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Your Opinion Needed: new column

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I have been asked to create and maintain a column in a soon to be created quarterly produced by the church I pastor at. My column is to address faith and culture, and more particularly, faith IN culture. What does it look like to live out our faith in our culture? What does faith look like in our culture? A column title is required of me soon, and I have been brainstorming by myself (not really a brainSTORM I suppose). I have narrowed down to 3 possibilities. Please help me with some feedback about these options. (No! I will not even consider calling it "Fulture".)

Which do you like most? Why?

Less Than 3 City (<3C) The most connected culture we have ever had realizes what "Less Than 3" means; it is what you would type to form a heart in text. I love the idea of Christians developing a love for their city. The first step to reaching any group is developing a love for that group. You cannot serve or reach anyone you do not first love.

Lost in Translation: speaking the languages of culture and faith The first thing any good missionary knows you have to do before reaching a foreign culture is to learn the language. As far as most American Christians go, the culture around them is increasingly foreign. Further, most Christians simply do not speak the language of their city, their culture. That needs to change if we are going to reach our cities.

Urban Missionary This seems almost self-explanatory; at least to those of you who read this blog. But without assumptions like that: Though my official title is "pastor", my real ministry identity is that of missionary. I am trying to apply all the same understandings of what missionary would be and do for a "foreign" culture for this urban culture that is increasingly foreign to most Christians. I am still trying to be a light in a culture that most Christians would rather attack for being too dark.

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Alright! What are your thoughts? You may also share completely different ideas if you have them.

Spiritual Suicide

The spiritual life is made up of a series of reality checks we would like to avoid. In saying that, there is no LIFE in our spirituality if we avoid these realities. When we walk away from those realities, we commit, what Brennan Manning calls, "spiritual suicide". Spiritually, we would rather give up all-together than to actually engage the realities that require us to give up living life on our own terms.

We are hell-bent on selfishness and avoiding the Christ-centered life, and we refuse real spiritual life when we keep focusing on ourselves.

The New English Bible translation of the beatitude says:

"How blessed are those who know that they are poor, the kingdom of Heaven is theirs."

The moment I come to terms with how poor  I actually am is the moment I enter the verge of something great. The moment I quit avoiding the reality that I am not the center of my universe I can begin to have spiritual growth.

The moment I come to accept that I am relentlessly selfish, broken, and tore up is the moment I reach a threshold of real spiritual LIFE.

I am, in those moments, really settling into the reality of the poor in spirit. I coming to accept the fact it is okay not to be okay all the time because I simply am not okay all the time.

This is a reality check I need frequently and constantly if I want true spiritual life and to never commit spiritual suicide.

New Poet: Hillary Kobernick

I have been trying to listen to more from Hillary Kobernick, though it is difficult to come across more of her material. I have only found two videos online to share. This is my favorite of the two, but my favorite piece I have heard from her is called "An Open Letter to Pat Robertson" (audio of which you can find at her site above) It is both incredibly well-informed and equally cutting. Enjoy! [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVs1KQACTgI&w=560&h=345]

Fire

Image #1: Cold winter night; possibly snow on the ground and frost on the windows.  Everyone huddles near the fireplace within which the logs are being consumed by the flames while creating a warmth and comfort. Image #2: Hot summer day; a few kids playing with fireworks out near the lake-house.  One rogue bottle rocket explodes in a patch of dry grass, and an inferno soon consumes the garage and damages part of the lakehouse.

Image #3: "for our God is a consuming fire." (Hebrews 12:29)

Fire is equally useful and destructive; comforting and painful.  Either way it consumes what it comes in contact with.

There are moments when I struggle to figure out how God connects and relates to me, and then there are moments when certain images of God consume me with a  great strength.

Today I am processing and wrapping myself up in the image of God as a consuming fire.  There are times when he has been my source of warmth and comfort when I need it most amidst a cold and discouraging time.

