“If we died with him,
we will also live with him;
If we endure,
we will also reign with him;
If we disown him,
he will also disown us;
If we are faithless,
he will remain faithful,
for he cannot disown himself.” ~2 Timothy 11-13
Category: Salvation (Page 30 of 34)
I want to know which sports team shirts you and your family wore to Chick-Fil-A yesterday. Go ahead. Click on the “comments” thing there in the upper right corner and tell me. For us, it was three pink Cowboys shirts, one pink Longhorns shirt, and my 13-or-14-year-old gray Houston Oilers shirt.
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In light of last night’s wildly entertaining football game between Miami and Florida State in Tallahassee: Six or seven lead changes, three or four ties, big plays, and turnovers. I’ve been watching football for over 40 years. And I’ll never, ever, ever understand, under any circumstances, at any point in a ball game, regardless of the score, no matter who’s got what momentum at the time, despite the kicker’s shortcomings or the return man’s strengths, I’ll never, ever understand the logic or the strategy behind the squib kick.
Never.
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We were made to be in relationship with our God. He created us to be in constant communion with him. With God is where we realize our full potential as human beings. In God is where we grow to become exactly what he made us to be. Why in the world would you want to be anywhere else?
“If you want to get warm you must stand near the fire; if you want to be wet you must get into the water. If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life, you must get close to, or even into, the thing that has them. They are not a sort of prize which God could, if he chose, just hand out to anyone. They are a great fountain of energy and beauty spurting up at the very centre of reality. If you are close to it, the spray will wet you; if you are not, you will remain dry. Once a man is united to God, how could he not live forever? Once a man is separated from God, what can he do but wither and die?” ~C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
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Only five days until the Cowboys kick off the NFL season in Tampa Bay. And today’s #5 in the Red Ribbon Review is punter John Warren. The free agent from Tennessee played in 12 games at a time when the Cowboys were searching for a guy to replace Danny White, who was too valuable as a starting quarterback once Staubach retired. Warren kicked in 1983-1984, averaging 39.2 yards per punt. You probably don’t remember him at all. But he’s the second-greatest Cowboy to ever wear #5.
Peace,
Allan
“You are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God — that is, our righteousness, holiness, and redemption.” ~1 Corinthians 1:30
All the doctrine of the Bible is made personal is Jesus. God’s wisdom is Jesus. Our righteousness is Jesus. Our holiness is Jesus. Our redemption is Jesus. Our resurrection is made personal and real in Jesus. Everything we need, and indeed have, for salvation and a right relationship with God is in Jesus.
When you’re down two scores in the fourth quarter you need a Pro Bowl quarterback, not a good playbook. When you’re being sued you need a good lawyer, not a comprehensive law encyclopedia. When you’re sick you need a good doctor, not a user-friendly medical website. And when you’re facing your greatest enemies — sin, death, Satan — you need the Savior of the World!
God’s wisdom and righteousness and holiness and redemption are gifts to you from him. They are benefits, yes. But they’re more than that. They are actually aspects of a relationship with Jesus. It is him in you. For all of us who were baptized into Christ have clothed ourselves with Christ.
When you belong to Christ Jesus you have all you’ll ever need in life and death, in time and space, and for eternity.
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A look back at Thomas Campbell’s Declaration and Address which he began writing in August 1809, 200 years ago this week inspires the reader to carefully and prayerfully consider our Lord’s call to Christian unity. Scripture’s picture of unity. Our God’s will for unity.
The opening lines — one sentence with tons of commas — goes like this:
“That it is the grand design, and native tendency, of our holy religion, to reconcile and unite men to God, and to each other, in truth and love, to the glory of God, and their own present and eternal good, will not, we presume, be denied, by any of the genuine subjects of christianity.”
The whole thing is a call to unity. Reconciliation. The kind of reconciliation Paul writes about in 2 Corinthians 5. Reconciliation between God and man. Between man and man. The kind of reconciliation that drives God’s eternal plans. The very ministry he’s given those of us who’ve professed our faith in him and put his Holy Son on in baptism. Campbell’s words in this document are bold. Aggressive. And they ring with beautiful and undeniable truth. The Declaration and Address, the charter document of our Churches of Christ, calls for a swift end to all divisions among those who claim to be followers of Jesus.
