Ragamuffin Gospel

Thanksgiving 2017

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“I think that is a better thing than thanksgiving: thanks-living. How is this to be done? By a general cheerfulness of manner, by an obedience to the command of Him by whose mercy we live, by a perpetual, constant delighting of ourselves in the Lord, and by a submission of our desires to His will” (Charles Spurgeon).

“Thanksgiving Day is a good day to recommit our energies to giving thanks and just giving” (Amy Grant).

“Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings” (William Arthur Ward).

It’s in the books. Another Thanksgiving has come and gone (or will be gone in about 1 hour and 47 minutes).

It was a low-key affair with just the immediate family dining at Cracker Barrel. They had all the essential Thanksgiving dinner prerequisites at a reasonable price ($12.99) and only a short wait to be seated (20 minutes).

Not to say that I don’t miss the extended family gathered together around the dining room table. I do. In fact, today for a brief moment I was imagining myself back at my Grandmother’s house on Dee Road and I promise I could almost smell the home cooked goodness in the kitchen and fresh baked rolls on the table. I think at that moment, I’d have given up all the money in my savings account to be able to go back there for five minutes.

Still, I have wonderful memories to be thankful for. Plus so much else. Like finding two Cracker Barrel gift cards in my wallet that more than covered my meal. Or just the gift of waking up this morning.

I’m still finding that one thing every day to be thankful for. Some days, it’s easier to find than on others, but every day there’s always something, no matter how small.

 

Living by Gratitude

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“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them” (John F Kennedy).

Today is the 54th anniversary of the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States. Nearly all of you who were alive on that day back in 1963 remember exactly where you were and what you were doing when you first heard the news.

He may be gone, but his legacy and his words live on.

Anyone can talk a good game, but living it is something entirely different. When it comes to gratitude, anyone can say thanks. Words are cheap. But living out your thanks is much rarer and more precious.

How do you live by gratitude? You pay it forward. You take the good done to you and do something good for someone else. You thank God best by living out His message of reconciliation and hope in a world that desperately needs that message.

In 27 minutes, it’s Thanksgiving Day. Let’s not just live out thanksgiving on this one day of the year but on each and every day of 2017 and 2018 and every year to follow, for as many years that God gives us.

As a reminder, I urge you to look for one small thing every day to be thankful for and see if that doesn’t change your entire outlook on life.

Oh, and happy Thanksgiving Eve, everyone!

 

Do You Do Well to Be Angry?

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“Do you do well to be angry?” (Jonah 4:4, ESV).

That’s the question God asked Jonah. Jonah didn’t want to go to Ninevah in the first place. He knew what kind of people they were, what they did to their enemies, how they showed them no mercy. He knew if he went and preached repentance to them, they might actually repent.

It’s easy to look down on an attitude like that and be self-righteous in condemning Jonah. But do we do the same?

Is there a person or a people group that you don’t think deserves God’s mercy? For some, it might be Muslims, especially the radical element. For others, it might be the LGBTQ community. Maybe it’s those pointy-headed fundamentalists who are always talking hellfire and hatred. Or maybe it’s those ivory tower liberals who have a very laissez-faire “anything goes” kind of morality.

I read today how someone was glad that Charles Manson had died. While I certainly don’t condone what he did by any means, I do think it’s wrong to celebrate the death of any human being created in the image of God, for whom Jesus died.

I firmly believe that when you qualify who is worthy of hearing and receiving the gospel of Jesus Christ, it ceases to be a gospel of grace and becomes a gospel of works and deserving.

Remember that no one deserves God’s grace. No one is exempt from that same grace. as Dr. Adrian Rogers once put it, salvation is not a reward for the righteous but a gift for the guilty.

The gospel of grace in Jesus Christ is for everyone. That goes for all the Donald Trumps out there. That goes for all the Charles Mansons, too. Just ask the Apostle Paul, who was a terrorist against the early Church and called himself the chief of sinners.

It is God’s desire that none should perish but that all should repent and come to saving faith in Jesus. There are no qualifiers. God wants no one to perish. God wants all to be saved. Even your enemies. Even mine. Even people like you and me.

 

If You Don’t Live It, You Don’t Believe It

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I was struck by something in the sermon today.

Basically, the gist of what I heard is that people are hungry and yearning for God. What they’re wanting to see is an authentic witness by a Christian whose walk matches his or her talk.

Often, when people reject Christianity, what they’re put off by isn’t so much God as those who give Him a bad name by talking a good game of faith but living in a way that denies what they profess to believe.

Brennan Manning said that what the world can’t stand is people who profess Jesus but who deny Him with their lifestyle. That’s what an unbelieving world finds so unbelievable.

The key isn’t perfection. It’s authenticity.

I still say the best way to gain someone’s trust in order to share the gospel is to listen. Not listen to respond or to pass judgment. Simply listen to hear their stories and find out who they are.

I still remember the words that Pastor Mike said about having your testimony validated by your lifestyle– if you don’t live it, you don’t believe it.

That’s the simplest (and best) way to put it. If you don’t live it, you don’t believe it.

 

It’s a Good Kind of Tired

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Throughout the day, I had all these grandiose plans about what I was going to write about for tonight’s blog post, but here I am at 10:34 pm, completely pooped and having forgotten every single one of those wonderful ideas.

I know, I know. Write those ideas down. But for me, I always think of things when I’m in the car or some other place where I don’t have access to a pen and paper. I can’t exactly write stuff down when I’m in the middle of rush hour traffic on I-65, can I?

Anyway, I’m tired. It’s not the kind of tired I experienced when I was out pounding the pavement, looking for a job. That was a defeating, soul-weary kind of tired. I was tired when I felt like I hadn’t done anything all day. That’s the worst.

