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Category: Discipleship (Page 1 of 30)

Micah 6: You and Me

November 7, 2025 / / 3 Comments

“He has showed you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” ~Micah 6:8

The three things in Micah 6 are not new. This isn’t a revelation to God’s people in the 7th century BC and it’s not new information for you and me this week. This has always been at the heart of God’s covenant with his people: Treat everybody the way I’ve treated you.

 

So, how has God treated you?

Allow me to remind you.

When it comes to your shortcomings and failures, when it comes to your rebellion and transgressions against God and neighbor, when it comes to your sin, our Lord Jesus looked at the Father and said, “Put that on my account.”

While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. While we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to the Father through the death of Jesus. God has brought you life-changing justice and he has shown you amazing mercy. Not because you are so good or because you are somehow chosen or special–this is the way he is with everybody! And his number one priority is that you and I would act the same way, that bringing justice and showing mercy would be your top priority and my top priority.

Because then people would see him in us. People would experience God in us if our priorities and God’s priorities were the same.

Jesus showed people God. He invited people to follow him, to walk with him along the way. He ate with people he wasn’t supposed to eat with. He hugged people he wasn’t supposed to touch. He forgave people who were unforgivable. And they saw God.

You know how to do that. You know how to forgive someone who’s done you wrong. You know how to just sit with someone and be present. You know how to pray for somebody who wants to see you hurt. You know, because you’ve done that with your daughter. You’ve done all that with your son. You move heaven and earth to practice justice and mercy and love for your children and it doesn’t matter where they are or what they’ve done. It’s beautiful.

Jesus says, “That’s where I am.” The hungry and thirsty, the foreigner, the naked and sick, the people in prison; people who’ve done wrong, people who’ve messed up, people who can’t take care of themselves.

I can’t solve all the issues being created by the government shutdown. I can’t fix crime or cancer. I can’t solve unemployment or racism or poverty or addiction. I can’t fix that. You can’t figure any of that. We don’t have the solutions.

But I can have breakfast with a guy whose wife is dying. I can treat a lonely person like she really belongs. I can forgive someone who will never tell me they’re sorry. I can pray with someone who hasn’t been to church in years. I can stand with somebody when it might be easier to take the other side.

Isn’t that what you want to do with your life? What else would you want to do? Don’t you want to be that guy? Don’t you want to be that woman?

On that day of glory, when you get to heaven, the Father will look you right in the eye and smile and say, “Well done.” For what? Well done? Why would the Father say “Well done?”

Well done for going to the right church and worshiping correctly a couple of times a month?

No.

Well done for acting justly, for loving mercy, and for walking humbly with me.

Peace,
Allan

Micah 6: Three Things

November 4, 2025 / / 0 Comments

The St. Louis / Arizona Cardinals have played a total of 14 road games on Monday Night Football. The franchise is 4-10 all time in those games. All four wins have come against the Cowboys. The Cardinals always beat the Cowboys on Monday night. Even in Jerry Maguire, the Cardinals beat the Cowboys on Monday Night Football. Meanwhile, the Cowboys are the first team in NFL history to average more than 30 points per game in the first nine games of a season and still get outscored. I don’t think a Jets tackle and a 29-year-old Bengals linebacker are going to help this historically bad defense.

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“He has showed you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” ~Micah 6:8

 

I wrote about the context of this well-known passage in yesterday’s post. God has formally announced that Israel has broken the covenant by not taking care of their neighbors. By ignoring the poor. By exploiting the outsiders. By getting rich off the misfortunes of others. And Israel reacts by asking questions about their worship. Maybe we’re not sacrificing the right animals in the right ways. Maybe we need to worship more. Or better. And the Lord answers by reminding his people that none of that has ever mattered to him. What matters are these three things:

Act Justly – If you’re a covenant partner with God, you have to take care of everybody in the community. That’s justice. Helping the poor, protecting the immigrants, taking in the orphans, feeding the widows, speaking up for all the people whose voices don’t get heard, taking care of all the people in society who can’t take care of themselves–just like God takes care of me when I am completely unable to take care of myself.

