Category: Heaven (Page 3 of 5)

The Heart of God

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“The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side.” ~Luke 16:22

Helping the hurting in this world gets us very, very close to the heart of our God. Our God personally identifies with the poor and the needy. His heart is with the most powerless and vulnerable people of our society: the widow, the orphan, and the immigrant. God himself is so closely connected to the poor and the hurting, he personally feels it when you ignore them.

“He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker,
but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.” ~Proverbs 14:31

This is a strong statement here. But it’s still just a metaphor, right? Disliking the poor is not exactly the same as disliking God. It’s still just a figure of speech, right?

In case you wanted to use that weak loophole as a way to avoid helping the poor, God himself came to this earth to show us how much he identifies with the helpless. Jesus was born in a livestock trough to poor peasant parents. Jesus lived with the poor and the marginalized. The poor and the hurting were drawn to him.

“Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” ~Luke 9:58

He rode into Jerusalem on a borrowed donkey, he spent his last night with his followers in a borrowed room, and when he was killed they laid him in a borrowed tomb. Apparently, his only possession was a single robe. He didn’t have anything the world valued. And what little he had, was taken away. He was unfairly accused and unjustly tried, beaten on the stand and cruelly tortured, executed with extreme prejudice.

Our God knows. He knows. He identifies with all the nameless and powerless and invisible poor and hurting people in our world. He lived it. This is the very core of who God is and what he’s all about.

He sees Lazarus. God protects Lazarus and provides for him. God loves Lazarus and cares deeply about his situation. And he’s going to fix it. God is a God of justice and he’s making all things right. God is reversing the tip of the scales and he’s bringing his perfect and righteous justice to all people who are injured and abused and ignored by the structures and systems of a fallen world.

God also sees the rich guy and the way he neglects Lazarus. God is aware of all of it. And he’s going to make things right.

Peace,

Allan

Citizenship

“Our citizenship is in heaven.” ~Philippians 3:20

The city of Philippi was a Roman colony. It was 550 miles east of Rome, across the sea and in a different world in many respects. But because it was a Roman colony, the citizens of the Philippi region were citizens of Rome. Their official citizenship was in Rome. And they were very proud of that citizenship. So they dressed like Romans. They built their buildings and set up their city administration like Romans. They spoke Latin like Romans; they worshiped the emperor like Romans. They lived in Philippi, but they never considered themselves Philippians — they were Romans. They lived in Macedonia on the Aegean Sea — but their citizenship was in Rome.

When Paul and Silas were in Philippi in Acts 16, the owners of the slave girl accused the missionaries of “advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.” What did they mean “us Romans?” Don’t they know they live in Philippi? Yes, they live in Philippi, but their citizenship is in Rome. Philippi is a Roman outpost. It’s an island of one culture in the middle of another. It’s a city of people holding on to and promoting customs and traditions and practices and even a language that is unfamiliar to its surroundings.

My family and I lived in Memphis, Tennessee for almost a year in 1998. We bought a house in Memphis and Carrie-Anne and I both worked in Memphis. Whitney went to Memphis public school. But I refused to get a Tennessee drivers license. I didn’t get a Tennessee license plate. I flew the Texas flag from our front porch and in my office at work. I wore Dallas Mavericks t-shirts, I listened to Stevie Ray Vaughn everyday, and I absolutely never, ever put cole slaw on top of my barbecue sandwich! I was living in Tennessee, but my citizenship was in Texas.

The same thing is happening with the folks receiving this letter from Paul. The apostle writes to the Christians in Philippi and he says, “Our citizenship is in heaven.” You don’t belong to Philippi or to Rome; our citizenship is in heaven.

Here on earth, we are a colony of heavenly citizens. God’s Church is an outpost. It’s an island of one culture in the middle of another. God’s Church is a city of people holding on to and promoting customs and traditions and practices and a language unfamiliar to our surroundings.

And it sets us apart. It makes us different.

In Acts 21, Paul is accused of teaching “all men everywhere against our people and our law and this place.” When given the chance to defend himself, Paul claims that as a citizen of heaven, as a subject of Christ, he “had fulfilled his duty.” The Christians in Thessalonica are arrested in Acts 17 and charged with “defying Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus.” Our Lord is standing in chains before the Roman governor in John 18 when he says, “My Kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight… my Kingdom is from another place.”

To confess that Jesus is Lord is to say that Caesar is not. And that makes us different. To claim citizenship in heaven is to declare our allegiance first and foremost to God’s Kingdom, not the Empire. And that sets us apart.

Jesus did not bring a new teaching or a new ethic; Jesus brings a brand new reality. Jesus didn’t give us new ideas about God and humanity and the world; he gives us an invitation to join up, to become part of a movement, a new people that is not of this world. We see something the world doesn’t see; we understand something the world cannot comprehend. We live in and are part of the reality of the eternal power and reign of God in Christ. So we are strangers and aliens in this world because we get it, and nobody else does. We understand that God rules the world, not congressmen and presidents or governors and generals.

