Category: Bible (Page 8 of 10)

Obliterating the Roadblocks to Christian Growth

January 21, 2011 / Allan / 0 Comments

As you can imagine, I have a stack of articles and papers in my study here that I intend to write about in this space. As you also know, that stack tends to pile up and grow as other things press in on me and immediate concerns crowd into my blog posts. Near the bottom of this pile is something from the Spring/Summer 2010 issue of ACU Today. It’s a list of bullet points from a 1993 speech made by then university president Dr. Royse Money.

At the beginning of the speech, Money declares, “I come to you tonight with a heavy burden on my heart for the Church. As we seek to be the Church that belongs to Jesus Christ, I see hindrances along our way that impede our progress. I want to be honest with you tonight and discuss some issues and problems and challenges we face in our fellowship (Church of Christ) that are not easy or pleasant to discuss. But we must.”

This month at Legacy we’re talking about what’s NEXT. What’s NEXT in your walk with Jesus? What’s NEXT for our congregation? What is God calling you to NEXT? Where is Christ leading us NEXT? We’re looking at Peter’s “add to your faith…” We’re considering Paul’s call to “attain to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” and “straining toward what is ahead,” and “pressing on.”

Legacy’s elders and ministers are gearing up for our annual retreat together tonight and tomorrow at Camp Carter on the other side of Fort Worth. In the midst of our prayers and planning and reflections heading into this weekend, Money’s bullet points are worth considering. For Legacy. For your church. For your congregation’s leaders. For you as a child of God and a disciple of his Christ.

~We must realize that unity does not mean uniformity of belief.
~We must determine the essentials of faith apart from traditions, customs, comfort and personal preference.
~We must realize in dealing with those who differ with us, both within our fellowship and beyond, that tolerance and a certain level of fellowship is not the same as total endorsement of another’s views.
~We must learn to handle diversity in a charitable way.
~We must mark those who cause division among us.
~We must rediscover that in our allegiance to Christ, the bride wears the name of the Groom.
~We must realize that the enemy is Satan and not each other.
~We must determine what the real issues are regarding the role of women in the Church.
~We must decide on the way Scripture should be interpreted.
~We must realize the powerful dynamics of change.
~We must rededicate ourselves to search relentlessly for truth as it’s revealed in the Scriptures.

To Money’s excellent observations and clarion call for action, I would add a couple of my own:

~We must shift our focus from pastoring the saved inside our walls to saving the lost outside our walls.
~We must be motivated by Christ’s love instead of by a driving desire to be right.
~We must relax and stop taking ourselves so seriously as we realize we live under and in the grace of God.

We ignore these things at our own peril. Just talking about them and feeling like we’ve done something isn’t enough. Action must be taken. Hearts must soften. Lives must change. Leaders must lead. Pro-active instead of reactive. Just holding our own isn’t cutting it. Christ’s compelling love wasn’t given freely to us so we can huddle up and play church and avoid doing anything wrong. His sacrifice on the cross and the Holy Spirit’s powerful work at the garden tomb is a call to action. Holy action. Christian leadership. The Kingdom of God is “forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it!”

May our merciful Father bless us with wisdom and vision. May he graciously overcome our staggering incapabilities to lead his people forward in his eternal Kingdom.

Peace,

Allan

Awakening the Depths

February 4, 2010 / Allan / 1 Comment

Church business is busy. Kingdom busy-ness can be overwhelming. Sermons and classes. Emails and texts and blogs. Counseling. Programs and people and prayers and planning. Reports and committees and meetings and talks in the foyer. Hospital visits.

Ministry is never-ending. I never once get home at the end of the day and feel like I accomplished every thing I had intended. It doesn’t stop.

And I have to be very, very, very careful to maintain my focus. I have to be disciplined. Deliberate. I must continually guard against being driven and motivated by people’s expectations and my own sense of worth. I have to be driven and motivated by the Holy Spirit of God who resides inside me. I must be moved by my Father’s love for me, by his plans for me. It’s bigger than me. It’s higher than me. I can’t be directed by what I want to do. I must be directed by what God wants me to do.

