The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

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Month: June 2009 (Page 3 of 4)

No Fun At All

June 10, 2009 / / 0 Comments

Our Tuesday morning men’s Bible study here at Legacy is going quickly through C. S. Lewis’ classic Christian apologetic, Mere Christianity. I was captured all over again this week by Lewis’ brief, but mighty, description of repentance:

Lewis“Fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement: he is a rebel who must lay down his arms. Laying down your arms, surrendering, saying you are sorry, realizing that you have been on the wrong track and getting ready to start life over again from the ground floor — that is the only way out of the ‘hole.’ This process of surrender — this movement full speed astern — is what Christians call repentance. Now repentance is no fun at all. It is something harder than merely eating humble pie. It means unlearning all the self-conceit and self-will that we have been training ourselves into for thousands of years. It means killing a part of yourself, undergoing a kind of death.”

In our zeal to formulate salvation, to reduce God’s eternal plan for his creation down to an orderly handful of requirements, we’ve done the world a disservice and cheapened God’s grace.

By claiming for decades and generations that one has to repent first, confess next, and then be baptized in order to be saved has implied that these are all one-time steps to salvation. The truth is, we must repent every single day. Every day. Every morning when I wake up, as I’m turning off the alarm and getting ready to start another day in God’s Kingdom, I have to intentionally turn my life around. This world and its culture and its history, my human-ness and my nature and my surroundings, all have me going in the wrong direction. Every morning when I wake up, my tendency, because of my world, is to go in a way that is opposed to the will of my God for my life. I have to determine every morning that today I will live for Christ. Today I will not do such and such. Today I pledge to certainly do this and that. Today I repent from what my own instincts and impulses are pushing me to do, I turn away from what my nature says is in my best interest, I reject what my will wants. I surrender. I give up. None of self and all of Thee.

Repentance is an on-going process. So is Christian confession. It’s realizing, more every day, that Jesus is Lord of every part of my life. There’s not a time or a place that Christ does not sovereignly rule. Jesus is Lord in my driving habits, in my conversations, and in my work and play. Jesus is Lord over this blog, over every website I visit, over every email I write. He is Lord over every interaction I have with my wife, my children, my church family, my neighbors, my enemies. He is Lord when I pray. And he is Lord when I watch TV. I confess that every day. And I repent.

Today I return to my Lord and Master. Today I submit to his will. Today I promise to live for him and others, not for myself. Today I vow to act and to speak and to think in ways that bring my God glory.

Peace,

Allan

My Food

June 8, 2009 / / 0 Comments

“My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.” ~John 4:34

My FoodJesus says these words in the context of his encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well. She had come looking for water. But Jesus talked to her about living water. He visited with her about eternal life. He envisioned for her a genuine relationship with God based on spirit and truth. He met her needs. Not her physical needs. Not her culturally-defined needs. He met her eternal needs for love and grace, mercy and compassion, forgiveness and restoration and salvation.

That’s my food, Jesus says. That’s my passion. That’s my calling. That’s what sustains me. That’s what keeps me going. That’s my calling. That’s how I live.

Jesus says, that’s my need. To seek and save the lost.

If we’re not careful, we can give in to the temptation to give people what they want, not what they need. It’s actually a lot easier to give people what the culture tells them they need than what Holy Scripture says they need. And if we’re not careful, our focus can become all about using more media, initiating more programs, hiring more ministers, building bigger buildings, starting new focus groups, and forming more committees to offer people what they can already get at NorthEast Mall.

If God’s Church can’t offer the world something the world can’t already get at Wal-Mart or Six Flags or Chuck E. Cheese, than God’s Church is not meeting needs The Jesus Way.

Jesus has met our deepest eternal needs, the Jesus Way, by dying on a cross to redeem us from our sins and then breathing into our nostrils his resurrection. Our food — my food — is to do the will of him who saved us by meeting the deep eternal needs of our community the Jesus Way.

Peace,

Allan

The Jesus Way

June 5, 2009 / / 0 Comments

“Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.” ~1 John 2:6

The Jesus WayI’m concerned about us doing things the way Jesus did them. I’m worried about the way Jesus went about his business and fulfilled the Father’s mission and I wonder about the ways we go about our business and fulfill our Father’s mission. I find myself thinking about this a lot.

