Author: Allan (Page 451 of 493)

Passionate Prayer

June 18, 2008 / Allan / 3 Comments

“So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.” ~Acts 12:5

We know we’re supposed to pray. So we do. But sometimes we get lazy with it. We don’t always pay attention to what we’re saying and why. In 1916, in his book The Soul of Prayer, P. T. Forsyth wrote the reason our churches don’t know how to pray is “the slipshod kind of prayer they hear from us in public worship; it is often but journalese sent heavenwards or phrase-making to carry on.”

If we really believe that God is who the Bible says he is; if we really believe that he is the almighty true and living God, the powerful creator and sustainer of heaven and earth; if we really believe this God is personal with us and not only hears our prayers but faithfully answers them; if we really believe that, then every one of our prayers will be filled with passion.

Not eloquence. Not etiquette. Not posture and syntax and order. Our prayers will be characterized by passion.

If we believe it.

E. M. Bounds, from an essay he wrote in 1895:

“The more praying there is in the world the better the world will be, the mightier the forces against evil everywhere. Prayer is not a fitful short-lived thing. It is no voice crying unheard and unheeded in silence. It is a voice which goes into God’s ear, and it lives as long as God’s ear is open to holy pleas, as long as God’s heart is alive to holy things.

God shapes the world by prayer.

The prayers of God’s saints are the capital stock in heaven by which Christ carries on his great work upon earth. The great throes and mighty convulsions on earth are the results of these prayers. Earth is changed, revolutionized, angels move on more powerful, more rapid wing, and God’s policy is shaped as the prayers are more numerous, more efficient.

It is true that the mightiest successes that come to God’s cause are created and carried on by prayer. The days of God’s activity and power are when God’s Church comes into its mightiest inheritance of mightiest faith and mightiest prayer. God’s conquering days are when the saints have given themselves to mightiest prayer. When God’s house on earth is a house of prayer, then God’s house in heaven is busy and all potent in its plans and movements, then his earthly armies are clothed with the triumphs and spoils of victory and his enemies defeated on every hand.”

That’s power. And if we believe it, our prayers will reflect it. Our prayers won’t be little. They’ll be huge. And passionate.

Abraham pleading for Sodom. Jacob wrestling at midnight. Moses fasting and praying for God’s people in the wilderness. Hannah intoxicated with sorrow. David heartbroken with grief and remorse. Huge, passionate prayers. Jesus overcome with loud cries and tears in the garden. Elijah exploding with confidence on Mount Carmel. Paul courageously petitioning on behalf of the new churches.

When we understand the God of our Scriptures, when we see things the way he sees things, then our prayers will be marked by passion. When we couple the greatness of God with the sinfulness of creation and when we understand both of these truths, then we understand what it is God really wants and what he’s doing. And we very boldly and courageously and passionately pray for it.

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

I can root for a guy like Paul Pierce. He fought and trained and worked and played his guts out for ten seasons, mostly pathetic losing seasons, in Boston. And for all ten of those season he vowed to do whatever he could to bring a title to Boston. He never said a negative word about the franchise or his teammates. He begged the team and the fans to stick with him. He promised to win a championship there.

I can cheer for a guy like Doc Rivers who, up until two months ago had never won a playoff series as a coach and, one year ago, was this close to being fired. He begged Danny Ainge and the Boston front office to stick with him. He promised to do everything he could to win the title.

Doesn’t the NBA championship, clinched last night by the Celtics in a rout of the Lakers, mean a whole lot more to Pierce and Rivers than it does to Kevin Garnett?

It’s hard for me to pull for a guy who plays 12 years in Minnesota, the last four or five griping and whining about how lousy his team is and how they’re never going to win, and then demands to be shipped somewhere else where he wins the championship.

To me, Pierce and Rivers embody the commitment and loyalty and team-first principles we love about sports while Garnett represents the self-serving team-jumping ring-chasing we hate. Is there no room in sports anymore for an Archie Manning or Fran Tarkenton?

Garnett embarrassed his new team and his new city when, immediately after the game with a dozen live national cameras and microphones in his face, he could only muster primal screams and long multi-syallabic curse words. A string of ’em. If not for ABC’s eight-second delay, the broadcast would have been rated R. Nice. When Garnett finally found his limited vocabulary, it went something like this. “I got mine! I got mine!”

