Category: 1 Thessalonians (Page 6 of 8)

Life Together

January 7, 2013 / Allan / 1 Comment

For most of us, if not every single one of us, we live in a “Christian-friendly” place. In most of our towns and cities, there is some kind of a Christian gathering or activity happening somewhere every day and night of the week. There is some kind of Christian work or service being done in the name of Jesus somewhere in our cities every day. There are Christian churches on every corner. You can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a dozen Christians. The people you work with, your neighbors, your waiter, the lady in front of you at the post office — they’re all Christians. Or, at least, most of them would claim to be Christian. Now, without getting into the specifics of their connections to Christ or their discipleship to Jesus, the truth is that most of us can go for days at a time and never see anybody or talk to anybody who wouldn’t say they’re a Christian.

And I wonder if we take that for granted.

Because, I promise you, the apostle Paul and John and Peter and Luke and the other early disciples of Jesus could never have imagined in their wildest dreams a world in which most people claim to be Christian. That concept of open and public worship and devotion to Jesus and open fellowship with a huge community of believers would have been unthinkable. Our group of 750 that meets together at Central on Sunday mornings and all the things we do together and all the ways we come together would have blown those first century Christians out of the water! Our meetings together and our fellowship with one another is so… matter-of-fact. So ordinary. So expected.

The very first Christians could never relate to what we enjoy on a regular basis. To those great men and women of the faith, the physical presence of other Christians — being in the same room with a bunch of other disciples! — was not normal. It was, instead, an uncommon source of great joy and strength.

Paul’s in prison and he calls Timothy to come to him in the last days of his life. He remembers Timothy’s tears when they departed and he longs to see his beloved son in the faith “that I may be filled with joy” (2 Timothy 1:4). He writes to his brothers and sisters in Thessalonica: “Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again” (1 Thessalonians 3:10). The great apostle John, in his second letter writes to his brothers and sisters in Asia: “I have much to write to you, but I do not want to use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to visit you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete” (2 John 12).

There were times in their lives when these great men of God did not have the physical, visible fellowship with other believers that we enjoy on a daily, sometimes hourly, basis. And they longed for it. They treasured it. They cherished it. They looked forward to it and savored it with great delight.

Good or bad, I don’t think we can relate.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote about Christian fellowship in his wonderful little book, Life Together. When he wrote this in 1938, he was running an illegal underground seminary in Nazi Germany. This was five years before he was arrested by Hitler’s Gestapo police, seven years before he was executed by special order of Heinrich Himmler:

“What is an unspeakable gift of God for the lonely individual is easily disregarded and trodden under foot by those who have the gift every day. It is easily forgotten that the fellowship of Christian brethren is a gift of grace, a gift of the Kingdom of God that any day may be taken from us. Therefore, let him who has the privilege of living a common Christian life with other Christians praise God’s grace from the bottom of his heart. Let him thank God on his knees and declare: It is grace, nothing but grace, that we are allowed to live in community with Christian brethren.”

Our Christian friendships should be treasured, never assumed. Our time together should be cherished, never avoided. Opportunities to be together should be seized, never scorned.

May we rededicate ourselves from this day forward to living more closely together in Christian community. May we place the proper perspective and value on the time we get to spend together in the holy presence of our loving and saving Father. And may we better understand how our life together not only serves to transform all of us more into the image of Christ, but serves to redeem this broken world in the name and manner of Jesus.

Peace,

Allan

Meaning To Do Them Good

September 17, 2011 / Allan / 3 Comments

In less than 24 hours I’ll be preaching to and with my new church family. There will be a dozen people in our worship center who’ve heard me preach more than 200 sermons in person. These dear friends from Legacy know me. They love me and they know my deep love for them. But the overwhelming majority of the listeners tomorrow will be hearing me for the very first time.

And they need to know that I love our Lord. And I love them.

John Newton wrote that his congregation would take almost anything from him, however painful, because they knew “I mean to do them good.”

