gospel-conversations

Learning Something New Every Day

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

I’ve been listening to The Bible Podcast by Tara-Leigh Cobble on Audible lately. It’s really supposed to supplement a daily reading Bible plan, but since I’ve been reading the Bible on a different plan, I’m basically listening to the segments straight through. It’s been like getting a crash course on the entire Bible in five-minute segments.

One thing I learned blew my mind a bit. It was after Jesus rose from the grave and met the disciples while they were fishing unsuccessfully. He told them to cast the net on the other side, and when they did they caught 153 fish, nearly breaking their net.

Apparently, there are 153 different kinds of fish in the Sea of Galilee, so they caught one of every kind. That harkened back to Jesus telling these disciples that soon they would be fishing for people instead of fish. This was a visual way of telling them that the gospel they preached was to be for everyone.

That means that in heaven there will be people from every single people group, language, skin color, ethnicity, country, and race. When Jesus returns, there will be no more unreached people groups left. Every one will have heard the good news. That means that this mission Jesus gave to us, His church, will not fail.

That should give us greater joy and hope. We can share the good news knowing that it’s never in vain. While not everyone will believe our message every time, we can know that what we preach and teach never returns void. We can labor with the confidence that God is at work mightily through what we do in the strength and power of His Holy Spirit in us.

I love the scene in Revelation when the heavenly throne room is crowded with people from every tongue, tribe, and race. I don’t know if we’ll each be singing in our heart languages and understand each other or if we’ll have a new heavenly vocabulary that we all share. But I do know the song will be the same and the God we sing to will be the same and the eternal praise that comes from joyful lips and hearts will be the same.

“I looked again. I heard a company of Angels around the Throne, the Animals, and the Elders—ten thousand times ten thousand their number, thousand after thousand after thousand in full song:

The slain Lamb is worthy!
Take the power, the wealth, the wisdom, the strength!
Take the honor, the glory, the blessing!

Then I heard every creature in Heaven and earth, in underworld and sea, join in, all voices in all places, singing:

To the One on the Throne! To the Lamb!
The blessing, the honor, the glory, the strength,
For age after age after age.

The Four Animals called out, “Oh, Yes!” The Elders fell to their knees and worshiped” (Revelation 5:11-14, The Message).

Comfortable Chairs or Carrying Crosses

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

“What if we take away the cool music and the cushioned chairs? What if the screens are gone and the stage is no longer decorated? What if the air conditioning is off and the comforts are removed? Would His Word still be enough for his people to come together?” (David Platt)

“Heresy of method may be as deadly as heresy of message” (A.W. Tozer).

I’m a fan of comfortable chairs. I’m all for having working A/C in the summer and heating in the winter. But sometimes, I forget that people around the world are worshipping their Creator in caves or out in the open field. Some are in hiding because it’s illegal to be a believer where they live.

Maybe one day in America, churches won’t have the comforts and conveniences we’ve all grown used to and take for granted. Perhaps even down the road the churches could lose their tax exempt status. What then?

Will the Word of God be enough? When there’s no electricity to power the pyrotechnics and professional sound and production, will it be enough to praise God with our voices? Will people still show up if it’s someone in front of them reading God’s Word without flashy graphics or screens?

None of these things are wrong or bad in and of themselves, but I think we err when we make them the end rather than the means to proclaiming the gospel and leading the lost to find salvation in Jesus alone. Too many people to to churches to be entertain and fed rather than to worship and to serve. It’s more of a “what can I get out of it” mentality rather than one of “how can I serve the people inside and outside of these walls.”

I truly hope that we become a people of worship, but that doesn’t start when we walk through the sanctuary doors at 9 am or a 10:30 am on a Sunday. It starts when we pick up our Bibles on a Monday. When we share the gospel with a friend on Tuesday. When we work hard and don’t bend the rules on a Wednesday. The amount of worship we experience on Sunday stems from how well we worship throughout the week.

May God bless your churches and services tomorrow. I’m praying that God moves in each and every place. I’m also hoping that we don’t have to lose our comfortable buildings to find out what true worship looks like. God, please revive Your people so that we can be about Your business more than our comfort. Amen.

