The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

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Category: Jesus (Page 37 of 60)

From the Lips of Children

January 30, 2013 / / 1 Comment

“He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said, ‘I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven.'” ~Matthew 18:2-3

“Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these.'” ~Matthew 19:14

Why does Jesus hold up little children as the model citizens of the Kingdom? What is it about little children we’re supposed to imitate? What are we supposed to learn? What are we supposed to change? Unless you change and become like little children — forget about being the greatest in the Kingdom — you won’t even get in! What are we supposed to change?

Jesus wants to teach us through little children. Jesus wants to use little kids to show us how to live, how to act, how to trust, how to have faith. He wants to show us through the children how to enjoy all of creation, how to play, how to chill out.

Little kids know God. Little children see Jesus.

In Matthew 21 it was the children who recognized Jesus as the promised Messiah. They knew it. They saw it. And they were shouting it and singing it at the tops of their voices. The religious leaders, in their irritation, approached Jesus and demanded an explanation. Do you hear what these kids are saying? Do you hear what these children are claiming? And Jesus says, “Duh!” (That’s the Message translation.) Jesus says, in essence, “What did you expect? Don’t you know Psalm 8? From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise!”

Our kids will show us God. If we’ll only take the time to pay attention, our children will reveal Jesus to us.

We tried doing that together during our communion time this past Sunday. We had all the children stand up and raise their hands and then asked all our people to get out of their own seats to get close to a little child. Spend communion time this morning with a little kid. As we share the bread and the cup, as we remember Jesus, let’s listen to our kids. Maybe we’ll learn something from the children this morning. Maybe the kids will show us Jesus in a way we’ve never seen him before. Maybe our God will teach us something this morning he’s always wanted to teach us, but we’ve never slowed down to be with a little child long enough for it to happen. We suggested that our people ask the children a couple of questions during the Lord’s Meal: What is your favorite thing that Jesus ever did? What is your favorite thing that Jesus ever said?

Show us Jesus, kids. Lord, reveal yourself to us through the lips of these children.

I got up and walked a section over to sit right between Chloe and Creede, a brother and sister, kinda new to our congregation, whose dad was out of town on business. Perfect. Their mom and grandmother joined us. Excellent.

Creede is fourteen. All boy, through and through. The coolest thing Jesus ever did? Turning over the tables in the temple, obviously. Yes! His favorite thing Jesus ever said? Creede gave us his favorite Bible verse: I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Strength. Power. Might. Control. Yeah, that’s our Jesus. Sometimes I forget how strong our Lord is. Our culture wants us to believe Jesus was some skinny, pasty, white, wimp of a guy. A nerd. Oh, no. Not our King. He’s tough. That’s the Christ of my little brother, Creede. Thank you, God, for reminding me.

Chloe is eleven. All little girl, sugar and spice and everything nice, through and through. The greatest thing Jesus ever did? Healing the blind, making those blind people happy. Her favorite Bible verse? The joy of the Lord in Nehemiah 8:10. Yes! Our Lord is a Lord of happiness and joy, of laughter and glee. Sometimes I forget how happy Jesus was and how he filled everyone who met him with such joy. He left a trail of joy behind him everywhere he went. Our culture wants us to believe Jesus was some sour guy, somber and serious, bent on making us miserable with rule-following and sin-counting. No, that is not the Jesus of the Gospels. That is not the Jesus of the apostles. Our Christ came to give us life, abundant and to the full. That’s the Christ of my little sister, Chloe. Thank you, God for reminding me.

You might try it at your own church sometime. Spend communion time with the kids, talking to the kids, listening to them. Maybe God will reveal to you during the meal, through the children, something you need to see and learn. It’s an exercise that might make us more like Christ. And it might eternally impact the kids.

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?

