Category: Psalms (Page 12 of 14)

With All My Heart

August 26, 2009 / Allan / 0 Comments

“I will praise you, O Lord, with all my heart;
I will tell of all your wonders.
I will be glad and rejoice in you;
I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.”
~Psalm 9:1-2

I am so blessed to be the preacher for a church that really understands the congregation’s worship of God. When considering the emotional hot-button issues that sometimes, unfortunately, characterize our corporate worship, I’m surrounded here by people who do comprehend — or are honestly wrestling with comprehending — that to worship the Creator of Heaven and Earth is to give him our all.

When Holy Scripture speaks of praising and worshiping God with all our hearts — or doing anything with all our hearts — it’s talking about all of the wholistic will. Not just our emotions. Not just our heads. Not just our feelings. Not just our reason and logic.

With all my heart.

God is worthy of my / our eternal adoration. So, we worship God intentionally, deliberately, and mindfully, even when we don’t feel like it. We put everything we have into it everytime.

I am privileged to “eavesdrop” on a couple of on-going cyber conversations within our church family. I was struck (inspired, moved to thanksgiving, convicted) by a couple of comments made late last week regarding our Sunday morning worship here at Legacy. With their permission, consider this from Don Garrett:

“I have found that my worship has intensified as my awareness of God’s forgiveness of my sins has increased. Those times when I lose sight of the fact that God has forgiven me of a LOT of sins, my worship begins to lose its intensity and other, worldly things begin to encroach on my worship. When I have a deep sense that my Father has forgiven me of a lot…I have little trouble concentrating intently on my worship to him. I also find myself LESS affected by things like song selection, or heating / cooling problems in the building, or too many babies crying, or someone worshiping in a slightly different way than me, or all the other mundane things that can detract from our personal worship. I also find myself having less patience with those who gripe about such things (that is probably more a part of getting older and more grumpy).”

And this from Mason Scott:

“I will admit that I have been one to come into the worship center and anticipate to sing my favorite songs, hear the right sermon, and be engrossed with an uplifting worship experience. When I look for the right songs, the right sermon, or complain about the song leader, the song selections, the Scripture reader, or the sound booth, I’ve turned God’s time into ‘Mason Time.’ Yes, I feel small. The Lord is molding my mind and heart this week to come this Sunday with my offering. The offering I’m talking about is my heart. I will come this Sunday with the desire to give my heart, my mind, my adoration, and my money to praise and worship our Creator.”

Can’t you see why I love being Legacy’s preacher?

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Only 18 days ’til the Cowboys kick off their historic 50th football season. And today’s second-best player in team history according to jersey number came down to back-up quarterbacks. And the Red Ribbon Review is going with the only man to back-up both Roger Staubach and Danny White, UNLV’s own Glenn Carano.

Wade Wilson played for five teams and lost his only start for the Cowboys. Bernie Kosar played only one season in Dallas and lost his only start. Carano, a second-round pick in 1977, played his entire seven year career for the Cowboys and won his only start, a 37-13 whipping of the Colts in 1981. He suited up for five NFC Championship Games as a Cowboy backup and two Super Bowls. And he threw only one interception in his 57 career attempts.

My only memory of Carano is from the end zone seats at Texas Stadium on Thanksgiving Day 1981. I was 15. I can’t remember who was starting for the Bears that year —Bob Avellini? — but Vince Evans had replaced him that week. Danny White got knocked out early in the first quarter, and we wound up watching Evans and Carano duel to a sloppy 10-9 Cowboys win. It was only the third or fourth Cowboys game I’d ever attended. And I was disappointed. My team had won. But I was bent.

I was clearly already developing the cynicism and negativism that would serve my sports radio career so well.

Peace,

Allan

King Of All The Earth

May 25, 2009 / Allan / 0 Comments

“Clap your hands, all you nations;
     shout to God with cries of joy.
How awesome is the Lord Most High,
     the great King over all the earth!
God has ascended amid shouts of joy,
     the Lord amid the sounding of trumpets.
Sing praises to God, sing praises;
     sing praises to our King, sing praises.
For God is the King of all the earth;
     sing to him a psalm of praise.
God reigns over the nations;
     God is seated on his holy throne.
The nobles of the nations assemble
     as the people of the God of Abraham,
for the kings of the earth belong to God;
     he is greatly exalted.”

