Category: Love (Page 6 of 9)

Forever Loved by God

January 18, 2017 / Allan / 0 Comments

In all the chaotic mess of uncertainty that swirls around us and, at times, threatens to overwhelm us, there is one thing we know for sure. There is one indisputable, undeniable truth that always has been, is today, and will be forever:

We are loved by God.

We know we are loved by God because of the past. God created us in love. Christ Jesus came to earth to live and die and was raised again because he loves us. We know we are loved by God because of the present. God lives inside us and empowers us. He protects us and guides us by his Holy Spirit. And we know we are loved by God because of the future. We look forward to that future with great anticipation when, at the end of time, we’ll experience forever the incredible joy of face-to-face communion with our Father and God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth.

Those great blessings of divine love are experienced every day in our Christian community. We are initiated by our baptisms into a fellowship of mutual love and selfless service for one another. And that message of love is proclaimed to the whole world out of our deep relationships with each other.

We don’t know what’s going to happen with the federal government on Friday. We don’t know when we’re going to die. You don’t know exactly what’s going on with your neighbors, your news organizations, your kids, or your investments. But you do know without a doubt that you are loved. You are forever loved by God.

Peace,

Allan

The Love of God and Your Group

January 4, 2017 / Allan / 1 Comment

Idolatry of self is a root problem that keeps us from a supreme devotion and love of God. But a sin that’s just as dangerous, if not more so, is group narcissism. Idolatry of the group. Whatever the group — a political group, a religious group, a racial group — it’s an idol if it steals any of your allegiance away from God. A political party, a nation, a socio-economic group, a language, a Christian denomination — any man or woman belonging to any group is at least susceptible to thinking his group is superior to all other groups. My race is superior, my political party is righteous, my church is correct, my nation is best. If we’re not careful — better, if we’re not diligent — our devotion to a group can very easily compromise or even displace our primary love for God. When God’s platform comes into conflict with the group’s platform, we’re tempted to uphold the values and methods of the group over the ways and means and values of our God.

And they will come into conflict.

In fact, loving God is a gigantic threat to group narcissism. The groups can’t handle it. To love God first and most is to say there is another Power, there is a greater Authority, there is another One to whom all groups must bow. That flies right in the face of the idolatrous values of our society.

As disciples of the Christ, we declare that God has no equal, he has no peer. God alone is God. We cannot seek to find our worth or our identities by rooting ourselves in ethnic or political or geographic groups. We find our true identity in loving God. Period.

Loving God first will always mean loving others, too. It will always lead to loving our neighbors as we love ourselves. That’s not going to sit well with your “group,” either. This is why followers of Jesus can’t base their value on the political or social or cultural groups of the world: selfless, sacrificial love has almost nothing in common with the strategies and goals of the world’s groups. In fact, the two exist in constant conflict.

When Jesus tells us to love our neighbors as ourselves, we’ve got to remember that Jesus ate and drank with lepers and prostitutes. He spent his time taking care of the foreigners and the poor. He protected the vulnerable people on the margins and stood by those who had been accused. Jesus reminds us of the command to not kill and then he says, “You’re not even supposed to get angry.” He tells us when somebody hits me in the face, I’m supposed to turn the other cheek. He tells us not just to tolerate our enemies, but to actually love our enemies.

These are fierce teachings. This is a very difficult way to live. Christ Jesus has put before us a very hard path, a path that few have really tried to follow. To paraphrase Chesterton: “Christianity has not been tried and found lacking; it’s been found difficult and never really tried.”

It’s been so loud in this country lately, so angry and mean and hateful and loud, the idea of loving others has mostly been set aside.

“If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us…” ~1 John 4:15-17

The life-giving love that begins with the Creator flows to the Son. Jesus then takes that love and showers it upon us. And he tells us to show that same divine love to others. This heavenly love is completed, it’s fulfilled, when we give it to others. We’re the last link in this eternal chain of love. God’s love has not fulfilled its purpose, it’s not finished, until it’s coursing through his people and being lavished on every man, woman, and child around us.

