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Category: Central Church Family (Page 21 of 54)

Shalom from Tel Aviv!

November 1, 2016 / / 0 Comments

arrival

Well, we’ve made it to Israel. And as Jerry Garcia once sang so well, what a long, strange trip it’s been. Our flight out of Newark was delayed by three-and-a-half hours so we didn’t take off until 330am EST. If we look exhausted in the above picture, it’s because we are. We sat in the airport for almost eight hours; a person can only play about two hours of Spades with Elaine’s family. The ten hour flight got us to Tel Aviv at 730pm Israel time. It took an hour to get all nineteen of us through customs and another hour or so to get to the beautiful Dan Hotel on the Mediterranean Sea in Caesarea. We just rushed through a super quick and super late dinner. And now we’re all in our rooms, attempting to get acclimated quickly to the time change.

It’s 1130pm here, 430pm Texas time. We’re seven hours ahead. So I should already know who won Game Six.

Speaking of baseball, we stood in the customs line with another church group of really nice people from Cleveland, Ohio. Every single one of them was wearing Indians gear. On behalf of all the still-numb Rangers fans, I thanked them for beating the Blue Jays.

Tomorrow we visit the remains of King Herod’s spectacular palace and administrative and entertainment centers at Caesarea, Mount Carmel, Armageddon, and the Sea of Galilee in Tiberias.

Shalom,

Allan

$421,515!!!

October 31, 2016 / / 0 Comments

centrallogoIt keeps happening.

Against all odds, against all math, against all formulas, the Central Church of Christ in Amarillo, Texas keeps giving and giving and giving to its foreign missions efforts in numbers that just don’t add up. Yesterday’s ambitious Missions Sunday goal of $325,000 was blown completely out of the water when, by the grace of God and the power of his Spirit, our church family offered over $421,515!

We keep raising the goal and the church keeps blowing it away!

Thank you to the Central church family for your extravagant generosity and your compassionate hearts. Thank you for sacrificing and saving to make days like yesterday so powerful and so eternally significant. Thank you for the faith you have so clearly placed in our God to make the money accomplish more than we can ever ask or imagine for the sake of his great name. And thank you for having such fun with it.

May our God be praised.

If you still need to turn in your one-time gift or a pledge, you can do that all this week with Vickie at the church office. As the money continues to come in, we’ll update the totals on the Central website and Facebook.

I’m reminded how blessed I am to be the preacher at Central, to enjoy a place and a role with this congregation of Christ-followers in whom God is effecting tremendous change and through whom he is impacting the world for eternity. Thank you, Central, for listening to God, for being so open to the leading of his Spirit, and for participating so fully in his mission. And thanks for letting me come along for the ride.

Peace,

Allan

Can These Bones Live?

September 19, 2016 / / 0 Comments

sundaybonesboardYesterday at Central, we concluded a two-month study of Ezekiel with a look at the well-known Dry Bones Vision in Ezekiel 37. The Lord shows his prophet the dead, dry, lifeless, hopeless, valley of bones. The bones represent the people of God who have rebelled against him. They are dead: no salvation, no relationship, no life, no hope. These are not dead corpses; these are dry skeletal remains. No pulse, no blood, no organs, no hope.

And the Lord asks his prophet, “Can these bones live?”

I’m sure Ezekiel’s first thought was, “Of course not! They can’t live! They’re bones!”

But then he remembers to whom he’s speaking. He’s talking to the almighty Creator of Heaven and Earth. So he replies, “O Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”

And then God raises the bones back to life. He breathes his Spirit into the bones and they come together and stand, living, breathing, walking, talking, fully alive  — a vast army! God shows Ezekiel that he not only has the power to make the dry bones live again, he has the will to make it happen. See, there’s a big difference between knowing God has the power to bring dead people back to life and knowing he WILL bring dead people back to life. Of course, God can. Praise God, yes, he will! “You will come back to life,” he says!

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Because of God’s power and his grace and his will, the prospect for life in the middle of death is real. In fact, it’s very, very real. Because this is what God wants to happen. And the neat thing about being God is that he always gets what he wants. And he wants to give dead people life.

So, yesterday we spent a good deal of our time together writing the names of people we love who are spiritually dead and placing them on a big dry bones mural that was painted last week by one of our members. Our kids and grandkids. Our spouses. Our nephews and nieces. Our best friends and former college roommates and next-door-neighbors. We pout them on the board and we lifted them up to God in prayer and in faith that he really wants to breathe brand new resurrection life into our loved ones.

