Those Convicting Memes

July 26, 2024 / Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

Is it possible that God can speak through an aptly-timed social media meme? If I had to answer that question right now, I’d lean toward yes. I seem to get memes like this one that remind me that gratitude is always appropriate even in seasons of anxiety.

There’s always something to be thankful for. I am most definitely living inside of multiple answered prayers (both from me and from others) while I am waiting on other prayers to be answered. One obvious example that practically stares at me every day is Clifford the Big Red Jeep, the car I prayed for.

So basically while I pray for God’s provision for a job, I am literally driving the answer to a previous prayer. After that, you’d think I’d be all done with questioning God’s timing or wondering if He will really provide this time, but I still do. I identify with those Israelites wandering in the desert who seem to have short-term memories when it comes to the blessings of God and long-term memories when it comes to every hardship.

Even the basic gifts like waking up every morning and having reasonably good health are answered prayers. So is having good eyesight and hearing. So is being able to walk anywhere I want. I am living in all these answered prayers that I routinely take for granted.

God, forgive my doubt and my entitlement. Thank you that you are way more patient with me than I am with you. Even as I pray for You to grant my petitions, grant me to see with Your eyes so that I can trust Your heart and Your timing and not lose heart. Amen.

That’s How the Gospel Works

July 22, 2024 / Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

That’s not how I would have done it. If I’d had my way, probably Paul would have gotten his just desserts. He’d have received the same as he gave — that’s how Hollywood typically plays it. I can see his death scene playing out like Hans Gruber falling from the top of the Nakatomi Tower at the end of Die Hard.

But thankfully God’s ways are not like my ways. That same Paul went from being enemy #1 to Jesus and the faith to being the biggest champion of Christianity and spreading the gospel. God turned the bad guy into one of the good guys, as we’d say in old Hollywood.

That’s how the gospel works. The very worst of humanity can be transformed into a saint. And by saint, I don’t mean someone who is a notch above the rest of us and super holy. As I’ve heard it said, a saint isn’t someone who is good but who has seen and embraced the goodness of God.

It’s a bit of an ironic twist that the man who formerly persecuted the Church and made so many martyrs ended up himself becoming a martyr for the very faith he once tried to destroy. Again, that’s how the gospel works. That is something only explainable by the mercy of God.

That’s why I think a lot of the current political rhetoric is foolishness. Neither Biden or Trump are beyond the grace of God. That’s why I pray for the salvation of both every single night. Who knows? What an amazing testimony either one (or both) could have. And yes, I also pray for the salvation of Kamala Harris as well.

Who knows what any of us could be apart from the grace of God? Who knows that any of us could descend further than any Hitler or Stalin or Bin Laden? All of us are capable of any kind of evil apart from God’s continuous mercy.

I know that I’m not a believer because I was so very smart to choose Christ. I know it’s not because I was better than anyone else in the world. It’s only because God chose me first and set His love on me that I could even choose Jesus in the first place.

Billy Joel said, ““If I ever reach heaven I expect to find three wonders there: first, to meet some I had not thought to see there; second, to miss some I had expected to see there; and third, the greatest wonder of all, to find myself there.”

I think that any of us who end up in heaven will spend eternity amazed that we somehow made it in despite all our unworthiness and all the rest of that eternity will be our endless gratitude and praise for being there and for Jesus who got us there.

Berakah Blessings

July 20, 2024July 20, 2024 / Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

Lately, I’ve been getting a triple dose of The Chosen. I’m watching the latest season on the app, reading the books as they hit the shelves, and listening to the novels based on earlier seasons on Audible.

One thing I notice is how many times the disciples and other followers of Jesus will recite a prayer of thanksgiving that starts “Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe . . .”

Today, I was reading in my devotional, 52 Hebrew Words Every Christian Should Know, and the word for today just so happens to be berakah. It’s the Hebrew word for blessing. The Jews of biblical times practiced berakah blessings throughout the day. Those are basically short prayers of thanksgiving for things like waking up, watching the sunrise, meals, and various other things. They even have a prayer for going to the bathroom.

In 1 Thessalonians, the Apostle Paul instructs believers to “pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17). I don’t think he meant to walk around all day every day with your eyes closed in prayer. There’d be a lot more accidents — especially traffic accidents.

I do think that Paul wanted us to keep a spirit of prayer and an open dialogue with the King of the Universe. One way is to recite these berakah blessings throughout the day. I’m sure there are prescribed prayers you can follow. As a Gentile believer grafted in, I can’t speak with authority on this, but I think it’s okay to make up your own prayers of thanksgiving and blessing.

I like the idea of starting each prayer with “Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe” because it feels connected to the people of God of old. It’s also a healthy reminder that there is a King and it’s not me. I’m not the one in charge who’s supposed to figure out every detail. That’s God’s job. My job for today is to follow Jesus and the rest will take care of itself.