Love Mercy – The definition of mercy is not getting what you really deserve or not giving to someone what they truly deserve. And we do love mercy. When it’s shown to us. But God tells us to love mercy for everybody. Don’t just act in a merciful way from time to time, love mercy consistently. Love mercy as a strategy, as a way of living, as a way of being and doing. Love mercy not only when it’s shown to you, but as you show it to others. Love mercy as your second-nature response, as your Holy Spirit instinct. Love it as a quality of God’s character he is forming in you.

Walk Humbly with Your God – Don’t carelessly or presumptiously do things your own way. Pay attention to God’s will. Put your will in a secondary position to his. Know your place next to God and walk with him–not against him, not in front of him–walk with God’s vision, walk with God’s character, walk with God’s priorities. God has brought you life-changing justice and has shown you amazing mercy because that’s how he treats everybody. Now, you walk with him and join him in doing those same things with everybody where you live.

Act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.

Peace,
Allan

Micah 6: Context

November 3, 2025 / / 0 Comments

 

“He has showed you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” ~Micah 6:8

 

I’m going to spend this week posting here about Micah 6:6-8. It’s a core Scripture, a foundational passage that reveals the heart of our God and transforms us for an abundant life in Christ. We know it, we quote it, we memorize it, and we wear it on T-shirts–it’s an important couple of verses. But how deep have we really gone with these holy words?

Let’s go.

Micah is prophesying sometime around the turn of the 7th century BC, and God’s people at this time are very well off. They’re wealthy. Rich. Powerful. And their lifestyle reflected it. What they thought about, what they talked about, and how they behaved was connected to their wealth. You see the evidence throughout Micah. God’s people are eaten up with buying more land, building bigger houses, taking longer vacations, and putting more money in the bank. The next-door-neighbor doesn’t matter. The needy family down the street isn’t important. What matters to God’s people in Micah is selling as much of my product as I can and getting as much for it as I can, even if it means hiding behind some fine print or not telling the whole truth about every detail or every transaction. Doing whatever it takes to keep up with the Bar-Joneses. Or to get ahead.

This attitude, this way of life, started at the top with Israel’s leaders and worked its way down through all the people. Micah is full of the accusations. The judges are taking bribes. The priests are only teaching what the people are paying them to teach. The prophets are only preaching what they’re told to preach, mainly that everything’s great. Everything’s good. The way we’re living, the things we’re doing–everything’s fine.

“If a liar and deceiver comes and says, ‘I will prophesy for you plenty of wine and beer,’ he would be just the prophet for this people!” ~Micah 2:11

In other words, if every time you came to church the preacher said, ‘What we need is more beef fajitas and more Blue Bell ice-cream,” you would love it!

“Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price, and her prophets tell fortunes for money. Yet they lean upon the Lord and say, ‘Is not the Lord among us? No disaster will come upon us.'” ~Micah 3:11

We’re thinking only of ourselves, we’re getting richer and more comfortable while parts of the city are suffering more and more, there are poor people and sick people everywhere we look, but we’re great. Everything’s good.

And the Lord finally says, “Enough!”

“Stand up, plead your case before the mountains; let the hills hear what you have to say. Hear, O mountains, the Lord’s accusation; listen, you everlasting foundations of the earth. For the Lord has a case against his people; he is lodging a charge against Israel.” ~Micah 6:1-2

This is a court case being described here. It’s a jury trial. God is the plaintiff bringing the case against Israel. Micah is the bailiff formally announcing the criminal charges. The mountains and hills are the witnesses–they’ve seen everything–and they’re being called to testify. The covenant has been broken. Next comes the voice of God:

“My people, what have I done to you? How have I burdened you? Answer me. I brought you up out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery. I sent Moses to lead you, also Aaron and Miriam. My people, remember what Balak king of Moab counseled and what Balaam son of Beor answered. Remember your journey from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the righteous acts of the Lord.” ~Micah 6:3-5

God says, What have I done to deserve this? I rescued you from slavery. I’ve blessed you with great leaders. I protected you from evil kings. I brought you over the Jordan River and gave you all this land. Remember?

