The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

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Take Heart!

May 4, 2011 / / 1 Comment

“In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” ~John 16:33

Jesus tells us plainly — from the mountain, around the table, along the way — that this world is openly hostile to the things of God. For disciples to live in the world means we have to experience struggle and conflict and even battles. The world’s values and vision and morals and ethics are opposed to ours in Christ. And living here isn’t easy.

Not for Christians.

Living right here right now is hard.

I spent an hour with Quincy this morning in our prayer room, lifting up dozens of requests to our Father in Jesus’ name. The things my brothers and sisters have written on those requests tell me that we have struggles and battles. I’ve spent more than a few cumulative hours over the past four or five days in my study counseling with people, praying with people, crying and agonizing with people. There’s nothing easy about this.

Jesus never pretended that it would be. He knows it’s tough. He lived it, remember? And he reminds us that while we’re having this trouble, we can also be filled with courage and strength and hope because he has overcome all of it.

Jesus tells us, “I have faced your enemy and I have conquered him. I have fought your battles on the same fields of human experience where you fight, and I’ve won. I’ve already done it for you. And I’m doing it right now in you and for you.”

If we abide in him, if we stay connected to him, his eternal victory belongs to us.

Wow. That’s really good news.

Peace,

Allan

Christian Response

May 3, 2011 / / 7 Comments

If you’re still interested in reading about and weighing in on the Christian response to the death of Osama bin Laden, allow me to link you up.

Corey Mullins, our Legacy missionary to Wollongong, Australia writes his reflections in his Mentalcourse blog here. In an email exchange yesterday, this faithful man of God considered the oxymoron, “Christian hatred.” Corey wonders why Christians look and act so much like the world and concludes it’s all about spiritual formation: “One hour on Sunday just isn’t enough to conform our thought patterns to Scripture. But, sadly, that’s all most of our people are getting.” Corey goes on to tell me about a friend of his in Korea whose church is open every morning from 7:00-8:00am for Bible reading and prayer. Many people — actually, Corey says “most” of the church’s members — come in on their ways to work to pray and meditate on the words of God. I wonder about us here at Legacy where, for almost two-and-a-half-years now, our elders and ministers open our prayer rooms every weekday morning from 7:00-8:00am. Quincy comes. And usually nobody else. Corey says most of these churches in Korea “are full of first generation Christians which may explain the difference. Maybe we’ve become lazy with our spirituality.”

David Smith, the preaching minister at the Missouri Street Church of Christ in Baytown, Texas, has compiled a list of 18 other preachers and ministers and theologians, mostly CofC, who have written articles about bin Laden’s death. The posts run the gamut of almost anything you can imagine as a Christian reaction to the death of this terrorist. The page with all the links is here. While you’re at it, go ahead and read Smith’s own personal angle here. Scroll down to his second post, Osama bin Laden Talks with God. Wow! How does he keep his job at Missouri Street writing like that?

Finally, my great friend Jim Gardner pointed me to a blog post by Kurt Willems, a former classmate of his at the Fresno Pacific Biblical Seminary. Kurt explores the things that “grieve the heart of God.” Click here.

This Sunday I am preaching from my favorite Bible verse, John 16:33. These are Jesus’ last words to his disciples before he gives himself up, before he dies on the cross as a sacrifice for every sinner in the history of our planet: “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Peace,

Allan

The Death of the Wicked

May 2, 2011 / / 6 Comments

“As surely as I live,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live.” ~Ezekiel 33:11

I knew it the moment I watched the first images late last night of the crowds in front of the White House and in Times Square boisterously celebrating the death of Osama bin Laden. I knew it this morning when the news programs showed us image after image of young men and women waving flags and singing songs on their city streets and campus squares. I knew it when I drove my girls to school and listened to the talk show hosts discussing what they would have done to bin Laden’s body had they been in charge. And I realized it when I started seeing the forwarded emails. From Christians.

I’ve known all day today that this is not how Christians behave. We do not celebrate the death of a human being made in the image of God and loved by our Father. No matter how ruthless and vile Bin Laden may be, we love our enemies. We pray for our enemies and their families. We do good things for our enemies.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.” ~Matthew 5:43-45

God’s children do not dance and rejoice in the death of anyone. It’s decidedly un-Christ-like. To join in the worldly celebration of the death of a man who did not know our God is to deny our Christ and his Gospel. After all, our Lord died for us (you and me) while we (you and me) were his enemies. That’s the part I’ve not been able to understand today: doesn’t whooping and hollering and taking great joy and pleasure in the death of another human being deny just about everything Scripture teaches us about the nature and the will of our Father? Does it not oppose the clear commands from our Lord?

“Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” ~Luke 6:27-28

It is good today to grieve anew with the families of those who lost dear friends and relatives in the violent attacks orchestrated by this man. It is proper to mourn the loss of soldiers and civilians who’ve been trapped in the middle of the on-going conflict. It’s OK to acknowledge God’s sovereign use of nations and armies to enact his justice. It is right today to join the faithful lament of the prophets and the groaning of the martyred souls under the altar and cry out to our God, “How long?!? How much longer are you going to allow this to continue?!? When will you finally put all things to right?!?” Today is a day for prayer. Reflection. Meditation. Thanksgiving. Mixed feelings. It’s not a day for dancing in the streets.

I’ve known all along  that if I were to blog today about the way I’m feeling, I would be criticized. I’ve known that if I preach this Sunday on what the Scriptures say about the death of this terrorist, I might be fired. So, instead, I chose this morning to blog about God expecting more out of the people he’s blessed with his good gifts and matchless grace; about God requiring more out of his children; about God demanding more from the people he’s saved; about how that verse in Luke 12:48 is the very thing that pushed me over the top and compelled me to ditch sports radio and start preaching the Good News.