I’m afraid that we call ourselves followers of Jesus, but, without hesitation and, a lot of the time, seemingly without thinking, we embrace the ways and means of the world. We live our lives in the name of Jesus. But the way we do things and plan things and think about things is, instead, very worldly. The Jesus Way is the alternative to the world’s way — not a supplement. The Jesus Way is not just a little bit opposite of the world’s way or sometimes opposed to the culture’s way. It’s all the way opposite and it’s completely opposed to the way of the world.

“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the Gospel will save it” (Mark 8:34-35).

That’s The Jesus Way. Any other way is less than and actually opposed to The Jesus Way. And that seems easy enough to understand. And we say we get it. But I see us sometimes uncritically embracing the ways and means practiced by large corporations and important causes and high-profile congregations and rich people who know how to win wars and make money and manage people and sell products. And, more often than not, those ways violate the Way of Jesus. We are so quick, I’m afraid, to go along with whatever the culture decides is successful or influential or important, whatever gets things done, whatever gathers a crowd, whatever keeps a crowd, whatever’s new and improved. And we don’t stop and think long enough to notice that those ways are at odds with the clear way Jesus walked and calls us to follow.

We’re interested in the Way Jesus leads because this is absolutely and necessarily the Way we have to follow. We can’t follow Jesus any way we’d like. Our following must be consistent with his leading. The Jesus Way is not a vague generality pointing in some upward direction. Jesus lived his life prayerfully and scripturally attentive. Jesus deliberately chose the Way he would live. And, if we choose to follow him, we have to be just as prayerful, just as attentive to Scripture, just as deliberate.

The Jesus Way is always personal. It’s always lived in deep, personal, loving, and giving relationship. It’s never imposed. Never forced. Never manipulative. It’s never from a distance. It’s always up-close. It’s always sacrificial. Look at The Way Jesus acted and thought and felt and talked and gestured and prayed and healed and taught and forgave and died. That’s The Jesus Way. Everything Jesus did was based on relationship: close, intimate, sacrificial, serving, self-denying relationship.

May our Father bless us as we diligently practice with each other and for each other the Way of Jesus.

Peace,

Allan

Don't Be Afraid

June 4, 2009 / / 0 Comments

“Do not let your hearts be troubled.” ~John 14:1

Don’t Be AfraidSo many of us live in fear. I’m not talking about temporary fear like the feelings you get stepping into the car of a roller coaster or listening to strange noises coming from the garage in the middle of the night. Not that kind of fear. I mean actually living in fear. I mean growing accustomed to — or even comfortable with — that constant worry about your life. Or your eternal body and soul. I mean accepting an uneasy feeling that your salvation is not secure and your future may be in doubt. It’s this “Once saved, barely saved” mentality that makes inner peace, the shalom that is the will of God for his children, impossible.

Living in fear means giving up control. Our fears begin to direct our thoughts and actions. We adjust our routine to accomodate our fears and our fears become our masters. Our fears dictate what we do or say. Or don’t do or say. If we’re not careful, fear barges into our lives and just makes itself at home. Fear will clean out your pantry and track mud all over your carpets and, eventually, take over shaping you and controlling you into an image very different from that of our Lord.

Fear keeps us from doing what we’re called to do as children of God and followers of his Christ.

Talk to my neighbor about Jesus? Oh, no, I’d be afraid.
Confront my sister in Christ about her sin? I’m afraid I just can’t.
Stand up for Jesus in front of others? I’m too afraid.
Fear of hurting feelings may keep us from disciplining our children.
Fear of straining relationships may keep us from sharing our faith.
Fear of being vulnerable may keep us from confessing sin or admitting our own wrongs.

Fear is powerful. And fear gets its power when it causes us to look away from the strength of our God and focus our eyes and attention instead on the opposition around us and our own weakness.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me.”

Jesus calms the storm and asks his apostles, “Why are you afraid?”
Jairus’ daughter is dead and Jesus tells him, “Don’t be afraid.”
Jesus tells his apostles around the table that last night — he tells us, his followers, today — “Don’t be afraid.”

Fear loses its power when we focus our eyes and attention on our God and his eternal nature to love and heal and forgive and provide and protect and rescue and save. Then, there’s no place for anxiety or fear. There’s no room.

Whatever you’re afraid of completely evaporates when our eyes are on our loving Lord. His presence dismisses the dread. His touch terminates the terror. His power prevails over fright and doubt. His perfect loves drives out fear.

