Category: Legacy Church Family (Page 34 of 37)

On A Road Marked With Suffering…

September 21, 2007 / Allan / 7 Comments

So many of you emailed me and called me yesterday and this morning with kind thoughts and words regarding Whitney’s eye tests. Thank you. We are truly blessed by our God to have so many wonderful friends and family in our lives. And I’m confident he listened intently to every single prayer lifted to him on Whitney’s behalf. And I’m certain you were all blessed for those efforts made in our interests. I’m continually surprised, also, by the reach of this little blog. I’ve heard from several of you, from California to Vermont, who claim to have been reading this thing for weeks. It’s another reminder, another wake up call, to snap me out of my own world and see God’s world and his Kingdom for the all-encompassing thing that it is. May our Lord bless all of us richly as we strive with him to reconcile creation back to him.

The short version on Whit’s tests is that they’re still not sure. She failed the tests so miserably that the doctors say there’s no way the results are legitimate. Either she wasn’t paying attention when they were testing her or the equipment was messed up. The probable next step is that she’ll have to have an MRI. Her optic nerve is definitely swollen. But some people do just have bigger optic nerves than others. It could all just be a normal thing. But her rapidly changing sight and headaches point to something else. There may be something else going on, something maybe pushing on her nerve or something to cause all this. But before they order the MRI, they want to test her one more time. That’ll be Wednesday afternoon. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers before our Father. It just breaks our hearts to think Whitney would have one more thing piled on top of her.

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I love the Matt Redman song “Blessed Be Your Name.” It acknowledges the sovereignty of our God in unambiguous terms and states in clear language that, while our Father gives AND takes away, our trust and our faith is completely in him. When we’re in the land that is plentiful AND when we’re in the desert, when the sun’s shining AND when we’re suffering, the song recognizes and affirms that our God is fully overseeing all of it and we are to praise him with all of our hearts. I’m always particularly affected by the words of the second part of the second verse:

“Blessed be your name on a road marked with suffering. Though there’s pain in the offering, blessed be your name.”

The first time I ever sang this song was when D. J. Bulls taught it to us at the North Davis Church of Christ in Arlington. Because of that, I always think of D. J. when we sing this song, the same way I always think of Mike Montana when we sing “Mighty is our God” because he taught it to us in Mesquite. But in 2004 at North Davis, Carrie-Anne and I were right in the middle of struggling with the decision to leave the world of sports radio and dedicate ourselves to preaching the Word. And we knew that it would be difficult. We were preparing to throw all of our lives to God and give him complete and utter control over all of it. And we knew there would be good times and bad. Going to school for two years, Carrie-Anne going to work full-time, moving again, and trusting God completely to put us where he wanted us. I anticipated suffering and pain to be in the offering. And I was moved to tears almost every time we sang that verse. And I still am.

Not because we’ve suffered any pain. Not because we’ve suffered at all. In fact, all of this has been too wonderful and too easy. I’m almost suspicious.

But because I remember so vividly what I/we were feeling at the time. We were fully anticipating suffering. We expected it to be in the near future. And we were rushing into it headlong, willingly, and trusting in God to take care of us.

And we sing that song last night at the funeral of Mack Dennis, Paul and Jean’s son who was killed in a car crash last week at age 40. And we’re singing this song together, praising God in the good times and the bad. And I look at Paul and Jean. And they’re singing. And they’re both smiling. I look at Mack’s widow, Lisa, and their two young, young, very young and sweet children. They’re crying. But they’re singing.

Blessed be your name.

And they’re certainly on a road marked with suffering. There’s mountains of pain in the offering for this family. Pain that, thankfully, I can’t begin to imagine. Pain and suffering that makes whatever I’ve endured in my life seem tiny and insignificant, not pain at all. Yet they sing.

Blessed be your name.

The psalmist never asked for a smooth path. He never asked for things to be easy. He asked God to give him feet like a deer so he could negotiate any path he was on. Habakkuk prayed for the same thing. Give me the strength and the courage and the stamina to handle it.

I was inspired last night by Paul and Jean’s singing and smiling. Yes, there were tears. And, yes, there’s plenty of confusion and pain and probably even some anger. They’re honest about it. And I believe God honors that honesty with him. But their faith and trust is in the Lord. And they continue to bless his name. Praise God for their wonderful example of faith and courage on a road marked with suffering.

