The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

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Category: Faith (Page 9 of 24)

He Climbed Into the Boat

February 23, 2016 / / 0 Comments

“Immediately he spoke to them and said, ‘Take courage! I Am! Don’t be afraid!’ Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down.” ~Mark 6:50-51

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Notice that Jesus did not rescue his disciples out of the sea. He gets into the boat with them. He tells them, “I Am God!” Look at me. See this. I am God. I am in control of all these things. Don’t be afraid. I’m right here with you. I’m in charge of everything and you belong to me. I am God. And I’m getting into the boat with you. I’m doing this with you. We’re in this together.

Jesus gives them the strength and courage to continue the journey. They press on, confident that their Lord is with them, that he has dominion over heaven and earth, and that he will carry them through.

It’s like the letters in Revelation. Jesus tells the churches, “I know what you’re going through.” He knows the work and the toil and the endurance of Ephesus. He knows the affliction and poverty of Smyrna, the faithful witness of Pergamum in the middle of Satan’s throne. He knows the patient endurance of Thyatira and the struggle of Philadelphia. He doesn’t relieve them of their struggle. But he promises to be with them. And he promises victory if they’re faithful.

We must keep rowing. The wind is against us and we sometimes get completely blown off course. But we’ve got to continue “straining at the oars.” The power to cross the sea and reach the final shore does not lie with us. That belongs to God — the One who reveals himself to his people most perfectly in his Son, the One who guarantees that victory in his Son’s life, death, and resurrection.

Peace,

Allan

Eager to Do What is Good

February 3, 2016 / / 0 Comments

ServantSongsSeriesThere are several places in the gospels where Jesus tells us to fear God. But in those same paragraphs, in that same context each time, Jesus reminds us that we are worth so much more to God than what we might think. We are worth more than the sparrows he tenderly protects. We’re worth more to him than all of nature for which he so faithfully provides. “Don’t be afraid,” Jesus says, “Your Father has been pleased to give you the Kingdom” (Luke 12:32).

We live in the grace of God, in the grace of his faithful promises. We live in his love. We’ve been given everything he has. What could possibly hold us back? How could I ever be content with just sitting on the bench? I can’t. Much is demanded of someone living in God’s grace.

“The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope — the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.” ~Titus 2:11-14

God’s grace teaches us how to live. And it’s not like everybody else. It’s different. Much more is demanded.

God’s grace does not call you to lay in front of the TV at night. The Spirit is not stirring you to take a big family vacation this summer. Christ’s love is not compelling you to spend this weekend cleaning out the garage (that’s your wife!). Now, none of those things are wrong. But please notice that we’re very quick to prioritize and rationalize our hobbies and our entertainment, but we’re very slow to embrace the high demands of life in the grace of God.

When you live in God’s matchless grace, you don’t just walk through practice and show up for the games. And you’re certainly not just sitting on the bench. God’s gifts compel you to do. God’s grace motivates you to act. To move. To give. to sacrifice. To be active and out there in the middle of it more and more and more each day, not less. You do not get into the Hebrew 11 Faith Ring of Honor by sitting on the couch. Or on your pew.

By faith Noah built an ark. By faith Abraham obeyed and went. By faith Abraham offered Isaac. By faith Moses left Egypt. By faith the people passed through the Red Sea. By faith Rahab welcomed the spies.

And don’t tell me, “Yeah, but I’m not Abraham” or “I’m not Moses.” Because you are. The heroes in the Bible are just like you. They’re exactly like you. A mess of noble intentions and horrible choices. Terribly inconsistent. A fluid cocktail of loyalty and rebellion. A patchwork quilt of ultimate highs and miserable lows. Those people in Hebrews 11 show us lots of good and lots of bad. Just like you. And me. But our God has always chosen to do his greatest work through people just like you and me.

James says Elijah was a man just like us. And he was! He was just as capable of whining and pouting as he was of boldly standing up to 450 murderous prophets of Ba’al. Same with Peter and Jacob, John and Joshua, Mary and Ruth.

When you’re gifted by God’s blessings and protected by God’s grace, it’s never about doing everything exactly right as much as it is about doing something. In God’s grace, you don’t hold back or sit out because you might mess something up or get something wrong. The key is not success. The key is faithfulness.

Peace,

Allan

The Creed & Christian Formation

January 18, 2016 / / 0 Comments

SkiTrip2016A group of ten college kids (nine from OC, 1 from ACU) showed up at our house Friday night and left with Valerie for a weekend ski trip to Angel Fire. Four of the young men grew up at the Legacy Church of Christ and were in the youth group when we were there from 2006 – 2011. Colten Pace is standing on Valerie’s right in the picture. Behind Colten and Val is Dillon Byrnes, the son of David and Shanna. We were in small group with the precious Byrnes family for three year and still count them as great friends. Hudson Enger is behind Dillon’s left shoulder and Trevor Jones is standing behind Dillon’s right shoulder. It was so great to see them now in such a different context. They’re college kids now, out on their own, growing and learning and experiencing life together in new ways. And so full of God’s joy. The other six kids — I have no idea who they are. I know a couple of them are in Delta and at least one of them is a Bible major. Good enough!

