Category: Jesus (Page 57 of 61)

The King Is Coming

March 24, 2009 / Allan / 0 Comments

In 2 Samuel 19, the king is coming back to Jerusalem to re-establish his sovereign rule over God’s people. He had voluntarily left his throne in order to save his people. He had been mocked and ridiculed, cursed and humiliated on his way out of town. But now he’s coming back. And he’s coming back to set things right.

And Ziba and Shemei are scared.

They’ve spent their lives cursing the king, using the king’s blessings to fatten their own purses, taking advantage of the king’s kindness, deceiving the king. Coming to the king and the king’s people with false motives, impure hearts, seeking personal gain at the expense of the kingdom. Hypocrites. Shemei openly curses the king. Ziba claims allegiance to the king, but lies to him. That’s even worse. The apostle John says we do the exact same thing when we say we love God but we don’t love our brother. When we confess Christ as Lord but live lives that deny him. Those sins are deserving of death. Eternal death.

But look at the mercy of the king. Be amazed at the grace and the love and the compassion of the king. Shemei and Ziba bow down to the ground, they confess their sins before the king — sins that deserve under the law to be punished by death — and the king forgives them. He promises on oath they will not die. And he stops his men from even discussing the possibility.

Is it any wonder that the Almighty God of Heaven and Earth calls David a man after his own heart?

You know the King is coming. And if you have sin in your life, you should be greatly concerned. But if you bow down to the King, if you confess to the King, if you submit fully to the King…the King forgives. And when the King returns, you meet him with joy and gladness, not fear.

The great news for us is that the King WANTS to forgive. He wants full reconciliation. He’s not willing that any should die. He wants desperately to welcome every man and woman he’s ever created into his eternal Kingdom. God sent his Son to “reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” Through Jesus, God is “reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them.”

God wants you. And he’ll go to whatever lengths necessary to get you.

He died to save you.

And he’s coming back.

He promises us in John 14 he’s coming back. The angels told the apostles in Acts 1 he’s coming back. The closing words of our holy Scriptures assure us the King’s coming: “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Yes, I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.”

Are you ready?

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March Madness — The Legacy basketball team (“Team Dyniewski” or, my favorite, “TohuBohu”) made its debut last night in the North Richland Hills recreation center with an impressive 52-49 win over a bunch of guys with real uniforms. Josh Dyniewski and Aaron Green provided the muscle, combining to score at least 40 of our points inside the paint, while the rest of us just tried to stay out of the way.

Several keys to the impressive victory:

1) the decision to play a 2-3 zone defense. The decision was made as the teams were facing off on the court for the opening tip. Nice. Nevermind the fact we had never played anything but a man-to-man defense in our twice-weekly pickup games here at Legacy. Nevermind the fact that we had never even discussed the possibility of playing a zone before. It worked. Mostly.

2) Josh’s six-straight made free throws in the final 90-seconds. Sealed the deal. Clutch.

3) Aaron’s sending two of our opponents to the hospital with leg injuries. OK, I’m exaggerating a bit. But Green was a monster down there.

4) Trey Thornton using all five of his fouls. Coker will be proud.

5) Going with the Carolina blue Champion dri-soft jerseys. Did I mention they were numberless? That’s a problem in this league. So we had to don the city’s junior-high pinis over our shirts. Elastic down. Not flattering. They actually serve to accentuate middle-age girth. I wanted to wear mine upside down. They wouldn’t let me. We looked like a bunch of rejects who’d been bussed in from somewhere far, far away. But apparently they worked like a charm. We didn’t turn in Josh’s pini after the game. We’re going to have it framed and hung up on the wall at the Rufe Snow Chick-Fil-A. Nobody can ever wear #9 again.

1-0, baby! We might have to discuss the construction of a huge Legacy trophy case at Thursday’s elders meeting.

Peace,

Allan

Proclaim The Lord's Death

March 18, 2009 / Allan / 0 Comments

“Whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” ~1 Corinthians 11:26

What happens when somebody dies? How do we feel? How do we act? What do we do?

We may be sad because of the loss or we may feel a sense of joy because of a prospective inheritance. In the case of a particularly tragic death, we may feel fear mixed with love. The death of a great poet or artist may result in feelings of deep respect. When an innocent person dies we may react with protests or vows of revenge. The convictions and deeds of a great leader may be so confirmed and endorsed upon his death that they actually radiate to later generations. People may celebrate the death of a tyrant by dancing on his grave.

Death can mean many things. And many can be our responses.

But none of those above mentioned actions and reactions express exactly what Paul means when he says “proclaim the Lord’s death.”

For Paul, the death of Christ was and is good news. It’s great news! And it is to be proclaimed with great joy.

