,

Prayer molecules

,

A woman in the church who is quite sick and whose doctors are frustratingly running out of options still continues to go to her small community group. She is asked to share her story at this next week's meeting, and she jokes with the group leader on the phone, "Oh, you just want me to hurry up and share because you think I'll be gone sooner than later." It's one of the heaviest jokes you have ever heard, but you laugh because it is still light enough.

At the group meeting, she shares that God has given her a few pictures lately of what prayer really is. One picture is of molecules. She explains that prayer is like a molecule, and each prayer a person gives for a person, a situation, or circumstance is another molecule attaching itself to the mass.

One prayer by itself floats alone, but when more and more people pray, all the molecules connect and cover.

Beautiful. 

,

The 4 keys to soaring in life

,

When you fly somewhere there are a few questions they ask you at the airport. If you hope to really fly and soar in life, there are a few questions to answer.

Where are you headed? Do you have baggage to check? How much does your baggage weigh? Are you carrying anything for anyone else?

, ,

Through the looking-glass [self]

, ,

There is a social psychological concept called the looking-glass self that essentially breaks down to theorizing we become more and more what the most important person in our life thinks we are. You have seen the popular memes online reflecting what different people think we actually do for a living!

In life, there are many people who have different perceptions of who we really are. Exes are going to have a different perception of you than your momma. Co-workers are going to have different perceptions of you than your spouse.

The looking-glass self theorizes that we will often so strongly believe that we actually become the person the most important person in our life perceives us to be.

This brings up a couple vital questions:

1. Who IS the most important person my life? (and why is it not God?) Before you answer, realize we give certain people importance in our lives. Moreover, the most important person in our lives is not always the most 'positive-impact' person in our life. For many people the most important person in their life might be the abusive parent, and that impacts how that person really perceives himself. We may give too much importance to the person we are dating who perceives you as the one make him feel better, and she begins to believe she is only exactly that.

If you are a believer, this first question necessarily proposes a second question. Why is God not the most important person in your life?

Of course we say He is, but theory is different than practice. Can you honestly say (not on this page, but in your heart of hearts) that your relationship with Jesus is THE most important relationship you have and maintain? Can you say that God's perception of you is who you really are, or are you really becoming who some other person perceives you to be; someone to whom you have GIVEN more importance than God?

2. Who does God perceive me to be?  If God is the most important person in our life and our relationship with Jesus IS the most important relationship we have, then the second question to answer is "WHO does God perceive me to be?"

Let me give you a couple verses to think of this.

1 John 3:1 is my favorite verse in all of scripture. "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are." Do you believe and KNOW YOURSELF as a child of the perfect Father who loves perfectly?

In John 13:23, the disciple calles himself "the one Jesus loves." What would change in your life if you actually believed enough to BECOME 'the one Jesus loves'? What needs to change for you to peer through the looking-glass and see what God sees?

,

3 Easy Steps to My Give-away!!!

,

A couple weeks ago, I released my 4 track spoken word EP at my bandcamp page. Even though $4 does not seem like much to pay, I would like to give away a couple free downloads of my EP. Here are the rules to be entered for a chance to win one of those downloads. 1. Go to my bandcamp page and listen to each track.  2. Write a blog post about the EP. Talk about what you like or dislike about it. Talk about your favorite track from the EP and why it is your favorite. Encourage your readers to check it out. (be sure to include a link to ragamuffinpc.bandcamp.com) 3. Tweet me, Email Me, or post to my facebook wall a link to your post.

And thats it! I will randomly choose 2 winners Thursday (3/22) and contact the winners with their free download instructions.

Why you cannot JUST trust God

Trusting God is a discipline. You have to work at and learn how to trust God. You cannot sit with someone who is going through a difficult time or situation and say, "JUST trust in God."

You cannot JUST trust in God. Trust in God has to be learned and maintained. It is a discipline which needs daily dedication. You have to trust more each day. You have to be intentional about trusting God, because as with trust in anything, it must have a risk involved. You have to risk something, some security, some comfort in order to trust in anything. Trusting God requires some sort of risk you are willing to take. You trust each day by facing those risks and making a choice EACH DAY to say:

"Today I am going to trust God in this situation."

"Today I will pray in the midst of my pain."

"Today i will tell God I am scared and lonely, because that is honest and I know he hears me."

"Today i will believe that God is sovereign; even if I can only half-believe it."

"Today I will trust God."

You cannot JUST trust God. Trust in God is a learned and dedicated discipline.

,

When I am not weak enough

,

1 Corinthians 9, verse 22 says: "To the weak I become weak, so that I might win the weak."

One reason I struggle so much to reach out to the hurting, broken, and weak around me is because I have not rightfully understood this passage. In attempts to reach out to the poor and weak, I commonly end up taking the stance: "Let me be strong for you. Let me reach out to you and be strong in your weakness. Let me be put-together where you are broken." This is how I have thought it should be for so long.

