The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

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Category: Jesus (Page 3 of 58)

Choosing to Hear

April 21, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Happy San Jacinto Day!

Today was the last day of Carrie-Anne’s “Dirty Dozen,” the name I’ve given to the first stage of her chemotherapy treatments: twelve straight infusions on twelve consecutive Fridays. The cold caps are working – so far, I’ve lost more hair over these twelve weeks than she has. We’re diligently rotating the caps for the full eight hours, keeping them at -30 to -35-degrees below zero, to keep her scalp frozen so the blood won’t carry the poison to her hair follicles. By God’s grace, it’s working. And the side effects have been minimal and short-lived each week.

We’re getting this next week off as a break between the first and second stages of her treatment. Then on May 5, we’ll begin what I’m calling the Final Four: four infusions of what everybody else calls the “Red Devil.” One infusion every other week through June 16. This is what everybody says is going to be the hard part. Evidently the side effects are much worse. Maybe. Maybe not. We’re choosing to be grateful for our Lord’s strength and mercy to us over the past few months and confident in his provision for us going forward.

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Another truth or principle to consider as we engage the topic of hearing God is that a person must choose to hear the Lord’s voice. It’s the most important part of this. You have to make the decision to grow in your desire and your capacity to hear God.

What did you say back when everybody had CB radios? “You got your ears on?” You have to put on your spiritual ears and tune them in.

When you go to church, do you walk into the sanctuary expecting to hear the voice of the Living God? Church is one of the very best times and places to hear God. But you have to make the choice.

“Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen, rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong. Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few.” ~Ecclesiastes 5:1-2

When you go to church, God might have something to say, so, as the New Living Translation puts it, “keep your ears open and your mouth shut.” If you’re more comfortable with the King James Version, it says “sitteth down and shutteth up.”

Jesus says, “The one who has ears to hear, let him hear!” God’s choice, his will, is to give you spiritual ears. Your choice is whether or not you’re going to use them.

In Luke 10, Jesus is at Martha’s house. Martha’s running around trying to get dinner ready and Mary is sitting at Jesus’ feet in a posture of listening. Why? Because Jesus is talking!

Martha’s unloading the dishwasher, putting out guest towels, dusting the ceiling fans – she “was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made.” She complains to the Lord, “Don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

I think Jesus very gently, but very firmly, tells Martha: “You are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

This past week, when did God have your total, complete, undivided attention? How many times this month have you just sat down with Jesus and listened? I know things have to be unloaded and put away and cleaned up and dusted; I know there are things to do. But when’s the last time you chose to listen to God?

Peace,

Allan

Resurrection People

April 13, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Christ Jesus is risen and that means you’ll be raised, too. Your resurrection is guaranteed by the One who’s gone before. Jesus says, “Because I live, you also will live!” We can possess and experience right now today the power of Christ’s resurrection as lean into it and yield ourselves to it. And live it.

If we’ll embrace the resurrection, if we’ll claim the promises of the resurrection as our own, it will radically impact the way we see ourselves, the way we view others, and the way we interact with the world around us. We will have no problem risking our well-being, our reputations, and our very lives for the sake of our Lord.

The resurrection means we’re not afraid of death. So my first priority is not my personal security, it’s not preserving the institutions or saving the country. No, it’s so much bigger than that! And if we’ll own it, we’ll not worry so much about temporary things, and we’ll devote more of our resources and energies to eternal things.

Because of the resurrection, we’re not scared. We’re risk-takers. We have a clear vision of what’s important and what’s not and we’re not afraid. And that makes us dangerous.

A Christian hospital can accept more welfare patients than might be economically advisable because it knows God’s love for the poor does not depend on its continued existence. A Christian business can hire ex-cons and former felons because it knows God’s grace and forgiveness doesn’t end if their business goes under. Professors at a Christian university can call for total disarmament during a cold war because they know the future of the world does not depend on the survival of their nation. Christians can risk their lives because we know this life is not the end!

The resurrection invites all of us, it calls us, to walk through the door into a brand new world where the ultimate reality is not death, but eternal life in the One who brought our Lord out of the grave. To know the resurrection, to live the resurrection, means to act with boldness and courage. No fear. Brakes off. Full steam ahead.

Because of the resurrection, a Christian church can take bolder risks in evangelizing our neighborhoods, bolder risks in ministering to the homeless and hungry, bolder risks in loving our enemies and forgiving those who hurt us, bolder risks in protecting the helpless and defending the weak. The resurrection means we say Yes to bigger Gospel dreams and we say No to maintaining the status quo.

We can risk anything and we can give everything in denying self and sacrificing self, knowing that the salvation of the world and the salvation of my body and soul is in the powerful and loving hands of the God who promises and delivers the resurrection. We can be a Resurrection People who live to give life to others. And that will bring everlasting glory and praise to our God.

Peace,

Allan

Hosanna!

April 3, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Palm Sunday is the day the Church traditionally remembers Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. This is how we begin Holy Week. Most of us call it the Triumphal Entry. Most of our Bibles use that heading to mark off the Gospel passages that describe our Lord’s riding into the city.

But we remember that Jesus did not ride into Jerusalem on a war horse, but on a lowly beast of burden – a mule. Jesus did not enter in power or violence, but in humility and peace. He did not come to assert his rights and force his will, he came to lay down his life and die.