He looked into the camera and shouted, “What are you gonna say now? I got mine! I’m legit! I’m certified! What are you gonna say now?”

And then he went Joe Namath on ABC sideline reporter Michelle Tafoya, “You look good, girl!”

Pierce and Rivers couldn’t stop thanking each other. “Thank you for sticking with me,” they told each other over and over again.

I love that. Dedication. Commitment. Loyalty. Values that should and will be more and more appreciated in sports, if only because it’s increasingly rare.

Peace,

Allan

Jumping Off The Line: Part Two

June 17, 2008 / Allan / 2 Comments

A young man (anybody younger than me is young) came into my study here last week to ask me some questions about Legacy. This man is going through the final stages of a horrible divorce. He’s lived out in West Texas for several years but is now moving back to DFW. He was born and reared in Dallas. And as he’s shopping for a church here in North Tarrant County, he asks me this question:

“Where is Legacy compared to ___ ___ Church of Christ and ___ ___ Church of Christ?”

And he named two congregations in Dallas, one known throughout our fellowship as being “progressive” or “liberal” and the other labled as “traditional” or “conservative.”

Where is Legacy on that line? Where are you?

Of course, it reminded me of that A-B Line we’re all trying to eradicate from our thinking and our conversations, this linear way of thinking and talking that does our church families and the Kingdom of God much harm. I wrote about this a couple of weeks ago. (You can read it again by clicking here.) And I told this man in my office, “I’m not going to have the conversation this way.”

When we use words like “conservative” or “progressive” or “liberal” or “traditional” we’re really just describing people’s opinions. And discussions that focus on these words and concepts and the issues they invite inevitably turn into political battles for power instead of spiritual searches for the truth.

The truth is nowhere to be found on that line.

Henri Nouwen, in his book In the Name of Jesus, addresses church leaders on the dangers of this type of thinking:

“Christian leaders cannot simply be persons who have well-informed opinions about the burning issues of our time. Their leadership must be rooted in the permanent, intimate relationship with the incarnate Word, Jesus, and they need to find there the source for their words, advice, and guidance.

Dealing with burning issues without being rooted in a deep personal relationship with God easily leads to divisiveness because, before we know it, our sense of self is caught up in our opinion about a given subject. But when we are securely rooted in personal intimacy with the source of life, it will be possible to remain flexible without being relativistic, convinced without being rigid, willing to confront without being offensive, gentle and forgiving without being soft, and true witnesses without being manipulative.”

I explained the A-B Line way of thinking to this young man in my study and he caught on very quickly. He seemed to appreciate my desires to jump off that line in our considerations and conversations to focus on the sanctification and salvation of the souls here at Legacy and the lost in our immediate community. He fell in love with the concept of being guided by the Word of God and his Holy Spirit instead of outside forces such as other churches and that constantly-moving “middle of the road.”

It’s really easy to show people the flaws in the way we think and talk about church and the benefits of the alternative “C” way of doing things. It’s a piece of cake to do that in one-on-one discussions. But how do we communicate this to the entire church body? How do we get everybody to jump off the line? It’s such a radical idea, and so opposite of the way we’ve always thought and talked, I’m afraid teaching this in classrooms or preaching it on Sunday would make things worse instead of better.

Is it even possible to get an entire church body to jump off the A-B Line? How do we do it?

Peace,

Allan

Tell Them Some Stories

June 16, 2008 / Allan / 1 Comment

I’ve stolen this quote from Jim Gardner’s Father’s Day sermon out at the Woodward Park Church in Fresno. It’s from a June 9 USA Today article by Oliver Thomas.

“One of the more pernicious myths in America today is that in order to be a good father, you must provide your children with a surplus of material things. For the three-fourths of us who identify ourselves as Christian or Jewish, there’s nothing biblical about this way of thinking. To the contrary, the Bible warns against an excessive devotion to material things. Fathers must compete for their children’s attention with iPods, cell phones, cable TV, and Game Boys. As a result, fathers feel tempted to sacrifice their role as dad in order to win their children’s affection.”

