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Category: Jesus (Page 28 of 61)

Everybody is Welcome

June 2, 2015 / / 0 Comments

JesusEatingWithSinners

Jesus welcomed everybody and he made everybody feel welcome. Everybody. He didn’t reject anyone. He ate and drank with tax collectors and teachers of the law. He dined with prostitutes and Pharisees. Men and women. Rich and poor. Jew and Gentile. The powerful and the weak. Part of the huge scandal with Jesus is that, with him, everybody is welcome. No discrimination. No pre-judgment. He opened up his arms and said, “Come on! Everybody!”

And that’s not normal.

You’re only supposed to share meals and show hospitality to people just like you. Before you go to someone’s house or before you invite someone to your house, make sure they’re just like you. Check their voting record. Read their bumper stickers. Find out where their kids go to school.

Jesus refused. Everybody is welcome.

You realize Jesus was in a small group with a tree-hugging liberal tax collector and a right-wing tea-party Zealot? He hung out with poor fishermen and a couple of guys with horrible anger issues and a betrayer (I see Judas as that person in the small group who goes home every Sunday night and gets on Facebook: “You can’t believe what Thaddeus is going through!).

A temptation for us is to worry about who’s going to sit by us at church. Some of us won’t join a small group or commit to a Bible class because we’re worried: “Who am I going to wind up with in there?” There’s a temptation not to lead for that very reason: “I can’t control who’s going to show up.”

Instead of trying to control that, why not give it up to God?

“God, please bring people to our church I can minister to. Lord, please put people in our class you can reach with your love and hope through me. God, please put somebody next to me who needs me.”

And then no matter who sits next to you or who shows up in your class or small group, they were delivered there by God. That’s a person God brought to you for his purposes. It takes all the pressure off. God, this is your class. Lord, this is your church. When you pray that prayer and when you show up with that mind of Christ, everybody is welcome.

Peace,

Allan

Where Would You Rather Be?

May 26, 2015 / / 1 Comment

“No one can enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can rob his house.” ~Jesus

“Can plunder be taken from warriors, or captives rescued from the fierce? This is what the Lord says, ‘Yes! Captives will be taken from warriors, and plunder retrieved from the fierce; I will contend with those who contend with you, and your children I will save… Then all mankind will know that I, the Lord, am your Savior, your Redeemer.” ~Isaiah

Where would you rather be?When you’re rescuing captives and taking plunder from the devil, you’ve got to go into some pretty dark places. And our church at Central, I think, presents a pretty compelling picture of that. This church is full of rescued captives and liberated slaves. Central is made up of former prisoners: alcoholics, drug abusers, prostitutes, sex addicts, the mentally and physically disabled, ex-cons. There are extraordinary Gospel stories scattered all over the worship center every Sunday. God is involved and things are changing for lots of men and women at Central.

And when God brings us all together, sometimes it can be less than decently and in order. People who are rescued tend to celebrate wildly. People who are being freed are less inhibited. Central’s not like a lot of other churches. You never know what’s going to happen during our assembly on Sundays. God is bringing all different kinds of his precious treasure and valuable possessions together in this place. And it’s exciting. Every Sunday morning here is an adventure.

And it’s disorienting. It’s not the status quo. Honestly, I’m still trying to get used to it. But it’s SO GOSPEL! It’s SO KINGDOM OF GOD!

Where else would you rather be? In a church where everybody’s sins are exactly the same? Where everybody’s salvation stories sound just alike? Where everybody is comfortable all the time? That’s not nearly as much fun as what goes on here.

We’ve got the full picture here. As messy and as upsetting as it sometimes can be, what we’ve got here is real. We see it on every pew; we hear it and feel it all around us. And if we continue to embrace it in all of its unpredictable glory, if we’ll rejoice in it and find ways to celebrate it — I mean the weird stuff, the mess — the city of Amarillo will hear the good news. Our city will understand the Gospel that we embody: that God really is involved and even the darkest and worst and most hopeless situations can change.

Regardless of the personal and corporate cost, may we always be a church compelled by the love and power of Christ to stand up to the devil and his powers, to storm the house of Satan with our Lord to take the plunder and rescue the captives.

Peace,

Allan

God Is Involved

May 19, 2015 / / 0 Comments

PrisonChainsThe Gospel is not just one point in history. We know the Gospel is not just the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. The Gospel is eternal. It’s what God is doing and what God has always been doing. One way to sum up the enormous scope of the good news of God is to say that God is involved and things can change.

God is involved in real human need. Real, practical, physical, earthly, human need. It’s not metaphorical, allegorical, or symbolic. It’s real. When Adam and Eve are naked and afraid, God gives them clothes and protection. When Cain is worried about being killed, God gives him a mark of safety. When Israel is trapped in bondage to slavery, God delivers them to freedom. When David was a sinner, God forgave him. God is involved in real human need.

