What's a Ragamuffin?

Back in the days when I was getting paid to minister to and with young people, the small pastoral staff of which I was a part would normally get together on Sunday mornings to pray about the day to come. One particular Sunday, we had talked a bit before getting down to the business of praying, and something had struck me as being pretty hilarious. So, of course, I laughed.

It ended up flowing kind of like this: "Oh man! Ha ha ha! That's funny! Hee hee! Okay, then, let's pray. Father God, thank you so much for this beautiful morning. You've given us so many reasons to praise you and..."

Afterwards, I was asked, "How can you go so quickly from laughing so hard to praying so deeply? It seems like one or the other can't be sincere."

Press pause on the scene.

I've just started reading a book by one of my favorite authors, Brennan Manning; Ruthless Trust: The Ragamuffin's Path to God. I can't even get past the preface without getting out my highlighter and going to work. The following paragraph not only answers the question posed in this blog-post's title, but the final five words touch on the answer to the question about my laughing and praying.

Who and what are the ragamuffins? The unsung assembly of saved sinners who are little in their own sight, conscious of their brokenness and powerlessness before God, and who cast themselves on his Mercy. Startled by the extravagant love of God, they do not require success, fame, wealth, or power to validate their worth. Their spirit transcends all distinctions between the powerful and powerless, educated and illiterate, billionaires and bag ladies, high-tech geeks and low-tech nerds, males and females, the circus and the sanctuary.

Truth is...my answer about how I can laugh and pray so closely together was then, and remains today: there's not as much space between hilarity and holiness as some people think.

Political Prayers

In the interest of not letting evil triumph by being a good person who does nothing, I have taken a few opportunities on Facebook recently to decry the state of American politics. I have expressed shock and disgust at the level of support Donald Trump’s campaign to become the Republican nominee for President has garnered. I have called out the childishness of Senators who refuse to do their Constitutional duty of vetting the President’s nominee for Supreme Court Justice.

More privately, I have been quite clear about my opinion of Hillary Clinton’s level of truth-bending and Senator Sanders’ morally-honorable but fiscally-shaky economic ideals.

It is time for me to stop griping about these folks and start praying for them instead...

Lord God, bring honor and glory to yourself by bringing about amazing changes.

Speak to Donald Trump. If he has ears to hear, let him hear the Holy Spirit whisper how The Art of the Deal is not a close second to the Bible in terms of being A Great Book. Convict him about paying lip-service to Christianity while demonstrating an allegiance to Pride and Vulgarity. Humble his heart by showing him your greatness.

Speak to Hillary Clinton. If she has ears to hear, let her hear the Holy Spirit whisper how there are more important things than being The First Woman President of the USA and that even if it was that important, the ends do not justify the means. Teach her that truth matters more than the advancement of her personal agenda. Humble her heart by showing her your greatness.

Speak to Bernie Sanders and Ted Kruz and Senator Mitch McConnell. If they have ears to hear, let them hear the Holy Spirit whisper how your love has motivated every great thing you’ve ever done on behalf of mankind. Not laws. Not power. Not one-upmanship. Show them that true revolution involves the changing of human hearts more than the changing of systems or house majorities. Humble their hearts by showing them your greatness.

Truth is...Father God, I need you to speak to me. If I have ears to hear, let me hear the Holy Spirit whisper how the world’s hope does not reside in Washington D.C. Heal me from my own Pride and Vulgarity and Deceit and Attempts To Control. Grant me wisdom. Humble my heart by showing me your greatness.

Hide & Seek

It started in Eden, these attempts to hide from our creator. The instant we step away from God by choosing OUR path instead of his, we create distance and division...and we try to keep God from noticing.

Ha! As if!

But David realized how futile that is and wrote about it in Psalm 139:1-12.