Yesterday in George’s class here at Legacy we talked about sharing the stories with our children, the Deuteronomy 6 principle of passing on the faith through our stories of salvation from God. We don’t tell stories anymore because we’re watching TV or surfing the web or texting on our cell phones. Good gravy, I don’t even know if we look anybody in the eye anymore, much less tell and listen to stories. We’re all glued to our personal screens, in our own little worlds, oblivious to the bigger picture of history and the universe and the linear way we’re impacted by things that happened before we arrived on the scene and how the things we do now directly bear on what happens later.

Putting two and two together is becoming increasingly more difficult as we feed on more and more bits of unrelated information in shorter and shorter bites.

It adversely affects our way of thinking, our worldview, and our relationships.

Dads, turn off the TV. Get off the computer. Take a car trip without headphones and DVD players. Tell your kids some stories. Give them a sense of what’s happened before and how it impacts them today. Give them a sense of being connected to something much bigger than themselves, something much more important than themselves. Show them how it all fits. Tell them some stories.

The Next Two Years

June 13, 2008 / Allan / 3 Comments

In addition to naming our dreams and visions for the Legacy Church of Christ at our recent elders / ministers retreat, we were each asked to share our goals for the rest of 2008 and our goals for 2009. Most of mine reflect my overall dreams and visions. They’re specific ways, or at least time-frames, for doing what I’m convinced God is calling me/us to do.

The goals are up on the wall in my study as daily reminders of what I’ve pledged to do. And, again, in an effort maybe to encourage or inspire you—and at the least to help in holding me accountable—here they are:

Goals for the rest of 2008—

To explore as a church family the multi-faceted aspects of communion and the Lord’s Supper

To make communion time the highlight and climax of our Sunday morning assemblies

to work harder to foster more relationship and trust between the elders and me

make more hospital visits and send more cards and letters to Legacy members

use more examples and illustrations in my sermons from what God is doing with our people at Legacy

plan a 24 Hours of Prayer event this summer in conjunction with the opening of our new worship center

plan a Friends Day in the fall

Goals for 2009—

plan a four-day gospel meeting at Legacy, for our community, themed around the power of the resurrection; I’d like to call it a Resurrection Revival or something like that

full integration of our Spanish-speaking and deaf brothers and sisters into our Sunday morning assemblies

plan a Tarrant County unity event—some kind of singing and/or worship assembly—for all our Christian brothers and sisters in the area

Please join me in praying about these things as God works in and through me and us together to reconcile the world back to him.

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

The temporary plywood wall that’s been separating the west side of our concourse from the new worship center construction has been taken down. You can see the brand new doors leading into the worship center now from almost anywhere on this side of Pod B.

And they’ve begun painting the inside of the worship center now.

Will it be late July or early August?

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

Speaking of painting, yesterday marked the annual Legacy Youth Group Messy Games Day. Disgusting. Much more messy than last year. Much more food and food products involved. Egg-tosses. Wrestling in jello for whipped-cream covered watermelons. Human ice-cream sundaes. Yuck. I only got close enough to take pictures but still wound up with caramel and strawberry syrup on my shoes and pants.

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

We’re studying the fourth and final Servant Song in Isaiah this Sunday, Isaiah 52:13-53:12. The cross-event is unrepeatable. But cross-bearing is not!

Peace,

Allan

Strength From The Lord

June 12, 2008 / Allan / 5 Comments

“It is always upon human weakness and humiliation, not human strength and confidence, that God chooses to build his Kingdom; and that he can use us not merely in spite of our ordinariness and helplessness and disqualifying infirmities, but precisely because of them.”
~James Stewart, the Scottish preacher, not the actor

If we were to meet the apostle Paul today in a church building or at the post office or grocery store, I think we’d notice him. And I think we’d stare. Not just because he’d be wearing a robe and sandals and speaking Greek. I think we’d not be able to help staring at all his scars. All his bruises. Some of his many wounds would be red and swollen. I imagine he’d be limping. I see Paul as a crooked man, bent over and almost deformed in some places due to many broken bones that healed improperly. And I think we’d notice all those things right off the bat.