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CrossElderLinkWe’re memorizing and reciting the ancient Apostles’ Creed as a church family here at Central because we believe it can help cultivate Christian formation. We believe God is in the business of changing us. He’s making us more and more into the image of his Son. That’s what God is doing in us. So church is more like school than a show. It’s more like boot camp than a country club. We’re all in and have committed to the difficult process of being changed. And we think the Apostles’ Creed will help facilitate that. To order your life around these timeless statements about God and Christ will shape a person.

If you believe that Jesus Christ will return to judge the living and the dead, that will have an impact on how you live. Think about that. He’s coming back to judge. What a great guard against sin. What a great tool for the counsel we give each other. What a great pause that gives us as we make decisions every day between right and wrong. It’ll affect the way we live.

If you believe in the forgiveness of sins, that’ll change the way you view yourself and it’ll affect how you act toward one another. We’ve all sinned this past week. All of us. In some way you haven’t loved the Lord. You said a mean thing to your spouse or a hurtful thing to your children. You’ve been dishonest with a co-worker or a friend. Maybe it’s a little sin you just can’t shake. Or maybe you’ve done something horribly out of character this week. We’ve all betrayed our Lord in some way this week. But if you believe in the forgiveness of sins, you don’t run away from the forgiver. You run to him. If we believe in the forgiveness of sins, then our church becomes a place of forgiveness and when you betray God you run to the church, not away from it.

And you will forgive others. Has anybody sinned against you this week? Has anybody lied to you or hurt you or let you down in some way this past week? Do you believe in the forgiveness of sins? It’ll change you.

Peace,

Allan

The Creed & Biblical Identity

January 15, 2016 / / 0 Comments

CommunityPeople“The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.” Deuteronomy 6:4

This “creed” in Deuteronomy is about the corporate identity of Israel as the people of the one true and living God. This is who we are. This is in your heart. Impress this on your kids. Talk about this all the time. This is who we are.

In Corinth, the church was really struggling with their identity. “The church leader I follow is more important and more respected than the church leader you follow.” “I have more and better spiritual gifts than you do.” “I pledge my loyalty to Christ, but I don’t want to give up the prestigious civic luncheons at the pagan temple.” “Pool people can belong to our church, but the culture says they can’t eat the meal with me at my table.”

Paul answers all of that by reminding them of who they are and to whom they belong. In correcting their behavior, he reminds them of the story to which they now belong:

“I want to remind you of the Gospel I preached to you, which you have received and on which you have taken your stand. By this Gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the Word I preached to you… For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve.” ~ 1 Corinthians 15:1-5

This is who we are. Summaries of the core beliefs remind us. There’s a difference between the non-negotiables of the Christian faith and the disputable matters that aren’t that important. Likewise, the Apostles’ Creed reminds us: these are the mountains we die on. And becoming more familiar with the mountains keeps us from sticking our flags in the molehills, from getting our knickers in a wad over silly stuff.

This is who we are. This is what we believe.

And today, as Christianity falls farther out of favor with our culture, as the world becomes more secular and more hostile to our faith, we’re going to be less and less identified by the secondary things. The primary things will move more and more to the center of who we are. The Apostles’ Creed is primary. Things of first importance.

Peace,

Allan

The Creed & Historical Community

January 14, 2016 / / 1 Comment

Barrett&OCI had a great day at Oklahoma Christian University yesterday, catching up with some really old friends and maintaining connections with some more recent ones. It’s fascinating to walk into Hardeman auditorium and see Sheldon Adkins as a respected university counselor and Jeff McMillon as a respected Bible professor. Randy Roper — pardon me, Doctor Randy Roper — my play-by-play partner for all those Eagles basketball games, is the dynamic preacher for the Edmond Church of Christ. I know my own life has changed in so many wonderful ways since we were terrorizing the faculty and administration at OC back in the ’80s. Our God has faithfully shaped me and used me in ways I never could have imagined back then. To know he has done and is doing the exact same surprisingly wondrous things in others is a true blessing to my heart. We picked up with our conversation and connection like we had never left off, getting the scoop on mutual friends, re-telling the crazy stories that nobody would believe unless they had been there, laughing at the same things we laughed about twenty-five years ago. But there was added joy in the knowledge that our God saved us from ourselves and is using us to his glory and praise.

It was great to see Dillon Byrnes and Chandler Trader from the youth group back at Legacy. It was a true blessing to have Barrett Packard from our youth group here at Central introduce me to the OC chapel crowd and pray with me before I spoke. And the lunch at Alfredo’s with Adair, Randy, Barrett, and Dillon was a blast: old Delta guys in their late 40s with a couple of current Delta guys in their early 20s. And Randy.

