Page 431 of 493

Convenient Sacrifice

January 27, 2009 / Allan / 0 Comments

While reading a commentary on 2 Samuel last night, I came across this prayer written by Joe Seremane in 1998 in his book Celebrating One World. Seremane is a social justice activist (so is God). Unlike God, Seremane is an African.

I tell you that only to disclose that, yes, I understand the context of this prayer. But I understand this plea to our Father as also completely appropriate in the context of our church families here in America. Maybe, specifically, in our suburban, upper-middle class churches in America.

The call from our Savior is to a life of sacrificial service to others. Be like Jesus. Give up everything I have and give it to other people. And that’s hard. It’s harder for some of us than it is for others. But our adherence or lack of adherence to that command doesn’t lessen its preeminence for us as disciples of Christ. The call is to a constant sacrifice, not to a convenient sacrifice. It’s not to an act of service when it’s convenient.

The call is to sacrifice for and serve others when it’s not convenient. When it’s hard. When the very last thing you want to do is forget about your self and your own needs and give everything to the needs of those around us. There was nothing convenient about Jesus’ suffering and death for me. Gospel evidence shows me he was looking for a Plan B, for another way. But he did it. Because it is the only way.

Apply this prayer to the way you live in your church. The way you act within your Small Group. The kind of wife you are. The kind of son you are. The kind of co-worker you are. The sort of neighbor you are in your community, your school, your subdivision. Pray this prayer. Be challenged by it. Be changed by it. Be blessed by your renewed commitment to our Father to be shaped by it.

You asked for my hands
that you might use them for your purpose.
I gave them for a moment,
then withdrew them, for the work was hard.

You asked for my mouth
to speak out against injustice;
I gave you a whisper that I might not be accused.

You asked for my eyes
to see the pain of poverty;
I closed them, for I did not want to see.

You asked for my life
that you might work through me.
I gave you a small part, that I might not get too involved.

Lord, forgive me for my calculated efforts to serve you
only when it is convenient for me to do so,
only in those places where it is safe to do so and
only with those who make it easy to do so.

Father, forgive me,
renew me,
send me out
as a usable instrument
that I might take seriously
the meaning of the cross!

Only God

January 26, 2009 / Allan / 0 Comments

“Neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who makes things grow.” ~1 Corinthians 3:7

I had prayed the prayer of Terry Rush all week long.

“God, just please do that thing you do.”

Every day this past week as we geared up for our first bi-lingual Sunday assembly here at Legacy I asked God to overcome our (my) inefficiencies and our (my) shortcomings and our (my) mistakes to make something really spectacular happen to his people here. I was confident he was going to do something. He always does. But I really wanted God to do something big this Sunday. Something huge. Something powerful. Something so unmistakably beyond our (my) capacity that we would be left with no choice but to give him all the credit.

“God, just please do that thing you do.”

I knew he would. So we planned and planned and planned. A dual welcome and call to worship with Manuel and me. Seek Ye First in Spanish. Both languages on the screens for Scripture readings. A completely bi-lingual communion time with Spanish and English readings and prayers. A double-barreled sermon, me setting up Manuel to knock ’em dead! And, finally, we’d bring the house down with my all-time favorite song, It Is Well. Estoy Bien!

It was all lining up perfectly during the week. There was going to be a baptism, maybe two! A baby blessing! Maybe two! This was going to be a watershed assembly for us, maybe for all of NorthEast Tarrant County! What a great day for God’s Kingdom!

And then the service began. Six minutes late. I froze while trying to welcome the crowd with a Spanish rendition of 1 John 3:1 I had practiced all week. I actually had to pull out my cheat sheet and read it. How embarrassing.

There were other miscues and mistakes. But overall everything was great. The singing was great. The prayers were great. The Bible passages were great. Manuel was great. Gordon was great. I was great. The babies weren’t crying. The teenagers weren’t texting. Nobody looked at his watch. It was perfect!

And then God said, “OK, Stanglin, you finished now?”

“Check this out.”

And Antonia Moscada came down the aisle. Back in November she had read on our guady flashing sign out on Mid-Cities Boulevard that we offered Spanish language services. She’d been worshiping and studying with our church family for three months. And she wanted to put on our Savior in baptism.