~Psalm 47

“They are all defying Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus.” ~Acts 17:7

The Cost of Preaching

April 16, 2009 / Allan / 0 Comments

To all the preachers out there, the fearless proclaimers of God’s wonderful news:

“When I called, you answered me; you made me bold and stouthearted.” ~Psalm 138:3

The Word we preach is mind-blowing, earth-altering, history-changing Truth. We proclaim the unmerited love and favor of the Creator of the Universe, a right relationship with him through the sacrifice of his Holy Son, and unsurpassed power and authority extravagantly given by his Spirit. It is the greatest news this world has ever heard. It impacts all who hear. It transforms all who respond. And preaching it week after week comes with a price.

Hang in there.

“I will praise your name for your love and faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your Word.” ~Psalm 138:2

If we are truly passionate about the texts and the Lord of the texts when we preach, it will cost us. We are painting a vision of the Kingdom of God in opposition to the reign in this world of other powers, so it is a spiritual battle we are fighting, which will also physically exhaust us. We have to allow ourselves plenty of time to recover, a Sabbath of rest. We might also have to fight the darkness of doubts, the fiends of seeming failure in society’s terms, the monsters of personal hang-ups, the demons of misunderstanding on the part of those who hear or refuse to hear. (from Marva Dawn’s A Royal Waste of Time)

For all those times when our words don’t come close to matching what’s in our hearts, when our sermons don’t live up to the power of the Truth, when our best efforts fall woefully short of the splendor of our King and the beauty of his love and the majesty of his reign…

…hang in there.

God’s doing something wonderful with you.

To Jason R., Jim G., Grady K., Scott M., Charlie J., Kyle B., Jim M., David H., Jim H., Jimmy M., Chris V., Greg N., Rick A., Terry R., Robert W., Stan R., and every gospel preacher out there who labors in the Word, wrestles with the text, listens to our Lord, and then speaks that Word of Truth and Grace week after week after week:

“The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your love, O Lord, endures forever — do not abandon the works of your hands.” ~Psalm 138:8

Peace,

Allan

Prayer and Praise

February 19, 2009 / Allan / 0 Comments

Biblical prayers are saturated with praise, the recognition of who God is and what he does. It’s giving God the glory. It’s never that we add to his glory—that’s impossible. But we’re willingly and openly recognizing God as God. All prayer has to begin with praise, recognizing who God is and what he does.

Psalm 146 is a perfect example of this kind of prayer. It recognizes God as the creator, the sustainer of life, and the Sovereign King. And it calls on the one reading the prayer and those praying the prayer with the reader to live their lives for the sole purpose of praising God.

“Praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord, O my soul.
I will praise the Lord all my life;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
Do not put your trust in princes,
in mortal men, who cannot save.
When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
on that very day their plans come to nothing.
Blessed is he whose help in the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord his God,
the Maker of heaven and earth,
the sea and everything in them—
the Lord, who remains faithful forever.
He upholds the cause of the oppressed
and gives food to the hungry.
The Lord sets prisoners free,
the Lord gives sight to the blind,
the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down,
the Lord loves the righteous.
The Lord watches over the alien
and sustains the fatherless and the widow,
but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.
The Lord reigns forever,
your God, O Zion, for all generations.
Praise the Lord.”

Making The Exchange

January 12, 2009 / Allan / 0 Comments

“What we have heard and known, what our fathers have told us; we will not hide them from the children; we will tell the next generation.” ~Psalm 78:3-4.

The apostle Paul calls life in Christ a race. He tells us to run the race in order to win. And we have to understand that this race we’re running is a relay. None of us is running this race alone. We’re all in it together. Someone passed the baton to you. And you are charged with passing the baton to others. Today we are standing on the shoulders of those who’ve gone before. At the same time, we’re paving the way for those who are coming after.

Nobody runs the race alone.

Notice these boys who are receiving the baton. Looking back. Eyes on the runners who are racing toward them. Stretching back with their hands open to receive the baton. Measuring their steps so they match up with their teammates.

Look at this girl who’s passing the baton. She’s running her fastest right here at the exchange. She’s given it all she has. Her part of the race is almost over. But she’s running faster and working harder now than she was at the beginning. Look at how she’s stretching and straining and lunging forward to pass this baton to the one who will run after her. Look how they’re both concentrating on this critical task.

