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Category: John (Page 20 of 30)

Love Trumps All

October 1, 2012 / / 1 Comment

(Posting a comment on this blog still qualifies you for the books to be given away later this month. Just click on the “comments” line in the upper right hand corner of the post. Scroll down — way down — to the September 20 & 21 posts for more details on the drawing.)

We spend a lot of our time and energy in God’s Church, it seems, on things that don’t really matter at all. Special meetings are called in the church foyer and around the church library conference table to discuss and decide critical matters of corporate worship and important points of Christian doctrine and pressing items regarding belief and/or practice and/or politics. We spend a lot of time and energy on all that. Way too much time and energy.

We spend a lot of our time and energy in God’s Church, it seems, complaining about things that don’t really matter at all. Concerned members question the order of service, worried ministers dispute the makeup of a committee, discontented congregants accuse others of straying from the path, uneasy elders lament the fading away of old leadership structures. We spend a lot of time and energy on that. Way too much time and energy.

We level charges and voice complaints, we fire off emails and whisper in the halls. There’s way too much of this going on in Christ’s Body. Too much.

We’ve lost our focus on Christ’s command, our Lord’s singular command, the most important command that outweighs them all.

“Love each other as I have loved you.”

While attempting to settle disputes between Christian brothers and sisters over gender issues and economic segregation and spiritual snobbery, the apostle Paul tells the Corinthian church that love trumps everything. Everything!

In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul makes it crystal clear that love is the question and the answer; it’s the beginning and the end; it’s the end-all, be-all to everything that might possibly harm or divide the community of faith.

All the preaching, all the prophesying, all the giving, all the good works are worthless — they have absolutely no value — if there’s not any love. Love is more important than faith. Love is more important than hope. I don’t know if we’ve ever really read that the way Paul wrote it. Love is more important than Christian faith. Seriously.

So, if love is really more important than faith and hope, if love is really more important than good preaching and good works — and it is — then love is more important than everything. Love trumps our worship assemblies and our worship styles. Love is bigger than our business meetings and church budgets. Love is more critical to life in Christ than any of our rules or doctrines. Love is bigger and more important than any issue that could ever possibly divide us.

And, if that’s true, why aren’t we as committed to loving each other as we are to our doctrines and practices?

We must place unconditional, God-ordained love in the supreme position of our hearts and minds in God’s Church. All our time and energy, all our strength and resources, should go first and forever toward loving each other. Then, as has been my experience and as is the teachings of our Lord, all that other stuff takes care of itself. Love trumps all.

Peace,

Allan

The Least Important Person

September 27, 2012 / / 0 Comments

(Commenting on this post automatically enters you into the drawing for the books to be given away in conjunction with this blog’s upcoming 1,000 post. Check out the details a few posts back.)

“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.” ~John 15:12
“This is my command: Love each other.” ~John 15:17

What distinguishes the love of Christ and marks the love of all disciples of Jesus is the willingness — no, the eagerness! — to condescend to meet the needs of others. Those being transformed by the Spirit into the image of our Savior are those who consistently imitate him by considering the needs of others more important than their own. They consider others better than themselves. They seek the interests of others ahead of their own. They are the ones who make themselves less important in order to show compassion to those around them.

Our Lord gave us the illustration for such an attitude. When he washed his followers’ feet around the dinner table on that last night, he provided the perfect example of sacrificial love. He showed them “the full extent of his love” and then commanded them to “do as I have done for you.”

What’s astounding is that Christ Jesus, the Holy One of Israel, the promised Messiah and Savior of the World, stooped down to make himself the least important person in the room.

“You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you should wash one another’s feet.” ~John13:13-14

There is no job beneath our dignity, there is no task beneath our pay grade, there is no calling that is under our position or status. Would it shock everybody in your office if they saw you taking out the trash? Would it be a huge surprise to your wife if she heard you loading the dishwasher? Would your neighbors gasp in disbelief if you swept up all the gunk in the alleys around everybody’s dumpsters? Would your children faint if you turned off your TV show to play a game with them? In the manner of our Lord, we are commanded to stoop, to condescend, to continually seek new ways to become the least important person in the room.

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 Now that the NFL lockout of the regular referees is over, we can look back and laugh at the miscues and botched calls, the uncertainties and the chaos that was life with replacements. We can giggle at the punny headlines of the past three days such as “FAIL MARY!” and “The Inaccurate Reception.” The funniest line I heard was on ESPN when on Tuesday one of the studio hosts noted that Russell Wilson was the first quarterback in history to throw a game-winning interception. The lockout provided plenty of fodder for late night talk show hosts and editorial cartoonists.

The greater tragedy during the past three weeks, though, has been overlooked. Something far worse has occured in the NFL that’s been overshadowed by the referee lockout and ignored by the national media. It’s brought untold shame and ridicule to a once proud franchise and threatens to undermine the integrity of the entire league. I’m talking, of course, about Jerry Wayne’s new Papa John’s pizza commercial in which the owner of the Cowboys actually raps!

