Category: Legacy Church Family (Page 13 of 37)

Living Sacrifice

LivingSacrifice“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God — this is your spiritual act of worship.” ~Romans 12:1

Think very carefully about the times you have completely abandoned yourself into some act of service for others in the name of Jesus. Think about the times you’ve totally given yourself to God and to others in some act of kindness or mercy.

Recall the joy you feel as you walk a family of five through Give-Away-Day, the way you experience the mercy of God as you hand a brand new toy to a seven-year-old girl who’s never had one. Think about the new life you feel as you pray with your brothers during the 24 Hours of Prayer, the way you bond with your Lord and your Christian friends and the ones for whom you pray. Think about sacking groceries in the church pantry, visiting a sister about to go into surgery at the hospital, delivering a casserole to the family who just lost a loved one. Remember the fullness of life you discovered in that offering. Remember how it feels to put to death your own needs and fears and find a source of peaceful and joyful existence in God. It’s unexplainable.

Scripture calls us to remember those times and to be even more willing to make that total offering, that holy sacrifice, over and over again. That is our act of worship. It’s our act of service that, by the grace of God, he makes holy and pleasing.

Think about those times. Remember and repeat. And find real peace and joy in your Lord.

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A couple of entries in the Legacy “Caps for Tags” contest. Click here for the full scoop.

Jalayna&Kelsa&Melissa@the park    Phillip@PizzaGarden   WrayGrier@gas pump

Keep those pictures coming in. Email them to astanglin@legacychurchofchrist.org

Peace,

Allan

Caps for Tags

(This post contains an exclusive offer for Legacy members only! Read on!)

God’s Church here at Legacy has really taken to this empty tomb promotion for our Resurrection Renewal coming up Easter week. We’re beginning to see the empty tomb decals showing up now all over the community. About three thousand of the stickers have flown out the doors here. And several folks have emailed me pictures of their “tags.”

Bank Drive-Thru  Bike Trail  Elevator  

Canine  Mailbox  Pole at undisclosed location

Redbox   Sonic Menu  Wal-Mart

This past Sunday we made available to our church family 5,000 little laminate cards, 3-1/2″ x 2″, with the empty tomb logo boldly emblazoned on each side. We’re asking our members to just leave these cards everywhere they go. I realize there are some of us who are not as apt to put stickers around town as others. These people among us have a far greater respect for the property of others. Putting stickers on things goes against the very fabric of their upbringing. I respect that. Placing these little cards around town is much, much easier.

Resurrection Renewal CardsFriday night we took the family to the movies and I dropped about 20 of these cards all over the place. I put half a dozen or so on the pinball machines and token dispensers in the arcade. I placed five or six in the middle of the tables at the snack bar. I put one on the counter where I purchased our popcorn and another near the register where I paid for Carley’s Sourpatch candy. On the way out, I placed another three or four cards in other various places: in a picture frame, on top of the booster seats display, and on a water fountain. Later that night I left three cards at Arby’s: one at the counter, one near the napkins and Horsey Sauce, and one on the window sill next to our table.

I left three at What-a-burger yesterday afternoon: in the gift card slot on the counter, near the drinks dispenser, and on the window next to my seat.

Last night, Carrie-Anne asked me to run to Wal-Mart on my way home to pick up something she needed for dinner. I wound up buying three things. I left these empty tomb cards on the shelves where I picked up each of those three items, I left one on a Coke display in the middle of an aisle, another on top of the jewelry counter as I walked by, and another at the register where I paid. On the way out the door, I left another card on a desk at the optical center.

This morning, while picking up the donuts for our weekly men’s Bible study, I left one on each of the three tables inside the donut shop, one at the register, and I pinned another one to the bulletin board with everybody’s business cards.

I keep them with me and just drop them wherever I go. And we’re hoping that everybody at Legacy is doing the same thing. The idea is to so saturate our community with these images that it creates a curiosity — an intrigue. We want people to think to themselves, “Something’s happening. What’s happening?” Then we believe that when these people see the image on our T-shirts or our cell phones or on our cars, they’ll ask us what it means, and we’ll have an opportunity to share with them the power of the Resurrection and invite them to Legacy for our four-day event Easter week.

