The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

(You’ve got to read Ezekiel 34 — the whole chapter — before you read this post.)

Ezekiel 34 troubles me. Just exactly like the rest of this book of prophesy, it’s strong. Bold. In-your-face. It pulls no punches. It’s convicting. Condemning, even. Powerful. You never have to wonder what God is thinking when he speaks through Ezekiel. And that’s true with chapter 34. I’m troubled because so much of this chapter seems to be speaking so directly to our churches today.

God rips into the bad shepherds because they’re ignoring the fat sheep who are oppressing the other sheep. And I see us. Sometimes. Sometimes elders don’t want to challenge the church bullies because they don’t want to stir up any conflict. They want to keep the peace. And, sometimes, the fattest sheep are the biggest givers. Sometimes preachers hold back on what God’s telling them to preach because they don’t want to offend anybody. They don’t want to answer the phone calls and emails Monday morning. They don’t want anybody to leave. They don’t want the emergency meeting with the elders.

Elders and ministers don’t always take care of the weak sheep like we should. Taking care of sheep is hard. It’s painful. Time-consuming. It’s work. And, sometimes, church leaders do crave the attention. Some of are tempted by the spotlight. Sometimes we really do just want our own way. Sometimes we do only act in an effort to save our own necks. And our selfishness and inconsistencies can drive the sheep away.

God help us.

We can also — all of us — sometimes be really sorry sheep. We can be territorial about our ministries or areas of service. Or our pews. We don’t let anybody in. We can shove brothers and sisters out the door by being dogmatic and unyielding about our own personal preferences. We can push people to the curb by insisting they believe and think and worship and sing and dress and pray just like me. We’re so good at it, so oblivious to it, that sometimes we can actually take the official position of a weak sheep and use it like an 18-pound sledgehammer to bully and head-butt and ram other sheep into my comfort zone and my lines and boundaries.

There are sheep in our flocks who’ve been in our flocks for years and who’ve never been invited to anyone’s house for dinner. They’ve never been asked to go out to eat. There are sheep in our churches who feel like they don’t matter because we have absolutely run them over on our way to the next committee meeting or service project.

God help us.

God say, “No, I’m just going to do it myself.”

“I myself will shepherd my sheep”

Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd.”

Jesus knows how to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted. To those who relied on their own righteousness, Jesus ripped away all their excuses and forced them to see their deep need for his grace. To those who were burdened and marginalized, Jesus drew them to God. He showed them that God did not delight in their death but was begging them to come to him so he could give them eternal life. They needed to know there was a place in God’s flock for the weak and the sinful.

The Lord Jesus Christ is our great shepherd. He’s bold and courageous and single-minded in his mission to seek and save the lost, to restore the lost sheep of Israel. And he’s so committed to it — he’s so committed to us, his sheep — that he lays down his life for us. He dies for us. He stands in the gate — he says in John 10 he IS the gate! — between us and the ravenous wolves and the muderous robbers who would kill us and eat us. He’s unwilling to sacrifice even one of us to the enemy. He’d rather die first.

And he did.

God’s people are scattered. We’re all over the map. We bicker and argue. We’re lost and injured and sick. And God through Christ keeps his promises to search and bring back and strengthen. The Good Shepherd makes us one. And he gives us peace.

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The Rangers are 2-5 right now on this ten game road trip. They’ve gone oh-fer on the season in the Twin Cities. They’ve lost four straight. Josh and Lee are both out indefinitely. Just a little speed bump, right?

Peace,

Allan

I’m convinced that Jesus looked at the people around him and thought, “Anything is possible.” I believe he regularly surveyed his circumstances and said, “Anything is possible.”

The Samaritan woman in John 4 drops her water jar and runs into town to tell everyone about Jesus. He had welcomed her. Jesus had accepted her. Even in her horrible sins, even with all her baggage, he had treated her with respect and dignity and hospitality. And this hopeless woman now had hope. This dead woman now had life. She’s redeemed. She’s reconciled. She’s saved. And it’s stunning to me that by the end of the story, the entire village of Sychar is taking their religious direction from the town sleaze! Anything’s possible! The way Jesus treated this one lonely woman rocked the whole city!

With Jesus, anything is possible.

The blind see, the lame walk, the prisoners are released, the dead are raised. The fisherman who betrays Jesus three times the night he’s arrested becomes a foundation stone for the eternal Church of God. The angry apostle who begs to call down fire to incinerate a whole village that rejects Christ winds up giving God’s people the most beautiful words about love ever written. The Church’s biggest enemy, the killer of Christians, becomes by the grace of God the Church’s greatest writer and preacher and church planter.

Anything is possible.

Zacchaeus is pulled out of a tree. Lazarus walks out of a tomb. Demons are sent back to hell. The hungry are fed. Money is found in a fish’s mouth. Doubting Thomas believes. Storms are stilled. The temple is cleared. Gentile jailers are baptized. And camels pass through the eye of a tiny needle.