God is not a man. He is not a state. God is not an institution or a party or a possession. He is the divine Creator and Father of us all. And he calls us to share his limitless love extravagantly with everybody.

Love doesn’t tear down, it builds up. It never divides, it always unites. It’s not terrified by terrorism. It doesn’t hate those outside the group. And love does not follow leaders or groups who promote hate and bigotry and division and violence as a way to get things accomplished.

Whatever you do as a child of God and follower of Jesus, make sure you love. If anybody tells you to do otherwise; if you get any email insisting that you forward something that’s not loving; if any leader or group urges you to act in any way toward anybody that’s not loving; you know that person or that group is not under the influence of the Holy Spirit.

Don’t let anybody ever stop you from loving. Don’t let anybody kill your love for anybody. Love everybody whether they like it or not. Love the people you’re told not to love. If you let anyone or anything keep you from loving, you’re cutting off the proof and the expression of God’s nature in your body and soul.

Peace,

Allan

The Communion of Saints

September 29, 2016 / Allan / 0 Comments

“We believe in the holy, universal Church, the communion of saints.” ~Apostles’ Creed

The Scriptures make it very clear that if we are one with Christ we are also one with each other. Communion. Fellowship. Sharing. God through Christ restores us into a righteous relationship with him and then, out of that, into a deep and rich life together with one another.

“In Christ, we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” ~Romans 12:5

God brings us together in his Church and he puts us with people who bug us. He puts us in close proximity to people who irritate us. He puts us with sinful people who bother us and, at the same time, my sinfulness is bothering all those people. But it’s through these close relationships with people who are different from us that we’ll be sanctified. We’ll be made holy.

There are at least 59 times the New Testament uses the phrase “one another” or “each other” in describing how we’re supposed to live. In the Church. Plural. Us.

Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. Live in harmony with one another. Accept one another as Christ accepted you. Instruct one another. When you come together to eat, wait for each other. Have equal concern for each other. Serve one another in love. Greet one another with a holy kiss (3x). Carry each other’s burdens. Be patient, bearing with one another in love. Be kind and compassionate to one another. Forgive each other. Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. In humility, consider others better than yourselves. Bear with each other. Forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Teach one another. Admonish one another. Make you love increase and overflow for each other. Love each other (13x). Encourage each other (2x). Build each other up. Encourage one another (2x). Spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Confess your sins to each other. Pray for each other. Love one another deeply, from the heart. Live in harmony with one another. Offer hospitality to one another….

There are several more, but you get the idea. You can’t work all of that out just by showing up at the church building for an hour and a half on Sunday mornings. If your experience with God’s Church is nothing more than listening to a sermon and getting a crumb and a sip and see-you-next-Sunday, that is not the fullness of what God wants for you in Christ.

We need each other. We need that deep communion.

You need me. Whether you want to admit it or not, you need me. You need me to remind you of how much you are loved by our God. You need me to challenge you and stretch you. And I need you. I desperately need you to encourage me. I need you to keep me straight.

To be saved is not just to go to heaven when I die. Being saved means being in a new relationship with God and with fellow Christians in the community of God’s people right here and now. How can I know that the love and forgiveness of God in Christ are real if I don’t experience them in communion with God’s people? How can I be a Christian if I don’t participate in the life and work of the community gathered by God and empowered by his Spirit to share his love with others?

Whoever tries to do without Church tries to do without Christ. Whoever is too good or too “spiritual” for the Church — with all its faults and weaknesses — is too good or too “spiritual” for Jesus himself and the Father who sent him and the Holy Spirit who continues his salvation work.

The Church in all of its eternal glory, in all of its beauty and truth and power, is right in front of us. It’s right here, all around us. But we miss it. We miss it because we’re only looking at the surface and the immediate. We look at the Church like people started it and people are running it. We look at the Church and we evaluate it as if it were my church or even our church. We make judgments based on the narrowest and most self-centered of criteria.

