The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

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Category: Cowboys (Page 24 of 53)

The Church is on a Mission

April 7, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Two positive observations following the Rangers’ season opener: 1) tonight will be better; it absolutely cannot be any worse, and 2) the Rangers are still mathematically alive. For Evan Grant’s five reasons Rangers fans should not be panicked today, click here.

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In case you’re keeping score at home, Kevin Schaffer won our church office bracket contest and the free lunch and dessert that goes with it. Well, actually, his wife Michele won it for him. Kevin doesn’t know a Blue Devil from a Demon Deacon. On the strength of Duke’s come from behind win in last night’s title game, Vickie Nelson, our office manager, edged past Hannah McNeill for second place and the other free lunch. With all the guys on our church staff, three ladies finished in the top three. I’m glad Connie retired before she could fill one out.

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One more sports angle: how can anybody ever trust a guy like Tony Romo? Doesn’t it say something about the guy’s integrity, his character, when he’s born and raised in Wisconsin, but shows up in Indy last night wearing Duke colors and openly cheering for the Blue Devils against his home state university?!? It would be like Troy Aikman flying to Atlanta to wear blue and white and cheer for BYU over Oklahoma. It makes no sense. How do you trust a guy like that?

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In Ephesians 3, Paul prays this beautiful prayer for the Church. He prays about transformation: that God may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, that Christ may dwell in your hearts, that the church would be rooted and established in love, that we would have power together with all the saints, to grasp the love of Christ, to know the love of Christ, and to be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us…”

The request here is that God would do a whole lot with the power that is at work in the Church. This prayer is not a wide open plea for God to demonstrate his power in the world in random ways and by random means. This is a specific request for God to act in spectacular ways through his Church. The transforming power of God belongs to us. So we’re not asking God to do great things while we sit in our church buildings and wait on it. And study it. And talk about it. The Kingdom of God is not a matter of talking, but of power!

God’s Church is on a mission.

In Matthew 9, Jesus asks his disciples to pray for workers to send into the fields. Pray about it, he says. This is what we want God to do, to raise up these workers. And then in the very next sentence, just one verse later, Jesus is giving them the authority and the power and sending them into those fields to do the work. You ever notice that?

Be careful when you pray. The answer to your prayer may be the power of God moving you to mission. If you pray for God to use your church or to work through your church, be prepared to get off your pew and in to the mission. Go ahead and pray for the hungry and the sick. Please pray for God’s will to be done in your town just as it is heaven. Yes, pray those things. And then open your eyes and your ears and your heart to how God wants to work through you to do it.

Peace,

Allan

Knowledge is Yummy

March 12, 2015 / / 0 Comments

If knowledge is understanding what God is doing, then one of the primary ways we receive this knowledge is through the written Word, the Scriptures. And, according to the Bible itself, that kind of knowledge is delicious.

“How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” ~Psalm 119:103

I think the Message translates this, “The Word of the Lord is better than the hot sauce at Abuelo’s!”

So, what do the words of God taste like? Have you ever eaten the Word?

“When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight.” ~Jeremiah 15:16

What happens when you eat something? It becomes a part of you. You assimilate it. “You are what you eat” is exactly right. And we know this. If a nursing mother eats fajitas for lunch with jalapenos and pico de gallo and onions and hot sauce, she’s going to be up all night — not because she’s sick, but because her baby is sick! The fajitas have become a part of the mom and so impact what she is delivering to others. You are what you eat. I look in the mirror and I can see the Whataburgers and the cheese tots and potato chips. They’ve become a part of me. The biggest part! Jeremiah says, “When your words came, I ate them. I digested them. I assimilated them. I made them a part of me.”

“‘Eat this scroll I am giving you and fill your stomach with it.’ So I ate it, and it tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth.” ~Ezekiel 3:3

Ezekiel is being called into God’s service. Speak for me to Israel, God says. Tell them my plans. Tell them what I’m doing. Teach my people. Be an example to my people. Here, eat this scroll. My holy will, eat it. Make it a part of you. Be one with it. Fill your belly. Take it all in.