Please forgive me. I, too, have denied my Lord today.

Peace (not as the world gives peace),

Allan

Much Will Be Demanded

May 2, 2011 / / 0 Comments

“From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded.” ~Luke 12:48

Jesus fed the five thousand with some rolls and a couple of fish. Scripture tells us he gave the food to his disciples and they, in turn, passed it on to the crowds. But what if the disciples had just held on to the food?

“Hey, thanks for the lunch, Jesus.”

Then Jesus hands them more. “Oh! OK. Thanks for the dinner, too, Jesus.”

Then Jesus gives them more. “Wow! Allright! Thank you, Jesus.” What if the disciples started looking around for some to-go boxes? What if they began trying to figure out how to get all this food home? What if Jesus’ followers had just held onto the food for themselves when their Lord was giving them more than enough to share with everyone in the crowds who had need?

Along with God’s great gifts comes great responsibility.

I never could shake those words of Jesus at the end of Luke 12. They didn’t really give me a guilt trip; they didn’t knock me down every time I read them or thought about them. It was more like a heavy burden that followed me everywhere I went. Because I’ve been given much. Materially, financially, physically, I am blessed. I’m rich. More than that, God has completely forgiven me of every one of the horrible sins I’ve ever committed in my life. He’s totally restored me to a perfectly righteous relationship with him. By the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus, I am eternally wealthy. I’m Bill Gates and Donald Trump combined. With a great haircut and 50 lawyers! And because of his great gifts and his matchless grace, it is demanded of me that I use the abilities and talents and opportunities he gives me, not to talk about the Cowboys and Rangers and Mavs, but to boldly proclaim salvation from God in Christ! It’s required of me to declare his love and mercy that are available to all mankind and his will and his plan to redeem and restore all of creation forever.

After many years of dealing with Luke 12:48 — alternately ignoring it, wrestling with it, praying about it, trying to shake it — I finally got up the faith or the guts (or both) to act on what God was demanding of me. And I will never look back.

The truth is that when my crucified and risen Lord returns, I couldn’t bear the thought of explaining to him the way I used his gifts and grace for all of my adult life: camped out in press boxes and locked up in studios talking about and obsessing about things that don’t matter.

He is coming back. Right? Yes, you know that.

Peace,

Allan

Truly, Truly

April 29, 2011 / / 0 Comments

“You can never make everybody happy unless you’re doing things that are disingenuous.”

                                                                  ~C. J. Wilson

Happy Birthday, Carrie-Anne

April 27, 2011 / / 1 Comment

I lied to Carrie-Anne to get her to go out with me on our very first date. I tricked her. I had no confidence. She was out of my league. I had to resort to deception. I couldn’t just ask her for a date. So, I lied.

It was March 1989. I was a senior at Oklahoma Christian, about six weeks away from graduating. Carrie-Anne was a junior. I had always noticed her around campus. She was this really cute girl who looked great in faded blue jeans and a sweatshirt, wore white Keds, drove a little tiny Plymouth hatchback and spoke with a super thick Texas accent. She and I had never run in the same social circles together. So we had never really had much of a conversation before, other than just pleasant greetings and acknowledgements here and there.

It was at the end of March when my roommate, Jeff Hassman, and I made a list of the ten girls we were absolutely going to go out with before graduation. That was the goal. We were going to graduate and leave OC with no regrets. There were not going to be any what-ifs or maybes. We were going to boldly approach these women on our list and take them out on dates. Jeff came up with his list of ten. I was only able to write down nine names.

And Carrie-Anne Rowland was at the top of the list.

The following Friday afternoon I spied her — stalked her — in the student center and approached her with a plan. I told her there were a whole bunch of us going to see a movie at 10:00 that night. Several of us, a dozen or more. And I invited her to join us. It was a group thing. No pressure. Low key. Not really a date. To my great surprise and delight, she said ‘yes.’ And, since the movie was starting so late, she was going to the mall to do some shopping and be back at her apartment at about 9:00.

Perfect.

I called her at 9:15 and told her there had been a huge mistake. All my friends had gone to the 7:30 show. I had misunderstood everybody. The whole group — which never really existed — had already seen the earlier show. If we go, Carrie-Anne, it’ll just be you and me. I totally understand if you don’t want to. It’s cool. It’s OK. But if you still want to go, I’d be happy to pick you up at about 9:40.

She said ‘yes.’

We saw Fletch Lives. I know, pretty pathetic. Probably the single worst film Chevy Chase ever made. After the movie we spent 30-minutes together at Hardee’s eating french fries and drinking Dr Pepper. And my heart was captured.

I never made it to any of the other eight names on my list.

From that moment on, Carrie-Anne was my one and only. Forever.

My wife of 21 years is my perfect companion. She knows me better than I know myself. She loves me unconditionally. She believes in me totally. She defends me courageously. She encourages me relentlessly. She would die for our kids and she would kill for her husband. She completes all of my plans, she fulfills all of my hopes and she is the answer to all of my prayers. I thank God for Carrie-Anne, for this wonderful partner who reflects his eternal glory in our house and in my heart.

I’m inspired by the way she gives of herself to her students at Bedford Junior High. I’m moved by her sensitivity and compassion for others. I’m amused by the way she purposely wears her socks inside-out. I’m a little scared when she looks at me over her reading glasses. I’m overwhelmed by the way she loves me.

And she still looks amazing in blue jeans and a sweatshirt.

I outkicked my coverage with Carrie-Anne.

I love you, darling. I’m so thankful that our gracious Lord brought us together. And I still can’t believe you said ‘yes.’

Happy Birthday!

Allan

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