least of these

A Man Like Jesus

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

“A twitter hashtag about masculinity got me to thinking: If I’m to be a man like Jesus, what will I be like?

I will be a healer.

I will defend the powerless.

I’ll absolutely frighten and enrage the self-righteous.

I won’t be impressed by those with celebrity, credentials, or power.

I’ll be tremendously patient with people, well beyond what they ‘deserve’.

I will not take advantage of women.

And I’ll take them seriously.

I’ll subjugate my ego for the benefit of others.

The government will consider me, and my kind, a threat.

The religious power structure will consider me, and my kind, a threat.

I’ll attract people with bad reputations, and the seemingly worthless.

I’ll welcome children.

I will exhibit meekness – power, under control. And whatever power I do have will not be used to crush people, but to set people free” (Brant Hansen).

I think all of these perfectly describe Jesus during His earthly ministry. And I think they should also describe every man who aspires to be godly and seeks to be like Jesus.

It’s really not about climbing Mount Everest or jumping out of a plane at 10,000 feet. It’s not bench pressing 500 pounds or running an Ironman triathlon. It’s about how you treat those different than you and especially those who can’t possibly pay you back.

It’s not about doing good works to be seen by others, but doing them in secret so that only God and you know. Sometimes, living a simple life of faith will result in good deeds that even you aren’t aware of because they naturally flow out of a heart full of grace and generosity.

Being a man means doing what’s right even if the majority says it’s wrong. It means holding to biblical convictions when that gets you ostracized. It means standing in the gap for the least of these when it can’t possibly benefit your career or your brand or your image.

Being a man means loving your spouse and your family well. Even if you’re not married, you can still choose to love your family and those around you well. That means you love others more than you love yourself and put them first instead of you. It’s about sacrifice and generosity.

Being a man most of all means being like Jesus. It’s living out Philippians 2:5-11 every single day and having this mind in you that was in Christ Jesus.

Come Out from Among Them

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 1 Comment

“Therefore go out from their midst,
    and be separate from them, says the Lord” (2 Corinthians 6:17,ESV).

I think the time is coming when true followers of Jesus will have to “come out from among them and be separate,” as the old King James puts it.

I think for some of us, it will mean leaving churches and denominations that no longer teach the Bible or the true gospel of Jesus. It might mean distancing yourself from a political party (or both of them) that no longer follows biblical morality.

I have to tread carefully here because I don’t want to be judgmental, but I think America has a lot of people who identify as Christians but a lot less who actually follow Jesus. Many are spiritual or religious but far fewer have been truly born again and are regenerate new creations.

The answer to the moral free fall the country is in is not to get “our” people elected or to get “our” platform made into law. It’s not even to get lost people to act right. It’s to get Christians back to believing and acting like Christians. It’s to get churches back to the whole gospel of Jesus and the whole Bible, teaching those old-fashioned concepts like hell, sin, atonement, and salvation.

We probably need to learn how to believe in the gospel again apart from the American Dream that we’ve woven into the redeeming narrative of the cross. We need to return to being the prophetic voice of God instead of vying for political power. We could do with a present day John the Baptist or two to tell people to repent because the Kingdom of God is coming.

We need to get back to the gospel that is for all people. Not a gospel of God loves you just as you are and wants you to stay that way, but God loves you too much to let you live in anything less than His absolute best for you. We also need to love the least of these like Jesus did, remembering when we serve one of these, we serve Jesus Himself.

We need a true revival not of showy emotions and signs and wonders but of confessing sin and repenting and turning from our way and following God’s way. We need to stop conforming with the world and letting it teach us theology and return to being transformed by the renewing of our minds by God’s word.

At this point, I think it will take a miraculous act of God to turn us around. You did it in the past, Lord. Do it again, God. Do it again.

Paying it Forward Again

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

pay-it-forward

I had an idea. Maybe the next time you see a homeless person, instead of giving them money, maybe you should offer to buy them a meal.

I had that opportunity once and it blessed me as much as it blessed the homeless man who got a free meal. I know for certain it was a divine appointment and I knew in that moment the joy of being obedient.

When you get the chance to buy someone a meal and they ask why you are doing it, just  tell them, “I’m doing this in the name of Christ,” for the Bible says when you give someone a cup of cold water in the name of Christ, it’s Christ you’re serving.