“The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” ~Hebrews 13:6

Peace,

Allan

Naught From Myself

June 3, 2009 / / 0 Comments

“I expect naught from myself, everything from the work of Christ. My service has its objectivity in that expectation and by it I am freed from all anxiety about my insufficiency and failure.” ~Bonhoeffer

Not quite. Not really. If I’m truly honest with myself (and with you) I am not completely freed from all anxiety about my insufficiency and failure. As the good news preacher here at Legacy, I realize that whatever is accomplished is done only by God’s grace, Christ’s work, and the Holy Spirit’s power. I know that. It’s not me. It’s never me. It’s my God working in me and through me. And that does relieve a lot of the pressure. That knowledge does fill me with confidence and courage.

But I don’t know if I’ll ever lose the feelings of inadequacy that overcome me on Sundays; the dread — almost — that one day everybody’s going to wake up and see me for the fraud I really am; the fear that some day soon everybody’s going to think, “You know, he’s really not that good.”

Christ in me. It’s my only hope. It’s my only chance. And I know that.

It’s been demonstrated to me — proven to me — every Sunday now for two years here at Legacy.

Two years ago today I stood before this church family and pledged my love and loyalty to our Lord and to my God-ordained task of studying and praying and teaching and preaching with them. I promised them that, while there would be times they would be disappointed in me, there would be times I would let them down, it would never ever be from a lack of giving everything I have to the task.

Two years ago today.

In some ways it’s easier now than it was then. In a lot of ways it’s even harder.

Time together makes things better. Relationship is key. Trust only comes with the passing of months and years. Time also means more opportunity to disappoint. And I know I’ve disappointed my brothers and sisters here. I’ve fallen short with our shepherds and my fellow ministers. There have been plenty of moments when I wish I had a do-over. But that’s where this time together also helps. We know each other now. We love each other more. And I feel their patience with me and their forgiveness of me, even their endurance of me, streaming out of relationship, pouring out of hearts united by our Savior and our common goal of serving and worshiping our God.

I can’t imagine being at a better place. Our Lord has blessed my family and me to be in a church with unlimited potential to advance the Gospel and turn Northeast Tarrant County upside down for the Kingdom. And he’s surrounded us with loving and caring people who are nurturing me to be the good news preacher God’s called me to be.

Until Christ is formed in us,

Allan

Many Rooms

June 2, 2009 / / 0 Comments

Many Rooms“Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” ~John 14:1-3

Jesus tells his apostles that the solution to their despair regarding his departure is found in his promised second coming. He expects his followers to put their trust, their faith, in his power. And he shows them (us) that his departure is not just an exit from humanity, it is a continuation of his work on their (our) behalf. He is going to prepare a place. That’s a promise that his work is continuing until that time we are eternally united with him in heaven.

Let’s don’t misunderstand Jesus to be saying he’s going to build the rooms. The rooms are already built. It’s done. The Father already has the rooms ready. Instead, it’s in Jesus’ return to the Father — his death, burial, resurrection, and ascension — that the way to these rooms is being constructed. The road to the heavenly rooms is built by Jesus’ departure.

Heaven is waiting for us. Wow. It’s done. It’s ready and it’s waiting. The work is finished. We anticipate that perfect fellowship with God in Christ. We’re beside ourselves with expectation for eternity. We can’t wait. We’re anxious for it. It’s ready and it’s waiting. And we’re almost there.

What an eternal perspective that should give us. What confidence that should give us to, as Jeff Walling says, live for the line and not the dot; live for eternity and not for the here and now.

Wheaton College professor Gary Burge in his commentary on John puts it this way:

I live in a world that continually offers me temporal securities and comforts, a world that keeps my eye on the near horizon of the present, that denies the limitations of my own mortality. My ‘life of work’ aims not simply to make a contribution to my career, but to provide a means of security in the world: a home, a stable income, an investment scheme, a retirement program. While Jesus is clear that these securities are foolish and unreliable (Matt. 6:19-20; Luke 12:13-21), here he offers a positive incentive. Our true home, our complete security, has already been built for us by him in heaven. Once we embrace the significance of this notion, our attitudes toward this world completely change.

Some of the most thoughtful and meaningful conversations I have are with the older members of our church, men and women in their late 70s and 80s. They are firm in their faith and very, very aware that their hope rests in the Lord and nowhere else. They help give me (us) that eternal perspective that keeps a check on our (my) investments in earthly rooms.

Peace,

Allan

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