The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

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The Last 25 Years

September 7, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Over the past 25 years, 1996-2020, the Dallas Cowboys have had only 12 winning seasons – that’s less than half. In the last 25 years, the Cowboys have appeared in zero Super Bowls, zero conference championship games, and have not won a single divisional playoff game. Zero.

By comparison, in the 26 years prior to ’96, the Dallas Cowboys appeared in eight Super Bowls and won five of them. They appeared in 14 conference championship games, and won a whopping 30 total postseason games. Did you catch that? From 1970 – 1995, the Cowboys played in more than half of the NFC conference championship games.

In the last 25 years, the Cowboys have fewer winning seasons than they had conference championship game appearances in the prior 26 years.

In the last 25 years, only six NFL teams have failed to win a divisional playoff game: Miami Dolphins, Washington Deadskins, Cleveland Browns, Cincinnati Bengals, Detroit Lions, and Dallas Cowboys. That’s good company right there.

Over the last 25 years, the most consistent thing in sports is that the Cowboys will not be relevant. Just as consistent is the certainty with which Cowboys fans declare every year that this is the year they break through and go to the Super Bowl.

So delicious.

Peace,

Allan

Six Spots for Israel Trip 2022

September 6, 2021 / / 0 Comments

We have six slots available for our every-other-year sight-seeing trip to Israel May 10-21, 2022. To maximize this once-in-a-lifetime experience, we always cap our groups at 30 people, and we’re almost there. The next six to send in the $400 deposit will have their spots reserved and the trip will be closed.

This next trip, my fourth to host / lead and my fifth overall, is already booked by really great people from both Amarillo and Midland, from both the Central and GCR Churches of Christ. And there’s still room for you to jump in.

By the time May rolls around, it will have been four years since our last trip to the Holy Lands – thank you, COVID. But our local guide, Anton, is lined up and all our usual sites and experiences are still on the docket. Here’s the link to the brochure and registration. If you have any questions, please contact me or the good people at Fowler Tours in Dallas.

Peace,

Allan

Scraping By

September 4, 2021 / / 0 Comments

My first encounter with Mike Rupe was when he diagnosed the issue with our dishwasher. Over the phone. In about eight seconds. And then he had it repaired  in about eight minutes. That made me really appreciate this self-professed back row Christian at GCR.  What makes me love Mike is that he has shown up at our new house here three evenings in a row to help us knock out the grueling task of hand-scraping  all the popcorn off the ceilings of our new house here in Midland.

Mike had all the right ideas, all the little tricks, and the necessary elbow grease to make this daunting task a much more realistic thing for us to accomplish – we got it finished about three days earlier than I thought we might. Working with Mike during these evenings meant getting his unique perspective on some of the history of this great church on Golf Course Road. And it also involved more conversation about Revelation than would be expected.

 

 

 

 

 

Mike, brother, I am so grateful. The popcorn is gone and now we’re into Phase Two. A couple of walls have gone up today and a couple of doors installed to seclude the Whitney Wing from the rest of the manor. All the carpet is gone, the wet bar in the entry has been removed, and the texture guys are going to start on the ceilings this next week.

And if the dishwasher doesn’t work, I know who to call.

Peace,

Allan

Father, Forgive

September 1, 2021 / / 0 Comments

 

 

 

 

 

THE HATRED
which divides nation from nation,
race from race,
class from class;
FATHER, FORGIVE.

THE GREED
which exploits the labors of men and women
and lays waste to the earth;
FATHER, FORGIVE.

OUR ENVY
of the welfare and happiness
of others;
FATHER, FORGIVE.

OUR INDIFFERENCE
to the plight of
the homeless and the refugee;
FATHER, FORGIVE.

THE LUST
which uses for ignoble ends,
the bodies of men and women;
FATHER, FORGIVE.

THE PRIDE
which leads us to trust in
ourselves and not in God;
FATHER, FORGIVE.

~ Coventry Cathedral

Two Boats and a Helicopter

August 31, 2021 / / 0 Comments

You’ve heard the story. A man was trapped on his roof in the middle of a terrible storm while the flood waters rapidly rose around him. The man was in trouble and he cried out to God, “Lord, save me!” A neighbor paddled by in a canoe and called to the man, “Let me get you out of here!” But the man refused. “No, thank you,” he said. “My God will save me!” And the waters continued to rise.

An hour later a police rescue boat cruised down the man’s street. “Jump in!” the officer called. But the man replied, “I’m trusting in the Lord!” and stayed on his roof and prayed. And the waters continued to rise.

Another hour went by and a rescue helicopter arrived on the scene. A rope ladder was lowered to the man but he wouldn’t get on. “God is going to save me!” he said. “My faith is in God, not in man!” And he prayed. And the waters continued to rise.

An hour later the raging waters tore the man’s house apart, sweeping him under the river where he instantly drowned. Upon entering the afterlife, he complained to God, “Why didn’t you save me? I prayed to you, I begged you to rescue me, I confessed my faith in you, I publicly testified to your power! Why didn’t you save me?”

The Lord replied, “I sent you two boats and a helicopter. What more do you demand?”

It occurs to me that we spent the whole spring and summer of 2020 begging our God to take away the coronavirus. Heal us, we prayed. Father, remove the virus from our world. Intervene, Lord, and give us a cure. You are the Great Physician, God. Save us from COVID-19. We were all praying those prayers. All of us. We were all confessing our faith in God to provide the remedy, we were publicly testifying to his sovereignty over the disease and the terrible effects on our health and economy. God, please heal us of COVID-19.

In his great mercy, he gave us three vaccines.

Yet, many Christians are still sitting on their roofs, proclaiming their faith in God while refusing his good and gracious rescue.

Seriously. What more do you demand?

Peace,

Allan

Home in Midland

August 30, 2021 / / 0 Comments

We closed on the house here in Midland late Friday, a wonderfully beautiful home with a lot of personality and character in the Saddle Club subdivision on the northeast side of town. The timing was so perfect in acquiring this house – the previous owners had just been transferred to Houston when we saw it and their company had purchased it from them and was wanting to get it off their books quickly. We feel like if we had seen it just a day later it would have been gone. And it’s perfect for us! So perfect!

 

 

 

 

 

The layout allows for Whitney to have her own wing in the house with a bedroom, bathroom, den, and exterior access to a private patio. The rest of the house is an open plan with plenty of room for entertaining. The game room is big enough to handle the ping pong table and all our Dr Pepper stuff. And the lot is surrounded by older oak trees and massive pines.

What else comes with a house built in 1981 is the need for updating. I’ve spent several hours over the weekend scraping popcorn off the ceilings while Carrie-Anne and Whitney have been removing cabinet door handles and light switch plates for the texturing and painting that’s about to take place. Thanks to Mike Rupe who showed up unannounced yesterday to help scrape for three hours and to Gary Glasscock who’s helping us coordinate all the updating.

We feel very blessed by God and by this community of faith at GCR in Midland to be in possession of such a house. We feel very grateful. Once we get in for good, may the house be used to bless the church and for glorifying God. Until then, may we be blessed with resilient muscles, determined patience, and contractors who show up on time.

Peace,

Allan

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