Author: Allan (Page 444 of 492)

Faith In Community

September 5, 2008 / Allan / 5 Comments

“We who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” ~Romans 12:5

Romans 12 deals with the corporate life of the Church. Offering ourselves as a living sacrifice, being transformed, developing the mind of Christ (12:1-2) — all of this takes place in community.

Our Western individualistic traditions can make this a problem. We can very easily, I think, see ourselves as doing what’s necessary to be saved and living together in the community of faith as two different, not necessarily related, things.

But all of Holy Scripture refutes that notion. We are called to be together.

Paul’s teaching in Romans 12 is that we cannot fully renew our minds without the active help of other believers. We can’t fully understand what Scripture teaches apart from dialogue with others who are reading the same Scripture. We cannot live our lives as disciples of Christ outside the nurturing context of a community of believers who encourage us, pray for us, and set examples for us. We can’t always discern the blind spots in our obedience to God without fellow believers to point them out.

Sometimes we think of ourselves “more highly than we ought” (12:3) and conclude we don’t really need anybody’s help.

More directly, we participate in the life of the Church to help others grow. “We have different gifts according to the grace given us” (12:6). Whatever gift you’ve been given, you are under obligation to your Lord to use it to serve his people. Other Christians need what each of us has to offer. As the human body is at a disadvantage without a foot, or an eye, or a kidney, so the Church is harmed when the full array of gifts are not being exercised within it.

So if you’re not involved, GET INVOLVED! If you’re not serving someone, SERVE SOMEONE! If you’re not participating, PARTICIPATE! Not only are you missing out, you’re depriving me of Christian growth if you’re not an active member of the Lord’s Church.

Peace,

Allan

Living For Eternity Right Now

September 3, 2008 / Allan / 0 Comments

“Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven.” ~Philippians 3:19-20

We live in the “already / not yet.” We live in the overlapping period of the arrival of the Kingdom of God and the ultimate fulfillment of the Kingdom of God. Yes, God’s Kingdom has broken into this present evil age. But it’s not here yet in all of its fullness. So our enjoyment of the totality of God’s presence and blessings are still a future reality. Our experience today of God’s power and glory, as great as it is, is still just a down payment of the glories to come. And that, in no way, discounts or disqualifies that future as anything less than an absolute reality.

Once we realize that, once we truly grasp the fact that our hope is in the future and final consummation of the Kingdom to come, we live our lives in ways that relate to that ultimate reality. Whatever we long for and hope for in the future inevitably determines how we live in the present. Hope and its desires are the engines that drive us. The pursuit of the greater good in the future is enough to bring about a willing and persevering self-denial in the present. Our hopes determine our habits. We are a future-determined people. The world to come, not this one, must captivate our minds and our hearts.

“Modern and postmodern culture revolves around a this-world orientation; the only long-term future our culture conceives to be important enough to plan for consistently is retirement. This pervasive preoccupation with living as long as possible, as healthy as possible, and as wealthy as possible has dramatically impacted the church in the West. Our knowledge and experience of God are so weak, and our desire for the pleasures of the present so strong, that we find it almost impossible to imagine that life with God in the world to come could be incomparably better than what we hope to experience in this world.” ~Dr. Scott J. Hafemann, Wheaton College

The apostle Paul writes about this extensively in 2 Corinthians. Paul fixes his gaze and sets the course for his life on what can’t be seen (4:18); on his inner glory instead of his outer suffering (4:17); on his inward renewal, not his outward decay (4:16); on the new age instead of the old (4:18); resurrection life, not dying (4:10-11); the weighty, not the insignificant (4:17); the eternal, not the temporary (4:18); and on the heavenly, not the earthly (5:1-2).

Our courage comes from having the right desires for the future. That leads to having the right ambitions in the present. Those who live in the present desire what this world has to offer. Their ambition is to please themselves with the temporary pleasures of this life. But those who live for their future with God desire the life promised by God. Their ambition is to please him here and now, since he is their true joy and hope.