“Has the Captain of Salvation sounded a desist from pursuing, or proclaimed a truce with, this deadly enemy that is sheathing its sword in the very bowels of the church, rending and mangling his mystical body into pieces. Has he said to his servants, let it alone? If not, where is the warrant for a cessation of endeavors to have it removed?”
Campbell claims that tearing down the walls and uniting again with our brothers and sisters in Christ is a “matter of universal right, a duty belonging to every citizen of Zion, to seek her good.” And while the work will be difficult and the opposition will come mainly from within the church establishment, Campbell says it is God’s will. It is the Church’s will. It is the will of those who’ve gone before us. And our efforts will be divinely rewarded.
“…both the mighty and the many are with us. The Lord himself, and all that are truly his people, are declaredly on our side. The prayers of all the churches, nay, the prayers of Christ himself, John 17:20-23, and of all that have ascended to his heavenly kingdom, are with us.”
I thank God for the Campbells and the Stones and other giants of the faith who latched onto God’s holy will as revealed to us in Scripture and. would. not. let. it. go. They lived to obey God rather than man. They swore to use only the Bible as their guide. And they vowed that, despite the opposition, they would remain loyal to their King and his Kingdom. We owe them a tremendous debt of gratitude. We owe them the effort to carry on the difficult work they started 200 years ago.
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24 days until the Dallas Cowboys kick off their historic 50th NFL football season. 24 days from now they’ll be battling the Bucs down in Tampa. And we’re counting down the days with the Red Ribbon Review, a look at the second-best players in Cowboys history, according to jersey number. (This countdown becomes much more important with every Rangers loss. If they lose tonight, I’m blaming it on Lewin’s “1999-ish” comments on Tuesday.)
The second-best ever #24 in Cowboys history is a Super Bowl MVP, cornerback Larry Brown. The Cowboys stole him with a 12th round pick in 1991 and got a starting right corner for five straight seasons, three of them Super Bowl championship seasons. Brown is best known for picking off two Neil O’Donnell passes in the second half of Super Bowl XXX which led directly to the points the Cowboys needed to win their third title in four years. Yes, the balls hit Brown right in the chest. Yes, it looked like one of them would have to be surgically removed after the game, O’Donnell threw them right at him so hard. But a lot of people forget what a great ’95 season Brown had leading up to that game.
The former TCU star collected six picks that season, racked up 124 return yards, and ran two of them back for TDs. All of this just a few months following the tragic death of his young son. It was a great story that year. But most people have already forgotten.
Brown used his three rings and his MVP trophy to cash a huge paycheck in Oakland with the Raiders. That only lasted two years. He came back to Dallas in ’98 and played just parts of four games for the Cowboys before hanging it up for good. He finished his Cowboys career with 13 total picks and 279 total tackles. He played in 13 playoff games, four NFC Championship Games, and three Super Bowls as a Cowboy. And he’s the second-best #24 in Cowboys history.
Peace,
Allan
The Gospel is all about changing places. It’s about substitution. Someone taking my place. Me filling in for someone else. Christ paying a debt he didn’t owe. Me bearing the burdens that belong to my brother. An exchange. A switch-out.
The Gospel is this way because our God is this way.
God is love. And love — real love, intimate love, liberating love, gospel love — is all about this great exchange.
Think about your Small Group that meets Sunday nights. Think of the emotionally wounded person in that group. There is no way to listen to and love that person and stay completely emotionally put-together yourself. As you listen to him and attend to him, he will probably begin to feel better and stronger. But that won’t happen without you being emotionally drained yourself. There’s an exchange. And it takes its toll.
Parenting is the same way. We sacrifice and give and serve in order that our children may live. We decrease so they will increase.
God’s salvation through Christ works the same way. He submits to man. He leaves his heavenly home. He serves. He suffers and sacrifices. He takes on shame to give us glory. He dies so we can live.
John Stott wrote:
The essence of sin is we human beings substituting ourselves for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for us. We put ourselves where only God deserves to be; God puts himself where we deserve to be.
If we’ll open our eyes and look for it, we’ll see that the exchange is all around us. We live in the exchange. Praise God for the great exchange!