And we see this so clearly in his Son. Jesus came to show us what it looks like when God is involved. He tells us the stories and embodies it in his actions. God is involved in real human needs. And that’s really good news. A man is bleeding to death in a ditch and along comes a good Samaritan. Yes! A runaway son comes home smelling like a pig pen and his father runs to hug him and restore him to the family. Excellent! A man says to Jesus, “You can heal me if you are willing.” And Jesus replies, “I am willing.” That’s the Gospel! That’s the good news!

The Kingdom of God is hurting people being comforted. It’s distressed people being encouraged. It’s about hopeless people being given hope. The Gospel is captives being freed, prisoners being released, outcasts being brought in to a family. It’s cold people being warmed, sinful men and women receiving full forgiveness and Satan’s grip being broken forever.

God is involved right now today in your situation. The almighty Creator of heaven and earth is not some distant despot, a remote ruler who only watches from afar. He sees your plight, he hears your cries, he feels compassion for you, and he is mighty to save. He is intimately involved.

Peace,

Allan

Do Whatever Jesus Tells You

May 12, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Do Whatever Jesus Tells YouWe’re not sure what the mother of Jesus was thinking at that wedding in Cana when she told her son the hosts had run out of wine. But she was clearly expecting Jesus to do something. The timing was wrong and the Messiah seemed a little less than enthusiastic about inserting himself into the situation, but his mother was asking him to do something. And then she told the servants of the house, “Do whatever Jesus tells you.”

Mary knew that Jesus would provide what was needed. And whatever he chose to do and however he chose to do it, Mary believed would be for the best of everybody involved. She trusted that Jesus would come through. And he did.

Jesus provided more wine at that party than anybody could possibly drink. The conservative estimate in Scripture claims anywhere from 150-180 gallons of wine. That’s a lot of wine. And not just any wine; this was the very best wine. This wine was so good the caterer complained to the groom.

“Do whatever Jesus tells you” is a statement of faith and confidence in that grace and in the Lord of that grace. You can’t do much better than that. Advising people to do whatever Jesus tells them and you, yourself, doing whatever Jesus tells you is a pretty good rule of life.

Jesus delivered more than Mary could have possibly asked or imagined. He provided an abundance of blessing. There’s grace in this miracle. There’s grace and provision for a pushy mom and grace and provision for everybody who had been invited to the feast. Abundant grace and provision. From Jesus. More than you need.

Peace,

Allan

 

Protected by Christ

May 2, 2015 / / 0 Comments

“Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died — more than that, who was raised to life — is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.” ~Romans 8:33-34

Protected by ChristJesus is right now interceding for you. He is speaking up for you. He did not return to heaven to retire. He is there today speaking to the Father on your behalf. He is representing you, defending you, working for you. And he’s never lost a case.

“He is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.” ~Hebrews 7:25

The One who speaks for us has already been there. He’s already taken all the tests and passed them with flying colors. He’s aced all the exams and he has all the answers. You will never face anything in your life that our Lord hasn’t already faced and conquered. And he speaks for you today. He protects you.

Peace,

Allan

What Can I Do For You?

April 20, 2015 / / 0 Comments

The Holy One of Israel came to this earth not to be served but to serve and to give his life for others. He came to seek and save what was lost. He took the very form of a servant. Our Lord never did anything for himself. He lived and died to meet the needs of others.

At the end of Luke 18, Jesus is purposefully walking to his death. He’s almost to Jerusalem and the cross. And he comes upon a blind man sitting by the roadside begging. Jesus looks at him and says, “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus — full of the Holy Spirit, empowered by Almighty God, living in perfect harmony with God’s original promise and God’s perfect plan — says, “What do you want me to do for you?”

Just a few verses earlier, Jesus had been surrounded by a bunch of little kids. “Let them come to me,” he says, “in all their sticky handed and runny nosed glory! Do not hinder them! Let them come!” And they’re climbing all over him as he touches them and hugs them, engages them and blesses them.

One chapter earlier, Jesus engages and heals and blesses ten Samaritan lepers. In Luke 14 Jesus interrupts his own dinner in the home of a popular Pharisee to heal another man of a terrible disease. One chapter before that he lays his hands on a crippled woman and sets her free.

We get it, right? We’re not surprised when, after all this serving and healing and blessing, Jesus gets to the end of the road and asks one more time, “What can I do for you?”

This world is broken. It’s messed up. You are broken. You are. You know you are. I am messed up. I am. I know I am. We are all broken. And we see in Jesus our God’s faithful promise to deliver justice to the marginalized and oppressed, to bring healing to the sick and dying, to restore community to the lonely and isolated, and to bless those separated from God with true joy and connection. And belonging. And peace.

Peace,

Allan

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