Category: John (Page 25 of 31)

Anything is Possible

July 15, 2010 / Allan / 2 Comments

I’m convinced that Jesus looked at the people around him and thought, “Anything is possible.” I believe he regularly surveyed his circumstances and said, “Anything is possible.”

The Samaritan woman in John 4 drops her water jar and runs into town to tell everyone about Jesus. He had welcomed her. Jesus had accepted her. Even in her horrible sins, even with all her baggage, he had treated her with respect and dignity and hospitality. And this hopeless woman now had hope. This dead woman now had life. She’s redeemed. She’s reconciled. She’s saved. And it’s stunning to me that by the end of the story, the entire village of Sychar is taking their religious direction from the town sleaze! Anything’s possible! The way Jesus treated this one lonely woman rocked the whole city!

With Jesus, anything is possible.

The blind see, the lame walk, the prisoners are released, the dead are raised. The fisherman who betrays Jesus three times the night he’s arrested becomes a foundation stone for the eternal Church of God. The angry apostle who begs to call down fire to incinerate a whole village that rejects Christ winds up giving God’s people the most beautiful words about love ever written. The Church’s biggest enemy, the killer of Christians, becomes by the grace of God the Church’s greatest writer and preacher and church planter.

Anything is possible.

Zacchaeus is pulled out of a tree. Lazarus walks out of a tomb. Demons are sent back to hell. The hungry are fed. Money is found in a fish’s mouth. Doubting Thomas believes. Storms are stilled. The temple is cleared. Gentile jailers are baptized. And camels pass through the eye of a tiny needle.

We will never grow, we will never be transformed, we will never be moved, we will never live up to our God-ordained potential until we adopt the mind of Christ and begin to see and believe that anything is possible! It really is!

But, Allan, my church will never change.

Wrong answer! With Christ Jesus, anything is possible!

But, Allan, this world will never change.

Oh, no! With Jesus, anything is possible!

Allan, I don’t think I can ever change.

Are you kidding? Have you read the gospel story of salvation from God in Christ? Have you heard the good news? The almighty Creator of heaven and earth loves you! He welcomes you! He’s taken care of your sins! And it’s all very, very, very possible!

Peace,

Allan

Community Grace

June 24, 2010 / Allan / 3 Comments

I learned a lot in Kharkov, Ukraine. I learned that I can survive on Diet Coke when there’s no Diet Dr Pepper. I learned that I am the richest man most of the people I met will ever know in their lives. I learned that chicken-flavored potato chips are nasty, that the potholes out here on Cardinal Lane are nothing, and that no matter how many people are watching and cheering, soccer is still really boring. But this is perhaps the greatest lesson learned: We should never take for granted the great blessing we enjoy to be disciples of Jesus living with and among other disciples of Jesus.

Most Christians outside America know nothing first-hand about that experience. They live in isolation with family members who do not follow our Christ or in communities where the Son of God is not recognized, or worse, where followers of Jesus are persecuted for their beliefs and practices.

The physical presence of other Christians is a source of great joy and strength to a believer.

The imprisoned apostle Paul calls Timothy to come to him in the last days of his life. He remembers Timothy’s tears when they departed and longs to see his beloved son in the faith “that I may be filled with joy.” Remembering the saints in Thessalonica, Paul writes, “night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again.” John knows his joy will not be full until he can come to his own people and speak face to face with them instead of writing to them with ink “so that our joy may be complete.”

At times in their lives these great men of God did not have the fellowship with other believers that we enjoy daily, sometimes hourly. They longed for it. They relished it. They looked forward to it. And they savored it with great delight. Fellowship was everything. It’s what got them through.

We don’t value it nearly as much in this country because we can have it anytime we want. It’s always available to us. We don’t understand the importance of this fellowship with other followers. If we did, we’d have just as many people in our buildings on Wednesday evenings as we do on Sunday mornings. That’s the way it is in Kharkov. It’s unthinkable over there to miss a worship assembly. Or a birthday party in the park. Or a small group meeting. Or a prayer gathering. David and Olivia can announce a special meeting or assembly the day before it happens and every member of their core Christian community will be there. They don’t dare miss it. They need it.

I’m not trying to make anyone feel guilty. I want us all to understand the value of the gifts of fellowship in our Christian communities. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote this about Christian fellowship in his classic work on the community of faith, Life Together:

“What is an unspeakable gift of God for the lonely individual is easily disregarded and trodden under foot by those who have the gift everyday. It is easily forgotten that the fellowship of Christian brethren is a gift of grace, a gift of the Kingdom of God that any day may be taken away from us. Therefore, let him who has the privilege of living a common Christian life with other Christians praise God’s grace from the bottom of his heart. Let him thank God on his knees and declare: It is grace, nothing but grace, that we are allowed to live in community with Christian brethren.”

