Author: Allan (Page 462 of 493)

Every Little Spot Upon Your Happiness

February 14, 2008 / Allan / 2 Comments

On the day after Roger Clemens adds the word “misremember” into the American lexicon and the Mavericks try desperately to slow down their own suspect perimeter defense, ship off their only big men capable of matching up with Tim Duncan and Yao Ming, and wreck whatever locker room chemistry they have, my thoughts are on the real stable and certain force in my life, the love of my life: my sweetheart of almost 19 years, Carrie-Anne.

In May 1989 my heart was captured by this beautiful girl in the overall shorts and Keds behind the wheel of that little Plymouth Horizon. She agreed to be mine for good in November that year. And then in February 2001, I recommitted to her all over again.

I was struck that month by a letter written by Major Sullivan Ballou in July 1861 to his wife Sarah. He wrote the letter to her as his 2nd Rhode Island division was being moved to the Battle of Bull Run. And that letter spoke to me. It articulated so well the deep feelings I have for my wife. It expressed so perfectly the shame and the regret I feel for all the times I’ve acted selfishly and foolishly toward her and our relationship. And it summed up perfectly my desires to love her and please her for all eternity.

I remember sitting Carrie-Anne down on the couch in our living room in Mesquite and reading her that letter seven years ago, especially the line about washing out with my tears “every little spot upon your happiness.”

And I’ll read it again to her tonight.

My very dear Sarah:

The indications are very strong that we shall move in a few days—perhaps tomorrow. Lest I should not be able to write again, I feel impelled to write a few lines that may fall under your eye when I shall be no more.

I have no misgivings about, or lack of confidence in the cause in which I am engaged, and my courage does not halt or falter. I am willing—perfectly willing—to lay down all my joys in this life to help maintain this government and to pay my debt.

Sarah, my love for you is deathless; it seems to bind me with mighty cables that nothing but Omnipotence could break.

The memories of the blissful moments I have spent with you come flooding over me and I feel most gratified to God and to you that I have enjoyed them so long. And hard it is for me to give them up and burn to ashes the hopes of future years when, God willing, we might still have lived and loved together, and seen our sons grown up to honorable manhood around us. I have, I know, but few and small claims upon Divine Providence, but something whispers to me that I shall return to my loved one unharmed.

If I do not, my dear Sarah, never forget how much I love you. And when my last breath escapes me on the battle field, it will whisper your name.

Forgive my many faults and the many pains I have caused you. How thoughtless and foolish I have often times been! How gladly would I wash out with my tears every little spot upon your happiness.

But, O Sarah! If the dead can come back to this earth and flit unseen around those they loved, I shall always be near you; in the gladdest days and in the darkest nights. Always. Always. And if there is a soft breeze upon your cheek, it shall be my breath, as the cool air fans your throbbing temple, it shall be my spirit passing by. Sarah, do not mourn me dead; think I am gone and wait for thee, for we shall meet again.

Yours always and forever,

Sullivan

I love you, Carrie-Anne. Happy Valentine’s Day.

Yours always and forever,

Allan

The Greater Work

February 13, 2008 / Allan / 0 Comments

“Corporate prayer is the heart of corporate worship.” ~George A. Buttrick, 1942

In preparing for tonight’s Oasis class—our focus this evening is on the many forms of prayer in the Bible and their use, or lack thereof, in today’s Christian assemblies—I came across a little essay from George Buttrick on public prayer. I’m going to break it up into two parts. Buttrick addresses the “how to” when it comes to leading a public prayer in the assembly. And I’ll give you that part tomorrow. Today, the big picture of why prayer is the central aspect of our congregational worship.

“Ritual is not central; for, however necessary and vital, it is still ritual. Scripture is not central; for, however indispensable and radiant, it is still Scripture—that which is written, the record not the experience, the very Word but not the Presence. Preaching is not central; for preaching, however inevitable and kindling, is still preaching—the heralding, not the very Lord. Friedrich Heiler was rightly written: ‘Not speech about God, but speech to God, not the preaching of the revelation of God, but direct intercourse with God is, strictly speaking, the worship of God.’