That is the litmus test for my preaching ministry. That’s my centering point for everything I do. Intending to always do them good means my sermon preparation is a more sacred endeavor than just satisfying my own personal love of study. It means my preaching will have characteristics that are maybe difficult to define but still sensed by my hearers that reflect what Paul meant when he talked about preaching and pastoring:

“We do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.” ~2 Corinthians 4:5

“We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the Gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us.” ~1 Thessalonians 2:8

“I will very gladly spend for you everything I have and expend myself as well.” ~2 Corinthians 12:15

I have been receiving more phone calls and emails and text messages since yesterday from our brand new friends here at Central wishing me well, showering me with love and encouragement, and expressing their excitement. I received a voice mail this morning from a dear sister here who said, among other things, “We already love you and your family; you can’t do a single thing to make us love you more.”

They need to know I love them, too. God help me; I mean to do them good.

Peace,

Allan

Community Grace

June 24, 2010 / Allan / 3 Comments

I learned a lot in Kharkov, Ukraine. I learned that I can survive on Diet Coke when there’s no Diet Dr Pepper. I learned that I am the richest man most of the people I met will ever know in their lives. I learned that chicken-flavored potato chips are nasty, that the potholes out here on Cardinal Lane are nothing, and that no matter how many people are watching and cheering, soccer is still really boring. But this is perhaps the greatest lesson learned: We should never take for granted the great blessing we enjoy to be disciples of Jesus living with and among other disciples of Jesus.

Most Christians outside America know nothing first-hand about that experience. They live in isolation with family members who do not follow our Christ or in communities where the Son of God is not recognized, or worse, where followers of Jesus are persecuted for their beliefs and practices.

The physical presence of other Christians is a source of great joy and strength to a believer.

The imprisoned apostle Paul calls Timothy to come to him in the last days of his life. He remembers Timothy’s tears when they departed and longs to see his beloved son in the faith “that I may be filled with joy.” Remembering the saints in Thessalonica, Paul writes, “night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again.” John knows his joy will not be full until he can come to his own people and speak face to face with them instead of writing to them with ink “so that our joy may be complete.”

At times in their lives these great men of God did not have the fellowship with other believers that we enjoy daily, sometimes hourly. They longed for it. They relished it. They looked forward to it. And they savored it with great delight. Fellowship was everything. It’s what got them through.

We don’t value it nearly as much in this country because we can have it anytime we want. It’s always available to us. We don’t understand the importance of this fellowship with other followers. If we did, we’d have just as many people in our buildings on Wednesday evenings as we do on Sunday mornings. That’s the way it is in Kharkov. It’s unthinkable over there to miss a worship assembly. Or a birthday party in the park. Or a small group meeting. Or a prayer gathering. David and Olivia can announce a special meeting or assembly the day before it happens and every member of their core Christian community will be there. They don’t dare miss it. They need it.

I’m not trying to make anyone feel guilty. I want us all to understand the value of the gifts of fellowship in our Christian communities. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote this about Christian fellowship in his classic work on the community of faith, Life Together:

“What is an unspeakable gift of God for the lonely individual is easily disregarded and trodden under foot by those who have the gift everyday. It is easily forgotten that the fellowship of Christian brethren is a gift of grace, a gift of the Kingdom of God that any day may be taken away from us. Therefore, let him who has the privilege of living a common Christian life with other Christians praise God’s grace from the bottom of his heart. Let him thank God on his knees and declare: It is grace, nothing but grace, that we are allowed to live in community with Christian brethren.”

We live together in and through Christ Jesus. The fellowship we share together is only in and through our Lord and Savior. Christian friendships should be treasured, never assumed. Time together should be cherished, never avoided. Opportunities to be together should be seized, never scorned.

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Olivia has updated the Nelsons’ blog with a ton of pictures from our trip and lots of very, very nice things to say about us and Legacy and the work God is doing in Kharkov. Click here to read their latest post.

