The Kingdom, The Kids, & the Cowboys

Day of Pentecost. Acts 2. There’s this mob in the street demanding an explanation for what’s happening in the upper room with the noise and the tongues of fire and the different languages. And Peter starts preaching from a passage in Joel:

I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams.
Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
and they will prophesy.
~Acts 2:17-18 (from Joel 2:28-29)

Through most of our history with God, Holy Spirit empowered talk (preaching) has been limited to a few select prophets. But when Christ comes, when the day of the Messiah and the coming of the Kingdom of God arrives, God’s Holy Spirit will be poured out on everybody! Young and old, men and women, rich and poor, educated and not, people who’ve never stood up to speak before, people who’ve never even looked at a microphone before, all God’s people will speak up and speak out. Everyone will preach the truth. Everybody’s a preacher! We are living right now today in the age of this promised free speech.

That’s why Jesus’ people are always big talkers. Have you noticed? We’ll talk to anybody. We love to talk. And we won’t shut up. No matter what our neighbors say. No matter what the government says.

Jesus was a preacher. And he sends his disciples out to preach. Faith comes from what is heard. That’s why when we get together on Sundays we mostly talk and shout and sing and read and speak. The most difficult part of my Sunday morning is standing before the crowd at Legacy at 10:00 and trying to get everybody quiet. We love to talk. And we won’t shut up. About Jesus. Because we’re all preachers, filled with the Spirit of Christ, re-created to proclaim the Gospel of salvation in all its eternal glory.

One of my favorite parables of Jesus, the preacher, is about the sower who went forth to sow. What’s the Kingdom of God like? A farmer goes out and just starts slinging seed. Hey, it’s the Kingdom of God! And he’s just throwing seed everywhere. Wasting lots of good seed with a reckless abandon.

That sounds like a really lousy way to grow a crop of wheat. But Jesus says it’s the best way to spread the good news. May our God bless us as we refuse to shut up.

Peace,

Allan

“Be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” ~Ephesians 5:18-21

We worship in the Spirit. We submit to one another and sing and speak to one another in the Spirit. The Holy Spirit of God is who gives the Christian life its energy and enthusiasm. Its endurance. Its power!

Be filled with the Spirit.

This is an imperative. It’s a command. So we do take some responsibility here. This singing together and submitting to one another is either the means by which we pursue this filling of the Spirit or the result of being filled with the Spirit. Or both. Either way, Paul says when we sing together, when we pray together, when we really belong to one another, we are filled with the Spirit.

And that tells me that God is not a spectator when we gather for worship. Audience of one? No way! God is not the audience of our worship. Our God is an active participant with us — inside us — when we worship him together. God is not just sitting on his throne in heaven soaking up all the Hallelujahs and Amens. No. Through the Spirit, the Father and Son are engaged with us. Communing with us. Rejoicing with us. Transforming us. Changing us. Growing us. Shaping us more into the image of Christ.

Be filled with the Spirit.

Encountering God together — in our Sunday morning worship assemblies, Wednesday night Bible classes, Sunday evening small groups — being in the presence of God together allows us to recognize our own sinfulness and shortcomings. And that always leads to an acute recognition of his marvelous grace. And the power of God’s grace is not just forgiveness. It’s also transformation. New creature. New creation. Christ formed in you. Being saved. It’s a communal sanctification event that we participate in and experience together.

See you Sunday,

Allan

‘You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God.” ~2 Corinthians 3:4

Jesus’ greatest gift to us as we wait for his triumphant return is the power of his presence through the Holy Spirit. God’s Holy Spirit is alive and powerful and real. And he lives inside all who confess Jesus as Lord and put their faith for salvation in God through Christ.

He lives inside us.

Did you catch that part? The Spirit is within us, a holy being inside unholy humans. It’s amazing. It’s like science fiction. It’s difficult, if not impossible, to comprehend. The presence of God is not given to us in the clouds somewhere. It’s not at the top of a shaking and smoking mountain. It’s not hidden away in a chapel or a church building. God’s Spirit is not above us or beside us. He’s within us. He dwells inside us.

And he’s authoring a masterpiece. He’s writing a classic for the ages. In fact, what he’s writing is going to be read by everybody you know. They won’t find this great literary achievement at Barnes and Noble. They can’t download it off Amazon. They read this work of art when they come in contact with you.