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What a terrific weekend we enjoyed in Arkansas with Keith and Amanda and their kids and Jimmy & Elizabeth and theirs. My little brother took us on a tour of Harding where he’s in his third year as a Bible professor. I’m not sure our children were supposed to take their shoes off and splash around in the fountains, but they did. We also ran into a couple of our Legacy kids out there pledging clubs. Jarron and Jacob weren’t quite sure how to react to seeing us on their campus on a Saturday afternoon. Paul taught Valerie how to scale interior door frames like Spiderman. Isaac lost a tooth. And Rachel was way too stinkin’ cute the whole time. Keith and Amanda also graced us with Dr Pepper products from Holland.

After 24 hours with Keith and Amanda it was back down to Benton to see Jimmy and Elizabeth. Jimmy was the youth minister at Marble Falls when we were there a couple of years ago. And we miss them tremendously. The Northside Church of Christ, where he serves now, graciously invited me to preach for them Sunday. And it was fantastic. Jimmy was leading singing and I was preaching. We prayed it up together an hour before Bible class. Just like the good ol’ days. We focused our Bible class time and our assembly time on the grace of God as a free gift. We enjoyed a huge fellowship meal together. And we now count the wonderful people at Northside among our dearest friends. Brown’s Buffet for dinner. A Benton tradition, I think. Not quite like the Bluebonnet Cafe in Marble Falls. More like a Cracker Barrel on steroids.

The only criticism I have of our weekend in Arkansas concerns an eating establishment we visited in Searcy and noticed again in Benton. Colton’s fancies itself a Texas-themed restaurant. Peanut shells on the floor, cowboy pictures on the walls, Texas icons on the menu, and a huge Texas flag on the roof of the building. But they don’t serve Dr Pepper. It’s Mr. Pibb. And the wait staff use the names of the two soft drinks interchangeably. Like synonyms. When the waitress brought Carley her Mr. Pibb refill (Carley has no integrity) she said, “Here’s your Dr Pepper.” Blasphemy! They should remove the flag and not put it up there again until they can deliver the most basic and fundamental of Texas beverages to their patrons.

Thank you.

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“Just as a television commercial will use an athlete, an actor, a musician, a novelist, a scientist or a countess to speak for the virtues of a product in no way within their domain of expertise, television also frees politicians from the limited field of their own expertise. Political figures may show up anywhere, at any time, doing anything, without being thought odd, presumptuous, or in any way out of place. Which is to say, they have become assimilated into the general television culture as celebrities.

Being a celebrity is quite different from being well known. Harry Truman was well known but he was not a celebrity. Whenever the public saw him or heard him, Truman was talking politics. It takes a very rich imagination to envision Harry Truman or, for that matter, his wife, making a guest appearance on ‘The Goldbergs’ or ‘I Remember Mama.’ Politics and politicians had nothing to do with these shows, which people watched for amusement, not to familiarize themselves with political candidates and issues.

Television does not reveal who the best man is. In fact, television makes impossible the determination of who is better than whom, if we mean by ‘better’ such things as more capable in negotiation, more imaginative in executive skill, more knowledgeable about international affairs, more understanding of the interrelations of economic systems, and so on. The reason has, almost entirely, to do with ‘image.’

Men always make their gods in their own image. But to this, television politics has added a new wrinkle: Those who would be gods refashion themselves into images the viewers would have them be. It is a sobering thought to recall that there are no photographs of Abraham Lincoln smiling, that his wife was in all likelihood a psychopath, and that he was subject to lengthy fits of depression. He would hardly have been well suited for image politics. We do not want our mirrors to be so dark and so far from amusing. What I am saying is that just as the television commercial empties itself of authentic product information so that it can do its psychological work, image politics empties itself of authentic political substance for the same reason.” ~Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death, 1985.