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On Monday, in addition to breaking down the Cowboys loss to the Bears, I’d like to give you some personal observations stemming from the roundtable discussions at the ACU Lectures regarding our teens and why they’re jaded by “church.” What’s to blame for the numbers of our kids who are fleeing the churches of Christ? What can be done? How do we address some of these things? Is it a real problem or just a perceived problem? We’ll get into it Monday.

Have a fantastic weekend,

Allan

That Thing God Does & Old Friends At ACU

September 18, 2007 / Allan / 0 Comments

In response to Gary’s comment from yesterday: What is “God, do that thing you always do?”

It’s our loving and compassionate Father whose eternal nature is to save us and redeem us and reconcile us back to him moving among his people to be present with them and in them. And that presence is then powerfully manifested in an outpouring of confession and prayer and connection and change.

It’s God overcoming my weakness and my sin and my lack of vision and understanding to blow our doors off with his message of forgiveness and hope. It’s when he causes something incredible to happen in an assembly of his people — something that nobody can plan or predict. He puts his message directly into people’s hearts. He pours his love straight into people’s souls. And then amazing things happen.

It happens at retreats. It happens at workshops and seminars. It happens in living rooms and around kitchen tables. It happens on Sunday mornings Friday nights. And I can’t explain it.

It’s revival, maybe. It’s a reawakening to the Holy Spirit of God and the power he gives us. It works through intentional prayer and sacred songs and confession of sin. It works when God’s people truly humble themselves before him, recognizing their sin, and whole heartedly submitting to his Lordship.

I don’t know exactly what or how it is.

But I do know it’s our God who does it. He just jumps right into the big middle of everything we’re doing and almost disrupts things with his presence. And his people respond to that presence with tears of joy and sorrow, with prayers of confession and thanksgiving, and with an outpouring of love for each other.

And I know our God is present with us everytime we come together. But sometimes it’s more powerful than at other times. The feeling, not the presence or the power itself. Are we more in tune with our God and his presence and power at those times than at other times? Are our hearts more open and our minds more clear and our souls more ready? Or is God revealing himself in different ways at those times? Is he moving in us and through us differently during those times? I don’t have an answer. It’s a combination of all of it, I suppose.

All I know is that it happened Sunday morning and again Sunday night at Legacy. He’s getting us ready. He’s transforming us. And I’m convinced anew and more than ever that our God is going to do some powerful things in us and through us for the Kingdom.

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I don’t have time or space to tell you all the wonderful things about Day One at the ACU Lectureships. Randy Harris’ session on humility sparked much conversation and debate and reflection for the rest of the day and night. Billy Wilson’s presentation on the blessings of God found in the great Psalm 23, I think, is going to show up in at least a couple of sermons at Legacy. A panel discussion between us old guys and a bunch of college students was eye-opening as to why a lot of them are jaded by our Church of Christ fellowship. It’s nothing we don’t already know. But it really pushes some of our shortcomings to the front. And then Landon Saunders nailed it at last night’s keynote with a call from Micah to reach out to the people in our communities who make churches uncomfortable. The people in our town who are dying for forgiveness, longing for connection, yearning for love and acceptance. And he puts church leaders — you and me — squarely in the cross hairs of Micah’s message.

Day Two is upon us. I’m refreshed and ready to go.

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I hadn’t been on campus five minutes when I ran into Kirk Eason from Austin Grad. Stan Reid is also here and we visited a bit after last night’s session. I’ve also spoken with Dan and Reba Bonner, two wonderful people who went with us on our trip to Israel in January. Jim Martin, a godly man and gospel preacher in Waco and a longtime friend of the family sat two seats down from me during the morning keynote. Grady King from South MacArthur and Danny Sims from Alta Mesa are running the roundtable with the college students. Sid and Janetta Allen sat down right in front of me at last night’s keynote, dear friends from North Davis who were honored by ACU last night for their decades of Kingdom service in North and South Korea. Shannon Jackson’s here. Kyle Smith, one of our kids from Marble Falls hollered out “Larry!” out in the campus yesterday and I turned around. Of course. Later on, his brother Ryan and David Griffen showed up at Moody for the keynote. And I’ve seen Mackenzie Lewis, but I haven’t been able to visit with her yet.

