religion

So Blessed

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

I am so very blessed that I am no longer under any sort of condemnation. If my heart tries to condemn me, I can take that to Jesus, who bore all my shame and sin and mess and forever removed the right for condemnation to speak into my life ever again. I am forever right with God and free and clear.

I am so very blessed that God has given me eyes to be able to look at my own life and see how intricately God’s grace and power have been running through all my days. I am amazed at how I haven’t fallen apart or given over to anxiety when I surely would have at this point last year. In fact, I am completely amazed at what God has been doing in me. It astounds me.

I am so very blessed that I have family and friends who love and support me and see the best in me, even when I can’t. I love the encouraging posts and texts that always seem to come at just the right time with just the right message that I needed to hear.

I am so very blessed that I get to serve at Kairos and Kairos Roots alongside people who inspire and challenge and bless me. I am showing up to serve and end up receiving so much more than I give. I am blown away by the godliness I see in the people around me. Hopefully, it’s rubbing off on me.

I am so very blessed to know that my Jesus loves me, that my Jesus is forever for me, and that my Jesus won’t ever ever ever ever give up on me. His love is changing me from someone unloveable into someone who can love unconditionally and uncompromisingly. What fear could never do, what hate could never do, love has done.

Why am I blessed so much when I don’t deserve any of it? I will never know, but I know that I am beyond thankful.

Amen and amen.

Say Anything

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“A spoken reprimand is better than approval that’s never expressed” (Proverbs 27:5, The Message)

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the power of words to harm and to heal, to cut and to cure, to wound and to make whole. But more potentially harmful is the silence of words not spoken.

Always let the people in your life know that you love them. Always express that love in words and don’t assume they automatically know they are loved and how much they are loved. Tell them.

Always be thinking of ways to encourage and bless and lift up your friends. But don’t just stop there. Let those words of encouragement and blessing find an outlet, whether through a text or a post or through spoken words. Never assume that encouragement is not needed. You never know but that word that seems to you to not have much meaning can turn a person’s day around or change their outlook on their circumstances.

When a gentle reprimand is needed, don’t be afraid to speak the truth in love (with the key part being “in love”). I don’t want to have to guess if I have offended or bothered you. Tell me, so I can learn and not repeat the same offence the next time.

But definitely if you err, err on the side of the positive. Be as creative and free with words of affirmation and blessing as you can. I think for every negative word of correction you speak, you need to speak four positives into someone’s life.

Be sure to always look for the best in people, for the promise in their mess, the hope in their bleak outlook. Let them know that just as Jesus won’t ever give up on them, neither will you. Remind them often of their priceless worth in God’s eyes. Help them see themselves they way God sees them. I know, because those words have blessed and encouraged me beyond my ability to express with words. I want that same feeling for you.

Amen and amen.

What’s so Amazing About God

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 1 Comment

There are lots of attributes and charateristics of God that are mind-boggling. He is not one of us, only better, stronger, faster, bigger, etc. He is totally other. His infinite, eternal nature guarantees that we will never begin to understand all there is to know about Him. But the one thing about God that constantly amazes me more than anything is this:

Whoever you are and whatever your need, God is the answer to that need. Notice I did not say God HAS the answer or God CAN GET the answer. He IS the answer.

For those who long for security, God is A Mighty Fortress.

For those who desire safety, God is a Sacred Refuge.

For those who are alone, God is the Still Small Voice that whispers your name in the darkness.

For those who mourn, God is the Comforter.

For those who have broken hearts and lives, God is Healer.

For those whose lives are in shambles and whose past is a momentous ruin, God is the Ultimate Restorer.

For those who have lost all hope, God is your True Hope.

For those who have lost their way, God is The Way Home.

I could go on for days. God has so many names. But if you’re asking why so many names, I think I have the answer.