Romano Guardini (1885-1968), a long-time professor of philosophy and theology at the University of Munich, wrote about this focused-following in his book Power and Responsibility:

“All around us we see activity, organization, operations of every possible type; but what directs them? An inwardness no longer really at home within itself: which thinks, judges, acts from the surface, guided by mere intellect, utility, and the impulses of power, property, and pleasure.

Man’s depths must be reawakened. His life must again include times, his day moments of stillness in which he collects himself, spreads out before his heart the problems which have stirred him during the day. In a word, man must learn again to meditate and to pray.”

It’s said that John Wesley spent the first five minutes of every single waking hour deliberately reflecting on the hour just passed — what opportunity did God give me, did I respond in a Christ-like manner, what should I have done differently to better reflect his glory?

Spending the first hour of every morning in Scripture and prayer, communing with our Triune God in holy relationship, is the most important thing I do. It reawakens my depths. It compels me to spread my heart out to my Father in confession and dependence. It convicts me. It challenges me. It reminds me that I’m not in any of this for myself. Not even for my family or my church. Not even for others. Not as much as I’m in it for the God who calls me and saves me and equips me to join him in redeeming the world.

Peace,

Allan

You Are What You Eat

January 26, 2010 / Allan / 1 Comment

If a nursing mother eats fajitas for lunch — fajitas piled high with onions and peppers and salsa and pico de gallo — she’s going to be up all night. Not because she’s sick, but because her baby is sick. The fajitas have become a part of her. You are what you eat.

I look in the mirror and I can plainly see the Big Macs and cheese tator tots and Lay’s Kettle-Cooked potato chips. They have become a part of me. The biggest part of me!

Eating the Word, meditating on the holy words of our God, causes them to become a part of us. And when those words get inside us, we’d better respond.

“The story of the manna gathered and set aside by the Hebrews is deeply significant. It so happened that the manna rotted when it was kept. And perhaps this means that all spiritual reading which is not consumed — by prayer and works — ends by causing a sort of rotting inside us. You die with a head full of fine sayings and a perfectly empty heart.” ~Julian Green, Diaries, 1955

It’s not enough to just admire the Bible. It’s not enough, even, to understand it. God has spoken and we must respond. The Creator of Heaven and Earth is speaking and we must act. He breathes and we inhale. He calls and we come. He saves and we praise. He commands and we obey. He invites and we eat.

God intends for his Word —inviting, commanding, challenging, rebuking, judging, comforting, directing, loving — to move us. To become a part of who we are and then compel us to act his Word out in ways that reflect his glory and transform our own lives and the lives of the people around us.

Savor some of those words today. Read them. Taste them. Lean back with your eyes closed and allow the meaning and the purpose of a couple of lines really get into your blood.

Peace,

Allan

Expectation #3

January 22, 2010 / Allan / 0 Comments

“I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways.
I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your Word.” ~Psalm 119:15-16

When we meditate on the words of God, they become a part of us. These words deal specifically with our souls and they’re written to transform us into people who reflect the glory of God. A daily diet of Scripture allows these holy words to enter our souls just like food enters our stomachs. It spreads through our entire system of blood and air and organs and nerves and functions. We assimilate it. And it becomes holiness and love and wisdom.

The same is true of prayer. It’s a complex act of speaking to and listening to the Creator of heaven and earth. It’s an act of submission. It’s a declaration of faith. It’s basking in the presence of our God, delighting in his love and grace, taking comfort in his mercy and forgiveness.

Reading God’s Word and praying to the Father are not intellectual exercises. It’s not a hobby or a pastime. This is life and death. It’s urgent. It’s right now. It speaks to every facet of our everyday lives. It nourishes us. It transforms us. It gives us the Holy Spirit strength we need to live as mature disciples in a hostile world.

