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Wednesday Night & A Bunch Of Pictures

January 10, 2008 / / 2 Comments

We’re calling it “Oasis.” Our new Wednesday night assemblies in the worship center here at Legacy got off to a wonderful start last night.

The idea is one I grew up with. Wednesdays are, to borrow a term Don Graves has used for years down in Marble Falls, our spiritual pitstop. It’s a time to recharge our spiritual batteries. Right in the middle of the week is a perfect time for Christians to come together, share a common meal and fellowship with one another, worship, sing, pray, and meditate on God’s Word together. It’s an ideal time for revival and rejuvenation. It’s so easy to be beaten down and worn out by work or school or whatever you’re called to do during your week. And, for some of us, Wednesday evenings together are the only thing that gets us to the next Sunday.

Wednesday is our “Oasis.”

The word oasis is defined in the dictionary as any place or thing offering welcome relief from difficulty or dryness, a fertile place in the desert due to the presence of water. And it’s an idea rich in biblical imagery. Moses and God’s people in the desert and the Lord’s provision for them. Water from a rock. Manna every morning. Jesus’ time in the desert battling Satan and the angels sent from heaven to take care of him. Christ talked about living water. Isaiah preached about streams in the desert. You have all that same imagery in Psalm 78, which we read last night. We want all these images to guide us as we come together as a church family on Wednesdays. We want to spend that time with each other and our Lord reading and reflecting on his Word, singing praise and encouragement, and praying together. Hopefully our Oasis time together will revive us and remind us for the rest of the week of our purpose and commitments and faith in our Christian community.

Darryn gave us a moving rendition last night of Psalm 18. Brad and Jerry took us straight to the throne room of God with their beautifully worded prayers. Aaron led us in songs that spoke wonderfully to the message of the night which was God’s continued protection and provision for his people. And afterward most everybody hung out and visited for what seemed like longer than normal.

Our Wednesday night attendance at Legacy has averaged 331 for the past three months. We had 410 last night. Over 700 participated in Small Groups Church Sunday evening. I pray that the increased attendance is leading us to an increased sense of fellowship and common spirit and purpose and to a continual transformation of our lives into the image of our Savior.

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(As always, click on the pictures to get the full size)

CarleyWallThe stone is all up on the outside of the new Legacy Youth and Benevolence Center and most of the work on that building between now and its completion in March will be on the inside. And last night Jason and Lance took all of the youth group and their families inside the new complex to make their marks before the interior walls begin going up. Students and their families were encouraged to write their names and their favorite passages of Scripture on the studs and beams to signify that our building and everything it stands for is based on our God and his Word.

Brooklyn CornerSpace Gals

There was a lot of energy in that place last night. It was neat with all the kids and their parents “dedicating,” if you will, the new youth center with the Words of God. All the young people also signed a huge sheetrock “thank you” card to all the construction workers.

       ThankYouCard       Samantha

And as I’m heading down the stairs at the end of the event, just as things were winding down, I see this.

MyNameBesmirched

I immediately blamed Mel Williams, who’d already gone home with his family. I remembered walking up the stairs 30 minutes earlier and Mel had been writing on the wall there and didn’t turn to speak to me when I greeted him. I thought that was odd at the time. And I assumed it was because he was publicly besmirching my name.

I’m telling Lance the story this morning. And he starts laughing. And then he confesses. It was Lance. Lance wrote it. I’m walking over to ask the construction workers to sheetrock that area of the youth center first. Sorry, Mel. It wasn’t you. But only because you didn’t think of it first.

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Thanks to Russ Garrison and his generously offered tickets, the family and I went to the Dallas Stars game Monday and helped them end their four game losing streak with a 3-1 victory over Minnesota. The girls were excited to walk through the middle of Victory Plaza and experience all the noise and sensory overload that takes place there. And, once the game began, Whitney and Valerie were into it. Whitney, of course. Valerie just marveled at the skating, specifically how the defensemen are able to skate so gracefully backwards. And she loved the fights and skirmishes. Carley was not so interested. In any of it.

GirlsAtStars ValAtStars CarleyAtStars

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I think Steve Dennis is the one who asked Tony Romo yesterday if he had become Bill Parcells’ biggest nightmare: The Celebrity Quarterback. Romo looked right at Dennis and said, “You’re talking about a celebrity coach.”

Zing! Perfect!

I’ve grown weary of Parcells getting all the credit for discovering Romo and grooming him into the star he appears to be. I’m tired of Parcells’ oft-repeated and reported Ten Commandments for a Quarterback. And yesterday I saw a sign that maybe Romo is sick of it, too.

