Category: John (Page 28 of 30)

Love Each Other

July 23, 2009 / Allan / 0 Comments

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

I’m blown away by the fact that Jesus showed his apostles how much he loved them by washing their feet the night he was betrayed. The Lord and Master of all got up from the meal, took off his coat, wrapped a towel around his waist, poured water into a bowl, and washed their feet.

He washed their feet.

The King of the Universe knelt down and scrubbed 120 filthy, stinky, sweaty, dirty, disgusting toes. And all the stuff in-between the toes. He even washed the feet of Judas.

Knowing what Judas was planning to do — what he was about to do — Jesus still humbles himself and washes his feet. Jesus loves Judas that much. And then hours later he dies for Judas, this one who betrayed him. He dies for Peter, this one who denied him. He dies for all the apostles who fled and disowned him. He dies for the Jews who demanded he be killed. He dies for the Romans who carried out the execution. He dies for me, who’s just as guilty as any of these men in Scripture.

That’s a Savior’s love. No ifs, ands, or buts. Jesus never says I’ll love you if you treat me right. He doesn’t say I’ll love you when you get your act together. He doesn’t say I’ll love you when you grow up. Jesus’ love is not conditioned by right behavior or a good performance. It’s not based on your IQ or money or skin color or clothes or education or bloodline or status. Jesus actually says I’ll die for you when you’re my enemy. I’ll serve you while you’re sinning against me. I’ll give my life for you when you’re only thinking of yourself.

Because I love you this much.

And then he says, “Love each other as I have loved you.”

We don’t think about that enough. We don’t take it seriously enough.

Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 13 that love is more important than preaching and giving and good works. Incredibly, he even says love is bigger than faith and hope. And if love is really more important than those things, then our conclusion must be that love is more important than everything. Love trumps our worship assemblies and worship styles. Love is bigger than our business meetings and budgets. It’s bigger than our doctrine and our tradition. Love is bigger and more important than any thing else out there that could ever possibly divide us.

If so — and I believe it with all my heart — then why aren’t we as committed to loving each other as we are to those other things that divide us and lead to arguing and fighting? Seriously. If love is the most important thing — and if you don’t believe that, then we’re not reading the same Bible — why do we fuss and complain?

As children of God and disciples of his Son, we must place unconditional, God-ordained love in the supreme position of our hearts and our minds and our church. All of our time and energy and strength should go into loving each other as Christ loves us.

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52 days until the Cowboys begin their 2009 regular season against the Bucs in Tampa Bay. Of course, training camp and pre-season games are right around the corner. But, honestly, who can watch that? We’re all pointing to Sunday September 13. And to help us get there, we’re recognizing the second-best players in Cowboys history according to jersey number.

Today’s #52 is tiny linebacker Dexter Coakley.

OK, he’s not exactly tiny. 5’10” and 236 pounds is good for a small 1-AA school like Appalachian State. And despite setting all kinds of national tackle and interception records there and winning every defensive award there was, Coakley slipped all the way to the Cowboys in the third round of the 1997 draft.

And they got a steal.

Coakley wound up starting in his rookie year and played eight seasons in Dallas before giving way to Bradie James and Bill Parcells’ 3-4 defense. He was named to three Pro Bowls playing on a Cowboys defense that was built on speed and pursuit. And he wound up all over the Cowboys team record books. Coakley racked up a team record seven consecutive seasons of at least 100 tackles. He’s got the fourth highest total tackles record in team history with 1,046. And he’s tied with Dennis Thurman for the most defensive TDs in a Cowboys career with five.

Despite his size, Coakley was durable, too. In his eight seasons in Dallas, he only missed one game. He started all 127 games he played for the Cowboys. None of those games, by the way, were playoff wins. But he’s still the second-best #52 in Cowboys history.

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I’m still looking for information regarding the commemorative patch the Cowboys are going to wear on their uniforms this season to mark their 50th year. Anyone with info on that?

I’m also thrilled to share this bit of news with you: the NFL is going to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the old AFL all year long. The original eight teams of the old American Football League will wear 1960 throwback unis for three games this season, several of them matchups between AFL alums. Of great interest to me is the old Houston Oilers. Yes, the Titans are going to throw on light blue jerseys with light blue helmets and white derrick logos and gray facemasks for three games this season. Plus, they get the bonus game at the Hall of Fame on August 9. I can’t wait to see that.

Of course, the Jets will be sporting their New York Titans uniforms and logos this year. And the Boston Patriots will be giving us the classic triangle-hat wearing-Revolution-soldier-snapping-the-ball look on their helmets.