You are that Holy Spirit masterpiece, authored by the true and living God! Yes, it’s you! Look in the mirror. Don’t get distracted by the funny ears or the blemished skin. Don’t allow your height or your weight to keep you from recognizing it. Do not dare minimize what God is doing in your life. It’s not about you and me. It’s about the Spirit of God changing you — changing us! — into his majestic handiwork. It’s about us living by his Spirit as a display, a massive banner, proclaiming his power and love to all we meet.

Peace,

Allan

“My God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. To our God and Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” ~ Philippians 4:19-20

We are still riding the incredible wave of Spirit energy and enthusiasm generated by our God’s kind and gracious actions with his people at Legacy on Sunday. It was our annual Missions Sunday. We had prayerfully set a pretty lofty goal of collecting $250,702 to fund our entire local and foreign missions budget for 2011. And on Sunday, our Lord blew that number right out of the water. And he blew us all away with many powerful reminders of his great love and faithfulness.

Our God came through big time on Sunday: $273,327!! And the money is still coming in!! Give him all the glory and praise!!

But that doesn’t even begin to tell half the story of our Sunday with God and his people at Legacy.

Our assembly time began with our kids. All our precious kids, from two-years-old through sixth grade, inspired us with their dramatic offerings and bold proclamations of what God is doing through them. The congregation burst out with audible gasps as each class announced their total offerings. $64! $298! $101. The second grade brought in more than $900! And they gave with such joy. God showed us through our children what cheerful giving looks like.

David and Olivia Nelson shared the Word with us from the middle of their evening assembly in Kharkov, Ukraine. As we listened to the words from Acts 2:42-47, the camera panned around the Nelsons’ living room to show us that they were packed to the gills. Standing room only. In fact, the Father’s provision is forcing them to begin planning for a second congregation due to the sheer numbers of people who are coming to study the Bible. God showed us through David and Olivia what faithfulness to his mission call looks like.

Then, my great friend Manuel Calderon captivated us with stories about what our God is doing in the Hispanic communities of the Rosemont area of South Fort Worth. Melissa brought tears to the eyes of everyone who heard her stirring testimony to God’s transforming power that has changed her from a lost and lonely lesbian to a saved sister in the Lord’s Kingdom. Then, Irvin moved us with his undeniable witness to the Spirit’s work that has rescued him from a life of alcohol and drug abuse and gang violence to one of eternal salvation and peace in Christ Jesus. God showed us through these two disciples what “new creation” really looks like.

All of this is further proof to our church family that our God is alive and working with his people. It’s further testimony to our God’s faithfulness to his children. It’s lasting evidence that his Holy Spirit is convicting and transforming the world.

We are at our best on Missions Sunday. We are thinking about others instead of ourselves. We are sacrificing and giving of ourselves and our resources for the higher causes of Christ. We arrive at the building with great expectations and we are unified in our communion and worship. And blessings just seem to pile on top of blessings.

Our Father is keeping his covenant promises to Legacy and to all of his creation. May he be glorified and may his Son be exalted for ever and ever. Amen.

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Allright, all you facebook fanatics who keep telling me to get an account, watch this video. It’s an Onion parody that presents facebook as a CIA enterprise meant to collect and compile information on everybody in the world. One of the funniest lines in the video is about the government’s disappointment with Twitter, another of their attempts at spying on the public: “400 billion tweets, and not one useful bit of data has ever been transmitted.”

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Finally, March Gladness of a different strain. I have reclaimed my crown as the college basketball king at Stanglin Manor. It wasn’t pretty. Nobody in the house picked a single Final Four team. So, the final results are in and, for the first time in four years, I’m back on top. I finished with 58 points by correctly selecting five of the Elite Eight, barely edging Carley who finished with 57. Whitney came in third place with 53 points, followed by Carrie-Anne’s 52 and Valerie’s 31. This means I get to pick where we dine when we break our Missions Month fast from eating out. I can smell and taste those buffalo chicken strips at Cheddar’s right now.

Go VCU. Whatever.

Peace,

Allan

I’m continually amazed by what winds up in my inbox.

I’m not at all surprised by coupons and get-rich-quick appeals or adverstisements for the various book stores I visit. I’m not shocked by the ocassional shout-out from a former high school or college classmate. Emails from people I’ve never met, from places I’ve never been, asking for prayers or spiritual advice don’t blow me away anymore. They used to. Now I know that’s just one of the crazy ways my God works.