Peace,

Allan

The Lord is My Rock

January 9, 2008 / / 0 Comments

“My God is my rock in whom I take refuge.” ~Psalm 18:2

CavesAtEnGediThe stories of David and his men hiding from King Saul and his men are packed with eye-opening contrasts between the two men anointed by God. Saul trusts in his own power and his own armies and has no choice but to rely on the spy efforts and information from his men because God is not speaking to him anymore. His attitude and his continual disobedience have resulted in Saul basically being on his own. On the other hand, David trusts completely in his God. And God protects David and delivers him from the enemy.

David learns the truth of God as his rock and his fortress in the wilderness of En Gedi (1 Samuel 23-24). He found the EnGediWadisafety and strength and salvation from the two-thousand foot cliffs riddled with hundreds of caves and the life-giving water at the bottom of the wadi to be symbolic of the provision of his loving God. No, more than that, he saw it as the actual protection and provision of his God.

Today, we reside in a spiritual landscape that is every bit as hostile, threatening, and dangerous as David’s enemies out in the Judean desert. Just like David suffering from thirst and mortal danger, we too in a spiritual sense face death and destruction. Where does our help come from? Where can we find safety and hope and salvation? It is only found in one place, in God, through his Son Jesus, the Christ. Just like stepping into an oasis filled with life-giving water or into an impregnable mountain fortress, when you enter Jesus you are truly safe. The things of this world and the things of the other evil spiritual forces cannot harm you.

Run, don’t walk. Run to the rock of salvation and hope. Run to the Lord. Call on him and he will hear you and deliver you.

“He is a shield for all who take refuge in him. For who is God besides the Lord? And who is the Rock except our God?” ~Psalm 18:30-31

 Peace,

Allan

A Spiritual Gideon

January 8, 2008 / / 1 Comment

I don’t get this preaching thing. I don’t get it at all. I’m afraid of it. But it’s all I want to do. I’m inadequate to do it. But somehow I think that helps me. So much of the time I feel like Indiana Jones in that I’m just “making it up as I go along.” I don’t know what I’m doing. And I’m not sure that I ever will. This preaching thing is so huge and so powerful and so wonderful. I’m so honored and so privileged and so blown away by the fact that our Sovereign God is using me in this way. And I’m so worried about messing it up. I’m so burdened sometimes by the things I know I’m supposed to say; so relieved when they come out the right way and so discouraged when they don’t. The calling is so demanding and so satisfying; so right for me in that I feel capable of study and public speaking; so wrong for me in that I am so selfish and sinful and insignificant.

It’s so up and down. It’s so exhilerating and frightening. All at the same time. All the time.

During the down times—the times when I’m doubting myself—I go to Terry Rush’s blog, “The Morning Rush.” Terry is the preaching minister at Memorial Drive in Tulsa and a wonderful encourager of preachers. His words never fail to inspire me and lift me up. I’ve shared his blog with other preachers in the past couple of years. But I want to share some of his more recent words with everybody this morning. His words echo my heart today.

Peace,

Allan

For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust…II Peter 1:4.Does partaking of His divine nature ever mess with your thought processes? I mean we are each spiritual Gideons doing more than we can imagine (Eph. 3:20) while being reduced to complete nobodies (II Cor. 12:11). How can such nothingness like us participate with the Complete One in His true and glorious work and stay sane?He called the foolish, the weak, the base, and the “are not” (I Cor. 1:26-28) to complete His work. So how do you feel participating? I feel foolish, weak, base, and not fit. It bugs me. It increasingly weighs on me. Yet that’s how God used Gideon. God reduced Gideon’s armies that the glory would be of the Divine. I feel so strange being visible in the church. I love the work, adore the people, and move with contagion for His theme. Yet, I feel so terribly and visibly inadequate.

For me, it’s embarrassing to step up in front of workshop crowds being so weak and foolish. I am a saved, gifted, blessed goof-ball. I am shallow, vain, and so far behind the church learning curve. I often wonder if my Memorial friends wince at such silliness which comes from me. I’m guessing they do and love me anyway. Yet, the Word says I partake in the divine nature. How can that be? I have a harder time making introductions and announcements than preaching.

It can only be possible as our confidence is in His Spirit and not in ourselves (II Cor. 3:4-5). It must be true. My role is to believe it. If you struggle with being you…and I’m assuming some are just like me…continue to serve. He is the goal. He is the glory. He is the life. He invited the weak and the base to partake. So? We do…gladly!