“I took the scroll from the angel’s hand and ate it. It tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth.” ~Revelation 10:10

The apostle John is on the island of Patmos on the Lord’s Day when he sees the giant angel. As the angel begins to speak, John begins taking notes. It’s just like something we would do, right? He wants to get it all down. Information. Content. I want to get this right. And the angel says, “No, don’t write it down. Eat it!”

The words of Scripture are written by the Holy Spirit in a way to get inside us. They’re intended to become a part of us. We don’t learn Scripture. We don’t use the Bible. We eat it. We ingest it. We take it into our lives in such a way that it metabolizes into acts of love, cups of cold water, hospital and prison visits, casseroles and cakes, groceries delivered, comfort and encouragement and evangelism and justice all done in the knowledge of God.

Isaiah says when the Kingdom is finally perfected, when God’s holy will has all been finally fulfilled, there will be righteousness and justice and peace because “the whole world will be full of the knowledge of the Lord” (Isaiah 11:9). The knowledge of God changes us. It changes the world. It changes everything.

When’s the last time you opened up to Deuteronomy or Joshua or Mark or Philippians and your mouth started to water? Do you ever eat the Word? Not for information, but for transformation!

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It’s a business, that’s all it is. I’ve been convinced for more than 20 years now, the NFL and all its teams are only entities in a vast entertainment enterprise. And I’m as fine with that as I am with the reality of gravity: I know it and I don’t argue about it. Watching a Cowboys game is the same thing as watching a movie. Yes, it’s thousands of times better in a million different ways, but it’s much more like watching a great movie than it is like watching a regional group with all of your same passions and loyalties, your interests and values, compete against another group from somewhere else that represents that region’s people and culture. Yeah, you have a desire for one particular team to defeat the other, but you don’t root so hard as to be ridiculous, right? It’s a TV show! Grown men and women who are affected much more during and after a Cowboys game than they are during and after McFarland USA or Shark Tank seem a bit out of touch to me.

I’m not sure what I would do if I were DeMarco Murray. The NFL’s leading rusher and total yards from scrimmage leader last year is officially now this afternoon signing a free agent contract with the Eagles. I totally understand more money. I get Murray wanting the league-wide respect that apparently comes with the long-term lucrative deal.

But, he’s going from running the ball 25 times per game behind arguably the best and youngest offensive line in the NFL to a place where LeSean McCoy carried only 19 times per game behind a mostly shaky offensive front. Murray will wind up with 90 fewer carries next year behind an inferior line. He won’t get nearly as many opportunities in Chip Kelly’s spread offense — those guys are throwing the ball as soon as they step off the bus. And, besides all that, Murray’s going to have to pay a state income tax up there. Plus, it’s cold in Philadelphia. And the people aren’t nearly as nice as they are down here (mainly because they’re so cold). Is all of that really going to be worth it or is this a really short-sighted move?

Of course, I have no way to know what Jerry Wayne is offering to pay Murray. It may be insulting.

But the first plot line has been written today in the story of the Cowboys 2015 season in the NFC East. We’re off to an entertaining start.

Peace,

Allan

Reversed!

January 12, 2015 / / 0 Comments

It could have gone either way. I think I could argue for an hour on either side of the call. According to the strict interpretation of the rule, it was an incomplete pass, but only if you determine that Bryant was in the act of falling down, and not in the act of stretching for the end zone. My regret, of course, is not that the Cowboys lost. Come on, what’s more fun than another crazy, punch-in-the-gut, let it get away, last second, I’ve never seen anything like that before, reversal of fortune loss for Dallas? It’s delicious. My regret is that it was determined by a video replay.

It would have been a whole lot more fun for Dallas to be awarded first and goal at the one yard line, as originally, humanly ruled on the field. The Cowboys score and then Aaron Rodgers has the ball with four minutes left to win the game for the Packers. On the field. Between the players. Either way it ends, that would have been a lot of fun. I regret that the video replay is so intrusive on the game. I appreciate that, much more often than not, the replays get it right and make things right that were wrong. But is the intrusive nature of the beast worth it? That controversial reversal determined the outcome of the game.

We all know replay isn’t definitive. It’s not always right. It’s actually quite subjective. So, again, is it worth it?

