Category: Romans (Page 27 of 28)

We Have Sinned Against The Lord

August 21, 2008 / Allan / 1 Comment

“Our sins are higher than our heads and our guilt has reached to the heavens.” ~Ezra 9:6

“We have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws.” ~Daniel 9:5

“On that day they fasted and there they confessed, ‘We have sinned against the Lord.'” ~1 Samuel 7:6

This past Sunday, in our brand new sparkling beautiful immaculate impressive worship center, seven people put on their Lord Jesus in baptism. They were born again. They were created all over again to walk in newness of life with our God. Five families, 14 people total, placed their membership with the Legacy Church of Christ. They, too, were beginning again. Rededication. Recommitment. Re-focus. There were many of us in this new building who are feeling a strong sense of re-birth. Starting over. Like New Year’s Day, we sit around and eat black-eyed peas and promise to do things differently from this point forward. Like buying a new car and lecturing the kids about food and drinks and Taco Bueno cinnamon chips. Starting over.

Ebenezer. 1 Samuel 7.

Our new building can certainly serve—no, it WILL serve—as an Ebenezer for the Legacy church family. By God’s help we have come this far. We are where we are because of our God’s power, because of his grace. He’s brought us to this point. Just like Kent and the McDowells and the Holts always point back to the Cox’s garage in 1959, from here on out we’re going to point back to August 2008 and say, “That’s where things started again. That’s where the transition really kicked in. Remember that?”

(Jim McDoniel said Sunday the reason we can’t write “Ebenezer” real big on the outside of the new building is that Russ or Cordelia would have a stroke. The real reason is that the City of North Richland Hills would require 19 permits and a special election.)

In our Holy Scriptures we see that everytime God’s people are at a real turning point, everytime they start over, everytime they seek God anew, everytime they’re asking God for a deepening of the covenant relationship, it begins with a time of corporate confession. An intentional time of corporate, congregational confession and repentance before God. A public acknowledgement of sins committed, not by individuals, by the entire body of God’s people. 1 Samuel 7. Ezra 9. Daniel 9. Corporate sin. Corporate confession.

We did this last night in Oasis. In the brand new worship center, we listed together, out loud, the sins of the Legacy Church of Christ. I just asked the group in there to start naming them. And they did.

Pride.
Apathy to God’s mission to save the lost.
Prejudice.
Racism.
Materialism.
The desire to be a big church.
Tolerance of sin in the body.
Apathy toward social justice.
Self-reliance.
Selfishness. A Me-Church attitude.
Trying to be like everybody else.

There were still a dozen hands raised when I cut it off.

And we prayed. One of our elders, David Watson, lifted everyone of those Legacy church sins to our Father in prayer. All of them. He confessed them—our past and present sins—on behalf of the whole church. Then we sang together “Just As I Am” and “I Am Mine No More.” and then another of our elders, Gordon Lowry, prayed a prayer of repentance for the church. Turning wholly away from the sins and turning fully toward God as the only source of our forgiveness and strength and renewal. And then we closed with another of our elders, Bill Baker, thanking God for his forgiveness and for his love and for redeeming us, even in our sins.

Wow.

What a night. Paul says it’s God’s kindness that leads us to repentance. Not confessing, not repenting, shows contempt for God’s kindness and tolerance and patience. Those are the very things that lead us to confess and repent.

We’re promised by our God over and over again in Scripture that if we confess and repent, if we admit our sins, if we turn from our former ways and destroy completely the things in our lives that contribute to our sins, if we have a complete change in attitude and determine with all our hearts to turn fully to our Lord, he promises to restore us and forgive us and cleanse us and reconcile us to a perfect relationship with him. And he promises a renewed sense of unity and peace among us.

May we from this point forward turn away from our sins and turn fully to God. And may our Father bring to us his boundless mercies and limitless grace.

Peace,

Allan

It Is Good

June 23, 2008 / Allan / 1 Comment

“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.” ~Romans 8:28

Our God ordains not only the ends, but the means. He uses all of it, everything that happens to us, for his purposes.

Nothing touches our lives that is not under the control and direction of our loving heavenly Father. Everything we do and say, everything people do to us or say about us, every experience we will ever have—all of it is providentially used by our God for our good.