The Chart is for Losers

January 7, 2008 / / 4 Comments

I’ll get to Tony Romo’s weekend later on in this post. But, first things first.

The Chart is for losers. You know, the two-point conversion Chart that every football coach references after an unsuccessful two-point conversion try. The Chart tells coaches when to kick the PAT and when to try to score two based on the point differential between the two teams being three or seven points. When you’re behind in a game, the idea is to do what you can to close the gap so there’s one full score difference between you and your opponent so you can tie or take the lead with a score of your own. If you’re ahead, do the same thing so your opponent can’t take the lead or beat you with a single score of their own.

 And, by overthinking it, coaches blow this call every single week.

 There’s only one reason the Steelers lost at home to the Jaguars Saturday: Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin went for two, not once but twice, when he should have just kicked the extra point.

The Steelers scored a TD with 10:25 to play in the game to pull to within 28-23. An extra point makes it a six point game. But Tomlin elects to go for two, even when a holding penalty on the play pushed the attempt back to the 12 yard line. There’s still two-thirds of the fourth quarter to play, and he went for two. And failed. The Steelers scored again at the 6:21 mark to go ahead 29-28. And now they HAVE to try for the two-point conversion so a Jacksonville field goal won’t beat them, it’ll only tie them. The run failed. And Pittsburgh’s only up one. And, of course, the Jags march down the field and kick the game-winning, not game-tying, field goal with 37-seconds left to win the game.

And somehow today Tomlin is still employed.

I haven’t done the research on the numbers in almost four years. But four years ago in the NFL, a one-point PAT was more than a 99% certainty while a two-point try was good only 54% of the time.

If Tomlin kicks the automatic point on both of his TDs there right in the middle of the fourth quarter, the Jaguars cannot beat them with a field goal. The worst case scenario is that the game goes to OT. And Pittsburgh’s at home!

And I knew Tomlin would invoke The Chart in his post-game meeting with reporters. I knew Tomlin would deflect all personal responsibility for the poor decision to go for two by blaming it on the chart. And he did.

“We’re playing The Chart. That’s not out of bounds. That’s just baseball; everybody’s got The Chart.”

But then when these coaches are pressed on it, when they ought to be, they get defensive.

“If I had a crystal ball and I knew we would lose by two, we would have kicked the extra point if that makes you feel good.”

Here’s my beef with The Chart: it’s just a lousy excuse for a coach who won’t take responsibility for his call. If the two-point try is successful the coach talks afterward about how they had scouted out the situation, they had planned for just that exact circumstance, they had seen something during the week they could exploit, they had prepared for just that moment and just that play. But if the try is unsuccesful, they blame it on The Chart. It was out of my hands. The Chart said to go for two, so we went for two. I have no control.

The problem is that football coaches are the most controlling freaks in all of sports. They demand complete control over every single aspect of their football teams. They take great public and private pride in over-preparing for every single hypothetical situation. They drill their assistants and their players on the minutiae of every single circumstance, real and imagined. They leave no rock unturned. They don’t leave anything to chance. They’ve studied and re-studied every single angle looking for the edge. And we’re to believe that in the fourth quarter of a playoff game they say to their offensive coordinator, “Let’s just go with The Chart.”

No. They make the decisions every time. You only hear about The Chart when they’re wrong.

I tried to pin Bill Parcells down on all that following a Monday night game in Seattle in which he had gone for two in the second quarter of what wound up being a nail-biting win against the Seahawks. He, too, claimed The Chart. He said he went with The Chart everytime. But on their very next TD in that same game, The Chart would have said go for two also. But Parcells kicked the PAT. When I pointed that out, he got defensive and used the crystal ball answer that Tomlin threw out there Saturday. They only reference The Chart when they’re wrong. And they attempt to escape all blame by saying they always use The Chart in every situation. And when the inconsistencies are pointed out, they get angry.

I’m not really sure there is a Chart. I think, instead, there’s an agreement among the coaches to call it a Chart when they mess up the two-point conversion.

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What do you think the quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys was doing this past weekend? Up at Valley Ranch watching film or getting some treatment or maybe working out? He was at least hanging out at the house and watching the wildcard games, right?

No. Your quarterback was with Jessica Simpson and Jessica Simpson’s parents in Cancun.

Somebody explain to me what this guy’s doing!

