Category: Salvation (Page 31 of 34)

The Great Exchange

July 20, 2009 / Allan / 0 Comments

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

Never See Death

July 9, 2009 / Allan / 0 Comments

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

Not Christian Enough

June 30, 2009 / Allan / 0 Comments

I’m in the middle of reading The Reason for God by Timothy Keller. It’s an apologetics, of sorts. I’m not certain he would classify it that way. But that’s what it feels like. I’m also in the middle of re-reading C. S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity with our Tuesday morning group. And the two works cross over at almost every other paragraph. The idea I’m writing about today comes from Keller’s chapter entitled The Church Is Responsible for So Much Injustice.

We all know people we would call religious fanatics. We’ve all been impacted by them. These are people who express very clearly and very loudly their calling as Christians. But they live it — manifest it — by lashing out against society. They spend a great deal of time and energy screaming against the other political party, against homosexuality, against evolution, against abortion, against other religions, against the doctrines and practices of other Christians, against the world’s values, against anything and everything — anybody and everybody — who doesn’t conform strictly to their idea of “truth” and Christianity. In your face!

The fanatic is the extreme. A fanatic is one who over-believes or over-practices his Christianity, a major turn-off to those on the outside of our faith looking in. These fanatics do great damage to our efforts to expand the borders of God’s Kingdom. Nobody wants to be around people like that. Who can blame them? To the world, especially to someone who’s experienced these fanatics personally or seen them on TV or read about them in the papers, “the best kind of Christian would be someone who doesn’t go all the way with it, who believes it but is not too devoted to it.”

The problem with viewing Christianity that way is that it assumes the Christian faith is basically a form of moral improvement. If that’s what Christianity is — a way of improving your life and/or living your life in the right way — then the fanatics would certainly be those who are intense moralists (Keller’s term). Pharisees.

Pharisees are people who “assume they are right with God because of their moral behavior and right doctrine. This leads naturally to feelings of superiority toward those who do not share their religiosity, and from there to various forms of abuse, exclusion, and oppression. This is the essence of what we think of as fanaticism.”

But what if Christianity is really all about salvation from God in Christ? What if our faith is really all about grace and love and forgiveness? What if Christianity is really all about being saved not because of what we do but because of what God through Christ has done for us? A belief that you are forgiven and accepted by God only by his sheer love and grace alone (the essence of our faith) is profoundly humbling. So, the people we would call fanatics are not that way because they are too committed to the Gospel but because they’re not committed enough.

“Think of people you consider fanatical. They’re overbearing, self-righteous, opinionated, insensitive, and harsh. Why? It’s not because they are too Christian but because they are not Christian enough. They are fanatically zealous and courageous, but they are not fanatically humble, sensitive, loving, empathetic, forgiving, or understanding — as Christ was…What strikes us as overly fanatical is actually a failure to be fully committed to Christ and his gospel.” (emphasis mine)

I know I’ve thought about this many times. I’ve thought this about other people. And in moments of true reflection and scary clarity, I’ve noticed it in myself. How empowering, though, to point out to doubters and skeptics that these rigid, hard, insensitive, loud, overbearing people who call themselves Christians do not represent the teachings or the purpose or the goals of Christianity. That ain’t us! That person claiming to be right about everything does not represent Christianity. That person who refuses to bend is not acting like Christ. That person standing on the street corner and screaming condemnation to passers-by is not what our Lord and Savior is all about.

Those people are not too Christian. They’re not Christian enough.

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There are 75 more days until the Dallas Cowboys kick off their historic 2009 football season — historic only in that this is their 50th NFL season, not historic in that anybody’s predicting great things. To help us count down to that first game in Tampa Bay on September 13, we’re recognizing the second-best players in Cowboys history by jersey number.

Today’s #75 is defensive tackle Tony Casillas. He only played in Dallas five years. But he was a vital part of that super quick defensive line in the early ’90s and was in on the two Jimmy Johnson Super Bowl wins. He left for bigger money and two weird years with the Jets, which cost him a third Super Bowl ring and a lot of respect. But he did wrap up his career in Dallas with a couple of mediocre seasons in ’96 and ’97.

(Phil Pozderac was never a possibility. Besides, if I’d named Pozderac and Flozell Adams in back to back days, I’d be looking at 3rd and 20 and a quick-kick.)

Peace,

Allan

No Fun At All

June 10, 2009 / Allan / 0 Comments

Our Tuesday morning men’s Bible study here at Legacy is going quickly through C. S. Lewis’ classic Christian apologetic, Mere Christianity. I was captured all over again this week by Lewis’ brief, but mighty, description of repentance:

“Fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement: he is a rebel who must lay down his arms. Laying down your arms, surrendering, saying you are sorry, realizing that you have been on the wrong track and getting ready to start life over again from the ground floor — that is the only way out of the ‘hole.’ This process of surrender — this movement full speed astern — is what Christians call repentance. Now repentance is no fun at all. It is something harder than merely eating humble pie. It means unlearning all the self-conceit and self-will that we have been training ourselves into for thousands of years. It means killing a part of yourself, undergoing a kind of death.”

In our zeal to formulate salvation, to reduce God’s eternal plan for his creation down to an orderly handful of requirements, we’ve done the world a disservice and cheapened God’s grace.