We need to slow down and look around and get a handle on what’s really going on. We need to see what’s really happening. That’s hard to do because we’re surrounded by all the unreality. With 24 hour news networks and around the clock talk radio and more ads and campaigns and debates and emails and bumper stickers than any of us can fathom, it’s easy to get caught up in it. If we’re not careful, we can actually start to believe that the Empire and its politics and our role in all that is pretty important. Until we step back and look at it with a heavenly perspective.

The Gospel of Jesus places all of us into an eternal and international community of those who follow the Savior. We live under the rule of our Christ. So our loyalties go far beyond any national thought or national pride. Our allegiance rises high above any national agenda. Our conduct will be different from the world’s because our citizenship is in heaven.

I was nine years old in the summer of 1975 when my dad packed up the blue Chevrolet Impala and took our family of five at the time and my grandmother up to Niagara Falls. Yes, we drove it; lots of ham sandwiches. After a long day of sightseeing in Ontario, I remember vividly ordering hamburgers at a little diner. I can still see the black and white tile on the floor and the pattern and colors of the fabric on the cushions of the booths. We ordered our meals and sat down together in the crowded diner. And after just a minute or two, a lady sitting at the table next to us leaned in toward us and said, “What part of Texas are you from?”

She hadn’t seen our license plates. We weren’t talking about home. None of us was wearing Dallas Cowboys t-shirts or anything that would have overtly given away where we lived. She said she could just tell by the way we talked and the way we acted that we were from Texas.

I remember being kind of proud about that. I think maybe I’m still a little proud about that.

When’s the last time you sat down at a restaurant and someone leaned over and said, “What part of heaven are you from?”

Wherever we go and whatever we do, we ought to stick out as people who live somewhere else. We are a people with customs and practices and a language different from the rest of the world. Our citizenship is in heaven. And it should be obvious.

Peace,

Allan

One Great Night

Six hundred burgers and dogs, one-hundred water balloons, seventy-five butterfly houses, forty-five kites, and two bounce houses added up to one really great night for the Central church and our Plemons area neighbors at Ellwood Park. I don’t know how many people showed up last night — it was too busy and too fun and too impossible to even try to count. But people kept coming even after the food was gone to participate in the crafts and activities and visiting that was taking place under the shade trees.

Once our cooks passed the dreaded and feared city inspection (Whew! Way to go, Scott!) we laughed and prayed and untangled kite string and passed out water and moved tables and chairs and met and got to know dozens of our neighbors. We met folks who’ve lived here for more than sixty years and those who have been recently forced here by terrible circumstances. We got to know people who work in the nursing homes around our building and people who are living at the Salvation Army. Senior citizens and tiny babies. Old Church of Christ-ers and those who’ve never confessed Jesus as Lord.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What a great night.

I believe part of the Church’s task is to paint a picture for the world of what the Kingdom of God looks like. It’s not enough to just proclaim that Jesus is the Son of God. It’s not enough to merely preach and teach salvation from God in Christ. It’s not enough to talk about it. How will people know unless they see it?!? They’ve got to see it. How is the Kingdom of God any different from the Empire of America? How is it better? How is it more than just an abstract concept or unattainable ideal?

That’s why the Church has to live it. We have to cast the vision with living color, high definition illustrations that come out of our own lives as witnesses to this already arrived and still coming Kingdom. What’s it like to eat and drink in the Kingdom of God in a place where there are no more social divides, no more language barriers, no more walls between races and cultures, where money and prestige and nationality and status don’t matter — what’s it like to be there? We have to show them. The world has to experience this around us and with us if they’re ever going to go for it in faith.

 

 

 

 

 

No, last night wasn’t perfect. Not by any stretch. The man and his three kids, the oldest of whom is twelve-years-old and suffering from cerebral palsy and confined to a wheelchair, still walked back to the Salvation Army last night while I drove my air-conditioned pickup down I-40 to my house on the other end of town. The one-armed man stuck around until the very last table was loaded onto the trailers and then went right back to his alcohol and cigarettes and cardboard home down by the work house. I could go on and on with the people and the stories. No, it’s not perfect.

But one day it will be. Perfect.

Until that glorious day of our Lord, his Church keeps painting the picture, keeps casting the vision with living, breathing, real-life experiences of what it’s going to be like. With picnics in the park, we lean into the future state of his beautiful creation. With free laundry and car washes and oil changes we provide the world with a glimpse.

Peace,

Allan

Are You Bringing It?

Jesus prays to our Father, “Your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Jesus preaches the Kingdom of God. Jesus declares the Kingdom of God. He prays it. And he proclaims it: “It is at hand!” “It is here!” Jesus points it out: “The Kingdom! Yes! Look at it!”

But, more than that, Jesus brings the Kingdom of God to earth. He brings it. Jesus does God’s will on earth just as it is in heaven.

Jesus casts out demons because there are no demons in heaven.
Jesus heals because there is no sickness in heaven.
Jesus feeds because there is no hunger in heaven.
Jesus raises the dead because there is no death in heaven.

“Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

Are you praying this prayer? Jesus said it was a good idea to pray this prayer, to ask God to please do his will here on earth just like it’s done in heaven. More importantly, are you bringing it? Are you bringing the Kingdom of God to your part of the earth? Are you obeying his will just like the rocks and the trees and the oceans and the animals obey his will?