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Faith Builders Day Camp is always crazy. Hectic. Continuous noise. Non-stop energy. Interactive. Responsive. Hilarious. Meaningful. Life-changing. Momentous.
For three days Lance and I double-teamed 40 of our 5th, 6th, and 7th graders, engaging them in the fundamentals of the Christian faith. The young people studied hard for three hours each morning. And then after lunch we enjoyed off-site activities together like bowling and swimming and even Ice Age at TinselTown. But then it was back home for 30-minutes of homework with mom and dad.
The conversations were happening. What does it mean to be made in the image of God? Why did Jesus have to die? When were the dinosaurs created? What happens if I sin again after I’m baptized? Why does God let bad things happen? Bibles were being read. Light bulbs were going off. God was reaching out to his children. And the faith is being passed on from generation to generation.
Thank you so much to those parents who trust their most prized possessions with us for those three days. It was our pleasure. We had a blast. And thank you for taking the time and effort to have these important faith conversations with your children at night. Thank you, too, to all the volunteers who helped prepare and serve the meals, write and apply the name tags and Bible stickers, drive our children to the afternoon events, stuff the folders, and stick on the Band-Aids. It couldn’t have happened without you.
Mark your calendars now for Faith Builders Day Camp ’10, August 9-11 next year!
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I’ve gotten behind on the Red Ribbon Review. Let’s catch up now on the countdown to Cowboys season by recognizing the second-best players in Cowboys history according to jersey number. After last night’s pre-season opener, it’s pretty clear why we’re targeting the first game of the regular season and not these exhibition stinkers.
There are 30 days left until the Cowboys open up their historic 50th season (no 50th season patches on the Dallas unis last night?). And the second-best player to ever wear #30 for the Cowboys is all-purpose back Timmy Newsome. He was drafted in 1980 in the 6th round as a tailback out of Winston-Salem. But the Cowboys already had a Hall of Famer in Tony Dorsett and a solid fullback in Ron Springs. So Landry used Newsome as a backup to both positions and sometimes even lined him up as a tight end. As a running back, Newsome actually finished his nine-year Cowboys career with more receiving yards (1,966) than rushing yards (1,226).
#31 in the Red Ribbon Review is safety Brock Marion. George Teague gets honorable mention for trying to take off Terrell Owens’ head when he was posing on the star at midfield. But Marion was a three-time Pro Bowler who played five years in Dallas (’93-’97) and helped the Cowboys win two Super Bowls. He was a great special teams player, too. Full of energy and hustle. Marion ended his career in Miami with the Dolphins. But only one other Cowboy to wear #31 was better.
Dennis Thurman gets us caught up with #32. An 11th round pick out of USC in 1978, Thurman played eight years for the Cowboys and racked up 36 interceptions. As a rookie, he recovered an on-side kick for the Cowboys in Super Bowl XII. As a starting corner, he made plenty of big plays and had some huge games. His most memorable, perhaps, a 1983 playoff game against the Packers in which Thurman intercepted three passes and ran one back 39 yards for a score. As an aging veteran, Thurman turned player-coach, playing alongside and mentoring youngsters like Everson Walls, Michael Downs, Ron Fellows, and Dextor Clinkscale. In a Monday Night Football game against the Redskins, the Cowboys picked off five Joe Theisman passes in a nationally-televised blowout. Theisman was celebrating his 36th birthday that night. The Texas Stadium crowd serenaded the ‘Skins QB with “Happy Birthday” as he trudged off the field. And it was in the lockerroom after the game that Danny White dubbed the Cowboys secondary “Thurman’s Theives.” The name stuck. Dennis Thurman never missed a game during his NFL career. And he’s gone on to become a pretty well respected defensive backs coach with the Jets and the Baltimore Ravens.
May the Rangers keep things interesting until the pre-season is over,
Allan
The Gospel is all about changing places. It’s about substitution. Someone taking my place. Me filling in for someone else. Christ paying a debt he didn’t owe. Me bearing the burdens that belong to my brother. An exchange. A switch-out.
The Gospel is this way because our God is this way.
God is love. And love — real love, intimate love, liberating love, gospel love — is all about this exchange.
Think about your small group that meets Sunday night. Think of the emotionally wounded person in that group. There is no way to listen to and love that person and stay completely emotionally put-together yourself. As you listen to him and attend to him, he will probably begin to feel stronger and better. But that won’t happen without you being emotionally drained yourself. There’s an exchange. And it takes its toll.
