religion

Conflicted But in a Good Way . . .

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

I’m feeling a bit conflicted at the moment, but in the best way possible. Right now, you’re probably feeling confused, so let me explain.

I’m very sad that a friend of mine is leaving for overseas missions tomorrow and I won’t get to see her for a while, but I’m filled with joy that she is fulfilling God’s call on her life and going to a place where her deep gladness will meet the world’s deep need and lives will be transformed and changed and a country will never be the same because of her (and I “borrowed” part of that from Frederick Buechner, for the record).

I’m unsure of my next step, but confident that the God I serve is more than able to get me there. Since I lost my job, I’ve felt as if I’m free-floating without an anchor to hold on to or to keep me centered, yet I’ve never had more peace that God really is in control and guiding me toward exactly where He wants me to be.

I’ve never been in a place where I’m more keenly aware of my deep need for God at every waking moment, but I’ve never been more sure of God’s goodness or power. I’ve never been as able and willing to boast in my weaknesses to find that the power of Christ really is made perfect in my imperfections.

Ultimately, I am filled with a longing that nothing in this world can satisfy, yet at the very same time,  I am completely satisfied in Christ and content with where He has me.

What about you?

Being the Best You Possible

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 1 Comment

If you’ve always been comfortable in your own skin and never had any doubts as to your identity, then this blog’s probably not for you. If you’ve always liked yourself and always been supremely confident in God’s design of you then you can skip the rest of this.

For the rest of us, we know what it’s like to feel like God made a mistake when He made us. We know what it’s like to wish with all our might that we could be someone else, if only for 24 hours.

We’ve tried to be what we thought everyone else wanted us to be. We tried to be popular and witty and sarcastic and occassionally mean if we thought certain people would like us more.

Here’s my word for you tonight: God not only loves you but He likes you.

He knew exactly what He was doing when He made you and He knew that the world needed you exactly as you are. He knows that when you finally come alive to who God made you to be, people will notice and be drawn to your Creator.

Maybe you wished with everything in you that you could just be normal for once, like everybody else. God didn’t make you to be normal or average or status quo. He made you to be extraordinary and to shine like only you can.

So be happy with you. Be thankful for all the gifts and talents you have. Even boast in your weaknesses, as the apostle Paul said, for in those very weaknesses Christ’s power is perfected in you.

Someone out there right now needs to see you being you. Someone out there needs to know that you are learning to be comfortable in the skin God gave you. Someone will find healing when they see the healing in you that only God could have done.

So go out there and be the best you that you can be.

Set Free

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 1 Comment

I’ve been really privileged and blessed to be able to participate in a Vacation Bible School being held at Set Free Church in downtown Nashville.

Set Free Church is a ministry that reaches out to homeless men in Nashville and offers an intense live-in discipleship program for those who are trying to get cleaned up and put their lives back together. They also minister to the needs of the families in the nearby neighborhood with Wednesday night meals and various outreach programs throughout the year, as well as Sunday morning services each week.

To me, they are a light in a dark place. I see a place where the Spirit of God is moving and lives are being changed and families transformed by the amazing power of God.

The pastor himself is a formerly homeless man who can testify to God’s sovereign power to reach out to those that everyone else has given up on and to make those people into trophies of grace that tell of the awesome saving power of Jesus.

I see the Gospel as the story of how God in Jesus came down to set the captives free and to proclaim liberty to those in bondage to darkness and sin. This church is the Gospel lived out in flesh and blood with hands and feet on a daily basis.

I’m so thankful I get to be a part of what God is doing in downtown Nashville. I try to serve and to be a blessing there, but I always end up being far more blessed and receive so much more than I give.

Pray for these men and women who are on the frontlines of a very great spiritual battle. Pray that the neighborhood would see Jesus in them and be drawn to what they see.

I know for certain that there will be a multitude of people in heaven because of their faithfulness.

Westboro Baptist: Who Are We Against, Really?

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

I was thinking today about the announcement that the infamous Westboro Baptist Church was picketing a church I’ve attended in the past. Apparently, this church was much too tolerant about forgiving sinners and extending grace.

That made me think. Who am I against? Who is my enemy? And the question that I can’t get over: Are we really supposed to be against anybody?

This is my own belief and is no way affiliated with anybody else, but here goes. I don’t think we’re supposed to be against anybody.

Think about it. The Bible tells us that our battle is not against flesh and blood people, but against spiritual forces and demonic powers. I can’t find it anywhere in my Bible where I am supposed to hate a particular group simply because they behave and believe differently than I do.

The Bible says to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. It says to go out of your way to serve and minister to them the same way Christ did. The Bible says nothing about picketing and name-calling and verbally attacking.