Resurrection Renewal CapsNow, here’s the offer: I’ll give empty tomb caps to the three people who email me the best pictures of their best “tags.” This offer is for the stickers only (Hey, anybody can drop the cards). Just take a picture of your “tag” and email it to me at astanglin@legacychurchofchrist.org and I’ll judge the best three. It’s completely subjective, I know. And I’m the one making the call. The deadline for entry is noon Tuesday March 16, one week from today. All the pictures will go up on the big screens during our assembly time Sunday morning March 21. And we’ll announce the winners then, too. Resurrection Renewal - April 4-7, 2010

Peace,

Allan

Resurrection Renewal

Resurrection Renewal - April 4-7, 2010 - Legacy Church of Christ 

This is not a lock-jawed Pacman chasing a ghost without a face. And it’s not what happens when you open up your Big Mac container and the meat has slid clean off the bun. This is a symbol of the Resurrection. This is the empty tomb of Jesus. This represents the power of the Resurrection. This symbol stands for the hope we have in the Resurrection. And we’re going to use this image to bring people to our Christ.

Our hope is to outfit the entire Legacy congregation — one thousand men, women, and children — in empty tomb T-shirts. Yesterday we took orders for 659 shirts. In less than an hour. We also saw over two-thousand empty tomb decals fly out the doors. Most of them went on our cars and trucks and the backs of our cell phones.

Sign Ups    Crowded Concourse    Texting Teens

The goal is to completely saturate our community with this symbol. We want people to see this Resurrection image everywhere. And then, after a few days, when people see the symbol on our shirts and our cars and our phones, they’ll initiate the conversation.

“Hey, what is that on your shirt? I’ve seen that around town.”

“I’ve seen that logo on a bunch of cars lately. And you’ve got it on your phone. What is that?”

Whitney    Van    Carley

And then we begin our Resurrection Conversations. We tell them that the tomb is empty. We tell them that our King is alive today and reigning at the right hand of our Father in heaven. And we tell them that because Jesus lives, death has nothing on us. And neither does sin. And then we invite them to Legacy on Easter Sunday for the start of our four-day Resurrection Renewal. Five sessions of Resurrection singing and reading and praying and preaching. Resurrection Power. Resurrection Hope. Resurrection Proof. Resurrection Mystery. Resurrection Community. Very evangelistic. Very visitor-friendly. And if we do it right, if every one of us gets involved in getting this symbol out there in our town, the people will start the discussions for us.

That’s the plan we unvieled yesterday. And I completely underestimated the response.

Putting decals on cars    TShirt Orders    At the main display

It was chaotic. It was crazy. It was hectic. It was loud. And it was wonderful and inspiring. Everyone bought in. All three exits out of our parking lots were staffed with teens putting empty tomb stickers on the backs of cars as they were leaving. Two dozen volunteers took T-shirt orders and applied decals to the phones. Before I even made it to lunch yesterday I had two text messages from two different people telling me about Resurrection Conversations they’d already had at restaurants. All day today I’ve been receiving similar messages. Chandler and Philip and Conner. All three of my own daughters. The phones have been ringing at the church offices all day today with people wanting more shirts and more stickers. The symbol is showing up on our members’ Facebook pages. Our people are tagging their email signature lines with the image. Resurrection Conversations are happening all over NorthEast Tarrant County.

Precinct Line and North Tarrant PKwy    Empty Tomb Stickers Everywhere!    Even Kent!!

And our God gets all the glory.

The Resurrection of our Savior is a big deal. And we’re giving it big deal treatment this Spring at Legacy. Like the very first believers two-thousand years ago, we’re using it to convince our community that Christ is Lord. This thing has the potential to change the mindset of our congregation. I pray we’re going to start focusing much more now on what’s happening outside our walls then on the inside. And, by God’s grace and the power of his Spirit, this thing could quite possibly turn our town upside down for the Kingdom.

Chevron at Davis & Starnes  Hwy 26 in Grapevine  QT at Davis and Mid-Cities

I’ll keep posting pictures here as more of these things roll in. Resurrection Renewal - April 4-7, 2010 - Legacy Church of Christ

Peace,

Allan

Expectation #7

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” ~Matthew 22:37-40

Love God, Love NeighborLove is the beginning and the end of our righteous relationship with God — and everything in the middle. Love pushes us. It motivates us. It defines us. Love is what Scripture says binds everything we do together in perfect unity. We must place unconditional, God-ordained love in the supreme position of our hearts and minds and in God’s Church.

God’s love for us depends completely upon his character, not ours. Everyone stands before our God equally. No human being can ever do anything to earn God’s love. That fact that we are sinners is woefully inescapable. The fact that God still loves us anyway is amazingly wonderful. And we respond to that matchless grace and undeniable love by loving him back and by loving all people the way he does.