When the rite is made central, prayer may become an incantation. When the book is made central, prayer may become an appendage of scribal interpretations. When preaching is made central, prayer may become only an introduction and conclusion to the sermon. The heart of religion is in prayer—the uplifting of human hands, the speaking of human lips, the expecting waiting of human silence—in direct communion with the Eternal. Prayer must go through the rite, Scripture, symbolism, and sermon, as light through a window.”

In 1895, E. M. Bounds wrote, “Prayer does not prepare us for greater works, it is the greater work.”

We pray because God invites us to pray. He desires that we speak to him, that we bring him our praise and thanksgiving, our confession of sin and our hurts, and our petitions for others and ourselves—everything that concerns us. And the more we pray, the closer we become to God. In prayer, in real prayer, we begin to talk like God talks. We begin to think like God thinks. We desire the things he desires, we love the things he loves, we want the things he wants. We begin to see things from God’s point of view when we earnestly pray.

Peace,

Allan

1 Corinthians 13 For Parents

February 12, 2008 / Allan / 1 Comment

OK, I stole this.

Wait, I didn’t steal it. I’m crediting a source. I got this from one of Jim Gardner’s recent blogs. As Whitney turns 15 on Sunday, a lot of this struck home.

Enjoy.

I can read bedtime stories till the cow jumps over the moon and sing ‘Ten Little Monkeys’ until I want to call the doctor — but if I don’t have love, I’m as annoying as a ringing phone.I can chase a naked toddler through the house while cooking dinner and listening to voice mail, I can fix the best Kool-Aid and cookies in the neighborhood, and I can tell a sick child’s temperature with one touch of my finger, but if I don’t have love, I am nothing.

Love is patient while watching and praying by the front window when it’s 30 minutes past curfew.

Love is kind when my teen says, ‘I hate you!’

It does not envy the neighbor’s swimming pool or their brand-new minivan, but trusts the Lord to provide every need.

Love does not brag when other parents share their disappointments and insecurities, and love rejoices when other families succeed.

It doesn’t boast, even when I’ve multi-tasked all day long and my husband can’t do more than one thing at a time.

Love is not rude when my spouse innocently asks, ‘What have you done today?’

It does not immediately seek after glory when we see talent in our children, but encourages them to get training and make wise choices.

It is not easily angered, even when my 15-year old acts like the world revolves around her.

It does not delight in evil and is not self-righteous when I remind my 17-year old that he’s going 83-MPH in a 55-MPH zone, but rejoices in the truth.

Love does not give up hope.

It always protects our children’s self-esteem and spirit, even while doling out discipline.

It always trusts God to protect our children when we cannot.

It always perseveres through blue nail polish, burps and other bodily functions, rolled eyes and crossed arms, messy rooms and sleepovers.

Love never fails.

But where there are memories of thousands of diaper changes and painful labor(s), they will fade away.

Where there is talking back, it will (eventually) cease. (Please, Lord?)

Where there is a teenager who thinks she knows everything, there will one day be an adult who knows you did your best.

For we know we fail our children, and we pray they don’t end up in therapy, but when we get to heaven, our imperfect parenting will disappear.

When we were children, we needed a parent to love and protect us. Now that we’re parents ourselves, we have a Heavenly Father who adores, shelters us and holds us when we need to cry.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Act Like Men

February 11, 2008 / Allan / 1 Comment

“Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.” ~1 Corinthians 16:13

(Thanks to Larry Tolleson for most of the pictures. As always, click on the pics to get the full size.)

70 men of the Legacy Church of Christ spent about 22 hours together this past weekend at a YMCA camp out in west Fort Worth. We worshiped our God together. We sang together. We prayed together. We studied the Word of God together. And then we strapped on air guns and shot each other with paintballs out in the woods.

The apostle Paul bore the marks of Christ on his body. Today I also bear the marks of Bo Black, Aaron Green, Kevin Welch, and Brennen Simmons.

