Jeremy Riddle: full attention

There is so much in this world that vies to steal my attention away from Jesus. That's why I am so grateful for the Spirit of the Lord who dwells within me because He is greater than the world and can preserve me from and empower me to resist the world's downward pull. Here's a quote from Dr. Ed Murphy from His book, The Handbook of Spiritual Warfare: Revised & Updated, "The Spirit of God, even when He is the Spirit of conviction of sin, is always the Spirit who lets us know we belong to God and His Kingdom...He builds up. He encourages. He blesses. He enlighens. He makes Jesus more and more previous to us. He empowers us to the defeat of the flesh, the world, and Satan and his demons. It is he and he alone who cries within us,'Abba! Father!"

So this is my prayer: Lord, "May Your voice be louder, may Your voice be clearer than all the others. May Your face be dearer, may Your words be sweeter than all the others in my life. May Your presence be truer, may Your presence be nearer than all the others & may Your light shine brighter, may Your love move deeper than all the others in my life. Please keep my eyes fixed on You, please root my heart so deep in You, keep me abiding that I might bear fruit" In Your Name Jesus, Amen.

Vineyard UK: come to me

This song seems fitting for the days I've walked around the village of Mlangali in Tanzania, Africa visiting families in their homes. At every turn I was confronted by poverty and sickness, people living in less then acceptable shelters while suffering with various insufferable health issues. I met a man today working his farm with what seemed like a fractured leg, a woman with a persistent cough, another man with severe back pain, many children coughing with runny noses and others with various sores and painful ailments. At one point, a woman came looking for me (and my translator) as she must have heard that I was visiting and praying for people. She asked for prayer for her husband whom she said literally lost his mind one day and gave away everything the family owned leaving them in poverty with nothing.

It’s painfully obvious that the kingdom of darkness is actively at work in oppressing people and stealing their hope for a future. The reality of Jesus’ words couldn’t ring truer, “The thief [devil] comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10 ESV). God is life and He desires to bless people with an abundant life. Throughout the day, I was reminded by Holy Spirit that God cares for every aspect of each and every person. He cares about their physical, psychological, emotional and spiritual needs. At each home I was overwhelmed with great compassion for the family, Christ’s compassion, and as I was talking with them about their lives all my heart wanted to do was pray that God would intervene in their lives and restore all that the devil has stolen, killed and destroyed. Thankfully, I had an opportunity to pray for just about every family I visited. Praise the Lord!

walking the Way

While I’ve been traveling through Tanzania over this past month, I’ve had the opportunity to meet several Pentecostal pastors and quite a few Catholic priests. Many of the conversations I’ve been having with these church leaders has centered on my faith journey with Jesus. To give a little background, image is very important in Tanzania and all pastors and priests wear trousers, a button down shirt at minimum and usually a tie and coat even though it is consistently hot (90+˚ F). Pan over to me and I am wearing a t-shirt and shorts, jeans maybe. While I’ve been here I have actually purchased some trousers and button down shirts. Going to church in less would be disrespectful and preaching in less would be unheard of. Needless to say, it’s been an interesting journey.

Whenever I’ve had the opportunity to really sit down with these church leaders and talk with them, I can’t help but to sense that they are very curious about my tattoos. This is only heightened when I tell them that I have spent six years in seminary, hold two Master degrees (one in Divinity and the other in Counseling Ministries) and pastor in America. I just don’t fit the typical pastor mold. Now it would be very easy for me to be offended, but rather then seeing this as an obstacle, I see it as an opportunity to talk about how Jesus saved me and brought me out of darkness and into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9). I love seeing their faces light up when I begin to share my story of hope and healing with them because they can’t help but to be impacted by God’s unconditional love, His amazing grace and Almighty power.

But, these situations are nothing new to me. From the earliest days after Jesus saved me, He impressed upon me 1 Corinthians 1:27-29, “But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God” (ESV). You see, a drug addict and dealer are considered foolish, low and despised in the world’s eyes and that’s what I was. God let me know very early that I had nothing to offer Him, which is extremely humbling. But, by God’s love, grace and power, He has transformed me and my life is now a living testimony to the truth of these verses. I am one of God’s many trophies that He wants to show to the world.

It’s amazing the favor God has given me with people and with whom He has placed me in the company of. The more I’ve leaned into God’s grace and relied upon Him to make the way forward, He has opened up opportunity after opportunity for me to preach, pastor and pray for people. It’s funny, by the world’s way of doing things I should probably try to promote myself by hiding my tattoos, dressing the part of a pastor and talking of my degrees and minimizing or even skipping the ugly of my past. But, whenever I am in situations like these, Holy Spirit faithfully reminds me that to do that would be minimizing God’s grace and anointing upon my life. Jesus has captured my heart and place within me this all-consuming passion to worship, serve and make Him known to the world. I truly can do nothing less. As Peter told Jesus, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life” (John 6:68 NLT). There is no place else for me to go, but to following Jesus wherever He is going and calling me to follow, so that I may proclaim of His grace, love, mercy and power!

making much of Jesus

My prayer this morning has been to ask the Holy Spirit to cultivate in me in greater and greater measure the simple passion to make much of Jesus. My reasoning behind this is if I am seeking to making much of Jesus then it won’t matter who I’m talking with or the situation I’m in because if my greatest passion is to make much of Jesus, this will move me to give grace, to sacrifice for another, to be slow to anger, to forgive, to be patient, kind and gentle towards others and most importantly to love continually. Simply put, making much of Jesus will mean dying to myself in greater and greater measure because making much of Jesus means making less of myself.

As Jesus tells us, “Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it”. Both Matthew (10:36; 16:25) and Luke (9:24; 17:33) record that Jesus says this twice in His ministry, in three of the four instances Jesus includes the command to “take up your cross and follow Me.” So, if Jesus took the time to repeat Himself, we should pay extra close attention to these words. I believe a good interpretation of “taking up our cross and following Jesus” is taking the time to deal with the barriers that hinder us from following Him. This means asking ourselves: “Where am I trying to preserve my life, when I really should be dying to myself and losing my life?”

If we are to fully accept that the ultimate goal of the inward transformative work of the Holy Spirit is Christlikeness, then this means accepting the reality that life truly is not about us any longer. So we must stop striving to cultivate a righteousness of our own and simply receive in greater and greater measure the gift of Christ’s righteousness imputed to us through the cross. The more we let go of ourselves, the more we will gain Christ. What this looks like walked out is whenever we choose to forgive someone just as Jesus forgave His persecutors while hanging on the cross, He is formed within us. When we choose to give grace to someone just as Jesus extended grace to everyone He met along the way, He is formed within us. When we choose to put others needs before ours just as Jesus did in ministering to the multitudes of people who came to Him for healing, He is formed within us. I could go on, but I think you get the idea.

Making much of Jesus means allowing the Holy Spirit to do what He loves to do, forming Christ within us. The more we grow in Christlikeness, the more the fruit and gifts of the Holy Spirit will flow in and through us and the more we will make much of Jesus. So this is my prayer: Holy Spirit, do what You love to do and make the things of Jesus known to us, but even more than that, we release You to disrupt our comfortable lives in order to form Christ within us. Cultivate more of Your fruit and gifts within us, empowering us to make much of Jesus in every relationship and in every situation. In His Name we ask, Amen.