Author: Allan (Page 457 of 493)

I Believe

April 14, 2008 / Allan / 1 Comment

I’ll begin today with just a few random thoughts from Saturday’s Legacy family night at the Rangers-Blue Jays game. We left as soon as the green dot crossed home plate in the middle of the 6th inning because 1) we were freezing, 2) the Rangers were getting pounded, and 3) Valerie and Carley didn’t need another single bite of cotton candy. So, we were only there for 5-1/2 innings. But that was plenty of time to make memories:

~Lindsey’s fake baby, her tussle with security over the fake baby, and Jalayna’s uncomfortable obsession with the fake baby.

~David asking Cori if he can borrow two bucks.

~Watching the temperature drop on the Starbucks portion of the outfield scoreboard.

~Learning that David asked Shanna to marry him while in the drive-thru line at Arby’s.

~Those huge bags, as big as king sized pillows, of cotton candy.

~Mark shaming all of us by finding the hot chocolate vendor for Debbie.

~Comparing church names on the scoreboard and realizing that “Church on the Move” and “Little Hope Baptist” can’t begin to compete with “Smokin’ For Jesus!”

We ate for the cycle and then called it a night.

The draw for the Rangers game (other than the Rangers and a rare chance outside of a hockey arena to hear the Canadian national anthem) was the Third Day concert. The Christian band played for a little over an hour before the game. And I must say, not having heard any of their stuff before Saturday, it was a pretty nice concert. I really enjoyed it. I especially liked the last song they played. I think it’s simply called “Creed.” It sounds very Nicene-ish and Church Fathers-ish. But I loved it.

I’ll share the lyrics with you here. Then I’ve gotta go.

I believe in God the Father,
Almighty Maker of heaven and Maker of earth,
and in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord.
He was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate.
He was crucified and dead and buried.

Chorus:
And I believe what I believe is what makes me what I am
I did not make it; no, it is making me.
It is the very truth of God and not the invention of any man.

I believe that he who suffered was crucified, buried, and dead.
And on the third day, he rose again.
He ascended into heaven where he sits at God’s mighty right hand.
I believe that he’s returning
to judge the quick and the dead of the sons of men.

Chorus

I believe in God the Father,
Almighty Maker of heaven and Maker of earth,
and in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
one holy Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sin.
I believe in the resurrection.
I believe in a life that never ends.

Chorus

Third Day was good. And I loved that “Creed” song. But I’m sticking to Audio Adrenaline as my favorite Christian band. I like the energy and little harder edge of what Audio Adrenaline brings. I listen to Audio Adrenaline’s “Strong” at 7:30 every single Sunday morning. I’ll share those lyrics with you tomorrow.

Peace,

Allan

A Dark & Stormy Night

April 10, 2008 / Allan / 0 Comments

Chainsaws and chippers. The sounds of cleanup dominate our little North Tarrant County neighborhood this afternoon. The thunderstorms that raged through our area early this morning packed 80 mph winds and lots of lightning and thunder. We lost two-and-a-half fence panels, a couple dozen shingles, a flag pole, and two hours of sleep. And our DISH is apparantly off line which means we don’t have any TV. But that’s it.

Most of our neighbors in our Ember Oaks Subdivision, though, fared much worse. Trees and fences and roofs are down all over the place. On just our street, Ember Oaks Drive, and Fireside, the street that intersects ours about half a block north, I’ve counted 28 trees with major damage, 17 fences missing at least one panel, and five roofs with missing shingles.

As always, click on the pic to get the full size. These first two are of Dave’s big tree next door to the North:

These are from our own fence on both sides of our house.

These show a little of the roof damage to our house. I haven’t checked the other sides yet. Hopefully this front is all I’ll need to fix.

These are of other trees on Ember Oaks:

This is looking north up Ember Oaks toward Fireside:

These are from the corner of Fireside & Ember Oaks, half a block north of our house.