Peace,

Allan

Squib Kicks, Politics, & The Poll

September 2, 2008 / Allan / 2 Comments

I’ve never understood it. I never will understand it. The late-game squib kick to prevent a big runback. I don’t get it. Why hand your opponent 30 yards of field position at the most crucial moment of the game? Why just give them 30 precious yards? I don’t get it.

UCLA scores a touchdown with 27-seconds left to take a three point lead over Tennessee last night. And instead of kicking deep—inside the five or into the end zone—they pooch it. They squib it. The Vols wind up with the ball near their own 45. They only need two first downs to get into game-tying field goal position. They get the two first downs. And they tie the game.

Why?

Aren’t the odds, aren’t the statistics, aren’t the trends going to show that nine times out of ten you’re going to cover your kick and make the tackle inside the 25? Why do these football coaches who rely so much on their “charts” and numbers and facts—who never stray from what the odds say, who dogmatically hold onto their numbers with a white-knuckle death grip—why do they throw all that out the window when it comes to these late-game squib kicks? If UCLA executes a normal kick and everything goes like it normally does for them, Tennessee has to make four or five first downs to tie the game instead of two.

Duh.

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I’m bothered by what passes as serious political discourse now in this country. Of course, this has been coming for decades. It didn’t just happen overnight. But still…

How is it possible that Larry King can put together a panel of four that consists of a comedienne, a congresswoman, a dot.com reporter, and a democratic strategist and spend one full hour talking about what they all swear is a non-story and all of America deems it serious? What’s wrong with us? Have you noticed that during the political conventions the networks won’t give us any of the speeches except for those made between 9:00 – 10:00pm? They all come on the air at 8:00 but they spend that first hour talking about stages and wardrobes and sets and strategies while some of the best speeches are taking place behind them.

While former presidents and current governors are speaking, the network anchors promise, “We’ll bring you portions of these speeches later.” And then they get right down to the much more important matters at hand: Hillary’s pants suits, Obama’s basketball game, one man’s journey to Denver from New Jersey, and just how many fireworks are they going to shoot on the last night? And the whole thing’s in a football stadium! As someone else observed: Mile High, Inch Deep.

We no longer want political discourse. We want entertainment. We don’t want to hear about the issues or think about the candidates themselves. We want to be entertained. If that weren’t true, C-SPAN and PBS would have the highest rated news hours.

Neil Postman saw all this coming when he wrote “Amusing Ourselves to Death” in 1985. He quotes Robert MacNeil on the idealogy behind television news:

“The idea is to keep everything brief, not to strain the attention of anyone but instead to provide constant stimulation through variety, novelty, action, and movement. You are required to pay attention to no concept, no character, and no problem for more than a few seconds at a time. Bite-sized is best, complexity must be avoided, nuances are dispensable, qualifications impede the simple message, visual stimulation is a substitute for thought.”

Postman concludes in his work that “Americans are the best entertained and quite likely the least well-informed people in the Western world.”

Searching for serious political discourse for the past couple of weeks on TV has been futile and frustrating. It’s not there. And we don’t seem to mind.

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The KK&C Top 20 College Football Poll is out. I’m not sure if it’s because of the Labor Day holiday or the fact that this was the first regular weekend, but we only had eight of our 20 panelists turn in a poll. Most of the slackers have apologized and they’ve all been sequestered in a dark room and are being forced to watch a replay of the SMU-Rice game as punishment.

But the poll must go on. And here it is. USC has leapfrogged Georgia to the #1 spot. Alabama makes its first appearance at #15. And Penn State’s in there for the first time at #17. Clemson’s loss dropped them eight places to #20 while Illinois’ weekend knocked them completely out of the poll. The poll was compiled prior to Tennessee’s gag last night at UCLA.

September 2, 2008

1. USC (5-1st place votes, 154 total) “Weak Pac-10 schedule plus Ohio St. at home plus much talent equals undefeated regular season” A.G.; ”Talent, talent, talent” B.W.; “Can you say ‘National Champs?’ If only they can get by Stanford” JimG.

