The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

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Month: February 2020 (Page 1 of 2)

Mission From God

February 27, 2020 / / 2 Comments

Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi made a movie in 1980 about Jake and Elwood Blues. The Blues Brothers are on a “mission from God” to save the orphanage where they were raised. “Mission from God” is the catchphrase throughout the movie. The cops won’t catch us because we’re on a mission from God. The rednecks won’t hurt us because we’re on a mission from God. The lady with the rocket launcher won’t kill us because we’re on a mission from God. We can’t be stopped, we can’t be slowed down, nothing’s going to get in our way, because we’re on a mission from God.

At one of the dramatic points in the movie — yes, there are a couple of dramatic moments in The Blues Brothers — both men get into the car at the same time, they close their doors, and there’s an effective pause. A stillness. Then Aykroyd, in his deadpan, matter of fact way, assesses the situation.

“It’s 106 miles to Chicago, we’ve got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it’s dark… and we’re wearing sunglasses.”

To which Belushi points to the road ahead and replies, “Hit it!”

We know our God is on a mission. His mission is not to save an orphanage, although, that is part of it. God’s mission is to save the whole world. The Bible says God is bringing all things in heaven and on earth together in Christ. In Jesus, God is restoring all of creation, he is reconciling all things, he’s tearing down all the walls and destroying all the barriers to bring all people and all things together in Christ. That’s what God is doing. That’s his mission.

And he has no interest in doing it by himself. He calls us to join him.

God tells Abraham he’s going to bless all the peoples of the world, but he’s going to do it through him. He tells Moses, “I have come down to rescue my people, but I’m sending you to the Pharaoh to bring them out.” He tells Joshua, “I am giving this land to my children, but you’re going to lead them in and do the fighting.”

When God shows us in person exactly what he’s doing and how he wants it done, he comes here in the flesh and blood of Jesus. He wants us to see him in action, up close. He wants us to understand. And what we see and understand is Jesus recruiting apostles and disciples to join him in bringing the Kingdom of Heaven to earth.

Jesus heals the sick because there is no disease in heaven. He feeds the poor because there’s no hunger in heaven. Jesus raises the dead because there aren’t any cemeteries in heaven. He turns the other cheek because there is no violence in heaven. He eats dinner with everybody because there is no discrimination in heaven. Heaven on earth. That’s the mission.

Jesus then sends his disciples out with the timeless charge: I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do the same things I’ve been doing! Go! Go do it! I am with you always! And, remember, you didn’t choose me; I chose you! You are the light of the world! You are the city on a hill! Your good deeds bring praise to our Father in heaven!

Every one of us is on a mission from God. None of us is exempt. The Bible calls us ambassadors for Christ. It says we’ve all been given God’s ministry of reconciliation. Jesus says, on that last day, the King will judge us according to who’s on the mission and who’s not.

The people living in darkness need to know there’s another way. And God calls you and me to communicate it. To live it. In a world driven by division and hate, we demonstrate unity and love. In a world built on violence and maintained by punishment, we embody peace and forgiveness. In a world that thrives on judgment, we are a people of grace. In a world that teaches us to take and to look out for number one, children of God and followers of Christ live to give and to consider the needs of others more important than our own. In a broken and fallen world where the evidence of the brokenness surrounds us, we don’t go out and pick a fight; we go out and live the Gospel! We join our God on his mission.

The most dangerous thing we can do is play it safe. We can’t do that when we’re on a mission from God. Today and every day we sail out into the storm trusting our God who said, “I am giving you this land!” We trust our Lord Jesus who said, “I am with you always!” And we trust the Holy Spirit who is already out there, way ahead of us, preparing the good works in advance for us to do.

Nothing can harm us, nothing can stop us, nothing can slow us down, because we’re on a mission from God.

It’s 1,052 miles to Chicago (which has absolutely nothing to do with this part), we’ve got a full tank of Holy Spirit power, a heart for the people God puts in our path, it’s a dark world… and we’re saved by God and called by him to be light.

Hit it!

Peace,

Allan

Stacey and Gary

February 26, 2020 / / 18 Comments

There’s a Toot ‘n Totum gas station and convenience store on 15th and Washington, about two blocks west of our church building. I’m in that store almost every morning getting my large iced tea and, when I’m having a certain kind of day, in the afternoon for a Diet Dr Pepper. Stacey is the manager there and Gary  is one of her clerks.