When Paul describes the death of our Lord as a sacrifice, he’s telling us that the crucifixion is God’s greatest gift to humanity. “He who did not spare his own Son , but gave him up for us all — how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32). “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement” (Romans 3:25).

“Proclaim the Lord’s death.”

To do that during the Lord’s Supper means that we are to express the pleasure and the joy that come as a result of the crucifixion. To proclaim means to announce publicly and clearly — not to whisper or remain silent — what has happened because of Jesus’ death and the meaning of that death. The table is an occasion and a practical form for showing and confessing that Jesus’ death is totally different from a natural event, a criminal act, or a tragic loss. It is not a reason or a place to cry or moan.

Markus Barth, from his 1988 work Rediscovering the Lord’s Supper:

“Those celebrating the Lord’s Supper know the pain and shame, the horror and scandal, of Christ’s death. However, they rejoice in the crucifixion and praise the slaughtered Lamb because God has raised from the dead the crucified Son and has accepted his intercession by enthroning him at God’s right hand. In Paul’s theology, as much as in the message of John, Hebrews, First Peter, and Revelation, the Crucified is always the raised and living Christ. The one who rules the Church and the world and who will come again is the crucified Christ. Through Christ alone the godless are justified and reconciled, saved and given peace. We have abundant reason to rejoice in Christ’s death and to praise the slaughtered yet living Lamb.”

To proclaim at the table is to do so with joy and gratitude. Love for God and gratitude for the sacrifice of his Son doesn’t exclude amazement and holy fear. That’s certainly part of it. But celebration and great joy that the Lord has come and that the lost have been found and that the dead are now alive expresses the real essence of the intent and mood of Christ’s meal. The Lord’s Supper is a meal of joy and thanksgiving, a eucharist, where we proclaim with one voice what Jesus’ willing sacrifice means for the world.

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For the record, Carley and Valerie have selected UConn, Whitney has picked OU (she’s very conflicted right now), and I’ve got Louisville winning the national championship. My Final Four is Louisville, Memphis, Carolina, and Duke with the Cardinals outlasting the Blue Devils for the title in Detroit. Carrie-Anne hasn’t given us her bracket yet. She has 24 hours.

Peace,

Allan

Called To Die

March 13, 2009 / Allan / 0 Comments

My great friend Jim Gardner posted this on his blog a few days ago. Its very Bonhoefferesque. It reminds of the call of our Savior to follow him when he’s purposefully walking the path to Jerusalem and his horrible death. Deny yourself. Pick up your cross. Get in line behind me and follow me. It’s from a lecture given by Timothy Dolan, the recently appointed archbishop of New York.

“Maybe the greatest threat to the Church is not heresy, not dissent, not secularism, not even moral relativism, but this sanitized, feel-good, boutique, therapeutic spirituality that makes no demands, calls for no sacrifice, asks for no conversion, entails not battle against sin, but only soothes and affirms.” (“Church News,” Times-Dispatch, Richmond, VA, 2-25-09, A-10)

I wonder sometimes about the call of our Christ and whether or not that call is reflected by the practice in and of our churches. I worry sometimes that we’re not really calling our people to much more than showing up regularly for a spiritually-uplifting worship service, guaranteed to contain all the elements they enjoy in just the right order they expect.

Are we, like Christ and the Apostles, calling our people to grow? To change? To be continually converted? Are we calling our people to sacrifice? To give everything up for the sake of others? For the cross? Are we calling our people to faithfully eradicate sin? In our own lives? In our neighborhoods? To wipe out the sin in our churches?

Are we guilty of allowing a culture to develop in our churches in which, if things don’t go our way, we complain to the proper persons until we’re promised “I’ll look into that” or “Let me take care of that.”? Have we created, or at least fostered, a church culture that insists on our “rights,” within the congregational family and the broader community?

Our Lord calls us to die. To give away our lives for his sake. To be last.

Jesus bends over backward to make very clear he’s calling us OUT of our comfort zones, not to them.

I’m re-reading a great little work on the Lord’s Supper by Markus Barth, Rediscovering the Lord’s Supper. And right in the middle of this book he tackles this difficult call. Barth claims — my paraphrase — the Church of Christ ought to reflect the Christ of the Church.

“…Christ became weak, poor, despised, a scandal, and a foolishness to human reason, experience, and social standards, in order to come to those who are weak, poor, despised, who are considered scandalous or foolish, and who are treated as social outcasts. He came to them to be with them and to redeem them….As foolish, scandalous, and outcast as Christ is in relation to the world, so should Christ’s congregation be within the city.”

What changed? When and how did fitting in and looking good and being seen as successful in the eyes of the community become so important?