We will never grow, we will never be transformed, we will never be moved, we will never live up to our God-ordained potential until we adopt the mind of Christ and begin to see and believe that anything is possible! It really is!

But, Allan, my church will never change.

Wrong answer! With Christ Jesus, anything is possible!

But, Allan, this world will never change.

Oh, no! With Jesus, anything is possible!

Allan, I don’t think I can ever change.

Are you kidding? Have you read the gospel story of salvation from God in Christ? Have you heard the good news? The almighty Creator of heaven and earth loves you! He welcomes you! He’s taken care of your sins! And it’s all very, very, very possible!

Peace,

Allan

“It is not scientific doubt, not atheism, not pantheism, not agnosticism, that in our day and in this land is likely to quench the light of the Gospel. It is a proud, sensuous, selfish, luxurious, church-going, hollow-hearted prosperity.”

What year do you think the above quote was written?

What do you think about the above quote?

We’re flying through Francis Chan’s Crazy Love in our Tuesday morning men’s study here at Legacy. Chapter four, Profile of the Lukewarm, begins with this quote and then outlines, with extensive use of the Scriptures, a portrait of a Christ-follower who’s not all in, a Christian who holds back, a disciple who hasn’t totally surrendered to our Lord:

Lukewarm people say they love Jesus, and he is, indeed, a part of their lives. But only a part. They give him a section of their time, their money, and their thoughts, but he isn’t allowed to control their lives.

Lukewarm people give money to charity and to church as long as it doesn’t impinge on their standard of living. If they have a little extra and it is easy and safe to give, they do so. After all, God loves a cheerful giver, right?

Lukewarm people don’t really want to be saved from their sin; they want only to be saved from the penalty of their sin. They don’t genuinely hate sin and aren’t truly sorry for it; they’re merely sorry because God is going to punish them. Lukewarm people don’t really believe that this new life Jesus offers is better than the old sinful one.

Lukewarm people love others but do not seek to love others as much as they love themselves. Their love of others is typically focused on those who love them in return, like family, friends, and other people they know and connect with. There is little love left over for those who cannot love them back, much less for those who intentionally slight them, whose kids are better athletes than theirs, or with whom conversations are awkward or uncomfortable. Their love is highly conditional and very selective, and generally comes with strings attached.

Lukewarm people will serve God and others, but there are limits to how far they will go or how much time, money, and energy they are willing to give.

Lukewarm people feel secure because they attend church, made a profession of faith at age twelve, were baptized, come from a Christian family, vote Republican, or live in America. Just as the prophets in the Old Testament warned Israel that they were not safe just because they lived in the land of Israel, so we are not safe just because we wear the label Christian or because some people persist in calling us a “Christian nation.”

Whoa. These are strong words, huh?

Chan says in this same chapter that if you really, really want to live out a full New Testament Christianity, the American church is a difficult place to fit in. Is that true?

How does my life, how does my church, measure up to David who refused to “sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing?” How do I compare with the widow that Jesus observed giving all that she had to live on out of her poverty, compared to the rich who gave out of their wealth? How well do I follow my Lord’s directives to deny myself, take up my cross, and really follow him? Do I, like Paul, truly desire to share in Christ’s sufferings? Do I really consider others better than myself? Do I genuinely see the needs of others as more important than my own needs?

My Savior came, not to be served, but to serve and to give his life.

What about me? Have I totally and completely surrendered to Christ? Or am I holding something back? Seriously.

More on this tomorrow. What do you think?

By the way, the quote is taken from an article in Forum magazine written by Frederic D. Huntington. In 1890.

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

Jesus called Simon and his brother Andrew. “At once” they dropped their nets and followed him. The woman at the Samaritan well dropped her water jar to respond to Christ’s call. The man in the Gerasenes enthusiastically jumped in the boat with Jesus upon being cleansed. When he received his sight, Bartimaeus “immediately” leapt up to follow Jesus on the way.

Over and over again the clear and consistent portrait of true discipleship to Jesus is painted as a relationship on Christ’s terms, not on the terms or conditions of Christ’s followers. Bargaining with God is NOT the all-in submission for which our Savior is looking. The Gospels are full of these would-be-disciples:

“IF you’ll give me a nice place to live, THEN I’ll follow you.”

“IF I can take care of my business first, THEN I’ll follow you.”

“IF you let me deal with my family issues first, THEN I’ll follow you.”

“IF you allow me to hang on to my worldly possessions, THEN I’ll follow you.”

In each case, it’s a deal-breaker with Jesus. We don’t negotiate with God. We don’t put conditions on Christ. This is not a game show. It’s life and death. It’s heaven and hell. It’s salvation and judgment and relationship and atonement and sanctification. It’s eternal. We give ourselves wholly to him as a response to his complete service and sacrifice for us. No looking back. Brakes off. Full steam ahead.