We live together in and through Christ Jesus. The fellowship we share together is only in and through our Lord and Savior. Christian friendships should be treasured, never assumed. Time together should be cherished, never avoided. Opportunities to be together should be seized, never scorned.

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Olivia has updated the Nelsons’ blog with a ton of pictures from our trip and lots of very, very nice things to say about us and Legacy and the work God is doing in Kharkov. Click here to read their latest post.

Go Frogs!

Allan

Badge Of Discipleship

May 17, 2010 / Allan / 0 Comments

“Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” ~Jesus, John 13:34-35

How do you know if a Christian is for real? How do you know if somebody’s a legitimate Christian? Who are the real disciples? How do we know?

In radio, they gave us huge badges with our pictures on them to identify us as legitimate members of the press. I belonged on the court before a Mavericks game or in the clubhouse after a Rangers game. I had the badge. I was authentic. I had the proof that I was who I said I was.

Teachers in our schools wear ID badges. Police officers and delivery truck drivers, doctors and jurors and the kid operating the roller coaster at Six Flags. You may be wearing one at work today. The badges identify us as the people we claim to be. It clears up any doubts. It answers all the questions.

How do you know if a Christian is for real?

“By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Baptism is not the badge of true discipleship. A certain worship style is not the mark of a Christian. Neither is the name of your church or its leadership structure or your opinion on the hot church issue of the day. The authenticity of a follower of Jesus is proven by his love for others. Genuine love. Sincere love. Self-giving, sacrificial love. The kind of love Paul describes in Romans 12:9. Unhypocritical love. That’s how people know.

It’s not baptism. We all know people who’ve been baptized who aren’t living for Christ, right? It’s not church. You and I both know people who are at church all the time who are filled with anger and bitterness and hate.

The world looks at our love to determine whether we’re for real. And so does Jesus.

You can be baptized, you can claim Christ as Lord, you can sit in the pews four times a week. Without love for others, though, you’re a liar. And everybody knows it. It’s like walking into the Cowboys lockerroom without a badge. You stick out as an imposter.

You might say, “love is not the only badge of discipleship, Allan.” And you’d be right. It’s not. But it is the most important one. It’s the primary one. Without it, the others don’t mean a thing. John couldn’t be more clear: If you don’t love your brother, you’re not a child of God (1 John 3:10). If you don’t love your brother in need with actions instead of words, the love of God is not in you (1 John 3:17-18).

Authentic love — agape without hypocrisy — is the thing that characterizes children of God. And it’s the thing that characterizes the Christian community. It marks us as disciples.

“Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply from the heart.” ~1 Peter 1:22

Peace,

Allan

Deal or No Deal

May 14, 2010 / Allan / 0 Comments

Jesus called Simon and his brother Andrew. “At once” they dropped their nets and followed him. The woman at the Samaritan well dropped her water jar to respond to Christ’s call. The man in the Gerasenes enthusiastically jumped in the boat with Jesus upon being cleansed. When he received his sight, Bartimaeus “immediately” leapt up to follow Jesus on the way.

Over and over again the clear and consistent portrait of true discipleship to Jesus is painted as a relationship on Christ’s terms, not on the terms or conditions of Christ’s followers. Bargaining with God is NOT the all-in submission for which our Savior is looking. The Gospels are full of these would-be-disciples:

“IF you’ll give me a nice place to live, THEN I’ll follow you.”

“IF I can take care of my business first, THEN I’ll follow you.”

“IF you let me deal with my family issues first, THEN I’ll follow you.”

“IF you allow me to hang on to my worldly possessions, THEN I’ll follow you.”

In each case, it’s a deal-breaker with Jesus. We don’t negotiate with God. We don’t put conditions on Christ. This is not a game show. It’s life and death. It’s heaven and hell. It’s salvation and judgment and relationship and atonement and sanctification. It’s eternal. We give ourselves wholly to him as a response to his complete service and sacrifice for us. No looking back. Brakes off. Full steam ahead.

That’s the deal.

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Thank you so much to every single person who donated this week to MDA. We wound up raising a total of $1,105 for clinics and shots and treatments and evaluations and therapy and equipment repairs and camps. I was taken away in the back seat of an unmarked car at noon yesterday and made it back to the church offices, full of barbecue and a couple of funny stories, by 1:30. Thank you, again. Your good-natured ribbing was wonderful. Your open heart for generously giving to those in need was inspirational.

I’m going to leave the link to my MDA page over there on the right side of the blog for 30 more days. If you’d like to add to the total and help me meet my actual goal of $1,480, just click over there.

I met a couple of kids at the Lock-Up who are suffering with Muscular Dystrophy and I wished them God’s richest blessings for healing and comfort and peace. But my thoughts were and still are with Angela Giles. May our merciful Father bless you, Angela, with his gracious healing and comfort and peace.