The Cowboys will also be involved in something pretty neat. When they travel to Kansas City to take on the Chiefs, they’ll actually be lining up against the old Dallas Texans. The Chiefs will be wearing bright red jerseys and helmets with the all-white Texas-shaped decal, including the gold star that designates the location of Dallas. Some Chiefs fans are upset that their team will be wearing a huge map of Texas on their hats this year, especially in a game against the Cowboys. But I think it’s super cool. The Cowboys and Texans never played a regular season game against each other before Lamar Hunt moved his team to Kansas City. Too bad this one’s at Arrowhead and not at the Cotton Bowl.

Peace,

Allan

Pruning Pains

July 16, 2009 / Allan / 0 Comments

“I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener….every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.” ~John 15:2

What about this pruning? Trimming back parts of the healthy branch to make sure the greatest energy of the branch goes into making bigger and better fruit? Cutting parts of the branch in an effort to produce more quantity and quality?

Ouch.

If the branches of the vine could speak, they’d tell us, yes, it’s painful. Yeah, it hurts to be cut. But they’d also rejoice because they’re able now to produce more and better fruit as a result of that painful pruning.

I can look back on my life and see how God has pruned me. You can, too. I can feel, I can point to, even now — this past week, today — things God is using to prune me, to trim away distractions, to really focus my life. Let’s not ever forget — and I need to be reminded of this all the time — that God uses painful and unpleasant things to prune us.

“You have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: ‘My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.’ Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons.” ~Hebrews 12:5-7

What’s keeping you from bearing fruit? What is it in your life that’s distracting you or gets in the way of producing righteous fruit? Now, how is the gardener working, today, to prune it away?

Our trials and tough times need to always be appreciated as part of God’s pruning process. Pruning is the gardener’s job. And we need it. We don’t ignore it or curse it. And we shouldn’t be surprised by it. We grow from it.

John Bunyan wrote: “There are those that grow ill and well again like beasts, learning nothing from it.”

Let’s not let that be us. Submit to God’s pruning. And learn and grow. It’s a sure sign that God has accepted you and is actively working to transform you more into the image of his Son.

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We’re into the linebackers now as our countdown to Cowboys season heads into the 50s. There are 59 days left until the Cowboys kick off their historic 50th NFL season. And our Red Ribbon Review honors the second-best players in Cowboys history according to jersey number.

Today’s #59 is the first Vietnamese-American to ever play in the NFL, Aggies linebacker Dat Nguyen. Highly decorated in the Big XII and across the nation — he still holds the A&M record for career tackles at 517 — Nguyen was still considered too small to be an impact player in the pros. So he slipped all the way to the third round where the Cowboys selected him in 1999. Nguyen led the Cowboys in special team tackles that rookie year. And by the middle of his second season, he had become the starter at middle linebacker.

A variety of injuries, mainly a neck injury in 2005, forced his retirement after just seven seasons. But Nguyen wound up with 665 total tackles and seven interceptions for his Cowboys career, including 172 stops in 2001, the second-highest season total in team history. His hustle and determination and huge smile made him a fan favorite. His work ethic and brains have made him a current Cowboys assistant coach. (His involvement in Michael Irvin’s “Fourth and Long” causes me to question his brains. And the advice he’s getting from counselors.)

I was there in the Dome, on the sidelines in St. Louis as a sports talk show host at WHBQ in Memphis, when Dat’s Aggies came from 17 down to beat K-State in double OT for the Big XII Championship. And I was hosting a morning show on KTUB in Wichita Falls by the summer of ’99 when Dat made his Cowboys debut there at training camp at Midwestern State. Super nice guy. And the second-best #59 in Cowboys history.

Peace,

Allan

Never See Death

July 9, 2009 / Allan / 0 Comments

Why doesn’t the roadrunner ever die? I’ve watched the coyote chase him all over the desert, I’ve seen him ALMOST caught by the coyote a million times, I’ve seen him in countless situations that look impossible to escape, but I’ve never seen him die. He always lives. Why?

It’s not because the coyote is inept. He’s a genius. It says so right on his business card.

The roadrunner never dies because the roadrunner has an agreement with the writer.

The writer has already determined that the roadrunner will never die. Regardless of how many trips the coyote makes to the ACME dry goods store, no matter how many rocket launchers and catapults and gallons of invisible paint are purchased, despite the coyote’s hours and hours of planning and scheming, the writer has decided the roadrunner will always win and the coyote will always lose.

Jesus says in John 8:51, “I tell you the truth, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.”