May God bless us with a fantastic week in his service.

Peace,

Allan

Greetings From Abilene

September 17, 2007 / Allan / 5 Comments

I want to share with you this morning, before we leave the hotel room to go to the first day of the ACU Lectureships, a couple of ideas from 1 Thessalonians 4:9-12 that we just didn’t have time to deal with yesterday at Legacy. More on “yesterday at Legacy” later in the post.

There’s no doubting that verses 11 & 12 are a description of the “brotherly love” and the “more and more” in verses 9 & 10. Leading a quiet life, minding your own business, and working to support yourself is the way Paul describes keeping a low profile to keep harm from coming to the brothers and sisters of the congregation. That kind of brotherly love, putting Christian brothers and sisters and their well being at the forefront of all the decisions and choices we make in the community, is the “do so more and more.”

David DeSilva wrote a book four or five years ago on Christian ministry formation in the New Testament. And he wrote this about that particular passage:

“Feelings of attachment and experiences of encouragement within the group will outweigh feelings of disconnectedness from society and experiences of discouragement at the hands of outsiders. Care for and being cared for by the brothers and sisters will lead to an increased desire to conform to the values of the group, and to be held in esteem by those who are important to a Christian’s daily life.”

We all make decisions, every day, about how we’re going to be involved in the community. And Paul tells this new group of Christians that those decisions ought to be influenced by, if not determined by, our brotherly love. Love and concern for the well-being of my brothers and sisters will impact the way I live my life in society.

What you do out in the community today reflects on the person you sat by in church yesterday. The way I act today reflects on you. I need to be thinking about you when I make purchasing decisions and recreational choices and entertainment selections. You should be thinking about your church when you make career decisions and social judgments.

That’s taking it to the next step. That’s doing it more and more.

“Paul is not uninterested in acts of love and benevolence that reach beyond the group. But he seeks to promote first that level and kind of mutual affection and investment that will enhance the solidarity of the group, as well as convey to the individual member that these relationships are the most significant in his or her life.”

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The Lord moved in amazing ways through the Legacy church yesterday. He spoke words of comfort to us through the prophet Habakkuk and our brother Mac McAlister in the shock of the deaths of the sons of our dear friends Paul and Jean Dennis and Eldon and Marjorie McDowell. He showed us a beautiful picture of reconciliation between a man and his family and a man and his God with the new birth of our new brother Tyler Sharpe. He communicated to us what a humble heart and a sensitive spirit looks like in the confession of Mark Dunn. He touched us and moved us through Mason Scott’s open challenge to love one another more and depend on each other more. There was not a person in the building who wasn’t touched and impacted by at least one of the many things that happened yesterday morning. And then, as if the floodgates of mercy and compassion had been opened, Sunday night ended with a couple of dozen of our brothers and sisters requesting prayer from our elders. I lost count as couples and families prayed with our shepherds during the singing of beautiful hymns that proclaim our dependence on our God such as “I Need Thee Every Hour” and “It Is Well With My Soul.”

Terry Rush always prays before they worship at Memorial Road, “God, please do that thing you always do.”

I began praying that a year or so ago. Yesterday, God did that thing he always does.

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We didn’t arrive at the Best Western – Abilene until almost 2:00 this morning. Something about a construction issue on the roads in Forney for Dan and Jason as they left Diana to get to North Richland Hills to pick me up last night. I think it probably had more to do with an unscheduled stop at the Dairy Palace in Canton.

In Tulsa, we’re always having to choose between two or three excellent sessions every hour. Here, I don’t know how we’re going to do this. Every hour there are at least a dozen offerings that I don’t think I can miss. I know for sure we have Randy Harris at 8:30 and Jeff Walling at 9:45, even thought that means I have to miss Mark Shipp’s presentation on spiritual adultery in Hosea. After that, I’ll have to rely on my horsemen buddies to lead the way. I’ll probably be coming home with lots of CDs.