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

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

For These Brothers of Mine

December 26, 2012 / / 0 Comments

You’ve read Matthew 25, right? It’s the separation of the sheep and goats, the familiar vision Jesus gives all of us of that last day of judgment and glory. We wonder about that last day, don’t we? I was certain that last Friday, December 21, was not going to be the last day. (Of course, when I got my copy of Aerosmith’s new album last week and discovered that Steven Tyler had done a duet with Carrie Underwood — on an Aerosmith album!! — I began to worry. I can’t think of a more disturbing sign of the end times tribulation than that.) But we do know that last day is coming. And we do know Christ Jesus, our King, is going to judge us. He’s going to separate those who denied him as Lord from those who faithfully submitted to his Lordship. That’s what he says in Matthew 25:

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the Kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I needed songs, and you sang them to me acappella; I needed a communion meal, and you ate it every Sunday; I needed a church, and you built a huge building with the right name on the sign; I needed correct doctrine, and you preached harshly worded sermons and wrote scathing articles; I needed distinctions, and you drew rigid lines of fellowship; I needed strict obedience to laws which never came out of my mouth, and you vigorously kept them and enforced them on others.'”

No! God forbid!

As Joe Malone used to exclaim, “Shades of reason, neighbor!” That’s not what it says. Praise God, that’s not what it says!

“For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited me in; I needed clothes, and you clothed me; I was sick, and you looked after me; I was in prison, and you came to visit me.”

The ones who are blessed by the Father, the ones who will receive the inheritance, the ones for whom the Kingdom is prepared are those of us who reflect the glory of God. Those of us who show grace and compassion, love and faithfulness, patience and mercy and forgiveness.

Our Lord pulls no punches when he declares with divine authority that justice and mercy and faithfulness are more at the heart of what it means to belong to God than tithing. He does not apologize one bit when he condemns the religious elite for saying all their prayers correctly, but then foreclosing on the widow’s house. Our King desires mercy, not sacrifice. It’s always been that way.

Your practices don’t matter if you don’t show grace and compassion. It doesn’t matter how often or how seldom you take communion if you’re not demonstrating love and faithfulness and forgiveness in your dealings with people. You can sing the songs and say the prayers perfectly right, but if your attitude is not Christ-like, if you’re heart is not being transformed more into the shape of Jesus’ heart, if you’re not reflecting God’s eternal qualities in the ways you interact with people, it’s meaningless.

“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'”

Our God has revealed himself to us. He’s told us who he is in beautiful words and in mighty deeds. Our God is compassionate beyond measure. His grace is given freely and abundantly. His patience means he will never give up. His love is limitless, no boundaries; his faithfulness is uncompromising, it’s forever. His forgiveness is complete. Total. It’s done.

We are blessed. So very blessed. Praise him. And may our lives increasingly reflect his glory.

Peace,

Allan

A Light Has Dawned

December 23, 2012 / / 0 Comments

“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death
a light has dawned.”
~Isaiah 9:2

The Christ Prophesy in Isaiah 9 begins with people walking in darkness. People living in the land of the shadow of death. People under a heavy burden. People under the weight of a terrible yoke. Isaiah was describing their world.

And ours.

The world needs good news. This world of darkness needs the light of Christ. Even today — especially today! — we see it all around us: the wreckage and carnage, the twisted bodies and warped minds, the moral and institutional vileness. It surrounds us. Greed and violence and lust, slavery and war, disease and divorce and death. Yes, we live in a dark world.

As followers and imitators of the God who saves us, we are charged with proclaiming the light. To preach it, to live it, to embody it, to share it. God through Christ has defeated the Evil Empire and we shout that from the rooftops. “God with us” is good news of great joy that shall be for all the people! As recipients of God’s amazing grace, as beneficiaries of his great power, we celebrate that great light today.

The light that was promised to the great patriarchs. The light the prophets proclaimed. The light the angels saw. The light King Herod tried in vain to destroy. The true light that gives life to every man. The eternal light of the world, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

We join the angels in heavenly chorus, the heavenly hosts who rejoice at the coming of our King. We join the shepherds and the wise men, the lowing cattle and the bleating sheep, in praising God for sending his Son to dwell among us. We join all men and women throughout the ages, the saints of all time, who have celebrated the greatest miracle in the history of the universe.