Speaking at chapel at OC is nerve-wracking. I dread it. Tough room. Tough crowd. Impossibly high demands. I get the sense that 95% of the kids in the room don’t want to be there. I feel like none of them are listening (I know, I used to be one of those kids). Yesterday, though, seemed different from the other times I’ve spoken there. It seemed like they were paying attention yesterday, actually listening to the words of encouragement from the end of Romans 8 regarding God’s unconditional love for each of us. I wonder sometimes if the entire OC faculty and board of directors has to meet and vote first before I’m invited back to speak at chapel. I wonder if they call Terry Johnson or Richard Mock first, just to be sure they haven’t missed some kind of lifetime ban I’m under for some infraction committed in 1988. Regardless, I’m always grateful for the opportunity. And always blessed.

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“There is one body and one Spirit — just as you were called to one hope when you were called — one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” ~Ephesians 4:4-6

CommunityJesusChurchWe’re in the beginning stages of exploring together the Apostles’ Creed here at Central. We just introduced it to our congregation last Sunday and we’re jumping into the first line together this Sunday, returning to each of the different lines in order once a month through the end of the year. I’ve received much encouragement this week since that introductory sermon in the form of emails and texts and even pictures. Some of you have placed the creed on your refrigerators, some of your children are drawing and painting the lines of the creed and hanging them up in their rooms, lots of you are wondering why you’ve never heard of the Apostles’ Creed before. Your excitement and energy about this is giving me much energy and excitement. Thank you.

In the last post here I wrote about using the Apostles’ Creed as a way to maintain theological balance. Today, let me suggest that memorizing and saying the creed together also reminds us that we belong to the historical community of all disciples of Jesus for all time. We are a part of the one body. We belong to the one called people. We confess the one faith and we are all children of the one God.

When we stand up and say this creed together, it connects us to all the Christians who stood up and said this creed together. Through the ages. The group of fifteen Christians in Asia Minor who gathered at the river and said the Apostles’ Creed as their neighbor was baptized in 265 AD. The two dozen Christians in Ephesus who said the creed together around the Lord’s Meal in one of their homes on a Sunday night in 310 AD. The hundreds of Christians in Rome who said the creed together in a brand new church building in 526 AD. The Christians in the European cathedrals in the 14th century. The Christians in the mission fields in the 19th century. All the Christians around the world who say the creed together every Sunday today. We are part of a people — think about how big this is! — thousand and thousands and hundreds of millions of people for the past 1,800 years all over the world who confess the basis beliefs of the Christian faith with these same words. It’s huge. It’s beautiful. It connects us to the people who’ve gone before us even now as the faith has been passed on to us and it’s our turn to run the race and boldly proclaim the truth about our God and his holy Son.

You say the pledge of allegiance or you sing the U.S. national anthem and it connects you to a people that were founded 240 years ago. We say the Apostles’ Creed and it joins us to an eternal people who were founded and shaped by the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Peace,

Allan

The Creed & Theological Balance

January 12, 2016 / / 0 Comments

“My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the FULL riches of COMPLETE understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden ALL the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” ~Colossians 2:2-3

LegDayMaybe you’ve seen the guy at the gym who looks like an upside down pear. His upper body is strong. He’s concentrating on his arms and his biceps and triceps and lats and pecs — this guy is stacked! He’s good up top. Really good. But he’s got these tiny little shriveled up pencil legs. Little toothpicks. And it makes all of him seem ridiculous. It’s a joke. If he got into a fight with you, all you’d have to do is give him a little shove and he’d topple right over. He’s got no legs. He’s got no core. No symmetry. He’s way out of balance. He’s paying attention to building up part of his body and ignoring other equally important parts.

Theologically, we need balance. We need symmetry in our faith. And I believe that memorizing and reciting the Apostles’ Creed can be a big help with that.

You may have a robust understanding of Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord. He has paid for your sins. He is your Savior. There are some demands that come with following him. He is your Lord. That’s good. You need to believe that and own that. But you also need to know that you belong to the holy, universal Church. You are in a responsible and accountable community of faith. You belong to a communion of saints that’s bigger than just you and God.

Maybe you’re a great admirer of Jesus. You love everything about God’s Son. You memorize his words, you imitate his actions. You love the way he gently reached out to the poor, the way he mercifully healed the sick, the way he boldly ripped the Pharisees. You love all that. And that’s good. But you need to be reminded that Jesus is alive today and reigning at the right hand of God. He’s not on the cross anymore. He’s not alive only in the pages of the Gospels. He is for real reigning on his throne in all power and glory right now today.

Memorizing the creed, saying the creed in your church assemblies and in your small groups and Bible classes and with your family will help keep you balanced.

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I’m heading to OKC this afternoon to watch my two super stud nephews dominate the basketball court in a key non-district game for Oklahoma Christian Academy tonight. And then tomorrow I’m speaking at chapel at Oklahoma Christian University. I will not be wearing my old Delta football jersey; but I’ll be thinking about it.

Peace,

Allan

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