Our problem is that we generally see what’s good for us differently from the way God sees what’s good for us.

As he works in our lives, and in the circumstances of our lives, God’s intent is to build Christian character, to conform us into the image of his Son, and to prepare us for final glory. So what he promises in Romans 8:28, then, is not that every difficult experience will lead to something good in this life. The “good” God has in mind may involve the next life entirely.

Regardless, we enter every day, we welcome every situation, we endure every circumstance with great anticipation, knowing that our God is intimately involved and working in our best interests.

We wait eagerly, Paul says, for “our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” That’s the “good” God’s working in you and me.

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We went to a rock and roll wedding Saturday night. I don’t know what else to call it. When the bridesmaids walk down the aisle to Grand Funk Railroad’s “Some Kind of Wonderful” and the bride enters to the Beatles’ “All You Need Is Love,” that’s a rock and roll wedding.

Ashley, you were beautiful. Warren, love that girl just like Christ loves his Church. And may our Father bless you both richly with long lives of faithful service to him and his people.

Chris and Liz, the wedding was fantastic. We had a blast. We miss so much praying with y’all in parking lots, watching Cowboys and Stars games at your house, worshipping our God with you in Mesquite and Tulsa, and laughing together about everything. Jeremy, your song blew us away. It was a perfect evening. We love y’all.

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We have a little baby cottontail living in our yard. At least one. Maybe there’s a mom and dad and a bunch of little bunnies, I don’t know. But Thursday afternoon one of them decided to cool off by jumping in our pool and hanging out in the shade of the skimmer. He sat there in the skimmer from before noon until I dragged him out with a net at almost 6:00. Carley wants to cage him and keep him. She’s already named him Chestnut or something.

Peace,

Allan

$209K and Counting…

March 31, 2008 / Allan / 4 Comments

“God calls things that are not as though they were.” ~Romans 4:17

A red-letter day yesterday for the family of believers here at Legacy and in our history as a congregation of God’s people. The goal for Missions Sunday was to collect $150,000 to fund our local and foreign missions budget for 2008. And our Lord blessed us with over $209,000 in cash and pledges. And the number is still going up.

What a thrill it was to watch our little children parade with their Bible classes down to the front to announce and then to dump the money they’ve collected over the month of March for our missionaries. How amazing it was to be joined by our brothers and sisters at the Centerpoint church in Bagiuo City, Philippines via video and audio hookup and to see them and talk to them and wave to them and sing “We Love You With the Love of the Lord” to them, half a world away. And then to experience our Father opening our hearts and our spirits to sacrificially give like we never have before was beyond description.

Our God always out-imagines us. He always out-dreams us. We can’t think too big or plan too big for him. He always gives us much more than we can ever ask or imagine. How wonderful to consider the lives that will be saved, the souls that will be won, the people who will be reconciled to our God as a result of yesterday’s blessings.

And our Lord continued to pour out his blessings on us as he held back the rain and kept us high and dry at last night’s fellowship / assembly in our new, not-quite-finished-yet worship center. Nearly 700 of us ate dinner together in the new building and then worshiped our God in song and prayer. We read Scripture together. We confessed Jesus as the Christ and as Lord together. We imagined together all the baptisms that are going to take place in this building, all the weddings, all the singings, all the sermons, all the laughing, all the crying, all the seminars, all the love that’s going to be shared in this building. And then we asked our God to, again, blow us away.

I saw the Legacy church transformed yesterday. I saw all our same people, all our same brothers and sisters. But I saw us differently. There was a different spirit about us yesterday. The Lord was in our midst yesterday and he was working and blessing and inspiring and planning for things I can’t even begin to see yet. But he sees them. They already exist in his sight. Our God calls things that are not as though they were. And we’re beginning to see and to think like him more and more. And it’s exciting.

After we prayed together for all of the future things that would be happening for our Lord and for the Kingdom in this new place of worship, we wrote on the foundation. We wrote our favorites passages of Scripture. We wrote our prayers. We wrote our dreams for our church family. And we wrote the names of our children.

What an incredible day. What an incredible God!

