Do You Love Me?

Meditations for Ragamuffins 

January 9, 2024

Do You Love Me?

The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”

John 21:17a 

The exchange between Jesus and Peter in John 21 is so very compelling. Throughout the conversation, Jesus refers to Peter by his formal name, Simon son of John, even though Jesus had changed his name to Peter. (See Matthew 16) Interestingly, the Gospel writer refers to Peter throughout this conversation, even though Jesus consistently called him Simon son of John. Jesus’ formality with Peter may have had to do with Jesus using this conversation to redeem Peter from his failure in denying he even knew Jesus. Or perhaps Jesus was so formal because he was formulating the most critical question Peter, or any follower of Jesus, will ever face: “Do you love me?”

I have three thoughts to keep in mind as we consider our own response to Jesus. First, Peter was uncompromisingly honest with Jesus. When Jesus said love, he used the word agape, which is the same word for love used in John 3:16 and when Jesus gave us the Greatest Commandment (Matthew 22:38). In Peter’s response, he used the word, philo, which is saying, “Yes Lord, I really like you a lot.” As we consider our response to Jesus’ question, let us be as honest as Peter, and remember that “God loves us unconditionally, just as we are; not as we should be. Because no one is as they should be.” (All is Grace by Brennan Manning)

Secondly, after each of Peter’s responses to Jesus’ three questions, Jesus gave Peter an assignment: “Jesus said, “Feed my sheep” (John 21:17c). God accepts us just where we are: “A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out,” (Matthew 12:20a). Jesus has work for us to do, just where we are, as we become co-laborers with him, building for the Kingdom of God.

Lastly, the words of Mordecai’s rhetorical question to Queen Esther are relevant to every Christian today: “And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14b). God has redeemed you, and calls you His own, for just such a time as this! Your family and your neighbors, your co-workers, as well as all the people throughout your environment, are depending on you to respond to Jesus’ question: “Do you love me?”

My Takeaway: As you respond, “Yes Lord, I ______ you,” listen for the Lord to reply,

“Accept each moment as it comes to you, with faith and trust that all that happens has my mark on it. So seek me not in far-off places. I am close at hand. Your workbench, office, kitchen, these are altars where you offer love. And I am with you there. Go now!  Take up your cross and with your life complete your way.”

(Adapted from, Everyman’s Way to the Cross)

Sē’lah

<><  <><  <><  <><

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2024 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Abba’s Child

Meditations for Ragamuffins 

January 8, 2024

Abba’s Child

You received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children.

Now we call him, “Abba, Father.”

Romans 8:15b 

While the 23^rd Psalm is quite helpful in grounding the children of God in the intimacy our Heavenly Father desires with us, I believe the most compelling depiction of our intimacy with the Father is the Apostle Paul’s assertion in his letter to the Romans: “You received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father” (Romans 8:15b). Let’s put this assertion into its basic context.

The average child begins to formulate words at about eighteen months of age. Imagine such a child sitting in his father’s lap and saying, “Da, da, dad, daddy.” If the child were Jewish his words would be, “Ab, Ab, Abba, Abba.” The Apostle Paul is telling us that we can express intimate love to the Creator of the universe by calling Him, Abba, Father. This assertion helps us grasp Jesus’ meaning when he said, “For the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who are like these children” (Matthew 19:14b. See also Matthew 18:3).

Throughout the Bible, as men and women encountered the presence of God, or even one of His angels, they responded with fear and foreboding. That is certainly understandable considering that man’s ability to split the atom and unleash nuclear bombs pales in comparison to the power of God who looked at a world that did not exist and spoke it into being by the power of His Word. Humanity’s loftiest achievements in the arts are incomparable to the beauty of God’s holiness. Even the splendor of nature, the majestic mountains, and natural wonders, are mere shadows of the beauty and splendor that is our God. Yet, we get to know this awesome God as our Abba!

My Takeaway: If you are not yet at the place where your default position, your go-to mode is to know and relate to God as your Abba Father, what might you begin to do, or stop doing to help open your soul to an intimate, loving relationship with Abba?

Sē’lah

<><  <><  <><  <><

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2024 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Perfected Compassion

Meditations for Ragamuffins 

January 5, 2024

Perfected Compassion

Then Jesus said, “Yes, now go and do the same.”