Jesus made a habit of withdrawing “privately to a solitary place.” Our Lord spent much of his time in Scripture and prayer: listening to God, communing with him. As his followers, we too set aside a time every day for prayer and Bible reading. Thirty minutes. An hour. In the morning. During lunch. Before bed. The time and place are not important. Making this meditation time a daily priority is very important. It’s a vital part of attaining to “the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”

The focus for baptized believers — those saved by the blood of our Lord — is spiritual growth. Maturity. Discipline. Transformation. Christian accountability to God and to one another. Christian responsibility. The expectation for all our members at Legacy is that they each dedicate a quiet time with God every day in prayer and Bible reading.

It’s a way of being consistently present before the living God. And allowing his Spirit to get inside you, to change you, to move you. To make you more like him.

Peace,

Allan

In Christ Jesus

August 20, 2009 / Allan / 0 Comments

“You are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God — that is, our righteousness, holiness, and redemption.” ~1 Corinthians 1:30

All the doctrine of the Bible is made personal is Jesus. God’s wisdom is Jesus. Our righteousness is Jesus. Our holiness is Jesus. Our redemption is Jesus. Our resurrection is made personal and real in Jesus. Everything we need, and indeed have, for salvation and a right relationship with God is in Jesus.

When you’re down two scores in the fourth quarter you need a Pro Bowl quarterback, not a good playbook. When you’re being sued you need a good lawyer, not a comprehensive law encyclopedia. When you’re sick you need a good doctor, not a user-friendly medical website. And when you’re facing your greatest enemies — sin, death, Satan — you need the Savior of the World!

God’s wisdom and righteousness and holiness and redemption are gifts to you from him. They are benefits, yes. But they’re more than that. They are actually aspects of a relationship with Jesus. It is him in you. For all of us who were baptized into Christ have clothed ourselves with Christ.

When you belong to Christ Jesus you have all you’ll ever need in life and death, in time and space, and for eternity.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A look back at Thomas Campbell’s Declaration and Address which he began writing in August 1809, 200 years ago this week inspires the reader to carefully and prayerfully consider our Lord’s call to Christian unity. Scripture’s picture of unity. Our God’s will for unity.

The opening lines — one sentence with tons of commas — goes like this:

“That it is the grand design, and native tendency, of our holy religion, to reconcile and unite men to God, and to each other, in truth and love, to the glory of God, and their own present and eternal good, will not, we presume, be denied, by any of the genuine subjects of christianity.”

The whole thing is a call to unity. Reconciliation. The kind of reconciliation Paul writes about in 2 Corinthians 5. Reconciliation between God and man. Between man and man. The kind of reconciliation that drives God’s eternal plans. The very ministry he’s given those of us who’ve professed our faith in him and put his Holy Son on in baptism. Campbell’s words in this document are bold. Aggressive. And they ring with beautiful and undeniable truth. The Declaration and Address, the charter document of our Churches of Christ, calls for a swift end to all divisions among those who claim to be followers of Jesus.

“Has the Captain of Salvation sounded a desist from pursuing, or proclaimed a truce with, this deadly enemy that is sheathing its sword in the very bowels of the church, rending and mangling his mystical body into pieces. Has he said to his servants, let it alone? If not, where is the warrant for a cessation of endeavors to have it removed?”

Campbell claims that tearing down the walls and uniting again with our brothers and sisters in Christ is a “matter of universal right, a duty belonging to every citizen of Zion, to seek her good.” And while the work will be difficult and the opposition will come mainly from within the church establishment, Campbell says it is God’s will. It is the Church’s will. It is the will of those who’ve gone before us. And our efforts will be divinely rewarded.

“…both the mighty and the many are with us. The Lord himself, and all that are truly his people, are declaredly on our side. The prayers of all the churches, nay, the prayers of Christ himself, John 17:20-23, and of all that have ascended to his heavenly kingdom, are with us.”

