The Ragamuffin Gospel

A few weeks ago I purchased a book from a used book section in a store. "The Ragamuffin Gospel" by Brennan Manning. I had previously borrowed and read this book a few years back, but I felt I needed to read it again. I was lucky enough to stumble upon a first edition hardcover. I love finding first edition books. They still have some imperfections with spelling and with this particular book the type looks as though it was printed with a typewriter. All of this aside "The Ragamuffin Gospel" is an amazing read.
As I was reading last night I ran across this quote that really struck me.

          "Fyodor Dostoyevsky caught the shock and scandal of the gospel of grace when he wrote: 'At
           the last Judgment Christ will say to us, 'Come, you also! Come, drunkards! Come, weaklings!
           Come, children of shame!' And he will say to us: 'Vile beings, you who are in the image of the
           beast and bear his mark, but come all the same, you as well.' nd the wise and prudent will say,
           'Lord, why do you welcome them?' And he will say: 'If I welcome them, you wise men, if I
           welcome them, you prudent men, it is because not one of them has ever been judged worthy.'
           And he will stretch out his arms, and we will fall at his feet, and we will cry out sobbing, and
           then we will understand all, we will understand the Gospel of grace! Lord, your kingdom come!"

"Will Christ actually welcome those who are marked by the evil one?" This was the first question I found myself asking after reading this quote. The answer I came up with is "I don't know". The gospel of grace is such a mystery to us as humans because we can't really grasp the vastness of God's grace. How are we to take hold of something that is so all encompassing as grace? Even the premise of Holy, God given, all covering grace is so hard for us to take hold of and accept that we in the church had to come up with a way to some how still attach duty to the free gift of grace. "All you have to do is pray this prayer". When you have to put the words "all you have to do" before you can receive grace it takes away the word "free" from "free gift of grace". If you have to do something for free grace, the grace really isn't free. There is nothing we can do earn God's grace. It isn't saying a set of words that will get you into heaven. It is simply knowing that God is offering free grace and you receive it.
This old hymn written by William R. Newell has been running through my head all night: "Mercy there was great, and grace was free; Pardon there was multiplied to me; There my burdened soul found liberty, At Calvary." This chorus certainly does display the freeness of God's grace.
I know this blog seems incomplete but I plan on discussing the gospel of grace much further as I continue to work my way through the book "The Ragamuffin Gospel" and I hope that it may help those who may be struggling with accepting the fact that there is nothing a person can do to earn God's grace.

Weekend of Firsts

It has been a great weekend! The leaves have been falling at a steady pace this week and so I took advantage of my weekend off to rake a few of the leaves into a large pile for me and Marcus to jump in. This was the first time Marcus has played in the leaves and he really wasn't too sure about those crunchy, itchy, things that were all over the ground. However, after I showed him how it was done by falling backward into the large pile he felt somewhat more at ease about touching them. He didn't really want to get into the pile, but he had fun tossing the leaves up in the air and feeling them fall on his head.
That was last night. This morning we were out side again playing and I felt I need to take care of the large pile of leaves I had created the night before. After removing the pile from the lawn and spending several minutes chuckling at our neighbor who was using a blower to clear his lawn (which took him twice as long as me) I decided to grab a drink from the hose. It didn't take long for Marcus to want to try it too.
What a wonderful weekend of firsts for the little guy. First playing in the leaves and then a drink from the garden hose. There are few moments that can make a father more proud than I was this weekend.
As I told Renee this morning, sometimes things like that just melt your heart. I couldn't be prouder of my little ragamuffin!

