The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

There’s an old story about the great evangelist D. L. Moody. I assume it’s true. Come on, I’m a preacher!

Moody was visiting a prominent Chicago citizen when the topic of church membership and involvement came up. The man told Moody, “I can be just as good a Christian outside the church as I can be inside it.”

Moody didn’t say anything. He just walked over to the big fire blazing in the fireplace, removed one of the many red-hot burning coals, and placed it on the hearth.

Both men sat in silence together and watched the single ember die.

And the host simply turned to Moody and said, “Oh. I see.”

I think you can probably get to heaven without close friends. But you cannot be all you can be for the Lord without someone right beside you pushing you, lifting you up, helping you, challenging you, serving with you. We were never ever intended to do this alone. We need each other. We need the mutual loving and studying and questioning and affirming and supporting. I think better when I’m with other Christians. I sing better when I’m with my brothers and sisters. I pray better in a group of faithful believers. I make better plans. I sin less. I think about myself less. My eyes are much more open to God’s Holy Spirit and his redemptive power when I’m with God’s Church.

We cannot separate our relationship with God from our relationships with one another. We don’t belong to ourselves, we belong to Jesus. And Romans 12 informs us in strong language that if we’re in the Body of Christ, we each belong to one another. Our connection with Christ and our connections with each other are so interwoven they absolutely cannot exist in isolation.

And our Christian lives flow from there. We care for each other. We’re committed to one another. We protect each other, confront each other, sustain each other. We rejoice together. We mourn together. Together we fuel the fire. We give and receive Holy Spirit energy and we bask together in the warmth and the light. It’s in community—together—where we reach our God-ordained potential as his children.

Don’t burn out on the hearth. Jump into the fires of the community of faith.

Peace,

Allan

“Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love.” ~Romans 12:9-10

Sincere love is difficult. Devotion based on brotherly love isn’t easy. It demands that we detest what is evil in our friend’s lifestyle or attitudes. We “love the sinner but hate the sin.” Our love for the person committing the wrong is real, not pretended in any way; but in sincere love we must abhor the evil that can only cause him or her harm.

God’s love is like that.

God loves us so much that he accepts us just as we are; but he loves us too much to let us stay that way.

God certainly loves us without any phoniness and with total acceptance, but he cannot stand anything in us that is contrary to his will. Our Father is continuously working to purge the evil from us and transform us by the renewing of our minds into the image of his great Son.

And we see and relate to our Christian brothers and sisters the same way. We would never watch our brother drink a cup of deadly poison while we sit in the shade and sip iced tea. We would leap across the table and knock the cup out of his hands to save him. Because we love him. We would not allow a friend to step into the path of an on-coming bus while we skipped safely along the sidewalk. We would push or drag her out of harm’s way. Because we really care about her. Even though our brother might not understand at the time or our friend might think we were meddling. Sincere love — loving devotion — means sincerely caring and acting for their eternal interests.

It means making the phone call. It means doing the lunch. It means having the talk you’ve been meaning to have for months. Or years. It won’t be easy. But it’s a vital part of living together in Christ’s community.

Peace,

Allan

“Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” ~Jesus, John 13:34-35

How do you know if a Christian is for real? How do you know if somebody’s a legitimate Christian? Who are the real disciples? How do we know?

In radio, they gave us huge badges with our pictures on them to identify us as legitimate members of the press. I belonged on the court before a Mavericks game or in the clubhouse after a Rangers game. I had the badge. I was authentic. I had the proof that I was who I said I was.

Teachers in our schools wear ID badges. Police officers and delivery truck drivers, doctors and jurors and the kid operating the roller coaster at Six Flags. You may be wearing one at work today. The badges identify us as the people we claim to be. It clears up any doubts. It answers all the questions.

How do you know if a Christian is for real?

“By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Baptism is not the badge of true discipleship. A certain worship style is not the mark of a Christian. Neither is the name of your church or its leadership structure or your opinion on the hot church issue of the day. The authenticity of a follower of Jesus is proven by his love for others. Genuine love. Sincere love. Self-giving, sacrificial love. The kind of love Paul describes in Romans 12:9. Unhypocritical love. That’s how people know.