That’s the deal.

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Thank you so much to every single person who donated this week to MDA. We wound up raising a total of $1,105 for clinics and shots and treatments and evaluations and therapy and equipment repairs and camps. I was taken away in the back seat of an unmarked car at noon yesterday and made it back to the church offices, full of barbecue and a couple of funny stories, by 1:30. Thank you, again. Your good-natured ribbing was wonderful. Your open heart for generously giving to those in need was inspirational.

I’m going to leave the link to my MDA page over there on the right side of the blog for 30 more days. If you’d like to add to the total and help me meet my actual goal of $1,480, just click over there.

I met a couple of kids at the Lock-Up who are suffering with Muscular Dystrophy and I wished them God’s richest blessings for healing and comfort and peace. But my thoughts were and still are with Angela Giles. May our merciful Father bless you, Angela, with his gracious healing and comfort and peace.

We love you,

Allan

“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” ~Matthew 16:15

Peter answers his Lord by confessing Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the Living God. In similar circumstances — we could argue we live 24 hours a day in that circumstance — we would all make that Christian confession.

And Jesus would respond, “Blessed are you, Allan. Blessed are you, Joe. Blessed are you, Jane. Blessed are you (insert your own name).

And we’d just sit there, together, basking in the quiet moment, reflecting on the eternal implications of that confession.

And then what if you broke that silence by turning the question back on Jesus? What if you asked Jesus, “Who do you say I am?” You ever thought about that? What would Jesus say if you asked him who he says you are? You know he has an opinion. He knows you. He knows everything about you. What you say. What you do. The ways you think. He knows. And you ask him…

“…Who do you say I am?”

Well, what does he say?

I think Jesus would say, “Allan, you are a faithful proclaimer of the Gospel. You are a compassionate minister in the Kingdom.”

See, Jesus would always go to the positives first. That’s the way he operates. Our tendencies are to see the negatives first. Even in our self-evaluations, we look at the negatives and blow them out of proportion. But Jesus would initially attend to the good things about us. It’s called grace.

And then, I’m afraid my Lord would say, “Allan, you have a real lack of trust in me. Your faith isn’t nearly as strong as it should be by now. And you have a real problem with looking at things from a worldly perspective. Even things in my Church. You make judgments and decisions based on worldly principles.”

He would say other things about areas in my life I’m needing to change. But he would probably keep coming back to my lack of faith.

If you were to ask Jesus, “Who do you say I am?” what would he say?

Seriously.

He has an opinion.

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The cops are coming to get me at noon today. No Thursday hoops. I’ll be in jail in Bedford trying to raise the rest of the $1,480 bail money needed for MDA. As of this writing, we’ve raised $950. Thank you, thank you, thank you! If you’d like to contribute to the cause, please click here. Again, thank you.

Peace,

Allan

God is not finished with me yet. Praise the Lord, he’s not done! He’s still working on me. And, by the power of his Holy Spirit, he uses people and circumstances and books and friends and strangers and situations to shape me more into the image of his great Son.

Right now our Father is using Kipi’s class on conflict resolution and a little book recommended by my great friend Jim Martin to show me how to better manage myself as a preacher. I especially want to share one wonderful insight and recent conclusion that has greatly reduced my burden and given me great comfort and peace. And freedom.

I’m afraid my private conversations with friends and church shepherds — those inside and outside our congregation at Legacy — involve some form of the question, “How can I get these people to….?” I’m afraid that’s my mindset. When seeking advice from others or when wrestling with our God in prayer, I often ask, “How can I get these people to listen? How can I get these elders to understand? How can I get these volunteers to act? How can I get these church members to think? How can I get these brothers and sisters to see?”

That kind of thinking and acting, that sort of mindset, would easily lead to frustration, don’t you suppose?

In her book Leaders Who Last, Margaret Marcuson says preachers should stop asking those kinds of questions and, instead, ask, “What am I called to say to them this week?”

I am responsible to do my best to preach God’s Word as I understand it to my congregation every week. I am responsible for challenging our church family and calling them to repent and live their lives worthy of our calling. I’m ordained to provoke them by God’s Word to do more and to be more. And that’s about it. These people are responsible before God for what they do with that Word each week. I can’t make anybody do anything.

It’s not, “How can I get them to…?” It’s, “What am I called to say?”

That takes the pressure off. That brings me great relief and peace of mind. It helps me trust more completely in God. Less of self and more of thee. Because if my faith really is in my Lord, if I really do believe he’s working through me in this church to transform all of us, I can relax. I don’t have to worry about taking care of everybody because I know the results of my preaching don’t depend on me. They depend wholly on God.

Marcuson says a church needs to be led, not driven.

