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Category: Jesus (Page 51 of 61)

Power In The Blood

October 5, 2009 / / 2 Comments

PowerInTheBloodThe blood of Jesus is what courses through our veins. It’s in our DNA. It’s the thing that unites us with all baptized believers who are saved by the grace of God through faith in the Son. The pouring out of his blood is what breaks down the barriers that divide us.

The moment our Christ died, the veil in the temple was ripped in two, torn in half from top to bottom. No more separation. The writer of Hebrews makes a pretty big deal out of this. The death of Jesus, his blood, opens up this new and living way by which we live an integrated life. We’re now integrated with God by total access to his throne in the Holy of Holies. And we’re integrated with one another to live in perfect Christian unity.

There’s an ancient communion prayer written by Hippolytus late in the 3rd century that speaks to the power of Christ’s blood:

“We render thanks to you, O God, through your beloved Son Jesus Christ, whom in these last times you sent to us as a Savior and Redeemer according to you will and in whom you were well pleased. And he was betrayed to voluntary suffering that he might destroy death and break the bonds of the devil and tread down hell and shine upon the righteous.”

Those are powerful words. Destroy. Break. Tread.

Those are fitting words, appropriate action verbs, worthy of what our crucified and resurrected Lord has accomplished for us by his great love and grace. Ephesians 2 tells us in no uncertain terms that when Jesus poured out his blood he “destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility” and he “abolished the certificate of debt that stood against us.”

He himself is our peace — our peace with God and with one another.

There’s power in the blood. Great power. Wonder working power.

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100.7 FM, The WordThe Word FM — 100.7 on your radio dial — a local Christian talk radio station here in DFW, has designated Legacy as their Church of the Week. What it means for Legacy is a week’s worth of 60-second promotional spots that I recorded in their Irving studios a couple of weeks ago. I haven’t heard the edited versions yet, but they do focus almost exclusively on our outreach to our community. Specifically the spots mention our involvement with our local elementary schools. And I spend about 30 of those seconds talking up this Saturday’s 27th annual Legacy Give Away Day.

What it could mean for you is $250 cash. At 3:00 this afternoon Texas time, Janet Mefferd will begin her talk show and at some point during that first hour, between 3:00 and 4:00 today, she’ll ask callers to identify this week’s Church of the Week. The first caller to correctly identify the Church of the Week as “Legacy Church of Christ in North Richland Hills” wins the 250-bucks. The call-in number is 800-949-5973. Be ready for it.

And then you can take me to lunch on Friday. I’ll be listening for Janet to call your name.

Peace,

Allan

Bold Vision, Bold Men

October 1, 2009 / / 0 Comments

Thomas CampbellIn 1809, Thomas Campbell’s fiery sermons about Christian unity and his very public convictions that all Christians should return to a pure and simple form of New Testament Christianity got him censured by his presbytery and then fired by the Synod in Western Pennsylvania. A couple of years earlier, Barton Stone, a Presbyterian minister in Kentucky, dissolved his presbytery to unite with everyone who would simply be known as Christians and base their beliefs solely on the inspired Word of God.Barton Stone

Both Stone and Campbell had a bold vision. It was a mind-blowing, earth-altering vision. Christians only. Unity in Christ. For the sake of the world. Putting aside party zeal and tearing down denominational walls, these men dreamed and prayed about the one Church we read about in our Bible. The one Church Jesus prayed for the night he was betrayed. The physical and tangible unity of Christ’s Church that proves to the world that he really is the Messiah.

Bold vision.

It was risky. It was dangerous. It was career-ending. It cost them their jobs. It cost them many relationships with family and friends and professional colleagues. But they valued the Scriptural doctrine of unity more than they valued the denominational things that divided.

Bold men.Declaration and Address, September 7, 1809

They went into this thing knowing how difficult the road would be. But they believed they were acting in concert with the bold moves of Jesus’ disciples who’d gone before. They were only doing what they thought needed to be done in order to be pleasing to God. In Campbell’s Declaration and Address, long regarded as the founding document for Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement churches, he writes that they would never be dissuaded by men from their attempts at restoring the unity of the body of Christ:

“Indeed, should christians cease to contend earnestly for the sacred articles of faith and duty once delivered to the saints, on account of the opposition, and scanty success, which, in many instances, attend their faithful and honest endeavours; the divine cause of truth and righteousness might have long ago been relinquished.”

