The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

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Category: Discipleship (Page 14 of 30)

Short Cuts and Dead Ends

November 7, 2013 / / 0 Comments

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

Have you ever cut through a parking lot in an effort to avoid a red light or a traffic jam, to reach your destination a little more quickly, only to find yourself at a dead end or farther away from your objective than you were when you began? It used to happen to me a lot. It still does occasionally. Carrie-Anne just smiles patiently in the seat next to me as I wind my way through a strip center parking lot looking for a way out.

The desert temptations of Jesus show us a picture of the devil, our Adversary, and his method for pushing us to take spiritual shortcuts. Satan is forever attempting to subvert our walk with God by offering us a shorter path, a quicker route. And they always turn into dead ends.

In response to those temptations — Satan uses our culture to lure us down the wrong path every hour of every day — we must rely on our Father and walk the difficult road with him. Anything we do independently of God and his way expresses a lack of connection, a lack of faith.

Jesus never rationalizes his way out of God’s will. He could very easily have thought that God did not want his Son to starve or suffer rejection or die, so why not turn those stones to warm, fluffy loaves of bread? Why not eschew the cross for a more politically relevant and efficient way to win the throne? Why not? The Kingdom was going to belong to him anyway, so what did it matter how it came into his hands? But our Lord never entertained an end-justifies-the-means viewpoint.

Our charge is to follow him, to follow his way, in making sure the shortcuts that inevitably present themselves to us do not in fact reflect a lack of faith. Or any rationalization to avoid Gods’ holy will and very, very different way.

Peace,

Allan

The Time Has Come!

July 30, 2013 / / 0 Comments

“Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.” ~John 17:1

Jesus begins his prayer in John 17 with the words, “The time has come.” And, of course, we know he’s talking about his death. The time has come for Jesus to die, and that’s going to bring glory to God. We wouldn’t think death and glory belong together. We would think death and glory are opposites. We see glory as brightness, not night. We view glory in terms of celebrity, not mockery. Glory to us is fortune and fame, health and wealth, not suffering and death.

Jesus prays that he will be glorified and that, in turn, so will God. Just a few hours later, that prayer is answered. Jesus is dead.

The scandal of our religion is that our King reigns from a cross. Jesus does not destroy all evil and save the world through the exercise of power and control; he does it with supreme humility and selfless sacrifice. He dies. The disciples in the room with his this night will die similar deaths. Those deaths all brought glory to God. Death and dying is our salvation. Death and dying is glory.

We don’t come to the cross of Christ to worship his death or to remember the grisly details of that day. We come to the cross — we’re actually drawn to the cross — to see what it looks like for us to die. People say Jesus died so we don’t have to. No, that’s not right. Jesus died to show us how to. Paul says, “I have been crucified with Christ!” He tells the Corinthians, “I die every day!” He tells us in Colossians 3, “You died and your life is now hidden with Christ!”

God’s Church does not exist to serve itself. It’s not even intended to serve Christ. The Church is established to serve like Christ. To serve with Christ. To serve as Christ. We are instruments of God’s reconciliation of the world through Jesus, so we die every day in order to make the Word of God’s salvation fully known (Colossians 1:24-25). Dying with Jesus reflects our sense of unity with the Son of God. We have been buried with Christ, raised together with Christ, and been given brand new life together in Christ. As the body of Christ, we have a corporate personality. And that personality should be one of daily dying with Jesus for the sake of the world and to the glory of God!

The biggest problem with God’s Church in today’s context is our cowardly retreat from the high demands of the Christian faith. We run from it. We try to hide from it in our church buildings and Bible classes, in our carefully-orchestrated worship services and efficiently-run programs. Chesterton says — and I love this — “Christianity has not been tried and found difficult; it’s been found difficult and never really tried.”

Our setting today is no different from when Jesus was praying with those disciples after that last meal. It’s the same for us today as it was when Paul was writing his letters. The Church of God needs inspiring heroes; we need great daring and risk-taking; we need monumental sacrifice. The time has come for us to die. To die to our own dreams and desires. To die to our own grabs for money and power and control. To die to our own obsessions with recreation and politics and home improvement. To die to our addictions to entertainment and technology and consumerism. The time has come for disciples of the holy Messiah to die.

There’s a small child in your church, there’s a teenager in your neighborhood, who will come alive if you’ll only die for him. There’s an older woman on your street who will be re-born if you’ll just die for her. There’s a divorced dad in your office — you’ll see him in the morning! — who will be filled with resurrection hope if you’ll die for him. There’s a depressed immigrant, an unemployed neighbor, a suicidal senior, a confused girl, a sick soul, an abused woman, a guy on probation, a hungry child, an overworked mom — there are people you know who will live, really live, if you’ll just decide to die.

