MIND OF TRUTH

OK, one more post on Ragamuffins . . . The Lord is really making me take a good look at this thing. Its funny how we approach God in so many different ways and pat ourself on the back for our spiritual stature. In reality, we know nothing and we are at His mercy to teach us all things. Just let me warn you. You don't want to be a ragamuffin. Not only does it require you to let go of your pride, which we all have plenty of (Yes, you), but its a lonely journey. When you start walking down the path of humility and complete and utter dependence on God, people will start pulling away from you because they don't want that for their life. It' sad though because they really don't know what is they are rejecting yet they reject it all the same and they do it quickly without any thought. Some are so addicted to themselves, serving their self, pleasing their self, doing what feel good to them, that they can't even entertain a thought of taking a different path. I do g

I am realizing the center of a ragamuffins life is surrender. There really is nothing else for us to do than surrender everything we are to serve the Master. I know the Lord is calling His church today to a ragamuffin's surrender. More than ever I feel like God wants us to give up our way, our striving, our best efforts. We keep working so hard and we get little in return. That doesn't make sense in the kingdom of God. God will not waste good ground that He has prepared. If our life is producing very little fruit and is not characterized by abundance and overflow, then God is not in it. Hear me, I'm not talking about things. The material things of this life don't matter. They are just tools and resource and God provides what we need. I'm talking about an abundance of the life of Christ. Are we producing His life and building His kingdom? It takes surrender and humility to do that. God wants us to live in His rest. I think about how much I love my wife

One of the biggest challenges we face as disciples of Jesus is trust. Being in a place of trust where we live with our hands off the wheel goes against our nature. I have grabbed the wheel out of Jesus hands so many times I lost count long ago. He still waits patiently though until I turn control over once again. We will never enter into a place of trust until we admit we have control issues. We like to control our life. We think we need to take charge of our spiritual development and discipline ourselves to the point of making things happen. Jesus says "Just trust me, and I'll do the rest". I promise you He knows where we need to go. Don't try to force your life to be what you want. We have no power to do so and we just make a mess of things. I wanted to share a quote here from Brennan's book for ragamuffins like me. Our desire and attempts to control our own life is like trying to make the sun rise or a flower bloom. It is His place to perfect our li

Picture this ... we stand alone with nothing as a ragamuffin wandering aimlessly through the journey of life. Then God reaches down through Jesus Christ and picks up up and calls us sons and daughters. We welcome His advances toward us because His love fills every need and purpose deep within our hearts. We long to enter into relationship with Him and make His life our life, but we cannot. We do not know how, we are not capable, we have no love to give in return. Just as we begin to turn away in discouragement, Jesus reaches down and fills us with His love so we can give love. He fills us with forgiveness and lavishes His grace upon us so we can now enter into relationship with Him. We can now live life in Him because we have Him. There is nothing we can do to deserve or merit or even participate in the life Jesus has for us. All we need is to accept freely what He offers. Like the prodigal son, we come with all our faults and sins before us ready to recite our prepared speec

The more I pursue the way of Christ and the life He desires me to live, the more I find incompadability with the church that the world knows today. I'm talking about that part of the church that thinks they are not like the church in America today. I know its complicated, but we do that intentionally to keep our pride in tact and put the blame somewhere else on someone else. The way of the ragamuffin is not popular. Many will say they are willing to follow Christ to a place of service where they are willing to loose their life to find it, but few backup their words with actions. We criticize the rich young ruler because he was not willing to sell all he had to follow Jesus, but we won't do it either. Most of us can't even give Him 10% of our money, much less our heart, mind, and soul. One of the most difficult things I have faced as a Bible teacher is to get people to commit themselves to the truth of the Word. They want to know the truth, they want to know the righ

I'm working through another Brennan Manning book called "The Ragamuffin Gospel". I've found his books refreshing, honest and candid in a world of deception and redirection. By the way, I'm talking about the church when I say that. We waste time when we criticize the world. They are dead in their sin. It is absurd to hold them to any righteous standards. They are lost and need a Savior. Our desire to lay the burdens of this age on their shoulders is mis-direction and childish. We must be willing to examine our own hearts and look in the mirror and take responsibility. Not responsibility for changing the world, but responsibility to be honest with ourself and strip away layers of pride. Only then can the life of Christ really shine and make a transforming difference in the world. I'm convinced we are often our worst enemy. Our real enemy, Satan the accuser of the brethren, has only to convince us that we are in no need of God. He caters to our pride a