But I think we’d also immediately recognize his fire. His passion. His determination. Even his cheer. I think we’d be looking at a man broken in body, but not in spirit.

And the deal with Paul is that he rarely talks about his scars and bruises and broken bones. When he does discuss everything he’s been through, it’s because he’s being forced. And it’s never in an effort to gain sympathy. It’s never to brag on himself and his own abilities to persevere and overcome. It’s always to brag on God. We admire Paul, not because of his suffering, but because of his response to the suffering.

Paul sees his trials from the divine perspective of his God. Paul tells the church in Corinth (2 Corinthians 1:8-11) that his sufferings and persecutions aren’t unpleasant interruptions. They’re not distractions that mess up his life. They’re not unfair intrusions. Paul sees the pressure and the crises as gifts from God to show us, to teach us, to rely on the Father and not on ourselves. Through his pains Paul sees clearly that God has delivered us, God is delivering us, and God will deliver us (v.10).

In 1 Samuel 30, David finds himself in the middle of a horrible crisis. He and his men have returned to thier village in Ziklag only to find that all of their homes have been burned to the ground and all the wives and children of the town have been stolen away. David has no wife, no children, no home, no village, no land, no possessions, no wealth, no security, and no friends. In fact his friends, his own loyal men, are blaming him for the situation and are talking about killing him. In a matter of just a couple of days David’s world was turned completely upside down in a horrible way.

And in the middle of all this, Scripture says “but David found strength in the Lord his God” (30:6).

That’s where Paul finds strength, too. In the Lord his God.

And if we saw Paul today we’d admire him for his great strength in trials. We’d applaud his fierce determination through persecution. We’d praise his perseverance in suffering. And Paul would say, “No! No! No! You don’t get it! I’m not strong! I don’t have any strength! All I have are weaknesses and flaws and shortcomings! I’m not strong!”

“The one who pours his strength into me,” Paul would say, “he is strong. The one who overcomes my weaknesses, he is strong. The one who delivers me through my crises and uses the pressure to make me into the person he wants me to be, he is strong. I find my strength in the Lord my God.”

Don’t hide your weaknesses. Boast in them because that’s where God displays his strength.

Don’t shrink from the crisis. Boast in it because that’s where God does his best work.

Don’t despair under the pressure. Boast in it because that’s where God delivers.

In all your humiliations, struggles, battles, weaknesses, inadequacies, helplessness, and sickness, realize those are the things that make you effective. The Lord your God says those are actually the things that make you great. Because it’s in those things that God gives you his strength.

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

It’s official! The Legacy Church of Christ is now the sponsoring congregation for Cory & Emily Mullins, missionaries to Australia, and David and Olivia Nelson, missionaries to Eastern Europe. The Mullins and Nelsons will move to our area, place their membership with our church family, and work with us through the summer before they begin their six-year foreign missions commitments in the fall.

As their new home church, we’re providing their housing during this interim three or four month summer period. We already have the two houses. But we need furniture and other household goods. If you can donate or lend any beds, chairs, tables—any kind of furniture—we need it. Lent items will be returned in the fall while donated items will go to Legacy Give Away Day.

It’s exciting to partner with two missionary families in this way. By the time they leave for their destinations in the fall, they’ll belong to us. We’ll be sending out four of our own. I think we’ll take much more ownership and pride and feel much more responsibility and connection to the foreign missions work of our congregation when we already know and love the people we send.

Cory and Emily Mullins will be moving here in the middle of next week. David and Olivia Nelson will be here at the end of June. Please keep those two young couples in your prayers over the coming days and weeks.

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

Michael Young’s team record 23-game hitting streak ended last night with an 0-5 with a walk and a run scored. But David Murphy hit a grand slam in a seven-run seventh inning for the Rangers to help Texas come from down 5-1 again to beat the Royals. This puts the Rangers over .500 for the third time this season and pulls them to within two games of Oakland for second place in the West.

But while the Rangers are first in the Majors in runs scored, at just over 5-1/2 runs per game, and team batting average (.286) they’re dead last in the most important fundamental areas of the game. Texas gives up more runs than any other team in baseball. They’ve committed more errors than any other team. And no group of starting pitchers in baseball have issued more walks or compiled a higher ERA than those in Arlington.