We love you,

Allan

As God Has Done Unto You

February 23, 2010 / Allan / 1 Comment

Jesus says the Golden Rule — Do unto others as you would have them do unto you — actually sums up the Law and the Prophets. But I think there’s a much bigger idea at work throughout all of Scripture. Our foundational motivation, our guiding principle as God’s holy people is “Do unto others as God has done unto you.”

“Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” ~ Colossians 3:13

“Accept one another as Christ accepted you.” ~Romans 15:7

“Love one another as I have loved you.” ~John 15:12

The key is in my understanding that God has treated me in ways I absolutely do not deserve. That’s the most basic part of this. It all falls apart without that genuine realization. It doesn’t work.

How much has God forgiven you? Everything. Everything? Yeah, everything. Is there anything he hasn’t forgiven you of? No. Nothing? Nothing. He’s really forgiven you of everything? Yes, everything. You deserve it? No.

“Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”

Has Christ accepted you? Oh, yeah. Without a doubt, I belong to him. Really? You belong to Jesus? Yes, sir, he’s accepted me. And you were perfect when he accepted you? Um, no. You weren’t perfect? No. Not even close. But he still accepted you? Yeah. Well, how bad were you? Pretty bad. But you never intentionally sinned, right? Oh, no, there were plenty of intentional sins. You had hurt Jesus with your words? Oh, yeah, plenty of times. You had disappointed him with your actions? All the time. Lousy attitude? Selfish pride? Stubbornness? Yes, all those things. Sin? Yes, I’m a sinner. I was a sinner when I met Jesus. I hadn’t been following him or listening to him or obeying him. I was a sinner. But he still accepted you? Yes. Did you deserve it? No.

“Accept one another as Christ accepted you.”

Does Jesus love you? Yes. How much? A bunch. A ton. How do you know? How do you know he loves you so much? He died for me. What’s that? He died for me. He died for you? Yeah, he died for me. How did he die? Look, he left everything he had in heaven by the Father’s side; he left his glory and his power and his authority; he left his prestige and position and status; he left his home; he gave up everything to come to earth and suffer horribly and die in agony and pain like a criminal on a cross! He did that for you? Yeah. He must love you a lot. Yes, he does. You deserve that kind of love? No. Not even close.

“Love one another as I have loved you.”

See, if we think we deserve God’s forgiveness, if we believe that we have lived in such a way or have worked in such a way as to actually merit Christ’s acceptance, if we suppose we’ve earned the right to God’s love, we’ll only show that same kind of love and acceptance and forgiveness to people we think deserve it. I’ll judge people as worthy or not of my acceptance. I’ll forgive people only as I deem them forgiveable. I’ll love only those I want to love.

Do unto others as God has done unto you. It’s basic.

Why do we miss it?

Peace,

Allan

Fertilize Somebody

February 10, 2010 / Allan / 0 Comments

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” ~John 1:14

Eugene Peterson translates this well-known verse as “The Word became flesh and moved into the neighborhood.”

What does it mean for the Holy Son of God to become flesh and live with us? What does it mean for God himself to walk our streets, to eat our food, to breathe our air, to hug our kids, so suffer and die for us — suffer and die with us?

It means everything! The Incarnation of God means everything in that it shows the lengths he goes to redeem us and provide for us what we cannot provide ourselves. It means everything in that he was not content to save us from his throne in heaven. Our Father came here, where we are, to experience everything we experience. He brought heaven down to us.

And we’re commissioned by our baptisms into the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus to do the same thing. We walk the streets with our neighbors. We share meals with the homeless. We breathe the air in the government housing apartments. We hug the kids at Fortress and Walker Creek Elementary. We suffer with those in the hospitals. And we die everyday for and with the orphan, the widow, and the stranger in the gate.

Luis Palau says the Church is like manure: Pile it up together and it stinks up the neighborhood; spread it out and it enriches the world.

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Jenny Bizaillion is doing so much better today. She’s down to just one blood pressure medicine now and her numbers are doing OK. Her breathing is better. Her color is better. In fact, they are actually going to take her off the ventilator at 8:00 tomorrow morning. They’re going to wake her up. The doctors have told David and Rick and Beverly that they really can’t explain Jenny’s improvement over the past 48 hours but whatever the family’s doing, keep it up.

The family. That’s all of us. You, too. And we’re not doing anything. Our God is doing it all. Give him praise for Jenny’s improved health. And keep praying that our merciful Father will fully restore her with strength and healing.

“Say to God, ‘How awesome are your deeds!
So great is your power that your enemies [flu, pneumonia, disease, fear, death] cringe before you.
All the earth bows down to you;
they sing praise to you,
they sing praise to your name.’
Come and see what God has done,
how awesome his works in [Jenny’s] behalf.”
~Psalm 66:3-5

Peace,

Allan

Category: John (Page 25 of 31)

Anything is Possible

Community Grace

Badge Of Discipleship

Deal or No Deal

As God Has Done Unto You

Fertilize Somebody

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