Parenting is the same way. We sacrifice and give and serve in order that our children may live. We decrease so they will increase.
God’s salvation through Christ works the same way. He submits to man. He leaves his heavenly home. He serves. He suffers and sacrifices. He takes on shame to give us glory. He dies so we can live.
John Stott wrote:
The essence of sin is we human beings substituting ourselves for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for us. We put ourselves where only God deserves to be; God puts himself where we deserve to be.
If we’ll open our eyes and look for it, we’ll see that the exchange is happening all around us. We live in this exchange. Praise God for the great exchange!
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Busy weekend. Thanks to J and Laurie Bailey, we were able to watch the Rangers at the Ballpark Saturday night with their sweet family and some other guests. Another Rangers 
loss in which Texas scored only one run. But this one was a little easier to take since we were in J’s super suite directly behind home plate. Whitney, of course, hung on every pitch, while Valerie and Carley took books to read and mostly laid around inside the suite, reading and eating cotton candy. They even managed to get one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies on the big screen TV. How embarrassing. Thanks, Baileys. We had a blast.
We dropped the two little girls off at Three Mountain Camp just south of Lake Whitney yesterday afternoon. This is Carley’s first camp, so Carrie-Anne got a little weird. Thinking about Carley sometimes makes me a little weird, too. Two weeks ago Carley finally jumped up in the hallway at home and hit the top of the bedroom door frame with her hand. She’s been trying for over year. Now she’s hit it. And now she jumps up and hits the top of every door frame in the whole house, everywhere she goes. Just like I did when I was her age. She’s big now, right? No more little kids. They’re all able to hit the top of the door. I suppose the ceiling’s next. I think Valerie’s still a year away.
Thanks to Kipi Ward who’s managing that 3rd-4th grade cabin down there for taking and posting some pictures.
So, it was just the three of us last night: C-A and Whitney and me. Just like it was for almost four years. We got back from Three Mountain just in time to take in a late night concert in Dallas. I know, Gene Paul, that singing “Sharp Dressed Man” with 25,000 people isn’t the same as singing “Hey, Jude” with 80,000 people. OK, you’re right, it’s not even close. But we had a great time.
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Yesterday was Aaron and Jennifer Green’s last day here at Legacy. This really stinks. They’re being forced to re-locate to Katy, Texas in the Houston area. They fought it. But, now they’re gone. Aaron and Jennifer are those kind of people that, as a preacher, you really, really, really appreciate. Jennifer was up here at least two or three days a week, every week, for as long as I’ve been here, working in 
and for our children’s ministry. Aaron jumped immediately into the middle of our move to weekly Small Groups Church, serving on the planning committee and co-leading his own groups during both cycles. He also plays a vital role in the leadership of our young families class here. They both work tirelessly behind the scenes and show up for everything. Man, they’re leaving a big hole here at Legacy. It was a tough day around here because of that. But they’re going to bless a lucky group of Christians somewhere down in Katy.
We love y’all, Greens. We send you to Katy with our love and our prayers and our appreciation. We send you with the grace and peace of our Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus. We send you to the disciples in Katy to bless them and encourage them, as you have us. And we send you to join them in redeeming the world back to our God.
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There are 55 days left until the Cowboys kick off the NFL season. Probably less than 55 minutes left until Jerry Wayne holds another press conference about another event coming to his new stadium. But we’re concerned with the start of football season here. And we’re counting down the days with our Red Ribbon Review, a look at the second-best players in Cowboys history, according to jersey number. Before today’s #55, we’ll catch up with yesterday’s #56.
Eugene Lockhart. “Mean Gene the Hittin’ Machine.” A sixth-round draft pick in 1984, Lockhart became the first rookie to ever start for the Cowboys at middle linebacker when Bob Breunig was lost halfway through the season due to injury. 