Peace,

Allan

Backpacks and Quarterbacks

August 13, 2007 / Allan / 0 Comments

We live in a broken world. And the problems that we see all around us — in our neighborhoods, in our schools, on TV, in our families, at work — can seem so overwhelming. What can I do? What can the Church do? What difference can one person or one congregation really make?

As a body of Christian disciples we must hold fast to the conviction that the answer to all the world’s problems is Jesus Christ.

And if we truly believe that, then the ministries we perform should be done in the name and in the manner of Jesus. Every good work done, every sermon preached, every tear wiped away, every bag of groceries delivered, every backpack dropped off, and every prayer lifted must be completely drenched in the name of Christ. Jesus is the very center of all of creation. His life and death and resurrection are the events around which everything else in history and in the future revolve. Everything that happened before Jesus’ incarnation pointed to his coming. And everything since his resurrection looks back on those history-altering events. We recognize the salvation we have in Jesus. We realize the extent of God’s mercy and grace in redeeming us while we were unworthy sinners. And it’s that awareness that brings us to our knees in humility and gratitude and motivates us to show that same mercy and patience and love to the world. Everything we do and say, everything we have, and everything we are is a direct result of God’s work through Jesus. And our everyday ministry to others is our response. To paraphrase D. A. Carson, if our ministry is based only on positive thinking, managerial skills, or emotional experiences and not with the proclamation of Jesus Christ, it’s focused on the wrong things and ultimately won’t be blessed by our God.

And it’s not enough to perform ministry in Jesus’ name. Our works of love and grace must also be done in the manner of our Savior. We are called to live our lives with Christ, not as a performance for Christ. Jesus was and is motivated by his love for all of humanity and for the fulfillment of God’s perfect will. Sacrificially putting others ahead of ourselves is the manner of Jesus. On that last day, many will say “Lord, Lord” to a God who doesn’t recognize them. Without proper motives, our works are as meaningless as a “noisy gong or clanging cymbal.”

Of course, this goes against our human nature. Jesus’ ministry of preaching and healing ultimately led to his torturous death. The image of the cross and all the cross conjures up in sacrifice and suffering doesn’t appeal to most of us. But it’s that image that should be at the very center of everything we do in his name.

And I come back to the backpacks.

This morning we delivered between 160-175 backpacks to Walker Creek Elementary to be given to the one-quarter of the students there who are economically-disadvantaged. The outpouring from our Legacy Church family of donations of backpacks and school supplies and of those volunteering their time and services to that school has been inspirational. And I praise God for the wonderful ways he’s going to use those backpacks and the relationships we’re developing over there for the good of his children and his Kingdom.

As we adopt Walker Creek and begin to share our lives with theirs, let’s maintain our focus on Christ.

The saving event of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection is not just a far-off moment in time or a mechanical fix to some remote technical problem with the world. The Jesus-event is breaking news. It is happening around us and within us, rescuing what was lost and restoring what was broken. The key to peace in the world is reunion with God. And it is towards that end that he is working — even through us.

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“Number 17 in your program, Number 1 in your heart….”

There are 17 more days until football season. And we’re at the point in the countdown that brings us 13 quarterbacks in a row beginning with the all-time greatest football player to ever wear #17, the Danderoo, Dandy Don Meredith. He was a two-time All-America quarterback at SMU, finishing 3rd in the Heisman Trophy balloting in 1959 behind Billy Cannon. And when he left the Hilltop, he was the all-time leading passer in college football history with a 61% completion rate.

In that summer before the Dallas Cowboys had even settled on the name “Cowboys,” Tex Schramm engineered a trade with the Chicago Bears that gave them the right to draft Meredith. It was mainly a move to keep the AFL Dallas Texans from drafting the home town hero. And so Dandy Don actually was signed to the Dallas Rangers. But he became the undisputed leader of the Next Year’s Champion-era Cowboys teams from 1960-68.

In his nine years with the team, Meredith racked up over 17,000 yards passing — still good enough for #4 all time in team history — and 135 passing TDs. His 460 yards passing against the 49ers in 1963 still stands as a Cowboys team record as does his 95 yard touchdown pass to Bob Hayes against the Redskins in 1966. He won three division titles with Dallas and took the Cowboys to two heart-breaking losses against the Packers in two NFL Championship Games. He was the NFL MVP in ’66 and represented those early Cowboys in three Pro Bowls.