In some ways it was a weekend of endurance. All our vehicles endured bottoming out on the big hill leading up to the cabins. We endured the flooding of one of the cabins. We endured fake mashed potatoes and fake scrambled eggs with real weenies cut up inside. And we endured some of the most outrageous, indescribable snoring this world has ever heard. All the air was completely sucked out of my cabin. And they kept going at it! It was like listening all night to angry farm animals!

We called the weekend an Advance, not a Retreat. The men of the Legacy church family are determined to move forward, not backward. And Dale Bresee, my good friend from Tulsa, came through in mighty ways, reminding us from Scripture that God’s men are called to be courageous leaders in their families and in God’s Church.

Following our third session with Dale Saturday morning we decided as a group that we would stand before the entire church family Sunday and declare to our brothers and sisters our committment to becoming stronger leaders for our Lord. And we also decided to issue a call or a challenge to the Legacy family to follow our lead in boldly taking our families and our congregation where God has called us to go.

So we did it. At the very end of the first worship assembly and at the very beginning of the second assembly, I called all the men up to the front. And with all of them — including the half a dozen elders who were there — standing behind me, I told the church that we had spent the weekend together and that we wanted to tell them something.

“After seriously contemplating together the lives of some of the great men of Scripture, men like Caleb and Joshua and David and the men of Issachar whom the Bible says understood the times and knew what needed to be done; after seriously looking together at God’s timeless call for his men to be courageous leaders; and after considering seriously the reality of the spiritual warfare that is taking place all around us, that Satan and the dark spiritual forces of Hell are out to destroy our families and divide the Lord’s Church and condemn the world; after recognizing that the Kingdom of God comes not with talk but with power, the men standing before you right now have resolved as of this moment moving forward to be men of God. We are determined to live character-based lives with strong convictions and the self-esteem to stand strongly behind those convictions.

We have purposed in our hearts, we have committed, to rejecting any attitudes of passivity, to accepting full responsibility, and to leading courageously.

As men of God you are going to notice a change in us. We are going to lead our families — our wives, our children, and our grandchildren — courageously. We’re going to lead this church family, we’re going to lead the Legacy Church of Christ, boldly.

We resolve before you, our brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, and before our God together this morning to be men of courage and humility, men of kindness and purity, men of self-control and perseverance, men of loyalty and faithfulness in all matters, men of integrity and honesty. And we will be, by the grace of God, men of excellence for God.

We are standing up and moving forward. And we are taking our families and the Legacy church with us to where our God calls us to be.

That’s where we are. And having said that to you this morning, we also want to challenge all the men of this church family to stand up and move forward with us; to reject any attitudes of passivity; to accept full responsibility; and to lead with courage. We call on you today to be strong and confident leaders and to go boldly where our God is calling us to go.”

At the conclusion of the statement, Howard Stein led us men in singing “Soldiers of Christ, Arise.” And as we sang this charge, this call for strong leadership, to the church, the church responded. They began to sing with us. And then they began to stand with us. Slowly at first. But then by the end of the first verse, “strong in the strength which God supplies thru his beloved Son,” the entire congregation was standing and singing together.

My prayer is that the 2008 Legacy Men’s Advance will be looked upon years from now as a watershed moment for our congregation. I pray that the renewed attitudes of those who attended will continue to grow stronger and more confident and that this boldness will bleed over into the whole church. I look forward with great anticipation to hearing in the very near future about three or four groups of men who are heading up new service efforts, assuming new leadership roles, meeting together to pray and to hold one another accountable to the high standards of our high calling.

Thank you so much, David Byrnes and David Simmons, for the planning and the execution of a fantastic weekend together. Thank you, Dale, for your time and your energy and your passsion and your outstanding example of what it means to be a man of God. Thank you for the challenge. And thank you for your friendship.

May our Lord bless us richly as we accept fully the responsibilities he’s given us. And may he use us to take the Legacy Church of Christ and his Holy Kingdom exactly where he wants it to go.

Peace,

Allan

P.S. The “Turtle Move” is a legitimate military manuever!