Now, I’m not sure if the next two verses are the people responding to God, or if it’s Micah quoting what the people have said in the past, or if Micah’s assuming this is what the people will say in response to God. Here it is:

“With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God?” ~Micah 6:6

God’s not happy with us? God says we’re breaking the covenant? He says we’re going to be punished (although I really can’t see that happening because we are his chosen people, after all). God’s reminding us again of all the things he’s done for us? So, how do we make God happy? How do we please God? What’s he looking for out of us?

“Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sins of my soul?” ~Micah 6:6-7

If God’s upset with us, we must not be doing worship correctly. We should be more careful with the sacrifices. We should go to church more. We should maybe offer an extra calf or two. We should probably consider Wednesday nights.

When you see a puddle of oil on the driveway under your car, it shouldn’t cause you to change the air freshener hanging on the rear view mirror. If your son is failing all his classes at college, you shouldn’t yell at him for not knowing the words to the school fight song. There’s an old saying about the futility of re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. The silliness of that. The absurdity of completely misreading the whole situation. Jesus calls it straining a gnat while swallowing a camel. And God shuts it down. The Lord, through his prophet Micah says, No, you don’t get it! It’s simple! Look, we’ve been over this for centuries!

“He has showed you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” 

Yeah, but where’s the list of things we’re not supposed to do? 

No. Three things. Right here. Act justly, love mercy, walk humbly with God.

But where’s the stuff on how we’re supposed to worship?

No. Three things. Here they are. Act justly, love mercy, walk humbly with God.

Our God has always communicated very clearly since Day One what he wants from us. This has been the deal since the very beginning. These are the things that matter to God. This is the top priority. Three basic foundational things. Act justly, love mercy, walk humbly with God.

Peace,

Allan

The Most Courageous Thing

June 18, 2025 / / 0 Comments

A good friend of mine at our church sent me a powerfully encouraging email this week related to last Sunday’s sermon. The sermon was about identity and belonging from the first part of Galatians 3. Our identity, like our salvation, is to be found in Christ alone. We struggle with this. We build our identities based on where we came from or where we live or how we vote or the size of our houses or the work we do. It’s even possible–easily–for a preacher to construct his identity around being a preacher.

The note from this friend very generously reminded me that I am doing what God created me to do: to inspire and encourage my brothers and sisters to give themselves fully to God in Christ. It was very nice. And timely. I get these kind cards and emails every now and then, and they always feel like they come directly from God. I’m so thankful to God for these Spirit-inspired encouragements. This time, the message came with a long quote from Richard Rohr, the author of several books on spiritual living.

I’m sharing the quote here in its entirety, but I want to emphasize the dynamic center of the whole thing: “The most courageous thing you will ever do is accept that you are just yourself.”

Great people do not need to concoct an identity for themselves; they merely try to discover, uncover, and enjoy the identity they already have. As Francis said to us right before he died in 1226, ‘I have done what was mine to do. Now you must do what is yours to do.’ Yet to just be yourself, who you really are, warts and all, feels like too little, a disappointment, a step backward into ordinariness.

It sounds much more exciting to pretend I am St. Francis than accepting that I am Richard and that that is all God expects me to be–and everything that God expects me to be. My destiny and his desire are already written in my genes, my upbringing, and my natural gifts. It is probably the most courageous thing you will ever do to accept that you are just yourself. It will take perfect faith, the blind ‘yes’ of Mary, because it is the ongoing and same incarnation. Just like the Word of God descending into one little whimpering child, in one small stable, in one moment, in one unimportant country, noticed by nobody. We call it the scandal of particularity. This, here, now, me always feels too small and specific to be a dwelling place for God! How could I be taken this seriously?”

I don’t know how you’re messing up your identity, where exactly you are misplacing the center of who you are, to whom you belong, and your ultimate purpose. But you might try the more courageous thing of leaning into who God created you to be and where he has placed you.

Peace,

Allan

Did Jesus Really Say?