It’s not baptism. We all know people who’ve been baptized who aren’t living for Christ, right? It’s not church. You and I both know people who are at church all the time who are filled with anger and bitterness and hate.

The world looks at our love to determine whether we’re for real. And so does Jesus.

You can be baptized, you can claim Christ as Lord, you can sit in the pews four times a week. Without love for others, though, you’re a liar. And everybody knows it. It’s like walking into the Cowboys lockerroom without a badge. You stick out as an imposter.

You might say, “love is not the only badge of discipleship, Allan.” And you’d be right. It’s not. But it is the most important one. It’s the primary one. Without it, the others don’t mean a thing. John couldn’t be more clear: If you don’t love your brother, you’re not a child of God (1 John 3:10). If you don’t love your brother in need with actions instead of words, the love of God is not in you (1 John 3:17-18).

Authentic love — agape without hypocrisy — is the thing that characterizes children of God. And it’s the thing that characterizes the Christian community. It marks us as disciples.

“Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply from the heart.” ~1 Peter 1:22

Peace,

Allan

“In Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” ~Romans 12:5

We belong to each other because we belong to Christ!

This was our theme here at Legacy last night. These are the words we said together during our call to worship. We repeated the words together a couple of times during our lesson from Romans 12. And we said the words to one another as we shared the communion meal of our risen Lord.

We belong to each other because we belong to Christ!

What if we really did belong to each other? What would that look like? What if we really functioned, not as a group of individual Christians with individual ministries but together as a whole? What if we thought in terms of the whole? Not what’s best for my age group or what’s going to benefit my kids or how this is going to meet my needs. What if we thought and acted like members of something bigger than ourselves? What if our thinking was community-oriented? What if the whole really were greater than the individual? What if we took the inspired apostle Paul seriously? What if we really belonged to each other? What would that look like?

We belong to each other because we belong to Christ!

What if we were truly community? Not just community like the people in your neighborhood or the guy across the street. Not like the people you see two or three times a week and say ‘hello’ to when you run into them at Wal-Mart. What if were community, a body, belonging to one another like, maybe, an army platoon?

Now that’s a community! An army platoon! United by a shared purpose and goal. Working together to achieve something great. A community formed under pressure, shaped by great difficulty. Not just church membership, but a sacred covenant with one another in order to serve the Kingdom for which Christ died. A community of faith inseparably bonded in order to do something together that eternally matters.

We belong to each other because we belong to Christ!

What would that look like?

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Two Saturdays ago we went to the Rangers game with 20 of our Legacy brothers and sisters and wound up in the big middle of 175 Austin Jackson fans in the left field bleachers. Austin Jackson is the Detroit Tigers’ rookie centerfielder who grew up and played his High School ball at Denton Ryan. And when Jim Knox did his man-in-the-stands interview on Fox Sports Southwest in the bottom of the fourth inning, Carrie-Anne, Valerie, Carley, and Carley’s friend, Victoria all got in the pictures. They actually helped this “A.J.” fan club hold up their big banner for the interview.

We had a great time at the Third Day concert before the game, hanging with the Ashlock boys who ate for the cycle during the game, and rooting the home team to an 8-4 loss. Base-running and fielding errors are killing this team, huh? Hopefully Kinsler’s return will spark some offense and shore up that middle part of the defense. And while the Rangers are technically in first place today, I’m worried about this team.

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I’ve been convinced for ten years now that the Mavericks will never win a title as long as Dirk is their best player. I hope he’s not finished as a Mav. I can’t stand the thought of our DFW sports scene losing Mike Modano and Nowitski, two wonderful human beings and pillars of the community, two Hall of Famers (and media friendly to boot!), in the same year. Cuban just needs to find a way to pair Dirk up with a transcendent LeBron-esque superstar to cover his weaknesses on both ends of the floor. Somebody the other 12 guys on the roster will respond to in a crisis. I love Dirk. But he’s never been enough.