Knowing the road to Christian unity would be paved with potholes of preference and prejudice, knowing that they would face the intimidating forces of sectarianism and the walls of tradition, knowing they would be basically starting over from scratch with nothing but Holy Scripture and the grace of God, Campbell sums up their charge for unity in God’s Church by saying,

“What, shall we pray for a thing and not strive to obtain it! Sincerely and humbly adopting this model, with an entire reliance upon promised grace, we cannot, we shall not, be disappointed.”

Bold vision. Bold men.

Bold VisionDoes their story—no, our story!—have any implications for God’s children today? Does it mean anything? This is our heritage. It’s our history. These are our 200-year-old roots. This is our legacy: unity with God in Christ and unity with all those who call on the name of the Lord; profess Christ Jesus as Savior and King; are baptized into his death, burial, and resurrection; and celebrate that salvation around his table on his day.

“Not that we judge ourselves competent to effect such a thing; we utterly disclaim the thought. But we judge it our bounden duty to make the attempt, by using all due means in our power to promote it; and also, that we have sufficient reason to rest assured that our humble and well-meant endeavors, shall not be in vain in the Lord.”

Amen.

Allan

Intentionally One

September 30, 2009 / / 8 Comments

Great CommunionThe American Restoration Movement began 200 years ago with Thomas Campbell’s Declaration and Address, a call for unity and peace among all Christian denominations based on the pictures of God’s Church we see in the New Testament scriptures and on Christ’s prayer for unity on the night he was betrayed. The founding document of our particular stream of the faith declares that the Church is “essentially, intentionally, and constitutionally one.” He called on all Christians everywhere to drop their denominational tags and creeds and party affiliations and come together as one body in our Lord Jesus. The plea was for disciples of Jesus to recognize that they are “Christians only, but not the only Christians.” Campbell exhorted all believers to speak only where the Bible speaks and to exercise grace and mercy where it didn’t.

Thousands and thousands of people gave their lives to Christ. And hundreds of churches dropped their denominational names and practices in order to embrace this call to Christian unity.

These are our roots. This is our foundation. It’s so simple. And powerful. This document spells out clearly the intentions of our founding fathers.

“…to manifest the realities of Christian unity in their tempers and conduct, to consider each other as the precious saints of God, to love each other as brethren, children of the same family and father, temples of the same spirit, members of the same body, subjects of the same grace, objects of the same divine love, bought with the same price, and joint heirs of the same inheritance. Whom God hath thus joined together no man should dare to put asunder.” Great Communion

One hundred years ago, in Pittsburgh, over 25,000 members of the Churches of Christ, Disciples of Christ, and Christian Churches came together at Forbes Field to celebrate a joint communion service in recognition of the 100th anniversary of Campbell’s Declaration and Address. This year, this Sunday October 4, bicentennial communion services are being held all over the world. Stone-Campbell Restoration churches are gathering together in Canada, Australia, China, Europe, and in dozens of places here in the United States to celebrate what Campbell called “that great ordinance of unity and love.”

Breaking BreadThe Great Communion D/FW is being held at the Compass Christian Church in Colleyville this Sunday afternoon. I have no idea how many people will be there. I don’t know if we’ll be sharing communion with a couple hundred brothers and sisters or a couple thousand. I don’t know. I don’t know how many people really know or care about our history and heritage in Churches of Christ and the strong ideals of unity and love that founded our faith movement. I’m not sure how many, if any, of us have ever read the Declaration and Address with its unyielding call to unity. I do know that this joint communion service Sunday at Compass will serve as a sort of family reunion. It’ll allow us to come together on the many, many things on which we agree, including the importance of a weekly communion celebrated on the day our Lord was raised from the dead. It helps us break down barriers and tear down walls. It allows us to live out, if even for a moment, the unity we preach and pray for. It provides a time for us to remember the great contribution of the ones who’ve gone before and to reflect on the call for Christian unity that birthed our movement. And it gives us another way to celebrate together our common salvation in our one Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

I hope to see you there.

