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Correcting Our Views On Miracles

March 17, 2011 / / 3 Comments

Right after the Sermon on the Mount in which Jesus preaches and teaches about turning the world upside down, he begins healing people. Right out of the gate. “When he came down from the mountainside…” (Matt. 8:1), the first thing he did was heal a man with leprosy. “Be clean!” The very next story has Jesus healing the Centurion’s servant. He heals Peter’s mother-in-law in the very next passage. And Matthew tells us, look, this is what God’s been building toward all along: “He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases” (Matt. 8:17).

Still in the same chapter, Jesus calms the raging sea. The wind and the waves are tearing up the boat. The storm is threatening to destroy the people in it. And Jesus stops everything. With a word, all is calm. Peace is restored.

A few chapters later we find more than 5,000 hungry people out in the wilderness. No food. No Kroger. They’re going to starve. And Jesus provides the food. Fish and bread. Everybody eats until they’re full. They collected twelve baskets of leftovers.

We look at Jesus’ miracles and we think, wow, Jesus goes against the laws of nature! Jesus does the supernatural! He suspends reality! We say Jesus overrides the natural order. But that’s not correct. When Jesus does a miracle, he’s actually restoring the natural order. Jesus is restoring things to the way they were always created and intended to be.

The wind and the waves were not created by God to kill. People are not made to be sick or hungry.

We need to change the way we view Jesus’ miracles. He’s not going against the norm. He’s tapping into and restoring the norm. Calm seas are normal. Satisfied bellies are normal.

Jesus shows up and says, “I’m fixing things!” When Jesus finishes a miracle, I think he steps back and says, “Now that’s the way it’s supposed to be.” Jesus’ miracles are not abnormal. He’s just showing us and reminding us of what normal is. It’s been so long, a lot of us forget. We look around at all the problems in this world and we start to think that things have always been this way and they’re always going to be this way. No! That’s wrong on both counts!

I think this has a lot to say to God’s people groaning today in Japan. It’s a powerful message for God’s people groaning in India. And in North Texas.

Hunger and disease and divorce are not normal. They are abnormalities. Aberrations. Addiction and homelessness and broken families are not regular. They are irregular. Out of order. So are tsunamis and tornadoes and hurricanes. And nuclear meltdowns and crime and war. These are the very things our Lord came to fix. And, praise God, with his coming, the fixing’s already begun.

And if we really believe it…

…then we’ll jump into that exact same kind of “fixing” work with everything we have.

Jesus’ miracles are not abnormal. He’s just reminding us of what normal really is.

Peace,

Allan

Upside Down

March 15, 2011 / / 1 Comment

Holy Scripture gives us a pretty clear image of what our God is doing in this world. From Genesis to Revelation we see the motif of changing places. Switching roles. The rich and powerful are being brought down and the poor and weak are being raised up. God is turning things upside down. It’s Freaky Friday to the max. It’s Eddie Murphy and Dan Akroyd in Trading Places without the gorilla costume and the one dollar bet.

The way the world is right now — all the power structures, all the people in charge; all the people in the streets, all the oppressed; people without a care in the world, people who are trapped in hopeless cycles of despair — our God is working to totally flip it around. He’s working even now toward a great big ultimate opposite day.

The Psalmist can sense it: “He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; he seats them with princes.” ~Psalm 113:7-8

Hannah feels it: “The bows of the warriors are broken, but those who stumbled are armed with strength. Those who were full hire themselves out for food, but those who were hungry hunger no more.” ~1 Samuel 2:4-8

Mary, the mother of Jesus, knows what the coming of the Christ means: “He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.” ~Luke 1:52-53

And when the Messiah does finally arrive, we find him preaching and teachig the same thing. Trading places. Switching spots: The poor in spirit get the kingdom of heaven, those who mourn will be comforted, the meek get the whole earth, those who hunger and thirst will be filled.

He traded places with you, you know. He pulled you down off the cross and climbed up there in your place. The ultimate Freaky Friday. It was your cross, not his. It was your sins, not his. And he switched with you. You were dead, but now you’re alive. You were lost, but now you’re saved. You were bound for an eternity without God, but now you’ve been re-routed to an eternity in his holy presence. You were God’s enemy, but now you’re his friend. By God’s grace and the power of the Holy Spirit, you have been lifted from the ash heap and raised to reign at the right hand of the Father forever. A never-ending opposite day!

