Moved to Wordpress

I just wanted to let all my readers know that I changed my blog to sudirgo.wordpress.com.

Healings in a Classroom & on the Sidewalk

"I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing"

John 14:12

Believing in an invisible God can make one weary after a while. It’s not that God owes us an appearance in the sky every so often, but the journey of faith is not always an easy road. This past week, however, I had the honor of seeing a glimpse of God’s physical reality. It sure doesn’t happen all the time, but on Wednesday evening God made an appearance. Three students and I were in a dark classroom singing “I could sing of your love forever” when a girl

walked in asking if we were singing “gospel songs.” We looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders and said, “Sure, I guess you can say that.” As she took interest and joined our circle, a friend of mine noticed her limping as she came in. He asked if we could pray for her and she said “Sure!” After a short prayer, we asked her to walk around to see if anything changed. She got up, started walking, and to our amazement the pain was gone! In my doubt, I asked her three times “Are you for real?” She told us that it was better and we all went crazy, so excited to see God at work.

A few days later, after a powerful time of worship, we were on our way out of my friend’s apartment when my buddy Dave mentioned to me how how he twisted his knee the day before. After seeing such a miracle on Wednesday my faith was stirred and I asked him if we could pray for him right there on the sidewalk. We knelt down on the sidewalk, put our hands on his knee, prayed a short prayer and told him to

walk around to see if the pain was still there. To my shock once again, he was completely healed! He started jumping, hopping, and running around in circles reassuring us it was legitimate. We were all amazed and couldn’t stop laughing as we got into the car.

After dropping everyone off, I sat in my car with tears thanking the Lord for being able to experience His physical reality. I felt like I could finally exhale! After holding my breath for so long waiting to see God reveal himself in a supernatural way, I was able to finally breathe, to finally say that I could SEE the Lord! More than the amazement of seeing these people get healed, I felt so honored that God would show himself to me in this way.

Help Haiti

After watching all the stories online about the disaster in Haiti, a few friends and I decided to put together a benefit concert at a local club in Fenway. There is still much more we can do, but I think this is a great start. I encourage any of you out there to begin to take some action on this issue wherever you are.

If you're local, be sure to come out!

Boulders I Never Saw

For anyone of you who has read through the book of Ruth I'm sure you were blessed by this story of a foreign woman finding her way in a new land. While reading through this book in preparation for our wedding last year, all we kept on seeing was a picture of God through the love of Boaz. From all the sections of the book that spoke to me, this scene resonated with my life the most:

As she got up to glean, Boaz gave orders to his men, "Even if she gathers among the sheaves, don't embarrass her. Rather, pull out some stalks for her from the bundles and leave them for her to pick up, and don't rebuke her." So Ruth gleaned in the field until evening. Then she threshed the barley she had gathered, and it amounted to about an ephah. She carried it back to town, and her mother-in-law saw how much she had gathered.

Ruth 2:15-18

The word that comes to my mind in this chapter is dignity. In watching Boaz’ interaction with Ruth, I see a man who dignifies a poor foreigner in front of those who would have probably gone against her. She was a Moabite, a descendant of Moab who was born out of a woman who slept with her father to bear a child (Gen. 19). Beyond being a foreigner, the Israelites despised those who came from this incestuous nation. The beauty of this story is how Boaz honors her amidst a hostile crowd. He publicly acknowledged her sacrifice and rewarded her commitment. He recognizes an aspect of Ruth that most people would have overlooked because of her family line seeing a character and beauty in her that initiates a redemptive outflow.The part that strikes me the most is how Boaz ordered his men to “pull our some stalks for her from the bundles and leave them for her to pick up..” That image gave me a picture of how God goes before us in our journey through life.

After spending some time reviewing my life, I recently came to realize how much my parents have gone out before me. In our thank you speech at the wedding, I literally wept like a baby (cue the flattering picture) as I shared to all the guests a picture of my parents going before me, lifting off all the debris, road blocks and obstacles from my path as I race freely through life.

I can imagine that day as Ruth gleans in the field, how amazed she was at how much she had gotten. She must have gone home surprised at how much she had done and eager to show her days work to her mother. At times we all go through life bringing home awards and achievements, getting jobs, promotions and an A for one of our classes, thinking how much we have done. We receive it all and at times we take it all for granted. For me, I remember thinking back before the wedding, realizing how easy life was because of what my parents had done, how much they had set the stage for my journey. How much more must we honor a God who takes the heat and burden before we even arrive, who went before us moving the weights, boulders and stones from our path.

