I was raised Southern Baptist, okay?! I’m not sure why I felt obligated to say that up front or why this topic makes me so tense. I’m a worshiper,  in fact, it was listening to “worship” music that I remembered from more than 20 years prior that was partially responsible for the end of my lengthy prodigal run. God intervened directly in my life — that was unmistakable — but I was left with this question: Which God intervened directly in my life? Bad experiences in Christian church buildings had contributed to my disenchantment with God so I was prejudiced against this God being that God, the Christian God.

I made a CD of some old Christian songs that I remembered, mostly simple choruses and hymns, and noticed that ;my heart would soar listening to them. Now I knew that it was that God after all. I would listen to this music when I was driving alone and often raised my available right hand. This was noteworthy because I was not a hand raiser in my youth.

When I finally worked up the nerve to walk into a church building again, I walked into a building full of hand raisers. I did not want to conform at any level because I still held some bitterness toward Christian congregations, I, of course would not raise my hands. I assumed that anyone who did desperately needed attention and I despised them.

I had a dilemma, I found that raising my hands was a spontaneous expression of worship for me but I did not want to appear to be “one of those”, whatever “those” are. I sought seats at the rear of the congregation so I could raise my hands at will and yet make it clear to everyone else that I did not need attention. This felt disingenuous — I use that word because it sounds much better than “fraud-like” or its dreaded twin “hypocritical”. I’m not sure why I was surprised that holding strong resentment toward Christians in general and hand raisers in particular impeded my worship. It took me months to unravel this truth while I repeatedly tried to reconcile the difference between the spontaneous, unfettered Richard and the uptight, contemptuous one.

Now I raise my hands when I feel it and don’t when I don’t. I most often raise just my right hand, bending it at the elbow over and over in celebratory praise. Of course, if you are new to our local congregation, this appears a great deal like a really big guy angrily shaking his fist at God. I’ll call this “cognitive dissonance” because it sounds more Christian than “frightening the children”.

I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. \o/

Psalm 63:4

Beauty from Ashes is a study that I wrote and then delivered both online through Tworship Indoors and through my local church this summer. It’s a great blessing when I am given an opportunity to share how God has worked directly in my life and then see it replicated in the lives of others. The greatest blessing is having the tables turned and being blessed in return.

This must be a part of what Jesus meant when he directed us to love our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 22:39). I had these kinds of experiences with my neighbors at Trinity Evangelical Church in Peterborough, NH and with neighbors from all over the world online. I think of the Holy Spirit as a busy fellow because when He shows Himself so obviously, He shines His light on everyone in the area, not just on the more likely targets.

To everyone who participated in any fashion in the study locally or online, know that you showed me God’s “beauty”, His poetry in your lives; I thank you for that. May God rain down blessings for 1,000 generations on you and yours.

Special thanks to my wife Laurie @mrsmcProdigal for her help delivering Beauty from Ashes locally and to my old friend Marie @spreadingJoy for her assistance online.

Beauty from Ashes Summary:

• It’s about God.
• Everything is connected.
• Everything matters.

Sources:

Romans 8:28

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Ephesians 2:10

For we are God’s workmanship [poiema: poetry], created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

We searched for these truths in the lives of major Old Testament characters.

• Jacob
• Joseph

Example: How did God show his poetic touch by having the Pharaoh’s cupbearer and baker thrown into the prison Joseph was in?

• Moses
• David

Example: How does God show His poetry by sending Jerusalem’s ne’er-do-wells to join forces with David in his cave?

• Elijah
• Ruth & Naomi
• Esther

Our theme music is below.

Roman emperor Flavius Claudius Julianus (361-363), or Julian the Apostate, attempted to fight off the rapid growth of Christianity in Rome in favor of the pagan worship of Zeus. Even with the backing of the emperor, the pagan priests were frustrated by their lack of progress relative to the Christians as Julian lamented in his “Letter to Arsacius” (360):

For it is disgraceful when no Jew is a beggar and the impious Galileans [the name given by Julian to Christians] support our poor in addition to their own …

Jews and Christians were known for taking care of their own poor and disenfranchised, regardless of whether the poor shared their beliefs.

At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that year’s produce and store it in your towns, so that the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. ~ Deuteronomy 14:28-9 NIV

Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other. ~ Zechariah 7:10 NIV

Are believers still known for this kind of charity today? Why or why not?

I just finished Radical: Taking Back Your Faith From the American Dream by David Platt. The title captured my imagination and the publisher provided a free download of the first chapter, pulling me in deeper.