Hallelujah!

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The Chuck Greenberg news out of Rangers spring training was a bombshell to me. Totally out of left field. I had no idea. How surprising. And how disappointing.

I really thought the Rangers had the best of both worlds: Nolan Ryan as the most respected baseball man in the state of Texas, probably the entire southewest region, and perhaps even in the country, giving the Rangers concrete credibility in all matters baseball; and Greenberg as super fan-friendly, media-savvy, wonderfully likeable, perfect sound bite, get things done money man.

It’s all ego, right? It’s definitely not on the Jimmy-Jerry scale. But this is still all about ego, isn’t it?

Either way, it’s still better than what we had.

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Erasmus ridiculed the group in society he labled “praisers of all things old.” I admit I’m generally in danger of falling head first into that category. Especially when it comes to sports. I despised the play-in game on Wednesday night that a few years ago tainted the sanctity of the 64-team NCAA basketball tournament. We completely ignored it at Stanglin Manor, refusing to even acknowledge it in our brackets. But what am I supposed to do now with this First Four stuff?!? We can easily put an “X” under Ohio State and Pitt as the top seeds will destroy either of those 16s in the mix. But we have to do something now with those elevens and twelves. USC probably has a chance against Georgetown. Clemson can probably give West Virginia a good game. We can no longer just pretend it’s still a 64-team field. It’s not! Have you counted the number of 14-loss teams in the tournament? It’s ridiculous. It’s as bad as taking four teams to the high school football playoffs out of six team districts. It’s like having 35-bowl games. When does it stop?

I’ve got Carolina, Duke, Purdue, and Florida in my Final Four. The Tarheels beat the streaking Gators to capture their one shining moment.

Just don’t bet on it.

Peace,

Allan

Middle of the Village

March 10, 2011 / / 3 Comments

I’m glad Jesus is your Savior. But is he your Lord?

Is he?

Does Christ compel your every thought and deed? Does Jesus inform your every decision? Do you seek to honor him with every word and action? Is Jesus the Lord of your church life and your work life and your family life and your recreation life and your social life? Do you give Jesus the final say on every second of your every minute or do you hold out on him? Does he have some of your day, but not all of it? Does he control some of your life, but not all of it? Does he get the final vote on everything you do, or just on some of the things you do?

Is he your Lord? Or is he just your Savior?

It’s high time, isn’t it, for the lordship of Jesus Christ to move past Sunday mornings and past our churches and past our religious ceremonies and programs and into our whole world. All of it. “Jesus is Lord!” That was the confession of the early Church. Jesus is Lord. That means Caeser is not. Your corporate president is not. Your nation’s president is not. Neither is your boss or your teacher or your neighbor or your client or your child or your coach. Or your culture. Jesus is Lord.

God is bigger than we’ve ever imagined. And he wants all of us.

For some reason, we’ve allowed God to only have dominion over the things we can’t really explain. We’ll give God the Bible and Church and heaven and hell. He can rule over life and death. He can make all the decisions about salvation and judgment. But that’s an abbreviated God. That’s a “God of the gaps” who just fills in the blanks. The God of Holy Scripture is Lord over everything. He’s not just Lord over what we don’t know, but over every single thing we know and over all the things we’re just now learning. He is Lord. We must stop pretending that our God only wants to dwell in the little religious corners we’ve reserved for him.

“It always seems to me that we are trying anxiously to reserve some space for God; I should like to speak of God not on the boundaries but at the centre; not in weaknesses but in strength… The Church stands not at the boundaries where human powers give out, but in the middle of the village.” ~Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 1944

Resolve right now, by the grace of God and the power of his Spirit, to put Christ at the very center of your world. Declare Jesus to be your “all and in all.” Give him, finally, your whole life; stop holding back. He’s not the last resort when you’ve run out of options; he’s not the religious specialist who only deals with spirituality; he’s not a comfort blanket when you’re hurting or an AK-47 when you’re in trouble.

He is Lord. Right smack dab in the middle of your village.

