The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

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Category: Legacy Church Family (Page 19 of 37)

The Great Exchange

July 20, 2009 / / 0 Comments

The Great ExchangeThe 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 Val&Carley@Ballparkloss 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.

Val’sBunkWe 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.

Carley’sCabin  Carley’sBunk  Carley’sCrew 

Thanks to Kipi Ward who’s managing that 3rd-4th grade cabin down there for taking and posting some pictures.

3Girls3Mountain Camryn Jansen 3Boys3Mountain

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.

ZZTop  Whit&C-A

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Aaron&ParkerYesterday 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 SusieGreen-Incredible!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.

First and indisputable proof I ever saw of Jennifer’s competitive nature: rounding third in a kickball game with Parker on her hip!  My favorite Small Groups illustration. “Small Groups Are Messy!” I’ll hang onto this picture and use it to promote and explain small groups as long as I live. No royalties, Aaron!  Aaron’s use of rare snow is much more positive and affirming than Pope’s! 

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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RedRibbonReviewThere 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.

MeanGeneHittingMachineEugene 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. EugeneLockhartLockhart 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.”

RobertJonesToday’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 / / 0 Comments

Never See Death

Why doesn’t the roadrunner ever die? I’ve watched the coyote chase him all over the desert, I’ve seen him ALMOST Roadrunner & Coyotecaught 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.

CoyoteThe 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:

Mary’s Stump“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 Salvation Shootfrom 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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Red Ribbon ReviewThere 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.Kevin Gogan

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

Defining Value

June 16, 2009 / / 0 Comments

Aaron&ParkerThe Legacy basketball team played its last game of the season last night, giving up our one-point halftime lead and losing by eight.  Of course, it was our first game since learning that we were losing Aaron later this month to some church team down in Houston. I’m not sure what we’re getting in return. Hopefully another strong 6′ 4′ post/forward with decent moves who comes with a Bunko playing wife and three adorable children. Probably just a couple of practice balls, though, and a dirty elbow pad.

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Defining ValueI’m convinced that the temptation to jump off the roof of the temple was the temptation to do something that would gain a lot of attention, to do something that would appeal to the crowds and make Jesus an instant celebrity. Surviving a 460-foot jump, especially if everybody in the temple courts actually saw the angels lifting him up in their hands, would put Jesus in the tabloids and on the talk-show circuit.

The temptation to be important, to be seen as important, in the world’s eyes.

In our wishes to be accepted by the world, to be seen as relevant or even desirable in the world’s eyes, we’ll do some pretty silly things. We’ll do some very worldly things.

Colt McCoy, Heisman Trophy candidate quarterback for the Texas Longhorns! Jordan Shipley, award-winning wide receiver for the ‘Horns! And they’re both members of the Church of Christ! So we plaster them on the cover of Christian Chronicle and all our brotherhood newspapers and magazines. We talk about them in our sermons and at our lectures and seminars.

Graham Harrell, record-setting quarterback for Texas Tech! He’s not a member of the Church of Christ. He actually belongs to a community church just outside Lubbock. But his parents are Church of Christ! They raised him Church of Christ! So let’s talk about him, too!

How about senator / actor Fred Thompson? He’s running for president! Now, we don’t know if he’s Church of Christ or not, but he said his grandmother used to take him to a Church of Christ when he was a boy. So let’s promote him, too!

Find us an athlete or a politician or a millionaire, find us a celebrity the world thinks is important, and we’ll use him or her to show the world that we’re important. (For a group that claims to be non-denominational, this is quite hilarious.)

You know, we all want the organizations to which we belong to be successful. We want our clubs and groups to be important. We want to belong to a winner. That’s why you see so many Yankees baseball caps around the country. That’s why everybody rooted for the Chicago Bulls in the ’90s and the Lakers today. Our culture is eaten up with celebrity and money and status. And it can eat us up, too.

That’s why if I ever run into Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton at our neighborhood Target I’ll approach him and wonder how I can get him to our church. How can I get him to visit? How can I get him to our Small Group? Will he have dinner at our house on a Sunday night? Would he even consider it? Should I ask him?

Why don’t I have those same kinds of thoughts for the other 20,000 people I’ve met in North Richland Hills?

More than at any other time in this nation’s history, people are church-shopping. How big is your church? How important is your church? How wealthy is your church? Who goes to your church? How new is the carpet in your church? And those kinds of questions disgust us. But at the same time, we’re screaming to each other and shouting to the world from our own pinnacle, “Look at us! We’re important! These people you value, these rich and famous people, they’re Church of Christ! We’re viable and we’re desirable! Accept us! We matter! Pat Boone, remember? Church of Christ!”

Jesus says, “You’re the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men. What it highly valued among man is detestable in God’s sight” (Luke 16:15).

Paul nails it in his letter to the Christians in Corinth. That group was very concerned that they be accepted as big and important by society. And Paul sternly warns them, “Think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world — and the things that are not — to nullify the things that are so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God — that is, our righteousness, holiness, and redemption. Therefore, as it is written, ‘Let him who boasts boast in the Lord'” (1 Corinthians 1:26-31)

Jesus taught that a life like his, life in his steps, The Jesus Way, is one of rejection by the world, not acceptance. If the goal, the end, is to show them Christ, our medium, our means, have to be consistent with Christ. Or we’ll show them something else.