It’s 10:30 pm Monday, my computer’s been down most of the day, and I’m still riding yesterday’s high. I just got out of a Small Groups Church Co-Leader training session with a bunch of couples who are leading new groups beginning this Sunday—new groups that are all multiplications of original groups who’ve grown beyond their capacities. And they’ve all experienced the love and the ministry and the sharing and the fellowship and the connection and the evangelism that takes place in a small group. And they’re all inspired to take what they have and spread it out into our congregation and into our communities.

And we give God the glory. He alone is worthy of praise for all the wonderful things that are happening here. He alone. In Romans 4, when Paul writes about our God who “gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were,” he says Abraham’s faith was strengthened and he “gave glory to God” because he was seeing the impossible-to-deny truth that our God has “power to do what he had promised.” Amen.

May our Father use us in his Kingdom. And may we submit our lives and our church family and our wills to him. May we be blessed with his Spirit and his vision. And may his will be done in the Legacy church as it is in heaven.

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And may UCLA beat Memphis Saturday night.

The only way I beat Whitney outright in my NCAA tournament bracket is if the Bruins beat those impossibly-loaded Tigers from Memphis State AND Kansas beats Carolina. I can salvage a tie if the Tarheels win and Tiger High loses. I can salvage a tie if Kansas and Memphis win and Kansas then takes the title. But if Memphis wins the championship or if Memphis and UNC both win their semi-final games, I’m toast. And then, I’m probably done. You can’t lose to your daughter in a college basketball tournament pool. I need Kevin Love to score about 40.

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Michael Young drove one deep to put Texas up 1-0 in the Rangers half of the first inning in Seattle. And Millwood looked good into the 6th. But the Rangers lose their opener (SHOCKING!!) 5-2 to the M’s. Now, Kipi, they’re tied for last place in the American League.

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Tomorrow (Tuesday) is my day in Waco with Jim Martin and some of the other central Texas preachers down there. So I probably won’t write again until Wednesday morning. I’ll reflect a little bit on this year’s Tulsa Workshop then.

Peace,

Allan

Unveiled Partakers In Glory

February 8, 2008 / Allan / 4 Comments

“And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory are being transfigured into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” ~Romans 3:18

Moses’ presence with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration takes the disciple right back to the revelation of God’s glory to Moses in Exodus 34. The people were terrified by the sight of Moses’ radiant face. They were afraid to come near him. They were afraid of the glory of the Lord. So Moses wore a veil until it faded away.

It’s different now.

The veils are off.

As a result of Jesus’ suffering and death and resurrection, because of his saving work that reconciles man back to the Father, we’re not afraid. God’s glory doesn’t blind us, it doesn’s scare us. In fact, it’s being given to us, it’s being shared with us, it’s changing us. As we are transfigured into the image of the Christ, as we become more and more like him, as we deny ourselves and take up our crosses and follow in his footsteps the path of sacrifice and service, we become partakers in that heavenly glory.

That is our hope. That is our promise. In our sufferings and service here in the world, by the One who was crucified in weakness yet lives today in power, we are being transfigured into the glorious likeness of the Son of God.

In glory. With the same glory. With unveiled faces.

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I’m going into Advance Mode right now. The Legacy Men’s Advance, “In The Trenches,” begins in nine hours. So from now until late Saturday afternoon, you must refer to me by my paintball-soldier-warrior name.

“The Pastor of Disaster”

Thank you.

Confession & Forgiveness

February 5, 2008 / Allan / 13 Comments

“Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit…I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord’ — and you forgave the guilt of my sin.” ~Psalm 32:1-2, 5

My daily Bible reading took me to Psalm 32 this morning and I was immediately struck by the repitition David uses in this song of thanksgiving and joy for the forgiveness we receive as a gracious gift from our God. “Blessed is he…blessed is the man…” He rejoices in the happy state of experiencing God’s forgiveness. And then “are forgiven…sins are covered…not count against him…you forgave.” Over and over David stresses that the sins we confess to the Lord are completely washed away when we confess them to him in total faith and trust.

Paul uses this same psalm in Romans 4 and asks the rhetorical question, “Is this blessedness only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised?” Yes, this blessedness that comes from God’s forgiveness is for everyone. It’s for all people who will confess their sins to him in honesty and integrity and faith. We hide nothing. We don’t lie. We bring all of it to God and lay bare and vulnerable before him, begging for his forgiveness. And he gives it gladly and freely and abundantly.