Each need of mine and each need of yours reveals another facet of God’s abundance and ability to be the answer to that need. Every time He meets a need, the only response is praise. Each time, He reveals another part of Hinself, the best way to remember is to call Him by a name that memorializes what He’s done.

So praise God by all the Names that represent all He’s been to you and done for you. Remember that He loves to be called Abba best, because that love He has for you is the groundwork for all the other parts of His character. A holy, perfect love that pursues and captivates the beloved. Think on that for a while.

Amen and amen!

Do You Want to Be Healed?

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“One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.  When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” (John 5:5-6)

What an interesting question to ask! Do you want to be healed? I think it is a perfectly valid question to ask for this reason:

For the longest time, I did not want to be healed. I was broken, but I felt comfortable and safe inside my brokenness. It was my crutch. A good excuse for me not going out, meeting people, and taking risks. It was like being in a prison with the door unlocked and swung wide open, but choosing to stay inside where I was familiar with the iron bars than to venture out into the terrifying unknowns of freedom.

Being healed is dangerous. Freedom and wholeness often mean vulnerability and transparency. You are healed so that you can in turn go and be a healer to someone else. So you can share your story with someone who suffers like you did. You will have to walk out of your comfort zone and into a lifestyle of radical obedience.

Being healed means you no longer can hide behind your infirmities and your brokenness. You have to stand out in the wide open spaces of who God made you to be. That means being comfortable with who you are and how you fit into God’ scheme.

The man gave an excuse for why he could not be healed. Apparently, he did not recognize Who Jesus was. But Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” (John 5:8). Jesus saw past the excuses to the deep-down desire for healing. As He does with you and me. He says, “Rise and walk.”

Jesus says to us today, “Rise up and walk in freedom. Rise up and walk in liberty. Rise up and walk in wholeness. Rise up and walk in fearlessness. I will enlarge your heart to feel what I feel for those still trapped and imprisoned in their brokenness. I will enlarge your vision to show you those around you who have needs that you can be My hands and feet to meet. I will enlarge your influence for Me, so that people see what I have done for you and they will want to know more of Me.”

So do you want to be healed? Do you want the safety of a prison of your pain and shame and brokenness or do you want the dangerous liberty that comes from walking in wholeness in Jesus’ will for your life. The answer could change everything.

Amen and amen.

Faith that Never Fails

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 2 Comments

Lord, here I am at 12:23 on a Sunday morning, and I am beyond tired. I am aware that my emotions play tricks on me at this hour and my heart is at its most deceitful. My mind will run down anxious paths to conclusions that seem sane late at night, but are shown up for the craziness they are in the morning. Help me to trust not in what I think or feel or even what I think I know, but help me trust You.

You never waver or change or fall apart like I do. You are the same yesterday, today, and forever. “I know that You are for me” is a line from a Kari Jobe song that keeps resounding in my head. It’s true. You are for me. You deal with my daily mess and my messed-up mind and my deceitful heart and You always lead me to the truth.

Lord, everything in my life– the good, the bad, and the ugly– has led me to this moment. I have no idea why I am not a basket-case most of the time other than You holding me together. Your relentless tenderness has carried me to where I am finally growing up and seeing healing in my heart and in my mind. You said that nothing is impossible for you, and I believe that now.

Take my heart and make it beat with Your heartbeat. Take my mouth and fill it with Your eternal song. Take my eyes and give me Your vision for the world. Take my desires and  give me Your desires, not only for me, but for the broken, needy, destitute, and lonely.

Give me a faith that never fails, a hope that never wavers, a trust that never doubts. I want to want more than anything to be like Jesus and I don’t. I can name off a list of at least fifty things I want more than Christlikeness. But You said that all You need is a place to start in me and then You can transform me. So here’s my starting place.

Bless my family and friends and keep them under the shadow of Your wings. Show them the same grace You’ve shown to me. Sing over them in the silent watches of the night like You have sung over me countless times. Make them glorious trophies of Your grace that will amaze the people around them.