I thank God for the Campbells and the Stones and other giants of the faith who latched onto God’s holy will as revealed to us in Scripture and. would. not. let. it. go. They lived to obey God rather than man. They swore to use only the Bible as their guide. And they vowed that, despite the opposition, they would remain loyal to their King and his Kingdom. We owe them a tremendous debt of gratitude. We owe them the effort to carry on the difficult work they started 200 years ago.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

24 days until the Dallas Cowboys kick off their historic 50th NFL football season. 24 days from now they’ll be battling the Bucs down in Tampa. And we’re counting down the days with the Red Ribbon Review, a look at the second-best players in Cowboys history, according to jersey number. (This countdown becomes much more important with every Rangers loss. If they lose tonight, I’m blaming it on Lewin’s “1999-ish” comments on Tuesday.)

The second-best ever #24 in Cowboys history is a Super Bowl MVP, cornerback Larry Brown. The Cowboys stole him with a 12th round pick in 1991 and got a starting right corner for five straight seasons, three of them Super Bowl championship seasons. Brown is best known for picking off two Neil O’Donnell passes in the second half of Super Bowl XXX which led directly to the points the Cowboys needed to win their third title in four years. Yes, the balls hit Brown right in the chest. Yes, it looked like one of them would have to be surgically removed after the game, O’Donnell threw them right at him so hard. But a lot of people forget what a great ’95 season Brown had leading up to that game.

The former TCU star collected six picks that season, racked up 124 return yards, and ran two of them back for TDs. All of this just a few months following the tragic death of his young son. It was a great story that year. But most people have already forgotten.

Brown used his three rings and his MVP trophy to cash a huge paycheck in Oakland with the Raiders. That only lasted two years. He came back to Dallas in ’98 and played just parts of four games for the Cowboys before hanging it up for good. He finished his Cowboys career with 13 total picks and 279 total tackles. He played in 13 playoff games, four NFC Championship Games, and three Super Bowls as a Cowboy. And he’s the second-best #24 in Cowboys history.

Peace,

Allan

At The Cross

August 14, 2008 / Allan / 3 Comments

“To us who are being saved it is the power of God.” ~1 Cor. 1:18

When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died,
my richest gain I count but loss and pour contempt on all my pride.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast save in the death of Christ, my God;
all the vain things that charm me most I sacrifice them to his blood.

Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were a present far too small;
love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.

To the old rugged cross I will ever be true, its shame and reproach gladly bear;
then he’ll call me someday to my home far away, where his glory forever I’ll share.

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God…we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. ~1 Corinthians 1:18-24.

Drops of grief can ne’er repay the debt of love I owe;
Here, Lord, I give myself away, ’tis all that I can do!

At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light,
and the burden of my heart rolled away,
it was there by faith I received my sight,
and now I am happy all the day!

For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through the blood shed on the cross.” ~Colossians 1:19-20

Near the cross! O, Lamb of God, bring its scenes before me;
help me walk from day to day with its shadow o’er me.
In the cross, in the cross, be my glory ever,
’til my raptured soul shall find rest beyond the river.

I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word. ~Psalm 119:16

How sweet are your words to my taste,
sweeter than honey to my mouth. ~Psalm 119:103

The grass withers and the flowers fall,
but the Word of the Lord stands forever. ~1 Peter 1:25

Blessed are those who hear the Word of God and obey it. ~Luke 11:28

From the first moment of Faith Builders at 9:00 Monday morning through this very moment as I’m listening to God’s Word being read by Susan Garrison and her daughter Allie it has been, and continues to be, an incredibly awe-inspiring week. I’m amazed at the power and the love of our God. I’m thrilled that he looks at me in all my sin and shame and loves me enough to save me. I’m grateful he’s put me in the middle of this community of believers who love him and love each other. And I’m humbled that, for some still unexplained reason, I’m the preacher.

Peace,

Allan

Category: Bible (Page 8 of 10)

Obliterating the Roadblocks to Christian Growth

Awakening the Depths

You Are What You Eat

Expectation #3

In Christ Jesus

At The Cross

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Categories

Archives

Allan's Links