ministry

Singleness of Purpose and Action: A Confession

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

It’s time for another one of my soul-cleansing confession blogs where I ‘fess up to messing up. Better that than me eventually winding up on Jerry Springer right after the gay, cross-dressing nympho Quakers. That would be awkward.

Lord, I confess that I’ve spent way too much time and energy striving to be noticed and liked and appreciated. I haven’t spent nearly as much time trying to be faithful and righteous and God-honoring.

I confess that I’ve attempted to impress others with my Bible knowledge, yet I’ve hardly picked up my Bible except to parade it around so that others think of me as oh-so-very-super-spiritual.

I confess that I’ve been trying to knock down the doors that You closed on me for a very good reason. I’ve been fighting You for something I don’t really want rather than taking what You give that I need (to borrow from the great theologian Rich Mullins).

I confess that You’ve become a means to my own ends instead of my Ultimate End and Joy.

I confess that I’ve trusted in what I think and what I feel instead of trusting in what I know to be true of You and Who You have proved Yourself to be to me over and over. I’ve listened to my fears way too many times instead of waiting for the Still Small Voice that says good things about me and speaks peace into my chaos.

I confess that I have put myself in the spotlight that only You deserve and my goal has been for others to make much of me instead of making much of You.

I confess that I am weary from chasing rabbit-holes and dead end paths and roads that go nowhere but lead back to themselves. I confess that I have lost my first Love.

Help me to hunger and thirst for Your Word more than any meal and to seek You with all my heart and soul and strength and mind.

Help me to have a singleness of purpose and of action so that people see in me what it looks like to truly honor God and they find out the greatness of this God and are drawn not to me, but to Him.

Chances are, this is your prayer, too. Chances are you’ve fallen into the same trap of self-worship that I have. I hope you know that you’re not the only one who struggles with this from time to time.

My hope is that we can encourage each other to follow hard after Jesus and to seek purity of heart in everything we say and do.

Amen.

A Letter to Kim Kardashian

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 1 Comment

image

Kim,

I don’t know if you will read this or not. Realistically speaking, I’m pretty sure you won’t, since you probably don’t have time to read blogs by people you don’t know who aren’t famous. But if by some extremely remote chance, you happen to stumble on this quaint little blog, I hope you know I’m rooting for you.

I know a lot of people will look at your decision to start a Bible study and question your motives. They will say you just want to hook up with Tim Tebow or give some other reason why you can’t legitimately want to read God’s Word for its own sake.

I am not one of those.

I hope you read the Bible and find all that God has for you in there. I hope you find God’s love letter to His people, including you, and how much He loved His people and what great lengths He undertook to win back His people lost to sin and death.

I hope you will find that true beauty is in what God says about you, not what some magazine or television producer says about you. God says, “I made you and that makes you beautiful, because I made you in My image.”

I hope you will know that Jesus loves you just for you, not because of what you do or what you wear or who you know. I hope you can find joy in the fact that Jesus looked at you in your worst moments and thought you were still to die for.

I hope you fall in love with God’s Word and want it more than anything else. I hope you are transformed by what you read and that every time you read the Bible, you put it down a different person than when you picked it up. More than that, I pray you will take what you read and live it out in compassion for the needy and love for those whom God loves.

I hope you understand that no matter what you’ve done in the past, God has a purpose for you. He can work in and through you to do some pretty amazing things that will blow you away.

Like I said before, I’m rooting for you and hoping you find the peace you’re looking for.

Signed,

A Ragamuffin who is just trying to tell others about the grace of God that he’s found

PS It’s still not too late, no matter how messed up your life seems right now. Jesus can still turn your mess into something beautiful.

Thoughts on Leadership

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 1 Comment

Before you tune me out, let me explain. I believe that leaders aren’t just pastors of churches or CEOs of companies. Leaders aren’t just those with big fancy titles after their names. A leader by simple definition is someone who leads and inspires others to follow.

You are a leader. Believe it or not, you are. Someone is watching you and what you do and how you live (not in a scary Big Brother kind of way). It may be your children. It may be your brothers or sisters. It may be someone you work with or play with or hang out with occasionally. You may not even know it. But people are watching you and following what they see you do.