Words can’s describe the embarrassment I felt for the Cowboys, the NFL, the city of Dallas, and the whole great state of Texas upon seeing this commercial for the first time Monday night. It’s humiliating. Jethro rapping and rhyming and shucking and jiving right there in bold HD, jumping up and down stadium staircases, gesturing awkwardly with his hands, striking hilariously defiant poses, selling pizza and Pepsi. That’s the owner and general manager of the Cowboys.

“Yo! It lights me up like a roman candle! Toppings and flavor almost too good to handle!”

Note to Roger Goodell: now that you’ve got the regular refs back to work, please assess some fines and penalties against Jerry Wayne for actions detrimental to the league.

Peace,

Allan

Love Completed

September 25, 2012 / / 0 Comments

(Posting a comment on this article automatically enters you into the drawing for the books to be given away in conjunction with this blog’s upcoming 1,000th post. See the past couple of posts for details.)

“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.” ~John 15:12

Jesus doesn’t say I’ll love you if you treat me right or I’ll love you if you straighten up. Jesus’ love isn’t conditioned by right behavior or a good performance. It’s not based on anybody’s I.Q. or money or skin color or clothes or bloodline or reputation. Jesus’ love says I’ll die for you while you’re my enemy. I’ll serve you while you’re still a sinner. I’ll give my life for you while you only look after yourself.

I’ll do this, Jesus says, because I love you so much. But that’s not where this love of Christ ends.

This love that starts with the Creator of Heaven and Earth flows to his Son, the Holy One of Israel. Jesus then takes that love and showers it on us. And he tells us to receive his divine love in order to show it to one another. This heavenly love is completed, it’s fulfilled, only when we give it to others. God’s love was never, ever intended to be finished in merely saving you.

“Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us.” ~1 John 4:16-17

We are the last link in this cosmic chain. This love of God in Christ finishes its course through his people. This is why we sacrifice for one another. We serve each other and consider the needs of others more important than our own. This is the reason we die to ourselves and for one another every day.

God’s love is not finished, it’s not accomplished all, until we take seriously this singular command of our Lord: Love each other. This love of Christ that we receive and selflessly pass on proves that we are children of God. It brings eternal glory to our Father. And it changes the world.

Peace,

Allan

False Vines

September 24, 2012 / / 1 Comment

(Posting a comment on this article automatically enters you into the drawing for the books to be given away in conjunction with the upcoming historic 1,oooth post. See the previous couple of posts for details.)

“I am the true vine… Remain in me and I will remain in you.” ~John 15:1-8

Jesus calls himself the true vine. He urges us to stay connected to this true vine, to remain in this true vine, in order to produce fruit, to prove their discipleship to the King, and to bring glory to God. Jesus is the true vine. And that tells me there must be some false vines out there to which we sometimes attach ourselves.

We know what these false vines are. We recognize them as counterfeit and temporary. But the people who are connected to these vines all look pretty happy. They all look like they’re doing OK. So off we go…

Chasing after the false vines of money and power. Connecting to the false vines of pleasure and fame. Seeking our identity in the false vines of career and the athletic achievements of our children. Obsessed over and addicted to the false vines of entertainment and technology. Drawing energy and life’s meaning and purpose from the false vines of nationalism, patriotism, and worldly politics.

Like Jeremiah’s wild donkeys in heat, we can’t be restrained. We run after these false gods and connect ourselves to these false vines with barely a second thought. Like the people in Jeremiah, we proclaim, “I love foreign gods, and I must go after them!”

We need to all be reminded that this world’s politics is a false vine. The politics of this world are producing the rotten, stinking fruit of polarization and alienation, threat and insult, fear and hate. This nation’s politics are to the point, and have been for years, that if you disagree with me on just one issue, you are the enemy and you are thoroughly evil from head to toe. If you disagree with me on just one point, I label you and the conversation stops. I don’t listen to you anymore. All hope for community with you is abandoned. I label you and put you in your proper category and I insult you. You and your party and your candidate and your ideas and your intelligence and your character and your mama and your daddy and your greasy granny!

There is nothing remotely Christ-like about any of that.

As disciples of the Messiah, we must quickly come to the realization that in this country there is not one righteous party and one evil party, there is not one right set of candidates and one wrong set of candidates. What we have is one massive corrupt and worldly system that is powered and motivated by the principles of this world and that the Kingdom of God is working right now to overthrow and conquer! It’s a sinful and worldly system that the holy Son of God came to oppose and destroy!

As baptized disciples of Jesus, we are citizens of the eternal Kingdom of God. And God’s Church is very political. We are very committed to political thought and political actions. But our politics are not of this world. We belong to a Kingdom that is not of this world. We pledge allegiance to a King who is not of this world. So we do not do things the way the world does things. We do things the way Jesus does things.

This world will not be saved by power and force. You and your family are not going to be protected by your petitions and votes. Jesus has come to save and protect by sacrifice and submission, by selfless love and service. And I don’t hear any of that in today’s political ads. I don’t see any of that on anybody’s platform.

Our politics are entirely different because our King is unlike any other. Jesus is the true vine. He is not planted in the dirt of this world and thus destined to blow away. He is the true vine who is rooted in the eternity of God. Everything else we might attach ourselves to is a fake. It’s false. And it will suck the life and energy and meaning and purpose right out of you. Jesus is the only source for the life and energy, meaning and purpose we need to live as holy children of God. There are no other sources. And there is no other way.