By claiming for decades and generations that one has to repent first, confess next, and then be baptized in order to be saved has implied that these are all one-time steps to salvation. The truth is, we must repent every single day. Every day. Every morning when I wake up, as I’m turning off the alarm and getting ready to start another day in God’s Kingdom, I have to intentionally turn my life around. This world and its culture and its history, my human-ness and my nature and my surroundings, all have me going in the wrong direction. Every morning when I wake up, my tendency, because of my world, is to go in a way that is opposed to the will of my God for my life. I have to determine every morning that today I will live for Christ. Today I will not do such and such. Today I pledge to certainly do this and that. Today I repent from what my own instincts and impulses are pushing me to do, I turn away from what my nature says is in my best interest, I reject what my will wants. I surrender. I give up. None of self and all of Thee.

Repentance is an on-going process. So is Christian confession. It’s realizing, more every day, that Jesus is Lord of every part of my life. There’s not a time or a place that Christ does not sovereignly rule. Jesus is Lord in my driving habits, in my conversations, and in my work and play. Jesus is Lord over this blog, over every website I visit, over every email I write. He is Lord over every interaction I have with my wife, my children, my church family, my neighbors, my enemies. He is Lord when I pray. And he is Lord when I watch TV. I confess that every day. And I repent.

Today I return to my Lord and Master. Today I submit to his will. Today I promise to live for him and others, not for myself. Today I vow to act and to speak and to think in ways that bring my God glory.

Peace,

Allan

Already, Not Yet

May 15, 2009 / Allan / 11 Comments

“We ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” ~Romans 8:23

Our God is unfolding a plan that provides fully for our eternal future, a plan that leads to ultimate glory for his children. And, as his people, we should be filled with confidence and assurance that the God who began a great work in us will indeed bring it to completion in the day of Christ.

God does work in all things for our good. We know that. That good is especially related to our final glory. But it also includes the benefits of being a child of God in this life. As we’re groaning. God uses our sufferings to build Christian character, to conform us to Christ, to prepare us for that glory.

Nothing will ever touch us that is not completely and totally under the direction of our loving Father. Everything we do and say, everything others do to us or say about us, every experience we will ever have, it’s all sovereign-ly used by our God for our good. We don’t always understand it. We don’t always enjoy it. But we know our groanings are not in vain. They serve an eternal purpose that’s being worked out by the Creator of Heaven and Earth who groans right along with us.

Peace,

Allan

Diversions

May 7, 2009 / Allan / 0 Comments

Most of you already know how proud I am of my brother, Keith, a Bible professor at Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas. He teaches church history and New Testament theology and he is the world’s leading scholar and expert in the thought and theology and writings of Jacobus Arminius. Keith’s first book, Arminius on the Assurance of Salvation, was published two years ago. You’d need a small loan to purchase it. Most of you (us) would need a brain transplant to read it. It’s heavy. Deep. Profound. And very, very important. It’s meant for reading and research in theological libraries. And I know our mom has a copy. But John Mark Hicks has recently read the book and posted a wonderful review on his website, John Mark Hicks Ministries. You can read his review of Keith’s book here.

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And would you please do me this favor? It’s kinda cheesy, I know. Indulge me, though. Please. This will take a grand total of ten seconds. It’s a total of two clicks.

Randy Roper is the family life minister at the Edmond Church of Christ. We called Oklahoma Christian University basketball games together in 1988-89. I did play-by-play. Randy provided the color. Colorful color. Road trips. Late nights. Triple overtime playoff losses. We’ve got a bit of a history together. If you know Randy, ask him about Swampman’s Dunk, mayonnaise, or the stink bomb in the Eagle’s Nest during a game against SNU. (Don’t ask him about our halftime comments during crazy hat night against Oklahoma City University.) On a whim, he recently entered a contest in which the winner gets a free trip to New York City to accompany Oklahoma City Thunder officials for the 2009 NBA Draft Lottery.

The Thunder is the NBA team in OKC. It’s the old Seattle SuperSonics franchise that moved to Oklahoma two years ago. The set up here is to know that the team and its fans call their Thunder T-shirts and Thunder caps and Thunder sweatshirts and jerseys “Thunderwear.” It’s catchy. It’s clever. I like it. My brother-in-law and their two boys are always talking about their Thunderwear. We got them Academy gift certificates for Christmas last year so they could buy more Thunderwear.

The contest Randy entered is a slogan contest. The winner is determined by on-line voting. His slogan is “Gonna wear my Thunderwear in Times Square.” It’s down to three finalists. And right now, Randy’s leading the voting with 46%. “Thunder Loud and Oklahoma Proud” is next with 44%, so it’s close. Do me a favor. Vote for Randy right now. The voting ends at 2:00 CST this afternoon. Today.

Here’s the link to the site:

http://www.nba.com/thunder/news/lottery_challenge.html

The three slogans will pop up on the left. Click in the circle next to “Gonna wear my Thunderwear in Times Square” and then hit the “submit” button right under it. Again, it’ll take less than ten seconds max. Thanks. I owe you one.

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The Rangers are in first place this morning. They’ve won five straight. I’m not going to say anything about it. Don’t want to jinx anything.

And we’re down to one goldfish after two more kicked the bucket overnight. They’ve named him Spot. I think he’s in trouble.

Peace,

Allan

Category: Salvation (Page 31 of 34)

The Great Exchange

Never See Death

Not Christian Enough

No Fun At All

Already, Not Yet

Diversions

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