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Category: Promise (Page 9 of 11)

Cheering the Runners

June 29, 2012 / / 1 Comment

“Let us consider how we may spur one another on… let us encourage one another.” ~Hebrews 10:24-25

Our summer Wednesday nights at Central are intentionally focused on getting our church family together; on breaking down the barriers between generations and zip codes; on putting away the distinctions; on bringing together all ages, races, cultures, economic groups, and social classes to celebrate the divinely-ordained diversity with which we’re blessed in this body of Christians. And this week’s version of Running the Race — we called it “Cheer the Runners: Encouraging One Another” — surpassed by far our expectations.

For the evening meal, we asked everyone in our church family who was baptized 50 years ago or more not to wait in line to serve themselves, but to sit down at the designated tables so the rest of the congregation could serve them. And we did. We served up tons of brisket and potato casserole and strawberry shortcake. And after we all ate together, we sent these older saints into the foyer of our chapel. While the rest of us gathered in the pews, our older brothers and sisters were outfitted behind the foyer’s closed doors with “runners tags,” big numbers to wear on their chests declaring how many years they’ve each been running the race. Meanwhile, I prepped those of us waiting in the chapel for what would come next.

Johnny led us in the singing of Come, Thou Almighty King and then Greg opened up the back doors and here they came! Right down the long south aisle of our 83-year-old chapel. 60-year-Christians! 70-year-disciples! A couple of 74 and 73 year followers of our Christ! And we let them have it! A standing ovation. Clapping. Cheering. Whistling. Stomping. High fives and hugs. Salutes and pats on the back. Yelling. Hollering. Smiling. Laughing. Nearly 70 of our dearest, sweetest brothers and sisters entering our place of worship to such a roaring welcome. Three hundred more of us cheering them on!

It took a little longer than I thought it might. But if it had lasted three hours, I’m convinced we would have kept clapping and whistling. And everybody in the room would have kept smiling.

Once these dear saints got grouped up at the front of the chapel, we sang to them:

“We love you with the love of the Lord. We see in you the glory of our King. We love you with the love of the Lord.”

And then we all sat down together and raised the roof in beautiful song, praising God and encouraging one another.

Next, we ran around with a couple of handheld microphones and asked these older members to fill in the blanks: My favorite thing about Central is __________. I once was __________, but now I’m __________. I’m encouraged when I see younger people __________. They really opened up with us. They shared their hearts and their emotions. They shared with us their joys and sorrows, their laughter and their tears. More than a few of them expressed gratitude for having once been uncertain about their eternal salvation, but now being completely confident in the promises of our God. A lot of them spoke of their admiration for our elders and ministers. There were many comments about the faithfulness of this church. There were several observations regarding the blessing of so many young families and children in our congregation.

And then we younger ones blessed our older ones one more time: We love you because __________. Again, we heard over and over the common themes of faithfulness and love. We’ve watched them run the race. We’ve watched them endure and persevere in faith. And we’ve felt their great love for us. A lot of people in that room have been blessed by the faith and love of these older saints for their entire lives. And I pray we were able to return some of that encouragement and strength Wednesday night.

Later, Mary had us all divided up — intergenerationally, of course! — into 20 groups to create and decorate Running the Race banners, using only the random supplies and following the specific directions provided at each of the decorating tables. It was quite a deal. Young and old, black and white, rich and poor, older saints and brand new Christians, all working together on these little projects and then, with great pride, displaying their banners and posing for the “team pictures.”

It was an extraordinary night. I believe every person who participated Wednesday came away with a strong sense of truly belonging to something huge, something bigger than ourselves, something eternal. I think we also got a real reading on the faithfulness of our God. He really is still alive and still very powerful; he really is still saving people and still bringing his people together to work and worship and, together, change the world. And I believe we got a little glimpse of heaven Wednesday night. We experienced a little taste of the one people around that one table celebrating together our salvation from God in Christ.

We’re doing a church-wide tailgate party on July 11 and prayer-walking our neighborhoods on July 18. Can it get any better?

Truly we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus. Let us not grow weary or lose heart. And may we consider how we may spur one another on.

Peace,

Allan

Groaning. Still.