He’s in the College Football Hall of Fame and the Cowboys Ring of Honor. And he needled Howard Cosell and sang “Turn Out the Lights” during the never-to-be-experienced-again glory days of Monday Night Football.

Catching up from the weekend, #18 is Elisha Archibald Manning III. Archie Manning wore #18 at Ole Miss where his 56 career touchdowns and 31 TD passes in 1969 are still school records. He racked up an amazing 540 yards passing and rushing in a game against Alabama in ’69. He finished in the top four in voting for the Heisman in ’69 and ’70. And he’s still heralded as the greatest athlete in Ole Miss history. The speed limit signs outside and throughout the entire Ole Miss campus in Oxford post the legal limit at 18-miles-per-hour in his honor.

As the Saints number one pick in 1971, the number two pick overall, he suffered 337 sacks and 156 interceptions in eleven seasons. And as awful as those teams were, Manning still was named the NFL MVP in ’78. He finished up his career with the Oilers and Vikings. And now he spends his free time making more money filming one commercial with his sons Payton and Eli than he made in a full season in the NFL.

Charlie Joiner gets an honorable mention at #18. But the nod goes to Manning.

#19 is a non-debatable no-brainer: the great Johnny Unitas. “The Golden Arm” won just 12 games in four years at Louisville and was cut by the Steelers just weeks after they drafted him in the ninth round in 1955. He wasn’t smart enough, they said. The Colts picked him up as a free agent and the rest is history.

In his first start as a Colt he suffered a fumbled snap and an interception. But he went on to collect two NFL Championships and one Super Bowl victory, to appear in ten Pro Bowls and win the MVP award in three of them, and be named the NFL MVP three times. When he left the league after a one-year stint with the Chargers in 1973 he held 22 NFL records and had thrown at least one touchdown pass in 47 straight games.

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Here’s that passage from Steven L. Carter’s book Integrity that I used in yesterday’s sermon on Christian leadership from 1 Thessalonians 2. Several of you have asked for it as a great summary of what integrity looks like in daily life.

“Integrity requires three steps: 1) discerning what is right and what is wrong; 2) acting on what you have discerned, even at personal cost; and 3) saying openly that you are acting on your understanding of right from wrong. The first criterion captures the idea of integrity as requiring a degree of moral refectiveness. The second brings in the ideal of an integral person as steadfast, which includes the sense of keeping commitments. The third reminds us that a person of integrity is unashamed of doing the right.”

Peace,

Allan

Hope Springs Eternal in San Antonio

July 26, 2007 / Allan / 1 Comment

I’m nauseated by the pictures and stories coming out of San Antonio and Dallas Cowboys training camp. Forget Terrell Owens purposefully showing up in a Barry Bonds San Francisco Giants jersey when Bonds right now stands for everything that’s wrong with professional sports in this country. To intentionally align himself with Bonds at this moment in time says a whole lot about Terrell Owens. But not much more than we already knew. It also says a great deal about Jerry Wayne, who spent five million more dollars over the spring to make sure Owens was going to be a leader on this squad. This is the same Jerry who passed on Brady Quinn at #22 when Quinn was ranked as high as #5 on their Valley Ranch draft board. And as much as I love Tony Romo, this so very much reminds me of the Cowboys passing on Dan Marino because they’d already committed to Danny White and Steve Pelluer.

Even aside from those two things, where does all the optimism come from? Has a football team ever gone into a season with a brand new coach, a brand new defensive coordinator, and a brand new offensive coordinator who’s never called plays and done anything? It’s so crazy to me to hear people talking about the division and the conference being up for grabs and “somebody’s gotta win it so why not the Cowboys!”