No, what amazes me is the email I get, at least three or four times a week, that exists only to incite hatred or foster division or to ridicule other children of God.

This I do not understand.

Usually, these emails are sent en masse. These emails that criticize or make fun of entire groups of people based on race or socio-economic status or nationality or political party or language or religion are generally forwards of forwards of forwards of forwards. These emails can be forwarded a dozen times from Uncle Frank through some guy at church via that lady at work and her ex-father-in-law’s accountant. By the time it reaches me, these emails have been sent to dozens and dozens of different people, men and women who read the content and then forward it on to others.

And I can’t help but wonder, “What was going through my friend’s mind when he forwarded this to me and other people in our church?”

What’s going on mentally and spiritually here? I imagine that he opens the email from cousin Julie, he reads it, he understands it, and then he decides to forward it. But I know the Holy Spirit lives inside my friend’s heart. This email from him is crass and crude and hateful. How did this happen? I know my friend has died to the ways of the world, he’s died to himself, and now Christ our Lord lives in him. This email from him, though, is off-color and racist. Why did he send it? Who was guiding my friend as he hit the “forward” button and began adding names from his address book on these emails? Did he seriously consider what he had read? Did he pause even for a moment before he hit “send?” Did he pray first?

What made my friend think that Jesus would have approved the sending of that email? What made my friend think that email was holy? Perhaps my friend wasn’ t thinking.

Allow me to borrow from Jack Reese:

I cannot quite grasp it. People who go to church every week, who read the Bible, listen to sermons, take communion and pray, people who say ‘hello’ in the supermarket and root for their grandkids at soccer matches, who edge their lawns, drive under the speed limit, and show pictures of their new puppy at the hairdresser’s, people of good will and good manners with high moral commitments and low tolerance for rude behavior nevertheless speak ill of others, spread gossip, criticize, disparage, and pass judgment on those with whom they disagree. And often they do so in the name of Christ.

In a lot of these forwarded emails, I don’t see much evidence of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, or self control.

Do your emails encourage or discourage? Are your emails holy? Does God’s Holy Spirit guide what you forward to others?

Email can be a wonderful thing. I’ve also discovered that, if we’re not thinking, it can be commandeered by Satan for his destructive purposes.

And it’ll have our name on it.

Peace,

Allan

I’ve spent a total of at least four or five hours this week in our worship center with “The Board.” That’s what we’re calling it now: “The Board.” People are still calling me and e-mailing me about “The Board.” That valley of dry bones mural that contains those 5,000+ names of people in our families who are lost and living in sin is dominating the thoughts and prayers of a whole lot of you this week.

I’ve prayed to our God under that board every day this week. Quincy and I spent an hour in there together praying under and over and for that thing yesterday morning.

Investigating those names up close is a gripping exercise in the study of us as a congregation of God’s people. It tells me a lot. I recognize many of the last names on that board. I know a lot of the stories. And it breaks my heart to think that you are agonizing over relatives and loved ones who do not love our Lord. I can tell the age of the person who placed the name(s) on the board by the handwriting. There’s the labored, but precise, shaky cursive of an older man or woman. There’s the scribbly print, all caps, of an elementary aged boy or girl. The curls and smiley faces that betray our junior high kids. The hurried and barely legible print-cursive mix of people my age.

It moves me to realize that this burden knows no gender or generation. We are all, every one of us, impacted by the grief of knowing the people we love the most are living in sin.

I’m also moved by the personal sentiments expressed on this board:

“my friend, Mark”
“my brother-in-law, Steve”
“my dear Brandi”
“my wife and the mother of my children”
“Poppa”
“our son, David”
“my grandma”
“my whole family”

There’s love in these short words. And heartache. There’s ownership here. And sorrow.

I know many of you are still thinking about “The Board.” I realize it’s impacted all of us in different ways. Please don’t allow the main lessons to get lost: 1) realizing we all carry similar burdens should bring us closer together, and 2) only God is able to change these hearts and breathe his Spirit-life into these spiritually dead. And, most importantly, it is his holy will to do just that.

Keep praying. Keep calling and e-mailing. What are you doing today with “The Board?”

Peace,

Allan