love

Looking in the Mirror

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

These days, I’m feeling a bit like that Tom Hanks character in the Spielberg move The Terminal. In essence, he’s a man without a country when the country he just left had a military coup and the United States won’t let him enter because of his own country’s uncertain status.

I don’t feel like I can endorse either the Republican or Democratic parties.

The Republicans and their zeal to build a wall and keep refugees out seem to have forgotten about Isaiah 58 where God’s idea of true worship involves taking care of the poor and needy, the least of these. I also seem to remember that quote on the Statue of Liberty about giving me your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free.

The Democrats seem to be heaping a lot of venom and vileness onto President Trump. While I’m far from a fan of his, I have a really hard time trying to reconcile #lovetrumpshate with people talking about burning down the White House with him inside and other posts that are full of nothing but hatred toward the man.

So I choose to remain an independent.

It’s easy to cast blame about what’s wrong with America and the world in general. It’s very easy to point the finger at the other side and to proclaim loudly that “they” are the problem and whenever we can get rid of “them,” all our problems will magically go away.

It’s far more difficult to look in a mirror and to see part of the problem staring back at you. It’s harder to realize that we all as citizens of America and the world bear responsibility to do our part to make our country and our world a better place not just for us but for all.

You can choose to pray for the President, Congress, House of Representatives, Supreme Court, and all those in power at the federal, state, and local levels. You can choose to follow Jesus when he said to love your enemies (even the Trumps of the world) and to pray for those who persecute you and treat you badly. You can serve others in many ways by getting involved and volunteering at homeless shelters and other community ministries.

I believe the saying goes that for those who are busy making a difference, there’s not nearly as much time left to criticize and belittle others.

Ultimately, the reality is that only Jesus can change America and the world. Only the Love that laid down His life for His friends (and enemies) is stronger than the hate and fear that are so prevalent these days.

 

 

You Can Never Out-give God

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

“Our Lord Jesus is ever giving, and does not for a solitary instant withdraw His hand. As long as there is a vessel of grace not yet full to the brim, the oil shall not be stayed. He is a sun ever-shining; He is manna always falling round the camp; He is a rock in the desert, ever sending out streams of life from his smitten side; the rain of his grace is always dropping; the river of his bounty is ever-flowing, and the well-spring of his love is constantly overflowing” (Charles Spurgeon).

I’m not one of those people who believe that with enough faith, you can name and claim vast sums of money, mansions, and other material wealth. I don’t believe God is a celestial genie whose sole purpose is to give us our every wish and whim.

I do believe that God always gives the greatest gift– God gives God.

The greatest blessing isn’t the kind that shows up on a bank account statement. It isn’t one that you list on your income tax returns.

The greatest blessing from God is that serene peace that comes from knowing God will keep every promise toward you and there will never be a moment where you slip out of God’s hand.

The greatest treasures aren’t things. The currency in heaven isn’t gold– it’s love. it’s those who will be there because of your testimony both spoken and lived out. All you can take with you is what you’ve given away, as the line from It’s a Wonderful Life goes.

I’m all for those who are financially successful. I’m all for having nice things. I also know that he who dies with the most toys, still dies, and you can’t take those toys with you.

All you can take is the love of God that you’ve given away.

 

 

Love Like That

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

“Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that” (Ephesians 5:1-2 MSG).

Love like that.

It’s so easy to type out but so very difficult to live out. In fact, it’s impossible.

It’s impossible to love the way God does, especially if you’re working purely on your own strength.

The only way to love like God loves is that you must first open yourself up to receive God’s love freely and unhindered. As my pastor once said, trying to contain the love of God is like trying to contain the ocean in a thimble. It will spill out.

That’s how you love like God loves. It’s from the overflow of God’s love for you.

My prayer for you is that you can stop trying to earn or deserve God’s love but instead simply stretch out your hands and receive it.

Once you understand God loves you not because of your worthiness but in spite of your unworthiness, once you realize the nature of His unconditional love for you, it frees you to love even the most unlovable people (even the Trumps and/or Clintons, depending on your political persuasion).

One day, they might very well say about you, “I know and believe God’s love for me because I have seen in in you.”

That’s the best kind of love.

“The love for equals is a human thing–of friend for friend, brother for brother. It is to love what is loving and lovely. The world smiles. The love for the less fortunate is a beautiful thing–the love for those who suffer, for those who are poor, the sick, the failures, the unlovely. This is compassion, and it touches the heart of the world. The love for the more fortunate is a rare thing–to love those who succeed where we fail, to rejoice without envy with those who rejoice, the love of the poor for the rich, of the black man for the white man. The world is always bewildered by its saints. And then there is the love for the enemy–love for the one who does not love you but mocks, threatens, and inflicts pain. The tortured’s love for the torturer. This is God’s love. It conquers the world” (Frederich Buechner, The Magnificent Defeat).