You know, this is God’s Church. He started it and he’s running it. And he puts us all together just like he planned. God did this. He has arranged us, every one of us, just as he wanted us to be.

And these people… some I like more than others. Some of them I wouldn’t choose to be on a 5th grade kickball team. But if I invest my life together with these people, then by the grace of God he will transform us more and more into what we really are: the holy, universal Church, the communion of saints.

Peace,

Allan

Maundy Means Commands

March 24, 2016 / Allan / 0 Comments

Today is Maundy Thursday, the day Christians all over the world remember the events of the night our Lord Jesus was betrayed by his disciples. Yeah, remember, it wasn’t just Judas who betrayed Jesus; he was just the only one who got paid. They all fled that night when things got hairy. They all abandoned Jesus (Well, the guys did. According to the Gospels, the women were the only ones who did not flee the scene. They stood by their man, as it were, through the trials, the suffering, the crucifixion, and the burial).

The word “Maundy” is from a Latin word that means “commands.” That word has been used by Christians to describe that last night for centuries because Jesus gave his followers several commands during that last meal:

“Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.” ~John 13:14-15

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” ~John 13:34

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

Today is a day of solemn remembrance. Easter Sunday — I can’t wait for Easter, I love Easter, Resurrection! — is a day for exuberant celebration. But Maundy Thursday is for individual and corporate reflection. Inspection. Introspection. How have I betrayed my Lord? Am I keeping his commands? In what ways do I continually deny my Savior?

He told his disciples that night around the table to remain in his love, to obey his commands. At a meal together, he asked them to obey his commands just as he had obeyed the commands of the Father. And then he says it: My command is that you love each other as I have loved you. You’re my friends, he says, if you do what I command (John 15:9-14).

Are we obeying his primary command to love each other? Are we showing Christ Jesus’ sacrificial, servant-hearted, selfless love to other followers? Or do we betray our Lord and disobey his command by judging other disciples and withdrawing from other followers? Are we loving and serving all Christians as Jesus commanded, as he prayed to our Father on that dark night we would, or do we only love and serve Christians who think and behave exactly like we do? Do we reject Jesus’ command by criticizing other churches, even condemning them, because we have different understandings or different practices?

Here at Central, we’re trying to love all Christians in Amarillo the way Jesus showed us during that last meal on that Thursday night. We’re trying to be sacrificial. We’re trying to be servants. We’re trying to come closer together with other Christians. We’re trying to erase the man-made lines of distinction and focus on the many, many things we all have in common in our Lord Jesus. No judgments. No criticisms. More grace. More forgiveness. More service. More love. We’re not perfect at this yet; nobody’s arrived. But we’re trying.

Tonight, our church family joins with our brothers and sisters at First Baptist, First Presbyterian, and Polk Street Methodist for a time of worship and communion with each other and with our risen and coming Lord. We’re going to reflect together. We’re going to inspect our lives together. We’re going to eat and drink together. And we’re going to commit to the Maundy Thursday spirit of paying attention to Jesus’ commands. And obeying them.

Peace,

Allan

The What, Not the Why

September 16, 2015 / Allan / 0 Comments

For the past two thousand years, we’ve developed dozens of theories as to why Jesus had to suffer and die on the cross to forgive our sins. The ransom theory says Jesus had to die to pay our debt of sin. The substitution theory is that Jesus took our rightful place on the cross. Propitiation says God’s wrath had to be satisfied so Jesus took the brunt of God’s holy anger instead of us. I could go on. There are lots of atonement theologies.

The New Testament itself uses legal language and sacrificial imagery, military terms and financial lingo, all kinds of different ways to try to explain what Jesus did on the cross. But in Scripture, in the Story, it’s not about what Jesus had to do, it’s only about what Jesus did. The Bible is not explaining what God had to do in order to save us, it’s interpreting what God did.