In the history of organized professional football has a team ever opened up its training camp with a no-pads no-contact practice? I understand Wade Phillips is going out of his way to prove to his players that he’s no Bill Parcells. I understand that he’s relaxing every single aspect of player life in the lockerroom, on the field, during meetings, and even away from the team to show everyone he’s a player’s coach and not a strict disciplinarian. And I completely understand the players all agreeing to a man that they were tired of Parcells’ dictatorship and relieved to be a playing for a coach who “understands today’s player.” But I also recall vividly that four years ago, to a man, the entire organization was thrilled to be rid of the Dave Campo player’s coach model in exchange for Parcells’ rules. Don’t all the beat writers and reporters remember the same thing? Why do I keep hearing and reading that the players are completely buying into the Phillips system and that’s the most important thing? Remember the first Monday night game of the Parcells era, week two in New York against the Giants? The Cowboys blew a 17 point lead and wound up taking it to overtime on a fluke special teams play and a long pass at the buzzer and then winning with a field goal? No team has ever “bought into” a coach more than that team did in the early part of that year. That’s not the most important thing. The most important thing is good players and good coaches and team discipline and consistency over at least a couple of seasons.

And if you look at the most successful NFL coaches over the past 10 years, they are hard-nosed disciplinarians. Rules guys. Dungy. Cowher. Belichick. Fisher. Gruden. Shanahan. Holmgren. They always have been. Shula. Landry. Gibbs. Lombardi. Even Bill Parcells.

The scenes and stories coming out of the Alamodome are complete repeats of the Campo era scenes and stories. The loud music, the mascots and cheerleaders disrupting practice, mostly just once a day walkthroughs, a reduced number of two-a-day full-contact scrimmages, corporate displays and booths actually on the practice field, and Jerry Wayne and his ever-present publicity machine in the huddles and in front of every camera.

Playoffs?

Right.

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Elijah was taken up to heaven last night in an elaborately decorated fiery chariot with the aid of a Tommy-Lift. And thus ends another wonderful VBS at Legacy. Terri and Shellie and Kipi did a terrific job and are to be commended for organizing and executing a wonderful way to teach our children the stories of God’s people and God’s faithfulness to his people. I’m so looking forward already to next year. Someone’s mentioned that if we do Daniel next year there would be plenty of eager volunteers to throw me and Jason and Lance into the fiery furnace. I’m not sure how to take that. Enjoy some pics from the last night.

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There are 35 more days until football season officially begins. And the best ever #35 is a Yale man. Calvin Hill was the Dallas Cowboys first-round draft pick out of the Ivy League school in 1969 and went on to become that season’s NFL Rookie of the Year. He was the first ever Cowboy to rush for a thousand yards and is still the team’s #4 all time leading ground gainer. He led the team in rushing four times, in receiving twice, and he’s still #8 on the squad’s all-time all-purpose yards list with 6,368. He scored 24 points on four TDs in a game against the Bills in ’71, which is still a team record.

Calvin Hill finished up his career with the Redskins and Browns. He’s also the father of the NBA’s Grant Hill, which, if you keep up with basketball, you know speaks to Calvin’s integrity as a great dad who raised a fantastic son.

Calvin currently works with the Cowboys, and has for a little over a decade, as the team’s player development guy. He counsels them and works with them on dealing with life in the NFL, trying to keep them out of trouble off the field and helping shape them into productive members of society. Tough job. But the Cowboys’ players have gotten into considerably less trouble with Calvin on the job.

And when the Cowboys are gearing up to play the Redskins, Giants, or Eagles and you get Calvin at just the right moment, off by himself, and in a talking mood, he’ll go for days on how things used to be in the bitter NFC East. He’ll talk forever about the genuine hatred between the teams and the things that were done and said on the field during those games in the early ’70s. He’s a super great guy. And one of the few positive elements you can point to right now with the Cowboys as an organization.

Peace,

Allan

Ears Thou Hast Dug

July 25, 2007 / Allan / 4 Comments

Thank you so much to John West and Lance Parrish! I’m finally back on my own computer (a new one. Drats!) in my own office! I’ve been unable to do with pictures what I’ve wanted to for the past week. But today’s the day. We’re back up and running with lots of catching up to do.

Remember a couple of weeks ago in a blog about Scripture I wrote about the practice of reading the Bible out loud. For a couple of years now I’ve been doing all of my Bible reading — my sermon and class prep, my morning devotional readings, all of it — out loud. And it’s completely changed the way I “hear” God and God’s people speaking to me. I hear the passion. I hear the conviction. I hear the joy. I hear the promises in a way I never did reading silently to myself.