We’ll never know. We’ve all swallowed the lie that because we have the technology we must use the technology. For most people in most all circumstances now, it’s some kind of moral sin to choose not to use the technology that’s available. And, yeah, that’s regrettable on many fronts. There were 22 football players on the field, hundreds of players and coaches and media on the sidelines, and thousands of fans in the stands. Not one person thought Bryant didn’t catch that pass. Only a couple of people in New York who watched it in ultra slow motion from four different angles considered it incomplete. Only after making the very subjective call that the receiver was falling, and not lunging for the goal line.

As video killed the radio star, replay is taking the human element right out of our football games.

That’s the regrettable part. Not that the Cowboys lost.

Peace,

Allan

Um… Awkward

January 5, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Just when long-suffering Cowboys fans finally had something to be proud of. Just when a dramatic comeback win in the playoffs had eased the stigma of so many mediocre years and embarrassing finishes. Just when it appeared the dark cloud hovering over the Cowboys was beginning to lift and a bright shining ray of hope was beginning to break…

…the cameras showed us this in Jerry Wayne’s box.

Thank you so much to the Fox Sports camera crew and production staff for catching and broadcasting Chris Christie’s failed high-five / man hug / Jones family noogie. It provided an immediate and much needed boost after I watched Dallas hand the game to Detroit for three hours and the Lions hand it right back. Thank you to every web-site, news and sports media outlet, and blogger for posting the pictures and videos from the owners box. It brings everything back into focus: no matter what they might happen to accomplish on the field, as long as Jerry Wayne is running that team, it must really be embarrassing to root for the Cowboys.

Peace,

Allan

Seek Justice

December 22, 2014 / / 0 Comments

I know the Cowboys are really rolling right now. The offensive line is imposing its will and mowing people down, Murray and all the backs are running with authority, Romo is having the greatest year of his career, Dez looks unstoppable, and the defense is flying around the ball with abandon on every play. Today the Cowboys look really, really good. But I’m sticking with my preseason prediction of 6-10.

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“Stop doing wrong, learn to do right!
Seek justice, encourage the oppressed.
Defend the cause of the fatherless,
plead the case of the widow.”
~Isaiah 1:16-17

We understand the biblical concept of justice to be about reversing the curse. We see it as leaning into God’s promised future, a mostly “back to the future” promise that our Lord is redeeming and restoring all of creation to be like it was in the very beginning, and working to bring it about. So we feed the hungry because there is no hunger in heaven. We clothe the needy and house the homeless because there is no poverty in heaven. We live in peace with others because there is no violence in heaven. We love and sacrifice and serve to lift up the hopeless and protect the defenseless because that is the way of our Father.

 

 

 

 

At Central, this seeking justice takes many forms. Among them, the community Christmas lunch we hosted here on Saturday for all the men, women, and children who live in our downtrodden downtown neighborhoods. Around 70 volunteers served a hot Christmas lunch to more than 400 members of our community.  Four worship leaders from four different churches — with our own Kevin Schaffer out front — provided the Christmas/worship music. We shared Christmas stories and traditions, we told Santa Claus what we wanted, we passed out hand-sewn emergency kits and blankets, we called upon God in prayer, and we ate a lot of pie.

 

 

 

 

Most importantly, we made connections. We tried with everything we’ve got to make sure there was somebody from Central at every table. Not serving food, not gathering information, but lovingly sharing our lives with those around us. Learning names, looking at pictures of children and grandchildren, making fun of each other’s teams, noticing rings and bracelets, laughing together at some of our silly assumptions.

I don’t know when or even if Saturday’s lunch will translate into baptisms and new members classes and a swell in the church rolls. It doesn’t matter; it’s not the point. The point is that for two hours on Saturday, four hundred of our neighbors experienced God. They got a glimpse, a tiny little sneak preview of heaven. They were made, I hope, to feel important, to feel loved, to feel significant, to know they matter.

I think that’s seeking justice: understanding what our God is doing in the world, what his ultimate goals are, what the eternal outcome of what he’s doing is going to be, and then working like crazy to make it happen in our contexts right here, right now.

We don’t have it all figured out here at Central. We still mess a lot of things up and we still allow many things to slip through the cracks. But we’re trying to do good works that imitate our Lord. We’re trying to view our efforts and evaluate our programs with better questions. It’s not just “What would Jesus do?” It’s also, “What did God do for me?” and “What is God doing right now?”

Peace,

Allan

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