God, investigate my life;
    get all the facts firsthand.
I’m an open book to you;
    even from a distance, you know what I’m thinking.
You know when I leave and when I get back;
    I’m never out of your sight.
You know everything I’m going to say
    before I start the first sentence.
I look behind me and you’re there,
    then up ahead and you’re there, too—
    your reassuring presence, coming and going.
This is too much, too wonderful—
    I can’t take it all in!
Is there anyplace I can go to avoid your Spirit?
    to be out of your sight?
If I climb to the sky, you’re there!
    If I go underground, you’re there!
If I flew on morning’s wings
    to the far western horizon,
You’d find me in a minute—
    you’re already there waiting!
Then I said to myself, “Oh, he even sees me in the dark!
    At night I’m immersed in the light!”
It’s a fact: darkness isn’t dark to you;
    night and day, darkness and light, they’re all the same to you.
The Message (MSG)
Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson

Rich Mullins had a moment of realization about this as well, so he rewrote this psalm as the song Nothing Is Beyond You (sung here by Amy Grant).

https://youtu.be/mEEfysu8oVY

Truth is...The REASON God keeps such close tabs on us? Love. And why would He love us? Huh. "I cannot explain how You came to love me except to say that nothing is beyond You."

The Empty Tomb: Explain THAT!

Two days ago, Christians around the world commemorated the event that stands as the keystone of their faith. It also stands, according to non-believers, as the most ridiculous fairy tale ever told. I mean, people dead for over 36 hours simply do NOT come back to life, right?

It will come as no surprise to anyone who's been reading this blog for more than a month that I'm one of those crazy Christians who, yes, actually believes Jesus was dead but didn't stay that way.

There are who-knows-how-many books on the subject of the resurrection of Jesus, and this space is not the place for an exhaustive discussion of every single thread of thought about it, but let me just briefly review one aspect of the subject that leads me toward belief.

Having been killed Friday afternoon, the tomb of Jesus was empty on Sunday morning...what's up with that?

Some suggested answers:

The Disciples Stole the Body
This is the official story circulated by the Jewish ruling council (See Matthew 28:11-15). The only problem is that if it were true:
     1)  The guards would be killed for dereliction of duty. Hence verse 14: "If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble."
     2)  The disciples lost their lives because of their unwavering declaration of Jesus' resurrection. A person might be willing to die in defense of a lie they thought was true, but not for something they know to be a lie.

They Went to the Wrong Tomb
The idea here is that the women who went to the tomb to complete what had been a hurried burial process, and found the tomb to be empty, went to the wrong tomb and mistakenly assumed that Jesus had risen from the dead. This is fairly unlikely because:
     1)  This would require not only the women to forget where Jesus was buried, but Joseph of Arimathea (who had provided the tomb; see Mark 15:42-47), and all the other disciples.
     2)  When the story of Jesus' resurrection started to circulate, and the authorities wanted to squelch it, all they would have had to do was take people to the correct tomb and say, "Hey! His body is right here. Stop all this crazy talk."

Jesus Didn't Really Die
This theory says that the tomb was empty because Jesus wasn't really dead...he only "swooned" on the cross and later regained consciousness in the tomb. There are a lot of holes in this line of thought:
     1)  The Roman executioners were very, very good at their job. Once someone was nailed to a cross, they never came down alive. In fact, according to the Mark passage referenced earlier, Pilate made sure to double-check that Jesus was actually dead before releasing the body for burial.
     2)  Because of the blood loss and extreme physical duress Jesus endured though his flogging and crucifixion, the coolness of the tomb would not have revived him...it would have killed him.
     3)  A tortured, beaten, barely-alive Jesus would not have been able to roll away the heavy stone that sealed the tomb and overpower the guards to make an escape.
     4)  This bloody, disfigured shell of a man could never pass himself off as the all-powerful conqueror of death the disciples declared him to be.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *

Truth is...as with most things in the realm of apologetics, this isn't enough to change the mind of a hard-core atheist, but it is noteworthy that there just is no satisfactory explanation for the empty tomb of Jesus other than the Biblical one.