Now look at the point of exchange. This is my favorite moment of a good relay. Notice how, for a time, these two are actually running together. Step by step. Side by side. In perfect rhythm. One finishing her assignment, one just getting started. Running. Cooperating. Sprinting. Enduring. Together at the point of exchange. Side by side.

We appealed to the older members of our Legacy church family last night to embrace their God-ordained mission of passing on the faith to the younger generations. And I want to repeat and reinforce that plea here today, specifically to those 50-years-old and older in our Legacy family, and generally to any of our older brothers and sisters who might be reading this today.

We believe the most effective way for us to pass on the Christian faith is through our deeply-rooted relationships with one another. And we believe those powerful relationships are best formed in our Sunday night Small Groups. These meaningful relationships are forged on living room couches and around kitchen tables. These bonds are strengthened in our homes and in our shared meals. And we need you older members of this body of believers to jump in with us.

We need you. We need your wisdom. We need your experience. We need your example of someone who’s seen it all, endured it all, and kept the faith. Our children need to see it in you. They need older people to look up to. We need your love.

You’re running the race. You’ve been running it a long time. But you’re not done. Now’s the time to pass the baton. It’s time to understand that we’re not running this race alone. As the younger lean back and strain with open hands to receive your love and concern and stories and faith, we need you to run faster and stretch out with everything you have to pass it on to us. You’re not finished. We need you.

Where else are you going to be able to have the impact on those younger than you? Not in our church assemblies where we sit in rows of pews and look through the backs of each other’s heads to a single person up on a stage and then go to lunch with people our own age. Certainly not in Bible class where, again, we naturally (and usually intentionally) segregate by age. It doesn’t happen there. It happens in our homes.

Please join us. Please work with us in forming intergenerational Small Groups where you can be energized by our kids and our energy and our relative youth, where you can be served by us and loved and appreciated by us as we get to know you in ways we never will otherwise.

And as we make the exchange, as you stretch out and we lean back, as we lock eyes and match our steps, as the faith is being passed in these Christ-centered relationships, we’ll soon discover that we’re actually running together. Side by side. Step by step. In perfect rhythm.

Amen.

Kings Of The Earth

November 4, 2008 / Allan / 1 Comment

November 4, 2008

Texas Tech’s upset of then #1 Texas in Lubbock Saturday night shook up the KK&C Top 20. Four different teams received first place votes this week. But the Crimson Tide of Alabama, holding serve with a blanking of Arkansas State, edge Penn State by nine total points to vault to the top of the poll. The Red Raiders’ win moved them up a notch to #3, while the Longhorns dropped three spots to #4. Oklahoma racked up 62 points against Nebraska Saturday. But the Sooners actually lose ground with our panel, dropping from #5 to #6. Florida’s dismantling of Georgia apparantly impressed our voters more.

JimG gives us the line of the week with this gem about Penn State: “If they win it all, will the team have to carry Joe Pa out of the pressbox?” And with Kansas now completely out of the mix and no opportunity to make any Mangino weight references, CharlieJ has apparantly thrown in the towel. No poll from him this week. In fact, only 12 of our 20 panelists turned in polls. If Texas beats Baylor 52-10 Saturday, only those who’ve participated every week will get to go to LarryT’s party.

Tulsa’s loss to Arkansas cost them a spot in the poll. Florida State and Minnesota also dropped out. Michigan State and Georgia Tech make their debut while the in-again-out-again Tar Heels of UNC are back in. To see the this week’s poll in all of its splendor and glory click here. Or just click the green “KK&C Top 20” in the upper right hand corner of this home page. Enjoy.

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If you’re participating in the politics of the United States of America today or those of any other earthly nation, do so with this in mind: to say “Christ is Lord” is to say “Caesar is not!” As followers of the King, our undying attention and allegiance is to his Kingdom.

“How awesome is the Lord Most High,
the great King over all the earth!
God has ascended amid shouts of joy,
the Lord amid the sounding of trumpets.
Sing praises to God, sing praises;
sing praises to our King, sing praises.
For God is the King of all the earth;
sing to him a psalm of praise.
God reigns over the nations;
God is seated on his holy throne.
The nobles of the nations assemble
as the people of the God of Abraham,
for the kings of the earth belong to God;
he is greatly exalted.”
~Psalm 47

Category: Psalms (Page 12 of 14)

With All My Heart

King Of All The Earth

The Cost of Preaching

Prayer and Praise

Making The Exchange

Kings Of The Earth

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