Hope

Are You a Ragamuffin in Need of Grace?

Brennan Manning loved to refer to the Gospel as the Ragamuffin Gospel. I always liked that! Why? I didn’t come to Jesus with any piety or with the veil of religious performance. I was completely surprised when I encountered Jesus. He was totally other than my immature image of Him! And I had hit “my” bottom as a drug addicted Hippie. My home was the streets.

Jesus took me in through the love and hospitality of two of His Ragamuffin Saints. And He immediately sensitized me to the realities of being drawn into Him. He threw out the welcome mat to my heart to be at home in Him. I had no theology. Not even the slightest pretense of having a clue about my life “purpose” or “worth.” I was entirely “clueless!”

Brennan Manning eloquently communicated the Gospel of Grace without even a hit hint of religious pride. And he never wavered or compromised it. Instead; he was faithful to the message of grace through his own personal struggles, failures and shortcomings. The following quote succinctly captures the essence of Brennan’s life message!

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Reigning Through Suffering

…it is both sin and Satan that we contend with, and our daily handling of suffering will directly determine how much sin and Satan will prevail.

Absorbing the Evil

Evil propagates itself by a chain reaction. It is like a bad coin, which is passed on from one person to another until it reaches someone who will put it out of currency by absorbing the loss. If one man injures another, there are three ways in which evil can win a victory and only one way in which it can be defeated. If the injured person retaliates, or nurses a grievance, or takes it out on a third person, the evil is perpetuated and is therefore victorious. Evil is defeated only if the injured person absorbs the evil and refuses to allow it to go any further. It is this kind of victory which Paul describes when he says that Christ died to sin.1

G. B. Caird has given us a brilliant insight: the defeat of evil is often determined by the injured person! How? It is that person’s choice to absorb the evil through longsuffering, meekness, and love. When people do this, they prevent their personal injustice to percolate and transform itself into something they take out on another. The sin stops with them.

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How can I overcome health-related discouragement?

How can I overcome health-related discouragement?

A physical disability is another avenue through which Satan can attack your mind. He can whisper thoughts of anger, confusion, disappointment, and worthlessness in your ear until you begin to claim those feelings as your own. But, the Lord has a different plan in mind for you. His plans is to work ALL things, in your life, together for His good purposes (Rom. 8:28).

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How is it working for you? Is Jesus not enough?

How is it working for you?

Is Jesus not enough? Does what He accomplished on Calvary fall short? Can we add anything to our salvation? Can we study enough to figure a strategic path to wholeness? Does doctrinal purity overcome sin and fleshly appetites? Does the Magnificent Love of God fall short in wooing us into pure inner motives? Is the Great Grace of Jesus a ‘nice’ and ‘sweet’ ideology? God forbid!

“Because helping people control their flesh through human effort and adherence to rules is not only a thankless but never ending task, most leaders employ any strategy that promises even a measure of success. Guilt, shame, condemnation, and threats in God’s name are presented by the enemy as viable options. The church has swallowed this lie hook, line and sinker!” (Pg. 106 Pure Grace: The Life Changing Power of Uncontaminated Grace)

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The Gospel According to Jesus

The Message of Jesus’ Love
The Message of the Kingdom of God
The Message of the Church and Body of Jesus Christ
The Message of the Ages and the Revelation of Father
The Message of Holy Spirit through the Word and the Believer!

The supreme wonder of the gospel is its present realization of life – life of such unfathomable and enduring quality that it cannot fade for all eternity. World religions may claim to have the answers to the present misery of the individual, but what does it profit a man to achieve harmony with nature yet lose his soul? Jesus offers eternal life now. He said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” John 11:25, 26 God bless you. ~Reinhard Bonnke.

The Gospel imparts a hope that is beyond sin, judgment and fear of exposure or death! You will never exhaust the vast ocean of God’s love. You will be forever discovering greater lengths, widths, depths, and heights of His love.

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In Times of Stress and Struggle

Proverbs 17:24 NRSV
The discerning person looks to wisdom,
but the eyes of a fool to the ends of the earth.

These are dire times. In most cases, regardless of the time of life or the circumstances surrounding us, these are dire times. There are few days of rest and relaxation, many days of concern and emotional buffeting. And in those times of stress and struggle, we often wear ourselves out looking for solutions to our problems rather than simply laying those problems at the feet of our Savior. In illness, we search for medicines and doctors and treatments. In financial distress, we search for jobs and loans and money. In emotional distress, we search for friends and relationships and happiness. Scripture tells us that “the discerning person looks to wisdom.”

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Wandering in the Wilderness? Keep a Proper Perspective

We all wander in the wilderness to some extent. No one on earth has “arrived.” Anxieties, fears, worries, depression, pain afflict us all.

Just because someone is saved does not mean that bad things no longer happen or that we cease to be confused at times. The difference is Who we choose to carry us when we can no longer carry ourselves.

We all have a choice to make. Are you going to be the Lord of your own life and insist on going it alone? Will you look to other people, places and things to carry you? (This is
idolatry). Or will you look to God?

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Is God Dispassionate? An Indifferent deity?

Is God dispassionate
An indifferent deity
Coldly designing, dispatching, aloof?
Island of iron
Impassible mountain
Sovereign, majestic, timeless, removed?

Are we set adrift
Existentially axed
Rudderless, anchorless, charterless waifs?
Could Maker of minds
Molder of dreams
Abandon enfleshed to entropic fates?

Joy in the morning would say otherwise,
Dew freshly falls though desiccants rule,
Seasons and cycles remove world disguise
Revealing a plan to “make everything new.”

Gentle the hands that pull us to Him,
Soft is the Word that falls from His lips,
Patient, compassionate, sovereign, our sin
He takes to His Heart and lets His Life slip.

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Need Strength? Our Sure Resource!

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in times of trouble! Psalm 46:1

God intended Himself to be the great fountain of supply to His creatures. All are to be dependent on Him–and to look for their supplies from Him. Just so, the believer is to apply to God for all. Ample provision is made–but it is only in Jesus. Promises are given–but they are to be fulfilled by Jesus. He possesses all fullness, and as such He presents Himself to us as His needy dependent creatures–and says, “Look unto Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other!” Isaiah 45:22

This is the business of faith and prayer–to look to Jesus, and apply to Jesus for all that we need. Let us consider these words as spoken unto us every day–as calling us away from dependence on the creature, and as directing us how to act under all circumstances. It is Jesus who speaks. Jesus, as God. Jesus, as the Savior. Jesus, full of sympathy and power. Let us therefore listen to–and act upon His Word.

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