In particular, people are watching your actions to see if they match what you profess to believe. People want to see if this Jesus you talk about really means enough to you to affect the way you live or if its just empty words.

While it sounds scary and intimidating, it can also be an exciting challenge. You have an opportunity to influence lives for the better. Someone who would never set foot in a church building or pick up a Bible could see Jesus in you. You may be the only Bible some will ever read, as I have heard it put before.

If people see you really striving to live out what you believe in total and complete surrender to and dependence on Jesus, they will notice. If they see you admit to your mistakes, seek forgiveness for when you mess up, and keep getting up after falling down, they will want to know why you’re different.

The question is not “Are you a leader?” but “What kind of leader are you?” and “Where are you leading to?”

The most important question that I ask you (and me, too) is “When people walk away from spending time with you, do they think how great and impressive you are or do they make much of the Jesus who has done such great things in your life?”

I hope for me its the latter. I hope the same for you.

Real and Lasting Change

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

I was reading in John 19 and a particular phrase caught my attention. I’d read it before and thought nothing of it, but for some reason, these particular words lept off the page at me: “Nicholas, who had first come to Jesus at night, now came in broad daylight”.

That may not mean much to you, but it meant the world to me. It was a reminder to me of the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to actually and truly change lives. It was a reminder that even old crusty theologians can be taught new tricks and come to see like a little child again.

This Gospel is the same that transformed 12 men from cowards who hid behind locked doors after Jesus’ death to courageous followers who each were willing to give up everything to follow Jesus and who paid heavy prices for their commitments.

This Gospel took a man who lied and betrayed Jesus to save his own skin to a man willing to die by cruxifiction upside down for the same Jesus.

This Gospel took a man who persecuted and killed in the name of religion and had much to boast about in his law-keeping abilities to a man who called himself “chief of sinners” and was willing to go through stoning, beatings, humiliations, prison and so much more for the cause of making the name of Christ known to the world.

The Gospel took me, someone who thought nobody could love and who didn’t think God could use or do anything with, and made me someone who is finding out that I am the beloved. I am the child of my Abba, who is very fond of me and can take my mustard seed of faith and move mountains with it.

When someone says they can’t change, don’t believe it. When someone says, you won’t ever change or you can’t change or it’s too late for you to change, don’t believe them.

I still believe and will always believe that with God, all things are possible. With God, you can change, or better yet, God can take the broken pieces of your heart and life and put them back together better than new. You won’t be a fixed or even a better person. You will be  a completely new creation.

Just ask the disciples. Just ask Peter. Just ask Paul. And just ask the dying thief on the cross moments before he died. It’s never too late to change. It’s never to late to start becoming who God meant for you to be. All you need to start is your YES to Jesus.

The rest will be history.

 

My Borrowed Prayer for You

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 2 Comments

This is not original with me, but it expresses what I want for you better than I could, so I’m stealin’ it.

“May God bless you with a restless discomfort

about easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships,

so that you may seek truth boldly and love deep within your heart.

May God bless you with holy anger

at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people,

so that you may tirelessly work for justice, freedom, and peace among all people.

May God bless you with the gift of tears

to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, or the loss of all that they cherish,

so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and transform their pain into joy.

May God bless you with enough foolishness

to believe that you really can make a difference in this world,

so that you are able, with God’s grace, to do what others claim cannot be done.”

There’s only one thing I can add to that: AMEN.

A Place Where You Belong

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 1 Comment

Sometimes, you feel like you just don’t belong or fit in. Kinda like when you’re the odd single in a group of couples or when everyone is talking with someone else and you’re stuck talking to the pet hamster, whose communication skills could use a little work.

Many have what is known commonly as “square-peg-itis”, where you feel like a square peg in a round hole most of the time. No matter where you go, you feel as though you’re not wanted or worse, that no one even knows you’re there at all.

That’s what I love about the body of believers known as the Church. That’s a place where you belong. That’s a place you fit, because you were made to fit and play a role that only you can play. God gave you unique combination of talents and gifts and passions that no one else has and that can serve the Kingdom of God.

The body of Christ often gets treated as a business or an organization, but it’s not supposed to be that way. The body of Christ is a family. The kind of family where you’re always welcomed with open arm. The place where you’re no longer a stranger or a visitor, but a fellow pilgrim and a friend and– best of all– family.