“The concept is clear: people are not acquitted of the responsibility for their own souls. Personal decisions are still decisions, personal judgments are still judgments, free will is still free will. Being in a family does not relieve a child of the responsibility to grow up. The function of twenty-one-year-olds is not to do life’s tasks as their parents told them to when they were six-years-old. The function of twenty-one-year-olds is simply to do the same tasks well and to take accountability themselves for having done them… The role of leadership is not to make lackeys or foot soldiers or broken children out of adult Christians.”

Probably the best thing I can do as a preacher is to teach the Word of God, to communicate my understanding as clearly as I can, challenge my hearers, and then give them room — and time! — to respond.

Look at Jesus. He preaches and teaches out of this amazing position of relaxed trust. Trust in God and trust in people. He simply says, “Your sins are forgiven. Go and sin no more.” If Jesus can give that kind of room and time to others, without chasing after them and hounding them for their own good, maybe I should give more effort to doing the same thing.

Peace,

Allan

“Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely.” ~Mark 3:2

“One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched.” ~Luke 14:1

Jesus was constantly being watched. He was always under the microscope. The religious leaders carefully watched Jesus so they could pounce on him the minute he broke one of their rules. These synagogue sheriffs kept their eyes on him so they could jump on Jesus the moment he violated one of their traditions.

Jesus heard the whispers. He knew what was going on.

I wonder what he hears in our places of worship…

“Did you see what he’s wearing?” “Did you hear what she said in class?” “He’s raising his hands.” “She’s closing her eyes.” “He’s clapping.” “She’s kneeling.” “He won’t stand.” “She won’t sing.”

And our Savior asks, “Which is lawful on Sunday, to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?”

Which is lawful?

To watch for those who might stray from my tradition and call them on it? Or to praise God with them with the understanding that we’re both redeemed by the blood of the Lamb?

To watch closely for someone who might violate my regulation and talk to them about it? Or to encourage them and be thankful you both share salvation from God in Christ?

To remove the barriers or burdens or hurdles from my brothers and sisters or to weigh them down with my rules and boundaries and preferences that act as chains and prison bars to those who’ve been freed?

If our God and his Church and his plan is all about people — much more so than laws — and if people always trump rules with our God, why is it that we bicker and argue so much about the laws and rules? Why are we sometimes worried about the laws and the rules, even at the expense of the people?

Who are you watching closely?

Now stop.

Peace,

Allan

The story of Jonah helps us understand how God thinks. It helps us see God’s great love for all of his creation and his will for all men and women of the world to be saved. The apostle Peter finally figured it out after a couple of rooftop visions in Joppa.

“Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” ~Acts 10:15

“God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean.” ~Acts 10:28

“I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.” ~Acts 10:34-35

We have enemies in Iraq and Afghanistan. And our God loves them and he wants them to be saved. But sometimes our language and our prayers and our actions and our emails don’t reflect it. How quickly we forget that while we were God’s enemies, Christ died for us.

We have enemies right here in our own communities. Enemies of our property values, enemies of our employment figures and tax rates, enemies of our comfort zones and our decency and order. And our God’s unmistakable call is to take to them the good news of salvation.

See, the deal with Jonah is that he believes in the sovereignty of God in his clear call. Jonah understands it. He just doesn’t want to obey it.

We believe that Jesus meant it when he said love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. But we don’t always practice it.

God is still calling his people to preach, to witness, to testify, on his behalf to other people. We see it with Jonah. We really see it in Jesus. Our Savior crosses all the social and political and cultural and racial and economic boundaries to save violent outcasts, those possessed by demons, warring zealots, traitorous tax collectors, Roman centurions, and thieves on crosses. He broke through the barriers of time and space to save you. And me.

And our God unmistably calls us to reach out to others the same way.

Peace,

Allan

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” ~Matthew 22:37-40

Love is the beginning and the end of our righteous relationship with God — and everything in the middle. Love pushes us. It motivates us. It defines us. Love is what Scripture says binds everything we do together in perfect unity. We must place unconditional, God-ordained love in the supreme position of our hearts and minds and in God’s Church.

God’s love for us depends completely upon his character, not ours. Everyone stands before our God equally. No human being can ever do anything to earn God’s love. That fact that we are sinners is woefully inescapable. The fact that God still loves us anyway is amazingly wonderful. And we respond to that matchless grace and undeniable love by loving him back and by loving all people the way he does.

And that doesn’t mean surface relationships. It doesn’t mean love at arm’s length. It doesn’t mean love all people, but don’t get involved in their lives. It means imitating God’s gutsy love, his all-in love, a love so full and so complete that it compelled Christ to suffer and die to show us.

May we be a people who receive one another as Christ receives us, who forgive others as we’ve been forgiven by God, and who love God and others as fearlessly and unconditionally as he loves us.

Peace,

Allan