And that doesn’t mean surface relationships. It doesn’t mean love at arm’s length. It doesn’t mean love all people, but don’t get involved in their lives. It means imitating God’s gutsy love, his all-in love, a love so full and so complete that it compelled Christ to suffer and die to show us.

May we be a people who receive one another as Christ receives us, who forgive others as we’ve been forgiven by God, and who love God and others as fearlessly and unconditionally as he loves us.

Peace,

Allan

White, Green, and Bright Pink

Thursday NightI’ve been alive for a little over 43 years. And not once, ever, never has it even occurred to me that it might be a potential possibility — ever! — that I might have to shovel snow. I’ve never even entertained it as a possibility. Never! But there I was Friday morning: an inclined driveway covered with nearly a foot of snow, one car in the garage, and one truck stuck. I just stared at the mess. What in the world am I going to do? And I looked three doors down and saw my neighbor shoveling his driveway.

The backs of my legs are still sore.

Angels   Carley & Dad   Snowman #2

We measured anywhere from nine inches to eleven-and-a-half inches in various places around our yard Friday. So beautiful. So crazy. The biggest single snowfall in DFW history. It started at about 3:00am Thursday morning and didn’t stop until a little over 24 hours later. The girls and I built three snowmen, made six snow angels, threw 300 snowballs, and soaked through twelve total pairs of jeans.

Friday Morning  Poolside  House

And, true to form, most of it had completely melted by Sunday morning. Snowman #3

What an amazing couple of days, though, it was. So beautiful. So crazy. So unexpected. So thoroughly enjoyed by all of us. Thank God for his gracious and unforeseen blessings. Thank God for these marvelous displays of his power and love. And give him praise for the opportunities to bask in those blessings through the eyes and the energy and the joy of our children.

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Bizarro Aaron Green

School district websites were busy Thursday morning as most every parent of a school-aged child was checking to see if classes were going to be disrupted by the weather. It so happens that, at the time, the Hurst-Euless-Bedford I.S.D.’s website was featuring a front-page story about an elementary school fundraiser at an area McDonald’s a couple of weeks earlier. C-A and the girls and I had gone to that MickeyD’s that night to support (rag) Cori Brown. And I wound up in the background of the picture on the school’s website. Lots of Legacy folks emailed me that morning, commenting on the picture with their own personal brand of humor.

The funniest comment though came from Jason Wolfe who observed that the employee actually featured in the photo looks like the bizarro Aaron Green.

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 Then

Here’s a picture that’s been floating around various Facebook pages recently. (I don’t do Facebook; I’m going to be the very last person in this country to join Facebook.) See if you can pick out Carrie-Anne and Shanna (Corley) Byrnes. They’re standing right next to each other in this 20-year-old photo, wearing almost the exact same dress. They were both at Oklahoma Christian at the same time. Same club. Even dated the same guy. Now we’re co-leading a Small Group Nowtogether here at Legacy. Cooking together. Praying together. Raising kids together.

Thank God for family and friends, for holy relationships that encourage and build-up, for Christian love that supports and sustains.

And for giving us all the ability to enjoy life and laugh.

Peace,

Allan

Expectation #6

Every Family, Every Member, Everybody in God’s Service!“…to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the Body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” ~Ephesians 4:12-13

Paul makes it very plain in the middle of Ephesians 4 that each of God’s people is to be actively working in service to God and the Body of Christ. If everyone who confesses “Jesus is Lord” is gifted by the Holy Spirit, then every Christian should be using those gifts in selfless service to Christ and his Church.

I think, like Paul, that all works of service, when done in submission to the Savior, are equal. There are no greater gifts and lesser gifts. There are no important works and unimportant works. No act of service is bigger than another. They are all coordinated by God for the benefit of the Church. And I believe that if even one member of Legacy (or your church) is not actively involved in some area of Christian service, we/you are not operating at full strength.

Scripture says these works of service build the Body up, bless us with unity and knowledge, and grow us into mature disciples. It’s this selfless and sacrificial service that is the difference between spiritual infancy and maturity, between being tossed about and being held together, between deception and truth, between things of human origin and things of Christ.

The Church should work harder to equip the saints by giving them more and more opportunities to serve. We should empower all Christians by not throwing wet blankets on their ideas and projects. And we should better educate all disciples of Christ until we all fully understand that our individual talents and abilities and passions, when given over to Christ Jesus and his will and used to his eternal glory, are our spiritual gifts. And they all serve a vital purpose in God’s Kingdom.

Peace,

Allan

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