Confession is good for the soul. It’s good for the Church. It’s good for husbands and wives and church leaders and preachers and parents and kids. Confession is good for me. And you. In Psalm 32 the confession is to God, but it’s meant to be heard as worship by God’s people. It’s personal. And it’s corporate. It’s done individually and it’s done in community.

Lay your soul out to your God today. Confess to him your sin and your weakness and your complete dependence on him. And then rejoice in his forgiveness, the removal of your sin, and the trampling of your guilt.

“Rejoice in the Lord and be glad, you righteous; sing, all you are upright in heart!” ~Psalm 32:11

Peace,

Allan

Party Lines

January 30, 2008 / Allan / 5 Comments

“The congregational principle makes each church into a kind of club, and finally, if all goes well, into a coterie or faction.” ~Screwtape

In his 16th letter to Wormwood, the senior tempter advises his nephew that if he can’t cure his patient from going to church, the next best thing is to “send him all over the city looking for the church that ‘suits’ him until he becomes a taster or connoisseur of churches.” Once he finds the church that meets his needs and makes him feel comfortable and important, the trick is to cause the patient to be “violently attached” to some party within it. And Screwtape claims that the devils don’t really have much use for Christian doctrine. They’re much more concerned with the things that don’t really matter.

“The real fun is working up hatred between those who say ‘mass’ and those who say ‘holy communion’ when neither party could possibly state the difference between, say, Hooker’s doctrine and Thomas Aquinas’, in any form which would hold water for five minutes. And all the purely indifferent things — candles and clothes and what not — are an admirable ground for our activities. We have quite removed from men’s minds what that pestilent fellow Paul used to teach about food and other unessentials…you would think they could not fail to see the application.”

The difference, I think, between C. S. Lewis’ Anglican Church in 1940s England and our Churches of Christ in 2008 America is that our parties or factions all get together in different congregations. Liberal churches and conservative churches, progressive congregations and traditional congregations; those are our party labels. And members of our “parties” up and move all over the place—admittedly much more so here in Texas and in the South than in other parts of our country where there aren’t Churches of Christ on every corner—to join congregations that suit them. So our arguing over the unessentials isn’t done at an annual convention. It’s done across town between “competing” congregations, in magazines and books, at lectureships and seminars.

Screwtape refers in this letter to Romans 14 and Paul’s discussion there on one of the hot button issues of his day, the eating of meat. I’ve generally tried to apply Paul’s message of mutual love and patience and respect in that situation to our inter-congregational disputes over hand-clapping, song selection, praise teams and whatever other indifferent thing about which we argue. But upon further review, it’s so much bigger than that! Paul’s talking about the eating of meat! There are huge theological differences between the “man who eats everything” and the “man who eats only vegetables.” There were sharp divisions in the early church over meat offered to idols, meat sold in the pagan marketplaces, meat deemed clean or unclean depending on to whom you talked. Keeping the sacred days of the Hebrew Scriptures or ignoring them altogether was another massive theological issue. This wasn’t just sitting or standing for three songs or where to put the announcements. These were the big things, the huge things, the things that cause us today to leave our churches and go somewhere else.

Paul says in Romans 14 we should assume those on both sides of these issues are sincere in their gratitude and dedication to God and that they’re fully convinced in their own hearts that what they’re doing is right. And leave it at that. Love each other. Serve each other. Encourage each other. Stop fighting and arguing.

“For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men. Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification” (Romans 14:17-19).

Paul paints a picture in Romans 14 of brothers and sisters going out of their way, sacrificing their own feelings, for the benefit of their brothers and sisters who hold opposite convictions. He never speaks of leaving to find a group of people who agree on everything. Seeing things differently and acting differently and believing differently is actually God’s plan for his Church. That’s the kind of setting that fosters mutual love and patience and sacrifice and service. That’s the kind of dynamic that produces a Christ-like transformation. Our differences on these things are God-ordained for God’s purposes.

At the end of the 16th letter Screwtape actually rejoices because churches so often split up along these party lines.

“Without that the variety of usage within the Christian Church might have become a positive hotbed of charity and humility.”

Peace,

Allan

Category: Romans (Page 27 of 28)

We Have Sinned Against The Lord

It Is Good

$209K and Counting…

Unveiled Partakers In Glory

Confession & Forgiveness

Party Lines

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