 Peace,

Allan

According To God's Will

September 18, 2009 / / 1 Comment

According to God’s willWhen we pray, we do so in faith that God is always going to give us what we need. We get that. We understand that. But what do we do with the words of our Lord in John 14:13-14?

“I will do whatever you ask in my name…You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”

But God doesn’t give me whatever I ask. He’s said “no” to many of my prayers. His words don’t mean the same thing to us that they meant to the apostles.

What if — play along with me here — everytime you asked for something in prayer, God gave you a gift. He blessed you. What if — are you still with me? — sometimes he gives you something different than what you asked, but that something is so much bigger and better? What if God makes substitutions, but those “audibles” are always to your advantage?

He created me. He knows me. He knows every single thing about me. He certainly knows what’s best for me.

“If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” ~Matthew 7:11

God may not always give you exactly what you ask for. But your faith assures you that God is giving — he’s always giving. And if it’s different, you can trust that it’s better for you than what you think you want. His divine sovereignty will prove out because he knows. He knows much better than you what will best meet your needs and fit into his heavenly plans.

If my kids beg me for Little Debbies and Dr Pepper floats for every meal, three times a day, but I answer those requests by giving them salads and steaks and vegetables and rice and milk and water, does that show that I love them less? Or does it prove I love them more? Giving them what they want all the time would actually be much easier. But wouldn’t it prove that I don’t really have their long term interests at heart?

Jesus says, if you (insert your name), in all your shortcomings and sins and failures; if you (insert your name), in all your inadequacies, in all your evil; if you (insert your name) know how to give good gifts to your children…

How much more!

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24 Hours of PrayerYes, I’ve got prayer on the mind. It’s 6:30 Friday evening and there are seven men in two different rooms upstairs in The Rock here at Legacy, praying for over 130 prayer requests from our church family and the community. We started praying in one-hour shifts up there at 8:00 this morning. And nearly a hundred men are coming and going throughout the night through 8:00 tomorrow morning in our big annual prayer event, Legacy’s 24 Hours of Prayer.

I can’t adequately describe what it’s like to pray for your brothers and sisters, to lift up their deepest fears and concerns and their richest praise and thanksgivings, with four or five other brothers, for over an hour. I learn so much. I didn’t really know Michael until I listened with him this morning as he prayed for Mary and Gene and Betty. Now I know his heart. I had no idea the pain that Stuart and Hope have endured. But after reading their prayer requests form, now I know. I thought I knew Larry until I prayed with him for his children and mine. I thought I knew Steven until I heard him pour his heart out to God about his own sins and failures.

As Oswald Chambers said nearly a hundred years ago, “Prayer does not equip us for greater works; prayer IS the greater work.”

I love the 24 Hours of Prayer. My last time slot comes up at midnight. I’ll be praying with Tracy and David and Paul D. and Paul B. I feel like I know two of them pretty well right now. I know a little about the other guy. One guy I hardly know at all.

Right now, I consider all four of them friends.

At 1:00 am, I’m guaranteed to know more about them, and them about me, and to be closer to them and bonded to them than we would be after a year of going hunting or fishing or watching football games together.

At 1:00 we will be brothers.

Peace,

Allan

According To God's Will

September 18, 2009 / / 0 Comments

According to God’s willWhen we pray, we do so in faith that God is always going to give us what we need. We get that. We understand that. But what do we do with the words of our Lord in John 14:13-14?

“I will do whatever you ask in my name…You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”

But God doesn’t give me whatever I ask. He’s said “no” to many of my prayers. His words don’t mean the same thing to us that they meant to the apostles.

What if — play along with me here — everytime you asked for something in prayer, God gave you a gift. He blessed you. What if — are you still with me? — sometimes he gives you something different than what you asked, but that something is so much bigger and better? What if God makes substitutions, but those “audibles” are always to your advantage?

He created me. He knows me. He knows every single thing about me. He certainly knows what’s best for me.