Hosanna means “save us!” It’s a cry for deliverance, a request for rescue – please, save us! But it’s also a confident proclamation that God will save and, therefore, a declaration of praise.

Yes, Jesus came to save. Of course, Jesus came to win. He came to defeat forever the forces of sin and death and Satan and anything else that might separate us from God and one another. But he came in submission. In service and sacrifice. To suffer and die.

Hosanna!

Allan

Spiritual Leadership

March 29, 2023 / / 0 Comments

When a church is selecting its leaders, it needs to look for spiritual leadership, not worldly leadership. The difference between the two is huge. It’s leading by sacrifice and service instead of by authority and power. It’s paramount. If we’re following the example of our Lord Jesus, the Good Shepherd, this is a non-negotiable.

“When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am the one I claim to be and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me. The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.” ~John 8:28

Jesus says, in other words, “When you see my dying, when you watch me willingly give up my life for others, you’ll know I am the promised Messiah, the Good Shepherd.” Jesus is always completely surrendered to God’s will. He is doing God’s will in God’s ways. The proof of that is in his willingness to humble himself, to make himself the least important person in the room. To die.

“My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.” ~John 4:34

My food, my passion, the thing that sustains me, the thing that motivates me, what keeps me going, my everything – is to do God’s work in God’s ways. My Father sets my agenda and he alone determines how I conduct my ministry: with sacrifice and service and submission. That’s how a shepherd leads. Never by power. Never by authority. It’s spiritual, not worldly.

The mother of James and John tells Jesus to ordain them as rulers next to Jesus in the coming Kingdom. He asks if they can pay the price. She says they can. He knows they can’t. The other disciples are indignant. So Jesus gathers all twelve together and gives them a lesson in the differences between spiritual leadership and worldly leadership.

“You know that the rulers of the Gentiles (nations) lord it over them and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave – just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life.” ~Matthew 20:25-28

Jesus is talking about government leaders and business boards and military commanders. The way they lead is not the way we lead. Good shepherds lead from the back of the line, never the front. They lead by washing feet and dying, never by dictating and demanding. No chain of command, no hierarchy, no flow charts. The biblical model of Jesus, the Chief Shepherd, turns all that upside down. It’s the exact opposite of the way the world leads.

We mess this up in the church sometimes when we select worldly leaders as our spiritual leaders. It doesn’t work. Our culture tells us to choose successful men which means men who make a lot of money and dress nicely and drive expensive cars and live in massive houses, men who are leaders in the community, influencers in politics, and members of the board. Don’t do it. That’s exactly the opposite of spiritual leadership.

Peace,

Allan

 

Yeast and Flour and New Creation

January 25, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Jesus said, “The Kingdom of God is like…” And those listening to him thought, “Kingdom of God! Yes! Power! Force! Strength! Numbers! Asserting our rights! Finally getting our way!”

Jesus says, “No, the Kingdom of God is like a little old lady who mixes a little bit of yeast into some flour until the yeast has worked all through the dough.”

It’s not about taking something little and making it big. It’s not about mixing the two things equally together. It’s about taking the qualities of the yeast and encrypting them into the flour until the whole thing is changed. The whole thing becomes something brand new. New creation.

A little bit at a time. An act of grace here. An act of mercy there. Forgiveness in this situation. Sacrificial love in that circumstance. Service. Justice. Generosity. Subversive acts that disrupt and reverse the world around us until the world around us has completely changed. Until it’s totally different. That’s the Kingdom of God.

Peace,

Allan

No Solo Missions

October 24, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Our God is on a mission to save the world. But he has no interest in doing it by himself. God doesn’t do solo missions. He’s not interested in that.

When God decides to tell us how he’s going to restore the world, how he’s going to fix the problem of sin and death, he lets us know clearly that we’re in on it with him. He’s not going to do it alone. He recruits Abraham to join him. “Go to the place I will show you. All the peoples of earth will be blessed through you.”

God calls Moses. “I have come down,” he says, “to rescue my people. But I am sending you to do it.”

God calls Joshua. “I am giving this promised land to the people. But you’re going to lead them and do all the fighting.”

God saves his people Israel out of exile, not for their own sakes, but for the purposes of participating in his global mission:

“It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles (nations), that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.” ~Isaiah 49:6

Then God decides to show us in person exactly what he’s doing and how he wants it done by coming here in the flesh and blood of Jesus, so we can see it and understand it. Jesus says, “If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father.” Well, what do we see in Jesus? He calls the apostles and recruits the disciples to partner with him in bringing the Kingdom of God to earth. They pray together, “Your Kingdom come; your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” And that’s exactly what happens.

Jesus heals the sick because there’s no disease in heaven. He feeds the poor because there’s no hunger in heaven. Jesus raises the dead because there are no cemeteries in heaven. He turns the other cheek because there is no violence in heaven. He eats and drinks with everybody because there are no divisions between people in heaven. That’s the mission. And our God is not doing it solo. On that last night, Christ Jesus sends his disciples out.

“As the Father sent me, so I am sending you.”

“I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do the same things I’ve been doing. In fact, you’ll do even greater things because I will live inside you.” 

“Remember, you didn’t choose me; I chose you!”

Every one of us is on God’s mission. None of us is exempt. According to Matthew 25, Jesus says on that last day the King is going to judge us according to who was on the mission and who wasn’t. Our God is on a mission to bring the fullness of his eternal Kingdom to this earth. And he refuses to do it by himself.

Peace,

Allan

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