The Weight of Our Words

The other night my family and I were out for our nightly run. We had just started out when we were stopped by someone from our former church who just moved into a rental house down the street. She was just leaving and jumped out of her car and ran over to my wife and I and gave us both a big hug. Both my wife and I got the feeling that there may be some rumors going around about the reasons we left the church. You see the first thing out of this persons mouth was "I have been so worried about you guys". Now why would she need to be worried about us. We have a strong marriage, a strong family, and a healthy support system behind us.
As we talked about our encounter later that evening my wife and I couldn't come up with any other opinion than there must be some rumors being spread around. Now my wife and I have been Christ followers for quite a few years now and we both know that gossip and rumors are one of the most destructive things to occur in the church.
My dad has been the pastor of a small church for 25 years and I can tell you that I have seen people be ripped to shreds by the words of others in the church. To be honest I can see why people outside the church would think twice about becoming apart of it. Christians seem to rip each other apart if they get the chance and to be honest I have been guilty of this sin myself.
All of us as Christ followers need to check ourselves before we wreck our relationships with those inside and outside the church. So just stop and think before you speak, and if you find someone saying something hurtful about someone else walk away or stop them in their tracks before they cause allot more harm than good.

Talking in my sleep has been fairly harmless until last night when I apparently woke my husband up at midnight and told him there was a bat in our room. (If you know Aaron, you know he has an incredible fear of bats...) He kicked me out of the room, wielded his weapon of choice (broom) and checked the bedroom for the bat. Meanwhile, out in the hallway, I started to wake up enough to realize I had no idea what was going on.

He still doesn't find it as humorous as I do.

I love you Aaron - thank you for being my protector!

Sweet Songs From the Bathroom

This evening my wife took me out to Applebees for my 30th birthday. She invited some of my closest friends and we sat around the table talking it up. My wife sends me to the bathroom with my son to change his diaper. As I am in the restroom with my sons dirty rear facing me I hear the mysterious sounds of singing coming through the restroom door. Just a minute later I hear the mysterious singing stop abruptly. And then it happened! I hear clapping and laughing. All of the sudden the bathroom door flings wide open and two of the worst singing waiters start to singing... "happy, happy birthday from Applebees to you. Happy, Happy birthday"... blah, blah, blah.
My son nearly fell off of the baby changing table when these far from professional singers came bursting through the door. I thought this was the best birthday song in the world!!! I have never been wished happy birthday in a bathroom, and an Applebees bathroom at that. Thanks babe, this was an unforgettable birthday dinner ever!!

Getting Ready for the Deer

Thank goodness that I had a day off today. I have been in the Christian retail business for almost eight years now and it never gets easier. I started out on the lowest rung of the proverbial ladder and over the years have worked my way up to Assistant Store Manager. To say that I dislike working in Christian retail would be putting it lightly. It is always the same and it seems that you never make any progress. In fact it seems these days that our store has been moving backward not forward. Our area has been hit hard this year by the economy and road construction. We are on a main shopping street which sees thousands of cars each day. They have cut it down to one lane only going one way for the last 5 - 6 months. Many of the local business owners are not none to happy. So I say all this to say, it sure was nice to have a day off.
Shockingly this post is not about my job, but rather about preparing for the opening of firearm deer season here in Michigan. Earlier today I went out to set up my brand new tree stand ( I had to buy a new one because someone made off with my old one). I left my place around 1 pm and drove for 30 minutes or so to get to my hunting location. When I left the house the sky was overcast, but it wasn't raining it the weather has been like this for several days so I figured "oh, it isn't going to rain", but boy was I wrong. When I arrived at my desired destination I unloaded all the gear I would need to put up my new stand only I forgot one of the most important parts.
I lugged the ladder stand out to the woods and picked out a fairly nice tree to hook it to. The sky once again started to drip its sweet life giving water only this time it was dripping at more of a trickle. I thought "no big deal I can get this thing up in a few minutes". Two hours later and a return trip to the car later I realized I was not quite the skilled woodsman I thought myself to be. By this time the trickle had turned to a full on hose spray of life drowning water. I was soaked from the tips of my toes to the top of my head. I was cold and wishing I would have chosen a different day to put up my stand.
However, God has a way of making lemons out of lemonade. On my way out of the one acre wood I saw in the fare corner of the field a mighty four point buck. Now mind you it has been at least six years since I had seen a buck of any kind in this woods. God showed me that my work was not in vein and that something good would come from the soaking wet two hours I had just put into my deer season.