See, our Savior holds the power of life and death in his hands. He is the Creator of life. He is the master over death. He’s defeated death in his Resurrection. Death has nothing on our Lord. He obliterated death and reversed death’s effects. And he promises us that if we believe his claims and keep his word, we will never die.

If we truly believe it, our lives will show it. Our attitudes will reflect it. The ways we deal with people and events and circumstances will prove it. The way we handle financial crises and health issues and death and disease will testify to our life in Christ. God’s Son personifies life and victory and resurrection as powerful realities for his children. Death is not the bottom line for us. Death is not the final word. Christ Jesus is the ultimate power with the ultimate authority. And he always writes the last chapter.

It’s good to have an arrangement with the writer.

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Mary Hollingsworth, one of our newer members here at Legacy, is seeing sermon illustrations in her back yard. Our focus this past Sunday on the holy stumps and the holy seed and the salvation shoot prompted Mary to email me yesterday with a couple of pictures and this message:

“Last year a tornado in Bedford broke two of our huge oak trees in half, leaving only stumps. We thought they were toast and gone forever, which broke our hearts because we’re tree huggers to the core. I’m happy to say that we were wrong. Both stumps are now growing like crazy. ‘A new branch will grow from a stump of a tree.’ It’s still happening! And even though I know the Root of Jesse has already come, he does promise to come again. Perhaps these new branches are good reminders for us to keep growing, in spite of tough times, and be ready when he appears again.”

Thank you, Mary, for the pictures and the reminders.

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There are 66 days left until the Cowboys kick off their 50th NFL football season in Tampa Bay against the Bucs. And to get us there, we’re counting it down with the Red Ribbon Review. We’re honoring the runners-up, the almost-weres, the also rans, the second-best players in Cowboys history according to jersey number.

Today’s #66 is versatile offensive lineman Kevin Gogan. A bargain as an eighth round pick (206th overall) in 1987, Gogan toughed it out through those last two horrible Tom Landry seasons and the transitional phase into the Jerry Wayne Era, resulting in two Super Bowl rings and a huge fat contract with the Oakland Raiders. Gogan spent seven years in Dallas, but he got all his Pro Bowls and national recognition with the 49ers. At one point late in his career, Sports Illustrated put Gogan on the cover of an issue dedicated to dirty players in the NFL. Again, in a 49ers uniform. Still, he beats out Burton Lawless and Jesse Baker. He’s the second-best ever.

Beep-Beep,

Allan

Death Defeaters

July 1, 2009 / Allan / 0 Comments

Picture the cemetery scene in John 11: the hysterical wailing and shrieking; unrestrained weeping and the chaos that must have been; the stench that was coming from more than one body in that dug out tomb; the utter hopelessness of the situation.

The hopelessness of the people.

Martha says, “Jesus if you had only been here…but there’s nothing you can do now.” Mary says, “If you had only been here, Jesus…but it’s too late now.” The friends and the mourners say, “What a shame Jesus didn’t get here sooner to keep Lazarus from dying.”

All hope for Lazarus — this great friend, this brother — is gone because he’s dead.

But Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life. Christ is the One who personifies victory and life and resurrection as powerful realities. And he’s standing right there! He’s angry at what death has done — and is doing — to his people, to his world, to his creation. His tears are not for Lazarus. He knows he’s coming up. Jesus’ tears, I’m convinced, are connected to deep anger. This scene is the result of sin and death. And Jesus is there — he’s here! — to reverse the damage.

They tell Jesus they believe. But they look at dead Lazarus and they feel hopelessness. It’s over. There’s no hope for Lazarus because he’s dead. They’re not expecting anything.

Satan uses our fear of death as a terrible weapon against us. Hebrews 2:15 says the devil holds the power of death and holds us in slavery by our fear of death. No wonder Jesus is so upset! He sees in this Bethany cemetery the ravages and devastation of sin and death and Satan in the people and the world he created.

Death is the enemy. But it’s no match for the Lord of Life. He tells the sisters the sickness will not end in death. He tells his disciples he’s going to wake Lazarus up. He tells Martha her brother will rise again. Even if you die, he says, if you believe in me you’ll live.

With Christ Jesus, death does not have the last word. Death does not have the final say. Death is not the bottom line. The Lord of Life is the ultimate power with the ultimate authority.

And as resurrected believers, we ought to live like it.

Afraid of death? No! Jesus has overcome death!

Dragged down by sickness or the other things that afflict us in this earthly life? No! Jesus has already defeated those things.

Is your hope stolen away by sin, by bad choices, by the destructive things you’ve experienced? No! Jesus has already obliterated it all.

