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Category: Jesus (Page 33 of 61)

G2G Community Cookout Tonight!

June 25, 2014 / / 0 Comments

The rain is holding off and Ellwood Park is promising to be packed with all kinds of holy potential tonight for our second annual “Gifted 2 Go” Community Cookout. We’ve mailed out nearly 1,300 invitations to our residential and commercial neighbors who live and work around our church building. And last Wednesday we knocked doors and handed out homemade cookies and advertisements to a more concentrated area of about 500 houses. Scott Flow’s got the barbecue grills roaring and several teams of people right now are packing ice chests with cold water, slicing onions and tomatoes, and setting up tables and canopies and chairs.

No Bible classes tonight at Central. No formal worship event in the chapel or gathering in Sneed Hall. Tonight, the Central Church of Christ is at the huge downtown park a block-and-a-half north of our building to take the gift of God’s mercy and love to our neighbors.

You know, the church is at its very best when we give up home field advantage. When we take our God-given talents and abilities on the road, that’s when we’re the most effective in doing what our Lord has empowered us by his Spirit to do.

When we look at our Christ in the Gospels, we don’t see him huddled up with his disciples in a building somewhere looking for inspiration or more knowledge. Yes, Jesus spent time in prayer and meditation, he spent time alone with his God and with his apostles. And, yeah, the biblical witness is clear that Jesus was a fixture at regular corporate worship gatherings and thought they were crucial to a life lived in relationship with the Father. But, more than that, we see Jesus outside the walls of the temple, beyond the confines of the synagogue, with the people. He walks and talks with the people around Galilee and Jerusalem. He climbs mountains to teach the people. He goes to their places of work and recreation. He goes to their parties and civic functions. He goes outside his own community to mix with people of different socio-economic brackets, different religious beliefs, different nationalities and genders. Jesus throws a picnic for four and five thousand people and provides all the food! And the whole time he’s blessing. Blessing. Blessing the people. Encouraging the people. Painting a picture of the Kingdom of God for the people.

That’s the goal tonight at Ellwood Park. Everybody in Amarillo is invited. If you don’t live in our town, I beg you to please pray for what God wants to do here tonight.

Peace,

Allan

Christ is Preached and I Rejoice

June 24, 2014 / / 0 Comments

While Paul is in jail in Rome, there are other Christian preachers there in the city piling on. They’re preaching Christ out of “envy and rivalry.” Their motivations are all wrong. They’re involved in power plays and intentionally trying to hurt Paul and discredit him in the eyes of the church and in the city. It’s selfish. It’s insincere. But Paul writes to the concerned brothers and sisters in Philippi that it doesn’t really matter.

“What does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.” ~Philippians 1:18

What a wonderful perspective! At the end of the day, after all their efforts to oppose Paul, they’ve only succeeded in doing the one thing that to Paul matters the most: they’re preaching Christ!

Paul’s not concerned about identifying this group. In fact, it’s impossible to know who he’s talking about because, to Paul, it’s not important. These other preachers are mean and selfish and they’re using Paul’s chains to promote themselves. But they’re doctrinally orthodox. They’re preaching Christ and him crucified for the forgiveness of sins. So Paul’s attitude is that it doesn’t matter. Christ is preached. Period. And I rejoice.

If we’re all going to grow more into the image of Jesus, if we’re really going to partner with our God in Christ’s mission for the world, we’re going to have to come to grips with the fact that God’s salvation work is bigger than us and what we’re doing. His work to redeem the world is bigger than the Churches of Christ. He’s using us, no question, praise God. He’s using Churches of Christ to some wonderful things for the Kingdom, no doubt, amen. But he’s using all kinds of people in all kinds of ways in all kinds of churches in all kinds of places to reconcile all of creation back to himself!

This is the part of Paul’s perspective that we both admire and, honestly, have a very difficult time practicing. And, I suppose, we’re in good company. When John and the apostles came running to Jesus in Luke 9, they were very exclusive and sectarian in their understandings about who God was using to do his will and who he wasn’t.

“‘Master,’ said John, ‘we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we tried to stop him because he is not one of us!'” ~Luke 9:49

Jesus’ reply to his disciples was something like, “Don’t! Don’t stop him! Just because he’s not with you doesn’t mean he’s not with me!”

When our identity is in Christ, and not in our own particular brands or preferred practices, we won’t complain or argue or bicker about Christians who don’t do things the way we do things. We don’t talk bad about them. We don’t question their motives or their sincerity. We don’t look down on them in any way.