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Our God is the One who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were. Our God looks at death and he sees possibility. He sees hope. He sees life.

Thank you to our Central family for your heart-felt participation in yesterday’s worship assembly. Thank you all for you open hearts and confessing spirits and willingness to be vulnerable and transparent in front of one another. And thank you for the honor, the rich privilege, of being your preacher for five blessed years.

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summit2016A tradition at Central is that when the ministers go to Abilene for the ACU Summit, we always take our Central kids at ACU out to lunch. And today was the day. We were honored to be joined at Sharky’s this afternoon by Matt, Brooke, Slade, Taylor, and Mikayla. What a joy! Thank y’all for spending the hour with us, for sharing your stories and your laughter and your lives with us. Now, get back to class!

Peace,

Allan

#NeverEverQuit

August 10, 2016 / / 0 Comments

Two games in Denver. Two dramatic come-from-behind wins for the Rangers. Texas scored three runs in the 9th inning to beat the Rockies Monday night. Then 18-hours later in the sunshine at Coors Field, they rallied for four runs in the 8th to demoralize the Colorado bullpen and fans. That’s a two-game sweep, that’s maintaining a seven game lead on the M’s, that’s adding to the AL’s best record, and it’s more mojo for Bannister’s “Never Ever Quit” mantra that fuels this franchise.

There really is something to the strength and depth of this Rangers lineup that means they’re never truly out of any ballgame. You look up and down this team’s order and there’s really no weakness. There’s no break for an opposing pitcher.

Unless you’re playing in a National League park.

Over the past two days, I’ve been reminded again of how antiquated and ridiculous the NL rules are requiring pitchers to bat and how the DH rule in the American League is the only thing that makes sense. I can’t wait for the day when MLB finally completes this long torturous process of combining the leagues and never forcing us to watch a pitcher attempt to bat a ball again. They’ve done away with AL and NL presidents, there are no more AL and NL umpires, the divisions all have the same number of teams, interleague play is no longer a novelty — it’s time. Make the move already! Apply the DH to all games in both leagues. Go so far as to add the tricked-up “bonus batter” thing some people are talking about. I don’t care. I’m just sick of seeing a guy in scoring position with the pitcher on deck.

RangersRockiesTidmoresIt was great to see Bruce and Celia Tidmore at the Rangers game yesterday. They’re here in Denver getting some quality vacation time in the mountains with kids and grandkids. C-A and I are heading back home today after a wonderful three days in Colorado. Have a great rest of your week.

Peace,

Allan

Crucified, Dead, and Buried

June 21, 2016 / / 2 Comments

Central’s middle school kids are doing service projects all over the city with three other CofCs this week during the annual “Mission in Amarillo.” Channel 10 did a local piece on yesterday’s projects and featured our very own Tanner Albright. You can click here to see the video.

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DeadJesus

The crucifixion of Jesus happened on a Friday. He was raised from the tomb on Sunday. And in between there was… what?

Good Friday and Easter Sunday are probably the two most studied and most celebrated dates in the history of the world. And the Saturday in between is maybe the most ignored. Even in the Bible, we only get one detail from Matthew telling us that guards were posted on that Saturday to watch the tomb. And that’s it. This Saturday in between is a nothing day. It’s the day with no name, the day when nothing happened. Jesus is crucified, dead, and buried. And… for a full day… nothing.

What does it mean for Jesus to be dead? What does it mean for God incarnate to be in a tomb? What was going on that Saturday? What were the disciples thinking? What were the angels doing? What was that Saturday like?

Doubt. Despair. Hopelessness. Anger. Loneliness. Abandoned. Silence. Fear.

Jesus felt all of that while he was hanging on the cross. He felt abandoned by God. He felt the despair and the loneliness. He felt the silence in his soul, like God had withdrawn his presence, like his Father had turned his back on him. The gospels tell us that our Lord cried out near the moment of his death, “My God! My God, why have you forsaken me?”

Jesus is obeying the will of his Father. He’s extending mercy in the middle of being tortured, he’s forgiving his executioners even while they’re killing him, he’s comforting a man who’s also being killed, he’s making arrangements for his mother — Jesus is faithfully doing every single thing his Father has asked him to do. And now when he needs our God the most, right now at the most unbearable moment of suffering and death, Jesus feels what no person is ever supposed to feel: “My God, why have you forsaken me?!?”

Jesus is praying from Psalm 22.

“My God! My God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry out but you do not answer.”

That’s what Friday was like for Jesus. The day he died. The day they wrapped his body in a burial cloth and laid him inside a tomb in a cemetery.