Maybe you’ll get the chance to pay for the person behind you at Wendy’s or McDonald’s or Starbucks.

Maybe it you’ll be able to pay someone’s electric bill. Or water bill. Or phone bill.

Or maybe it will be an act of service like cutting someone’s lawn or cleaning up their gutters. You never know.

But meeting someone’s physical needs is only meeting them halfway. Jesus didn’t just heal people’s bodies; He healed their souls, too.

We’re called not just to bandage wounds, but to offer the ultimate healing found in Jesus Christ. We have the opportunity not just to offer a cup of cold water but to point to the Living Water that never runs dry. We can offer not just a sandwich to someone but the Bread of Life that eternally satisfies.

My prayer for you (and for me) is that we keep our eyes open for such opportunities. If you see someone selling those newspapers, buy at least one and give that person a bottled water or something warm to drink. Be willing to talk to them and listen to their stories. Be sensitive to the Spirit’s leading and be open to sharing your own story.

On Valentine’s Day, remember Who first love you and me.

 

 

 

Why I Love Room in the Inn

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

image

I have to confess something. I almost skipped Room in the Inn tonight. I mean, it’s frickin’ cold outside and I am tired from a long workday and a not-so-great night of sleep.

But then I remember that the guys who benefit most Room in the Inn would otherwise be sleeping out in that bitter cold. Room in the Inn brings homeless men into different churches during the week to have a warm meal, a hot shower, and a place to sleep that’s out of the elements.

I remember how blessed I am every time I volunteer at Room in the Inn. I have all these things every day and routinely take them for granted. Which makes me wonder if all i had were those things I had given thanks for the night before, what would I still have left?

These guys put me to shame in many ways. They are grateful for everything. They have literally next to nothing but they also are always so thankful and kind. I always end up receiving more blessing than I ever could think of giving.

How are you serving and giving to those who can never repay you? How are you serving Jesus by serving the least of these? Will you give thanks for those little things in your life?

Just some food for thought on a chilly Monday night.

What Does the Fox Feel?

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

image

A friend of mine posed a very good question tonight at Chick-fil-A. I mean, everyone knows what the fox SAYS, but does anyone care about how the fox FEELS? Maybe foxy, if the fox is female. But what if it’s a male fox?

I saw a fox running across the parking lot of Brentwood United Methodist Church. I’m not sure how he or she felt about the current state of affairs or local politics. I didn’t get the chance to ask.

I know how I feel: tired. The kind of tired that makes me want to turn into a hibernating hermit. The kind where the social butterfly turns into the cranky caterpillar.

After tonight’s Kairos message, I know the question on the Final Exam, the one Jesus will ask me, won’t be how I felt about Him or how much information I amassed about the Bible. It will be about what kind of person I was.

It’s interesting that the people Jesus praises in Matthew 26 for serving Him by serving the least of these will be totally taken by surprise. They will have been so engrossed in following Jesus and taking on His character that the serving will be second nature, something they do without even thinking about it.

Too often, I am too focused on me. I’m reminded of the great definition of humility, which is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less.

Some days, that comes easily. Some days, it’s all I can do to notice the people around me from being so wrapped up in my own pity party and overanalyzing every little thing.

I am learning to allow myself to be imperfect and to have bad days and to occasionally lose focus. It’s not okay to stay there and it’s not okay to take it out on others. What I do is give thanks for the good date and those around me who see me at my worst and love me and help to bring out my best.

Even foxes have days when they don’t feel so foxy.

Things I Love 33: The Very Last One . . . Or Is It?

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

island hammock

“Christian hands never clasp
and He doesn’t give gifts for gain
because a gift can never stop being a gift –
it is always meant to be given” (Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are).

“The whole of the life — even the hard — is made up of the minute parts, and if I miss the infinitesimals, I miss the whole. These are new language lessons, and I live them out. There is a way to live the big of giving thanks in all things. It is this: to give thanks in this one small thing. The moments will add up” (Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are).

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Hopefully, by the end of this you will have seen a picture of gratitude and thanksgiving and how joy in the smallest things can radically alter your perspective and change your life. Truly, eucharisteo (thanksgiving with joy) precedes the miracle. So, I pick up where I left off at #971.