Christmas Day

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

Already, I feel a bit sad that as of 14 minutes ago, Christmas Day is over. I can freely admit that when I was younger, I couldn’t wait to get to Christmas Day, but once it got here and I got all my loot, my usual response that I never spoke out loud but thought in my head was “Ok, what next?” or “What else have you got for me?”

The novelty of new gifts never fails to wear off and the good nostalgic feeling of the holiday doesn’t ever last. I wish I could tell you honestly that I loved and cherished every single gift that I ever received until they all fell apart, but some I quickly tired of and moved on to wanting the next big gadget or game or whatever.

But today, Jesus is here. That’s not something that gets old. That will always be good news that never becomes old news. That’s the gift that I never grow tired of or grow out of. That’s the one gift that the longer I have it, the better and sweeter it grows and the more I come to understand and benefit from it.

Today we celebrate that Jesus came into the world to save sinners — including me. One of my favorite sayings is that Jesus didn’t come to make bad people good but to make dead people alive. And being alive with the hope of heaven and the presence of Jesus is the best gift ever.

I’m learning what it means to celebrate Christmas from the perspective of eternity. I want to be like the saints in the olden days who made Christmas into a feast that lasted for 12 days instead of 24 hours that we relegate it to. I want to be like that old Scrooge who learned how to keep Christmas well and live the lessons of the Spirits not just one day of the year but all 365. I don’t ever want to take grace for granted or forget what Jesus has done for me and is doing in me.

So to one and all, merry Christmas! And to echo the words of that Tiny Tim, “God bless us, everyone!”

Cheekwood 2025

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

Apparently when I was little I had an obsession with lights. As in one of the first words I ever spoke was “light.” According to local sources, i.e. my mom, I used to go into peoples’ homes uninvited and turn on all their lights. I was a bit odd as a kid.

So you’d understand why I love my annual trek to Cheekwood Estate & Gardens earlier today. It had all the festive lights I could ever hope for. It was festive. You might even say that it was joyful AND triumphant.

I have a few Christmas traditions centered around lights. For some reason, I’m drawn to lights still. Maybe it’s because that the moment a light switches on, the darkness vanishes. Instantly. Darkness cannot abide where light is present.

Jesus called Himself the light of the world. That’s because with Jesus, suddenly you see where you’re going. You’re not wandering around in confusion and darkness anymore. He has come to be the beacon of hope and to show us the way home.

Christmas is all about how the light came into the world and the world didn’t understand or receive it. They rejected it because they preferred the dark because their deeds were evil. But to those who understood, who “got it,” He made them sons and daughters of the living God. No more hopelessly lost in the dark with no way out, we have a lamp for our feet and a light for our path.

I’m thankful every single day that Jesus helps me understand God, the world, others, and myself better. Every day, I’m growing and learning more about who God made me to be and how to fulfill His purposes for me. One day, I and all those who are sons and daughters of God through faith in Christ will be complete and mature.

In the meantime, we have that same light that first entered the world on Christmas morning. It’s our job to let that light shine through us so that others can find their way to God through the same Christ who is God made flesh.

Lord, help each and every one of Your children always be ready to give an answer for the hope and light that we have because of You. May we be disciples who make disciples, and may our legacy be those who will be in heaven because we shared the gift of Your light with others. Amen.

Devoted to Prayer

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

“Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with thanksgiving” (Colossians 4:2, TLV).

The Oxford definition of the word devote means “give all or a large part of one’s time or resources to (a person, activity, or cause).”

Does that describe your prayer life? I can say with all honesty (and some shame) that it does not describe mine. I pray when it’s convenient or when I just so happen to remember to pray. I’ve been known to tell people I will pray for them and then forget moments later and never actually pray for them.

But the life of a true disciple is marked by prayer. I’m no believer in a health and wealth prosperity gospel but I believe that spiritual breakthroughs can come from seasons of devoted prayer. Not five minutes here and five minutes there but intentional time set aside for daily prayer.

I read about those spiritual heroes who had so much to do that they couldn’t not spend two hours in the morning before their day got started. I probably couldn’t stay focused for 15 minutes, much less two whole hours.