Peace,

Allan

We Need an Encounter

March 8, 2011 / / 2 Comments

So my great friend Jason Reeves calls me at about 10:15 this morning. He’s the preacher at the Grayston Church in New Diana, Texas. East Texas. On Lazy Daisy Lane. Seriously, that’s the name of the street. It’s out there, man. I call it Green Acres. When Jason says he’s going to town, he means he’s going to Gilmer. Yeah. So he tells me, “Stanglin, I just got a phone call that you’ve never ever had before in the history of your ministry.”

A woman at his church had called Jason to please come over and shoot a raccoon out of her tree.

He was on his way.

I’m curious as to how it went.

Ah, congregational ministry.

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The priests and Levites are interrogating John the Baptist in the opening chapter of the Fourth Gospel. And the focus of the questioning is John himself. “Who are you? What are you doing?” And John’s answers are “I am not the Christ. I am not Elijah. I am not the prophet.”

“I’m just a voice,” he says, “making the way for the Lord.” And he points to Jesus. “He is the one…”

And this powerful preacher, this amazing proclaimer in the desert who’s drawing all these crowds and getting all this attention, keeps pointing others to Jesus. He deflects the spotlight. He doesn’t seek it and he doesn’t want it. “Look! The Lamb of God!”

He points two of his own disciples in Jesus’ direction. One of those men, Andrew, has an encounter with Jesus and is changed forever. He runs to get his brother. “We have found the Messiah! We have found the Christ!”

Philip has an encounter with Jesus and he’s changed forever. He runs to get his friend. “We have found the one Moses wrote about! We have found the one about whom the prophets wrote!”

These men come face to face with Jesus and they recognize immediately who he is. And they witness. They testify. They declare that Jesus is “Christ.” “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” “Rabbi.” “Messiah.” “Son of God.” “King of Israel.” And they cannot be stopped from sharing this revelation with their friends.

I wonder why we don’t grab our friends to share the Good News. Why aren’t we pointing people to Jesus? Well, when’s the last time you had an encounter with him? I’m not talking about a particularly inspirational church service. This is not about participating in a dynamic church program. When’s the last time you really opened yourself up to his leading? When’s the last time you spent an hour in the Gospels with him? When’s the last time you poured your heart out to him in prayer? When’s the last time you allowed him to change you?

In the New Testament, an encounter with the Christ naturally resulted in evangelism. We need an encounter. We need a face to face meeting with our Lord. We need to put aside our inhibitions and give ourselves freely to his transforming power. We need to allow him to change us. To move us. To compel us. We need to be awed again to be in his presence. We need to be blown away again by the fact that he’s rescued us. We need to grasp all over again just how much he loves us. We need to understand who he really is. Because, once we do, our lives will point everyone we know to Jesus.

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The knot on the back of Mark Hooper’s head is good for distracting people during Bible class. It’s a good conversation piece. It’s a physical wonder and a medical curiosity. And today it’s a reminder that hope springs eternal in Surprise, Arizona.

That’s really sick, Mark.

Peace,

Allan

Who Stands Fast?

March 3, 2011 / / 2 Comments

“Who stands fast? Only the man whose final standard is not his reason, his principles, his conscience, his freedom, or his virtue, but who is ready to sacrifice all this when he is called to obedient and responsible action in faith and in exclusive allegiance to God — the responsible man, who tries to make his whole life an answer to the question and call of God.” ~Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Christmas Eve 1942

The life of a disciple is active, not reactive. It has nothing to do with just talking about faith or teaching religious principles or believing theological ideas or keeping biblical rules. It has everything to do with living one’s whole life in obedience to God’s call through personal action. It doesn’t just require a mind. It requires a body, too.

Ours is a life given to us by God to be lived not in some kind of rigid, cramped, crowded, small, compromised, legalistic way but in a full, wild, joyful, exuberant, cheerful, celebratory way. A way that apprehends and assimilates and then radiates the freedom we have from God in Christ.

The way I see it, a full grasp of the freedom we have in Christ and the grace and mercy we’ve received from our God will come to mean, eventually,  that we are no longer afraid of sin. We’re not worried about messing up. We don’t hold back because of an anxiety over doing something that might displease our God. At the very least — stay with me here — avoiding sin will not be the main thing that drives us as we follow our Lord.