There is no revenge in heaven. There is no hate in heaven. There are no arguments in heaven. There are no disagreements in heaven. No suspicion. No politics. No war. No division of any kind. No power-grabbing. No violence, verbal or physical. No mistrust. No complaining. You won’t find any of those things in heaven.

Do you find any of those things in your church? In your elders’ meetings? In your congregational committees? Are you bringing the Kingdom of God into your part of the world or some other, very different things? Into your marriage? Into your family around the dinner table at night? Are you bringing the Kingdom of God to your workplace? To your school? To the Little League team you’re coaching or the civic club to which you belong?

If God has completely eradicated selfish behavior and gamesmanship and competition in heaven, if that is his holy will, why would you tolerate it in your church? Or in your house? Why in the world would you actually insist on bringing it into your congregation? Or putting up with it?

The rivers and the trees and the squirrels and the fish all obey God’s will on earth just as it is in heaven. What’s wrong with us?

Peace,

Allan

To This You Were Called

Maundy Thursday. Yeah, I wasn’t overly certain of what it meant until I was asked by Howard Griffin, my neighbor and friend and senior pastor at First Presbyterian Church here in Amarillo, to preach their traditional Maundy Thursday service this evening. The communion gathering remembers that last dinner Jesus had with his disciples the night he was betrayed. The traditional text is John 13, specifically Jesus washing the feet of his disciples. And I’m so honored and blessed to be bringing the message this evening.

Part of the reason Howard asked me to do this, he says, is because we Church of Christ folks have a pretty good handle on communion. I like to think that we do. And that’s another reason I’m so excited about tonight.

It’s a communion service. It reminds us that Christ’s table is an open table, that all are invited to participate together in his presence, that we are all one people together in his death, burial, and resurrection. There are no divisions at the table of our Lord. When we gather around the table there are no barriers to fellowship, no differences in our status or standing with one another or with our Savior. We are all accepted, all justified and sanctified, all saved by the same faith in the same risen and coming Lord. And we eat together and share the meal together as a universal symbol and reminder of that blessed unity.

So, naturally, this became a “4 Amarillo” event.

We’re expecting a full house at First Pres tonight. Baptists and Methodists and Presbyterians and a bunch of CofC’ers sharing the Lord’s meal together, lifting praise to our Father together, praying together, and committing to serving one another and considering the needs of each other more important than our own.

I’ve always known that this is the way it’s going to be in heaven. What a glorious blessing, an unexpected gift, to experience this sliver of eternity in downtown Amarillo tonight.

Peace,

Allan

Orienting for Glory

This coming Sunday marks the first of six straight weeks in which our adult Bible classes here at Central are pairing up with one another in an effort to better live what we preach in intergenerational, multi-cultural relationships. If you’re one of our members at Central, for six straight Sundays you’re going to be in a Bible class with people who are not your age. Their kids won’t be the same age as your kids. Their salaries might not match yours. Some of these people may come from completely different backgrounds, have completely different viewpoints, and sport a completely different skin color than yours. For six weeks a lot of you will listen to teachers you’ve never heard in a classroom you’ve never visited.

It’ll be different.

We’re all going to be pushed out of our comfort zones. We’re all going to experience a little vertigo as we get used to the different people and different styles. We’re all going to have to give a little, to bend a bit, to sacrifice and serve to make this happen.

It’ll be difficult.

But this is not a move to disorient us. It’s actually intended to orient us. This is an effort to orient us to that blessed day when all of God’s children are together around that one table at the eternal wedding feast of the Lamb. Different colors and languages, different ages and styles, different backgrounds and sets of experiences — yet, one people around one table.

That glorious day is coming. God has promised it, Christ Jesus died and was raised for it, and the Holy Spirit is working toward it. And we should live our lives today in great anticipation. We should be leaning into it daily. Looking forward to it, practicing it, getting ready for it.

It’s only an hour on Sunday mornings for just six weeks. But our prayer is that it’ll go a long way in helping us experience and express our Father’s holy will for his Church.

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The 1,000th posting on this five-year-old blog is going to happen before the end of October. And I’d like to celebrate that weird little milestone by giving you, the readers, brand new copies of some of the great books that have informed and shaped my thinking and writing and preaching. We’ll hold a drawing on the day of that 1,000th post. The only way to enter the drawing is by posting comments between now and then — see the end of yesterday’s post for details on how you can enter your name up to 14 times. You can enter multiple times, but you can only win one prize.

Grand Prize – all three books in John Mark Hicks’ series on the sacraments of the Church of Christ: Come to the Table, the book that launched my continuing quest to better understand Christ’s meal; Down to the River to Pray, a wonderful call to restore Christian baptism to the center of the life of the Church; and A Gathered People, a beautiful look at the ways God works in our corporate assemblies to transform us into the image of his Son.

First Prize – Resident Aliens, Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon

Second Prize – Surprised by Hope, N. T. Wright

Third Prize – The Reason for God, Timothy Keller

Fourth Prize – The Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis

Fifth Prize – The Jesus Way, Eugene Peterson

Peace,

Allan

 

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