They can get away with some of those mistakes and shortcomings in Kansas City. But certainly not in California or New York or Boston or Detroit or Tampa Bay.

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

I’ll get to those goals for 2008 and 2009 tomorrow.

Peace,

Allan

Dreamers Dream Dreams

June 11, 2008 / Allan / 0 Comments

We were asked a couple of months ago, in preparation for the elders/ministers retreat at Glen Rose, to write down our dreams for the Legacy Church of Christ. There were no time frames attached to the request. They could be dreams we have for the congregation in the coming months or visions of what we’d hope to see 20 years from now.

Toward the end of our time together, we shared those dreams with each other. We listened as everyone poured out their hearts and wishes and passions and hopes for the Legacy body. We prayed together that our God would use us for his purposes, to minister to his people in his Kingdom, as he wishes.

I was inspired by the commonality in our individual visions.

Of course, the details differed and the emphasis changed from person to person as we went around the room. One elder would speak of increased membership and a bigger staff. Another would bring up an idea to enhance outreach to the hispanic community or the Lifeline Chaplaincy program or our marriages and kids. Someone wants us to establish a local “Made In The Streets” program here in our area like the one Charles Coulston runs in Kenya. One spoke passionately about handing the “nuts and bolts of running the plant” over to the deacons to allow the elders to focus solely on the Scriptural teaching and praying roles for which they signed up. A couple of elders even tied their dreams to Legacy Small Groups Church and increased participation there.

And while different men and different personalities shared many different things, the overarching themes all connected. Each and all of the Legacy elders and ministers are determined that we become a “city on a hill,” a true force for God in our North Tarrant County communities. All of us want to be more mission-minded and mission-active, reaching out to heal both body and soul here locally and around the world. We’re all committed to faithful marriages and families in our congregation, spiritual growth in our individual and congregational relationships with Christ Jesus, and in more selfless service to one another.

I was never more proud to belong to Legacy than I was that day in Glen Rose.

Naturally, we acknowledged that it was one thing to sit around a big conference table and talk about these ideas and ideals and quite another to actually implement them in practical ways in our Body life. But we vowed to try. And we promised to hold each other accountable to the things we had discussed.

I came back and posted my own dreams and visions for Legacy on the wall above my desk in my study. I want to be continually reminded of my goals and the things I want to equip and inspire our brothers and sisters to be and do.

So, as I look at them and read them on my wall every single day, I think maybe you could be encouraged or inspired by seeing them, too. At the very least, it’ll help you keep me accountable to the things I feel our God is calling me to do and the ways he’s calling me to lead. I’ll my specific goals for the rest of 2008 and my goals for 2009 with you tomorrow.

Here they are, my big-picture dreams for the Legacy Church of Christ:

~to adopt the Ezekiel 34 vision as a motivation for everything we do in the name of God; to search for the lost, to bind up the injured, and to strengthen the weak.

~to be the leader within the Churches of Christ in the Kingdom of God; to provide leadership, ministry, and spiritual formation direction for other churches; that we would do things in a way that would inspire other Christians and other churches; that others outside our immediate fellowship would follow us as we follow Christ.

~100% Small Groups participation; that we would all serve and grow and minister and evangelize, with each other in each other’s homes, therefore becoming more like Christ.

~become a body that reflects the message of the Gospel by uniting and bringing together those from all color, economic, social, career, and ethnic backgrounds; that our Spanish-speakers and our deaf members would be integrated, not separated.

~flex our autonomy; be truly non-denominational; be guided by Christ Jesus and his Word, not outside forces.

~be a center for Christian unity events such as worship assemblies and lectureships and seminars for our brotherhood and beyond.

There they are. Keep me honest.

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

Happy Birthday today to my little sister, Sharon. Smash your sandwich, miss an important turn in downtown Dallas, and have an asthma attack to help her celebrate. I love you, Shassher!

Peace,

Allan

Author: Allan (Page 451 of 493)

Passionate Prayer

Jumping Off The Line: Part Two

Tell Them Some Stories

The Next Two Years

Strength From The Lord

Dreamers Dream Dreams

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Categories

Archives

Allan's Links