These are from Fireside, just around the corner:

I had joked last night that the faithful few in the Oasis class at Legacy were the ones ignoring the overly-excited TV weathermen who were telling us the sky was falling. I said we all knew our houses wouldn’t be destroyed and the end wouldn’t come until well after midnight. And when the walls of our upstairs bedrooms began moving at just after 3am and we heard the cracking of the trees, I was afraid maybe I had been right. We’re very thankful to God today for keeping us safe through the storm.

“My soul finds rest in God alone;
my salvation comes from him.
He alone is my rock and my salvation;
he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.
~Psalm 62:1-2

Hopefully you and your families were delivered through the storms OK. I must hurry home now and do my best to readjust our DISH to 1) avoid the $29 service fee and the delay until Saturday afternoon for repair, and 2) to make sure I can watch the Stars’ opening round playoff game tonight against Anaheim. I can’t miss tonight’s playoff game because there may only be four or five total for Dallas. Carrie-Anne and Whitney are going to AAC tonight for the Mavericks and Jazz. Bud Hale gave us the tickets (thanks, Bud!) but C-A’s going instead of me because she’s never been to a Mavs game before. They’re going to have a blast. And I get Valerie and Carley all to myself tonight. I’m not sure yet what we’re going to do. I know it’ll have to be something fun and special. And I know it’s NOT going to be Chuck E. Cheese’s.

Peace,

Allan

Train Yourself To Be Godly

April 9, 2008 / Allan / 1 Comment

Absolutely nothing is more critical to a Christian leader than the growth and maturing of his heart and mind. Paul’s words to the young preacher in 1 Timothy 4:7, “train yourself to be godly,” describe an intentional lifestyle. Our hearts have to be regularly nurtered and fed. Our minds need to be cultivated as we think through what it means to be a faithful leader in God’s Kingdom. Paul uses the words “godly” and “godliness” only eight times in all of Scripture. And all eight instances are found in Timothy and Titus, encouraging the preachers to live good and holy lives, grounded in the source of their holiness, Almighty God.

As proclaimers of the Word, we are to live as models in the Kingdom. Our very lives should reflect what it means to be transformed into the image of Christ Jesus. Others must see God in us. If salvation from God through Christ hasn’t changed me, if it hasn’t impacted the way I live my life, then how could it possibly appeal to anyone else? How would I ever expect the believers in our church here to allow the Spirit to transform them if the one proclaiming this transformation to them week after week is himself the same?

I must live a godly life.

And that takes strong self-discipline. It demands a constant concentration, a consistent focus on thinking and talking and acting like God. It requires on-going evaluation and continual correction. It means realizing I am a very self-centered person, and deciding to die to self all over again, several times a day. It’s understanding my weakness with certain temptations and consciously avoiding those situations, several times a day. It takes a devotion to study and prayer and meditation. It takes a dedication to service and sacrifice. And it’s realizing that all those times I fall short, God’s Spirit is living inside me to lift me up, to encourage me, and to empower me to live a godly life.

In that way, my failures and my shortcomings actually serve to move me closer to God, not destroy me. And my life serves as an example to others, not as a barricade between people and the Gospel.

Peace,

Allan

Mutual Ministry

April 8, 2008 / Allan / 7 Comments

“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep.” ~John 10:14-15

Ministry is a communal experience. And it’s a mutual experience. And this becomes much more clear to me the more I try to model what I do after what Jesus did/does. As a preachers and ministers or elders and shepherds, we are not spiritual professionals who know the problems of our clients or constituents and take care of them with great efficiency. We are vulnerable brothers and sisters who know and are known, who care and are cared for, who forgive and are being forgiven, who love and are being loved. It’s mutual. It works both ways. It has to.

Some have told me that I’m going to get burned. Some have said I can’t let people get too close. I can’t let people in. I can’t share my inner thoughts and feelings—the things of which I’m proud or the things of which I’m ashamed—because it’ll come back to bite me. I’ve been told that good leadership requires a safe distance from those we’re called to lead. Just look at doctors and psychiatry and social work.

