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Category: Romans (Page 14 of 26)

God Is For Us!

April 28, 2015 / / 0 Comments

According to several surveys I’ve seen over the years, the number one response among Christians when asked, “What is God feeling when he thinks about you?” is “Disappointment.” Most Christians, in their honest moments, feel like God is disappointed in them. God Is For Us!

Do you feel that way?

Why?

More times than not, in my own honest moments, I also feel like God is disappointed in me. And I’m not sure why. We don’t get that idea from the Bible. The entirety of Scripture is cram-packed with testimony to God’s great love for all of us. We have more examples than we could ever count of God’s faithful love and action for and with his children. Our Lord has promised and proven that he will stop at nothing to love us and act on our behalf.

“He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all — how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” ~Romans 8:32

So, why do we feel like God is disappointed in us?

“If God is for us, who can be against us?” ~Romans 8:31

He is not neutral. God is not just sitting on the sidelines, watching you perform, and trying to make up his mind about you. He is for you — not was for you, not will be for you, not may be for you. He is for you. All the way. And, while there’s not enough eternity to fathom that glorious reality, we’ll take a stab at it here over the next few days.

Peace,

Allan

Perfect Power

April 21, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Happy San Jacinto Day! Find yourself a Treaty Oak, prop up your wounded leg, and relax in the shade, and sing The Yellow Rose of Texas while celebrating the Republic’s glorious victory.

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Scripture tells us that God’s power is made perfect in weakness. I’m not sure I’m content to be weak. I think I mostly want God’s power to be revealed in my strength. I want the strong and important parts of my life to testify to the power of our God. I don’t think I’m good with being weak.

Strong? Yes! Productive? Absolutely! Competent? Oh, yeah!

Weak?

Not so much.

See, the apostle Paul doesn’t have an inferiority complex when he acknowledges over and over in his letters how weak he is. He just gets it. He understands the truth.

God’s power was seen in Moses, not Pharaoh. And Pharaoh had all the military. God’s power was made perfect in David, not Goliath. And Goliath had all the technology. God’s power was experienced in Peter and John, not the Sanhedrin. And the Sanhedrin had all the votes.

God does everything through people who understand they are nothing and does nothing through people who think they are everything. Instead of hiding our weaknesses, we should probably embrace them, let more people see them. That is, after all, where our Lord does his best work.

Peace,

Allan

Putting On Christ

February 18, 2015 / / 0 Comments

“Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.” ~Romans 13:14

Ash Wednesday marks the first day of Lent, the 40-day period of fasting and prayer that precedes Good Friday and Easter Sunday on the Church calendar. Going back to the early years of church history, Lent has traditionally been a time for personal abstinence and self-discipline. In the middle ages, it became particularly associated with a fast from eating meat. It developed into a teaching tool for the church and a reminder for all Christians: in your hunger, be reminded of all that Jesus suffered and sacrificed to win your salvation.

As you enter this season of Lent on your own or together with your family or community of faith, allow me to suggest that it’s not just about giving something up. It’s not only about sacrificing a certain type or amount of food or some other regular pleasure in order to participate in the sufferings of Christ or to remember his selfless preparation for the cross. At least as important is the idea and practice of taking something on, adding something new to your life in Christ.

Not only the surrender of material things, but the taking on of spiritual things, eternal things that draw us closer to Christ and, by the power of the Spirit, transform us more into his image is the best way to prepare for Easter. A new ministry. A new discipline. A new work for the benefit of others. A new prayer. A new friend. A new passage of Scripture. While you’re cleaning out your house over the next six weeks, pay attention to what you’re moving in to the empty spaces. Add something important. Commit to something Spirit-filled.

Peace,

Allan

Totally in Control

December 4, 2014 / / 0 Comments

God caused the great tragedies to Job and his family, right? You know that, right? God did it. Scripture is plain that God had been protecting Job from evil and suffering. The devil couldn’t do anything bad to Job because God had put this fence around him. Satan knows if he’s going to inflict disaster on Job, God has to act. God has to remove his protection. And he asks God to do just that.