Thank You for being You and for loving me for me.

Amen and amen.

Thanks, Mrs. Johnson (A Tribute to Teachers Everywhere)

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 2 Comments

I can remember my second grade teacher, and not just because we share a common last name. She made me feel safe. She made me feel like I belonged. She made me feel smart, like I could learn and grow up and be somebody special.

I even remember my kintergarden teacher. She protected me once from some students and I still remember that. Other teachers along the way have inspired in me a love of reading and books, literature and poetry. Partly because I tried and wanted to learn, but mostly because they cared enough to invest in me.

Times have changed since I was a student back in the Renaissance. But one thing remains– if you are a teacher, you have more influence than you know. Some students are really listening and watching you. What you love will be what they grow to love. So teach with all the enthusiasm you can, even if it feels like nobody cares.

If you are a believer, your witness will not go unrewarded. The Bible teaches that God’s Word never returns void. That means you can’t live and model a lifestyle of godly character and speech and it not have an effect. It will. I truly believe there will be people in heaven who will thank their teachers for their faith.

Keep teaching. Keep praying for your students by name. Keep believing in them even when they can’t believe in themselves. Keep expecting the best from them. For as long as God calls you to teach, let it be your holy mission, your sacred calling, your mission field.

One day, a President may list you as an early influence. A scientist who discovers the cure for cancer might look back at you and say you started his or her love of science. A musician or writer may dedicate an album or a book to you. You never know but that one student you taught may be the one to radically change the world.

If you are faithful for the time you teach and put your heart into it, one day your students will rise up and call you blessed.

Amen and amen.

Fighting From Victory

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 5 Comments

chariots of fire

I was reminded once again in a Bible study on Wednesday that we fight not for victory, but from victory. That may sound like semantics to some, but to me it is huge. Fighting for victory means it’s all up to me and that it will be an uphill all the way kind of battle with the ending very much in doubt. Fighting from victory means:

1) The battle has already been won. There is no  doubt Who the Victor is and which is the winning side. The only real question is: are you on it?

2) The enemy may scare us and threaten us, but he can never really touch us (1 John 5:18). As long as we are wearing the armor of God and standing firm in His finished work, we are protected from the enemy.

3) You don’t have to live defeated anymore. You can start living out of victory now. You are an overcomer now. Even in the midst of struggle and trial, you can know for sure the promises are true and they are for you!

4) You want to make it very clear which side you’re on. Don’t play both sides and be a follower of Jesus on Sundays and a player the rest of the week. The time has come to be hot or cold, not lukewarm. Those days are over.

5) You never give up on anyone else who is seeking after Jesus, because Jesus never gave up fighting for us until He secured our destiny. You never despair of anyone because if Jesus defeated death and hell, nothing else will ever be impossible for Him to overcome.

6) You don’t let the opinions and actions and attitudes of others dictate how you live. You live now for an audience of One, the One who won your heart forever!

7) You can finally cease striving and be still and rest in the love of Jesus, because that love is more powerful than any hate or power that ever came up against it or will ever face it. Period.

So live out of that victory and claim it every second of every day. Don’t let failure rob you of this truth. Victory is yours and mine– not later at some indistinct point in time, but NOW!

Amen and amen.

Learning to wait

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I am learning to wait well. And notice I didn’t say I am learning well. I am slowly and haltingly learning how to wait expectantly and confidently. To wait well is to make yourself ready for what your waiting for while you’re waiting for it. That’s what I mean.

I am learning to be still. I am learning to quiet my mind and take those anxious thoughts captive. I am learning that most of the mistakes I am so worried about aren’t nearly as big as I had played them up to be in my mind. Most of the people I had convinced myself were so very pissed at me weren’t even mad at me at all or even close to offended. That facebook friend is still my facebook friend, despite all my imaginary scenarios of doom and gloom and defriending.