Then Ana Loneli came down the aisle. Back in October she had shown up at Legacy for Give Away Day. Homeless. Sleeping in her car. Manuel and Yvina and Mike and Judy St.Clair had prayed with her that day. They helped her. They got her an apartment and a job. She’s been worshiping and studying with us for four months now. And she wanted to put on Christ in baptism.

Antonia was driving down the road and saw our sign and now her sins are being forgiven by the Creator of the Universe! Ana came for free clothes and groceries and now she’s being given eternal life by Almighty God! Are you kidding me? The sign? Give Away Day?

Tracy, a visitor, comes down the aisle. A baptized believer. A child of God. A subject in the Kingdom. Tears streaming down her face. She wants to start over. She wants to confess her sins and ask God for forgiveness and for a fresh start.

Nobody could have planned this. It was too wonderful. Only God.

Our God is still so very powerful. Our God is still so very, very active in this world. He still saves people. He still reaches out and rescues people. He still forgives. He still loves. He still moves. He still creates. He still changes people.

Our God uses flashing signs on the road and benevolence programs and mediocre preaching (mine, Manuel, not yours). But let us always remember, it is our God who does it. Nobody and nothing else. Our God has been working on Antonia and Ana and Tracy for a long, long time. We are only privileged to be able to witness it up close and jump into his work as his partners by his grace.

Hallelujah. God saves.

Allan

Happy Birthday, Val!

January 24, 2009 / Allan / 0 Comments

Valerie Nicole is 12 years old today.

When Valerie was born to us early in the afternoon of January 24, 1997 the first thing that caught our attention was how huge she was. No exaggeration. I mean huge. She weighed nine pounds, five ounces. Huge. All that evening and the next two days doctors and nurses and other patients and visitors would knock on Carrie-Anne’s hospital room door wanting to know if they could come in and see that baby that weighed 9,5. (It’s funny because today she’s so skinny I call her ‘Twig.”)

It was like Valerie was already a couple of weeks old when she came out. The very first moment I held her in my arms and talked to her and told her how beautiful she was, her eyes met mine and locked in. It was like she was truly paying attention to me, maybe even contemplating me. Possibly, even then, considering how she would manipulate me into giving her everything she ever wanted. She looked around the room as I held her in that first couple of minutes, taking it all in. It was really quite remarkable. She didn’t cry. She didn’t thrash around. I half-expected her to begin talking to me. It was strange.

And since that moment, Valerie’s always been the child who wants to see everything, do everything, and know everything. She’s always sat sideways in the car. Always. Still does. Staring out at the world as it goes by, taking it all in. She was four years old when I drove her to day school at the Mesquite Church when, totally out of the blue, she asked me, “If the world is round, why is that line straight?” She was talking about the distant horizon. I had no answer.

Valerie is our adventurer. She’s our explorer. Whitney wants to go to ballgames. Carley wants to visit the zoo. Valerie wants to spend the day at a cave in Central Texas or out in the woods. She wants to go where nobody else goes and do things she’s never done before. Except for vegetables and casseroles, she’s open to trying anything once.

Or twice. Or three times.

Following the traditional family birthday dinner out last night, we got her a hermit crab. Or, I should say, another hermit crab. This makes hermit crab number three, I think. Her first one died trying to switch shells. It just kind of disintegrated. Weird. The second one, we say, committed suicide. Valerie woke up one morning and the crab—Bob, I think, was his name—was holding his head in his little pinchers. Creepy. You regular readers of this blog already know Valerie lost two birthday rodents this time last year. This post regarding the demise of Cookie — R.I.P. Cookie — was talked about around here for weeks. That single post generated a KK&C record 35 comments, including Mel W’s link to a classic Super Bowl ad and Jason W’s well-crafted sports reference rant. Still the all-time high water mark for an open line of conversation and fellowship and discussion provoked by a single post. Most of it at my expense. But that’s OK. Lessons were learned. I’ll not be bathing her new crab. I promise.