Unveiled Partakers In Glory

February 8, 2008 / Allan / 4 Comments

“And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory are being transfigured into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” ~Romans 3:18

Moses’ presence with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration takes the disciple right back to the revelation of God’s glory to Moses in Exodus 34. The people were terrified by the sight of Moses’ radiant face. They were afraid to come near him. They were afraid of the glory of the Lord. So Moses wore a veil until it faded away.

It’s different now.

The veils are off.

As a result of Jesus’ suffering and death and resurrection, because of his saving work that reconciles man back to the Father, we’re not afraid. God’s glory doesn’t blind us, it doesn’s scare us. In fact, it’s being given to us, it’s being shared with us, it’s changing us. As we are transfigured into the image of the Christ, as we become more and more like him, as we deny ourselves and take up our crosses and follow in his footsteps the path of sacrifice and service, we become partakers in that heavenly glory.

That is our hope. That is our promise. In our sufferings and service here in the world, by the One who was crucified in weakness yet lives today in power, we are being transfigured into the glorious likeness of the Son of God.

In glory. With the same glory. With unveiled faces.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I’m going into Advance Mode right now. The Legacy Men’s Advance, “In The Trenches,” begins in nine hours. So from now until late Saturday afternoon, you must refer to me by my paintball-soldier-warrior name.

“The Pastor of Disaster”

Thank you.

Pressing On

February 7, 2008 / Allan / 0 Comments

(We bought a Chinese-Dwarf Hamster for Valerie. His name is Theodore. I’m a little concerned about the language barrier.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on…” ~Philippians 3:13

I just got off the phone with Dale Bresee, our guest speaker for this weekend’s Legacy Men’s Advance. And we talked about all the things we always talk about together: elders and ministers, men and work, the Church and the World. His vision for relationships within our families and within our churches is straight from Scripture. It’s a powerful vision that puts Christ at the center of everything we do and everything we say to and with one another. It casts to the side the petty, worldly things on which we generally focus and aims our attention at loving and serving one another.

I’m excited that we have so many men at Legacy, over 60 of them and counting, who are giving up their weekends to come together to learn how to be better leaders—better husbands, better dads, better deacons and elders and ministers, better committee members, better Christians. These men obviously want to know each other better and want to know our God better. And Dale is going to bless our lives.

A good friend of mine, David Bazillion, introduced me to Dale when he spoke for us at a Men’s Advance David and I planned together for the Mesquite church in 2001. And that weekend changed, not just the lives of the men who were there, it changed the whole church. It changed me dramatically. It greatly improved my marriage relationship with Carrie-Anne in ways that she noticed and appreciated immediately. It changed the way I saw our God and his Church and the relationships we have with one another in his Church. It changed my perception of the roles and responsibilities I have as a husband, a dad, a deacon, a member of the Body of Christ. It was radical.

All seven of our elders at Mesquite attended that weekend Advance. And the bonds that were forged, the prayers that were lifted, the tears that were shed, the promises that were made all carried over in the following months and years. The Mesquite church began doing things instead of just talking about things. A regular feeding of the homeless in downtown Dallas, the regular Second Saturday Servants, the 24 Hours of Prayer, the Wednesday night dinners, all of that stemmed directly from that Men’s Advance with Dale.

The Four Horsemen grew out of that weekend. All the amazing things our God is doing through Dan and Kevin and Jason and me all go back directly to that Advance.

I’ve often looked back on what was a watershed weekend for me and wondered if it was Dale (he’s good, but he’s not that good) or if it was just that a whole bunch of men had come together to worship and study and talk (it was very different and wonderful) or if it was the bonding that happens during three hours of paintball (it was intense) or if it was God (duh!). And I’m not suggesting that, if you’re at the Advance this weekend, you’re going to ditch your career and go to preaching school. But I do believe it’s going to change you. It’s going to change us. And it’s going to change our church.

Let’s be in fervent prayer together for the next 24 hours as we anticipate all the wonderful things our God is going to do with us this weekend. I can’t wait to see you there.

Peace,

Allan

Author: Allan (Page 462 of 493)

Every Little Spot Upon Your Happiness

The Greater Work

1 Corinthians 13 For Parents

Act Like Men

Unveiled Partakers In Glory

Pressing On

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Categories

Archives

Allan's Links