2. Georgia (2, 145) “If good guys finish first, Mark Richt’s team will there when it’s all said and done.” JimG.; “May not know ’til we get to SEC” P.D.; “Too many problems—on and off the field—to stay this high” C.J.

3. Ohio St. (139) “Hoping the Wells won’t run dry” B.W., early favorite for Skip Bayless line of the year; “Will run the table after losing to USC” A.G.; “O-ver-ra-ted. Clap-clap-clap,clap,clap” JimG.;

4. Oklahoma (134) “Dominant team in Big 12″ A.G.; “The only thing stopping the Sooners was the thunderstorm delay” JimG.;

5. Florida (133) “Great team, tough schedule” A.G.; “Will replace Georgia as #1 SEC team when all is said and done” C.J.; “A good QB can carry a team” B.W.

6. LSU (1, 127) “Can’t keep the champs out of Top 10 until they’re knocked out” C.J.

7. Missouri (117) “Much respect for taking on a Top 20 opponent right off the bat” J.S.; “Experience plus talent equals success” C.J.; “Their QB was rocking, I quit watching an SEC game to turn to this one!” JennG.; “Offense unstoppable against Illinois” A.G. “Oh, for a little defense” JimG.

8. West Virginia (95) “Weak schedule” A.G.; “Always good against the inferior Big East” C.J.

9. Texas (91) “Not sure they are ready for the Top 10″ B.W.; “Enjoy it while the schedule is cream puff!” C.J.; “Licking their chops to pay back Arkansas” JimG.; “Ho-hum” P.D.

10. Auburn (89) “Typical Tuberville team doing it with defense and special teams” JimG.

11. Kansas (70) “What did Mark Mangino weigh following preseason camp?” JimG.

tie 11. Wisconsin (70) “Don’t know much about them, ESPN says they’re good and they never exaggerate.” C.J.; “Trembling over their pending trip to Fresno” JimG.

13. Texas Tech (60) “Will move down as soft defense is exploited” C.J.; “The defense is supposed to be better, so far it’s worse” J.S.

14. Arizona St. (45) “Until they play USC” B.W.

15. Alabama (43) “Impressive win against Clemson” A.G.; “Will move up” C.J.; “The dark horse that may not be so dark now” P.D.; “Looking like a real team this year, John Parker Wilson looks so much better” JennG.; “What a difference a Fresno State offensive coordinator makes” JimG.

16. Tennessee (38) “Despite better thoughts, Rick Neuheisel puts his money on the Vols” JimG., a great line reduced to meaninglessness after last night’s loss to UCLA; “I’m keeping them in the top 15 because I’m hoping for a win tonight” JennG., D’oh!;

17. Oregon (28) “Would be higher if they had real uniforms” B.W.;

tie 17. Penn St. (28) “Joe Pa, the Legend, has all the engines running” C.J.; “Maybe better than predicted” P.D.; “As long as everyone is on the field” B.W.; “Are he and Bobby Bowden going to toss the ‘winningest coach’ award around until one of them dies?” JennG.

19. BYU (26) “Who needs a running game?” JimG.

20. Clemson (20) “Outcoached and outplayed dramatically by Saban and Alabama” P.D.; “Wasn’t a believer before and I’m not one now” J.S.; “”Thunder and Lightening was a no-show” JennG.

Also receiving votes: South Florida (12); Illinois (7) “They will make someone pay” P.D.; “They will be back” J.S.; Fresno St. (6) “This year’s BCS-Buster!” JimG.; Wake Forest (3); Arkansas St. (1) “Anyone who can win playing with eleven against twelve should be in the Top 20″ B.W.

Charlie Johanson was actually at Saturday’s Aggies game in College Station and reports, “We have a pretty good team this year except for our offense, defense, and special teams.”

Folks, that’s the kind of insight and opinion you’re only going to get on this blog.

Charlie also had one of the better lines of the weekend when he threw out this gem about Wisconsin, “I don’t know much about them. ESPN says they’re good and they never exaggerate.”