June 26, 2012 / / 0 Comments

“We ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait.” ~Romans 8:23

Our Scriptures do not hide the fact that disciples of the Christ do suffer. In fact, the Bible highlights it. As people who identify with and follow the One who came to overturn the values of this world, we’re going to inevitably share in the rejection and the trials Jesus suffered himself. Creation groans. We groan. The Spirit groans.

That’s just the way it is.

Committed Christian living always rubs the world the wrong way at some point. And it leads to suffering. But those sufferings — which are happening right now and are very real — don’t even begin to compare to the glory, which is also a very present and very real thing.

The glory already exists. It’s already a done deal. It’s just not fully given to us yet. It’s just not fully revealed to us yet.

Not yet.

We live in the tension of Scripture’s “already, but not yet.” The Kingdom of God, our eternal salvation, the defeat of sin and death, our Lord’s ultimate reign — it’s here. It’s already happened. And, at the same time, it’s all still to come. So we wait. And while we wait, we groan.

“We hope for what we do not yet have and we wait for it patiently.” ~Romans 8:25

Lord, come quickly.

Allan

Be Assured of Salvation

April 30, 2012 / / 0 Comments

The Mavericks played the absolutely best game they possibly could have Saturday night and still lost to the Thunder in OKC. Durant and his boys are going to take it in five games. Last night Derek Holland looked overmatched, Josh Hamilton pulled something in his back, Ron Washington got tossed out of the game on his 60th birthday, and the Rangers lost their first series since last fall. And the Cowboys used their top draft pick on a guy who just set the record for the lowest score on the Wonderlic intelligence exam in NFL draft history. Tough weekend.

~~~~~~~

Let’s resume our chapter-by-chapter look at Leroy Garrett’s “What Must the Church of Christ Do to Be Saved?” The book is a compilation of suggestions Garrett makes for us if the Church of Christ is to have a redemptive role and an effective ministry in our rapidly changing world. We reach the halfway point of the book today with suggestion number ten:

Have an assurance of our own salvation.

Garrett claims that our members “do not know we are saved; we hope we are.” I know what he’s talking about. I hear it all the time. My own brothers and sisters in Christ talk about their eternal salvation in hesitant, halting, uncertain terms. “I hope I am.” “I pray that I am.” “If God will just give me a tiny back corner in the basement of heaven, I’ll be happy.” “I’m trying as hard as I can.”

The by-product of such uncertainty is a lack of joy. One thing Church of Christ people aren’t, in spite of many noble qualities, is a joyous people. We have little joy because we have little assurance. We don’t talk like people who are assured of their salvation. We don’t sing that way. We don’t pray that way. That is why our singing is unexciting, our prayers dull, and our services generally boring. Take a look at our Sunday morning service at most any of our churches. Is it a funeral? Where is the spontaneity? Where is the joyous excitement of being a Christian? Who would seek solace from a troubled world among folk who go at their religion with a yawn and a sigh?

Garrett says Church of Christ people are scared to live and afraid to die. We have no joy because we’re not really one hundred percent sure we’re good with God. Despite the clear teachings of Holy Scripture, our people have doubts and fears about their standing with God. They’re uncertain. They wonder if they’re doing enough. They wonder if they’re good enough. They wonder if they’ve loved enough or served enough or worked enough. (By the way, the answer to those questions is “No, no, no, no, and no.”)

Garrett’s dead-on analysis is that we really don’t believe in the grace of God. We would never say it, but the reality is that, for the most part, Church of Christ folks actually believe in salvation by works. We’re taught this at an early age. We think and talk this way. We practice this way. It’s been unambiguously modeled for us and by us for decades. Seriously.

We are saved by being baptized in exactly the correct way for exactly the right reasons. We stay saved by taking communion on exactly the correct day — and only on that correct day — in exactly the correct way. We keep ourselves saved and we save others by studying our Bibles and reaching the exact same correct conclusions about all the exact same doctrines. This is what makes us unique. This is what makes us distinctive. This is what sets us apart from all the others. We’ve got it down right. And since we know so much about God’s plan and God’s will, we’d better be about doing it exactly right.

No wonder we’re so uncertain and nervous! Who could possibly measure up to all that? If I’ve misunderstood a part of that doctrine or I’ve misinterpreted part of God’s will or I’ve done something in a worship service that’s not entirely in the proper order, then my salvation must be in jeopardy. I’d better figure things out and get right with God.