Our Father wants his beloved children to operate out of joy and freedom to do what is good and right, not out of fear of making a mistake. Isn’t that one of the great lessons in Jesus’ story about the servants and the talents in Matthew 25?

We must be more zealous to please God than to avoid sin. We must act in faith that our God who calls us to live boldly and outrageously for him also promises us that if and when we do mess up in enthusiastic service to our King, he promises forgiveness and consolation and salvation.

The Christian life is an active life. Our God calls us to give our whole selves to him. Brakes off. No looking back. Full speed ahead. He’s not going to punish us when, in pursuit of his will, we might mess up.

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Last Sunday’s sermon on Christ’s return from Revelation 21-22 prompted many, many kind comments and encouragements from dozens of my brothers and sisters here at Legacy. Many had never thought about heaven and earth and God’s ultimate mission in the ways Scripture so plainly paints it. Many seemed refreshed at the biblical promises that God’s will is ultimately going to be done on earth just as it is in heaven. That’s why we’re told to pray it, right? And that’s why we join it. The mission. The salvation objective. Those are the things we’re going to be considering together during Missions Month throughout March.

In a related item, Patrick Mead has posted a hilarious re-cap of all the individuals and groups throughout history who have predicted the return of Christ and the end of the world. Of course, mankind has a 100% fail rate in this useless undeavor. But the list is hilarious. I especially like the parenthetical comments in his list. One mentions the possibility that Van Halen may be the anti-Christ which may or may not, combined with Orwells’ vision, have led to the speculation about the year 1984. There’s a group called the Sword of God Brotherhood that is claiming the end of the world will come in 2017. They say that they alone will be spared and tasked to repopulate the earth. Here’s hoping there’s a Sword of God Sisterhood, too.

You can read the complete list by clicking here.

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I’m 24 hours away from my annual camping trip with my Four Horsemen friends. A weekend of encouragement, prayer, meditation, food, bonding, and at least one unforeseen near-catastophic incident to remember forever. These are the guys. These are the ones. They are my closest friends. They keep me going. They keep me accountable. They challenge me and they exhort me. They mature me in our faith. They inspire me to be a better man, a better husband and dad, a better preacher, a better disciple. Even while we’re throwing rocks at raccoons and making fun of Dan’s always-on survival mode, Jason’s tough guy facade (what a fake!), and Kevin’s wardrobe.

I can’t wait.

Peace,

Allan

Lord, Come Later

February 28, 2011 / / 3 Comments

The prayer of God’s Church, from very early on, has always been “Lord, come quickly.” Marana tha. These are the words Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 16. “Lord, come quickly.” These are the words historically and faithfully prayed around the communion table for centuries. “Lord, come quickly.”

And Jesus’ response to that prayer is found three times in the final 15 verses of Holy Scripture: “Behold! I am coming soon!”

Revelation begins with “the time is near” and ends with “I am coming soon.” And everywhere in between there’s this overwhelming sense of urgency and immediacy. Nearness. Soon-ness.

Lord, come quickly.

But our talk today sometimes betrays an un-Scriptural attitude. Our jokes and stories about heaven reveal what we really think and feel about eternal life after death in the presence of our loving Father. Our view seems to be that heaven will be fine once I die. But I don’t want to go there just yet. Not yet. Truth is, I’m doing OK here on earth. Things are pretty good. Instead of  “Lord, come quickly” it’s “Lord, come later.”

We sing it that way sometimes, too. “I’d like to stay here longer than man’s alloted days, and watch the fleeting changes of life’s uneven ways; but if my Savior calls me to that sweet home on high…”

No, no, no. Lord, come quickly!

Lord, come quickly and create that promised new heavens and new earth. Bring about that renewal of all things. Cleanse and purify the earth with that 2 Peter fire. Do that new thing. Reverse the curse. Banish Satan to hell forever. Make all of creation brand new again. Obliterate sin and death so thoroughly that we can’t even remember it anymore. May your holy will be done on earth just as it is in heaven. Bring it, Lord. The new Jerusalem. The new Garden of Eden. The new heaven and earth where everything that’s gone so horribly wrong is now finally made perfectly right!

He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.”
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people.

Amen.

Allan

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