I am learning to rest. I don’t mean taking naps, but I mean to take deep breaths and focus on Jesus, who promised that if I only come to Him, He will give me rest. I want rest like in Psalm 131:2: “I’ve kept my feet on the ground, I’ve cultivated a quiet heart. Like a baby content in its mother’s arms, my soul is a baby content.” If I call the Prince of Peace Lord, you’d think I’d be better at letting His peace rule my heart. But I’m learning.

I’m learning to keep hoping when hope seems so very past tense. Like the movie Miracle on 34th Street says, “Faith is believing when common sense tells you not to.” I’m learning to believe even when every single voice in my head is telling me to do anything– post something, fix something, pray something– but believe.

I am learning that every set back is a step up, every failure moves me forward, and every disaster has the hidden designs of the plan of God hidden underneath. Being willing to look and sound foolish is the best way to grow up and to grow in faith. In that case, I should be a mensa-like expert and growing up and growing in faith!

Let God take you through the School of Learning to Wait Well and Be Still and Rest. You will find once your ceaseless activities and programs stop, God can really start using you.

That’s what I’m learning.

Amen and amen.

A prayer for my future wife

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 19 Comments

Here I am, thinking about you again and wondering if you’re thinking about me. I have come to the point where I am finally starting to give up striving and trying to make my own plans and my own timing work. I am starting to learn to rest my mind and my heart in God’s plan and His timing. As the name of the book I just got in the mail says, I Gave God Time. That’s all He needs to pull off the biggest miracles– time.

So I pray that your heart is at rest. That you are comfortable where you are and not striving like I have been most of my life. I pray your heart is captured and captivated by Jesus and that you are so enamored and enraptured by His love for you that He becomes everything to you and every other thing in your life falls back into its proper place.

I pray that you are fully coming alive to all that God made you to be. That you know where your beauty comes from and that you treasure your femininity as a gift from God. I pray that your loveliness comes from a Christ-filled countenance and a heart full of compassion and kindness.

I pray that your heart is being set free to love. That all your fears and insecurites are driven away in the face of the Prince of peace, and that peace will rule your heart and mind. I pray you look at every heartache and heartbreak as a means of molding you into the woman who will completely dazzle me.

Waiting is hard, but the longer the wait, the more we will treasure finding each other. I can’t wait to be your husband and do all I can to be a part of  unveiling your true beauty for the world to see. I am waiting for that day, letting God transform me into the man you deserve.

Until then, take courage, dear heart. The night seems long but dawn is just around the corner. Hold on.

A Christmas letter to my future wife

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image

I’m still waiting for you. And did I mention the whole “not good at waiting” part? More accurately, how badly I suck at waiting? I’m getting better, but I am still very impatient 95% of the time. But I know that this waiting will not have been in vain when I meet you.

I keep thinking of our firsts– first kiss (obviously), first snow to hold hands and walk together through, first night in front of a roaring fireplace, first time we’re both snuggled under the same blanket. . . . so many firsts that are yet to come. The best part will be that we didn’t give up and settle, but held out and found out that miracles do still come true.

I am leaning to stop looking for you with my eyes, and look for you with my heart. I will look for you not through my own eyes, but more and more through God’s eyes. I want to fall in love with your compassionate heart and your tender spirit. Your beauty will be Jesus inside you shining through for the world to see. Or at least for those who have eyes to see.

Remember no matter what anyone tells you you are, you are a daughter of the King. You are royalty– a princess. Don’t let anyone ever treat you as less. You were worth every drop of Jesus’ blood not because of anything in you, but because Jesus set His heart on you and declared you worthy.

I think I am slowly but surely becoming the man who will capture your heart and be worthy of your love. I have bad days when I strive and fail and I have days full of grace when I am finally weak enough to let Jesus do it all. That’s all I can do.

I am thanking Jesus for you in advance and thanking you in advance for being faithful to Jesus and never giving up on me. I’ll be thinking of you a lot this Christmas.