But I think that comes with discipline. That comes with when your desire for prayer is greater than your desire for anything else you could be doing at that moment. Sometimes, it comes in times of great desperation. Sometimes, it comes with spiritual euphoria.

I think the lack of prayer shows in the lives of most believers. We’re not prepared for spiritual warfare. We’re not ready to have gospel conversations with the people around us. Many times, our lives don’t look very different from the lives of nonbelievers around us.

But the good news is that it’s never too late to start and best of all, God loves to hear from His children at any time, no matter for how long or for how well or poorly we think we’re praying. He wants to hear from us much more than we want to speak with Him.

Lord, give us hearts devoted to prayer. Make us true prayer warriors whose lives flow out of victories gained by going to the Father in the secret places. Amen.

Go Into All the World

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

“To ‘go’ simply means to live. Acts 1:8 is the description of how to go. He takes upon himself the work of sending us. Where we are placed is then a matter of indifference to us, because God sovereignly engineers our goings. That is how to keep going until we are gone from this life” (Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest).

I remember from my seminary days how Acts 1:8 could be translated as “Going into all the world” or “As you go into all the world.” The focus isn’t on the going but on the making of disciples.

I remember at my old church there was a sign as you exited the parking lot that read “You are now entering the mission field.” In other words, the mission field isn’t across the sea or across the country. It could be across the street or down the road. It’s wherever you live, work, and play. Where God has planted you is your mission field and you are a missionary, whether you raise your own support or make a living in a 9 to 5 desk job.

I wonder how that would change how you and I viewed our jobs or our errands if instead of seeing an office or a grocery store or a fitness center, we saw a mission field. I wonder how it would change how we saw the people around us that cross our paths on a daily basis.

I can confess that I am not very good at sharing my faith. When the opportunity comes, it seems like I always chicken out and talk about sports or the weather or anything but my faith. But that doesn’t change the fact that I am a missionary and the place where God has me is my mission field. And I can pray for those God has put around me.

May we pray for eyes to see what God is doing around us and then have the courage and boldness to join Him in what He’s doing. May we shift our focus from being employees and consumers and citizens to being missionaries who have been called and sent out by the same God who sends people to the Middle East and Africa and Europe. We have a mission field. We’re living in it.

A Good Prayer from Spurgeon

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment
“We long for a humble and sincere faith in our divine Lord. Lord, if it is necessary to break our hearts in order that we may have it, then let them be broken.If we have to unlearn a thousand things to learn the sweet secret of faith in him, let us become fools that we may be wise, only bring us surely and really to stand upon the Rock of Ages—so to stand there as never to fall, but to be kept by the power of God, through faith, unto salvation.
As Christians, we should be humble. Lord take away our proud look; take away the spirit of ‘stand by, for I am holier than thou;‘ make us condescend to people of low morals. May we seek them out and seek their good. Give to the church of Christ an intense love for the souls of men. May it make our hearts break to think that they will perish in their sin. May we grieve every day because of the sin of this city. Set a mark upon our forehead and let us be known to you as people who sigh and cry for all the abominations that are done in the midst of the city.
Amen” (Charles Spurgeon).

I had a couple of takeaways from reading this prayer earlier today. First, man this Charles Spurgeon could pray! Second, I wonder when was the last time my heart broke over someone who is lost without Jesus in this world. I wonder when was the last time I was grieved over the sinfulness of my city.

It’s easy sometimes to get into my holy huddle and stay in my sanctified circle and never see how lost the people around me really are. I can pray for them. That’s the best course of action. But then I could also pray for God to open up opportunities for gospel conversations in my daily life.

The world would be more open to the Church if they knew how the Church loved and wept for them. If they saw the Church crying out to God on their behalf instead of pointing fingers in their faces, might they not be more receptive to the gospel we preach?

Again, I go back to something my pastor said. The world hates the Church not because we’re too different from them but because we’re not different enough. There’s often no discernible difference in the lives people who profess Christ and those who don’t. When our words don’t match our walk, they don’t listen to what we say. They listen to what we do.

God, help our hearts to be broken over our lost city. Help us to weep for those around us who are dying without Christ. May we not just be people who talk about loving our neighbors but be people who actually love them in a real and tangible way. Amen.