I cannot recall too many times in which GOd has been a source of destruction and pain in my life.  But I cannot allow that to make me cease to understand his great power to be a consuming fire.

Hebrews only quotes Deuteronomy when it mentions God as a consuming fire.  The context in Deuteronomy is a reference to how JEALOUS God is.

God is a consuming fire, and there are moments he has likely been jealous and thus angry when I have pursued lovers far less wild than he is.

There is an anger and almost violent sense of God as a jealous lover.  My whoredom for other lovers of my soul must enrage him, and I see this consuming fire image begin to take shape and form in my soul's gallery of images.

Because of his great mercy, though, I place that image just next to a consuming fire, which produces a great warmth and comfort when I have needed it most.

My God is a consuming fire!

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Why: @ragamuffinpc: what is a ragamuffin

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Perhaps you wonder why the address for this site is ragamuffinpc. Perhaps your RSS Reader still calls this site "Ragamuffin Ramblings". Perhaps you wonder what ragamuffin actually is or means. Perhaps you have images of a classic doll with red yarn hair. Perhaps you are thinking of a strange pastry. You have come to the right place today. I will explain, today, the meaning behind my site's title.

I first heard the word used and defined by my hero Brennan Manning in his book The Ragamuffin Gospel. God used Brennan and this book to ravish my aching heart with his outrageous love. I came to understand God's grace and furious love in a way I had never taken hold of in my life.

The ragamuffin is one with a singular prayer: "God, be merciful to me, a sinner." Brennan explains further in his new book All is Grace: "any additional flourishes to make that cry more palatable are pharisaical leaven."

The ragamuffin is one who understand that he, along with every other person, is a beggar at the door of God's mercy. She is the one who is bedraggled and beat up in life and faith, but have learned to take the hand out of grace without holding back or allowing the shame to hold them back.

This is why you will find ragamuffinpc to be more than an URL for my website, but it is an identity of which I am learning daily to take hold.

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How would you explain the name of your blog?

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Why we celebrated Osama's death

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When Saddam Hussein and Osama BinLaden were killed, there was celebration. At a glance it seemed to me a bit like a world of savages celebrating the death of a human being. I understood it though the celebration of death seemed savage to me; regardless of whose death we were celebrating. It felt like a denial of mercy and life, but that is not what I am writing about right now.

Today I read Proverbs 11, and verse 10 struck this chord in me.

"when the wicked perish, there are shouts of joy."

There is no question of the wickedness of Osama and Saddam. I am not too certain you have to be a follower of Jesus to question that. How it felt to celebrate their death, again, is not the point, but the realization that this is going to happen when wicked people are gone.

The question for me (and you) today hits at the reality that how you live your life is how you will be remembered when you are gone.

Can you imagine people celebrating that you were finally dead and gone?

What if we broke this detail down a little further?

What do people think and say of you after you leave? After you graduate? After you retire from the company? After you move out of your neighborhood? After you leave your church? After you move to your next job?

After you walk away from a conversation?

How we interact with people and live our lives impacts how we will be remembered.

I do not want people to celebrate the moment I finally leave them, but that factor is determined by how I interact with people now.

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Book Review: Billy Graham in Quotes

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Not many would ever argue the wisdom and power behind the words of Billy Graham. He has stood with dignitaries of the widest array and never wavered in his presentation of the truth of Scripture. The heart of an evangelist has never been lost on this man.

This book is not a memoir. It is not a biography. It is a collection. It is a book for your reference shelf. It is sorted out in a way that makes it very easy to access exactly what you want each time you pick up the book. The arrangement of topics is not only a vast array; but it is easily accessible at the point when you need.

It is not a devotional book; though one could use it as such. There is so much information for the Christian's journey beautifully arranged in this book, you could spend moments or years soaking it all in at whatever capacity you wish and need.

As for me, this book will go on my closest shelf for easy access to a depth of knowledge you cannot easily neglect.

Thank you booksneeze and Thomas Nelson Publishing for an opportunity to review such a great book that is both rich and easily used.