Bunk!

We’re not doctors or psychiatrists or social workers. We’re ministers and shepherds, called by our Father to share his love with the world. Doctors and psychiatrists and social workers provide one-way services. Someone serves, someone else is being served, and the roles are never mixed up or reversed. But if I’m ministering like Jesus…

How do I lay my life down for people I won’t get close to?

There’s something powerful, I think, about being open and honest, hiding nothing, totally trusting God and his people.

Henri Nouwen addresses this in his In the Name of Jesus.

“Laying down your life means making your own faith and doubt, hope and despair, joy and sadness, courage and fear available to others as ways of getting in touch with the Lord of life. We are not the healers, we are not the reconcilers, we are not the givers of life. We are sinful, broken, vulnerable people who need as much care as anyone we care for. The mystery of ministry is that we have been chosen to make our own limited and very conditional love the gateway for the unlimited and unconditional love of God.

Therefore, true ministry must be mutual. When the members of a community of faith cannot truly know and love their shepherd, shepherding quickly becomes a subtle way of exercising power over others and begins to show authoritarian and dictatorial traits. The world in which we live—a world of efficiency and control—has no models to offer to those who want to be shepherds in the way Jesus was a shepherd.”

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It was pointed out to me by a friend about two hours before tip-off last night that the Bible actually had something to say about the national championship game. Hosea 9:6 clearly states, “Memphis will bury them.” I told this friend (her initials are Paula Byrnes) that that prophesy had already been fulfilled.

I didn’t realize until last night that of the 341 Division I college basketball teams in the country, Memphis ranked 339th in free throw percentage. 59%. And Memphis was up by nine last night with two minutes to play. But they missed four of their last five free throws down the stretch, allowing Mario Chalmers to sink the buzzer-beating off-balance three that tied it up and sent it to overtime. Kansas won it going away in the extra period. Great game. Back and forth. Frantic at times. Lot of fun.

The Tigers’ choke job kept Whitney and me in a tie in our family basketball pool. And since the final score added up to 143 points, she takes the contest by virtue of the 130 she had in the tiebreaker to my 125. If Kansas had won in regulation, I would still be in possession of my basketball bracket crown at Stanglin Manor. But today the king is dead. Whitney holds the crown. The extra points in the overtime did me in.

It was a bitter-sweet victory for Whit. She was glad for the overall win in the bracket. But it was weird in that the team she’s been cheering for the past month lost. Congratulations, Whitney. And congrats to Geoff. Rock, Chalk, Jayhawk. Whatever that means.

Peace,

Allan

'Tis What It's All About

April 7, 2008 / Allan / 1 Comment

“How long, O Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen?” ~Habakkuk 1:3

Asking God questions. Wrestling with God. Struggling with God. Complaining to God. Although one-third of the Psalms are lament psalms that speak openly and honestly about those times when God seems absent and some of the greatest heroes of Scripture spent a lot of their time lamenting to God, we don’t pray like this very often. We certainly don’t do it in our public assemblies.

One of the reasons is that we don’t schedule it. We believe our corporate time together on Sunday mornings must be filled from start to finish with the Joy of the Lord, happiness, smiles, upbeat, uptempo, energy, excitement, and enthusiasm. I don’t know if that line of thinking stems from wanting to attract and sign up visitors or keep our members from leaving. Culture probably has a lot to do with it.

Another one of the reasons is that we think this kind of language—questioning God—is a sign of weakness or unbelief. And I’m not sure where that comes from. Where did that start, that we can’t question God? Definitely not from anything rooted in the sacred writings of Scripture.

The truth is that our God views open and honest wrestling and questioning of him as a sign of great faith. Our God is not displeased with these kinds of prayers. He honors them. Open struggling with God reveals our faith.

Think about it. To demand that God ought to act justly is solely based on the conviction that God is just. If we don’t believe God is just, we won’t go to him when we see injustice. We’ll go somewhere else. What we believe about God, if we really believe it, is exactly what leads to these kinds of prayers of lamentation.