Peace,

Allan

The Work We’ve Been Given To Do

July 29, 2013 / / 0 Comments

“Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.” ~John 17:1

Jesus begins his very public prayer at the end of that last meal with his disciples acknowledging that the time for him to die, to glorify the Father in a selfless act of unconditional love, was at hand. The hour had come. It was here. It was time. The prayer is certainly set in and around the context of his impending death. But for a brief moment at the beginning of this prayer, Jesus allowed himself room to reflect for a moment on his brief earthly life and ministry.

“I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. I have revealed you…”

Jesus always told people if you had seen him, you had seen the Father. If you knew Jesus, you knew the Creator of Heaven and Earth. Yes, Jesus revealed God to the world. Jesus reveals God’s glory. Jesus allows us to see God. Jesus allows us to experience God. Jesus’ compassion shows us God’s compassion. Jesus’ mercy shows us God’s mercy. Jesus’ gentleness shows us God’s gentleness. Jesus’ intolerance for religious people who judge others and think they’re better than everybody else shows us God’s holy intolerance for religious arrogance and pride. Jesus’ love and forgiveness shows us God’s great love and forgiveness. Revealing God — this was a large part of the work God had given Jesus to do.

And, to borrow the powerful language from Christ’s prayer, the time has come for the Church of God to do the work God has given us to do. The time has come for us to reveal our God to the world. If we don’t, who will?

This world is full of cops and lawyers and judges and juries who accuse and prosecute and punish. The time has come for God’s people to be the ones who forgive. The world is full of writers and broadcasters and politicians who spread hate and fear in order to divide and conquer. The time has come for Christ’s followers to be the ones who spread love and hope in order to reconcile and restore. The world is full of soldiers and generals and armies and kings who take and kill in the name of country and security. The time has come for Christ’s Church to be the ones who give life, who give resources, who give of themselves, who give and give and give in the name of the One who came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

The time has come for us to complete the work we’ve been given to do, to reveal the love and grace of Almighty God to a world that does not know him. If we don’t, who will?

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I’m not playing “Taps” for the Rangers just yet. It’s not completely over. But this team is on life support. They’re barely breathing. The family’s been called in. The grandkids are gathering photos for the slide show. It’s not looking good.

The Rangers have lost four straight and nine of their past eleven games. They have been shut out — zero runs! — in three of their past four games. The Rangers haven’t scored a run in 21 straight innings. They have scored three runs or fewer in twelve of their past fifteen games and hit .177 with runners in scoring position during this same fifteen game stretch, including yesterday’s 0-3 showing in Cleveland. As of this very moment, Texas is six games back of Oakland in the AL West and fourth in the Wild Card standings. Worse than that, yesterday marked the 30th consecutive day the Rangers have not made up ground in the division. They’ve gone a full month now either staying put or losing ground to the A’s.

Yikes!

I’m still convinced that Nelson Cruz will be suspended this coming weekend, probably Friday, for the remainder of the season. So now the Rangers need at least two or three brand new bats, not just one or two. I was hopeful that the Garza signing would spark something in these guys. No, it hasn’t. And I’m afraid Ron Washington’s 45-minute closed door team meeting after yesterday’s embarrassing effort won’t do it either.

We’ll know for certain this time next Monday whether to pull the plug on this team. Texas plays the Angels in a three-game set in Arlington beginning tonight and then go head-to-head with the A’s in Oakland this coming weekend. So, come Monday, we’ll know.

It’s been three or four years since Cowboys pre-season football was more interesting than watching the Rangers.

Crud.

Allan

Dead Religion

May 1, 2013 / / 0 Comments

 

Most people who reject Christianity are not saying “no” to God, they’re saying “no” to the God they see reflected in religious people. They’re not turning their backs on Jesus, they’re turning their backs on the Jesus reflected in a lot of his disciples today. There are many, many people in the world whose only encounter with God is going to be in an encounter with God’s children; their only exposure to Jesus is going to come in an interaction with a Jesus-follower. And a lot of the time those very encounters lead to a rejection of Christianity. When that happens, I have a hard time blaming them.

Eric Metaxas, the truly gifted author of Bonhoeffer, talked about this in his speech at last year’s National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. His claim — I feel like I’ve been preaching this for years — is that if people really, really, really knew God, there’s no way they’d say “no.” If the world knew God, and not the false ideas about God that his children keep putting out there, the world would break down our church doors and smash through our stained glass windows to get to him. They’d line up around the block!

“God is not some moral code. He is not some energy force. He is alive, he is a person. He knows everything about me. And about you. He knows my story. He knows your story. Every detail. He knows your deepest fears. He knows the terrible selfish things you have done that have hurt others. And he still loves you! And he knows the hurt that others have caused you. He knows us. He is alive. He is not a joy-killing bummer, or some moralistic ‘church lady.’ He is the most wonderful Person — capital P — imaginable! In fact, his name is Wonderful…

Now who would reject that?