This is a good kind of tired. The kind that comes from putting in a full day’s work and knowing that I accomplished some good today. I made money, but I also made a difference.

The better kind of tired is the one where I get to turn off the alarm and sleep in tomorrow. It may be sad, but I actually fantasize about sleeping these days.

So, it was a good day, and I’m still living the dream.

Living the Dream

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There’s nothing that’s more disappointing on a Friday than to realize it’s only Thursday. At least it’s not Wednesday.

I jest about wanting it to be Friday, but I really believe that there has to be more to life than merely existing from Monday to Friday and then really living on the weekend.

When you finally grasp how much of a gift each day is, then you stop merely existing during the weekdays and start living 24/7.

At least that’s the idea.

There are still some days when it’s all you can do not to count the minutes to 4 pm.

The real secret to living the dream is to not take any of your days for granted but to find ways to make each day matter by living out of the overflow of gratitude and thanksgiving.

So Happy Thursday. Tomorrow is Friday. Really and truly it is.

 

 

 

Recognizing Jesus

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I was struck by something I’d never noticed about Jesus after the resurrection. For whatever reason after He rose from the grave, no one could recognize Him by His physical appearance. Even Mary thought He was the gardener when she first saw Him.

Maybe it was the fact that their senses kept telling them it really couldn’t be a risen Jesus. After all, they had seen Him die.

Or maybe Jesus’ glorified body was what threw them off.

I don’t know. The Bible isn’t clear on that one particular issue. I’ll have to find out when I get to heaven.

I learned something new today. There were three ways in which Jesus’ disciples could recognize Him post-resurrection.

First, they knew Him by His voice. When Jesus called Mary by her name, that’s the moment she knew for certain it was her Lord speaking. Jesus Himself said that His sheep know His voice and follow Him.

Second, they knew Him in the breaking of the bread. The two disciples on the Emmaus Road didn’t realize who they’d been talking to until Jesus took bread and broke it before them. Maybe their minds flashed back to that Lord’s Supper before Good Friday and the crucifixion.

Last, they knew Him by His miracles. When Jesus approached the disciples as they were fishing, they didn’t know it was Him until their nets were overflowing to the breaking point with fish. All the signs and wonders they had seem Him do came flooding back into their memories.

Since the ascension, we have the Holy Spirit who reminds us of all that Jesus taught us. It’s He who helps us to discern whether the spirits and voices are of Jesus or not. We know because we recognize His voice. We remember when we break bread together as the body of Christ. We affirm that it’s Him by the miracles we continue to see.

Still, we say with all believers everywhere, “Come quickly, Lord Jesus.”

Listen

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“Listen, Israel! The Eternal is our True God—He alone. You should love Him, your True God, with all your heart and soul, with every ounce of your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5, The Voice).

When asked about which is the greatest commandment, Jesus quoted this verse. In essence, the first and most important command from God to us is to LISTEN.

To listen is more than just to hear. It’s more than just to accumulate more information.

When you listen, the object is to take what you hear and to put it into practice.

Jesus’ ministry was filled with invitations for us to listen. Note how many times He said things like “let those who have ears, let them hear.” He meant more than just hearing what He was saying. Many people heard Jesus’ words but did nothing with them and so remained untransformed by them.

What Jesus meant (and still means) is to take in His words with the intent of obeying them. To have knowledge disproportionate to our obedience will lead to an inability to receive new truths.

I confess that I’m not always the best listener, particularly when it comes to listening to God’s voice. I try to sit in the silence and be still, but my mind goes into overdrive. Random songs pop into my head, as well as snatches of conversations. It’s almost like when you have an old-fashioned radio that’s in between two stations.

To hear means to take in sound through your ears, but to listen is a discipline. You could say it’s an art. To listen to God better, you simply need to live out what you know for sure that you’ve already heard from God.

Loving God means listening to His words and allowing them to transform you. Loving people as you love God means listening to their stories and letting God’s light shine into them.

May we all learn to listen well.

 

A Change of Scenery

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Boom. That says it all.

Gratitude won’t instantly transform your scenery into something else entirely. You won’t be instantly whisked away to a tropical island with a hammock and fruity drinks that come in coconuts.

Gratitude will change how you see your scenery. Suddenly, you can see clearly all the blessings you have. You especially see all the little miracles that you missed before when you were caught up in greed, envy, bitterness, and general dissatisfaction.

Gratitude helps you see God in your scenery. Every thanksgiving is a reminder of God’s provision for you and God’s promises to you.

So, give thanks. Even on a Monday.

Humbling Yourself

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“So bow down under God’s strong hand; then when the time comes, God will lift you up. Since God cares for you, let Him carry all your burdens and worries” (1 Peter 5:6, The Voice).

It’s easy to talk about humility as a virtue in the abstract. It’s an entirely different matter to work it out practically in your own life. I know for a fact that my personality default type is definitely not humility, especially when it comes to being corrected and rebuked by others (which I mentioned a few days ago).

I read this passage and I see that to bow down under God’s strong hand is to live in an unconditional surrender. It’s to confess, “Thy will be done,” even if it means that my will be undone (to borrow from Elisabeth Elliot).

It’s an open-ended YES to Jesus for whatever He asks of me, whenever He asks, wherever He asks. Again, that means even if I have to let go of my own plans and desires and hopes and dreams.

For the early Christians, it meant enduring horrific persecution and suffering. It often mean martyrdom. Yet in light of the eternal glory, it seemed to them only a light and momentary affliction.

May we have that kind of faith that is willing to live surrendered so that Jesus might be glorified and lifted up in our lives.