Wait. I’m on a new topic. Sorry.

The call to die. That’s the thought. Now, how do we do that as a church? Within our congregations and in our communities, how do we follow our Savior and die?

Peace,

Allan

Sacrificial Giving

March 4, 2009 / Allan / 0 Comments

We talked last Sunday about sacrificial giving, Christ-like giving, when it comes to Legacy Missions Sunday on March 29. We also encouraged our church to give above and beyond what they’ve already planned and purposed in their hearts to give to the Lord every Sunday. Please don’t split up your regular weekly offering and put a portion of that towards missions. A lot of people did that last year and, frankly, it’s gotten us in a little bit of trouble. What we’re asking is that we add to what we’re already giving. Don’t split up the pie. Bake a brand new pie. Be sacrificial. Be creative. Give something up.

I told the church about my family’s plans to do what we did last year: give up going out to eat for the entire month of March and give all that money to missions on the 29th. No eating out. None. Not as a family, not individually. The whole month of March. You won’t see us at Dickie’s on Sunday afternoons, we won’t be at Rosa’s on Tuesday nights, we won’t find us at Pizza Garden on Saturdays. And I won’t go to Whataburger for lunches on Mondays and Thursdays. And every dime we would normally spend on eating out this month goes to Missions Sunday.

Last year we were shocked at how it all added up. We wound up putting aside and giving almost twice what we anticipated.

Of course, it killed the kids. They thought it was torture. “Why are we doing this?” “Why can’t we go out?”

What a great teaching opportunity. What great learning experiences, around the dinner table, together as a family, participating together in some family sacrifice (especially if I’m cooking) for a cause much bigger and greater than us.

What are you giving up? One lady told me immediately after the service Sunday she’s going to paint her own toenails this month and give the money to missions. What are you giving up? How are you going to sacrifice to give to missions? I’d love to share a few of these from the pulpit Sunday. Why don’t you hit the comments link at the top and tell us what you’re doing, individually or as a family, to contribute to Legacy’s missions efforts. Your plans may strike a creative spark in someone else who’s reading this. Your idea may inspire someone else to participate in a similar way. Let me know what you’re doing in the comments.

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Sunday night I read a short passage from an old Charles Spurgeon sermon to illustrate some points about God’s sufficient grace. (Quoting Spurgeon makes any sermon a whole lot better.) A couple of you have asked that I re-print it here. So here it is. This is from a Spurgeon sermon on 2 Corinthians 12:9 he delivered on April 2, 1876. The title of the sermon is Strengthening Words from the Savior’s Lips.

“God’s sufficiency is declared without any limiting words, and therefore I understand the passage to mean that the grace of our Lord Jesus is sufficient to uphold thee, sufficient to strengthen thee, sufficient to comfort thee, sufficient to make thy trouble useful to thee, sufficient to enable thee to triumph over it, sufficient to bring thee out of it, sufficient to bring thee out of ten thousand like it, sufficient to bring thee home to heaven. Whatever would be good for thee, Christ’s grace is sufficient to bestow; whatever would harm thee, his grace is sufficient to avert; whatever thou desirest, his grace is sufficient to give thee if it be good for thee; whatever thou wouldst avoid, his grace can shield thee from it if so his wisdom shall dictate…Now let me press upon you the pleasing duty of taking home the promise personally at this moment, for no believer in this house need be under any fear, since for him also, at this very instant, the grace of our Lord Jesus is sufficient.”

Peace,

Allan

That We May Be One

February 24, 2009 / Allan / 0 Comments

“…that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” ~John 17:22-23

Jesus prays many things for us. He prayed for the apostles as they battled the wind on the sea. Hebrews says Christ lives to intercede for us. We can imagine that Jesus prays continually for our salvation, our sanctification, our bodies, and our souls. In John 17 he prays that his Father will give us eternal life, that his joy will be made complete in us, that God will protect us from the evil one and keep us safe, and that he will sanctify us in truth.

And he prays that we will be one.

“…so that they may be one as we are one.” (John 17:11)

“…that all of them may be one.” (John 17:21)

“…that they may be one as we are one.” (John 17:22)

“May they be brought to complete unity.” (John 17:23)

We read these prayers of our Lord and it’s difficult, most of the time, to take it to heart. It doesn’t seem like Jesus’ prayers make that much difference or carry much weight as far as the unity of his disciples. Christ’s Church is famous around the world for being contentious and mean-spirited. Instead of looking at our love for one another and seeing the Savior, people look at our contempt for one another and see the world. Or worse, the devil.

Where’s the unity?

I’m almost finished with Eugene Peterson’s latest book on theological conversations, Tell It Slant. The following is from his chapter Jesus Prays For Us.