Lockhart stayed there for six more seasons and became one of the very few bright stars on some pretty bad teams. He made over a hundred tackles in every season but his broken leg year of 1987, and still holds several team records for tackles, including the single season total of 222 he set in 1989. That was the year Lockhart racked up double digit tackle numbers in all 16 games, including a team-record 16 stops against the Cards. That was also Jimmy Johnson’s 1-15 first year in Dallas. So Lockhart’s accomplishments mainly went unnoticed. He was traded to the Patriots following the 1990 season for a number one draft pick that turned into Russell Maryland. As he was cleaning out his locker at Valley Ranch, Lockhart was heard to say, “It’s a cold business — a cold, cold business. And it’s even colder in New England.”
Today’s #55 is another Cowboys middle linebacker, Robert Jones. Jones was Dallas’ first round pick in 1992, the 24th player chosen overall, and the first from East Carolina University to ever be taken in the first round. He played only four years for the Cowboys. Just 56 total games. But they were the four glory years of the Cowboys’ dynasty that decade. Jones was named the NFC Rookie of the Year in ’92. And the Cowboys went to four straight NFC Championship Games, winning three conference titles and three Super Bowls. He went on to play for the Rams and the Dolphins. But for four years, he was the defensive signal-caller on the NFL’s best team.
Peace,
Allan
Why doesn’t the roadrunner ever die? I’ve watched the coyote chase him all over the desert, I’ve seen him ALMOST 
caught by the coyote a million times, I’ve seen him in countless situations that look impossible to escape, but I’ve never seen him die. He always lives. Why?
It’s not because the coyote is inept. He’s a genius. It says so right on his business card.
The roadrunner never dies because the roadrunner has an agreement with the writer.
The writer has already determined that the roadrunner will never die. Regardless of how many trips the coyote makes to the ACME dry goods store, no matter how many rocket launchers and catapults and gallons of invisible paint are purchased, despite the coyote’s hours and hours of planning and scheming, the writer has decided the roadrunner will always win and the coyote will always lose.
Jesus says in John 8:51, “I tell you the truth, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.”
See, our Savior holds the power of life and death in his hands. He is the Creator of life. He is the master over death. He’s defeated death in his Resurrection. Death has nothing on our Lord. He obliterated death and reversed death’s effects. And he promises us that if we believe his claims and keep his word, we will never die.
If we truly believe it, our lives will show it. Our attitudes will reflect it. The ways we deal with people and events and circumstances will prove it. The way we handle financial crises and health issues and death and disease will testify to our life in Christ. God’s Son personifies life and victory and resurrection as powerful realities for his children. Death is not the bottom line for us. Death is not the final word. Christ Jesus is the ultimate power with the ultimate authority. And he always writes the last chapter.
It’s good to have an arrangement with the writer.
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Mary Hollingsworth, one of our newer members here at Legacy, is seeing sermon illustrations in her back yard. Our focus this past Sunday on the holy stumps and the holy seed and the salvation shoot prompted Mary to email me yesterday with a couple of pictures and this message:
“Last year a tornado in Bedford broke two of our huge oak trees in half, leaving only stumps. We thought they were toast and gone forever, which broke our hearts because we’re tree huggers to the core. I’m happy to say that we were wrong. Both stumps are now growing like crazy. ‘A new branch will grow 
from a stump of a tree.’ It’s still happening! And even though I know the Root of Jesse has already come, he does promise to come again. Perhaps these new branches are good reminders for us to keep growing, in spite of tough times, and be ready when he appears again.”
Thank you, Mary, for the pictures and the reminders.
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There are 66 days left until the Cowboys kick off their 50th NFL football season in Tampa Bay against the Bucs. And to get us there, we’re counting it down with the Red Ribbon Review. We’re honoring the runners-up, the almost-weres, the also rans, the second-best players in Cowboys history according to jersey number.
Today’s #66 is versatile offensive lineman Kevin Gogan. A bargain as an eighth round pick (206th overall) in 1987, Gogan toughed it out through those last two horrible Tom Landry seasons and the transitional phase into the Jerry Wayne Era, resulting in two Super Bowl rings and a huge fat contract with the Oakland Raiders. Gogan spent seven years in Dallas, but he got all his Pro Bowls and national recognition with the 49ers. At one point late in his career, Sports Illustrated put Gogan on the cover of an issue dedicated to dirty players in the NFL. Again, in a 49ers uniform. Still, he beats out Burton Lawless and Jesse Baker. He’s the second-best ever.
Beep-Beep,
Allan
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