I have to give credit to the character of Matthew from The Chosen (and to the incredible screenwriters and director). It’s such a great line that fits in with the gospel accounts and message. Follow Jesus, seek the Kingdom of God, and give thanks. That’s my job.

God Speaking

July 19, 2024July 19, 2024 / Ragamuffingospelfan / 1 Comment

I always pray for God to speak to me. I usually follow up with something like “and give me ears to hear when You are speaking.”

I can’t say that I’m one of those who has ever heard God speaking audibly. Typically, I can’t say I’m very good at discerning God’s voice. I usually have too many other noises and voices in my head.

Other times, I’ll see a social media post that just so happens to hit me square in the feels. It will be something that speaks specifically to me in the moment.

The above meme is an example of me reading a meme or a post that stops me dead in my tracks because it’s so accurate to where I am in my current situation. Then I wonder if it could possibly be one of the ways God speaks to me.

I wonder if I limit my ability to hear from God by limiting the ways He can speak to me. Obviously, the primary way God speaks is through His revealed Word, but I think God can communicate through other ways as well.

I also wonder if I took something as just a really neat coincidence when it was actually God’s way of speaking to me. Like one of those timely posts or snippets from a sermon. Or maybe it was a line from a song or a movie.

I wish I could remember how C. S. Lewis put it. He said that sometimes we’re too busy banging on the door to God’s throne to hear from Him. We’re too anxious and occupied with our pleading to be still enough to listen.

I think sometimes the prayer goes like this: “Lord, calm my mind enough to hear from You. Still all other voices so I know it’s You. Give me enough sense to recognize You speaking when I ask You to speak. And help me really to hear and obey what You tell me. Amen.”

This is the God We Have Waited For

July 16, 2024 / Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

“It will be said on that day,
    ‘Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us.
    This is the Lord; we have waited for him;
    let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation'” (Isaiah 25:9, ESV).

“[Verse 1]
A refuge for the poor
A shelter from the storm
This is our God
And He will wipe away your tears
And return your wasted years
This is our God

[Chorus 1]
Oh, hmm, this is our God
Oh, hmm, this is our God

[Verse 2]
A father to the orphan
A healer to the broken
This is our God
And He brings peace to our madness
And comfort in our sadness
This is our God

[Chorus 1]

[Chorus 2]
This is the one we have waited for
This is the one we have waited for
This is the one we have waited for
Oh, this is our God

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Worshipping Through Weeping

July 11, 2024 / Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

“Weeping may last through the night,
but joy comes with the morning” (Psalm 30:5, NLT).

Today as a deacon, I attended the celebration of life service for one of our members who tragically lost his life at age 42. He had been married only 16 months when his life was unexpectedly cut short.

The funeral was beautiful and God-honoring. My favorite part of the entire service was when the worship leader sang the first song, the widow of the deceased stood up alone and raised her hands in worship, grieving and praising at the same time.

That’s an image I will carry with me as long as I live, I think. She had her world utterly wrecked like a rug pulled out from underneath her and still was able to declare like Job, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21, ESV).

There is so much evil in the world and so much that makes no sense. If this life is all there is, then there is no hope, no future, and no reason to keep going. But if we have the promise of God for something better coming (and we do), then we know that this is what the Apostle Paul calls a light and momentary affliction compared to the joy that’s coming.

Not that grief is nothing. Not that the pain isn’t real. But the coming joy will overwhelm us and seem so much greater than any sorrow that went before, like a woman holding her newborn baby after the agony of giving birth only is thinking of new life and not pain.

My brain has no compartment for comprehending the level of suffering this woman is currently undergoing and how radically different her life will be from now on. There will always be a void where her husband should be and a dull ache that never completely goes away, but there will always be a Father’s love that grows deeper and sweeter with the passing of time.

“Yea, though walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.” The psalm does not pretend that evil and death do not exist. Terrible things happen, and they happen to good people as well as to bad people. Even the paths of righteousness lead through the valley of the shadow. Death lies ahead for all of us, saints and sinners alike, and for all the ones we love. The psalmist doesn’t try to explain evil. He doesn’t try to minimize evil. He simply says he will not fear evil. For all the power that evil has, it doesn’t have the power to make him afraid” Frederick Buechner, The Clown in the Belfry).

Middle School Hair

July 10, 2024 / Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

I honestly don’t know anybody who had good hair in middle school. Back in my day, me and other boys my age were rocking the bowl cut. I think girls were more Little Bo Peep style. Of course, it was the 80s so the hair was piled super high and think. I don’t know how many cans of hairspray and layers of ozone were sacrificed, but it surely wasn’t worth it in hindsight.

So take that as your daily affirmation. Your hair is better now than it was then. Even if you don’t have hair anymore, it’s still a better look than the awkward 6th grade school photo hair you had back when. Not to mention the questionable fashion choices you made (or more likely your mother made for you).