The location of that store means there are all kinds of people who come in: those experiencing homelessness, the economically disadvantaged who live in the area, the transients coming and going on I-40, and all those on their way to and from work. It can be a three-ring circus in there sometimes. There’s the occasional drama in the parking lot. And Stacey and Gary consistently demonstrate grace and kindness to everyone.

Everybody knows Stacey and Gary by name and they know all their customers by name, too. It reminds me of the TV show “Cheers.” Everyone is warmly greeted when they walk through the door, most by name, and everyone is made to feel welcome. It’s a great way to start the day.

The #sentbycentral missions envelope I received in church Sunday contained a $10 bill and I used it this morning to provide a hot breakfast for Stacey and Gary. Ten dollars is not going to change anybody’s life, but it’s all I needed for a Christian act of God’s grace. So with the temperature outside in the teens, I took Stacey and Gary a classic Whataburger breakfast: egg and sausage sandwiches on jalapeno-cheddar biscuits and bacon and sausage tacquitos. And a large Diet Dr Pepper for Stacey.

I told them how they reflect God’s glory in the way they treat all their customers. I told them how they bless me and everyone who walks into that store with their kindness and generosity. I expressed my appreciation for the way they show such concern for their customers and how they try to make and maintain connections. I told them that what they do gives everybody in this neighborhood a place to belong, a sense of community, and that’s also in the category of what our God wants for his children.

When I got to the church building I called the Toot ‘n Totum headquarters here in Amarillo and bragged on Stacey and Gary and their store at 15th and Washington. I told the woman on the phone that the way Stacey runs her store is a blessing to all of us. I told her that store is a tremendous asset to the neighborhood. The woman said she was glad to hear my compliments because she normally only hears complaints.

So, yeah. It seems really, really small. It’s breakfast in a bag on a random Wednesday morning. My prayer is that God uses the breakfast and the compliments to bless Stacey and Gary, to give them a small taste (literally and figuratively) of the goodness of our God and of his love and grace for them in Jesus Christ.

I pray that folks all over Amarillo are being blessed in similar ways this week through Central, in the name and manner of Jesus. Praise him.

Peace,

Allan

#sentbycentral

February 24, 2020 / / 0 Comments

How do you make every member of your church understand that all Christians are missionaries? How do you adequately communicate, so that it sticks, that all children of God are called to join his salvation mission? Yesterday at Central, we distributed $15,000 among every one of our members and guests in the worship assembly and asked them to use the money to bless somebody this week in the name and manner of Jesus.

The $15,000 came from our foreign and local missions committees — $7,500 from each — and was split up and stuffed into the envelopes on Thursday. Forty-five of the envelopes contained one-hundred dollar bills, forty contained fifty-dollar bills, and the rest ranged from $40 down to $10. And when the time came toward the end of the sermon yesterday, the shuffled envelopes were handed out to every one of the surprised congregants with a charge to use this money to further the salvation mission of our God.

I don’t know what’s going to happen this week in Amarillo. But the pictures are already being posted and the stories are already being shared on social media with the hashtag #sentbycentral

Families are having important missions conversations. Some of our small groups are combining their money to make a significant Gospel impact in someone else’s life. I don’t know what I’m going to do with the ten dollars I received, but if I believe what I told our church yesterday, that money has been provided by God and I am a missionary equipped and sent by Central to proclaim the Good News.

The truth is there are men and women and young folks in our church who know people I’ll never meet. The circles our people run in contain circumstances I’ll never know about. Every child of God is uniquely equipped to minister to somebody the bigger church just isn’t. Or can’t.

Not everybody can spend two weeks in Kenya every summer. Not all of us can volunteer at HopeChoice or Bivins Elementary every week. Maybe there’s no way you could go to Brazil or teach a class at The PARC or join a medical mission to Guatemala. So you don’t feel like a missionary. You don’t see yourself on mission.

The Bible calls us ambassadors for Christ. It says we’ve all been given God’s ministry of reconciliation. Jesus says on the last day the King will judge all of us according to who’s on mission and who’s not.

I hope that yesterday we equipped our people and inspired them to see themselves as missionaries. I pray that, as a result, hundreds of people in Amarillo and beyond will be blessed by our God this week to experience his love and grace through his children at Central.