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Wild at Heart: in the city

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What is it about downtown that makes me feel like John Eldredge? For those who don't get the reference, the majority of this entry will make no sense...well maybe it will.

I do enjoy being outside.  I love camping and I enjoy a good hike.  I do enjoy the mountains though I'm not too inclined to carry a pocket knife at all times or attempt to round up my meals with only my bare hands and my multi-tool (I do own one).

Though I do enjoy the outdoors, I actually sense myself "coming alive" when I am wandering the streets of midtown Chicago, San Fransisco, or Sacramento.  Something about being in the big metropolitan city atmosphere that makes me feel like Hiro on the first season of "Heroes" the first time he shows up in Times Square.  I feel like that every time.  I want to say hello to every uninterested city-dwelling passerby because everyone should be so excited to be there.

I like walking blocks at a time to a small "swanky" coffee shop to sit and read by the storefront window.

I like walking along with my white earbuds connecting my ears to my front jeans pocket.

I like finding a parking place (don't too much enjoy the search for one).

I enjoy old houses, studio apartments, and flats.

I enjoy small independent business among large corporate business.

I enjoy small city parks that almost feel like the mayor is playing a real life version of sims city where the city is dying of low oxygen and lacking recreation.

I enjoy diversity.

I enjoy visiting places "Christians don't normally go".

I enjoy endless individuals, which represent endless relationships I could have.

I enjoy that thing in my heart that leaps at the vision of me getting to know a lot of people in this room, this coffee shop, this park, this city.  It is that thing that leaps within me to think about how many friendships I could create down here, and how many of those friendships could lead to a difference made in how someone sees Christians.

How many people could I meet downtown that could one day be talking to someone else who says, "I hate Christians.  All Christians are..."  Could the people I meet say to their friend, "Well, I actually have this friend I met at the coffee shop who is different than that."

My heart leaps at the possibility of building life-changing friendships before or even instead of converts.

There are so many friendships to be had downtown, and I would love to see people come to Christ, but there are a lot of people who need to trust Christians before they will ever trust Christ.

Now I am wild at my heart to make that a reality in a place where I feel God's pleasure on my heart every time I am there.

How Arrogant Am I

How arrogant am I! Turns out, quite a bit! Colossians 1 tells us that we are all created by God for God.

It reminds me of the joke about the cat and dog.  The dog says, "You feed me. You pet me. You give me shelter; you must be God." The cat says, "You feed me. You pet me. You give me shelter; I must be God." I think there is an entire book written about "Cat and Dog Theology", but here's the deal I am trying to learn at this moment:

How often do I treat God like I was created to be served by Him, or worse yet, that I created Him so that he would serve me?

When I take a moment to reflect on my worship, my prayer life, my faith overall, I am sobered by how arrogant I really am.  I have treated God as though it is His job to be at my beckon call; as though he were created for me and not the other way around.

How much time have I spent asking that God take care of ME, bless ME, heal ME, be with and take care of MY friends and family? Now I realize we are told to ask and it will be given, seek and we will find, but is that all I have done?

Perhaps the answer lies in what happens in my heart when those requests are NOT answered as I request or expect.  Do I get frustrated with God? Do I expect an explanation from God? Honestly, how many times have I asked God "why" as though His work and choices need to be checked; much less checked by ME?

Daniel 4:35 says, "All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing.  He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to Him: 'What have you done?'"

All those times I have wanted to ask God "WHY!" God is not obligated to answer those questions.

How arrogant I have become!

my name is alarm clock

I found myself cornered by my owners anger toward me.  That jerk got angry at me when I did what he set me to do.  He was angry at me for "going off" at the time I was predetermined to go off.  He had asked me to go off at a certain time and then hit me in anger when I went off.

I was durable though.  I know I serve a great purpose in my owner's life.  I assure his presence in the right places at the right time, which really makes all the frustration and anger worth it.