Managers vs Leaders

Just like a Mini Tootsie Roll, this is going to be short and sweet. And let it serve as a challenge for each person reading this who finds themselves in a position of having some kind of authority over other people.

Truth is...It should come as no surprise to hear that I find myself being far more motivated when working with a leader, rather than toiling under a manager. And may we all carry that realization with us when and if we are the one leading/managing.

Hold Me, Jesus

It was the summer of 1994. I had spent the school year as a substitute teacher, having taken my family of six from a bad situation at the church I had been serving (as Youth & Worship Minister) back home to Northeast Indiana.

I was driving to the 4-season porch factory where I was working, listening to a tape of Rich Mullins' album, A Liturgy, a Legacy, and a Ragamuffin Band.

There I was, wondering if my best days were behind me...wondering if the great moments of spiritual victory and meaningful fellowship were forever in my past and never to be repeated...wondering if God would ever choose to use me in His Kingdom again. And then, in the song Hold Me, Jesus, Rich sang the words, "You have been King of my Glory; won't you be my Prince of Peace", and I had to pull off the road. I couldn't see where I was going because of my flowing tears.

https://youtu.be/8gBGGX3yvMo

Well, sometimes my life just don't make sense at all 
When the mountains look so big 
And my faith just seems so small 

So hold me Jesus, 'cause I'm shaking like a leaf 
You have been King of my glory 
Won't You be my Prince of Peace 

And I wake up in the night and feel the dark 
It's so hot inside my soul 
I swear there must be blisters on my heart 

So hold me Jesus, 'cause I'm shaking like a leaf 
You have been King of my glory 
Won't You be my Prince of Peace 

Surrender don't come natural to me 
I'd rather fight You for something I don't really want 
Than to take what You give that I need 
And I've beat my head against so many walls 
Now I'm falling down, I'm falling on my knees 

And this Salvation Army band is playing this hymn 
And Your grace rings out so deep 
It makes my resistance seem so thin 

So hold me Jesus, 'cause I'm shaking like a leaf 
You have been King of my glory 
Won't You be my Prince of Peace

I'm singing hold me Jesus, 'cause I'm shaking like a leaf 
You have been King of my glory 
Won't You be my Prince of Peace 

You have been King of my glory 

Won't You be my Prince of Peace
Words & Music by Rich Mullins
c.1993 Edward Grant, Inc. (ASCAP)

Truth is...I've had more than one moment in my life when God's closeness and provision and wise direction all seemed to be in the rear-view mirror...and He has always...always...provided peace and provision in the present, and a powerful reminder of His love for me that will never end.

How "How I Was Raised" Changed to "Who I Am"

When you "grow up" in church...when a pervasive part of your upbringing is the Christian faith and morality and "Jesus loves me, this I know," there comes a time when you need to get beyond "This is how I was raised," travel through "this is what I believe," and arrive in the land of "This is who I am."

Josh McDowell's book, Evidence That Demands a Verdict, was the tool God used to get me moving along that road of turning my family's faith into MY faith.

Within that book, McDowell quotes C. S. Lewis' Mere Christianity (another tool that got me acclimated to "This is who I am" territory).

It's an often-shared bit of brilliance, but for me, it spells the difference between just going along with how I was raised and seeing that there are firm facts that form the foundation of my faith.

Having established that the New Testament is a reliable account of history, and that Jesus was crucified because he claimed to be God-on-earth, the following bit of logic blew me away...

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: "I am ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God." That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic  -  on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg  -  or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.

Truth is...No bit of human cleverness will ever be beyond argumentation, but this gets pretty close.

P.S. The Truth is Facebook page is currently a little over a month into its year of daily quotes from C. S. Lewis. You can Like and Follow the page by clicking here or pasting this link into your browser's address bar: https://www.facebook.com/DeweyTruth/