But often, I go home, after a good preaching or a job well done in the mission field and praise my efforts more than he who made it easy. I claim the credit, receive the recognition and pat my own shoulder as God looks back carrying aside the next obstacle from my path. Through this passage, I see God’s sovereignty and silent actions of love in the works of Boaz. I can imagine Boaz whispering these orders to his workers as Ruth exits the room, picturing how happy and empowered she may be as she goes home that night. And to think... God does that for me all the time. He leaves his bits of forgiveness on the road knowing I will fail and drops some anointing in the places he knows I’ll need an extra boost. God knows what we need and he leaves it there right in front of us.

A Thirst for Discipline

"...there's a yearning again

a thirst for discipline

a hunger for things that are deeper

Could you take me beyond

Could you carry me through

If I open my heart

Could I go there with you

For I've been here before

But I know there's still more..."

Treasure in my Pocket

Although I walk and talk as though I am completely satisfied in Him alone, at times I submit to deception and wander the world in hopes of finding what my skin is looking for. I walk around with the treasure and pearl in my pocket blindly reaching for garbage and filth. It's like I'm attempting to find what I already have - no wonder it's called deception. It's like tempting Jesus with bread he doesn't need, esteem he already has, and rulership he already holds. When your hope is in something you can't see, it's easy to unintentionally start searching for a more tangible hope, but when you strain towards the tangible your search ironically leads to emptiness.

Something in this song, for some reason, resonates with me today.

I Got This

"Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?"

Galatians 3:3

Grace is like the guy who excuses himself from the table pretending to go the restroom. He times his strides carefully and slips the waiter his visa as they cross paths. When dinners over, we realize what has been done and the battle to compensate begins. Some students in the table exhale with a sigh of relief as they put their feather weight wallets back in their pockets. Others continue the tug o'war threatening to walk out the door leaving some bills on the table. Being a recipient of a free meal can feel a little uncomfortable at times. You wonder whether you raised up the white flag too soon. You feel somewhat vulnerable and indebted to the giver.

In a way, we're trained to refrain from being the beneficiary. You work for what you have, and what you don't have, you simply work harder for. Anything you possess that was not earned puts you at unease, it seems unaccounted for and not necessarily yours yet. In fact, your bases would have been covered if you took care of the tab. You wouldn't have a care in the world. Everyone owes you and no one can say that they got the bad end of the bargain.

This is why grace is so difficult for people to receive. Before Jesus, the law gave us some kind of framework to show us whether we're on track or not. It gave us the opportunity to cover the tab if we could afford it. The law is simply a whole lot cleaner. It's a clear system where we are able to check off items from a list. Don't eat this stuff... Check! Stay away from sexual immorality... Check! Get circumcised.... ouch, but Check! Grace on the other hand is pretty messy! Think about it, how is our response to grace measured? How do I calculate my rate of success? We default back to the law after entering freely by grace because it's familiar and in our control.

Grace is about God going before us and paying the price. We can choose to leave money on the table when the tabs been covered or we can put our wallets back in our pockets and just accept the free meal. In fact we'd be better off if we just looked into our wallets before the scramble and saw for ourselves that we didn't even have enough to pay our own share. God knows we don't have enough and he's kind enough to save us the embarrassment.

How many times have we thought that a good deed rectifies a bad action? How easy it is to think that our generous or righteous actions are tipping the heavenly scales. Our purity is not dependent on how little we watch inappropriate movies, nor is our righteousness determined by how many homeless people we feed. Our freedom is not warranted by our worship and God's love for us does not increase when we become more lovable. We are pure because of his blood, righteous because God sees Jesus when he looks at us, free because Jesus conquered death and loved because we are his children. Our payment was taken care of at the cross and it only devalues and cheapens the sacrifice when we think our efforts, money or deeds can make a dent in compensating God for what he has given us.

"It was for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burden again by a yoke of slavery."

Gal. 5:1

Audio Version:

Below is a message I preached a few weeks ago on Acts 10. My preparation for this message is the inspiration for this blog post.

http://www.fenwaychurch.org/podcast/audio/acts10jesse.mp3