Everything I had ever rejected about God was actually not God. It was just dead religion. It was phoniness; it was people who go to church and do not show the love of Jesus. It was people who know the Bible and use it as a weapon. People who don’t practice what they preach. People who are indifferent to the poor and suffering. People who use religion as a way to exclude others from their group. People who use religion as a way to judge others.

I had rejected that. But guess what? Jesus had also rejected that. He had railed against that. And he called people to real life and real faith. Jesus was and is the enemy of dead religion. He railed against the religious leaders of his day because he knew it was all just a front. That in their hearts they were far from God, his Father. When he was tempted in the desert, who was the one throwing Bible verses at him? Satan. That is the perfect picture of dead religion. Using the words of God to do the opposite of what God does. It is grotesque, when you think about it. It is demonic.” 

If people don’t know you as gracious and compassionate, if your friends don’t use words like patient and kind to describe you, if your next-door-neighbor and your insurance agent don’t think you’re abounding in love, then they may not have much of a chance of really knowing our God. If they know you’re a Christian and they also know you as judgmental, bitter, unforgiving, unkind, or untruthful, we can’t really blame them for staying home on Sunday mornings.

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The Amarillo Bulls swept the Tornado down-state in Frisco last night to advance to the Robertson Cup Finals for the third straight season. I like to think it was the Central Church staff that got the Bulls off on the right foot in the Conference Championship series opener last Thursday. Thanks to Elaine’s connections — oh, yeah, Elaine is truly connected! — we were all there from puck drop to final horn, right up on the glass, in the VIP Party Zone.

It was crazy. Tanner banging on the glass and screaming God’s love to the Tornado goalie. Hannah shouting her phone number to the referee. Gina putting her new knees to the test by dancing wildly to all the ’80s rock anthems. Greg continually threatening to take off his shirt.

Elaine had rigged it so that we were the ones competing on the ice during the intermissions for cheesy little Bulls memorabilia and prizes. Kathryn won the contest in which we had to run barefoot from one end of the ice to the other, collect our scattered shoes, and run back. Of course, being born in Arkansas was an unfair advantage for her. And I think Adam and Corbin won the water balloon toss. Or was it Mean Jean and Becca? I can’t remember. I was completely distracted by the spectacle of Adam in that terribly undersized hockey helmet.

Peace,

Allan

Heart of a Disciple: Submission

January 1, 2013 / / 0 Comments

As we begin a brand new year with our brand new re-commitments to our Lord and to his eternal Kingdom, let’s consider a final trait of Christ’s twelve apostles that were lacking in most everybody else who ran into Jesus during his ministry. That last trait is submission. Or you might call it obedience.

Jesus’ disciples recognized that they needed his instruction. No matter how harsh they sometimes were, they knew they needed to apply Jesus’ teachings to their lives. Now, they were not perfect students. Not by any stretch. Sometimes Jesus was angry at them. Frustrated. I’m sure he was sick of them sometimes. When, at the drop of a hat, they’re wanting to call down fire from heaven and burn out a whole village. When they wanted to censor other followers who were teaching in Jesus’ name but not doing things exactly as they were doing them. In Matthew 17, these disciples can’t cast a demon out of a sick boy and Jesus says, “How much longer must I put up with you?” If you’re a school teacher or a parent, you can relate to our Lord’s exasperation. When Peter got sidetracked during a critical moment, Jesus called him Satan.

Yet these apostles continually repented and re-repented and re-submitted themselves to the lordship of Jesus and his teachings. One minute, yes, they’re arguing over who will be the greatest in the Kingdom, but the next minute they’re submitting to a foot-washing lesson on selfless service. Peter denies Jesus three times and then enjoys a breakfast on the beach with Jesus, repenting and accepting forgiveness and recommitting to submission and obedience.

Humility, trust, and submission. You can’t know a person has those traits by looking at his SAT scores. But if one doesn’t possess these qualities in increasing measure, one cannot understand Jesus the way his first disciples did. These are absolutely essential qualities for a follower of the Lord. They’re indispensable traits that give a person the ears to hear what Jesus is saying and the eyes to see what Jesus is revealing. Because Jesus is not the kind of teacher everybody gets.

He teaches in parables and questions and difficult language to make sure their level of understanding is never past their level of personal involvement. He made them dig. He made them get invested and involved. He made them sacrifice. Their personal relationship is a major part of Jesus’ teachings. With Jesus, you don’t just listen and then regurgitate facts and ideas. You have to have a change of heart. If you don’t have the right kind of heart, you can’t really comprehend everything Jesus is doing.