With apologies to Paul, Christ Jesus has become for us wisdom from God — that is, our value, our worth, our importance, our significance.

Peace,

Allan

Naught From Myself

June 3, 2009 / / 0 Comments

“I expect naught from myself, everything from the work of Christ. My service has its objectivity in that expectation and by it I am freed from all anxiety about my insufficiency and failure.” ~Bonhoeffer

Not quite. Not really. If I’m truly honest with myself (and with you) I am not completely freed from all anxiety about my insufficiency and failure. As the good news preacher here at Legacy, I realize that whatever is accomplished is done only by God’s grace, Christ’s work, and the Holy Spirit’s power. I know that. It’s not me. It’s never me. It’s my God working in me and through me. And that does relieve a lot of the pressure. That knowledge does fill me with confidence and courage.

But I don’t know if I’ll ever lose the feelings of inadequacy that overcome me on Sundays; the dread — almost — that one day everybody’s going to wake up and see me for the fraud I really am; the fear that some day soon everybody’s going to think, “You know, he’s really not that good.”

Christ in me. It’s my only hope. It’s my only chance. And I know that.

It’s been demonstrated to me — proven to me — every Sunday now for two years here at Legacy.

Two years ago today I stood before this church family and pledged my love and loyalty to our Lord and to my God-ordained task of studying and praying and teaching and preaching with them. I promised them that, while there would be times they would be disappointed in me, there would be times I would let them down, it would never ever be from a lack of giving everything I have to the task.

Two years ago today.

In some ways it’s easier now than it was then. In a lot of ways it’s even harder.

Time together makes things better. Relationship is key. Trust only comes with the passing of months and years. Time also means more opportunity to disappoint. And I know I’ve disappointed my brothers and sisters here. I’ve fallen short with our shepherds and my fellow ministers. There have been plenty of moments when I wish I had a do-over. But that’s where this time together also helps. We know each other now. We love each other more. And I feel their patience with me and their forgiveness of me, even their endurance of me, streaming out of relationship, pouring out of hearts united by our Savior and our common goal of serving and worshiping our God.

I can’t imagine being at a better place. Our Lord has blessed my family and me to be in a church with unlimited potential to advance the Gospel and turn Northeast Tarrant County upside down for the Kingdom. And he’s surrounded us with loving and caring people who are nurturing me to be the good news preacher God’s called me to be.

Until Christ is formed in us,

Allan

Revenge

May 6, 2009 / / 6 Comments

I will avenge the deaths of these goldfish

I don’t know who put the children’s wading pool in the back of my pickup truck last night and filled it up with water and several dozen goldfish. But I’m impressed. The effort. The creativity. The expense in money and time. The calculated taking of innocent animal lives. Admirable.

GoldfishPrankThe one person I believe to have perpetrated this act against my personal property denies it fully. He’s got motive. He’s got the children who would love to help. He’s got the history. Recent history. But he’s also got strong alibies. I’m not sure I believe him. But I can’t prove anything. There’s no evidence but two empty plastic fish bags from Wal-Mart and my garden hose unreeled all over my front yard. The other person I believe is capeable of this elaborate prank has no motive. At least, none that I’m aware of.

I was laughing my head off this morning when I saw it. The girls were flipping out. Carrie-Anne was just shaking her head. Carley wants to keep all the fish.

I managed to save eight or nine. Four or five of them don’t look like they’re going to make it through the day.

I’m glad I checked the back of the truck before I took the girls to school this morning. C-A takes the truck to TWU in Denton nowadays. I would have hated for her to discover all this as she was running late to class. Or, worse, for her to take off and not realize the situation. Just imagine the little blue Ranger cruising down 114, dead fish flying out of the back, smashing into the windshields of other cars, causing a three-car-injury-colission. Carrie-Anne cited by local police and DPS and state game and wildlife officials for illegally transporting fish across county lines during a swine flu imposed quarantine. Not good.

Just know this, whoever did this to me: I will find you out and I will exact revenge. Just like Bill Cosby’s routine about the PoolOFishsnowball and Junior Barnes (look it up, it’s a classic), I will wait until July if that’s what it takes. I will find you out and I will wait. And wait. I will make you my dearest and closest friend. I’ll laugh at all your jokes. I’ll bring you an orange soda while we play on my front porch. And then, at the moment you least expect it, I’ll get you.

Juuuuunior Baaaaarrrrrrnes. Where are you, Junior Barnes? Ohhhhhhh, Junior Baaarrrnnnes.

You Gunkie!

A Word In Season

May 3, 2009 / / 0 Comments

Wash Your Hands!In light of the inescapable newspaper and radio and TV reports, yesterday’s community health fair here at Legacy, advice from friends and relatives, everybody’s minor level of anxiety, and our shepherds’ statement sent to all of us over the weekend by email, a couple of passages come to mind:

“They shall wash their hands…so that they will not die.” ~Exodus 30:21

“Wash your hands, you sinners.” ~James 4:8

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