We believe in God’s omnipotence. There is only one God. He does not share his power with any other God. He made the whole world and everything in it. He is the sovereign ruler over all creation. So, every single thing that happens—good and bad, fair and unfair—happens because God allows it. And that leads directly to the prayer: Why? Why, God, do you allow these horrible things to happen? Why, God, don’t you intervene?

We believe in God’s righteousness. God loves the world he created. He is concerned with what happens to his creatures in the world. He’s certainly not wicked in the ways he deals with the world. But there is the reality of terrible suffering and even cruelty all around us. And if God really is omnipotent and righteous, that leads directly to the prayer: How long is this going to last? God, where are you? Why aren’t you doing anything?

Here’s what I like about these kinds of prayers to God and what, I believe, God likes about them, too. When God’s people in Scripture complain about their troubles, when they lament the injustices of life, when they seek answers to their questions about the evil all around them, they don’t write letters to the editor, they don’t hold court in the coffee shop, they don’t call the talk shows, and they don’t join a campaign. God’s people bring their doubt and their fears and their uncertainties and their questions and their complaints straight to God.

And in the case of the Psalms and Habakkuk, they do so as a part of their worship, in the presence of God, in the middle of the congregation.

When Habakkuk answers God in 1:12 he makes it clear that, even though he doesn’t like what God is saying, he doesn’t agree with what God is doing, and none of it makes sense, he will go nowhere else for his answers. He will seek no one else to protect him or save him. He’ll look nowhere else for refuge. Habakkuk declares his total and complete dependence on God. Total faith. A faith that goes beyond any evidence or any proof for even having it.

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Go Kansas. With Memphis State’s win Saturday night, Whitney moved into a tie with me for first place in our family basketball pool. If the Tigers take the title tonight, she’s on top as the undisputed winner. If KU can pull it off, Whit and I will finish in the tie. The tie-breaker we established three weeks ago was total points scored in the championship game. Whitney has 130. I have 125. I need Kansas to win a low scoring game. And, either way, I need to limit Whitney’s college basketball watching between January and March next year.

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I explained at the beginning of yesterday’s sermon how certain settings demand a certain type of language and how certain types of language anticipate or point to certain settings. I was showing how Scripture’s use of lament psalms and lament language in some of the prophets was given to us to be used in the public assembly of God’s people. To set it up, I read the winning entry in the Washington Post Style Invitational Contest from a few years ago. Jeff Brechlin submitted “The Hokey Pokey” as if it had been written by William Shakespeare. As soon as we were finished, almost a dozen people asked me for copies of the work. A couple of more have emailed me today seeking copies. Here it is:

The Hokey Pokey, by William Shakespeare

O proud left foot that ventures quick within,
Then soon upon a backward journey lithe;
Anon, once more the gesture, then begin,
Command sinistral pedestal to writhe.
Commence thou then the fervid Hokey-Poke,
A mad gyration, hips in wanton swirl.
To spin! Yea, to spin! A wilde release from heaven’s yoke.
Blessed dervish! Surely canst go.
The Hoke, the Poke – banish now thy doubt;
Verily, I say, ’tis what it’s all about.

Peace,

Allan

$209K and Counting…

March 31, 2008 / Allan / 4 Comments

“God calls things that are not as though they were.” ~Romans 4:17

A red-letter day yesterday for the family of believers here at Legacy and in our history as a congregation of God’s people. The goal for Missions Sunday was to collect $150,000 to fund our local and foreign missions budget for 2008. And our Lord blessed us with over $209,000 in cash and pledges. And the number is still going up.

What a thrill it was to watch our little children parade with their Bible classes down to the front to announce and then to dump the money they’ve collected over the month of March for our missionaries. How amazing it was to be joined by our brothers and sisters at the Centerpoint church in Bagiuo City, Philippines via video and audio hookup and to see them and talk to them and wave to them and sing “We Love You With the Love of the Lord” to them, half a world away. And then to experience our Father opening our hearts and our spirits to sacrificially give like we never have before was beyond description.