A Little Love Goes a Long Way

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

“I never thought it was such a bad little tree. It’s not bad at all, really. Maybe it just needs a little love” (Linus Van Pelt, A Charlie Brown Christmas).

I keep thinking about Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree. Yes, I realize that it’s August and still unbearably hot outside. Yet, I can’t help thinking about that classic Christmas special that airs every year without fail.

It’s the scrawny little sapling that that round-headed kid picked out of a lot full of shiny aluminum trees, just barely a branch with a few twigs on it and even fewer needles. Most people wouldn’t give it a second glance and 9 times out of 10, it ends up in a trash can.

Yet all it needed was a little love to flourish and grow.

That same applies to lots of situations and people. A little love goes a long way with a lot of people and in a lot of places.

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Just the act of acknowledging someone’s existence. of being a witness to their life, and simple words of encouragement can be the difference between despair and hope, death and life, damnation and salvation.

Even the smallest gesture has the power to turn around someone’s day (and possibly even someone’s life). You never know. I do know that the smallest act is still better than the grandest intentions never acted upon.

I’m also thinking about the kids at the Tennessee Baptist Children’s Home, many of whom are starved for affection and attention. They need to know that they are valued and worth the effort of loving. Many of us are the same way.

There’s a saying from the Jewish Talmud that goes like this: “Whosoever saves a single life, saves an entire universe.”

Saving a life always starts with a simple act of love.

 

 

God’s Strong Love

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

 

I found this on Pinterest and it spoke volumes to me. It’s amazing how C. S. Lewis can take the most complex and profound themes and break them down into something even I can understand.

This says it all. Our love is frail, but God’s love is strong. Our love fails, but God’s love lasts forever. We let each other down regularly, but God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

We spend our time chasing after broken cisterns and useless idols, but God’s love is the overflowing and never-ending well that never runs dry.

Maybe one day we’ll finally understand just how deep and wide and long and high that love goes and then we can finally be content in it.

 

Two Kinds of Love

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

“There are two kinds of love: we love wise and kind and beautiful people because we need them, but we love (or try to love) stupid and disagreeable people because they need us. This second kind is the more divine because that is how God loves us: not because we are lovable but because He is love, not because He needs to receive but He delights to give” (C. S. Lewis).

This is why I’m not a fan of karma. Karma says that you get what’s coming to you. That’s it. No discussion. Side note: I notice that a lot of people are wishing karma on everybody else but want and expect grace for themselves when they screw up. I’m pretty sure it doesn’t work that way.

But what if I don’t want what’s coming to me? What if I know that at times I’ve been stupid and disagreeable?

The secret is to treat others like you yourself want to be treated? The key is to love others like God has loved you.

Of course, none of us ever come close to that perfect standard of God’s love. Most of the time, we do good to love those who love us. We do less well with those who annoy us.

Still, the more God’s love has its way in us, the more we are able to love those who can’t reciprocate that love, who can’t repay our kindnesses. The more we become like Jesus the more we love those disagreeable people (sometimes without even realizing it).

It all starts when you really and truly believe that God loves you as you are and not as you should be. God loves you no matter what. You can’t do anything to make Him love you more and you certainly can’t do anything that will cause Him to love you less.

The more you believe that, the more your love looks like His.

 

Praying for Orlando

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 1 Comment

I, like so many of you, was horrified by what I saw on my social media feed. a gunman murdered 50 people in a night club early this morning.

Regardless of your stance on the LBGTQ community, we should all mourn the devastating loss of life. No one should celebrate when someone else dies. Ever.

Remember, each one of these victims was someone’s son or daughter, brother or sister,  aunt or uncle. More than that, each was an individual created in the image of God and therefore possessing inherent value. Each was someone Jesus willingly went to the cross and died for.

I’m praying for the families of these victims tonight. I’m praying that God can take what was meant for pure evil and turn it into something good. I know that in God’s plan, tragedy and loss will not have the last word. God’s story never ends with ashes.

I read a post that said that those that died got what they deserved because of their lifestyles. All I know is that I wouldn’t want to get what I deserve based on some of the choices I’ve made in the past. I don’t want karma. I want and desperately need grace.

Hatred cannot overcome hatred. Only love can do that. Only the love of God as expressed in the person of Jesus can do that. Only a kind of love that was willing to lay down its life for enemies can do that.

In response to so much senseless tragedy and horror, I say, “Come, Lord Jesus, come. Only You have the power to set things right again and to wipe away the tears from every eye and to vanquish evil and hate and the lies once and for all. Only you can make a happy ending out of so much sadness. Come quickly, Lord Jesus.”

 

My Plan for 2016– The Saga Continues

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

I managed to make it to another of Brentwood Baptist’s campuses today. Originally, I had planned to go to The Church at West Franklin today and then hit up The Church at Woodbine in May. Plans change.

