Author: Allan (Page 89 of 492)
Father God,
Why is it that I think I must get somewhere, assume some position, be gathered together, or separated apart in the quiet of my study to pray?
Why is it that I feel that I have to go somewhere or do some particular act to find you, reach you, and talk with you?
Your presence is here – in the city, on the busy bus, in the factory, in the cockpit of the airplane; in the hospital, in the patients’ rooms, in the intensive care unit, in the waiting room; in the home, at dinner, in the bedroom, in the family room, at my workbench; in the car, in the parking lot, at the stoplight.
Lord, reveal your presence to me everywhere, and help me become aware of your presence each moment of the day.
May your presence fill the non-answers, empty glances, and lonely times of my life.
Amen.
~From A Thirty-Day Experiment in Prayer, by Robert Wood
Our GCR kids will perform a song from their upcoming Christmas pageant at church tomorrow morning. Luke Sikazwe and his mother, Ruth, will read our Advent reflections and light the third candle of Advent for our congregation. I’m posting the weekly scripts here so you can do your own reflections with your family or your small group or in your own church. I pray this is helpful.
JOY
Today we light the third candle of Advent, the candle that symbolizes joy.
This candle is pink in color, which represents joy and marks a shift in this Advent season.
Today we move from repentance and preparation to celebration and rejoicing.
We rejoice together in the gift of salvation through the coming of the Christ.
We praise God for the coming fulfillment of his covenant promises.
And we joyfully resolve to live into and proclaim the eternal Kingdom of our Lord.
Isaiah 61:1-3b
The biggest sports news of my weekend wasn’t that TCU qualified for the four-team college football playoff or that the Cowboys scored a franchise record 33-points in the fourth quarter to complete a blowout of the Colts. The truly earth-shattering, universe-altering, mind-blowing, euphoria-inducing news came down late Friday evening: Jacob deGrom has signed with the Texas Rangers!
deGrom is the best pitcher in Major League Baseball. And he is a Ranger. The 34-year-old, two-time Cy Young Award winner signed a five-year, $185-million free agent contract to pitch in Arlington after a couple of Zoom meetings with GM Chris Young and new Texas skipper Bruce Bochy. What a coup! deGrom brings that 98-mph heater and a winning clubhouse presence to a team that, finally, is making a serious push to win a World Series.
Last offseason it was Corey Seager and Marcus Semien in a remake of the middle infield. Last month it was pulling Bochy out of retirement to manage. They’ve also retained All-Star Martin Perez and traded for Jake Odorizzi. They’ve got top fifty prospects Jack Leiter, Kumar Rocker, and Owen White probably one year away from starting at the MLB level. This team is ready right now to compete in the AL West and should be in the mix for a run or two at the World Series starting in 2024.
Yes, this is exciting. This is bigger than the record-smashing signing of Alex Rodriguez back in the day. The Rangers have a legitimate World Series winning manager, a General Manager who’s been given an open checkbook by ownership, and now they have the best pitcher in the game at the front of the rotation.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Concerning the Cowboys: don’t get too happy about a 54-19 win over the hapless Colts. Remember that the Indy coach, Jeff Saturday, had never coached football at any level before they pulled him out of the ESPN studios last month. Quarterback Matt Ryan looks like he should have retired a couple of years ago. This is a mess of a team – they’re terrible.
And it was a two-point game heading into the fourth quarter. Had Saturday kicked an extra point instead of going for two, it would have been a one-point game heading into that final period. Had they made the two-point conversion, it would have been tied.
Ryan and the Colts turned the ball over four times in that last quarter which led to the most lopsided fourth quarter in the NFL since 1925. But after three quarters at home against one of the worst, mismanaged, dysfunctional teams in the league, Dallas was only up 21-19.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Alabama football fans, you need to sit down and be quiet. You know who you are. Stop it. The Crimson Tide didn’t have anything taken away from them when they failed to make the college football playoffs. They haven’t been ripped off in any way. They simply do not deserve to be playing for a national championship.
If you’re going to be one of the top four teams in the country, you have to be one of the top two teams in your own conference, and Alabama is not. They didn’t even qualify for their own conference championship game. They lost two games. Their best win is a one-point victory over Texas on the last play of the game. TCU beat five ranked opponents this season while going 12-0, including a seven-point win against those same Longhorns on that same field. TCU played in their conference championship game and lost by a field goal in overtime, after being stopped at the goal line on a fourth down run from the one. TCU beat everybody they played this year, having defeated K-State in the regular season by ten in the regular season.
And don’t give me the line that Alabama deserves it over TCU because if those two teams lined up against each other today, ‘Bama would be favored by a lot. Championships aren’t won in Las Vegas; they are won on the football field. And TCU did much more between the lines than Alabama this year.
Peace,
Allan
Tomorrow is the second Sunday of Advent. At the GCR Church here in Midland, Jordan and Rachel and their precious kids and Rachel’s parents, Dale and Penny, will lead us in our reading and the lighting of the second candle. It’ll be an intergenerational blessing for our whole congregation! I’m posting the scripts in this space each Saturday. I invite you to practice this in your own church or small group setting or use these words to guide your own thoughts and conversations with our Lord.
Peace
Today we light the second candle of Advent, the candle that represents peace.
Today we are reminded that Christ Jesus is the only source of true peace.
And he is coming.
We resolve to make peace in our families and in this community of faith.
We pray for the peace of Christ to rule in our hearts and in this world.
And we prepare to welcome God’s peace on earth and into our lives and relationships.
Isaiah 2:3-5
I want to share with you a passage from Marianne Williamson’s A Return to Love. Barry Thomas sent this to me immediately following Sunday’s sermon about God’s covenant of presence and partnership with his people. I hope you find this as inspiring as I do.
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, “Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?” Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God!
Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us – it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
The basic truth about you is that you are created by God in the divine image of God. Don’t ever lose that foundational fact about you. Sin distorts that fact, the devil twists that truth. Sin corrupts it and contradicts it. But it does not change you into anyone other than who God created you to be. You are a beloved child of God, created and saved and called by him to reflect his glory.
Peace,
Allan
Recent Comments