971) Homemade chili with shredded cheese and crumbled crackers on top.

972) Batman movie marathons.

973) Jesus never calls the equipped but equips the called.

974) My sister Leigh’s cat Gracie, who was the sweetest and best cat I’ve ever known. RIP, my little friend.

975) Fage Greek yogurt.

976) Switching to Verizon.

977) God’s perfect timing.

978) 5.1 Dolby Surround Sound.

979) The brilliance of The Screwtape Letters.

980) “If you build it, they will come.”

981) Whenever a bad guy in the movies gets what’s coming to him.

982) Whenever Jesus changes the bad guy into a good guy (because basically without Jesus and grace we’re all bad guys deep down).

983) Whenever I matter enough to someone for them to make time for me.

984) Having seen every single episode of the X-Files (and both movies).

985) Casual Fridays at work.

986) Blessing and serving Jesus by serving the least of these.

987) Snow on Christmas Eve.

988) That my value doesn’t decrease because of someone’s inability to see it (again “borrowed from a Facebook post).

989) The Home Alone movies (well, the first two anyway).

990) The level ground at the foot of the Cross.

991) That real heroes don’t wear costumes.

992) The mute button for those annoying TV commercials.

993) The way Lucy the Wonder Kitty purrs when she eats.

994) That while people may argue theology and semantics, no one can argue with a transformed life.

995) The way Jack Cardiff, famous cinematographer, interplayed light and shadow.

996) That God’s not done with me yet.

997) The slow steady rhythms of a Sunday afternoon.

998) Finally being brave enough to take risks and step boldly out in faith.

999) The little children’s book J.R.R. Tolkien wrote called Roverandom about a little toy dog.

1000) That I’ve decided that 1,000 really isn’t enough and there will be more coming soon to a blog near you.

A Letter from Jesus to His Church

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

Disclaimer: If you’re looking for something warm and fuzzy and feel-good, this is not it. You can skip to the next blog, which will be about fuzzy bunnies and cute kittens.

I was wondering if Jesus wrote a letter to one of his churches, particularly the post-modern trendy churches popping up all over the place, I’d bet it would go something like this:

“I came to one of your services and sat in the back row. I felt unwelcome and unwanted. Nobody turned around and greeted me. Nobody even so much as acknowledged my presence there.

They sang songs about me with great enthusiasm, about how great I am to save and how mighty God is. The preacher spoke at great length about how important it is to know me. But I walked in and out of the building and no one even saw me.

You have an amazing facility with some of the latest technology. You have some of the best singers and musicians leading the worship and one of the best speakers to motivate my people. But if there’s no real love behind it, it’s all just noise. And I didn’t see much love.

I came as one of the least of these. The outcast, the loser, the nobody. The ones you say you love, but your actions prove otherwise.

Get back to loving the unlovely. Don’t just associate with the popular and the trendy and those who have it all together. Take time for the ones who are sitting by themselves, who are  socially awkward, who can’t do anything for you and probably can’t even say “Thank you.”

When you serve one of the least of these, you serve me. When you ignore them you ignore me.

Remember that I loved you when you were one of these. I loved you when you hated me, when your life was a wreck and you were hopelessly lost. Remember how that love felt and how it made you come alive. Then go and share it with someone who needs it most.

 

Yet Another Worship Blog

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

I heard something very interesting tonight. Like interesting enough to change the way I look at worship.

The Hebrew word for obey is shamar. The Hebrew word for serve is avad. If you put them together, as in “obey and serve,”  the idea is of worship.

I don’t know about you, but for me worship becomes too much about performance. How good the worship band is. How electric the atmosphere is. How deeply I feel moved by the Spirit.

Worship, especially when it comes to Almighty God, is much too big to be limited to four or five worship songs on any given Sunday morning. It’s too big to be restricted to singing songs.

Worship is obedience. It’s saying YES to Jesus because he’s worthy. It’s saying, “I’ll do anything you want, Lord, because you gave everything for me.”

Worship is service. It’s putting hands and feet and a face to the love of Jesus. It’s stepping outside the sanctuary and going to the least of these and finding Jesus there. It’s not pious theology or good feelings. It’s tangible, something you can touch and feel and grasp with your hands.