I have long wondered why God chose to have my spiritual journey happen in the United States, the wealthiest nation in the world. I can only surmise that any American Christian is called to be a giver. Why else would God surround us with wealth in a world where the disparity between us and the rest of the world is so daunting? David Platt touches on this idea and hints at much more in Radical. After only one chapter, provided as part of the preview,  I was hooked and purchased the book.

One of the more compelling images from the book is a recount of the plight of the S.S. United States, built in 1952 to be the most agile troop carrier in the world. It was designed to carry 15,000 troops at 51 mph up to 10,000 miles without refueling. She could outrun any ship and get to any part of the world in 10 days without stopping. She had no match, but she was never used for her true mission. Instead, the S.S. United States became a luxury liner to presidents and heads of state.  Are you shaking your head? Don’t! Platt’s point is that the American church has suffered the same fate — agile and laden with fuel, it is deployed primarily as a luxury liner for American Christians who sit in expensive church buildings and ignore the Great Commission of Matthew 28.

The good news for us is that we are still built for agility and endurance, i.e. we are rich in resources. We all have a mission, in fact, that is our primary purpose, namely, to be conformed to the image of Jesus who was entirely and absolutely missional.

When He prayed in Gethsemane with full knowledge of his imminent death, what did Jesus not thank God for?

1. Preaching to thousands at a time

2. Performing countless miracles

3. Providing a loving family and home

4. Having a nice donkey

Okay, okay, I added the last two, but these four items would make for a great fulfillment of the American Dream, right?

What did Jesus thank God for?

He prayed thanking God for the eleven men he kept safe to be sent “into the world” (John 17:6-19). He knew that was everything required to change the world, because thousands would be saved by the power of their testimony.

A major impedance to finding our mission is that we look for it in the context of the American Dream and other cultural influences. Jesus clearly did not, so you must first shed your prejudice to find your mission. How does the author recommend that we do that?

1. Pray for the entire world on a regular basis

2. Read through the entire Bible

3. Give sacrificially to a specific purpose that we can be involved in first person

4. Spend time serving outside of your context, outside of your world

5. Commit your life to a multiplying community that enables missional believers
Radical: Taking Back Your Faith From the American Dream is a must read. I give it 4.5 out of 5 stars.

If you would like the sneak peak that I had, a free download of the first chapter is available here: http://www.radicalthebook.com/

There is a free study guide provided that is available to anyone: http://www.waterbrookmultnomah.com/RadicalQuestion

The audio version of this book is available here from Christian Audio.

Not long ago my sister in the Lord and homie (we’re both from Arkansas) Meg (@girlnamedmeg) sent me into a happy dance when she announced that she and her ex-husband were to be reunited and remarried. I was happy for them but mostly I was happy for their young daughter. I am a child of divorce and know the price that is paid over and over throughout your life. I loved the thought that this beautiful little girl would be spared that hazardous journey.

Recently this very young Jesus’-lover was diagnosed with stage 2 endometrian cancer and she’s just begun treatment for it. She and her husband, Lucas, hope to have more children and so fear for her, for their daughter and also for their future children.

Please pray for this family and follow Meg’s journey on her blog: Meg Fights Cancer.

In addition to prayer, as God leads, please consider fasting as well in petitioning God for a full healing. I welcome your comments in support of Meg and her family. This is what I will claim on their behalf:

Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke? Isaiah 58:6

I recently was tweeting with a friend when, out of nowhere, it hit me that she had been a victim of sexual abuse. I’m aware such victims have lived with false shame under a cloak of privacy for many years in some cases and do not want their privacy violated, so I approached cautiously. I asked general questions about her past and slowly got more specific, then she knew that I knew.

This is not a new experience for me and it’s no experience that I would seek, but it happens regularly anyway, about once per month, but this time was entirely different.

First, a counselor became the next person that God pointed out and she responded with the usual outburst of joy when she realized I knew before she told me. This was no sign though. Since she is a trained counselor or because she’s very intuitive, she was able to recount the phases she had passed through when dealing with abuse with great precision and insight. The light bulb went on for me when she said: “If you’ve been abused by a male, at some point you have to confront that by choosing to trust a male again, a man who knows your past.” Now I know, God points me to abuse victims who are ready to trust a male again. This is the common thread that ties them together.

Secondly, my response to the idea that my ministry was primarily to women who had been abused was a faithless but, nevertheless, enthusiastic talk with two close friends that went something like this: “No, no, no, no way, I’m male! I’ll have no credibility! Why me? No, NO WAY!”. Picture me shaking my head and talking over everyone, holding my hand up as if to ward off the obvious truth. The Spirit kept reflecting that I was talking nonsense like Moses, as if God had made a poor choice. God normally gives me three things though, I thought, to confirm direction.