“You have increased their joy;
they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest,
as men rejoice when dividing the plunder.
You have shattered the yoke that burdens them,
the bar across their shoulders,
the rod of the oppressor.
Every warrior’s boot used in battle
and every garment rolled in blood
will be destined for burning,
will be fuel for the fire.
For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given.”
~Isaiah 9:3:6

Peace,

Allan

The End is Near

December 20, 2012 / / 0 Comments

People and communities of people have been predicting the end of the world almost since the day the world began. Tomorrow’s Mayan Doomsday is merely the latest in a long, long line of interesting predictions about the demise of the planet and the return of our Lord.

500  – According to his calculations regarding the Bible’s mythical “6,000 Year Rule,” Hippolytus predicted the world would end this year. It didn’t. But that didn’t stop others from figuring their own dates with numbers from Scripture.

989  – Halley’s Comet always brings impending doom. Always.

1874  – The Jehovah’s Witnesses begin a long and lucrative career of predicting Armageddon, starting with this year. By the way, it didn’t happen.

1878 – It didn’t happen this year, either.

1881 – No, really. The Jehovah’s Witnesses were on a roll.

1910 – Again? Well, if the Jehovah’s Witnesses say so.

1914 – People are beginning to wonder about Jehovah’s Witnesses.

1918 – We like the four-year cycle, but could the Jehovah’s Witnesses maybe split it up into a summer apocalypse and a winter apocalypse?

1925 – About this time, people may be forgiven for hoping the world ends just to shut the Jehovah’s Witnesses up about it.

1975 – They gave us a 50-year break (which included World War II, which was full of its own apocalyptic signs), but the Jehovah’s Witnesses think now they’re on to something.

1984 – George Orwell buffs and Jehovah’s Witnesses alike considered this to be a significant year for the end of the world. Unless Van Halen is the anti-Christ (and that’s not completely unproven), they were wrong.

1994 – Nostradamus tries posthumously to beat the Jehovah’s Witnesses record for most failed predictions. Luckily for him, he’s much more vague and obscure, so he’s never really wrong…

1997 – No, really, the Christ is now here according to Share International. He’s already come.

2000 – The change of the millennium makes a great date for the end of time. Turns out to be merely the beginning of survivor-type trade shows and reality programming.

2008 – The Lord’s Witnesses (not Jehovah’s Witnesses!) are pretty sure it’s over this year. Or in 2009 or 2010. It’s one of these years, they’re 100% certain.

2012 – This is a very popular choice. It will remain a fairly popular choice until probably Friday night or Saturday morning.

2014 – This one comes from a Pope, so it must be true. In 1514, Leo IX gave us 500 more years. You’d think that would be long enough to get our act together. Apparently not.

2017 – The “Sword of God Brotherhood” say they will be the only ones to survive this year and they will be tasked with repopulating the planet. Hopefully, there’s a “Sword of God Sisterhood” too.

2240 – The Talmud says the world as we know it will only last about 6,000 years, starting with the creation of Adam. A computer-assisted numerical analysis says this is the year.

2280 – The Qur’an gives us 40 more years than the Talmud. Same kind of analysis of the text. We’ll see.

3797 – This one comes from Nostradamus, but so have quite a few other dates. Just in case this was the year he really meant, clear your schedule.

The Church says, “Lord, come quickly!” And Jesus replies with, “I am coming soon!” And he says this to encourage us, to comfort us, and to empower us. He tells “I am coming soon” to motivate us and keep us going. This “coming soon” assures us that our time of trial is not indefinite. According to God’s plan, our time of suffering and tribulation has a limit. We don’t know when it will end; but we are promised by Jesus it will end.

And that gives us hope. By hope — I want to be very clear on this — I mean knowing that what our God has started, he will finish. Our faithful God is bringing this thing to completion. Our hope is not about wishing this is true, it’s knowing how it turns out. It’s like the cartoons and we’re the Roadrunner: we’ve got an arrangement with the writer! It’s like seeing the Indiana Jones movie for the 40th time: I know without a doubt he’s going to escape!

I don’t know when it’s going to happen. Nobody does. Jesus says it’s happening soon. And in faith, the church says, “Lord, come quickly.”

Peace,

Allan

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