And then, Saturday.

We know from Scripture that, after his death, the followers of Jesus lost all hope. Those two disciples on the road to Emmaus: “We thought Jesus was the one, but he’s not.” Those women who went to the tomb Sunday morning did not go to worship a risen king, they went to anoint a dead body. There’s no hope on Saturday.

Friday’s a little different. A very horrible thing is happening, the disciples are living a nightmare, but they’re running on adrenaline. You know what that’s like. When the awful tragedy strikes, when the rug is suddenly pulled out from under you, when your whole world gets turned upside down in an instant, it’s all adrenaline. You’re taking care of the crisis, you’re doing what has to be done to get through the event.

And then the next day. The day after the funeral. The day after the Bible class delivers the last meal on the sign-up sheet. When things slow down and it gets quiet. That’s Saturday. Everybody knows Saturday.

Saturday is the day after your dream dies. The day after your husband died. The day after the divorce was finalized. The day after the diagnosis. The day after you lose your job. The day after your child does something you never thought she’d do. The day after your soul gets crushed. You wake up and you’re still alive, it’s the next day and you have to keep on living. But you don’t know how. Maybe you don’t know why.

“My God! My God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry out but you do not answer.

I am a worm, not a person. scorned by men and women and despised by the people. All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads: He trusts in the Lord; let the Lord rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him.

My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death.”

Why is there a Saturday? Why is there a day between the death and resurrection of Jesus? It doesn’t further the plot. It doesn’t move the story line at all. If Jesus was going to be crucified and then raised for the salvation of the world, it seems like God would hurry up with it. I would. Why does God spread these two salvation events over three days? What’s with this horrible day in the middle?

Come back tomorrow. I’ve got a couple of ideas.

Peace,

Allan

Sex and Marriage

June 13, 2016 / / 2 Comments

SexField

I wrapped up our six-weeks sermon series on marriage here at Central a couple of weeks ago with a sermon titled “Sex and Marriage.” As soon as church was over, one of our elders, who will remain nameless — his initials are Ira Purdy — approached me and asked, “What is this? Sweeps week?!?” At about the same time, two of our teenagers, Josh and Boyd, came up from behind me with a couple of prayer cards. “You said the word ‘sex’ 84-times during the sermon!” They pointed proudly to their two separate scorecards with all the penciled-in tally marks. Both cards added up to 84.

My first thought was, “Wow, that’s got to be some kind of Church of Christ record.”

Sure enough, we contacted the Christian Chronicle the next morning and they verified it last week. Saying the word “sex” 84 times in a 27-minute sermon broke the previous Church of Christ mark set by Marvin Phillips at the Garnett Road Church of Christ in Tulsa, Oklahoma when he said the word “sex” 51-times in a 32-minute sermon in 1979.

Most sermons about sex and most youth group talks about sex seem to center around the idea that sex is wonderfully great but it needs to wait until marriage. Sex is incredible, but you can’t enjoy it until you get married. And while all those sermons and youth talks are made by well-intentioned and sincere Christian leaders, the impression can almost be taken that sex and marriage are two separate things.

Like a house with a swimming pool in the backyard.

Sometimes we act like marriage is the house and sex is the swimming pool out back. Sex is the add-on that doesn’t have much, if anything, to do with the structural integrity of the house itself. The marriage relationship and the sex are two different things. We’ve got the marriage in one place — this is where we live and this is what we pay attention to and this is what’s really important — and when you sign the contract you walk into the house and open up the back doors and say, “Wow, check out this awesome swimming pool!” It’s a fringe benefit that comes when you buy the house. It’s a really nice extra.

Or maybe just the opposite. Maybe sex is the foundation for the marriage and relationship is the add-on. Maybe you’ve understood sex as the main house —sex is everything, I’ve got to get married so I can have sex, I’ve got to get married so I can be fulfilled sexually — it’s the foundation, the walls, the floor, the ceiling, the roof, everything. And the relationship is the pool out back. It’s nice. I’m glad I’ve got it. Two separate things.

That kind of thinking, seeing sex and marriage as two separate things has led to a whole lot of sex without marriage and a whole lot of marriage without sex. And both of those situations are a distortion of God’s holy will and doing untold damage to God’s holy people.

I’ll post every day this week from that “Sex and Marriage” sermon I preached a couple of weeks ago. In the meantime, don’t call the Christian Chronicle or contact Marvin Phillips. It’s a joke.

Peace,

Allan

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