Peace,

Allan

Just Say the Word

February 17, 2020 / / 0 Comments

A Roman centurion approaches Jesus in Matthew 8 and asks him to heal his servant back home. “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof,” he says to Jesus, “but just say the word, and my servant will be healed.” Jesus observed that this soldier had great faith.

This Roman officer recognizes the power of Jesus. He calls Jesus “Lord” twice. This commander of men addresses Jesus as Lord when he was sworn to reserve that title for Caesar. You can’t serve two masters; there can only be one Lord. And this military officer says it’s Jesus. He recognizes Jesus as the superior and sovereign King, the true One, the only One, who can heal his servant. He recognizes Jesus’ power over nature and the elements, his power over demons and sickness and death. He knows Jesus’ power: Just say the word.

Here’s a commander of a hundred men in the Roman army. He’s stationed at a garrison just east of Capernaum. This officer has total control over the men in his company. He tells them when to come and when to go. They don’t use the restroom without his permission. Not only that, he controls all the Jews in this land they’re governing. With just a word, this centurion can order any Tom, Dick, or Larry on the street to march a mile or dig a ditch or carry a cross for a condemned criminal. This guy understands power. And he says to Jesus, “Just say the word.”

“Lord, just as easily as I tell Private Ted to clean his shield or mop the floor or drop and give me twenty, that easy, just say the word and my servant will be healed. I know that whatever you say happens. You just say the word and the forces that have paralyzed my servant will let him go. I have the authority to issue commands. My authority to make things happen comes from a higher power, from a general, from Caesar himself. But you, Jesus, you receive your power and authority from Almighty God in heaven!”

This commander’s faith is not great because he has confidence that Jesus can heal. His faith is great because he knows Jesus’ power comes  from God and Jesus has the authority from God to issue commands on God’s behalf.

Psalm 107 says, “God sends forth his word and heals.”

This army officer has picked up on the fact that Jesus is God’s Word, sent by God to heal.

Jesus tells this commander, “Go! It will be done just as you believed it would.” And the Gospel says his servant was healed at that very hour.

This is the beautiful reality in Jesus as the Son of God. The reality is he is almighty, he is all powerful, and he alone has the authority and power to heal and forgive and provide and protect. That’s the reality. And he willingly went to the cross to make that reality ultimately true for anything and everything that’s going on in your life today.

Just say the word, Jesus.

And he did. In the garden.  “Not my will, Father, but yours be done.”

And he said it on the cross. “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” Jesus would rather die for you than live without you. And he trusted himself to God, he put his own great faith in God, so the doors to the Kingdom of Heaven can be opened for you and for all who believe.

“It is finished!”

Now, there’s a word.

Peace,

Allan

 

Bucket List Opportunity

February 11, 2020 / / 0 Comments

I have room for eight to ten more folks on our sightseeing trip to Israel May 28 – June 7 this year. This summer’s tour will be my fourth to lead and my fifth trip overall to the Holy Lands. If it’s on your bucket list, I’d encourage you to jump in with us.

We spend all of the ten-day tour in Israel, which allows us to visit all the sites literally from Dan to Beersheba at a leisurely and low-stress pace; we’ll take in once-in-a-lifetime experiences such as wading through the 2,700-year-old Hezekiah’s Tunnel, sharing a picnic on the banks of the Jordan River, floating on the Dead Sea, sailing on the Sea of Galilee, and praying in the Garden of Gethsemane; we’ll spend our evenings together in worship and reflection, processing what we’ve experienced that day and preparing for the next day’s agenda; and our tour is limited to 30-people, allowing us to enjoy guided tours and restaurants together and giving us more room to spread out on the air-conditioned bus.

Every paragraph of Holy Scripture contains geography, landscape, architecture, people, food, customs, dress, animals, agriculture, and rituals that serve to communicate the history and fact of God and his activity in our world. As we explore first-hand the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes of Israel on our trip, the story of our God’s faithful love will expand and deepen to penetrate your heart and soul like no other experience can. You’ll never read the Bible in the same way again.

 

 

 

 

 

Click here 2020Brochure to download the brochure with all the information and details. And holler at me if you have any questions.

Shalom!