“Stretch out your hand and strike everything he has!” the devil says to God in Job 1:11. And God agrees to hand the keys over to Satan. “Very well then, everything he has is in your hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.” (1:12)

God is definitely responsible for what happens to Job. God had to act to allow all the death and destruction to happen. The devil and God and Job himself all acknowledge that God is in control of everything happening to this faithful servant. God gave the devil the power and the permission to torment this righteous man. But God never for a second gave up control. He places strict limits on the devil. Satan doesn’t lay a finger on Job himself because he can’t. God’s not allowing it. Later on, God allowed even some physical suffering for Job but told the tormenter he couldn’t kill him. And he didn’t. Because he couldn’t. God was totally in control.

Please note that suffering for Job began only when God allowed it. And the trouble for Job ended the moment God decided to end it. God was always totally in control of Job’s whole situation.

I think it should be a great comfort to us to know that God is in control of our suffering. God reigns supreme over all of your troubles. He’s totally in charge of what’s happening to you right now. Now, if God were a malicious tyrant, that would be scary. But he’s not. He loves you, remember?

So… if he loves me, why does he allow me to suffer so much?

Well, God has a goal for his people. He has an eternal plan for you. His plan for all of us is communion with him. And our earthly happiness isn’t necessarily a part of that goal. God is much more interested in our faith than our pleasure. He’s committed to sharing holy community with us forever. That’s his intent. That’s what he’s doing. And if God is totally sovereign over everything — if nothing happens without God’s permission — then every single thing that happens serves his goal. And if our temporary pains and struggles serve God’s eternal goals, then he uses it.

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son.” ~Romans 8:28-29

We’re all being transformed into the likeness of Jesus. That’s the purpose, that’s the goal. We’re being changed, we’re being saved. And God uses everything that happens to us — all things — for this goal of holiness, for this purpose of being made into the image of Christ.

Romans 8 doesn’t say, “Yes, you may have lost your job, but you’re going to get an even better one soon because all things work out for good.” It doesn’t say, “Don’t be upset that your girlfriend broke up with you; God must have an even better girl, your future wife, waiting for you just around the corner!” When we interpret “works for the good” that way, it’s very narrow and often materialistic. It’s a worldly application. From God’s perspective, “good” has to be defined spiritually, eternally. The ultimate “good” is your saving relationship with him. So Romans 8 doesn’t say every difficult experience is going to lead to something good in this life. The “good” God may have in mind might involve the next life entirely. God uses suffering to build Christian character to conform us to Christ and to prepare us for that final glory. Knowing our God is in control of our sufferings and that he uses those sufferings should shape our view of those sufferings more into God’s perspective.

“We rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” ~Romans 5:3-5

Hope tells us that our suffering is not in vain. It’s not pointless. God is in total control of everything happening to you right now and he’s using it to his glory and to his eternal purposes for you and for his world.

Peace,

Allan

Thanksgiving in Christ

November 26, 2014 / / 0 Comments

In good times and bad, we have much for which to be thankful. Much. Odds are that you personally rank in the top ten percent of the wealthiest people in the world. And, yes, we are thankful. We are thankful for all the wonderful blessings of our lives: our families, our children, our friends, our jobs and houses, our cars and money. And that’s good. It’s very good to acknowledge God as the giver of all good gifts. Everything you have is a gift from God. We thank him for every good thing we see.

But beyond that — way, way, way beyond that — we enjoy the blessings of a righteous relationship with God through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Everything we’ve been given, all our possessions, every blessing you could possibly count this week finds more significance because of Christ. Every blessing is richer, it’s better, it’s deeper, it’s more significant, it’s more meaningful because of Christ. In fact, all thanksgiving is because of, related to, and in the name of Jesus.

