FLAME

If you don’t know me, allow me to introduce myself. My name is FLAME, also known as Marcus Gray. I am a Christian rap artist who has been on a lifelong journey for biblical truth, and I’ve found my home in confessional Lutheranism. Critics who once supported me view me as having fallen from great heights. Some even think I’ve fallen from grace and have embraced false teaching, that I’ve been drawn away from truth and am now obsessed with propping up Dr. Luther above Jesus. Or worse, in their minds, that I’ve become Roman Catholic! “Lord, have mercy,” they cry. The distance in their minds between Jesus’ earthly ministry, culminating in His finished work on the cross, and the ongoing dwelling of God’s presence in our lives as expressed in the sacramental life of the church is as vast as the earth is from the sun.

Read Christian hip hop artist FLAME’s powerful first experience with Confession and Absolution and the comfort it provides. The following has been adapted from Extra Nos: Discovering Grace outside Myself.

Our world is a sinful, broken mess. Yet God uses people and things around us to deliver His grace. Is it weird that God uses lowly parts of His creation for His perfect purposes? Christian hip hop artist FLAME explains how God uses physical elements to deliver His good gifts. The following has been adapted from FLAME’s book, Extra Nos: Discovering Grace outside Myself.

We hear in church that “Jesus died for everyone,” but why are some people saved and others are not? Did Jesus only die for some people? These are questions Christian hip-hop artist FLAME struggled with too. Read his account about this struggle in his faith. The following is adapted from Extra Nos: Discovering Grace outside Myself.