Category: Romans (Page 23 of 28)

Sincere Love

May 21, 2010 / Allan / 0 Comments

“Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love.” ~Romans 12:9-10

Sincere love is difficult. Devotion based on brotherly love isn’t easy. It demands that we detest what is evil in our friend’s lifestyle or attitudes. We “love the sinner but hate the sin.” Our love for the person committing the wrong is real, not pretended in any way; but in sincere love we must abhor the evil that can only cause him or her harm.

God’s love is like that.

God loves us so much that he accepts us just as we are; but he loves us too much to let us stay that way.

God certainly loves us without any phoniness and with total acceptance, but he cannot stand anything in us that is contrary to his will. Our Father is continuously working to purge the evil from us and transform us by the renewing of our minds into the image of his great Son.

And we see and relate to our Christian brothers and sisters the same way. We would never watch our brother drink a cup of deadly poison while we sit in the shade and sip iced tea. We would leap across the table and knock the cup out of his hands to save him. Because we love him. We would not allow a friend to step into the path of an on-coming bus while we skipped safely along the sidewalk. We would push or drag her out of harm’s way. Because we really care about her. Even though our brother might not understand at the time or our friend might think we were meddling. Sincere love — loving devotion — means sincerely caring and acting for their eternal interests.

It means making the phone call. It means doing the lunch. It means having the talk you’ve been meaning to have for months. Or years. It won’t be easy. But it’s a vital part of living together in Christ’s community.

Peace,

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

Truly Belonging

May 3, 2010 / Allan / 1 Comment

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

We belong to each other because we belong to Christ!

This was our theme here at Legacy last night. These are the words we said together during our call to worship. We repeated the words together a couple of times during our lesson from Romans 12. And we said the words to one another as we shared the communion meal of our risen Lord.

We belong to each other because we belong to Christ!

What if we really did belong to each other? What would that look like? What if we really functioned, not as a group of individual Christians with individual ministries but together as a whole? What if we thought in terms of the whole? Not what’s best for my age group or what’s going to benefit my kids or how this is going to meet my needs. What if we thought and acted like members of something bigger than ourselves? What if our thinking was community-oriented? What if the whole really were greater than the individual? What if we took the inspired apostle Paul seriously? What if we really belonged to each other? What would that look like?

We belong to each other because we belong to Christ!

What if we were truly community? Not just community like the people in your neighborhood or the guy across the street. Not like the people you see two or three times a week and say ‘hello’ to when you run into them at Wal-Mart. What if were community, a body, belonging to one another like, maybe, an army platoon?

Now that’s a community! An army platoon! United by a shared purpose and goal. Working together to achieve something great. A community formed under pressure, shaped by great difficulty. Not just church membership, but a sacred covenant with one another in order to serve the Kingdom for which Christ died. A community of faith inseparably bonded in order to do something together that eternally matters.

We belong to each other because we belong to Christ!

What would that look like?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Two Saturdays ago we went to the Rangers game with 20 of our Legacy brothers and sisters and wound up in the big middle of 175 Austin Jackson fans in the left field bleachers. Austin Jackson is the Detroit Tigers’ rookie centerfielder who grew up and played his High School ball at Denton Ryan. And when Jim Knox did his man-in-the-stands interview on Fox Sports Southwest in the bottom of the fourth inning, Carrie-Anne, Valerie, Carley, and Carley’s friend, Victoria all got in the pictures. They actually helped this “A.J.” fan club hold up their big banner for the interview.

We had a great time at the Third Day concert before the game, hanging with the Ashlock boys who ate for the cycle during the game, and rooting the home team to an 8-4 loss. Base-running and fielding errors are killing this team, huh? Hopefully Kinsler’s return will spark some offense and shore up that middle part of the defense. And while the Rangers are technically in first place today, I’m worried about this team.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I’ve been convinced for ten years now that the Mavericks will never win a title as long as Dirk is their best player. I hope he’s not finished as a Mav. I can’t stand the thought of our DFW sports scene losing Mike Modano and Nowitski, two wonderful human beings and pillars of the community, two Hall of Famers (and media friendly to boot!), in the same year. Cuban just needs to find a way to pair Dirk up with a transcendent LeBron-esque superstar to cover his weaknesses on both ends of the floor. Somebody the other 12 guys on the roster will respond to in a crisis. I love Dirk. But he’s never been enough.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Legacy Prime-Timers held their annual Hobo Stew this past Saturday night. Valerie and Sarah and Maddie (The Three Amigas) were on hand to entertain and inspire with their beautiful voices. Kent drew the catcalls and hoots everytime he drew his own number for door prizes. Vic did Elvis. And Mack and Shirley blew us all away with their costumes. What a great night. Carrie-Anne and I were honored to be a part of it.

Peace,

Allan

Pleasing to God

April 19, 2010 / Allan / 2 Comments

“Offer your bodies as a sacrifice, living and holy and pleasing to God — this is your spiritual act of worship.” ~Romans 12:1

Have you ever worked for somebody who was never satisfied with your efforts? You could never make this boss happy? It didn’t matter how many hours you worked or how hard you labored or how much you produced, he was not going to be pleased? Maybe you’ve been (or are) married to someone who is never pleased with you. Nothing you do makes her/him happy. Or maybe you have grumpy parents. You never received a blessing from your dad. You never lived up to your mother’s expectations.