Back to my little middle. Valerie. She’s beautiful. She’s funny. She’s smart. She has a gorgeous voice and I love to hear her sing. She memorizes words to songs she’s only heard once. She dances in front of her mirror to “High School Musical” and “Hannah Montana” and throws the football with the boy across the street. She makes friends with everybody. She’s considerate and kind to others. She never stops reading.

We’re so proud of Val-Pal. Our God has blessed us with this big-eyed gal who laughs at everything and pretends to know karate. There’s no limit to her potential. By the grace of our Father she truly can do anything she wants, she really can have anything she wants. I know our Lord has huge plans for her. I can’t wait to see how he’s going to use her to bless his Kingdom.

I love you, Val. Happy Birthday, sweetie.

Dad

Wait For The Lord

January 21, 2009 / Allan / 0 Comments

We pray…Hard. We suffer…Much. We work…Diligently. We trust…Unflinchingly. We love…Unconditionally. We preach…Boldly. We serve…Selflessly.

And what do we get?

Sometimes…..nothing.

Nothing.

No answer to the prayer. No justice for the suffering. No reward for the work. Betrayal in exchange for trust. Spite in exchange for love. Prison for preaching. Insults for serving.

And a not-so-gentle, yet greatly needed, reminder that our God is not in a hurry. Our Holy Scriptures tell us repeatedly, “Wait for the Lord.”

But we’re so conditioned to expecting instant gratification. If we don’t know the dates of the Civil War we don’t labor through the pages of an encyclopedia or call the library. Come on! I’m only two clicks and three seconds away from the answer on my computer—plus everything else I’d ever want to know. My lunch at What-A-Burger takes forever. Sometimes four minutes! I don’t wait for Dale Hanson or SportsDay to tell me which Cowboy got arrested over the weekend. I have ESPN. And ESPN2. And ESPNNews. And ESPN.com. My kids don’t wait for Saturday morning to watch cartoons. They’re on at least four or five channels 24 hours a day. If there’s a line at Wal-Mart, we step two rows over to check ourselves out with a swipe and a self-sack and a half-nod to the guy at the door. Wait? We don’t wait for anything.

“Wait for the Lord”

It’s hard for us. It’s hard for me.

Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy once wrote, “The greatest temptation of our time is impatience, in its full original meaning: refusal to wait, to undergo, to suffer. We seem unwilling to pay the price of living with our fellows in creative and profound relationships.” He wrote that in 1946. 63 years ago.

Over 2,700 years ago, Isaiah wrote this: “The Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who will wait for him!” ~Isaiah 30:18

Eugene Peterson translates it this way in The Message: “God’s not finished. He’s waiting around to be gracious to you. He’s gathering strength to show mercy to you. God takes the time to do everything right—everything. Those who wait around for him are the lucky ones.”

Lucky? No. Blessed? Yes, blessed. Very richly blessed.

God’s doing something right now in your life. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been out of work, how long you’ve been battling the cancer, how long your prayers have gone unanswered, how long you’ve been estranged from your children, how wide the chasm between you and your spouse, how deep the pit of despair, how deafening the silence. It doesn’t matter. God is doing something wonderful.

Wait for the Lord.

Peace,

Allan

Who Am I, O Sovereign Lord?

January 20, 2009 / Allan / 0 Comments

In 2 Samuel 7, the recently-coronated King David decides he’s going to build God a house. A temple. A beautiful temple worthy of the Almighty Yahweh. But the Lord speaks to David through his prophet, Nathan, and says, no, you’re not going to build me a house, I’m going to build you a house.

And then God goes into great detail about all the things he’s going to do for his servant David.

I’m going to make your name great. I’m going to cut off all your enemies. I’m going to give you and all the people you rule rest from your battles. I will always be with you just like I’ve always been with you in the past. I’m making your name among the greatest in the world. Your sons, your family, will rule forever. I’m making you a dynasty.

And David is blown away. He’s completely amazed. It’s almost as if he doesn’t understand.

“Who am I, O Sovereign Lord, and what is my family that you have brought me this far? And as if this were not enough in your site, O Sovereign Lord, you have also spoken about the future of the house of your servant. Is this you usual way of dealing with man, O Sovereign Lord?”