He also showed me that my eight years of hard work in Christian retail will not be in vein either.

My Final Goodbye to Facebook

Can't believe I found a youtube video that says everything I want to say.

So Long and Farewell

Over the past few days I have been pondering the reasons I have for removing myself from the very popular and addictive social network site known as “facebook”. There weren't many reasons why I joined the social network in the first place. I basically wanted to be apart of what everyone else was apart of, but I had no idea what I was getting myself into.


Growing up I was always living my life through others or even better not living it at all. In high school I always considered myself as having friends, but those friends were a few people who took five minutes to stop and talk to me. The truth is I was lonely. I remember times that I would sit at home and wish that I had somewhere to be or someone to hang out with, but the truth was, I knew I was alone. I was alone, depressed, and at one point suicidal. Life in my life was no life at all.

I came out of my depression and actually made some authentic and lasting relationships. Life in my life was actually starting to look like life. I was happy and fulfilled. Enter facebook. Slowly I became a recluse again. Walling myself into myself.

For me facebook creates a way for me to deceive myself into thinking that I was being relational when really I was pulling myself away from the real world. Sure I was looking at pictures of real people who would from time to time send me messages, but for the most part I was once again alone. Instead of forcing myself to get out and actually rub shoulders with others I tricked myself into thinking I was communicating with people. I have found myself sitting in front of my computer waiting for someone to talk to me. I was back in that place of thinking “why isn't anyone talking to me?” when the reality was that I wasn't talking to anyone else either. This thinking is the beginning of “social network depression.”

As I said in a recent post on facebook, “I can't stand all the changes” and its so true. I can't stand the changes that have occurred on facebook or in my personal life.

So these are the reasons I have chosen to unplug from the matrix. It is my prayer that if there is anyone else who is dealing with “social network depression” as I call it, that they would be encouraged to step out, choose the “blue pill,” unplug from the matrix, and communicate face to face with real human beings. Humans need actual human to human touch and face to face contact is the only way to do so.

Now is the time when I say... Play the video!!

Hunt Deer, Save the Planet

Just watched a t.v. episode on going green and the many things we can do to save the planet. They suggested that we purchase electric cars, unplug all appliances before leaving the house, turn off all your lights when not in use, and planet your own vegetables. I think some of the things are a little extreme such unplugging "all" the appliances in your house when not in use, but some of the things they said are just common sense. However, I think that hunting your own food can also save the planet. Think about it. If I drive to the store (in my non-electric car) and buy a pound of beef (which was packaged by a machine which is always plugged in and uses plastic which is NOT biodegradable), fry up the meat on my stove (which again is always plugged) and then freeze that meat (again, my freezer is always plugged in) for one year, I am pretty sure I will make the hole in the ozone a mile bigger.
However, if I were to go out and shoot a Deer with a shot gun using one bullet (which is reloadable) and clean the Deer myself using a knife and my muscles and chunk up the meat and use a hand grinder to make venison burger out of that meat and then wrap it in paper and freeze it, I think I just might save a whole lot of ozone. (Wow, that was one big run-on-sentence)
Hunting is not only helping us to save the planet it is also helping us to consume our lands natural resources so that we do not continue to destroy the environment, but rather help it thrive.
So the next time some talks your ear off about how hunting is wrong, just tell them the long run-on-sentence that I just told you. Even if they don't agree with you the sentence is so long that they will zone out and not even know what you just said.

Hunt Deer, Save the Planet!!

Wiggles vs. Mighty Machines

This morning our family sat down and watched the Wiggles for the first time. I barely survived. I don't know why four grown men would want to be so stupid. Marcus didn't even like it. So, we are now on to watching Mighty Machines. A much better show for a boy. He loves it. There aren't any songs being sung or idiots dancing around a stage. Just big steal machines doing mighty things. Now that is a show I want my boy to be watching.