Thirdly, I was listening to Hosanna (IBC) and one up-tempo part kept leaping out at me, I felt moved when it played. I couldn’t understand the words though, so it made no sense.  God DOES have a sense of humor.  God’s third confirming message was in the words I couldn’t understand. When I looked up the lyrics, here’s what I found:

Heal my heart and make it clean,
Open up my eyes to the things unseen,
Show me how to love like You have loved me,
Break my heart with what breaks Yours
Everything I am for Your Kingdom cause

The lyrics illuminate the path of someone with a broken heart that ministers to broken hearts.

Why would God give me the gift of discernment, the supernatural ability to determine, in my case, if someone has been an abuse victim? I believe that the Spirit directs this process for three reasons:

1. I am a reluctant participant.

2. I have information about a person I am unlikely to perceive on my own, information that is later confirmed as true 100% of the time.

3. The result of this exchange is that the abuse victim feels great joy and connection to God. They are freed from the burden of telling someone and simultaneously see that I do not reject them because of the abuse.

Why would God shout so obviously to me? The problem of abuse is epidemic and workers must be raised up, even reluctant workers. Roughly 1 in 3 women are victims of some kind of abuse at some time in their life and 1 in 5 men.

For more on determining God’s will beyond reasonable doubt, see Good Will Hunting.
Do you know that you’re doing exactly what God wants you to do? Are you seeing supernatural results? Tell me your story.

Social media produces traffic in a way that is unprecedented. It has surpassed both Google search and pornography as the most frequent activity online. Traffic is generated more often from solid followings in Twitter, Facebook, et al than by any other means.

What does this mean for Christians online who earnestly seek God’s will for their time? It means volume and access. If you want to minister to atheists, you need only search for them in Twitter or include #atheist in your hashtag and you have a ministry. If you want to minister to persons who are abused or who have financial need, you can find them as well.

For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10

You are God’s workmanship, that is, perfectly suited for the tasks that He crafted you for in eternity past. You are not creating ministry, you are hunting for your spot in the center of God’s good will for your life. If God has prepared you perfectly for good works, don’t you think he made the opportunities recognizable?!

Don’t wait sulking spiritually and feeling sorry for yourself, just because you can’t see one inch in front of you. Oswald Chambers

If God has already prepared your good works in His will then don’t you imagine that things will go well for you if you step forward in faith into His ministry and/or His opportunities for you?

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

If ALL things have been worked together by the Master Designer and if your good works were prepared in advance for you, doesn’t it logically follow that ALL things that have happened in your life have led you to a place where God’s preordained good works can begin?

What is God’s good will for your life, for your personally crafted journey? Look “one inch in front of you”. What has the sum total of all things in your life experience prepared you to do? Nothing in your life is an accident, God didn’t slip up in your worst moments in the past, He used those, too.

My journey has been a prodigal journey, perfectly preparing me to walk prodigals just far enough back that God runs to them and my ministry is to parents who have prodigals who have not returned. The length of my prodigal run gives them hope for their children who have not yet returned but who have been prodigal for a shorter period of time. Do you see it, there it is, one inch in front of my face?!

If you hear hoof beats, look for a horse, not a zebra. Paraphrase of Occam’s Razor

If your history includes abuse, you may have a ministry to the abused, you know their journey and have instant credibility with a group that suffers silently hoping someone like you will approach them someday. If your experience includes infidelity or being victimized by infidelity, then there are people in enormous pain one inch in front of you, approach them, seek them.

Please use your life as your cheat sheet for God’s will for you and God’s prearranged good works will start to happen. Find a group that you can help, you’ll have real power to change lives within the roadmap God has already drawn with your own life experience.

Richard @mcProdigal

I once heard a quote from a 1st century Roman skeptic and persecutor who was instructing the Roman army on how to find Christians. How? Look for groups of people who sell everything and share everything. Ouch!

I’m in love with our God. I cannot not speak that what’s happening in many church buildings may not be all there is. I don’t feel like I have time to make mistakes or get it wrong or be either of the prodigal brothers of Lk 15  that I was in my 20′s.

God is teaching me to see Him run through great writers — He is sustaining me. I finished The Prodigal God a few weeks ago, I am finishing The Shack today and I”m half done with Crazy Love. Each is shouting “It’s about the relationship, stupid!” I can’t miss it, God is BIG. I will not be pulled into mediocrity, I will serve Him as He is, big!

For now, I immerse by unemployed soul in God’s Word, books, Christian music & worship and prayer. I pray daily for God to refine my works through the perceived threat of financial loss, like so many. I like Psalms 3 for this.

I don’t feel plugged in to any group yet, I am still searching. God bless my online friends, God bless you every one.