Luke 10:37b

Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity and served in the hospice she founded in Calcutta until her death in 1997. Countless individuals journeyed to Calcutta to spend time with her to learn her secret for life. They assumed she must have some insight she could give them to help them sort out the meaning of their lives. Mother Teresa’s insights were quite simple, and incredibly profound: you will never know Jesus is all you need, until Jesus is all you have. That sounds a whole lot like Jesus saying, “If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it” (Matthew 10:39 (NLT), see also Matthew 16:25). Her words, like Jesus’, are hard to hear and harder still to incorporate into our lives.

Mother Teresa’s advice on how we come to the place in our lives where we fully rely on the sufficiency of Christ is the same counsel Jesus gave to an expert in religious law after Jesus told him the parable of the Good Samaritan: now go and do the same. Time and time again, Mother Teresa told the pilgrims coming to Calcutta that the meaning of their lives would be found in understanding the conjunction between Matthew 5:48 and Luke 6:36.

In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus tells his disciples, “But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus’ message to his followers is, “You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate.” So which is it? Are we to be perfect or compassionate? Yes. We are perfected in our compassion! Mother Teresa gently pointed out to those pilgrims making the journey to Calcutta that Christ calls us to express our compassion wherever we find ourselves, every day.

My Takeaway: Perfected compassion is not only administered in Calcutta; it is expressed in Florida, North Carolina, Iowa, Missouri, Jerusalem, and on the road to Jericho.

“Then Jesus said, “Yes, now go and do the same.” 

Sē’lah

<><  <><  <><  <><

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2024 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

For Freedom Christ Has Set Us Free

Meditations for Ragamuffins 

January 4, 2024

For Freedom Christ Has Set Us Free

There is only Christ: he is everything and he is in everything.

Colossians 3:11 (NJB) 

I believe what set Saint Paul apart from so many of his contemporaries, what makes his words still resonate deeply within the hearts of men and women two thousand years after they were first written, is that Paul was so very certain of the sufficiency of Christ. Whether Paul was in a jail cell in Philippi, debating with Greek philosophers on Mars Hill, or proclaiming the Good News of Jesus in every hamlet and village across his missionary journeys, Paul lived, moved, and existed in Christ. (Acts 17:28) Paul heard God tell him, “My grace is sufficient for you,” and Paul believed God (2 Corinthians 12:9a NRSV). How might our lives be different if we too rested in the sufficiency of Christ in our lives?

Several years ago, I toured Gettysburg, Harpers Ferry, and Antietam. About one hundred sixty years have passed since Civil War battles were fought on these grounds. Yet there remains evidence of what men and women sacrificed for the cause of freedom. In visiting Thomas Jefferson’s home, Monticello, I was struck by the commitment he, and fifty-five others, made to “mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor” in support of the Declaration of Independence and freedom for the United Colonies. What has our freedom to be the people Christ called us to be, or to do?

“For freedom Christ has set us free” (Galatians 5:1 NRSV). In our personal lives, the prevailing culture tempts us to find satisfaction in the accumulation of power, money, and self-indulgence in temporal pleasures. Over and against the ways of the prevailing culture, Christ has set us free from the powers of the spiritual forces of evil so that we can dwell continually in his presence. The same words God spoke to Paul, He speaks to all His children: “My grace is sufficient for you.”

My Takeaway: If we, like Paul, will choose to believe God, like Paul, we will conclude, “There is only Christ: he is everything and he is in everything,” and we will be free.

Sē’lah

<><  <><  <><  <><

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2024 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Compassion

Meditations for Ragamuffins 

January 3, 2024

Compassion

Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.

Luke 15:20b

Repeatedly we read in the Gospels that Jesus had compassion for people. Compassion is at the heart of Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son. I am quite convinced that compassion is the foremost emotion Jesus has for all people.

Within the realm of our fallen sinful nature, our reaction to people who do wrong to us is to want revenge, retribution, punishment, as our interpretation of appropriate justice. Generally, compassion usually doesn’t make the list of our responsive emotions. However, Jesus is different as he models life for us as God’s new creation. Jesus’ first response is compassion.