Go Frogs!

Allan

The Gospel AND Our Lives

June 4, 2008 / Allan / 2 Comments

“We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the Gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us.” ~1 Thessalonians 1:8

We spent a few moments yesterday in our monthly meeting of the Waco Alliance continuing a weeks-long discussion of how, as preachers, we should strive to be transparent to our congregations. It’s a position I’ve taken since I entered the ministry.

No holding back. Hiding nothing. Sharing with my church family all my best and worst. My greatest moments and my most awful. My great faith and my serious doubts. The things I know and the things about which I know nothing. What you see is what you get. Warts and all.

When friends of mine who were on the preacher search committee here or any one of our elders have mentioned to me that’s one of the reasons they hired me—“You’re so open!”— I always counter with, “And it’ll wind up being one of the reasons you fire me.”

Paul’s words to the congregation in Thessalonica reveal his love for the brothers and sisters. Yes, he shared the Gospel of Salvation with them. But he had grown to love them so much he shared with them his very life. No holding back. He gave them everything he had. All of it.

Yes, we get disappointed with our churches. Sometimes the only appropriate response to the things our people do and say is, “What a knucklehead!”

But, like family, he’s my knucklehead. And I love them and I defend them and I protect them with everything I have. Like with my little sisters. I can tease them and get frustrated with them at times. But don’t you dare come in here talking bad about them or treating them improperly.

Paul’s words in this short verse reveal a lot about him. He was commited to that congregation and to those families. He didn’t preach to them because they had a nice building or he enjoyed the town or the pay was right. He wasn’t looking elsewhere. He loved them. They were his family. And he shared with them his very life.

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I’ve added a new link to the Resource page of this blog. It’s part of the one year anniversary celebration of The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys. (Next year there’s going to be a huge mattress sale at one of the shops on Davis.) This link gets you to the page on the Legacy Church website that stores the streaming audio from our ten latest sermons. The Habakkuk series is still all there. And both of the first installments from the current Servant Songs series are there. You might also notice a couple of new links to the right hand side of this blog’s home page that take you to the blogs of Jim Martin at Crestview in Waco, Terry Rush up at Memorial in Tulsa, and William Willimon.

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Terry Rush’s post from yesterday’s Morning Rush is about the progression of praise during their corporate worship at Memorial. He writes about their congregation learning to really praise God. When they assemble now on Sundays, according to Terry, they “robustly cut loose and get lost in his wonder. We do stand in awe! We do mean it when we say ‘Thank You, Lord!'”

Terry writes, “we have shifted from worshiping and wondering who is upset with ‘over that move’ to wondering if God is loving our gifts of vocal / mindful worship of him.”

He closes his post with this:

“We enter his presence…really. Was it not being done before? I can’t answer that for anyone but myself. For me? It wasn’t being done. I was too focused on who did or didn’t like what was sung, prayed, or preached. I was too interrupted by singing a song and hearing comments regarding observing this note and that chorus. It seems to me the more the church learns to voice the praises of God, whether through song or testimony, the more God unleashes his grand grace upon our gatherings.”

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I was listening to Jerry Wayne and Terrell Owens announce the receiver’s new four-year contract during a 35-minute press conference driving home from Waco yesterday afternoon. Toward the end of the session, a reporter asked Owens about new Cowboys cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones. Owens said Jones needs to turn his life around, he knows he needs to turn his life around, he understands he needs to turn his life around, and he WILL turn his life around because he’s being cared for and mentored by………..

And I just assumed Terrell was going to say Calvin Hill.

If not Calvin Hill, maybe somebody else on the Cowboys staff who helps troubled players. Maybe the team chaplain. Maybe even Drew Pearson or Everson Walls.

No.

Terrell Owens is certain that Pacman Jones is going to be fine because he’s being cared for and mentored by Deion Sanders.