Many Christians, impatient with what they perceive as the inefficiency of Jesus’ prayer, attempt to solve the problem by the imposition of unity, unity by coercion — that is, authority depersonalized into an institution. The style is hierarchical. The methods are bureaucratic. Any person or congregation who refuses to conform is excluded: anathematized, excommunicated, or shunned. Unity is preserved by enforcing an institutional definition.

Other Christians, also impatient with Jesus’ prayer, solve the problem by schism. They reduce the scale of unity to what can be managed by gathering men and women of like mind and temperament. Often there is a strong and charismatic leader who shows up to define the reduced parameters of the so-called unity. If persons or groups find that they no longer fit into the theological or worship or behavioral style that defines the unity, another schism is always an option — simply split off with others of like mind and spirit. Unity is preserved by personal preference.

The repetitive urgency with which Jesus prays that we be one, just as he is one with the Father, throws deliberate acts of schism into sharp relief as acts of insurrection, an eruption of violent willfulness in the very presence of the one who is interceding for our relational unity with one another according to the unity of the Trinity. The frequency of this violence done to the body of Christ, a violence justified by rationalizations without end, is nothing less than astonishing. Defying Jesus in the cause of Jesus. A huge scandal.

The scandal is often boastfully vaunted as necessary to preserve the church. But whatever the language used, whatever slogans are placed on the banners, it is pretty clear that the schismatics at some point walked out on John 17.

If we’ll just stay in the room with Jesus as he prays for us, we will acquire a readiness to embrace all the baptized as brothers and sisters. It may be slow in coming, but Jesus’ prayer will have its way with us. We will no longer define other Christians as competitors or rivals. Jesus does not evaluate or grade his followers as he prays. He does not lay out plans to settle the controversies that he knows will arise. He is praying us into an easy camaraderie. The longer we stay in Jesus’ praying presence the more we will understand that our impulses toward schism and sectarianism, our rivalries and denunciations, have no place in the room while Jesus is praying for us “to be one.”

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Collin and Marisa McCormick have just found out they’re having a boy! Congratulations! You can get the latest news from our displaced Texas brother and sister while they’re in Germany by clicking over to their blog here.

Peace,

Allan

A Delivered People

February 16, 2009 / Allan / 0 Comments

“But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” ~1 Corinthians 6:11

We are Christians, yes. We are God’s children. We are his Church. Yes, we are sheep. We are saints. We are co-laborers with the Lord. We’re disciples. We’re a family. Yes.

But who we are only has meaning, it only brings us great joy, it only really matters, in relation to who we were.

Immoral. Idolaters. We are sinners. We are enemies of God. We’re dead. Dead in our transgressions. Dead in our sins. We are disobedient. Rebellious. Following the ways of the world. Following our own evil desires and thoughts. We are prisoners of Satan. Slaves to iniquity. We’re held captive by the devil. We’re in jail. We’re not going anywhere. Condemned by a holy and righteous God. Destined to be forever separated from the One who created us. We are hell-bound. Facing an eternity in a lake of fire and powerless to do anything about it. Powerless. We can do nothing. This is who we are. Not tired, not asleep, not sick, not even in a coma. Dead! It’s over. We’re finished. No hope. No luck. No chance. Only a promise. The promise of eternal damnation.

But…

“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our transgressions.” ~Ephesians 2:4-5

The noose was around your neck. The chair had been kicked out and your legs were dangling when God rode in and rescued you. Through no merit of your own — nothing! not a single thing you did or could ever do — you were saved.

You were dead, but now you’re alive. You were lost, but now you’re found. You were headed to hell, but now you’ve been re-routed to heaven. And you’ve never done anything to deserve it. Christ Jesus took the punishment for you. Jesus took your place. Jesus stepped in and did for you what you could never do for yourself.

His love, his mercy, his grace, it makes no sense. It’s incredible. It’s amazing.

We are saved!

And this is what identifies us. This is who we are. This is what shapes the way we think and informs the way we behave. This is at the very heart of how we view our God and ourselves and one another. This is what gives us our great joy.

Who we are in relation to who we were.

Praise God for his amazing grace!

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“The one unifying constant that defines whether or not such a congregation is included…is the practice of a cappella worship services.” ~Carl Royster, from his introduction to Churches of Christ in the United States

Wow. I had no idea we had just added a quarter-billion Eastern Orthodox to our movement! Who says our numbers are declining? Cool.

Sarcastically and sadly,

Allan

Category: Jesus (Page 57 of 61)

The King Is Coming

Proclaim The Lord's Death

Called To Die

Sacrificial Giving

That We May Be One

A Delivered People

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