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Category: Evangelism (Page 9 of 21)

Let’s Astonish the World

August 14, 2013 / / 0 Comments

What a tremendous response! What a terrific reaction to what our God revealed to us at Central this past Sunday! And, my, how it continues even now into the middle of the week! The emails and texts that began pouring in during lunchtime Sunday are still being received today in a fairly steady stream. There’s an enthusiasm over what we’ve discovered together as a church family. There’s an overwhelming resolve to jump wholeheartedly into what our God has put in front of us. There’s a continual hum, a buzz, a current of Holy Spirit energy that’s tangible in this place. It’s real. You can feel it. We’ve tapped in to something here. Maybe… God’s holy will?

Allow me to share with you in this space today the heart of the message we heard together Sunday from God’s Word. Tomorrow, my plan is to share some of the response to the message in an effort to further process what happened Sunday.

The lesson Sunday came from the last part of Jesus’ prayer in John 17, his plea for unity among all future believers. It served as the culmination of our sermon series on this powerful prayer. And it provided the theological base for our “4 Amarillo” partnership with First Baptist, First Presbyterian, and Polk Street Methodist.

My prayer, Jesus says, is that all of them may be one. May they be brought to complete unity. It’s this unity, this uncompromising love and acceptance we have for all baptized Christian believers that will prove to the world Jesus really is who he says he is and who we say he is. Our unflinching dedication to love and defend all Christians, to worship and serve with all Christians, will astonish the world.

Well, Allan, not all people who’ve been baptized, right? I mean, a lot of people are baptized in different ways than we are, and for different reasons. We can’t worship with and have fellowship with all Christians.

That’s why the church is not astonishing the world.

Christ’s prayer is for unity. Christ’s will is for complete unity among all his followers today. So, let’s go there.

If God accepts someone, I must also accept them, too, right? I can’t be a sterner judge than the perfect judge, can I? Nobody would say, “Well, I know that God accepts this woman as a full child of his, I know she’s probably saved, but she doesn’t meet all of my standards in the things she believes and the way she worships, so I’m not going to accept her.” Nobody would say that. We must fellowship everyone who has fellowship with God. We must fellowship everyone who is saved. All the saved.

So… who are the saved?

There was a time when we would say everyone who hears, believes, repents, confesses, and is baptized is saved. OK, for the sake of this discussion, let’s go with that. The next question is, “He who hears what?”

“The Gospel!”

“She who believes what?”

“The Gospel!”

“Whoever repents and confesses and is baptized by what or through what or into what?”

“The Gospel!”

Right. That means the next question is… what is the Gospel?

That Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God, that he alone is Lord, and that we are saved by faith in him. You might check out 1 Corinthians 15:1-8 or several other places in Scripture where Paul sums up the Gospel. It seems pretty clear that it’s about declaring Jesus as Lord and as the only way to the Father and submitting to his lordship in baptism and in a new way of life. We’ve never required anything else. The Church has never asked for another confession. We’ve never asked anybody their position on women’s roles or children’s worship before they’re baptized. We don’t put a teenager in the water and catalog all his views and opinions on instrumental worship before he’s saved. (Unfortunately, some of us do that about a month later.) That stuff is not Gospel. Paul says it’s nothing but Christ and him crucified.

Romans 15:7 says we are to accept one another as Christ accepted us. We are to receive others by the same standards we were received at our baptisms. You know, your acceptance by God is a gift. That fact that Christ Jesus has accepted you is pure grace. The imperative for us is to extend that same gift, to show that same grace, to all others who have received it from our Lord.

Well, what about the Christian who disagrees with me on divorce and remarriage, or on the age of the earth? What about the Christian who doesn’t see church names or the Lord’s Supper the way I do? What about our discord over steeples or shaped notes?

In Romans 14-15, the issues are eating mean versus vegetables and the observance of holy days. And Paul knows what’s right and wrong. He knows the correct answer. There is a right and wrong on these matters. But Paul says, in Christ Jesus, it doesn’t matter. You don’t believe me? Read Romans 14:1-15:7.

Now, here’s where it gets us. You ready?

Do you believe that you are perfect? Do you believe you have God’s will completely and perfectly figured out? That you are living exactly right, that you believe everything exactly right, that your worship is exactly right according to God’s plans? Do you think you know everything and do everything perfectly? No? That’s what I thought. Then what in the world saves you? What covers you in your innocent mistakes? What saves you in your accidental misunderstandings and your sincere misinterpretations? Why, it’s God’s grace, of course. His matchless grace.