Jim Gardner also had this to say about his Tennessee pick, “Despite better thoughts, Rick Neuheisel put his money on the Vols.” A great line rendered meaningless by last night’s UCLA upset.

For the latest poll and pictures and bios of all the panelists, just click on the green “KK&C Top 20” tab in the upper right hand corner of this page.

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What a fantastic weekend in Arkansas with Keith and Amanda and their family and Jimmy and Elizabeth and the Northside Church of Christ in Benton. Much more on that tomorrow.

Peace,

Allan

Plunder Taken, Captives Rescued

August 28, 2008 / Allan / 3 Comments

“Can plunder be taken from warriors, or captives rescued from the fierce?
This is what the Lord says:
‘Yes, captives will be taken from the warriors,
and plunder retrieved from the fierce;
I will contend with those who contend with you,
and your children I will save.'” ~Isaiah 49:24-25

“No one can enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can rob his house.” ~Mark 3:27

As Jesus teaches and loves and heals and drives out demons in Mark 3, he’s accused by religious leaders and his own family of being possessed by Satan. But Jesus makes it clear: what’s happening is not the result of some civil war within Satan’s ranks. This is a direct frontal assault from the outside. The strong man is Satan. His house, his domain, is this world which he’s trying desperately to secure and hold on to. His possessions are his victims, these people he’s taken captive. He’s trapped these victims. He’s imprisoned them with sin and fear and death and disease and demons. He’s holding them with divorce and crime and addiction and unemployment and cancer. He’s got ’em. But then along comes the stronger one, Jesus. He comes from God, empowered by the Holy Spirit, to cross the barriers of time and space, to smash through the walls of the devil’s house, to tie Satan up and carry off his precious possessions. To free the captives. To rescue the prisoners.

God himself overcomes the mighty one. He destroys forever the destroyer.

Satan uses our fears of the awful things we see all around us. Hebrews 2 says Satan holds the power of death and holds us in slavery, keeps us paralyzed, holds us in prison, by our fear of it. And then God himself breaks through, as the divine Son of Man. Jesus comes to earth, right into the middle of Satan’s house. He walks our streets. He teaches our people. He hugs our kids. He eats with us. He touches us. And he brings with him the eternal Kingdom of God! He wages war—not against the petty tyrants and selfish leaders and evil empires. He comes here intent on destroying THE Kingdom of Satan which has enslaved all of humanity. Christ Jesus, by his birth and life and teachings and ministry and death and burial and resurrection and exaltation, takes Satan’s plunder and rescues Satan’s captives and he ties Satan up and makes him watch.

We are that plunder taken. We are the captives rescued. This is us. We were the ones imprisoned by Satan. We were the ones held in slavery by our sins and paralyzed by our fears. We were the ones stuck, doomed, distressed, condemned. We were the hostages. We were the sentenced prisoners. We were headed to an eternity of death and despair. Damned by our own selfishness and sin. We were hopeless. We were already given up for gone.

But now we are rescued. We’re freed. We’re liberated.

We’re not just rescued from ourselves and our sins, we’re snatched from the life-choking clutches of Satan himself! We’re freed from the Kingdom of Darkness to walk eternally in newness of life.

“For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the Kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” ~Colossians 1:13-14.

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Several of you have been asking about Debbie Miller, the wife of one of the Four Horsemen, one of my dearest friends. Her surgery was yesterday. And it couldn’t have been more successful. It couldn’t have gone any better. And our Father couldn’t have answered our prayers in any more of an amazing way. All the cancer is totally gone! 100% gone! There wasn’t any in her muscle tissue. There’s not any in her lymph nodes. It was all contained in the tumors and the tumors are gone! Praise God!

I talked to Dan last night. He told me it was the greatest and happiest day he’s had since….and then he said it’s the greatest and happiest day of his entire life. Our God is great. He answers prayer. And he delivers his people. And we rejoice today with Dan and Debbie.