The problem with that approach, of course, is putting myself in God's role. God's role is to be strong in my weakness and put-together in my brokenness.

My job is to be weak to the weak and broken to the broken. This is how I am to reach the weak and broken.

It is not my job to be God. It is my job to be weak to the weak and broken to the broken and allow God to be strong where we are weak and put-together where we are broken.

,

Why I crave addiction

,

"Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied and human eyes are never satisfied." - Proverbs 27:20 This is one reason that addictions are so detrimental. We are created for intimacy with God and that requires an effort on our part. It requires that we at least work on coming closer to his heart. We have to continue to get back to our center, our greatest love, back to the knowledge of God. We have to do this on a regular basis. If we do not continue to get our center, we begin to wander. Before we know it, we "open our eyes" and find ourselves in the "distant country" like the prodigal. Now we need a dramatic and drastic return to the Father, back home. But how much less heartache and pain to stay at my home with my Father than to have wandered slowly into the distant country in need of a drastic return?

When I am a my center; when I am entangled with the heart of God, I am satisfied truly. The only moments I have felt truly satisfied are those when I am centered on God.

This is why addictions are so powerful in our lives. The world offers us addictions because of their nature. They will never satisfy. I will crave addictions for the rest of my life. Addictions feel good, but they do not satisfy. To be 'satisfied' is to say, "I am content with this. This is all I need." Addictions, by their very nature, are never satisfying. That is why they are addictions; they will always vie for my attention. I will always desire them. I will crave them forever and I will never be fulfilled. I will constantly desire the world's offers because they always feel good but never fulfill the needs I have within me.

I need relentless love. That will only be fulfilled at my Center. That will only be fulfilled by my Father God.

If I am to be fulfilled, to be satisfied, to be relentlessly loved, I have to stay home. I have to meet with God and allow him to love me.

God's Forbearance: what the heck does that mean

"[Jesus], whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith. He did this to show his righteousness, because in his divine FORBEARANCE he had PASSED OVER the sins previously committed." (Romans 3:25, NRSV) FORBEARANCE: (Dictionary.com) an abstaining from the enforcement of a right (American Heritage Dictionary) tolerance and restraint in the face of provocation (WordNet) a delay in enforcing rights or claims or privileges

I am, right now, really basking in the reality of God's forbearance. I love that the NRSV and NASB uses this term. It is phenomenal. The reality of this word really strikes me and teaches me more about grace.

"In His divine forbearance": This is to say that God is abstaining from enforcing a right. That right is one of giving me death or some other punishment for my sin. My sin deserves death, and God has every right to do as He wishes in response to my sin, but he chooses to abstain from that right.

This forbearance is also a tolerance and restraint in the face of provocation. How many times do I end up doing what I hate to do and essentially go on sinning the face of God's grace. I am a child who knows God gives me grace and so I taunt him and provoke him with my continual sin. Yet in his divine forbearance; his tolerance and restraint in the face of my provocation, I am still able to live an enteral life in intimacy with God.

Another level of forbearance is the delay in enforcing rights or claims or privileges. God has the right and the power to do as he wishes. It would be his privilege to punish me, but it is his love which shows me forbearance.

The measure of a disciple

"It is possible to know all about doctrine and yet not know Jesus. The soul is in danger when knowledge of doctrine outsteps intimate touch with Jesus." - Ozzie Chambers I wonder how connected I am to the heart of Jesus lately. The true measure of a disciple is his intimacy with Jesus; not how much they know. Now this is not to say that knowledge and study are characteristics of people who are not disciples. That knowledge can and should always bring us toward intimacy with the Father. But the primary question remains, "Do I have an intimate connection with the heart of Jesus?" Because THAT is the knowledge of Jesus that I desire.

There is a great story to be remembered here. There was a small church that had had a new pastor come to lead them. The church leaders came together to discuss the transition. One leader said, "Well what's the difference between the pastors?"

Another answered, "Well the old pastor preached that we are all sinners in need of grace, and Jesus came to die that we may be saved."

"Well what does the new pastor preach?"

"He preaches that we are all sinners in need of grace, and Jesus came to die that we may be saved."

"I fail to se a difference in that."

"Our pastor, now, preaches it with tears in his eyes."

How many kids do I gotta have

Before I had kids, one thing they frequently said to me: "You have NO idea! Wait until you have kids."

Once we had a child, they told me:

"You have NO idea. It is a whole different story when you have two."

We had a second child, and I thought I had finally arrived at this mark of maturity and adulthood that seems to keep eluding me. Then I get the congratulatory email:

"It's when you have three that it gets real interesting."

How many kids do I need to have?