We rejoice. We rejoice because, hey, look, here’s another group boldly proclaiming the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord!

Christ is preached. And I rejoice.

Somebody ought to put that on a T-shirt.

Peace,

Allan

Are You Bringing It?

June 3, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Jesus prays to our Father, “Your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Jesus preaches the Kingdom of God. Jesus declares the Kingdom of God. He prays it. And he proclaims it: “It is at hand!” “It is here!” Jesus points it out: “The Kingdom! Yes! Look at it!”

But, more than that, Jesus brings the Kingdom of God to earth. He brings it. Jesus does God’s will on earth just as it is in heaven.

Jesus casts out demons because there are no demons in heaven.
Jesus heals because there is no sickness in heaven.
Jesus feeds because there is no hunger in heaven.
Jesus raises the dead because there is no death in heaven.

“Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

Are you praying this prayer? Jesus said it was a good idea to pray this prayer, to ask God to please do his will here on earth just like it’s done in heaven. More importantly, are you bringing it? Are you bringing the Kingdom of God to your part of the earth? Are you obeying his will just like the rocks and the trees and the oceans and the animals obey his will?

There is no revenge in heaven. There is no hate in heaven. There are no arguments in heaven. There are no disagreements in heaven. No suspicion. No politics. No war. No division of any kind. No power-grabbing. No violence, verbal or physical. No mistrust. No complaining. You won’t find any of those things in heaven.

Do you find any of those things in your church? In your elders’ meetings? In your congregational committees? Are you bringing the Kingdom of God into your part of the world or some other, very different things? Into your marriage? Into your family around the dinner table at night? Are you bringing the Kingdom of God to your workplace? To your school? To the Little League team you’re coaching or the civic club to which you belong?

If God has completely eradicated selfish behavior and gamesmanship and competition in heaven, if that is his holy will, why would you tolerate it in your church? Or in your house? Why in the world would you actually insist on bringing it into your congregation? Or putting up with it?

The rivers and the trees and the squirrels and the fish all obey God’s will on earth just as it is in heaven. What’s wrong with us?

Peace,

Allan

People People

June 2, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Our Jesus is a people person. He loves a crowd.

Yes, there were times when our Lord went alone into the desert or climbed a mountain to pray. But it’s much more typical in the Gospels for Jesus to be interacting with people. The eyewitnesses paint a picture of Jesus constantly mixing it up with the multitudes, meeting strangers on the road, hanging out with family and friends. Mostly Jesus was known for eating and drinking with gusto in the homes of sinners and religious leaders, with the prostitutes and the Pharisees, men and women, Jews and Gentiles.

Praying with people. Worshiping with people. Walking with people. Fishing with people. Teaching and debating with people. Laughing and crying with people.

Jesus was a supremely social, communal person. Whatever it was that the Father called the Son to do, he had no interest in doing it by himself. Just a casual glance at Jesus is enough to tell us today that we are fully living as God-created humans, not in our solitude or isolation, but in our relationships and connections with others. If we’re going to be Jesus followers, then we must be people people.

We need God, yes. And we desperately need each other.

Peace,

Allan

Good Reminders

April 14, 2014 / / 1 Comment

The Gospel accounts of the resurrection of Jesus tell us that those who experienced the empty tomb up close and personal responded with wonder and amazement. Matthew says the women at the dug-out tomb were afraid. Mark says they were alarmed or astonished. The women are also described as bewildered and trembling. Other translations say they were stunned. The women in Luke’s version were “wondering” about the empty tomb. After Peter looks inside the empty grave, he, too, is said to be in wonder. With each of the Easter stories, the sense of resurrection wonder or mystery is building. It accumulates. So far, not one person who witnessed the empty tomb has been able to make sense of it. Not even those who encountered the risen Lord have it figured out.

And these are good reminders for us today.

The Resurrection confused everybody. At the time it happened, nobody could explain it. It’s obvious that those closest to the event had no idea what had happened or why. And that’s a good reminder for us. That we don’t always have God’s plan figured out. We don’t always know what God is doing. Or when he’s doing it. Or why. And that disorients us. But it’s OK.

Nobody had prepared for the Resurrection. Those women were going to the tomb that morning with burial spices to anoint a dead body. They weren’t bringing Jesus a fresh set of clothes and a toothbrush. When he shows up for dinner with the disciples that evening, they have to scramble to find a chair and an extra place setting. Peter’s wife pulls her husband aside and says, “You didn’t tell me your boss was coming!” Of course not; he didn’t know! None of them had prepared. And that’s a good reminder for us. We’re all beginners in this resurrection business. There aren’t any experts. We don’t control what God is doing. And that unsettles us. But it’s OK.