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We’re leaving Friday for Searcy, Arkansas to spend about 24 hours with my brother, Keith, and his wonderful family. And then it’s off to Benton, Arkansas to hook up with Jimmy Mitchell and the Benton Church of Christ. Jimmy was our Youth Minister in Marble Falls when we were there from ’05-’07. I’ll be preaching for them in Benton on Sunday. Please keep our family in your prayers. And ask God to bless our time with great family and great friends.

Peace,

Allan

Every Nation, Tribe, People, & Language

August 26, 2008 / Allan / 8 Comments

“The mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. Many peoples will come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.'” ~Isaiah 2:2-3

“There before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb…And they cried out in a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.'” ~Revelation 7:9-10

You know my dream is to ultimately see our church body at Legacy accurately reflect the uniting force of the Gospel. My vision is that all our Spanish-speaking members and all our deaf members come together to worship our Lord in the same assembly on Sundays. Full integration. Not segregation. The birth, life, teachings, ministry, death, burial, resurrection, and exaltation of Jesus breaks down all the barriers between us. It destroys the things that separate us. In Christ there are no divisions, no walls. We’re one. We’re equal. We’re all in the same family. And the family should model that.

So, how do we do this? Is it impossible? Do we keep our Spanish-speaking brothers and sisters out in the fellowship hall or tucked away in an upstairs classroom? Or do we sacrifice and bend and give and do whatever it takes to bring them fully into the family?

One of the cover stories in the July Christian Chronicle, “Are Churches Reaching New Americans?” chronicles the efforts of several churches to unite their English and Spanish speaking members into one united body. The trick, it seems, is to realize that language is not a barrier. It’s not easy. It presents challenges. But it’s not impossible.

Daniel Rodriguez, a professor of religion and Hispanic studies at Pepperdine, puts his finger on the fallacy of the language issue. “The fastest growing churches have realized that language is not a barrier. They have recognized how to reach the grandmother who speaks only Spanish and her grandchildren who speak English.”

The Inland Valley Church of Christ in California has about 120 members, 50 of whom speak primarily Spanish. But most everything they do in their assemblies is in English. They provide headsets and live translation. The lyrics to the songs appear on the screens in both languages. One of the Inland Valley ministers, Tom Allen, says, “As we interact, we come to care for each other. When people love each other, they’ll accommodate.”

Wow. That’s the key, right? Instead of focusing on the little differences among us, zeroing in on the huge eternal things we have in common through the blood of Christ Jesus.

I know at the North Davis Church in Arlington, our Lord’s Supper time was bilingual. A prayer and/or Scripture reading in English and in Spanish. Both. Every time. Worshiping together around the common table. Yes.

The foreign-born population in the U.S. is reaching 15-percent. More than one million legal immigrants earn U.S. citizenship every year. Most Hispanic people in Texas my age or younger, and virtually all people the age of my children and younger, speak both English and Spanish. Language is not the barrier.

Is it custom? Is it culture? Is it fear? What is it? I hate to think our schools and our government buildings and our restaurants and our soccer teams and our Wal-Marts and our media can integrate and bring people together better than our Gospel.

Peace,

Allan

Assembly As Gospel

August 25, 2008 / Allan / 7 Comments

If this is what it means to have a daughter in high school, I’m not ready. This is the scene that greeted us when we woke up this morning. I have my suspicions as to the culprits. And even though I can’t write on this blog what they say about paybacks, it doesn’t make it any less true.

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“…I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.” ~Ephesians 4:1

“…conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.” ~Philippians 1:27

As a response to God’s grace and in imitation of Jesus, we deny our own selfish ambitions and place the interests of others ahead of our own. Jesus emptied himself for our sakes and he became the obedient servant for the Father’s glory. That’s the gospel. And that’s how we live the gospel. The glory of God and the priority of others. Love God and love your neighbor. Jesus says that’s the whole deal. Paul says in Ephesians 4 this is what leads to maturity. This is what leads to “unity in the faith.” Without this mindset, without this focus, we’re still babies.