Do you believe that the Churches of Christ are perfect? Do you think that the CofCs  have everything totally figured out? That we are worshiping exactly right, that our leadership structures are completely lined up with God’s intent, that we have all of God’s will entirely mapped out and expressed perfectly? No? That’s what I thought. Then what in the world saves us? What covers us in our innocent mistakes? What saves us in our accidental misunderstandings and our sincere misinterpretations? Why, God’s grace. Yes, his wonderful grace.

You think there’s any chance at all the Methodists might be doing something right according to the will of God that we’re not? You think the Presbyterians might possibly have something figured out that we don’t? What if the Baptists’ understandings of something in the Bible are richer and fuller than ours? What if another group’s practice is more in line with God’s will than ours? Is it even possible? Yes, of course. Then, what covers us in our innocent mistakes and accidental misunderstandings and sincere misinterpretations? Grace. Yeah, I know.

Now, let’s assume that we have it right on the Lord’s Supper and the Methodists have it wrong. Let’s pretend that we’re right about baptism and a plurality of elders and the Presbyterians and Baptists are wrong. Does the grace of God not cover them completely in their innocent mistakes and accidental misunderstandings and sincere misinterpretations? Are they any less saved?

But they’re wrong and we’re right!

So you get God’s grace where you lack understanding but they don’t? You get the grace of God in your misinterpretations of God’s will but they don’t? Why? Because you try harder? Because we’re more sincere? Because, somehow, we deserve it?

Whoa.

The unbelieving world looks at that and says, “No, thanks.” And I don’t blame them. A religion as visibly divided as ours does not reflect the truth. It reflects our fallen world, not the glory of our God.

Our Christian unity will have an eternal impact on our world. But the world has to see it. Our unity, which already exists as a gift from God, must be visible. It must be practiced and experienced. When it is, the world will believe.

A Methodist preacher, a Church of Christ preacher, a Baptist preacher and a Presbyterian preacher all walk in to a bar is the first line of a bad joke. The Methodist church, the Church of Christ, the Baptist and Presbyterian churches all putting aside their differences to worship and serve together for the sake of the city is a serious and everlasting testimony to the love and power of God! Our “4 Amarillo” efforts are a witness to the world that this is for real! That Christ Jesus is our King! That the world really is changing! That hearts are being melted and people are being transformed! That barriers are being destroyed and walls are coming down! That the devil has been defeated and the Kingdom of God is here!

Peace,

Allan

School Supplies “4 Amarillo”

August 8, 2013 / / 2 Comments

“…that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe… May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me.” ~John 17:20-23

We believe that it is God’s will that all his children, all disciples of his Son, be reconciled. We think God’s great desire is for all Christians to be brought together as a powerful witness to the world of his love and peace. Praise God for the ecumenical spirit of the Central Church of Christ toward our brothers and sisters in other Christian churches in our city! Thank the Lord for the willingness here — the eagerness! — to unite with other Christ-followers for the sake of our city.

Our first “4 Amarillo” effort with the other downtown churches is underway. Together with First Baptist, First Presbyterian, and Polk Street Methodist, we are collecting and delivering school supplies to four of our neighborhood elementary schools. We’re bringing the pencils and notebooks and binders to our respective worship assemblies this coming Sunday. Then we’re putting all the supplies together at Polk Street on Thursday to sort and sack them for delivery to our schools the following week. The plan is to deliver the supplies to the teachers at Bivins, Sunrise, San Jacinto, and Margaret Wills; cater breakfast for the teachers and staff; and then pray for them and with them before we leave.

This “4 Amarillo” thing we’re doing is a whole lot bigger than just boxes of Crayons and Scotch tape. This is so much more than providing Ziploc baggies and composition books for teachers to make available to the kids in our church neighborhood who can’t afford them. This is also very much about Christian evangelism. It’s about expressing the Gospel in ways that will convict our world of the power and love of God. Our partnership with these other churches is an outward expression of the eternal reality that, in Christ Jesus, we have all been perfectly united. It’s the same blood of our Savior that courses through our spiritual veins and our spiritual bodies. It’s the same Holy Spirit who indwells all those who confess Jesus as Lord. We are one in Christ.

And it’s this unity that will prove to the city of Amarillo that Jesus really is who he says he is and who we say he is. Our unflinching dedication to love and defend all our Christian brothers and sisters who claim Christ as Lord and have submitted to that lordship will astonish the world. Our cooperation together as one group of disciples for the sake of the children in Amarillo will force our world to acknowledge that Jesus really does offer something different, something this world could never accomplish on its own.

“4 Amarillo” is about our four churches breaking down the walls, putting aside the differences, to unite for the sake of our city. We believe this partnership between denominations will be a powerful witness to our city that Jesus really is the Prince of Peace, that he really does possess the will and the power to reconcile and unite.