Psalm 40:6 refers to “ears thou hast dug for me” in speaking to God about what he desires. The RSV translates it “thou hast given me an open ear;” it’s “my ears you have pierced” in the NIV; and the KJV version says “mine ears thou hast opened.” But the Hebrew phrase is literally “ears thou (God) hast dug for me.” Look it up. You probably have it in a footnote. David sees God swinging a pickaxe, digging ears in our granite blockheads so that we can hear, really hear, what he speaks to us. The primary organ for receiving God’s revelation is not the eye that sees but the ear that hears. Again, look it up.

Reading Scripture out loud intentionally focuses on the living Word — listening and responding to the voices of that great cloud of witnesses telling their stories, singing their songs, preaching their sermons, praying their prayers, asking their questions, and following their Lord.

I asked you to try it for two weeks. Read your Bible out loud. And then get back with me. Share with us how it’s changed your listening to God. Several of you said you would. Today’s the day. How’s it going? Give us some feedback on this. Just click the “comment” box at the top of the page and start writing.

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Today’s the last day for VBS at Legacy and we’re expecting our biggest crowd of the week. What a fantastic past three nights! Over 500 kids, teens, adults, teachers, and helpers each night. And what a blessing it’s been to me and my family. Last night was especially wonderful. The special effects of the fire and the rain with the projection and the screen behind and in front of the huge mountain set was fabulous. In fact, one of the great climaxes of the show last night was when God finally made it rain. The flashing lightning. The roaring thunder. And all the ladies and teens moving up and down the aisles throughout the auditorium, hiding behind giant rainclouds, and squirting water from concealed water guns up into the air. The misting effect on the crowd while watching Elijah get drenched on the stage was really a special touch.

But I got touched harder than everyone else.

When I first got “hit” I turned to Carrie-Anne and said, “Oh, that’s cool. It’s raining.” But then I quickly noticed I was getting repeatedly drilled in the left side of the head. Four or five times, right in the ear. I turned that way and saw two ladies with water guns, hiding behind their cloud, crouched down in a gunslinger pose, and just absolutely nailing me. And laughing. It was so dark I couldn’t see anything. And I couldn’t look directly at them because I was getting shot in the eyes. While the rest of the audience was getting misted once, I got two whole waterguns completely emptied in my head. I think I’ve got swimmer’s ear. I’m probably going to need an antibiotic. Regina and Teresa. You’ll get yours.

I found it interesting that we had to use Brock Paulk, the youth minister at the Heritage Church, to be our voice of God during the show. It’s interesting that with all the people at Legacy, Kipi apparantly looked around and said, “There’s no God here.” Is it bad that we had to outsource God? Brock’s a nice guy and all, but his God voice sounded like a weird mix between Santa Claus and Big Tex.

It was also interesting that as the angel in the Mount Horeb scene with Elijah, Shanna’s halo broke.

No further comment on that.

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There are 36 days left until football season. And 36 in the countdown is another of the best college football players ever. Steve Owens was a two-time All-America running back with the great Oklahoma Sooners teams of the late ’60s. He won the Heisman Trophy in 1969 and finished his college career as the #2 all-time rusher and the #1 TD scorer (56) in college football history. He made All Big-8 three times. He was the Big-8 Player of the Year twice. And at one point he ran for over a hundred yards in 17 straight games.

Owens went on to play for the Detroit Lions, becoming the first back in that team’s storied history to rush for a thousand yards. His NFL career was cut short by a knee injury after just five seasons, his lone Pro Bowl year coming in 1971.

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Finally — and this may be the best news of the day — the construction trailer has arrived and is parked and set up on the west side of the Legacy Church grounds. We’re finally underway with the building of our 1,500 seat worship center that’s been in the works for over five years. Suzanne has told us repeatedly for weeks and months now that when the trailer arrived she’d do a happy dance out on the church lawn.

And she did.

Peace,

Allan

Category: Legacy Church Family (Page 34 of 37)

On A Road Marked With Suffering…

That Thing God Does & Old Friends At ACU

Greetings From Abilene

Backpacks and Quarterbacks

Hope Springs Eternal in San Antonio

Ears Thou Hast Dug

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