And as far as I could tell from listening to the live audio, nobody in that crowded room of team officials and reporters gasped or recoiled in shock and horror or fell down laughing.

Peace,

Allan

Life Together

January 2, 2008 / Allan / 9 Comments

“How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!” ~Psalm 133:1

We should never take for granted the great blessing we enjoy to be disciples of Jesus living with and among other disciples of Jesus. Most Christians know nothing first hand about that experience. They live in isolation with family members who do not follow our Christ or in communities where the Son of God is not recognized, or worse, where followers of Jesus are persecuted for their beliefs and practices.

The physical presence of other Christians is a source of great joy and strength to the believer. The imprisoned apostle Paul calls Timothy to come to him in the last days of his life. He remembers Timothy’s tears when they departed and longs to see his beloved son in the faith “that I may be filled with joy.” Remembering the saints in Thessalonica, Paul writes, “night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again.” John knows his joy will not be full until he can come to his own people and speak face to face with them instead of writing to them with ink “so that our joy may be complete.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote this about Christian fellowship in 1934 in his classic work on the community of faith, Life Together:

“About brotherly love we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. Yet we urge you, brothers, to do so more and more.” ~1 Thessalonians 4:9-10

Peace,

Allan

Us With God

December 28, 2007 / Allan / 0 Comments

For the past couple of weeks here at Legacy we’ve taken a close look at the birth of Jesus in an effort to see God’s Incarnation, not as a complex and confusing theological abstraction but, as a way of looking at life and living life that changes our whole worldview. We’ve seen in all of the contrasts between human and divine at the stable scenes that the birth of Jesus shows us the low condition and the high potential of God’s creation. We’ve noticed in the genealogies that our God jumps right into the middle of our sin and grief to save us. By looking at all the different kinds of people in the birth stories we’ve concluded that the saving gospel of Jesus is for all. And in the vulnerable infant Jesus we’ve seen our own neediness and utter dependence on our Father God.

We’ve seen what God is doing by becoming human and living with us here on earth.

And this coming Sunday we’re wrapping up this short three-part series by identifying ways to live into the story, finding ways to jump in and join what God is doing in the Incarnation, how to embody this and live this out in our individual lives and as a church family.

Emmanuel is God with us, not God instead of us. And God with us means us with God.

In 1 Thessalonians 3, the apostle Paul uses a phrase that presents a striking way of viewing our partnership with our God. He refers to Timothy as “God’s fellow worker.” The idea of God and Timothy being co-laborers or co-workers with each other in the Kingdom—equals, if you will, in service—is such a scandalous thought that several later manuscripts of Paul’s letter change the wording to identify Timothy as Paul’s fellow worker or as God’s servant. But the earliest Greek manuscripts of the passage are crystal clear: Timothy is God’s fellow worker. It’s the same designation Paul uses in 1 Corinthians 3:9 when he describes Cephas, Apollos, and himself as “God’s fellow workers.”

That language should fill us with a tremendous sense of confidence and calling.

As God’s children we are in a partnership with him. God is a God of reconciliation. God’s work in the Christ is a work of reconciliation. And as God’s fellow workers, that’s our work, too!

Doing the work of Jesus, with Jesus, is the greatest part of being transformed into his image. We reflect his glory and are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, because of the ministry we’ve been given. Living like Jesus is not something we do to get salvation. It is our salvation! We are “being saved.” It’s a process—one that clearly sees the destination, but never at the expense of the journey. Jesus preached all the time about the Kingdom of Heaven. But all his teachings had to do with living right here, right now, with people on this earth, not in the afterlife.

Our calling as God’s children is to behave as a people who realize God made us to be his partners. Fellow workers. Co-reconcilers in the world.

Peace,

Allan

Category: 1 Thessalonians (Page 6 of 8)

Life Together

Meaning To Do Them Good

Community Grace

The Gospel AND Our Lives

Life Together

Us With God

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