We must start believing in the Gospel of the grace of God, the basis of which is that salvation is his free gift to us. There is no work that we can perform to attain it. There is no way for us to buy it. We can’t be good enough to deserve it. There is no power that can wrest it. It is a gift, a free gift, that is ours only because of God’s philanthropy. In short, we must come to see what has been in holy Scripture all along: “By grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8).

“[God] has saved us and called us to a holy life — not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time.” ~2 Timothy 1:9

“I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.” ~2 Timothy 1:12

“He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.” ~Titus 3:5

“To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy!” ~Jude 24

Look, I don’t believe in “once saved, always saved;” but I sure don’t believe either in “once saved, barely saved.” We are saved by God’s grace. We are redeemed by his mercy. It’s a free gift from our Father. And if we can ever all get our brains and our hearts and our souls around that, we’ll be freed from our own hangups to live and praise and worship and serve with great gladness and joy. Finally, we’ll be able to forgive people we haven’t been able to forgive before because we’ll be drawing on God’s goodness instead of our own. Finally, we’ll be able to accept those we’ve never been able to accept before because we’ll be depending on Jesus’ righteousness and not our own. We’ll be able to love every man, woman, and child on this planet in ways we’ve never been able to love before because we’ll be experiencing God’s unconditional love in our lives and not applying our own very conditional love to others.

It’ll be a huge shift for us. Huge. Radical. Dramatic. It’ll change us. It’ll mature us and grow us up. And it will have an eternal impact on those around us who just might see Christ in the Church of Christ for the very first time.

Peace,

Allan

Nothingness

March 26, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Nothingness really is a word. It is; I looked it up. It’s not one of these made-up words that college basketball commentators like to throw around during televised tournament games. I’m not sure of anyone’s “sizeability.” I don’t think any player has “longness.” And I’m certain that one cannot describe a coach’s “toughicity” or a power forward’s “reachness.” Give me Verne Lundquist any day. Every day. When words fail, I’ll take his “My gracious!” and “Merciful heavens!” over the made up stuff all the time. By the way, that Kansas pick isn’t looking so crazy now, is it?

Nothingness really is a word.

“I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself.” ~John 5:19

Jesus said that. Really. Jesus says without the Father, he is nothing. He can say nothing. He can do nothing. Jesus claims that he resides and operates in nothingness without God.

But, wait a second! He’s Jesus! This is the Son of God!

Yes, that’s true. But without the Father, he can do nothing.

See, Jesus understood that our God does his very best work in nothingness. Through nothingness, our God does eternally spectacular stuff. Our Father is very consistent on that. Scriptures present this truth very consistently. With God, the winners are exposed as losers and the losers are revealed to be winners. David and Goliath. Gideon. Jericho. The prodigal son and his older brother. The ones who are nothing are everything; the ones who seemingly have it all are actually defeated. Our God is a God of tremendous surprises.

“I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself.”

Christian ministry is conducted in the middle of these great surprises. We work as disciples in the midst of these amazing shocks. We’re standing around in the middle of nothing in particular, doing nothing important, seeing nothing impressive, feeling nothing exciting, when suddenly God sees and does something huge! Right in the middle of all that nothingness, our Father will create something truly substantial and eternal. Something massive!

I sometimes — actually, I should use the word “often” here — slip into a mood of thinking I can do all kinds of wonderful things. I can preach this and I can plan that and I can promote and encourage and teach and lead and write. I can be productive. I can be valuable. I can be important. I can do really good things.

Jesus says he can do nothing without the Father. Me, too. I can do nothing without our God. Nothing. All good gifts come from him in love, all good things I might possibly do are manifestations of his matchless grace and nothing else. I am nothing. My work is nothingness. My potential is nothingness. My abilities and talents are nothing.

And, praise God, that’s where he works. God works in nothingness. Where there is nothing, our Father does something, something big and everlasting. Where I see nothing, our God sees something, something important and eternal.