I’ve tried applying these gospel principles to our Christian assemblies over the past three weeks as we’ve moved together into our new worship center here at Legacy. What this mature mindset means is that, in our assemblies, there’s very little, if anything, that could ever happen that could ever divide us. Our diversity and our differences wouldn’t just be tolerated, they’d be embraced and appreciated, even celebrated.

Whether a person kneels or stands or prostrates himself on the ground in prayer, or adopts the one prayer posture not authorized in Scripture: sitting on one’s rear end…

Whether a person claps his hands or raises his hands or does with his hands the one thing not authorized in Scripture: sits on them…

Whether a person talks and/or sings during the Lord’s Supper or meditates quietly to himself…

Whether a person sings classic hymns that were written 300 years ago or contemporary praise songs that were written three months ago…

Whether a person wears a suit and a tie or shorts and flip-flops…

We are brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus our Lord and in his death, burial, and resurrection that saves us. We share a common Savior and a common destination. And when we finally and fully grasp that, we will imitate our Lord by making ourselves the least important person in the room.

Planning and conducting and participating in our assemblies is not about finding and conforming to specific regulations found in the New Testament. It’s all about doing what we do in ways that are worthy of the gospel, in ways that proclaim and embody the good news of our Lord and his Kingdom.

John Mark Hicks has written another excellent book about the Christian sacraments. This one, A Gathered People: Revisioning the Assembly as Transforming Encounter, is about our time together in our assemblies. This excerpt is from the final chapter, “Contemporary Gatherings: Assembling Worthy of the Gospel.”

“As long as we are regulated by the gospel, we should value diversity as it reaches people beyond the limits of our own settings. But this demands maturity. The gospel calls us to put the interests of others ahead of our own. But this demands mature discipleship. Can we tolerate different tastes and styles even when we do not like them? Can we vary our styles out of respect for what touches the heart of another even if it does not touch ours? Can we appreciate what a particular style does for one even though it is not as meaningful to us? Can we practice what is uncomfortable for us for the sake of the other?

The gospel demands that we do because Jesus himself endured great discomfort—to put it mildly—for our sakes. As disciples of Jesus, we must follow him into that kind of discomfort, even suffering. To say that we must ‘suffer through’ a particular song for the sake of another trivializes the cross of Christ but to deny that song to others simply on the basis of our own comfort and tradition is to reject the cross of Christ for narcissism.”

Wow. The Father certainly poured a whole lot into our laps with these assemblies. It’s almost like he wants us to practice getting along together.

God’s gift of unity means we belong to each other. We are part of each other. Living worthy of the calling, making every effort requires an eagerness to think about one another, to serve one another, to love one another, to build up one another, to bear one another’s burdens, to submit to one another, and encourage one another.

Even in our assemblies.

Especially in our assemblies.

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School Bells! School Bells! I got to sing the Stanglin’s traditional first day of school song to wake up not three but four girls this morning. Four girls at four different campuses (help me, is it campi?) now. Huge backpacks. Sack lunches. Combination lockers. P.E. New friends. New teachers. And now Carrie-Anne’s right in the middle of it, too. I’m pulling taxi duty two days a week now. I’ve always been the one to haul the kids to school in the mornings. But Carrie-Anne’s always picked them up. Until now. On Mondays and Wednesdays it’s me. This afternoon it took me 65-minutes to leave the church building and make it home with all three. I’m hoping that’s just first day traffic. C-A has her first math, history, and art appreciation classes today. It’s going to be an interesting year. We’ve begun yet another little leg of our journey together.

Peace,

Allan

Author: Allan (Page 444 of 492)

Faith In Community

Living For Eternity Right Now

Squib Kicks, Politics, & The Poll

Plunder Taken, Captives Rescued

Every Nation, Tribe, People, & Language

Assembly As Gospel

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