Please join us in this first official endeavor. Join us in prayer, in collecting school supplies, in packing bags, in blessing our city for the sake of Christ, for his purposes, to his eternal glory and praise.

Peace,

Allan

The Work We’ve Been Given To Do

July 29, 2013 / / 0 Comments

“Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.” ~John 17:1

Jesus begins his very public prayer at the end of that last meal with his disciples acknowledging that the time for him to die, to glorify the Father in a selfless act of unconditional love, was at hand. The hour had come. It was here. It was time. The prayer is certainly set in and around the context of his impending death. But for a brief moment at the beginning of this prayer, Jesus allowed himself room to reflect for a moment on his brief earthly life and ministry.

“I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. I have revealed you…”

Jesus always told people if you had seen him, you had seen the Father. If you knew Jesus, you knew the Creator of Heaven and Earth. Yes, Jesus revealed God to the world. Jesus reveals God’s glory. Jesus allows us to see God. Jesus allows us to experience God. Jesus’ compassion shows us God’s compassion. Jesus’ mercy shows us God’s mercy. Jesus’ gentleness shows us God’s gentleness. Jesus’ intolerance for religious people who judge others and think they’re better than everybody else shows us God’s holy intolerance for religious arrogance and pride. Jesus’ love and forgiveness shows us God’s great love and forgiveness. Revealing God — this was a large part of the work God had given Jesus to do.

And, to borrow the powerful language from Christ’s prayer, the time has come for the Church of God to do the work God has given us to do. The time has come for us to reveal our God to the world. If we don’t, who will?

This world is full of cops and lawyers and judges and juries who accuse and prosecute and punish. The time has come for God’s people to be the ones who forgive. The world is full of writers and broadcasters and politicians who spread hate and fear in order to divide and conquer. The time has come for Christ’s followers to be the ones who spread love and hope in order to reconcile and restore. The world is full of soldiers and generals and armies and kings who take and kill in the name of country and security. The time has come for Christ’s Church to be the ones who give life, who give resources, who give of themselves, who give and give and give in the name of the One who came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

The time has come for us to complete the work we’ve been given to do, to reveal the love and grace of Almighty God to a world that does not know him. If we don’t, who will?

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I’m not playing “Taps” for the Rangers just yet. It’s not completely over. But this team is on life support. They’re barely breathing. The family’s been called in. The grandkids are gathering photos for the slide show. It’s not looking good.

The Rangers have lost four straight and nine of their past eleven games. They have been shut out — zero runs! — in three of their past four games. The Rangers haven’t scored a run in 21 straight innings. They have scored three runs or fewer in twelve of their past fifteen games and hit .177 with runners in scoring position during this same fifteen game stretch, including yesterday’s 0-3 showing in Cleveland. As of this very moment, Texas is six games back of Oakland in the AL West and fourth in the Wild Card standings. Worse than that, yesterday marked the 30th consecutive day the Rangers have not made up ground in the division. They’ve gone a full month now either staying put or losing ground to the A’s.

Yikes!

I’m still convinced that Nelson Cruz will be suspended this coming weekend, probably Friday, for the remainder of the season. So now the Rangers need at least two or three brand new bats, not just one or two. I was hopeful that the Garza signing would spark something in these guys. No, it hasn’t. And I’m afraid Ron Washington’s 45-minute closed door team meeting after yesterday’s embarrassing effort won’t do it either.

We’ll know for certain this time next Monday whether to pull the plug on this team. Texas plays the Angels in a three-game set in Arlington beginning tonight and then go head-to-head with the A’s in Oakland this coming weekend. So, come Monday, we’ll know.

It’s been three or four years since Cowboys pre-season football was more interesting than watching the Rangers.

Crud.

Allan

Savior of the World

July 18, 2013 / / 0 Comments

“We know that this man really is the Savior of the world!” ~John 4:42

After just a couple of hours with Jesus, the Samaritan woman at the well knew it. After just two days with him, the villagers of Sychar proclaimed it. The rarest of biblical titles for our King was declared unashamedly by the socially marginalized, the religious outcasts, the “sinners.”

How did they know? What did they experience that led them to this bold confession?

Jesus had purposefully put himself at great risk by going through Samaria in order to find this woman. He had crossed every barrier and cleared every obstacle; he had blown past the social and cultural walls, the political and economic hurdles, the religious and gender boundaries to reach this lonely and forgotten soul. He had refused to be bogged down in religious debate and questions of worship, instead focusing on his relationship with her. And he had exposed her great sin against God at high noon in the town square — and graciously and powerfully forgiven her.