Our God always out-imagines us. He always out-dreams us. We can’t think too big or plan too big for him. He always gives us much more than we can ever ask or imagine. How wonderful to consider the lives that will be saved, the souls that will be won, the people who will be reconciled to our God as a result of yesterday’s blessings.

And our Lord continued to pour out his blessings on us as he held back the rain and kept us high and dry at last night’s fellowship / assembly in our new, not-quite-finished-yet worship center. Nearly 700 of us ate dinner together in the new building and then worshiped our God in song and prayer. We read Scripture together. We confessed Jesus as the Christ and as Lord together. We imagined together all the baptisms that are going to take place in this building, all the weddings, all the singings, all the sermons, all the laughing, all the crying, all the seminars, all the love that’s going to be shared in this building. And then we asked our God to, again, blow us away.

I saw the Legacy church transformed yesterday. I saw all our same people, all our same brothers and sisters. But I saw us differently. There was a different spirit about us yesterday. The Lord was in our midst yesterday and he was working and blessing and inspiring and planning for things I can’t even begin to see yet. But he sees them. They already exist in his sight. Our God calls things that are not as though they were. And we’re beginning to see and to think like him more and more. And it’s exciting.

After we prayed together for all of the future things that would be happening for our Lord and for the Kingdom in this new place of worship, we wrote on the foundation. We wrote our favorites passages of Scripture. We wrote our prayers. We wrote our dreams for our church family. And we wrote the names of our children.

What an incredible day. What an incredible God!

It’s 10:30 pm Monday, my computer’s been down most of the day, and I’m still riding yesterday’s high. I just got out of a Small Groups Church Co-Leader training session with a bunch of couples who are leading new groups beginning this Sunday—new groups that are all multiplications of original groups who’ve grown beyond their capacities. And they’ve all experienced the love and the ministry and the sharing and the fellowship and the connection and the evangelism that takes place in a small group. And they’re all inspired to take what they have and spread it out into our congregation and into our communities.

And we give God the glory. He alone is worthy of praise for all the wonderful things that are happening here. He alone. In Romans 4, when Paul writes about our God who “gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were,” he says Abraham’s faith was strengthened and he “gave glory to God” because he was seeing the impossible-to-deny truth that our God has “power to do what he had promised.” Amen.

May our Father use us in his Kingdom. And may we submit our lives and our church family and our wills to him. May we be blessed with his Spirit and his vision. And may his will be done in the Legacy church as it is in heaven.

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And may UCLA beat Memphis Saturday night.

The only way I beat Whitney outright in my NCAA tournament bracket is if the Bruins beat those impossibly-loaded Tigers from Memphis State AND Kansas beats Carolina. I can salvage a tie if the Tarheels win and Tiger High loses. I can salvage a tie if Kansas and Memphis win and Kansas then takes the title. But if Memphis wins the championship or if Memphis and UNC both win their semi-final games, I’m toast. And then, I’m probably done. You can’t lose to your daughter in a college basketball tournament pool. I need Kevin Love to score about 40.

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Michael Young drove one deep to put Texas up 1-0 in the Rangers half of the first inning in Seattle. And Millwood looked good into the 6th. But the Rangers lose their opener (SHOCKING!!) 5-2 to the M’s. Now, Kipi, they’re tied for last place in the American League.

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Tomorrow (Tuesday) is my day in Waco with Jim Martin and some of the other central Texas preachers down there. So I probably won’t write again until Wednesday morning. I’ll reflect a little bit on this year’s Tulsa Workshop then.

Peace,

Allan

Author: Allan (Page 457 of 493)

I Believe

A Dark & Stormy Night

Train Yourself To Be Godly

Mutual Ministry

'Tis What It's All About

$209K and Counting…

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