In the Resurrection stories, the marginal people are the main players. It’s the women. In this patriarchal society, these women had no rights, no status, no standing in the community. Especially Mary Magdalene. She had been possessed by seven demons before she met Jesus which might mean she had been living a reprehensibly horrible moral life or perhaps she was mentally ill. Either way, this lady lived on the edges of her community. She didn’t fit in. But she’s the only name we read in all four Gospel accounts of the Resurrection. And that’s a good reminder for us. That we don’t ever judge or rule out anybody we think might be beyond the reach of Resurrection. More than likely, it’ll be the ones we least expect who wind up at the very front of what God’s doing. And that surprises us. But it’s OK.

Some of the most exciting words in all of Scripture are when God says, “Behold! I am doing a new thing!” God is always doing new things. And it’s exciting. Right now, today, our God is doing new things in your church, new things in your city, new things — maybe unforeseen things — between people in different Christian denominations. God is speaking in new ways. He’s moving in new ways. He’s drawing men and women to himself in brand new and surprising ways. Things are changing.

And that can be disorienting. Unsettling. Scary. Because we don’t do well with change. We’re not always real good with new. But we have the Spirit of our risen Lord within us. Christ Jesus inside us gives us the power and the peace to embrace the mystery and the wonder of what God is doing; to not just accept it with our heads, but to jump into it with our hearts; to let God in Christ have his way with us; to fully submit to what we may not fully understand. Not just to be OK with it, but to rejoice in it.

Peace,

Allan

Great Power for Us

March 18, 2014 / / 0 Comments

“…his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.” ~Ephesians 1:19-23

Scripture goes out of its way, the apostle Paul goes to great lengths, to explain to us disciples just how much power we have in Christ Jesus, our risen and coming Lord. Christianity is a religion about power. Eternal power. Dynamic power. Powerful power. It’s like Paul pulls out his college Thesaurus, the one his parents gave him that weekend he was accepted into Gamaliel’s school, and conjures up every possible word for power — rule, authority, power, dominion, title — and says Christ is more powerful than all of it. Come on, Paul seems to be saying, just try to think of the most powerful thing in the universe. Now multiply that by ten billion. And Christ is still more powerful! Every power that’s ever been and ever will be, every title that’s ever been given and ever will be, every government, every political structure, every economic system, every industrial complex, every biological reality, every financial authority, every historical rule, Christ dominates it! Every single power that has ever existed and will ever come about, real or imagined, human or spiritual, temporal or eternal — – they are all subject to our Lord!

And we don’t get it. If we do, it seems to be only in the logical, cerebral sense, not in the practical application sense.

No wonder this is the focus of Paul’s great prayer that opens up his letter to the churches around Ephesus. I want you to know this power, Paul prays. I want you to understand it, to grasp it, to really own the mind-blowing truth that the exact same Holy Spirit power that brought Jesus out the grave to reign at the right hand of God is the exact same power we all have in us and at our disposal as his disciples.

The New Testament doesn’t really go into deep discussions about the powers and power structures of the world except to remind us that they are all in subjection to our King. Paul doesn’t seem worried about the powers at all. He shows little interest in them, other than to say, “They’re all defeated in Christ Jesus!” Sometimes he mentions that the victory was won at the cross. Other times he claims it happened on that Sunday morning at the garden tomb. But he doesn’t overly concern himself with what’s happening in Rome or in the local city hall. Christ reigns! Jesus is Lord!

So, if this is true…

(and it is!)

Jesus is the winner. And if we’re in Christ, we don’t need to worry about the powers. We don’t worry about what’s happening in Austin or Washington D.C. or Moscow. We don’t worry about what’s happening in Afghanistan or Iran or in downtown Amarillo. Those powers have already all been defeated, they just don’t know it yet.

And if, as Paul writes, the church really is the fullness of Christ, then we don’t have to worry that we’re missing out on something. We don’t have to concern ourselves with other disciplines or traditions from the other side of the globe, with formulas or superstitions from down the street, or with secret knowledge or unrevealed mysteries from another realm. We’re not missing anything. In Christ Jesus, we have everything!

No wonder Paul prays that we would grasp it.

“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know…!” ~Ephesians 1:18

Now, what would happen if we really believed all that? The gates of hell tremble at the thought.

Peace,

Allan

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