I’ve probably said it before but true worship is a 24/7 proclamation of the great worth of God in everything we do and everything we say every place we go to every person we meet.

Evangelism and missions and discipleship and fellowship are all parts of true worship. The goal is to create as many worshipers as possible from every group of people to magnify God’s name.

Above all, it’s not how loud or well we sing. It’s not how hip and trendy the music is. It’s not how eloquently we can read a Bible passage. It’s not about the great deeds of service we perform.

It has been, is, and will always be about how utterly amazing God is. That’s worship.

 

 

Invited

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

(This was largely inspired by a sermon I heard today at Fellowship Bible Church. I highly recommend checking out the podcast on their website, fellowshipnashville.org.)

“You’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God. He’s food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat” (Matthew 5:6).

Imagine the most lavish, ornate dinner party ever thrown. Call it a banquet or a gala if that helps.

Or if that’s not your cup of tea, imagine the biggest, wildest rave ever thrown with a top-notch dj and a lineup of great bands.

Imagine the guest list. You would think it would be full of celebrities and moguls and people who are listed in places like People magazine’s 50 Most Beautiful People or Time magazine’s 50 Most Powerful People or Forbe’s 50 Most Wealthiest People in the World.

It’s not. If you look at the list closely enough, you see the poor, the crippled, the blind, the lame, the outcast, and the orphan. You see people that ordinarily wouldn’t even be let in the door.

Look closer. You see your name and my name there. We’ve been invited.

That’s the idea behind Jesus’ parable. The original guest list accepted but then backed out at the very last minute. So the King authorized the servants to go find the least of these and bring them in. Then he told them to go into the highways and byways and find people and compel them to come.

That’s our job as believers. Invite people to the best feast with the best food they’ll ever eat. We’re to compel them to come. Not in the sense of holding them at gun point, but to do all that is in our power to get them to come.

Jesus Himself told us what was on the menu. He said things like “I am the Bread of Life” and “Whoever drinks of me will never be thirsty again.” He’s not only the one inviting us, He’s the feast. He is the party.

We say, “You can come as you are. You don’t have to get cleaned up first. You don’t have to bring anything other than just your appetite”

That’s the Kingdom of God– a party like you’ve never seen offered to people like you and me who can’t seem to ever get their acts together and always seem to make stupid choices and dumb mistakes.

The sad part is that the most religious people and the most holier-than-thou types won’t be there. Jesus said matter of factly to the Pharisees that they wouldn’t even get a taste of the banquest because they rejected the offer a second time.

The best part is that for people like you and me, the offer still stands.

Will you come? Will you invite someone else?

For The Ones You Can’t Save

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

bpitt

“Each one of here today will at one time in our lives look upon a loved one who is in need and ask the same question: We are willing help, Lord, but what, if anything, is needed? For it is true we can seldom help those closest to us. Either we don’t know what part of ourselves to give or, more often than not, the part we have to give is not wanted. And so it those we live with and should know who elude us. But we can still love them – we can love completely without complete understanding.”

That’s from one of my favorite movies, A River Runs Through It, where a pastor is eulogizing the son he couldn’t help. That son kept making bad choices and one bad choice proved to be fatal. But it was not for a lack of people trying to help him.

I have known people like that. No matter how much you try to help, nothing ever gets better. That person, as lovable and kind as they might be, keeps making bad choices. You think anything you do for that person is a waste. It’s not.

Anything done out of love is never wasted. Generous selfless love is never in vain. I really truly believe that person who seems to blow off your kind efforts and fight your efforts to help deep down knows that you love him or her. They may not be able to express it or acknowledge it, but they know.

God knows, too. He sees the smallest act of charity done to the least of these as done to Him. When you try to help someone close to you who’s down and out, you’re serving Jesus.

When you are loving those who can’t love you back, you are most like Jesus. When you give freely, expecting nothing in return, you show the very best qualities of the Father. When your love is spurned time and time again and thrown back in your face and you still choose to love, that is the Spirit of God really loving through you.

I don’t know what prompted this blog, except that movie quote popped in my head today. Maybe it was for me, to remind me that what to me seems hopeless and impossible is not even remotely difficult to God (thanks to Pastor Pete for that one). And yes, love does win in the end.