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The Legacy Prime-Timers held their annual Hobo Stew this past Saturday night. Valerie and Sarah and Maddie (The Three Amigas) were on hand to entertain and inspire with their beautiful voices. Kent drew the catcalls and hoots everytime he drew his own number for door prizes. Vic did Elvis. And Mack and Shirley blew us all away with their costumes. What a great night. Carrie-Anne and I were honored to be a part of it.

Peace,

Allan

“Offer your bodies as a sacrifice, living and holy and pleasing to God — this is your spiritual act of worship.” ~Romans 12:1

Have you ever worked for somebody who was never satisfied with your efforts? You could never make this boss happy? It didn’t matter how many hours you worked or how hard you labored or how much you produced, he was not going to be pleased? Maybe you’ve been (or are) married to someone who is never pleased with you. Nothing you do makes her/him happy. Or maybe you have grumpy parents. You never received a blessing from your dad. You never lived up to your mother’s expectations.

Paul says that when we offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, it is pleasing to God.

And that is so wonderful.

God wants us to have a terrific freedom in our relationships with him. How comforting and liberating it is to know that he’s pleased with us! He’s proud of us! The things we try — even the things we try and fail — make our God happy. It has nothing at all to do with our ability to be pleasing. It’s not on us or on the things we’re doing to please God. In fact, it’s just the opposite. God has freed us to do pleasing things by telling us that we are pleasing to him.

God’s love is such a fantastic motivater.

When we know that who we are and what we do is acceptable and pleasing to God, we don’t have to waste a lot of time and energy trying to prove ourselves. And we won’t be paralyzed by fear and doubt. We won’t be constantly looking over our shoulders.

What happens if I start this ministry? What happens if I teach this class? What happens if I reach out to this person in my community? What happens if I begin a new program at church? What if I really mess it up? What if I say the wrong thing? What if I upset God?

No!

Stop it!

God’s not looking at your actions, he’s looking at your heart. He’s looking at your offering.

Go do it! And God bless you! He’s gonna love it!

You are pleasing to him.

You are pleasing to him.

You are pleasing to him.

Peace,

Allan

“God gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.” ~Romans 4:17

Our Father doesn’t see Sarah’s barren womb; he sees the birth of a great nation. God doesn’t see a drowning prophet; he sees 120,000 Ninevites calling on his name. He doesn’t see a rejected Samaritan woman on her sixth husband; he see a powerful evangelist who converts an entire village. Our God doesn’t see a dark grave in a garden outside the streets of Jerusalem; he sees the light of eternal life walking out of that tomb to eternally defeat the powers of sin and death.

“God gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.”

I see our worship center at Legacy this Sunday with more than 1,600 people in it. Maybe 1,700. It depends. I see Doug Crowell and Steve Fleming scrambling to grab chairs and line the aisles as people just keep coming in. I see people who haven’t been to Legacy in months singing and worshiping God with tears in their eyes. I see visitors, our friends and neighbors, who don’t know our Risen Lord being confronted with the truth of the Gospel of salvation and being moved by our God to respond in faith. I see wet people climbing out of a baptistry, saved by the blood of the Lamb. I see the North Richland Hills fire marshal writing us warning citations for violating occupancy codes. I see our God exceeding our wildest expectations for Easter Sunday and our Resurrection Renewal.

Do you see it?

I know you’re praying about it. But, do you see it?

Invite those people you haven’t seen here in a while. Reach out to that man across the street. Hand a flyer to your dry cleaning guy or the lady who cuts your hair. And this weekend, let us call on our God who gives life to the dead to “call things that are not as though they were.”

I can’t wait to meet your friends!

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One of our teens at Legacy is doing some kind of a school project that involved me giving her my list of the top ten most important books of all time. It was fun. I thought I’d share. These are the books that have had a dramatic impact on my life and have served to shape my mindset and worldview. In no particular order:

The Bible (OK, the first one’s in a particular order…)
The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis
Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman
The Reason for God by Timothy Keller
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Tending the Heart of Virtue by Vigen Guroian
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon

Looking back at this list now, I wish I had put H. G. Bissinger’s Friday Night Lights in there. I guess I’d take out Grapes of Wrath or the Decline and Fall.