The things the Scriptures long for, the blessings the psalms yearn for, the promises the Bible begs to be delivered are all fulfilled for us in Christ Jesus. He is our righteousness, our holiness, and our redemption.

So, you’re thankful today? “Thanks be to God — through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:25)

You’re thankful for a particular person today? “I always thank God for you, because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus!” (1 Corinthians 1:4)

You’re thankful today even in tough times? “Give thanks in all circumstances for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus!” (1 Thessalonians 5:18)

You’re thankful for salvation? “Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!” (1 Corinthians 15:57)

In Ephesians 5:20, Paul tells us to give thanks to God “for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

We have a whole lot for which to be thankful today. Let’s be reminded that all thanksgiving — all of it — finds its source and its meaning in our Savior and Lord.

Peace,

Allan

4 Amarillo at ACU Summit

September 22, 2014 / / 0 Comments

The early church astonished the world because of the way these dedicated disciples of Jesus refused to be identified by the social barriers of the day. The church astonished the world because it encouraged Jews and Gentiles to meet and eat together. It encouraged men and women to both worship and serve in the same houses. It gave slaves and masters, rich and poor, the well-connected and the barely-functioning the same seats at the same table, the same status in the same living Body of our Lord.

4 Amarillo, I suppose, is sort of doing the same thing. Presbyterians and Baptists worshiping and working together generates big news. The Church of Christ cooperating with anybody on anything seems to elicit surprised gasps of shock. So, I think, that’s how I wound up presenting three class sessions at this year’s ACU Summit. What we’re doing together in our little city is apparently fairly big news. And I’m so honored and blessed to be doing this.

This morning I laid out the theology for Christian unity among different denominations and traditions from our Lord’s beautiful — and loaded! — prayer in John 17, bolstered by Paul’s arguments in Romans 14-15 and Ephesians 4. Wednesday morning, I’ll wrap up the series by looking at how a commitment to this kind of unity is good for your church and the people in your church and how it probably would fit right in with most of the things your church is already doing anyway. But tomorrow, I’m especially looking forward to having all three of my co-downtown pastors join me here at ACU for a panel discussion regarding the origins of our 4 Amarillo partnership and the impact it’s having on our community for the sake of God’s Kingdom.

Howard, Burt, Howie, and I will discuss how this whole thing started long before any of us arrived on the scene, how God brought us four together to form an unshakable alliance of friends and partners in the Gospel, how we first presented the idea of 4 Amarillo to our four churches and church leadership groups, and the many ways God is using this cooperative effort to reach the downtown Amarillo area with his good news of salvation through Jesus Christ. The other three guys will spend a little time at the end telling all us CofCers everything we need to know about their churches and their people if we have any hopes of engaging them in any cooperative worship and/or ministry together. And then we’ll stay for audience participation and Q & A for as long as anybody wants to keep talking.

This morning’s session went well. The room was packed to the walls, a few people were forced to sit and listen from out in the hallway, everyone seemed to be tracking with the theology, the logic, and the heart of what we’re doing with 4 Amarillo, and the conversations afterward were rich with curiosity and grace. A lot of grace.

I’m very grateful that my friends in downtown Amarillo would agree to drive down to Abilene to do this with me. They don’t have a clue as to what we’re dealing with in the Churches of Christ as far as our rigid sectarian past and, sadly, still in a lot of cases, our present. Wait. Maybe Howie gets it. Every now and then when I’m making some apology about our CofC history, the long-time pastor of First Baptist Amarillo leans in to me and says, “Allan, you guys aren’t the only ones.”

Grace. See, grace is the only way you were accepted by God as his child. Grace is the only thing that makes your relationship with God possible. Grace. And it’s the very thing that’s demanded of us to extend to others. Grace.

May our God be glorified through these sessions this week at ACU Summit. May he be given all the glory and praise. And may our cooperative efforts, our Christian unity, be used by him as he works to redeem all of creation back to himself.

Peace,

Allan

 

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