So, why don’t we live like it? That’s what has Jesus so upset, that Satan causes the bad things that happen to us in this world to distract us from the reality that in Christ, we’ve already defeated all of it.

We are death-defeaters in Jesus. It’s already done. As baptized participants in the resurrection community, death has nothing on us now. And neither does sin.

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The Dallas Cowboys claim they don’t retire jersey numbers. But they do. Yes, there are some members of the hallowed Ring of Honor who have seen their numbers worn by other Cowboys. And that’s OK. But, whether they admit it or not, there are some numbers — an exclusive two or three — that are just sacred. They should be retired. And they are. Whether the Cowboys call it that or not, they are. #12 is one of those numbers. And so is #74.

So there’s no #74 in our Red Ribbon Review today. Only one player has ever donned that number in Cowboys history. And I will not desecrate him or his name by mentioning him in this space.

There are 74 days left until Cowboys season. But you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to get a second-best player.

Peace,

Allan

Motivation & Track Record

June 24, 2009 / Allan / 0 Comments

Is Jesus trustworthy? He tells us to trust him. “Trust God; trust also in me.” He tells his disciples to trust him, even as he’s preparing to leave them. Can we trust him? Is he trustworthy?

Well, what’s his motivation? What drives Jesus? What does he want from me? Why does he want a relationship with me? What moves him to act on my behalf?

Love.

Pure, unlimited, unconditional, boundless, selfless, sacrificial love. Love. How long and high and wide and deep is this love? This love that surpasses knowledge. This love of Christ that can’t be overcome by death or life or trouble or hardship or angels or demons or any of that other stuff listed in Romans 8. Love. Love for you and me that is so great it compelled Jesus to give up everything to die on the cross.

Jesus doesn’t want your money. Jesus doesn’t want your house or your car. He’s not trying to take what’s yours and make it his. Jesus has never one time ever done anything in his own self interest. Never. He gave up all his rights, all his privilege, his status, his glory, his wants, needs, desires. He gave up everything, freely, willingly, because he loves us.

Now, what about his track record? To me, that’s the ultimate test of someone’s trustworthiness. Character. Integrity. Our past together. His track record. And each one of us has our own experiences with God’s Son. But I’ll share mine.

Everytime he’s ever warned me that something is harmful to me by calling it sin, he’s been exactly right. Every time. When his words tell me to make the better and tougher choice, he’s been right. Every time. When he tells me he’ll take care of me, that I’ll always have everything I need, he’s been right. Every time. He’s always right. He’s never been wrong. Sometimes it takes years to see it. But he’s always right. I look back at some of the rougher times in my life with Christ and I see clearly that things couldn’t have gone any other way.

Jesus says, “Trust me.”

And we don’t have to. We’re free to give in to our doubts and cynicism and skepticism and live our lives that way. We can. Some of us are. Or we can leap out in faith into his waiting and trustworthy arms.

Peace,

Allan

My Food

June 8, 2009 / Allan / 0 Comments

“My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.” ~John 4:34

Jesus says these words in the context of his encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well. She had come looking for water. But Jesus talked to her about living water. He visited with her about eternal life. He envisioned for her a genuine relationship with God based on spirit and truth. He met her needs. Not her physical needs. Not her culturally-defined needs. He met her eternal needs for love and grace, mercy and compassion, forgiveness and restoration and salvation.

That’s my food, Jesus says. That’s my passion. That’s my calling. That’s what sustains me. That’s what keeps me going. That’s my calling. That’s how I live.

Jesus says, that’s my need. To seek and save the lost.

If we’re not careful, we can give in to the temptation to give people what they want, not what they need. It’s actually a lot easier to give people what the culture tells them they need than what Holy Scripture says they need. And if we’re not careful, our focus can become all about using more media, initiating more programs, hiring more ministers, building bigger buildings, starting new focus groups, and forming more committees to offer people what they can already get at NorthEast Mall.

If God’s Church can’t offer the world something the world can’t already get at Wal-Mart or Six Flags or Chuck E. Cheese, than God’s Church is not meeting needs The Jesus Way.

Jesus has met our deepest eternal needs, the Jesus Way, by dying on a cross to redeem us from our sins and then breathing into our nostrils his resurrection. Our food — my food — is to do the will of him who saved us by meeting the deep eternal needs of our community the Jesus Way.

Peace,

Allan

Category: John (Page 28 of 30)

Love Each Other

Pruning Pains

Never See Death

Death Defeaters

Motivation & Track Record

My Food

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