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Category: Salvation (Page 21 of 34)

Shine!

June 9, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Vacation Bible School began today at Central with the simple and powerful theme of “Shine!” Yes, there are strobe lights and glitter and sparklers all over the worship center today and a giant disco ball hanging over the stage; everything is pointing the kids to the idea of “Shine!” It reminds me of a Stephen Curtis Chapman song, See the Glory. It’s a song about being fully awake to life in Christ, fully alive to what God is doing all around us. One of the stanzas, I think, really captures the idea that sometimes we’re just kind of sleepwalking through life:

I’m playing Gameboy standing in the middle of the Grand Canyon;
I’m eating candy sittin’ at the gourmet feast;
I’m wading in a puddle when I could be swimming in the ocean.
Tell me, what’s the deal with me?
(I know the time has come for me to)
Wake up and see the glory!

Of course, the apostle Paul said it first: “Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you!” (Ephesians 5:14)

Open your eyes. Pay attention. Don’t be lulled to sleep by the monotony of the sameness in your daily life. Don’t be distracted by the noise and activity and flashing lights of the world. God is fixing things. God is restoring things. God is re-creating everything to his eternal praise and glory. Including you!

Pray today that he will open your eyes and show you clearly what he’s doing right under your nose. And then jump in!

Peace,

Allan

You Are Not a Grasshopper

January 7, 2014 / / 0 Comments

The worst thing the ten spies said to God’s people upon their return from scouting out the Promised Land isn’t that the Canaanites are bigger and stronger. It isn’t that the cities are too big and too well fortified. It isn’t that we seem like grasshoppers in their eyes.

The worst thing they said was, “We seem like grasshoppers in our own eyes.” (Numbers 13:33)

It’s OK to seem like grasshoppers in the world’s eyes. There’s nothing wrong with being seen as grasshoppers in the eyes of the community. But God’s people who have the promises of God and have experienced the past history of God’s deliverance and salvation are not grasshoppers!

God already said, “I’m giving it to you.” Joshua and Caleb can’t believe their ears. Caleb says, “Wait, we can do this. We should do this. We have to do this.”

But the people say, “No, the obstacles are too big and we are too small.”

But Caleb, who understands the promises of God, says, “It’s not about how small we are, it’s about how big our God is.”

The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; the God of Joshua and Caleb; the God of David and Jonathan; the God of our risen Lord Jesus is a God who slays giants and destroys enemies and conquers lands. And that God of Israel is the God of you and the God of me. And he gives us that same great power in his eternal promises.

You are not a grasshopper. Neither am I. The size of the obstacles and cliffs, hurdles and gaps, is nothing compared to the greatness of our God. May we take courage in the salvation past of our God and bold steps in his faithful promises.

Peace,

Allan

Jesus is Lord of All Things

December 18, 2013 / / 0 Comments

“In him all things hold together.” ~Colossians 1:17

By bridging the gap between God and creation in himself, Christ Jesus unites the whole universe. This beautiful section of Colossians 1 states it over and over again by his repetition of the word for “all things:”

Colossians 1:15 – the first born over all creation
v.16 – by him all things were created
v.16 – all things were created by him
v.17 – he is before all things
v.17 – in him all things hold together
v.18 – in everything he might have the supremacy
v.20 – through him to reconcile all things

I think sometimes we’re inclined to emphasize Christ’s work in redemption and salvation too individualistically. That’s between her and Jesus. It only involves me and my Lord. That’s going to be up to God and him. This is about Jesus and me. You ask me how I know he lives? He lives within my heart. Yes, he does. Of course. But it’s bigger than that. The reign of Christ Jesus is never ever confined to my own existence or to the property lines of my church parking lot or to the national borders of my nation. It’s universal and eternal! Christ reigns supreme over all, over all things. The whole universe. The whole world in his loving hand.

These verses are a  celebration of human impossibilities that have become God’s possibilities: reconciliation, renewal, salvation, peace. We always want to assume that the status is quo, that things will and must remain the way they are. A lot of the time we can’t even imagine there’s a way to really improve much of anything. Paul’s words in Colossians 1 affirm to us that wonders have not ceased! Possibilities not dreamed of can happen! And hope is an authentic position to take!