Peace,

Allan

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God — this is your spiritual act of worship.” ~Romans 12:1

Think very carefully about the times you have completely abandoned yourself into some act of service for others in the name of Jesus. Think about the times you’ve totally given yourself to God and to others in some act of kindness or mercy.

Recall the joy you feel as you walk a family of five through Give-Away-Day, the way you experience the mercy of God as you hand a brand new toy to a seven-year-old girl who’s never had one. Think about the new life you feel as you pray with your brothers during the 24 Hours of Prayer, the way you bond with your Lord and your Christian friends and the ones for whom you pray. Think about sacking groceries in the church pantry, visiting a sister about to go into surgery at the hospital, delivering a casserole to the family who just lost a loved one. Remember the fullness of life you discovered in that offering. Remember how it feels to put to death your own needs and fears and find a source of peaceful and joyful existence in God. It’s unexplainable.

Scripture calls us to remember those times and to be even more willing to make that total offering, that holy sacrifice, over and over again. That is our act of worship. It’s our act of service that, by the grace of God, he makes holy and pleasing.

Think about those times. Remember and repeat. And find real peace and joy in your Lord.

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A couple of entries in the Legacy “Caps for Tags” contest. Click here for the full scoop.

Keep those pictures coming in. Email them to astanglin@legacychurchofchrist.org

Peace,

Allan

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God — this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing, and perfect will.” ~Romans 12:1-2

We want more than anything to be in God’s holy will. We want to be holy. We want to please our Father. We want to get everything right. We want so badly to be correct. And so when we discuss divorce and remarriage or worship practices or church structures or any of the other “hot button” issues or topics, a lot of us will say “better safe than sorry.” When making decisions about behavior or practice, we’ll oftentimes employ this “better safe than sorry” mantra to guide our interpretation of Scripture and our instruction to others.

And that’s OK, if we truly understand what it means to be “safe” when we’re talking about our God and his will for his people.

Usually, “better safe than sorry” means everybody freeze! Nobody do anything! Everybody step back! And then we draw lines and develop boundaries and devise rules and make judgments. This kind of thinking dictates that we be extra-triple-careful not to offend God’s holy will and risk being damned to hell. That kind of philosophy is probably good if you’re a sky-diver or you make your living dismantling bombs. When wiring a house or feeding a lion or crossing a busy street, “better safe than sorry” makes perfect sense.

But “better safe than sorry” is no way to live in relationship with God and God’s people. Unless we’re all very clear with what exactly it means to act “safely” according to God’s economy.

Acting “safely,” according to our heavenly Father, means giving more grace and mercy, not more rules and regulations. It means more acceptance and less judgment. It means forgiveness and compassion, not lines and boundaries. If you want to be “better safe than sorry” with God, you’ll exercise more patience and understanding with your Christian brothers and sisters and do away with all prejudice and pride. Being “safe” with God means showing more love to the people you meet in the world and less attitude.

It means being like Christ.

Making up more rules and holding others accountable to those rules is something else entirely.

Peace,

Allan

Jesus says the Golden Rule — Do unto others as you would have them do unto you — actually sums up the Law and the Prophets. But I think there’s a much bigger idea at work throughout all of Scripture. Our foundational motivation, our guiding principle as God’s holy people is “Do unto others as God has done unto you.”

“Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” ~ Colossians 3:13

“Accept one another as Christ accepted you.” ~Romans 15:7

“Love one another as I have loved you.” ~John 15:12

The key is in my understanding that God has treated me in ways I absolutely do not deserve. That’s the most basic part of this. It all falls apart without that genuine realization. It doesn’t work.

How much has God forgiven you? Everything. Everything? Yeah, everything. Is there anything he hasn’t forgiven you of? No. Nothing? Nothing. He’s really forgiven you of everything? Yes, everything. You deserve it? No.

“Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”

Has Christ accepted you? Oh, yeah. Without a doubt, I belong to him. Really? You belong to Jesus? Yes, sir, he’s accepted me. And you were perfect when he accepted you? Um, no. You weren’t perfect? No. Not even close. But he still accepted you? Yeah. Well, how bad were you? Pretty bad. But you never intentionally sinned, right? Oh, no, there were plenty of intentional sins. You had hurt Jesus with your words? Oh, yeah, plenty of times. You had disappointed him with your actions? All the time. Lousy attitude? Selfish pride? Stubbornness? Yes, all those things. Sin? Yes, I’m a sinner. I was a sinner when I met Jesus. I hadn’t been following him or listening to him or obeying him. I was a sinner. But he still accepted you? Yes. Did you deserve it? No.

“Accept one another as Christ accepted you.”

Does Jesus love you? Yes. How much? A bunch. A ton. How do you know? How do you know he loves you so much? He died for me. What’s that? He died for me. He died for you? Yeah, he died for me. How did he die? Look, he left everything he had in heaven by the Father’s side; he left his glory and his power and his authority; he left his prestige and position and status; he left his home; he gave up everything to come to earth and suffer horribly and die in agony and pain like a criminal on a cross! He did that for you? Yeah. He must love you a lot. Yes, he does. You deserve that kind of love? No. Not even close.

“Love one another as I have loved you.”

See, if we think we deserve God’s forgiveness, if we believe that we have lived in such a way or have worked in such a way as to actually merit Christ’s acceptance, if we suppose we’ve earned the right to God’s love, we’ll only show that same kind of love and acceptance and forgiveness to people we think deserve it. I’ll judge people as worthy or not of my acceptance. I’ll forgive people only as I deem them forgiveable. I’ll love only those I want to love.

Do unto others as God has done unto you. It’s basic.

Why do we miss it?

Peace,

Allan

“He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all — how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” ~ Romans 8:32

Scripture says God gave the land to Abraham. The Lord gave success to Joseph. God gave manna to his children in the desert. The Bible says our God gave his people deliverers when they were in trouble. Through Christ, God gave us the right to become his children.

In the Gospels, Jesus says “I give you eternal life.”

I give you my peace. I give you the Spirit. This is my body given for you. The Kingdom of God is given to you. I give you victory.

Paul says God has freely given us of his glorious grace.

God created in order to give. Jesus came to earth in order to give. He lived and died and rose again and reigns at the right hand of the Father in heaven in order to give.

“Live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.” ~Ephesians 5:2

That’s the good news. God gave. Now I give. Freely you have received, freely give. God through Christ gave. Everything. Now I give. Everything. That’s the Gospel. Nothing more. Nothing less.

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Don’t blame Romo. He never had a chance.

Blame Marc Columbo. What was that? Blame Jason Garrett for thinking the best way to slow down the Vikings pass rush was to run Marion Barber around the ends. Blame Jerry Wayne for giving up top draft picks and talent for Roy Williams. Blame the owner/GM/vendor for not developing any decent backup offensive linemen.

Tony Romo was running for his life at every snap. Don’t blame him.

Blame Wade Phillips. Is it Wade’s constant pointing to his own stats and numbers and accomplishments that makes this team think they’ve arrived when they’ve made it to a second-round game? Or that they’re entitled to something? Is it this team’s well-documented failures in December and in the post-season that caused them to feel like they had accomplished something of great significance by beating a bad Philly team at home? Why were they so offended by Favre’s late TD toss? Why did they seem so ill-prepared for that Vikings pass rush? Why did they get their heads handed to them 34-3? Did they think that since they were on such a roll, teams would bow in submission as soon as they stepped off the bus? Or does Wade’s personality and demeanor give his players the impression that winning that first playoff game in 13-years, his first ever as a head coach, had already accomplished the mission?

Jerry and Wade are getting in the way. And they’re both going to be in charge of this team in 2010. For Cowboys fans, that must really take the hope out of saying, “Wait ’til next year.”

Peace,

Allan