I found out last night that a friend of mine was playing in the worship band for Woodbine, so I went there. The newly revised and updated plan is to visit West Franklin on May 8, God willing.

That was the main focus on the verses that Doug Jones preached from. The gist of the passage from James 4 is this: don’t make your plans and assume that God will automatically bless them. Instead, you and I need to make plans with the added tag of “God willing.”

You aren’t promised next year or next month or even next week. In fact, no one is promised a tomorrow. Every day you and I wake up is a gift from God. Every day we survive is only due to the grace and mercy of God.

Still, I’m thankful I chose this day to visit Woodbine. I got to see the beautiful old church building that has been revitalized and re-energized with new lifeblood. I got to see a visiting middle school choir from Atlanta that plans to stay the week and help out The Church at Woodbine and the surrounding community.

Afterward, I hit up a few thrift stores that I hadn’t been to in a while. I came up with a few finds, including one that may or may not be worthy of Antiques Roadshow. More on that later.

I’m grateful for The Church at Woodbine and for Doug Jones for a community that reaches out to their neighborhood with both love and truth. You need both to see lives change. Too often (especially in this current culture) the church has shied away from convictions under the guise of acceptance and ended up offering cheap grace that comes without repentance or transformation and with little impact on the community. But that’s another topic for another blog.

I’ll give you a full report on The Church at West Franklin two weeks from now.

 

 

The Woman at the Well

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

“Drink this water, and your thirst is quenched only for a moment. You must return to this well again and again. I offer water that will become a wellspring within you that gives life throughout eternity. You will never be thirsty again” (John 4:13-14, The Voice).

It seems to me that there are presently two popular schools of thought when it comes to those who err. One school says that you’re a rotten, filthy, dirty sinner who deserves whatever comes your way. The other says in essence, “I’m okay; you’re okay.”

When I think about the woman at the well in John 4, I think she might bristle at both. She knew she’d messed up, but she was probably hoping from a little more sympathy plus a shot at redemption. As for the “I’m okay, you’re okay” way of thinking, she’d probably point out the fact that she came to draw water during the hottest part of the day to plainly state that she was not okay.

I heard a sermon today where the pastor said Jesus showed both compassion and conviction toward the woman.

He showed compassion in that He went out of His way to speak to the woman and actually engage her in conversation that was more than just about the weather.

He also showed conviction when He wouldn’t let her evade His questions and steer the conversation away from the uncomfortable. While He showed love toward the woman, that love didn’t include enabling her in behavior that wasn’t God’s best for her.

I found that quite convicting. Who will I go out of my way to speak to this week? Who will I show love toward (and not just the warm fuzzy kind, but the kind that is willing to ask the hard questions)?

As for me, I’m thankful that Jesus was willing to love me where He found me and accept me as I was. I’m equally grateful that His love refused to let me stay in that place.

I’m thankful as usual for a pastor in Aaron Bryant who doesn’t always tell me what I want to hear, but will always share what I need to hear, especially on my birthday.

 

Mondays Are Rude

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

“Father, out of Your honorable and glorious riches, strengthen Your people. Fill their souls with the power of Your Spirit so that through faith the Anointed One will reside in their hearts. May love be the rich soil where their lives take root. May it be the bedrock where their lives are founded so that together with all of Your people they will have the power to understand that the love of the Anointed is infinitely long, wide, high, and deep, surpassing everything anyone previously experienced. God, may Your fullness flood through their entire beings” (Ephesians 3:16-19, The Voice).

Mondays are just rude. They come barging in at some ungodly hour of the morning, interrupting your nice, relaxing weekend, making all sorts of demands, sucker-punching you in the face, forcing you to interact with life before you’ve even had your first cup of coffee. Of all the nerve.

Mondays are typically the days when your passwords suddenly don’t work, you spill that beloved cup of coffee on all your papers, and your inbox blows up.

Sometimes, it can feel like Monday can last a lot longer than 24 hours. It can seem to go on for days, weeks, and even months. You don’t feel adequate to handle all that Monday brings.

Relax. Remember this.

God doesn’t just give you enough grace and mercy to get by. He doesn’t just give you enough love to sustain you until Tuesday mercifully arrives. He doesn’t dole out peace with stingy fingers and a dour face.

Your cup runneth over with God’s provisions. You don’t just get enough. You get much,much more.

You get God. Not just what’s leftover when everybody else has gotten their share. You get all of God.

You get so much grace, mercy, love, and peace that it’s like trying to catch the ocean in a thimble (with thanks to Mike Glenn for that image). There’s so much that it overflows your capacity to receive and pours out on those around you, those in the places where you live and work and play.

Honestly, all Mondays come to an end. They seem to last forever, but they’re just 24 hours, like the other six days in the week.

All of God’s grace and mercy and love and peace will never end. Long after Monday is over, those will still be with you. God will still be with you.

And there’s always more refills of coffee.