“If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” ~Matthew 7:11

God may not always give you exactly what you ask for. But your faith assures you that God is giving — he’s always giving. And if it’s different, you can trust that it’s better for you than what you think you want. His divine sovereignty will prove out because he knows. He knows much better than you what will best meet your needs and fit into his heavenly plans.

If my kids beg me for Little Debbies and Dr Pepper floats for every meal, three times a day, but I answer those requests by giving them salads and steaks and vegetables and rice and milk and water, does that show that I love them less? Or does it prove I love them more? Giving them what they want all the time would actually be much easier. But wouldn’t it prove that I don’t really have their long term interests at heart?

Jesus says, if you (insert your name), in all your shortcomings and sins and failures; if you (insert your name), in all your inadequacies, in all your evil; if you (insert your name) know how to give good gifts to your children…

How much more!

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

24 Hours of PrayerYes, I’ve got prayer on the mind. It’s 6:30 Friday evening and there are seven men in two different rooms upstairs in The Rock here at Legacy, praying for over 130 prayer requests from our church family and the community. We started praying in one-hour shifts up there at 8:00 this morning. And nearly a hundred men are coming and going throughout the night through 8:00 tomorrow morning in our big annual prayer event, Legacy’s 24 Hours of Prayer.

I can’t adequately describe what it’s like to pray for your brothers and sisters, to lift up their deepest fears and concerns and their richest praise and thanksgivings, with four or five other brothers, for over an hour. I learn so much. I didn’t really know Michael until I listened with him this morning as he prayed for Mary and Gene and Betty. Now I know his heart. I had no idea the pain that Stuart and Hope have endured. But after reading their prayer requests form, now I know. I thought I knew Larry until I prayed with him for his children and mine. I thought I knew Steven until I heard him pour his heart out to God about his own sins and failures.

As Oswald Chambers said nearly a hundred years ago, “Prayer does not equip us for greater works; prayer IS the greater work.”

I love the 24 Hours of Prayer. My last time slot comes up at midnight. I’ll be praying with Tracy and David and Paul D. and Paul B. I feel like I know two of them pretty well right now. I know a little about the other guy. One guy I hardly know at all.

Right now, I consider all four of them friends.

At 1:00 am, I’m guaranteed to know more about them, and them about me, and to be closer to them and bonded to them than we would be after a year of going hunting or fishing or watching football games together.

At 1:00 we will be brothers.

Peace,

Allan

In Jesus' Name

September 17, 2009 / / 1 Comment

 In Jesus’ Name

“I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” ~John 14:13-14.

“In Jesus’ Name” is not the fine print at the bottom of the rule sheet on how you pray. It’s not the idea that you have to end every prayer with those three words. It’s not a little formula. It’s not a little nod to doctrine. In fact, it’s not a little anything. I think “In Jesus’ Name” is the biggest part of understanding prayer.

My kids know that when I question their behavior, all they have to do is say, “Mom said we could” or “Mom said it’s OK” and I’ll go on my way.

“You’re going to start a movie at 10:45 at night?”

“Mom said we could.”

And I think, yeah, it’s Friday night, she probably did.

“You’re eating and drinking Dr Pepper floats in the living room on the nice furniture on top of the nice carpet? At 10:45 at night?”

“Mom said it’s OK.”

And I think, there’s no way your mom said it was OK. I know your mom. And you do, too. There’s no way. This goes totally against everything I know about your mom. Don’t pull that “Mom said” stuff on me.

Prayers filled with a whole bunch of selfish ‘gimmees’ can hardly be brought to God in the name of Jesus. Asking for wealth or possessions or comfort is totally inconsistent with the nature of God’s Son. I imagine God listening to some of my old prayers and saying, “Don’t pull that ‘Jesus’ said’ stuff on me. I know better.”In Jesus’ Name

Only a relationship with Christ can allow us to pray like Christ and to pray in his name. When we know Jesus, when we follow Jesus, when we’ve given everything we have to Jesus, we’ll more and more start to sound like Jesus. The things we ask for will be God’s will for God’s glory. Our prayers will declare a total surrender of my will and my glory for his. That’s praying in the manner of Jesus. In the way of Jesus. In Jesus’ name.

Peace,

Allan

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