It’s never merely informational with our great rabbi. It’s transformational. His teaching always starts and finishes in the heart.

May we each approach our Lord and Master with humility, trust, and submission. May we see with his eyes and hear with his ears. And as we learn, may our hearts grow and be transformed and become one with his and with one another’s.

Amen.

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

Sorry. Couldn’t resist.

Peace,

Allan

 

Heart of a Disciple: Trust

December 31, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Another of the qualities that separated the Twelve from everybody else who interacted with Jesus during his ministry here was their great capacity to trust. They trusted Jesus completely. Entirely. Unflinchingly.

I’m ashamed to admit that more than a couple of times in my life I’ve been sucked into the buy 14 CDs for a penny scam. It took several times, but I don’t trust those kinds of offers anymore. We don’t trust Joe Isuzu. We have a hard time trusting politicians, lawyers, and used car salesmen. And preachers. Cynicism and skeptism are second nature to us.

But Jesus is no used car salesman. He doesn’t ask you to follow him so he can take what’s yours and make it his. He seeks you out to save you, to enjoin you in an eternal relationship. But Jesus still didn’t inspire awe and faith in everyone who saw him or heard him teach. Not everyone decided to follow him. Not everyone believed him. It takes a trusting heart to be moved by Jesus.

The apostles left everything. They left homes and family and jobs and security and comfort for rejection and ridicule and uncertainty and suffering. They followed him all the way to Jerusalem, knowing they were heading straight for trouble.

Jesus says, “Trust me.”

“All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me,” he says. “Trust me.”

The apostles deemed Jesus trustworthy. Is he? Is Jesus as trustworthy as he claims to be?

Look back over your own life, your own experiences with him. Every single time he’s warned you that some action would be harmful to you by calling it “sin,” he’s been exactly right. Every time. Every time his teachings directed you to make the better and tougher choice, he’s been right. Every time. When he promises to take care of you, he’s always right. He’s never been wrong. Sometimes it takes a while, sometimes years, to see it and understand it. But his track record is spotless. It’s perfect. Because his motivation — pure love — is perfect.

Jesus says, “Trust me.”

Do you?

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The Dallas Cowboys are done before New Year’s Eve. Again. They finish the season at 8-8. Again. They lose in a win-and-get-in finale. Again. Tony Romo throws a critical late-game interception. Again. It’s the same old story for these same old Cowboys who are 128-128 since 1997.

For the third time in the past five years, the Cowboys lost the last game of the regular season when a victory would have put them in the playoffs. For the sixth time in seven tries, Tony Romo lost a do-or-die elimination football game, throwing as many picks last night as he had in the past two months. The Cowboys still have but one lousy playoff win in the past 16 years. And counting…

I feel for Jason Garrett. As a head coach, the guy’s never taken any team to the playoffs, on any stage, at any level. So I’m not sure how qualified he is to be coaching the Cowboys. His repeated mismanagement of game situations late in the 2nd and 4th quarters is troubling. But I feel for him. I don’t think he’s being given a completely fair opportunity here. He’s saddled by his GM with a defensive coordinator who couldn’t possibly be more different than him in personality and style. (Not to mention, Rob Ryan also has never taken a defense to the playoffs on any stage, at any level.) Jerry Wayne’s personnel moves on the offensive line have doomed Garrett’s offense for the past three seasons. And his loyalty to Romo has crippled this team’s present and jeopardized it’s future.

Injuries this year are a legitimate factor for the Cowboys. But not any more so than they are for all the other teams in the NFL in December. DeMarcus Ware hobbling around last night without his right arm would have been inspirational had he actually made any plays. He didn’t need to be out there. The news this morning that he’ll have surgery this week on his shoulder and elbow tells us how badly he is hurt. Not having five or six defensive starters they had in early October wasn’t helpful, no. Losing receivers Austin and Bryant and Harris late last night wasn’t ideal.

But then, their absences had nothing to do with that late Romo interception.

The Cowboys were in a position to sneak into the playoffs. Again. Momentum was with the Cowboys late in the fourth quarter. Again. And Romo threw the pick. Again.

Pretty soon, Garrett’s going to lose this team. They stay at .500 season after season. They remain near the top of the list of most penalized teams in the league. They keep missing the playoffs. I don’t know how much longer these guys are going to buy what Garrett’s selling. But, again, I’m not convinced it’s his fault.

The one constant here is Jerry Wayne. The owner and GM seemed angry after the game last night. He refused to talk about coaches or player personnel. He said only that they needed to make some changes in the way they’re doing things. The last time Jerry Wayne took a close look in the mirror and saw incompetence, he hired Bill Parcells. That’s not going to happen this offseason. Maybe one more year of .500 ball and mistakes and missed opportunities and watching other teams play in the postseason. Maybe one more year.

Peace,

Allan

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