Allan

Sheer Mercy

February 5, 2020 / / 17 Comments

I waited tables at a Red Lobster one summer when I was in college. This was back in the 1980s when the restaurant offered an all-you-can-eat popcorn shrimp dinner on Tuesdays. One Tuesday evening a man sat down in my section and placed four five-dollar bills on the edge of the table. He said to me, “I want the all-you-can-eat popcorn shrimp with double fries and an iced tea. This twenty dollars is your tip. Every time I have to ask for more shrimp or more tea, I’m putting one of these five-dollar bills back in my pocket.”

I was both shocked and thrilled by this man’s great generosity and my great opportunity. I thought, “This doesn’t happen in real life! This only happens in the movies! This guy must have won the lottery or something!”

Over the next hour or so, I made sure this man’s glass was never below half-full and that he never had to wait in between bits of popcorn shrimp. I got that twenty dollars. And I felt like I earned it. We had an arrangement. I met my end of the bargain and he met his.

Grace is not like that at all. Mercy is not an arrangement that obligates two parties. And that’s what makes it so hard to receive.

God’s mercy doesn’t fit our paradigm. It’s not how we operate. We function according to merit. Our world and all its systems are based on merit. We work for what we get and we mostly get what we deserve. In school, we get good grades or bad grades and, most of the time, it reflects what we’ve put in. We get promotions and pay raises for the work we do. If we make an investment or render a service, we expect to get paid.

To receive mercy is to accept that you are powerless. It’s to place yourself in debt. It’s to understand that you are incapable of taking care of yourself or of saving yourself. It’s to admit that you are broken, you’re helpless, you’re unable and weak. And we are not very good at that at all.

It might seem like a little thing, but we have changed the word in the ancient hymn, “Alas, and Did My Savior Bleed?” I’m not sure when it happened, but the line in the newer hymnals reads, “Would he devote that sacred head for such a one as I?” Why?

Because I’m not a worm! I’m not unworthy! I’m not weak or incapable or hopeless!

That’s what makes it so hard to receive mercy. But if you can humble yourself to receive the mercy of God, if you can see your hands as empty and yourself as having nothing to offer, it’ll change everything.

That same summer at Red Lobster, a young couple sat down in my section on a Friday night. The place was packed, I was running like crazy between my four tables, and I messed things up with this couple very early in our relationship. I got their salad dressings wrong and the guy had to flag me down for some more tea. They had to wait forever for their food. I was so busy with my other tables, I let their dinner sit in the pickup window too long. And when I delivered their plates, I could tell I was not going to get a tip.

So, I quit on them.

I dropped off the check and didn’t talk to them again. It was already decided, I didn’t have a chance. So, I didn’t refill their drinks, I didn’t check back with them, I completely ignored them the rest of the meal, and I was relieved when they finally got up and left. And they left me a twenty-dollar tip.

It felt different than the way it did with the popcorn shrimp guy. It changed me. I didn’t deserve this tip, I didn’t do anything to earn it. I had no idea why they did that for me. It didn’t make sense. It didn’t fit the framework. It was sheer mercy. And it transformed me. For the rest of that summer, I saw people differently. I treated people differently. I saw myself and my responsibilities as a waiter differently. Mercy will do that.

God’s mercy is a free gift. It’s free for you with all your baggage and all your mess. It’s free for you and all your powerlessness and helplessness. That’s what makes it so transforming. You can’t earn it. Salvation is an entirely unmerited gift, so it blesses you with the freedom and the power to change. The problem comes when we try to earn it, when we want to feel like we’ve done enough. We try to get ourselves over the minimum number of good deeds required by God to be worth of his love and grace, but it doesn’t work that way.

Against all odds and against all circumstances, God in Christ takes care of all your needs. In shocking and thrilling fashion, Jesus becomes your sin and carries it to the cross. We’ve got so much guilt, we’ve got so much shame. All of us. We’ve got regrets. And our sin, my goodness — none of us has a chance. Except for the sheer mercy of Jesus. At the cross, Jesus settles all your business, he pays all your debts, he heals your disease, and he finishes your work. Just humble yourself to receive it.

Trust him with everything. Give him your doubts. Give him your fears. Admit all that up front: “Lord, I’m a mess!” It’s OK. Our God is big enough and strong enough to handle whatever you can throw at him. And he will receive you and accept you, not for anything you’re done or might probably do in the future, but because of what Jesus has done and promises to do for you forever.

Peace,

Allan

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