Jesus told Paul, “My power is made perfect in weakness.” Paul reminded that when we are weak, because of our Father, we are strong.

God is working right now in your nothingness. Lord, please work right now in our nothingness.

Peace,

Allan

Packed With Promise

February 13, 2012 / / 0 Comments

When Jesus looks you in the eye and says, “Follow me,” it’s packed with promise. When the Savior of the World taps you on the shoulder and says, “Do what I do in the ways I do it; follow me,” you must understand that wherever he leads, it’ll be for your own good. His call comes with promises. And his promises always come true.

In Luke chapter five — this is one of my all-time favorite stories about Peter — Jesus calls this first disciple to “put out into deep water and let down the nets for a catch.” And Peter got a huge catch, more fish than his boat could handle. While Peter was up to his hips in flopping fish, while he was scared and disoriented and maybe laughing hysterically, Jesus says to Peter, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will catch men.” And three thousand people are baptized the first time Peter attempts to preach. Jesus tells Peter he’s got a job for him, and Peter winds up as the cornerstone of God’s eternal Church.

You don’t have to be confident. You don’t even have to be competent to answer the call of Christ. You just have to follow. You just have to be willing to go. The rest is up to Jesus. In fact, it’s all on Jesus.

Jesus is the one who takes the initiative. He calls Peter. He’s the one who changes Peter from the miserable failure of not catching any fish all night to the wild success of all those fresh fish busting Peter’s nets. Jesus is the one who calms Peter in the middle of the chaos and promises him even greater success in matters much more important. Jesus understands the mission, not Peter. Jesus is the one who controls the outcome of the mission, not Peter.

Jesus’ call on your life is packed with his promises.

“Lose your life and I’ll save it. Throw everything away and I’ll give you all things. Be last and I’ll make you first. Serve and suffer in my name and for my cause and I’ll give you eternal glory.”

Don’t you want to go all-out for a Savior like that?

Peace,

Allan

NEXT!

February 6, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Angels never appear to people in Scripture and say, “God is calling you to do nothing! Thank you!” and then disappear into the sky. It never happens.

“Gideon!”
“Yes?”
“I am an angel of the Lord. Stay put. God bless.”

That conversation never happened. God calls us to constant movement. Children of God are always on the go. Moving. Growing. Changing. Transitioning. Transforming. Advancing. Pressing. Attaining. Maturity. Development.

Always.

If you’re a member of the Central Church of Christ, you received a 4″ x 5-1/2″ card yesterday that contained three challenges to knock you out of your comfort zone and into what’s NEXT. The challenges were all different. They called our brothers and sisters to get more into the Word, to meditate on Scripture, to interact with their neighbors, to practice a spiritual discipline, to sacrificially serve, to give of themselves to others. They were all different; some of the challenges are more difficult than others. But they were all designed to get us out of our comfort zones into a place where we can listen to God’s leading and/or get engaged with other people in the name of Jesus. We asked each person in our church to choose one of the challenges. And then to do it.

Now, I don’t know what God is going to do with these little challenges. I have no idea. I don’t know what kind of an impact this is going to have on our individual members or on our congregation as a whole. I’m not sure if the impact will be immediate or longer range. I don’t know if it’ll result in subtle attitude tweaks that are barely noticeable or in really dramatic changes in our overall church mindset that will blow our community’s doors off. I don’t know.

But I do know this: completing these challenges will definitely have some kind of a positive, transformational, gospel impact on us as individual disciples and as a church family that will impact all of Amarillo. How do I know? Because God promises us that if we give ourselves wholly to him, if we keep adding to our faith more and more each day, if we keep striving, keep attaining, keep pushing and pressing, he will use us to his glory.

“Make every effort to add to your faith… For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive.” ~2 Peter 1:5-8

You might look at these challenges and say, “There’s no way I can do any of these. I just can’t.” You might also say, “This isn’t going to make a difference. If I do one of these challenges, it won’t change anything.”

Not true. Our merciful Father promises: if you’ll give yourself fully to him, he will use you. Sometimes in very surprising ways. However, if you stop moving, stop growing, stop pressing and pushing and attaining and striving, you’ll forget who you are and what you’re supposed to be doing.

Peace,

Allan

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