There was a minister who encountered a crisis of faith and gave up. He left the church and abandoned his family. He ended up alone in a ramshackle old trailer in the middle of winter. His small electric heater quit. In disgust he yelled out, “God, I hate you!” Then he fell to the floor weeping. The minister would later testify that in that trailer, in his darkest hour, he sensed God reply to his curse, “I know; it’s okay.” Then this shattered man heard Jesus weeping with him. Soon after that experience, the minister left the trailer, and like the prodigal, returned home.

In your brokenness, in your darkest hours, when you have sinned against God and others, what do you hear? Do you hear Jesus condemning you, or judging you, or do you experience the savior of your soul weeping with you? Whether you have a discernable experience of God’s presence with you, the truth is that God is always for you; the lover of your soul keeps track of all your sorrows. He has collected all your tears in His bottle, and He has recorded each one in His book. (Psalm 56:8)

My Takeaway: I am not sure which causes God’s tears to flow the most: our brokenness that causes us to do dumb and hurtful things or our deafness to His tears of compassion for us.

 Sē’lah

<><  <><  <><  <><

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2024 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Safe With One Another

Meditations for Ragamuffins 

January 2, 2024

Safe With One Another

What counts is whether we have been transformed into a new creation.

Galatians 6:15b

One of the greatest mysteries for those seeking the life in Christ as their way of life is how we manage the inner war between our fallen sinful nature and the reality “that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). The Apostle Paul was quite dramatic in his response to our dilemma. He told the Galatians that his “old self has been crucified with Christ,” and he told the Romans “Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism” (Galatians 2:20 & Romans 6:3-4).

Paul wasn’t just using hyperbole to make his point. We have been given new life by God, and we are His new creation by faith in Christ Jesus. This new life is altogether different than our old life. Our mission is to take this new life, which John Wesley called holiness of heart, and make it our way of life, which Wesley called holiness of life. There are milestones for this new life we can look for as we journey along the way with Jesus. One of the milestones is our authenticity with one another.

Someone once said, with great sadness, that if he had to write an epitaph for his parents’ tombstone, he would have to write: “Here lie two people who never knew one another.” He said his father could never share his feelings, so his mother never truly knew him. Feeling safe with God’s love for us and safe with another person so we can share our innermost feelings is one of the greatest gifts we will receive in this lifetime. When the history of the twentieth century is written, one of the greatest achievements noted will be the development of self-help groups. At the core of these self-help groups is authentic sharing, where group members own their feelings and take responsibility for their lives. I would add to this the reunion, or accountability, groups that are part of the fourth-day spiritual retreats such as Tres Dias, the Walk to Emmaus, and Cursillo.

My Takeaway: A core value within every Christian small group, and within every home, should be the building of authentic community where the members learn to trust in God’s love for them and thus learn to feel safe so they can be real with one another.

Sē’lah

<><  <><  <><  <><

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2024 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

You Will Find Rest For Your Souls

Meditations for Ragamuffins 

January 1, 2021

You Will Find Rest For Your Souls

The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying:

“I have loved you with an everlasting love;

I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.

Jeremiah 31:3 

Let this thought be your guide for 2024:

“But now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power. Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit” (Romans 7:6).

God’s love for us is based 100% on His choice to love us unconditionally, just as we are, not as we should be. If His choice to love us were based on anything else, we would be in trouble. What if God chose to love us based on some measure of our faithfulness? What would happen if we didn’t measure up?

The truth of God’s love for us is that we don’t deserve it; we can’t earn it and we can’t justify it. God’s choice to love us is seemingly contradictory. God’s sets a very high bar of expectations for us: 

“Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).

But when we fail to meet His expectations, we hear:

“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”

(Romans 8:1). 

When we accept God loving us so completely, we can move toward that liberating day when, because we passionately believe in God’s love for us, we truly love ourselves for God’s sake.

Perhaps on this first day of the New Year, you are still a bit weary from striving to justify your place with God, still battered and bruised from the game of life. If so, today is a great day to renew your faith in God, who loves you unconditionally, just as you are, not as you should be. Because no one is as they should be. (Brennan Manning)

My Takeaway: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30 Emphasis mine).

Sē’lah

<><  <><  <><  <><

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2024 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.