Today’s post is a story from Brennan Manning’s The Ragamuffin Gospel. If you have never read this book, do yourself a favor and add it to your summer reading list.

A story is told about Fiorello LaGuardia, who when he was mayor of New York City during the worst days of the Great Depression and all of World War II, was called by adoring New Yorkers ‘the Little Flower’ because he was only five foot four and always wore a carnation on his lapel. He was a colorful character who used to ride the NYC fire trucks, raid speakeasies with the police department, take entire orphanages to baseball games, and whenever the New York newspapers were on strike, he would go on the radio and read the Sunday funnies to the kids.

One bitterly cold night in January of 1935, the mayor turned up at a night court that served the poorest ward of the city. LaGuardia dismissed the judge for the evening and took over the bench himself. Read more »

“As soon as all the people saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with wonder and ran to greet him” (Mark 9:15).

Do yourself a favor and copy that Mark verse somewhere where you can see it often and meditate on it throughout this Easter season. I love the sentiment that is expressed, as well as the action that occurs, in that verse – “overwhelmed with wonder… ran to greet him.” As we enter another Easter season, I’ve been thinking about wonder, and how quickly we lose our sense of wonder and awe at the beauty and majesty of the gospel. Most of us hear the stories, and if we’ve heard them many times before, then we have a hard time accessing that childlike wonder at the mystery of what we are hearing – God became man… allowed himself to be abused, rejected, and crucified… died a tragic, unjust death at the hands of the people he had come to save… rose again from the grave, conquering sin and death and making a way for us to be restored to a relationship with God. And we all said, “been there, heard that before.”
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This past Sunday, I preached about the gospel and personal growth, and how the deeper our belief in the good news of Jesus Christ’s death for our sins is, and the more we look to Him for our hope, peace, love, significance, and life, the more we have the power to overcome the challenges we face.  During the sermon, I briefly mentioned my lifelong struggle with time management and prioritizing.  I’ve tried every different system under the sun, put up motivational quotes and sticky note reminders, sought out accountability, installed deadlines – all with limited progress.  Why is this the case?  Do I just need to find a doctor who will prescribe me with a pill?  Have I just not found the right system?

Or does the gospel shed some light on what is really going on?

Let me use my issue as a case study in how the gospel helps us get at the root of the issue instead of just modifying behaviors.  Read more »

I was reading John Shore’s conversion story the other day on The Huffington Post, and as I was glancing through some of the comments, I saw one that read:

“It seems as if this is virtually the same conversion story that I’ve heard from so many Christians. It is primarily based on fear. What a sad reason to change your life as there are so many other ways. Fear, as a motivator, doesn’t seem like a very nice reason to embrace a religion, but it seems as if it is the main reason that so many people do. Just because you are filled with fear about death or your own failings as a person, that doesn’t validate a religion or God…”

While I can’t say that I saw fear as the primary motivator in Shore’s conversion story, the commenter’s point was worthy of reflection, because it reflects the way many people view religious people – their motivation to believe in God is fear, or guilt, or pride, something other than love and attraction to the beauty of God and the gospel.  The argument goes that people believe because they fear the unknown, or are afraid of death, or need to believe that there is a reason for life, that we are not just cosmic accidents, suffering until we die. 

Is this true of you?  Read more »

“Yet to all who received [Jesus], to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” (John 1:12-13)

One of the greatest realities of the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, is that those who trust in Him are adopted into the family of God, becoming children of the Heavenly Father, full heirs of all that belongs to Him.  At NewLife this past Sunday, I made the point that one of the greatest ways we can preach the gospel to the world is through following our Father’s example and becoming people and families who adopt others.  There are certainly formal ways to do this, by adopting or fostering children who have been abused or neglected or have no parents, but there are many other ways to have an adoptive attitude towards the world.    For example:

• Treat your neighbor’s children, or your children’s friends, as family, making sure they know that when they are in your house, they are part of your family, welcome to eat your food, spend the night, or to come to you for advice, prayer, or a listening ear

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