This is the place where you can be yourself and take off the mask. This is the place where you can mess up and get a second chance, where you can blow it big time and find grace, where griefs are shared, sorrows are divided, and joys are multiplied.

A place where you find out who you are, your true self, and where you become all that God in Christ made and meant for you to be. Who wouldn’t want to be in a place like that?

Sadly, the Church doesn’t often look like that. But that’s what God calls her to be. And that’s what she is in her finest moments. That’s what will be our most effective witness and powerful way of communicating just how good and great our God is.

God, may we be one just as You are one. May we love each other as You loved us and so love people into Your kingdom. May we be always be a community where our doors are always open and where no one is left out, but everyone is welcome and belongs and fits in.

Amen.

Goodwill Finds

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 3 Comments

image

I am fast becoming a Goodwill junkie. I love going in those stores, not knowing what I’ll find, and walking away with a few unexpected treasures. Like today, for instance. I went in looking for music and came out with a little stained glass piece that has Romans 8:31 on it. Well, it looks like stained glass to my untrained eye. I went in with visions of finding Amy Winehouse CDs and found something I didn’t expect to find, but ended up being much more meaningful to me than what I was looking for.

I think life is a lot like that.

Sure, you can live your life in safe mode. That’s where you always hang out with the same people and go to the same places. That’s where you love people who are loveable and and invest in the friendships with people who are popular and know the secret handshake and password. Those in the know and on the go, so to speak.

That’s fine, but you never find any unexpected treasures there.

Sometimes, you have to go out of your way to find that treasure hidden in a field that’s worth more than everything you own put together. Sometimes, you have to get out of your safe life to find the most satisfying and rewarding moments.

Maybe the treasure is found in the friends who are on the outside with the in-crowd, but who have deep wells of wisdom when it comes to walking with Jesus. Maybe it’s in serving those who won’t say thank you, or giving to those who will never pay you back.

Maybe it’s in giving that someone a second chance after they screwed up the first and finding that forgiveness is its own reward.

I think God deliberately puts the most precious things and people and places and moments in the most ordinary disguises so that they will mean that much more to us when we find them and see them for their true worth and value. It’s a fearful thing to step out in faith that way, but the risk is always way more than worth it.

I can think of a few friends who have turned out to be golden. My family is the same way. Those memories I cherish most happened when I was expecting something else (or not expecting anyhing at all).

Sometimes, when you go digging through the trash, when you go to the lowliest places, sometimes you will look into the face of the broken and hopeless and outcast and find Jesus there.

New Year’s Days

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

Today I was reminded once again of a great truth. It’s not just once a year that we get a new start with a clean slate; each day is a fresh start and a new chance. As it says in Lamentations, every morning, God’s mercies are new and His faithfulness is still just as great as it was the morning before.

In Christ, every day can be a New Year’s Day. Every day is a chance to put failures behind us, take the lessons they taught us, and move into a future free from the weight of the past. Every day is a chance to choose to walk in the path of wisdom and righteousness.

So even if you have already messed up and blown all those resolutions, don’t sweat it. January 2 can be your New Year’s Day. Even if you screw up the week or even the entire  month, you can still proclaim the next day as your spiritual January 1 and start over.

You can choose to renew friendships you have let fall by the wayside. You can choose to get out of your comfort zone and serve those who have less than you. You can choose to start developing those disciplines of prayer and Bible reading. You can choose to trust God more radically and more completely than you ever have in the past.

You can choose to let go of old hurts and forgive the ones who hurt you. You can choose to learn to say no to the good to make room in your schedule and your life for God’s best. The point is that you can choose.

The Bible says, “Choose this day whom you will serve.” That means every day you choose. Even every moment of every day.

I love the saying that success is never final and failure is never fatal, that courage is what counts in the end. No matter the mess you’ve made of your life up to this point, it’s never too late for a new beginning. And just because you won today doesn’t guarantee a victory tomorrow. Tomorrow will be a new day to choose whom you will serve.

A friend taught me this morning prayer: Lord, I come to You with empty hands. If all I get from You is You and my next breath, that will be enough.

So let tommorrow be your January 1 and choose Jesus.

Choices

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

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

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

“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.