He died for us.

He died a terrible death.

He died.

What happened at the cross maybe shouldn’t be studied and discussed as much as meditated over and pondered. It should be absorbed, not just described.

“The soldiers led Jesus away into the palace (that is, the Praetorium) and called together the whole company of soldiers. They put a purple robe on him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him. And they began to call out to him, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ Again and again they struck him on the head with a staff and spit on him. Falling on their knees, they paid homage to him. And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him…

They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means The Place of the Skull)… And they crucified him. Dividing up his clothes, they cast lots to see what each would get.

It was 9:00 in the morning when they crucified him. The written notice of the charge against him read: THE KING OF THE JEWS. They crucified two robbers with him, one on his right and one on his left. Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, ‘So! You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, come down from the cross and save yourself!’

In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves. ‘He saved others,’ they said, ‘but he can’t save himself! Let this Christ, this King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe.’ Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him.

At 12:00 noon darkness came over the whole land until 3:00. At 3:00 Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?’ – which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’

When some of those standing near heard this, they said, ‘Listen, he’s calling Elijah!’

One man ran, filled a sponge with wine vinegar, put it on a stick, and offered it to Jesus to drink. ‘Now, leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to take him down,’ he said.

With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last.” ~Mark 15:16-37

Remember, Jesus the Christ is God. This is God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth. So, God doesn’t inflict pain on someone else to appease his wrath. God is on the cross, absorbing all the pain and violence and evil of the world into himself. He is becoming our sin for us. Our God is nothing like the pagan deities who demand human blood for their anger to be satisfied. No, our God becomes human so he can offer his own blood.

God died. He died for us. Scripture never says he had to die in order to forgive. But it makes a very big deal out of the fact that he did. Jesus didn’t die on the cross to change God’s mind about us; he died to express God’s heart for us.

This is how he saves us. This is how he loves us. He loves us all the way to the cross. Incessantly, purposefully, willfully, stubbornly, dying on the cross to destroy sin and death and Satan and everything that separates us from God.

Peace,

Allan

Disappointing God

April 29, 2015 / Allan / 0 Comments

I have a theory. I can’t prove this, I have no statistics or other evidence to substantiate this. It’s only a theory as to why so many Christians feel like God is disappointed in them.

God is an authority figure. He’s actually THE ultimate authority figure — we can all agree to that. And for most of our lives, authority figures are in the business of evaluating our performances and rewarding us or not based on those performances.

Mom says if you eat your peas, she’ll give you a piece of cake. Your teacher says if you write a good report, she’ll give you an ‘A.’ Your coach says if you catch all the passes in practice, he’ll make you a starter. Your boss says if you surpass all the company goals, he’ll give you a raise. Our lives are determined by these authority figures who judge our performances and decide to reward us or not based on those performances. So we go through live managing to perform and please the right people and receive the rewards with varying levels of success and failure.

But when it comes to God, we know we don’t stack up. Ever. We are not holy, we are not perfect. Not even close. And our performance never has and never will measure up to our God’s divine standards. So God has to be disappointed.

My mom is disappointed when I don’t clean up my plate. My teacher is disappointed when I flunk the English test. My coach is disappointed when I miss the block. And my boss is disappointed when I don’t hit my numbers. So, God… I know how God feels.

Just a theory.

“Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies! Who is he that condemns?” ~Romans 8:33-34

Who is it? Who’s condemning you and making you feel this way? The devil? Your friends? Your enemies? Your own past, your sins, your feelings, your experiences with other authority figures?

“It is God who justifies! Who is he that condemns?”

“I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” ~Romans 8:38-39

God does not want us to feel condemned, but convinced. “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus!” (Romans 8:1). We are not condemned by God’s judgment, we are convinced of his great love.

Peace,

Allan

Category: Love (Page 6 of 9)

Forever Loved by God

The Love of God and Your Group

The Communion of Saints

Maundy Means Commands

The What, Not the Why

Disappointing God

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