Master and Teacher

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

“Having a master and teacher means that there is someone who knows me better than I know myself, who is closer than a friend, and who understands the remotest depths of my heart and is able to satisfy them fully. It means having someone who has made me secure in the knowledge that he has met and solved all the doubts, uncertainties, and problems in my mind. Jesus wants us in a relationship where He is so easily our Master and Teacher that all we know is that we are His to obey” (Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest).

We are all disciples of something or someone. You can tell who is discipling you by your calendar and your checkbook. Where do you spend the most time and who or what gets your money? It’s not a matter of if you’re being discipled, but by whom.

Too many are being discipled by social media and the news. They’re getting fed a worldview that is not of God nor does it promote God or a healthy view of life and morality. Some are discipled by celebrities or influencers. Some by sports or hobbies. Some by their peers.

I’d rather be discipled by Jesus. I’d rather turn off the TV and the social media and spend time in God’s Word. But often, I don’t. Often, I find myself turning to Facebook instead of Scripture. I end up doing what I don’t want to do and not doing what I should.

But a question my pastor asked still haunts me. All who are believers need to have people to disciple them and to have people to disciple. The question is this: Who are you discipling and who is discipling you?

That’s it. That’s the question. Who are you discipling and who is discipling you?

A Billboard of God’s Grace

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

“O my Father, give me eyes to see, a heart to respond, and hands and feet to serve you wherever you encounter me! Make me a billboard of your grace, a living advertisement for the riches of your compassion. I long to hear you say to me one day, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.’ And I pray that today I would be that faithful servant who does well at doing good. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen” (Max Lucado).

That’s what I want to be. A billboard of God’s grace. I want people who see me to want to know God not because I have such a wealth of spiritual knowledge or am super holy and righteous but because I have known and experienced grace. I want people to look at me and say, “God did that.”

That’s how it should work. I heard a pastor say that we need to lead questionable lives. Not in the sense of being immoral or unethical but in the sense of living in a way that causes people to ask questions. Our lives should invite conversations about what they see in us that’s different. Those conversations then become gospel conversations because we tell them, “Not I but Christ in me.”

I still think a lot about the 3-open prayer I learned a while back. It goes something like open an opportunity to share my faith, open the other person’s heart to be receptive, and most importantly, open my mouth. It’s no good unless I speak the words. My lifestyle and actions won’t be enough.

I think so many people see Christians for what they’re against. But that’s not helpful. If my life is falling apart, I need to know what you’re for. I need to know you believe in something that can help me and make my life better. We sometimes forget that we have the greatest “for” in the fact that Jesus died on the cross and rose again so that anyone who asks can receive salvation and eternal life.

May we be billboards of grace in a world where people deserve it least but need it most, remembering that we were the very ones at one time who also deserved grace least but needed it the most.

Turning the Wine Back into Water

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

“Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses (C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory).

I’m guilty all the time of looking at people like they’re ordinary. I think that’s the default setting for the human race. We rarely if ever see anyone and see the image of God in him or her. We just don’t take the time to see beyond the surface labels of pretty, plain, fat, skinny, tall, short, etc.

I wonder what would happen if we could see people the way Jesus saw people. He didn’t see a stereotype or a caricature. Every time, He saw a unique individual with a story like no one else’s. He created each person with a one-of-a-kind purpose and plan that no one and nothing else can do.

He looked at you and me and thought we were worth dying for. Even at our worst moment in those times we wish we could take back or do over, Jesus still chose to go to the cross and lay down His life for us. While we were still sinners, the Bible says, Christ died for us.

I’ve been guilty of prejudging people before I’ve even had the chance to get to know them. Sometimes, I see the way they interact with others or maybe the expression on their faces. I’m sure I’m not the only one, but I’m also sure glad that Jesus didn’t judge me like that. He saw the absolute worst version of me and still loved me.

I wonder what would happen if we loved people like that. Maybe we wouldn’t have to hunt high and low for gospel conversations and opportunities to share our faith. Maybe people would seek us out and want to know more about this Jesus they see in us, even if they can’t put a name to what they see.