A pastor I greatly admire said that you don’t fight fire with fire. You fight it with water. You don’t fight hate with more hate, but with a love that is stronger than any hate. A love that is stronger than all the political powers and all the weapons of the world and all the special-interest groups. A love stronger than fear. A love stronger than even death, the grave, and hell.

God never called me to go out and correct someone’s lifestyle. He never called me to go out and point out all the reasons they’re going to hell. He told me to go out and proclaim the good news– that there is hope for the hopeless, healing for the broken, and salvation for those who can’t ever get it right and are stuck in sin.

I believe we’re even called to show grace to the legalists and Pharisees who themselves don’t believe in or practice grace.

What am I against? I’m against the lies that keep people in bondage. I’m against any kind of hate that condemns a person that Jesus came to save. I’m against reducing the beautiful Story God has written over thousands of years to a pithy phrase that fits on a bumper sticker or a picket sign.

What am I for? Grace. Because I above all people need it. Because I have received it and know how good it feels to be forgiven and free. Because I want every single person out there to know that feeling, too.

I’m just a nobody [in the world’s eyes] trying to tell everybody about Somebody who can save anybody. That’s all.

Random Tuesday Thoughts

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

Someone asked me how I was today and my answer was “Blessed.” Normally, I say, “Fine” or “Okay”, but for some reason I felt compelled to say “Blessed” tonight.

Maybe it’s because I am blessed. I may not have a job and I may be perennially stuck on being single, but I have some great friends and I serve an even greater God who chose me and called me by name and loves me in spite of all the dumb things I do on a daily basis.

I think about Peter and how Jesus called him out to walk on water. Most people fault Peter for giving into fear and sinking, but the fact that Peter took a huge step of faith toward Jesus has to count for something. At least with me.

I’m thinking about something Mike Glenn said at Kairos tonight. He said you know it’s really God calling you when it’s something that you can’t do on your own. Like walking on water. Or going halfway around the world to serve as a missionary. Or just being faithful to Jesus where you are.

This season has been rough for me, but I have found healing and grace like I’ve never known before, both from the people around me and from God. I have seen shackles of fear and doubt fall away and found how awesome it is to walk in freedom, no longer captive to the need to please others.

I have found that the best moments in life aren’t the ones you plan for, but those you never would expect. Like the old song says, “You can’t always get what you want, but you find sometimes you get what you need.”

The more I live the more in awe of God I am. The more I see my desperate need of everything He is. The more I can truly lift my hands in worship. The more I can hold the people and things in my life with open hands and not clenched fists.

The more I know that everything will be fine in the end. If it’s not fine, it’s not the end.

 

He Has Overcome

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

I was listening to my favorite worship song in the car on the way home tonight. The song is “Take Heart” by Hillsong United. The part I love is at the end where they sing about how God has over come all our troubles and all our tears, all our failures and all our fears, and so forth.

My word for you tonight is that whatever you’re facing, whatever is holding you back, whatever is keeping you from fully realizing the peace and joy in Christ, God has already overcome.

If you’re afraid of running off your friends or screwing up your relationships beyond repair, God has already overcome.

If you’re afraid that you will always be bound by the same self-defeating thoughts, God has already overcome.

If you can’t find hope anywhere in sight and are on the verge of giving up and giving in, God has already overcome.

If you can’t find the faith to pray for another or even for yourself for healing of any kind, God has already overcome.

If you feel like every dream and desire of your heart gets thwarted and nothing will ever go the way you want it to, God has already overcome.

If you feel lost in the dark and wonder if the night will ever end for you and if you will ever see daylight again, God has already overcome.

If you feel like all you’ve done is in vain and that nobody notices or cares, God has already overcome.

So take heart, friend. His love will get you through until you see with your own eyes the triumph of our God over every obstacle, every foe, every enemy, and everything you will ever face.

A Desparate Prayer

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

Have you ever been to a party and found out you were being socially awkward? Did you feel like you were trying too hard and forcing conversation and you imagined the other person was like, “Please, just stop talking before you hurt yourself”? Did you think to yourself, “Wow. Did I really just say that? What the heck?” and find that you couldn’t make yourself stop?

Have you ever felt like you were forcing a friendship or other relationship instead of letting God guide it in His own way? Did you feel that even you knew that God’s plan for the relationship was better that you couldn’t stop trying to take control?

Have you ever felt like no matter how you jumped through all the religious hoops, you never could pray enough or evangelize enough or worship loud enough to meet the exacting standards?

Then you probably know what the tax-collector felt when he prayed, “God, be merciful to me, the sinner.”

Note: He didn’t say that he was a sinner, one among many, but the sinner. Not just someone who messes up, but isn’t as bad as others, but the chief of sinners. That’s from the Greek.

Guess what? When you can pray that prayer and mean it, you are truly set free.

You are set free from trying to earn God’s approval, as well as the approval of others. You find that approval is already yours through the finished work of Jesus Christ. You find that you are good enough, because God says you are good enough.