Without partiality, without prejudice, without compromise, Jesus is the true light who goes into the darkness to rescue the whole world. The scars you’ve suffered, the fences you’ve erected, the sins you’ve committed — none of this registers as even a speed bump to the Savior of the World.

Once you realize it, how do you respond? Because you have to respond. Jesus is not going away. He sat down on the edge of the well, an unavoidable obstacle to the Samaritan woman. And to you. The woman, Scripture says dropped her jar, she left the well, and ran back into town to tell everyone about the Messiah. The town sleaze had become a Gospel preacher!

How do you respond to the Savior of the World?

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

As part of our “Gifted 2 Go” series here at Central, our oldest daughter, Whitney, and I wound up with almost twenty others at Brock’s Laundry last night, about two blocks west of our church building. Armed with $300 dollars in quarters, our task was to pay for everybody’s washers and dryers for two hours. There are 25 dryers along the back wall at Brock’s and 50 washing machines arranged in the middle. And we had all 75 of those things spinning until after 8:30 last night. We met young families and single moms, one college-aged kid and a couple of older folks. We packed and unpacked machines, folded clothes into laundry baskets and cardboard boxes, playfully fighting over the limited number of dryers and laughing loudly together as we took over Brock’s and made it the center of attention at Washington and 14th.

We met John, who I think used to have some ties to Central but refused to elaborate. We visited with Berto and his wife and held their precious seven-month-old daughter, Leah, while they switched out washers and dryers. We talked to Tiffany who admitted to hating Amarillo and wanting to move to San Antonio to be closer to an aunt. Justin and Mallory had just had the back glass and side window of their car blown out by gunfire Monday night. Miranda wouldn’t stop thanking us. Another woman there, almost in tears, told Shelly that for the first time in more than a year, she and her husband were now going to be able to do laundry and put gas in his truck during the same week. A young man named Matthew surveyed the room while his jeans and T-shirts cycled and commented to Myrl, “Y’all must have an awesome church.” To which Myrl replied, “Well, we have an awesome God!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A block away, Lon and Jeff and their crew washed almost twenty cars while Bob and his group changed oil a block south in another fifteen or twenty vehicles.

At 9:00 last night, as we were loading up the leftover sodas and water bottles in the laundromat parking lot, I turned to Shelley and said, “That sure beats a boring Wednesday night Bible class, huh?” Shelly said, “Yes, sir! Not that there’s anything wrong with our Bible classes, but THIS is what we’re supposed to be doing!”

We’re making inroads into our community. Slowly but surely, steady and purposefully, we’re meeting our neighbors and blessing them with the love and grace of our Lord. We’re seeking relationship. We’re meeting people where they are. We’re giving the cup of water, the handful of quarters, in the name of our King. And trusting him to use us to his eternal glory and praise.

Peace,

Allan

Living the Righteousness of God

May 15, 2013 / / 1 Comment

“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” ~2 Corinthians 5:21

If 2 Corinthians 5 is about Christian ministry and if the focus of Christian ministry is on the atoning death and resurrection of Jesus, then our message and our ministry are both aimed at reconciliation. Paul claims that God initiates this reconciliation. He is the author of reconciliation. He has made us righteous and brought us into holy relationship with him through his risen Son. And — here’s the really exciting part — he has given us both the message and the ministry of reconciliation. We are his ambassadors, Paul says. We are commissioned by this God of reconciliation to represent him and his Kingdom in reconciling the world back to himself.

It’s not just a message that we’re supposed to preach and teach; it’s not just a truth we’re supposed to believe and affirm; it’s not just an inspiring email we forward to all our church friends; it’s not just a fish or a cross on the back of our truck. “That in him we might become the righteousness of God” means we must embody this reconciliation. We’ve experienced it. By God’s grace we’re experiencing it every hour. And our Savior is calling us to live it, to actually become the “righteousness of God.”

That’s a whole lot different from merely accepting the righteousness as a gift.

My main problem here is that for so long I assumed that head knowledge, mere doctrinal assent, was what was required. Understanding the reason and logic behind the atonement is not the same as actually receiving the gospel and having your life radically transformed by it.

Robert W. Yarbrough calls for Christians to have a clear and active sense of what it means to be a “new creation,” living under and in the power of the righteousness of God:

“They have contented themselves with a weak doctrine of faith, a pale facsimile of Paul’s robust ‘righteousness of God’ unleashed in believers’ lives. If the word that proclaims righteousness is believed, that which arises is love and action. Where that action is lacking, there is good reason to suppose the heart still languishes in unbelief. There may be assent, there may be emotional affirmation, there may be selective obedience to gospel imperatives. There may even be impressive displays of religious activity. But when Jesus called for taking up the cross and following him, he probably had something more radical in mind than motoring to an air-conditioned sanctuary, amen-ing the show, and returning to the real life of Sunday TV and family fun after sumptuous repast at the crowded new restaurant that everyone is dying to try.”