Who am I? I’m a shepherd boy. I’m insignificant. I’m small. I’m human. I’m fallible. And you’re doing all this for me? Who am I? Are you kidding me? I’ve done nothing to deserve your great favor. I’ve done nothing to merit your marvelous gifts. I’ve done nothing to earn your rich blessings. I can’t live up to your glorious promises. Who am I? Is this how you treat everybody?

And, praise God, the answer is “yes!” Yes! This is how God treats man. In all our selfishness. In all our pride. In all our sin and rebellion and denial. In all our inclinations to evil. While we were dead, while we were enslaved, while we were paralyzed, while we were enemies of the Creator of heaven and earth, he reaches down in love and mercy and saves us. He rescues us. He’s with us. He lifts us up. He restores us. He blesses us. He forgives us. He protects us. He provides for us. He meets every one of our needs—and then some!—according to his glorious riches through Christ Jesus.

And like David, we realize that, through his great descendent, Jesus our Lord, we are given immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to his power that is at work within us. More than all we ask or imagine. Some of us realize it much sooner than others. It takes some of us a long time to see it. To recognize it. I’m not sure any of us will ever fully understand it this side of glory. But once we at least recognize it, our lives are changed forever.

“How great you are, O Sovereign Lord! There is no one like you, and there is no God but you.”

Amen.

Christ Is All And Is In All

January 16, 2009 / Allan / 0 Comments

I enjoyed a fantastic lunch today with Manuel Calderon, our Hispanic minister here at Legacy. We’re planning a bi-lingual worship assembly for next Sunday in an effort to better integrate our Spanish-speaking brothers and sisters into our church family at-large. And it’s facsinating to me that the barriers between us—the Anglos and the Hispanics—have much more to do with culture than with language.

They all speak English!

Granted, some communicate in English better than others. But of the 35-40 members of our “Spanish-speaking” congregation, only one or two speak exclusively Spanish. It’s not the language that divides us as much as it is our different cultures, our different socio-economic situations, our different “classes,” our different colors, our different backgrounds. We are increasingly speaking the same language, yet our Hispanic brothers and sisters remain segregated from the Anglos in our Christian churches.

You know, “segregation” is an ugly, ugly word in the history of this country. We have argued and revolted and debated and fought and bled and died to eradicate segregation in our larger society. And we’re still fighting. Because it’s such an awful word. It’s such a horrible distortion of what it is we claim to stand for.

But ‘segregation” seems to be perfectly OK in our Christian settings. And I don’t think we can be perfectly OK with that.

We have black congregations and white congregations and nobody seems to care. We have white congregations with 30 Hispanics meeting by themselves in a back room and nobody seems to care. For some reason it’s approved as OK. It’s brushed aside as “the way things are” or simply ignored as “the way it’s always been.” It’s excused as “the way they want it.”

Is it the way Christ Jesus wants it?

The early church was scandalous in the ways it welcomed all classes, all cultures, all genders, all languages and dialects into its fellowship. We’ve managed to avoid that scandal by segregating ourselves. The early church had to work through many difficulties, had to learn how to sacrifice and serve and look out for the needs of others as they welcomed all comers. We’ve avoided that hardship and the lessons and the spiritual growth that come with it by keeping to ourselves.

As church leaders, we should never wet our fingers and stick them up in the air to see which way the wind’s blowing. We should attempt to change the wind!

I don’t know about you, but Colossians 3:11 means something to me.

“Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.”

Galatians 3:28 sounds like truth to me.

“Their is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

We pray for Christian unity. We long for the day when all our differences are ultimately rendered meaningless. We anticipate that great banquet when all the nations and languages and tribes and peoples are gathered around our Lord’s table. We yearn for the realization of the perfect union we share in Christ Jesus.

I think if we’re praying for something, we ought to be working for it too. I think if we see something as God’s eternal will, we ought to be doing something about it.

We’re trying at Legacy. We’re trying. We’re not perfect. We’re not moving nearly quickly enough. It’s messy. It’s hard. But we’re trying.

Peace,

Allan

The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

Page 431 of 493

Convenient Sacrifice

Only God

Happy Birthday, Val!

Wait For The Lord

Who Am I, O Sovereign Lord?

Christ Is All And Is In All

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