“My God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. To our God and Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” ~ Philippians 4:19-20

We are still riding the incredible wave of Spirit energy and enthusiasm generated by our God’s kind and gracious actions with his people at Legacy on Sunday. It was our annual Missions Sunday. We had prayerfully set a pretty lofty goal of collecting $250,702 to fund our entire local and foreign missions budget for 2011. And on Sunday, our Lord blew that number right out of the water. And he blew us all away with many powerful reminders of his great love and faithfulness.

Our God came through big time on Sunday: $273,327!! And the money is still coming in!! Give him all the glory and praise!!

But that doesn’t even begin to tell half the story of our Sunday with God and his people at Legacy.

Our assembly time began with our kids. All our precious kids, from two-years-old through sixth grade, inspired us with their dramatic offerings and bold proclamations of what God is doing through them. The congregation burst out with audible gasps as each class announced their total offerings. $64! $298! $101. The second grade brought in more than $900! And they gave with such joy. God showed us through our children what cheerful giving looks like.

David and Olivia Nelson shared the Word with us from the middle of their evening assembly in Kharkov, Ukraine. As we listened to the words from Acts 2:42-47, the camera panned around the Nelsons’ living room to show us that they were packed to the gills. Standing room only. In fact, the Father’s provision is forcing them to begin planning for a second congregation due to the sheer numbers of people who are coming to study the Bible. God showed us through David and Olivia what faithfulness to his mission call looks like.

Then, my great friend Manuel Calderon captivated us with stories about what our God is doing in the Hispanic communities of the Rosemont area of South Fort Worth. Melissa brought tears to the eyes of everyone who heard her stirring testimony to God’s transforming power that has changed her from a lost and lonely lesbian to a saved sister in the Lord’s Kingdom. Then, Irvin moved us with his undeniable witness to the Spirit’s work that has rescued him from a life of alcohol and drug abuse and gang violence to one of eternal salvation and peace in Christ Jesus. God showed us through these two disciples what “new creation” really looks like.

All of this is further proof to our church family that our God is alive and working with his people. It’s further testimony to our God’s faithfulness to his children. It’s lasting evidence that his Holy Spirit is convicting and transforming the world.

We are at our best on Missions Sunday. We are thinking about others instead of ourselves. We are sacrificing and giving of ourselves and our resources for the higher causes of Christ. We arrive at the building with great expectations and we are unified in our communion and worship. And blessings just seem to pile on top of blessings.

Our Father is keeping his covenant promises to Legacy and to all of his creation. May he be glorified and may his Son be exalted for ever and ever. Amen.

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Allright, all you facebook fanatics who keep telling me to get an account, watch this video. It’s an Onion parody that presents facebook as a CIA enterprise meant to collect and compile information on everybody in the world. One of the funniest lines in the video is about the government’s disappointment with Twitter, another of their attempts at spying on the public: “400 billion tweets, and not one useful bit of data has ever been transmitted.”

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Finally, March Gladness of a different strain. I have reclaimed my crown as the college basketball king at Stanglin Manor. It wasn’t pretty. Nobody in the house picked a single Final Four team. So, the final results are in and, for the first time in four years, I’m back on top. I finished with 58 points by correctly selecting five of the Elite Eight, barely edging Carley who finished with 57. Whitney came in third place with 53 points, followed by Carrie-Anne’s 52 and Valerie’s 31. This means I get to pick where we dine when we break our Missions Month fast from eating out. I can smell and taste those buffalo chicken strips at Cheddar’s right now.

Go VCU. Whatever.

Peace,

Allan