You’re the quarterback of a team that hasn’t won a playoff game in over a decade. Your team has really struggled, especially the offense, over the past four weeks. You’ve already been in the news way too much with your celebrity girlfriend. The last time she was seen with you publicly you turned in the worst performance of your career. What are you doing?

Do you suppose Peyton Manning or Brett Favre thought the wildcard weekend would be a good time to get out of the country and hit the beach?

I doubt Simpson has much, if anything, to do with Romo’s execution on the field. But Romo knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that if he went to Cancun with his celebrity honey and her parents right in the middle of the playoffs it would dominate the conversation in the media and in the Cowboys lockerroom all this week. And he decided to go anyway. He knew his teammates and coaches wouldn’t be thrilled with his very public romance being headline news again, but he decided to go anyway. At best that shows a lack of judgment. At worst it shows that he doesn’t care.

I didn’t hear all of Wade Phillips’ media session with DFW reporters today. But I heard enough of it to know that Romo’s weekend getaway with Daisy Duke was the main topic. Not the Giants. And not the New York pass rush.

Add to that Tony Sparano and Jason Garrett jetting all over the country for job interviews with the Falcons and Dolphins and Ravens. Who’s actually thinking about Sunday’s game against New York?

Peace,

Allan

Can Small Groups Change our Whole Church?

January 4, 2008 / / 0 Comments

“Since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” ~1 John 4:11 

This Sunday the Legacy Church of Christ becomes a Small Groups Church, not just a church that does small groups. The elders and ministers are committed to our church family applying the Word, connecting as a family, and evangelizing our community by meeting in each others’ homes every Sunday evening. And judging by the response—467 adults to date are signed up to participate in 34 different groups—the congregation is also committed to this new and exciting direction.

So many of us already know about all the wonderful things that happen when disciples of Jesus regularly get together to share with each other in their homes. Mutual love and service and hospitality. Mutual sharing of joys and burdens. Strong bonds that develop that can never be broken. The small group becomes a family. A caring and compassionate and Christ-centered family.

Can that atmosphere and that dynamic and that view of life together bleed over to impact the entire congregation? Will our small groups eventually, with time and consistency, transform all of us—those involved in small groups and those who aren’t—into the vibrant congregation as a whole that we all envision?

I think it will.

The power of changed lives is huge. The testimony from changed people draws people. It inspires people. Changed people have a profound impact on people who need to be changed. The people in the Gospel stories, all the crowds, were amazed by those Jesus had touched and healed. They were blown away by the change. The apostle Paul always preached and wrote about how Jesus had so drastically changed his life. And the testimony to changed lives within our small groups will have a similar effect on the body as a whole.

The power of weakness is huge. God is strong when we’re weak. God is glorified in our weakness. He is our rock. He’s our strength and our shield. And the sharing of our struggles and weaknesses in our small groups will open our eyes to see more clearly what our God is doing with us. That open and honest sharing of our problems, together, in our homes on Sunday nights will eventually bleed over into our assemblies on Sunday mornings. It will become a regular thing, not a rare thing, that somebody will go down to the front to confess a sin, to repent from a wrong, to ask for prayers, to share their struggles, and 20 or 30 of their loving brothers and sisters arrive down there at the same time to hug him and pray with him and confess with him. And this becomes a safe place, not the last place, to share our struggles.

More importantly, and most convincingly, the power of our God is huge. It’s not us. It’s God. We can’t forget that. It’s always God. And we turn all of this completely over to him through prayer. God, please change the lives of the people in our group. Lord, please heal this person, forgive that person, open my heart, open my eyes. Bring us one more lost soul, God. Show us, Father, your power and your love and your salvation in our groups.

In Mark 4, Jesus says the Kingdom of God is a farmer who plants a seed. Period. God does everything else. The farmer has no idea how it works. But it does. God makes it grow. God changes it and causes it to produce in wonderful and mysterious ways. It’s all on God.

Let’s all be together in fervent prayer as we jump into Small Groups Church. Let’s be willing to turn every bit of it over to God. And let’s be enthusiastic in our anticipation of all the amazing things our Father is going to do with us through our efforts to be church, not just do church.

Peace,

Allan

Prayer, Momentum, & Once More on the Incarnation

January 3, 2008 / / 0 Comments

“Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord and he will have mercy on him, and to our God for he will freely pardon.” ~Isaiah 55:6-7.

PrayerThe disciples asked Jesus in Luke 11 to teach them how to pray. They want to be like him in every way. So they want to pray just like him, too. They want to identify with their rabbi and to be identified with their rabbi by praying like him. So Jesus gives them the basics as far as the words go and then he tells them a story so they don’t lose the big picture.