The righteousness of God is comprehensive, all-embracing, and life-transforming. We are called to embody it. Yes, as his ambassadors, we are commissioned by God to proclaim his peace to his enemies through the death and resurrection of the Christ. But, as his ambassadors, we are called to represent our risen King and his everlasting Kingdom in our very lives. We make the first moves in reconciling with others. We take the initiative in bringing about reconciliation in our churches, in our families, and in our neighborhoods. We announce the peace, the righteousness, and then we partner with God in the difficult work of living it for the sake of others.

Peace,

Allan

Dead Religion

May 1, 2013 / / 0 Comments

 

Most people who reject Christianity are not saying “no” to God, they’re saying “no” to the God they see reflected in religious people. They’re not turning their backs on Jesus, they’re turning their backs on the Jesus reflected in a lot of his disciples today. There are many, many people in the world whose only encounter with God is going to be in an encounter with God’s children; their only exposure to Jesus is going to come in an interaction with a Jesus-follower. And a lot of the time those very encounters lead to a rejection of Christianity. When that happens, I have a hard time blaming them.

Eric Metaxas, the truly gifted author of Bonhoeffer, talked about this in his speech at last year’s National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. His claim — I feel like I’ve been preaching this for years — is that if people really, really, really knew God, there’s no way they’d say “no.” If the world knew God, and not the false ideas about God that his children keep putting out there, the world would break down our church doors and smash through our stained glass windows to get to him. They’d line up around the block!

“God is not some moral code. He is not some energy force. He is alive, he is a person. He knows everything about me. And about you. He knows my story. He knows your story. Every detail. He knows your deepest fears. He knows the terrible selfish things you have done that have hurt others. And he still loves you! And he knows the hurt that others have caused you. He knows us. He is alive. He is not a joy-killing bummer, or some moralistic ‘church lady.’ He is the most wonderful Person — capital P — imaginable! In fact, his name is Wonderful…

Now who would reject that?

Everything I had ever rejected about God was actually not God. It was just dead religion. It was phoniness; it was people who go to church and do not show the love of Jesus. It was people who know the Bible and use it as a weapon. People who don’t practice what they preach. People who are indifferent to the poor and suffering. People who use religion as a way to exclude others from their group. People who use religion as a way to judge others.

I had rejected that. But guess what? Jesus had also rejected that. He had railed against that. And he called people to real life and real faith. Jesus was and is the enemy of dead religion. He railed against the religious leaders of his day because he knew it was all just a front. That in their hearts they were far from God, his Father. When he was tempted in the desert, who was the one throwing Bible verses at him? Satan. That is the perfect picture of dead religion. Using the words of God to do the opposite of what God does. It is grotesque, when you think about it. It is demonic.” 

If people don’t know you as gracious and compassionate, if your friends don’t use words like patient and kind to describe you, if your next-door-neighbor and your insurance agent don’t think you’re abounding in love, then they may not have much of a chance of really knowing our God. If they know you’re a Christian and they also know you as judgmental, bitter, unforgiving, unkind, or untruthful, we can’t really blame them for staying home on Sunday mornings.

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The Amarillo Bulls swept the Tornado down-state in Frisco last night to advance to the Robertson Cup Finals for the third straight season. I like to think it was the Central Church staff that got the Bulls off on the right foot in the Conference Championship series opener last Thursday. Thanks to Elaine’s connections — oh, yeah, Elaine is truly connected! — we were all there from puck drop to final horn, right up on the glass, in the VIP Party Zone.

It was crazy. Tanner banging on the glass and screaming God’s love to the Tornado goalie. Hannah shouting her phone number to the referee. Gina putting her new knees to the test by dancing wildly to all the ’80s rock anthems. Greg continually threatening to take off his shirt.

Elaine had rigged it so that we were the ones competing on the ice during the intermissions for cheesy little Bulls memorabilia and prizes. Kathryn won the contest in which we had to run barefoot from one end of the ice to the other, collect our scattered shoes, and run back. Of course, being born in Arkansas was an unfair advantage for her. And I think Adam and Corbin won the water balloon toss. Or was it Mean Jean and Becca? I can’t remember. I was completely distracted by the spectacle of Adam in that terribly undersized hockey helmet.

Peace,

Allan

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