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Praying for Muslims During Ramadan

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 1 Comment

This year, I tried something new. I signed up through the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention to pray 15 minutes a day for Muslims during the season of Ramadan (February 28-March 30).

It was the first time I’d ever signed up to pray daily for any length of time. I quickly learned that 15 minutes of praying can seem like a loooong time when it’s just you trying to pray what’s in your head. Thankfully, the IMB posted daily reminders to pray with several prompts to guide my intercession. Plus, I found some other helpful websites to guide my prayer time.

Hopefully, this is not a humble brag. It should be something like if I can do this, so can you or anyone else. I believe that all of the greatest revivals in history began with people on their knees in prayer (or in my case laying in bed in prayer). I believe this time is no exception.

One particular website that caught my attention was from an organization called Missio Nexus. They have a radical prayer goal of seeing 10% of all the Muslims in the world come to saving faith in Jesus by 2028. By my reckoning, there are 1.8 billion Muslims in the world currently, so that would mean 180 million worshippers in heaven who formerly prayed to Allah. Or better yet, round that number up to 200 million. Can you imagine how amazing of an impact that would have on the entire world?

I hope every one of you will find a prayer passion, whether it be for an unreached people group or people from a different religion or even people whose paths you cross wherever you live, work, or play. It really does open your eyes to the great big world that exists outside of your and my needs and wants. Definitely keep praying for those needs and wants because God tells us to do that, but also be mindful of the Great Commission to take the gospel into all the world and the Revelation 5 scene with worshippers from every people group, language, continent, color, and nationality. That’s truly where God’s heart lies.

Thoughts on Grace and the Abundant Life

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 1 Comment

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The following material has been previously published or preached or taught elsewhere at least once. It is all “borrowed'” based on the BASE principle of writing (which is Borrow And Steal Everything).

Following Jesus isn’t about praying a prayer or signing a card or walking an aisle. It’s about lining up with Jesus, doing what He said to do and going where He said to go. It’s really and truly about following not a moral code or set of rules but a Person.

It’s about seeing colors when the rest see only black and white. How do you explain the color red to someone who’s only seen black, white, and shades of grey? How do you convince someone that you really gain your life by losing it and win by putting others before yourself? That’s where faith comes in.

Faith is confidence in a God Who is in the past, present, and future at once. Because He’s already in the future, it’s already a done deal to Him. So faith is living out God’s declaration of how the future will be like it’s that way now. Like the victory is completely won.

When Jesus promises us eternal life, it doesn’t just mean living forever. As C S Lewis said of the White Witch in The Magician’s Nephew, ““But length of days with an evil heart is only length of misery and already she begins to know it. All get what they want; they do not always like it.”

True eternal life that Jesus gives is as deep and wide as it is long. It’s so deep that no matter how low you sometimes sink, you can never get beneath the grace of God. It is as wide as the ocean of God’s love for you which you can never see the end of or ever run away so far that you’re still not covered by it.

It is life to the full. It is the abundant life. It is living in the strength and provision of Jesus Himself and having everything you need to live a content and godly life now. It means deeper friendships, deeper dating relationships, deeper marriages, deeper families, deeper careers, and a deeper life that has meaning and purpose beyond anything you could ever dream up or imagine. It means eucharisteo, an overflowing joy and gratitude in everything and for everything.

I love the way The Message ends Romans 5. It’s a good way to end this blog:

“All that passing laws against sin did was produce more lawbreakers. But sin didn’t, and doesn’t, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. When it’s sin versus grace, grace wins hands down. All sin can do is threaten us with death, and that’s the end of it. Grace, because God is putting everything together again through the Messiah, invites us into life—a life that goes on and on and on, world without end. (Romans 5:20, 21 MSG)