February 26, 2025 / / 0 Comments

Before the main topic of this post, I want to set a pin here to acknowledge Luka Doncic’s first game as a Laker against the Dallas Mavericks last night and lament one more time the indescribably horrible trade that sent the NBA’s most exciting player to L.A. Luka exchanged ear-to-ear grins and extravagant handshakes and hugs with his former Dallas teammates in the moments before the tip and directed at least a couple of hard glares toward the visitors’ bench after hitting a big three and an impossible reverse layup. Luka wound up with a triple-double, of course (19 pts, 15 rbs, 12 assists), and said after the game “I didn’t play great.”

And he’s right. It was a very average game for Luka. Which only emphasizes how truly great he is. Triple-doubles are a given for Luka, the ho-hum result of a merely pedestrian performance.

The most regrettable part of this whole thing is the unforgivable incompetence or inept apathy or both that led to probably the worst trade in professional sports history. It was revealed again last night that Luka never had any intention of leaving Dallas and was completely blown away by the trade. It was obvious last night that he is still in shock, he’s still in a daze. He’s still sad about it.

When asked by reporters last night if the win over the Mavericks can provide some closure for him so he can move on with his career and his life, Luka answered, “No, not really. Closure is going to take a while. This is not ideal. There are lots of emotions. But I’m just taking it little by little. Every day is a little better.”

Luka was 19 when the Mavs drafted him. He just turned 26. In the words of Kyrie Irving, he’s just an innocent kid, a mega-talented innocent kid who is not an American. He’s not from this culture, he’s not grown up with an understanding of these expectations. Sometimes he responded to things that came at him in ways that felt awkward or weird. But that’s on NIco and Kidd and the Mavs. It’s almost like they didn’t try at all. The spin they’re putting out about Luka’s lack of conditioning is a cop-out. Some of it may be true, but you don’t trade a generational talent because he likes an occasional cheeseburger. It’s not like Luka hasn’t made All-NBA five times, had an MVP season last year, and led Dallas to the NBA Finals.

He’s still just a kid. His best years are still ahead of him. This would be like trading Dirk Nowitzki after his sixth year, only worse, because Luka is galaxies ahead of where Dirk was at this stage.

I’ll agree with Dirk who says, “I’ll never be a Lakers fan; but I’ll always be a Luka fan.”

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Sometimes I post things here that I had intended to preach on Sunday, but didn’t because of time–things that wound up on the cutting room floor. Here’s a paragraph or two from our sermon Sunday about Peter’s betrayal of Jesus.

In the Garden of Gethsemane on that last night, Peter drew his sword to protect Jesus from the crowd of guards and soldiers who had come to arrest him. Peter struck one of the officials, cutting off his ear. Peter was going for the kill. He wasn’t aiming at Malchus’ ear. He’s not Mike Tyson. He was going for the guy’s throat, he was trying to cut off his head. But Malchus ducked and Peter cut off his ear. And Jesus said, “No. Put your sword away. Violence doesn’t fix anything; it only leads to more violence. If my Kingdom were of this world, then we’d fight. I’d call down twelve thousand angels and we’d wipe these guys out. But we don’t fight. We never use violence. I’m showing you a different way.”

I preached that. I left this next part out because of time. Here it is, directly from my manuscript.

Here’s a sidebar: It’s interesting to me how we’ll argue and debate and get red in the face about the literal details of creation and the literal details of the ark and the flood and we’ll insist on the literal facts about Jonah and the fish and we’ll parse and dissect every syllable of the Greek words in Paul’s letters, but we’re very quick to dismiss the literal words of our Lord Jesus. Jesus gives very direct commands about violence or money or refugees or forgiveness, and we’re like, “He didn’t really mean that literally.” When we do that, we sound just like the devil. “Did Jesus really say…?” We’ll twist Jesus’ words so he doesn’t really mean half of what he says. That’s another sermon. For another day. Probably a guest speaker.

I should have said it. I’m sorry I didn’t. I cut it because the sermon was running long and I didn’t want to distract from or take away from the main points of the lesson. I called it a sidebar when I wrote it, but it started to feel more like a rabbit trail on Friday and Saturday night. So I cut it. I should have said it.

Peace,

Allan

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