Peace,

Allan

Peace Through His Blood

December 17, 2013 / / 0 Comments

“God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” ~Colossians 1:19-20

The creator and sustainer of the universe is our crucified Lord. We know our Savior as a human being. He became a man. Christ Jesus’ supremacy and lordship over all things is rooted in and finds its greatest expression in his salvation acts. His service. His sacrifice. His death. The head of the Church is the one who was shamefully crucified. And our Lord endured this, he obediently walked to the cross, not to judge or destroy, but to reconcile and renew. To make peace.

Jesus is proclaimed the eternal King of All when he takes up that cursed tree.

Shirley Guthrie wrote:

“He is not like a king who preserves his majesty and honor only by shutting himself up in the splendor of his palace, safely isolated from the misery of the poor peasants and the threat of his enemies outside the fortress. His majesty is a majesty of a love so great that he leaves the palace and the royal trappings to live among his subjects as one of them, sharing their condition even at the risk of vulnerability to the attack of his enemies. If we want to find this King, we will find him among the weak and lowly, his genuine majesty both revealed and hidden in his choosing to share their vulnerability, suffering, guilt, and powerlessness.”

God sends the creator of the universe not in fear and terror, but in gentleness and meekness. He sends him saving and persuading, not ordering and directing. Jesus comes to us calling, not commanding. Loving, not judging. And all of that is what saves us. His blessed birth, his wonderful life, his miraculous healings, his wise teachings, his compassionate care for others, his obedient suffering, his sacrificial death, his glorious resurrection, and his eternal exaltation — that is what saves us. It redeems us. It reconciles all of creation back to the one who created it and sustains it. And it’s beautiful.

He shared our life. He experienced our suffering. He bore our sin. Those of us who are members of Christ’s Body, the Church over which he is head, find our sins already canceled by his death. And we find the dominion of darkness and sin with all its power and authority already defeated.

“When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave all our sins, having canceled the written code with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” ~Colossians 2:13-15

Peace,

Allan

Contentment in God

December 6, 2013 / / 1 Comment

“I have learned to be content in whatever state I am in.” ~Philippians 4:11

Beyond merely proving that the apostle Paul was not a Texan, the familiar passage above communicates in clear ways his joy and peace in our Lord. Paul’s joy doesn’t depend on the alleviation of his physical discomfort. That’s why, even though he’s in prison, he tells his Philippian brothers and sisters he doesn’t need a thing.

Paul’s learned, he says, to be content regardless of his circumstances.

So he doesn’t consider physical troubles to be a personal disaster. By the same token, he doesn’t view physical blessings as a sign of success. Paul uncompromisingly finds his joy and peace in God’s continuing work of salvation. He is being saved. The Church is being saved. The world is being saved. And Paul’s content that his God will meet all his / their needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

May we all find that contentment in the wise provision of our loving Father. And may our lives reflect the belief we have that through our crucified and resurrected Savior we can endure all things.

Peace,

Allan

We Don’t Want This Man!

October 30, 2013 / / 0 Comments

“A man of noble birth went to a distant country to have himself appointed king and then to return… But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, ‘We don’t want this man to be our king!'” ~Luke 19:12-14

According to Luke, after he tells this story, Jesus is called “king” five times in Jerusalem. When he enters the holy city, all his disciples joyfully praise God, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” And then four more times that last week in Jerusalem: twice at his trial before Pilate and twice more as he was hanging on the cross. Five times the people call Jesus ‘king,’ the first time in joyful acceptance, the last four times in murderous rebellion.

In no uncertain terms, the world declares, “We don’t want this man to be our king!”

We want to be our own kings. We want to be our own gods. The evidence is everywhere. And it’s irrefutable. From every continent and civilization, in every century and country, when it comes to kingship, God is not our ally. For some reason, we make Almighty God out to be a rival. We want to be our own gods. The snake promised us we could do it. He told Eve in the garden, you can be just like God. And we’ve been hard at it ever since.

We don’t want this man to be our King! The world proves over and over again by its actions that it doesn’t want God.

But God wants the world. That’s the good news. That’s great news! That’s the mind-blowing, history-altering news. God wants you. He wants the whole world. We are created by God for God. We are separated from God by our sin. And then God moves heaven and earth to win us back. He’s determined. He pursues us. He wants nothing as much as he wants a restored and righteous relationship with you. And he’ll stop at nothing to achieve it.

He is faithful to us even when we are unfaithful to him. He died for us — for you! — while we were rejecting him. What a king!

Peace,

Allan

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