Peace,

Allan

Peace, Perfect Peace

September 14, 2012 / / 0 Comments

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” ~John 14:27

As children of God and followers of his Christ, we have access to a peace that is unlike any kind of peace the world might promise or provide. The peace of Jesus really is an inner peace that surpasses all understanding. And it’s in us. It’s best described by using the Hebrew idea of shalom: the perfect, harmonious interdependence among all the parts of creation. This kind of peace, which I believe is exactly what Jesus promises to his disciples, is never defined negatively by Jews. Peace is not the absence of trouble or hostility. It means absolute wholeness. It’s physical, psychological, mental, emotional, spiritual wholeness. Completeness. Head to toe, inside and out. Wholeness in our relationships with God and man, in our families and neighborhoods, in our jobs and recreation, with our health and finances. That’s true peace. A full, harmonious, joyful, flourishing life.

The world’s expression of peace is a wish or a longing. The peace of Christ is real and present. And we possess that peace today.

It’s not a self-satisfied peace that ignores suffering. It’s a compassionate peace that longs for God’s shalom to be present with everyone and works hard to bring that about.

Christ leaves us to be with the Father and sends us the Advocate, the Holy Spirit. And that constant presence of God, that guidance and comfort, direction and conviction, allows us to be at perfect peace with our Lord and his creation any place at any time. It doesn’t matter if we’re locked in a prison cell or in a frustrating marriage, whether we’re trapped in a bad job or a sick body. Jesus promises us that we are not alone. He is continually with us by his Spirit. And the everlasting gift of his Spirit that we experience even today is peace. Perfect peace.

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After winning their first two games by a combined score of 104-15, our Amarillo High School Sandies football team is ranked #6 in the state of Texas by the AP poll this week and #11 by the Harris. It’s the first time in twenty years AHS has been rated this high and everybody around here’s got a little touch of the Sandies Fever.

A true measure of the potential of this year’s team comes tonight in Wichita Falls against the Raiders of Rider High. Rider is ranked #5 in the Harris Poll and #1 in the state in PigskinPrep. They’re coming off a very impressive road win over Denton Ryan. They’ve got a running back who’s already committed to Ohio State. And they also throw the ball all over the place to five very talented receivers.

Last year’s game, here at Bivins Stadium, went down to the wire. Ryan Sluder caught a four-yard touchdown pass on fourth and goal with just over a minute to play to beat the Raiders 27-24. And Sluder has picked up right where he left off, already catching eight balls for three scores in the Sandies’ first two games this season.

In the interest of full disclosure, I actually worked in Wichita Falls for six months in 1999, during our painful, but necessary, transition from Memphis sports radio to Dallas sports radio. One of my many jobs at 990AM in Wichita Falls was play-by-play for the Rider Raiders football team. So, I’m familiar with Memorial Stadium. I know what “ROHO” stands for. And I know how to spell Rhudy Maskew.

This is going to be fun.

FYI: if you’re arriving late to the game or leaving early, the Sandies and Raiders will be broadcast in Wichita Falls on 103.9 FM. 990AM bit the dust a long time ago.

Blow, Sand, Blow!

Allan

We’re Not Alone

September 13, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Since our sins first separated us from our God, he has longed to live with us again. His covenant with us communicates our Father’s desire for intimate relationship with his people. From the Law (“I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people.” Leviticus 26:12) and the Prophets (“My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God and they will be my people.” Ezekiel 37:27) to the New Testament (“I will live with them and walk among them.” 2 Corinthians 6:16) through the end of time (“Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them.” Revelation 21:3),  the promise is that God will live with us.

The gift of God’s Holy Spirit is the ultimate fulfillment of those great covenant promises. God not only lives with his children, he actually dwells inside us! It doesn’t get any more intimate than that!

It’s Christ’s greatest gift to us as we wait for his triumphant return: the power of his actual presence inside us. God’s Holy Spirit is alive and powerful and real. He’s very real. And he lives inside all of us who confess Jesus as Lord and put our faith for salvation in God through Christ. The Holy Spirit lives within and moves about and works through the Church. And that actually scares some of us. That makes some of us nervous. Some of us might think we talk too much about the Holy Spirit or we rely too much on the Holy Spirit. Some of us are leery of that.

But those worries are unfounded. There is no need to be concerned. This is our heavenly Father we’re talking about. The One who is motivated solely by his great love for us. The One who acts only in our best interests.

Jesus promises around the dinner table on that last night to send the Spirit of Truth. And that is a wonderful blessing! Christ gives us the actual presence of God. He gives us unbridled access to the Father. For us, the presence of God is not an elusive thing way off in the clouds somewhere. It’s not to be sought at the top of a shaking and smoking mountain. It’s not hiding away in a faraway chapel or ancient church building on the other side of the world. God’s Spirit is not above us or beside us. He’s within us. He lives inside us. It doesn’t get any more relational or personal than that.

Peace,

Allan

 

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