suffering and trial and can’t be found any other way.

Some treasures are only found along the road through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, but they turn out to be some of the dearest treasures you will ever find.

Sometimes, the words God speaks to your heart in the midst of great pain are the words that turn out to be life and light and healing. Those are the words you remember most and hold most deeply in your heart of hearts, for those are the ones that go deep and speak to the most hidden, secret parts of you.

Some joys born out of sorrow are the ones that last with you the longest. Long after the storms cease and the suffering ends, these joys remind you like the rainbow of God’s goodness and His faithfulness.

Sometimes worship means the most to you when it costs you something. David once said, “I will not sacrifice to the Lord that which cost me nothing.” Sometimes, the cost is tears. Sometimes, the cost is your time, your talents and your treasures. In some places, the cost of worship may very well be your life.

Hold dearly to these lessons learned in the dark. Treasure the blessings found in storms. Never let go of the words God speaks to you in the midst of your suffering. Those are what will carry you through to the end.

And may you always hear in the night the voice of your Abba singing and rejoicing over you in the night as He does every night.

 

Lessons Learned This Past Week

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 1 Comment

I am definitely not above learning new things and even being reminded of some old things I learned long ago but had forgotten. God reminded me of a few things again this past week:

1) Don’t take it for granted that those you love will always be around to hear you say the words, “I love you.” It’s easy, at least for me, to look at my family and friends and think that they will always be around and will always be as strong and healthy as they are now.

2) Life is precious. Treasure it and treasure those in your life while they’re in your life. Say the words so they can hear them and don’t assume they know.

3) Give the people in your life, family and friends,  every benefit of the doubt. I know I’ve listened to my fears about my friends and have been lied to. I choose to listen to the Voice of Truth that says that love hopes and believes the best for people and doesn’t assume the worst. The Voice that says that that kind of love wins.

4) Ferris Beuller was right. You should stop every now and then and look around. Life is short and many people who are trying to keep up with a day planner and make plans for living miss it. Sometimes, you have to sit at Starbucks and drink a peppermint mocha and just listen and watch.

5) God has a way of getting your attention that may not always look loving, but it is. If everything in my life went exactly as I wanted and no one in my life ever got sick or grew old or had pain, I probably wouldn’t see my need for Him. I’d probably go and do my own thing without even the remotest thought of God in my head. The fact is that I still live in a fallen world with the fallout from sin all around me (and sometimes in me as well). I need God every single second of every single day of the rest of my life.

That’s all. I know I’ve said this before, but if this blog was only just for me, it was worth it. I found healing just now getting these thoughts out. I hope you do, too.

Dear Friend

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 3 Comments

Dear Friend,

I’m so thankful that you chose to be friends with me. It really is more than I deserve. Every time I count my blessings, I count you and I thank God for you.

You showed me what joy looks like. You showed m what kindness looks like. Most of all, you showed me what Jesus looks like, because I saw Jesus in you.

I just wanted to let you know a few things.

I’m not about to stop praying for you. I’m not about to stop praying and believing God’s best for you. I’m still convinced that God has great plans for you and He will use you in ways that will amaze and astound you.

I’m not about to quit counting you as my friend. By the grace of God, I plan on sticking around for the duration and being the best friend I can be to you and being Jesus to you the same way you were Jesus to me.

There will always be an empty seat at Starbucks and a coffee drink with your name on it. I may not be at my wittiest or most clever, but I promise to listen to what you have to say and encourage you in any way I can.

If you decided you didn’t want to be friends with me anymore and never wanted to see me or talk with me ever again, I would still look on you as a blessing. No matter how long I live, I will always be grateful and thankful for your friendship.

I pray tonight that the God of all peace will surround you and hold you in His embrace. I pray you will hear the sweet voice of Him singing over you in the night. I pray you will wake up in the morning mindful again of new mercies and fresh grace.

Thank you for being my friend.