The parable of the persistent friend. It’s midnight, the guy’s in bed, his whole family’s asleep. He doesn’t want to get up and get his friend the bread he needs to feed his surprise guest. In fact, he tells the neighbor at the door it’s not going to happen.

“Hey, it’s late! We’re all in bed! The kids are going to school in the morning! I’ve got an early meeting at work! Buzz off!”

In Jesus’ story, the man does get up and give his neighbor the bread he desperately needs. But not because he wants to. He does it, Jesus says, because of the friend’s boldness or persistence. And I’ve heard this story traditionally interpreted like this: keep praying. Even if God says ‘no,’ keep praying. He’ll give in eventually if you keep praying. Keep bugging him. He’ll change his mind. He doesn’t want to give you this thing you’re asking, but he will if you just keep knocking.

For that to make sense, God has to be the guy in the bed. For that interpretation to hang with the story, the guy in bed is God. The guy in bed. The guy who’s already turned out all the lights. The guy who’s locked his door. The guy who’s only thinking of himself. The selfish guy who doesn’t want to get up from under the covers and give his neighbor what he needs. That guy represents God?

No way.

If Jesus had put God in this story, all the lights would be on in the house. All the doors and windows would be wide open. There would be huge search lights criss-crossing the sky and giant neon billboards with flashing arrows pointing to the house saying, “Get your bread right here! Get as much bread as you want right here! And it’s free!” You couldn’t even get to the door to knock because the man would be out in the street looking for you and running to meet you and give you the bread before you could even ask.

The guy in the bed is not God. The guy in the bed is the opposite of God. And there’s the point. There’s the teaching of Jesus. He’s drawing a stark contrast. He’s not making a comparison. Jesus says here’s a man who will eventually get out of bed and give bread to his neighbor, if not because they’re friends, then certainly out of a sense of duty or honor or hospitality. You fathers, if your child asks you for something he really needs, you’re not going to give him something that would hurt him. So if this reluctant sleepy guy and you imperfect human dads know how to provide good gifts, why would you ever assume that God doesn’t? Our God is definitely more kind and generous and loving and giving than any man, regardless of how decent or good that man may be.

Jesus’ point in telling the story in Luke 11 is that our God is never reluctant to help. We ask God knowing he’ll honor our requests. We seek God knowing we’ll find him. We knock on God’s door knowing he’ll give us what we need.

“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us — whatever we ask — we know that we have what we asked of him.” ~1 John 5:14-15

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FootballWith 6:23 to play in the third quarter of last night’s Fiesta Bowl, Oklahoma scored a touchdown to pull to within five points of West Virginia. By this point the Mountaineers had proven clearly that they were the faster, more athletic, more explosive team. And by kicking an extra point, the Sooners would only be down by four with some real positive momentum. Maybe even some potentially game-changing momentum.

But Bob Stoops decided to go for two. The pass was incomplete. And OU trailed by five. Not only that, but instead of feeling good about a success, the team felt bad about a failure. Instead of West Virginia feeling negatively about their failure in giving up a touchdown on a long drive, they felt positively about their success in stopping the two-point play.

Momentum is huge. The psychology of what happens in the course of a football game and how it all shifts back and forth at a moment’s notice is generally tied to turnovers and failed two-point conversions.

And then, to defy logic even further, Stoops calls for an onside kick. Halfway through the third quarter. West Virginia recovers at the OU 39 yard line and goes on to score three of the game’s next four touchdowns to salt it away.

It was like Stoops thought he was playing OSU or something.

If I were the owner or GM or AD of a football team, I would put it in my coach’s contract that he could never, ever, go for two before the start of the fourth quarter. Period. No exceptions. I don’t care how far we’re down or how lousy our kicker. Going for two, going against the percentages, unnecessarily risking that precious momentum, it doesn’t add up. It’s never worth it.

Someday we’ll discuss “the chart.”

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IncarnationFinally, my good friend Todd Lewis, down in Marble Falls, sent me a Christmas article he wrote last month exploring the ways the Christmas season produces cheer even in the midst of war, disease, and crime. His words go right to the heart of what we preached here at Legacy for the past three weeks, how we see ourselves in the infant Jesus — God’s intentions in creating us, our own potential, our high calling. Click here, Observations on Christmas Cheer, to read Todd’s excellent article.

Peace,

Allan

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