If you’ve ever gone through a season where you can see your own brokenness, then you know that sometimes the only words you can find to pray are “Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy.”

God says that He is close to the cries of the broken-hearted, those who know they don’t have what it takes in and of themselves. His strength is still made complete when we confess that we are weak and not only confess, but boast in that very weakness.

May that be your prayer today. “God, be merciful to me, the sinner.”

And go to fellowshipnashville.org to check out the sermon on which most of this was based. It’s amazing.

What If?

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 2 Comments

I got to thinking today about being radical. I know it gets painted with a bad brush because of how many are radical in wrong and harmful ways, but what if we were known as radical Christ-followers?

What if we really did love each other deeply and compassionately just as Christ loved us, not just in words and promises, but in actions and random acts of kindness and blessing toward each other daily?

What if we decided that a tithe wasn’t enough and gave everything– not just our money and possessions, but our futures, our dreams, our goals, our lives, and even our bodies– to Jesus for Him to use in whatever way He saw fit?

What if we put down the picket signs and walked across the line to love those people we don’t agree with and show them the real Jesus who ate and drank and hung out with tax-collectors, outcasts, and whores and show them His radical love for them?

What if we stopped trying to take back a country and started trying to advance a Kingdom and to tell the world that the rightful King is coming to make every wrong right again?

What if instead of expecting sinners to confess to us, we confessed to them that we haven’t always preached and taught and lived the grace that can save them and we’ve missed it when it comes to being what Jesus was about– loving the least of these that no one else will love and being Jesus to them?

What if we actually lived out the Bible– all of it, and not just the parts that we like and make us feel comfortable and superior and holier-than-thou– and were doers and not only hearers of God’s Word?

What if we made today Day 1 of Year 1 of the new beginning of a new kind of follower of Jesus who knows he’s broken but knows that He’s been shown incredible grace and lives out the Love that overcomes hate, fear, sin, death, and the grave?

 

For All The George Baileys Out There

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

I know that George Bailey is normally associated with Christmas, but bear with me on this one. How many of you have felt like George Bailey at times?

Have you ever invested in a friendship only to feel like the other friend wasn’t investing nearly as much?

Have you ever felt like you were always the one giving the encouragement and blessing and never the one to receive it?

Have you ever made someone a high priority in your life and then felt like that you weren’t even a priority in theirs and it seemed like you didn’t matter to them and that they could take or leave you with no difference at all?

Have you ever felt like that if you were suddenly gone, you wouldn’t be missed all that much?

Then you know what it feels like to be a George Bailey.

But let me let you in on a little secret.

You may not think what you do matters or makes a difference or touches anybody’s lives, but it does.

Not everybody you encourage is in a place where they can reciprocate it. They could just be overwhelmed by life and stress. But that doesn’t mean they don’t appreciate and savor all the encouragement you give and your friendship.

True love in any form is never about giving as much as you get back. It’s always about giving and never expecting return, because God showed us that kind of love even when He knew we would never ever in a million years even begin to pay Him back for all He’s done.

I truly believe that the world will be turned upside down (or right-side up again) by small acts of kindness done with great love that never make the front page or get turned into movies or even get any recognition.

Jesus will say “Well done” to those who gave to the least of these who never could repay or at times even say, “Thank you.” For what you did for these, you did for Jesus Himself.

So take heart. Your labor is never in vain if it is done out of a compassionate heart filled with God’s love. It’s never for nothing.

Advice for the Healing

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 2 Comments

I have a word of advice for those in the healing process. Don’t rush it.

I know. It sounds a little odd. You’re probably wanting the pain to end as quickly as possible and to be able to move on with your life as close to normally as you were before.

But there is such a thing as healing too quickly. Kinda like when you have your wisdom teeth taken out and the incisions heal before the infection can get out (I borrowed that from Mike Glenn and Kairos).

You should want to be well and healthy and whole, not just functional and better.

You want Jesus to walk you through your pain, not give you a short-cut around it, so that at the end you can truly say that Jesus in you overcame that hurt and you will never have to deal with that particular issue ever again.

If you are dealing with something like approval-addiction, you may wake up one morning and feel like a million bucks. You may feel like the opinions of others don’t matter and you have finally conquered your demon.

But feeling like you’re healed and being healed are often two very different things. You can never trust feelings as a barometer for health, because feelings are fickle and influenced by so many things.

So, let Jesus take His time with you. Let others in on the process and let them speak life into you during this time. If you try to heal by yourself, you will never find true wholeness.

And believe Jesus when He said that He will finish what He started in you. You will be everything He made you to be one day soon and you will know what it’s like to live out of a wholeness that can only come from being hidden in Jesus.

That’s my advice for the day. And take two aspirin and call me in the morning.