Paul says that when we offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, it is pleasing to God.

And that is so wonderful.

God wants us to have a terrific freedom in our relationships with him. How comforting and liberating it is to know that he’s pleased with us! He’s proud of us! The things we try — even the things we try and fail — make our God happy. It has nothing at all to do with our ability to be pleasing. It’s not on us or on the things we’re doing to please God. In fact, it’s just the opposite. God has freed us to do pleasing things by telling us that we are pleasing to him.

God’s love is such a fantastic motivater.

When we know that who we are and what we do is acceptable and pleasing to God, we don’t have to waste a lot of time and energy trying to prove ourselves. And we won’t be paralyzed by fear and doubt. We won’t be constantly looking over our shoulders.

What happens if I start this ministry? What happens if I teach this class? What happens if I reach out to this person in my community? What happens if I begin a new program at church? What if I really mess it up? What if I say the wrong thing? What if I upset God?

No!

Stop it!

God’s not looking at your actions, he’s looking at your heart. He’s looking at your offering.

Go do it! And God bless you! He’s gonna love it!

You are pleasing to him.

Peace,

Allan

Do You See It?

April 1, 2010 / Allan / 3 Comments

“God gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.” ~Romans 4:17

Our Father doesn’t see Sarah’s barren womb; he sees the birth of a great nation. God doesn’t see a drowning prophet; he sees 120,000 Ninevites calling on his name. He doesn’t see a rejected Samaritan woman on her sixth husband; he see a powerful evangelist who converts an entire village. Our God doesn’t see a dark grave in a garden outside the streets of Jerusalem; he sees the light of eternal life walking out of that tomb to eternally defeat the powers of sin and death.

“God gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.”

I see our worship center at Legacy this Sunday with more than 1,600 people in it. Maybe 1,700. It depends. I see Doug Crowell and Steve Fleming scrambling to grab chairs and line the aisles as people just keep coming in. I see people who haven’t been to Legacy in months singing and worshiping God with tears in their eyes. I see visitors, our friends and neighbors, who don’t know our Risen Lord being confronted with the truth of the Gospel of salvation and being moved by our God to respond in faith. I see wet people climbing out of a baptistry, saved by the blood of the Lamb. I see the North Richland Hills fire marshal writing us warning citations for violating occupancy codes. I see our God exceeding our wildest expectations for Easter Sunday and our Resurrection Renewal.

Do you see it?

I know you’re praying about it. But, do you see it?

Invite those people you haven’t seen here in a while. Reach out to that man across the street. Hand a flyer to your dry cleaning guy or the lady who cuts your hair. And this weekend, let us call on our God who gives life to the dead to “call things that are not as though they were.”

I can’t wait to meet your friends!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One of our teens at Legacy is doing some kind of a school project that involved me giving her my list of the top ten most important books of all time. It was fun. I thought I’d share. These are the books that have had a dramatic impact on my life and have served to shape my mindset and worldview. In no particular order:

The Bible (OK, the first one’s in a particular order…)
The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis
Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman
The Reason for God by Timothy Keller
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Tending the Heart of Virtue by Vigen Guroian
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon

Looking back at this list now, I wish I had put H. G. Bissinger’s Friday Night Lights in there. I guess I’d take out Grapes of Wrath or the Decline and Fall.

Peace,

Allan

Living Sacrifice

March 11, 2010 / Allan / 1 Comment

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God — this is your spiritual act of worship.” ~Romans 12:1

Think very carefully about the times you have completely abandoned yourself into some act of service for others in the name of Jesus. Think about the times you’ve totally given yourself to God and to others in some act of kindness or mercy.

Recall the joy you feel as you walk a family of five through Give-Away-Day, the way you experience the mercy of God as you hand a brand new toy to a seven-year-old girl who’s never had one. Think about the new life you feel as you pray with your brothers during the 24 Hours of Prayer, the way you bond with your Lord and your Christian friends and the ones for whom you pray. Think about sacking groceries in the church pantry, visiting a sister about to go into surgery at the hospital, delivering a casserole to the family who just lost a loved one. Remember the fullness of life you discovered in that offering. Remember how it feels to put to death your own needs and fears and find a source of peaceful and joyful existence in God. It’s unexplainable.

Scripture calls us to remember those times and to be even more willing to make that total offering, that holy sacrifice, over and over again. That is our act of worship. It’s our act of service that, by the grace of God, he makes holy and pleasing.

Think about those times. Remember and repeat. And find real peace and joy in your Lord.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A couple of entries in the Legacy “Caps for Tags” contest. Click here for the full scoop.

Keep those pictures coming in. Email them to astanglin@legacychurchofchrist.org

Peace,

Allan

Category: Romans (Page 23 of 28)

Sincere Love

Badge Of Discipleship

Truly Belonging

Pleasing to God

Do You See It?

Living Sacrifice

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Categories

Archives

Allan's Links