I think the more trendy you are, the more likely it is that five years from now, you will laugh at yourself (and plenty of other people will laugh at you as well). The majority of trends seem to run along the lines of “well, it seemed like a good idea at the time” or the equivalent to “hold my beer” or “watch this” scenarios that never end well.

It’s always a treat to see really young photos of celebrities. A lot of them look better playing high schoolers than when they were actually in high school. I don’t know why that is, other than maybe they have the hindsight to know what they should have looked like back then.

Of course, the fact that you can laugh at your middle school yearbook photos means that you are still around and alive and kicking. That’s a good sign. It means that you still have a purpose and that God’s not done with you yet. And your hair is way better now.

I Shall Not Want

July 9, 2024 / Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

“‘I SHALL NOT WANT,’ the psalm says. Is that true? There are lots of things we go on wanting, go on lacking, whether we believe in God or not. They are not just material things like a new roof or a better paying job, but things like good health, things like happiness for our children, things like being understood and appreciated, like relief from pain, like some measure of inner peace not just for ourselves but for the people we love and for whom we pray. Believers and unbelievers alike we go on wanting plenty our whole lives through. We long for what never seems to come. We pray for what never seems to be clearly given. But when the psalm says ‘I shall not want,’ maybe it is speaking the utter truth anyhow. Maybe it means that if we keep our eyes open, if we keep our hearts and lives open, we will at least never be in want of the one thing we want more than anything else. Maybe it means that whatever else is withheld, the shepherd never withholds himself, and he is what we want more than anything else” (Frederick Buechner, The Clown in the Belfry).

Did that ever hit the nail on the head for me. If I have the Shepherd, I have everything I need. I think what God might be speaking to me tonight is that the verse doesn’t say, “I might occasionally be in want” or “I’m currently in want but not for long.”

It says, “I shall not want,” meaning that there will never be a time when God’s supply is insufficient for me, when God Himself is not enough. I think what I need more than a job, more than a steady paycheck, more than anything in the world is Jesus.

So many in this world have just about everything money and fame can buy but without Jesus, they have nothing but a castle of sand. If I have Jesus and nothing else, I have everything that could ever satisfy that no amount of money could buy or no amount of power could procure. I have enough.

Ministry Mindset

July 8, 2024 / Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

I think most of us (including me) have the mindset that says, “Whenever I get to a comfortable place in my life with lots of money in the bank account, then maybe I’ll serve. When I get my career sorted out and my kids raised and shipped off, then I can go be a missionary or do ministry within my local church.

First of all, no one is promised tomorrow. Not to be completely morbid, but if you’re waiting until a magical age or after a certain number of years, you may not have that. Today is what we have. Today is the day God has gifted us.

Also, where you are right now is not happenstance. Where you are at this moment is exactly where God has planted you to serve not five years down the road, but right now. Your workplace is your mission field. Your homeschool group is your mission field. If you’re like me and in between jobs, anywhere you go on any given day is your mission field.

I pray we can have the mindset of Isaiah, who prayed, “Here I am, Lord. Send me.”

The joke is that if you pray for mission opportunities, God will send you to a remote spot in an isolated jungle in some third world country with no luxuries or comforts or even — gasp — no wifi. But more likely, God has set people around you who can be your mission field. You may not have to travel around the world but only across the street or down the block.

Once again, I’m preaching to myself. I need to get back to starting every day praying for chances to have gospel conversations wherever I live, work, or play. Then I need to get back to praying for courage to actually have those conversations when the moment arrives.

God is at work right now. I pray we can have eyes to see and join in. As I heard recently in a sermon, we need God’s love to move from our heads to our hearts to move through our hands to transform our habitat.

New Beginnings

July 8, 2024 / Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

A few years ago, I told my friend who was the Groups Minister at The Church at Avenue South at the time that whenever he took his first job as senior pastor at a church and preached his first sermon there, I wanted to be there.

Today, I fulfilled that promise. He was called to be the campus pastor at The Church at Woodbine, so I was there as I said I would be. It was actually an honor to support my friend, plus I got to see what God is up to in the Woodbine area of Nashville.

During the prayer time, I prayed for that church that they’d grow beyond the capacity of their current building. I also prayed that they’d become a church that looks like heaven with every tribe, tongue, nation, ethnicity, language, and race represented.

I know that was a bold prayer, but I know that God is able. I believe God put that prayer in my heart because I know I’m not wise or brave enough on my own to think of a prayer like that. I know greater things are still to come in Woodbine just as they are in the Berry Hill area where Ave South is located.

The point of all this is that is good to support your friends in new ventures. It’s good to keep promises, even if it means driving a little outside of your comfort zone. Also, I believe it’s good to pray big bold prayers. I think God honors those. I’d rather pray big and not see it come to pass than to not pray at all and alway wonder what could have been had I been braver.

I still believe God’s about to do some amazing things in the Greater Nashville area and I’m praying for revival for Middle Tennessee and the nation. I hope you’ll do the same for your area and for the nation as well.

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