Page 472 of 493

Thank You, Lord

November 22, 2007 / Allan / 3 Comments

“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.” ~1 Chronicles 16:34

As I sit at the computer this morning I hear the sounds of our girls playing in the living room and I smell some wonderful cinnamon bread thing that Carrie-Anne has working in the kitchen. It’s freezing outside, but toasty in here. Sunday’s sermon is finished. At noon today we’ll head over to Aunt Pam’s house for a feast of delicious foods, wonderful fellowship with a loving family, and lots of football.

I’m surrounded by blessing. My cup overflows. Thank you, Lord.

I’m eternally grateful for our God’s providence, for his perfect sense of timing, his foresight. At just the right time, he introduced me to Carrie-Anne. This amazing woman who loves me unconditionally and is patient with me and challenges me and pushes me and makes me laugh. I’m not certain I would be a disciple of Christ if it were not for Carrie-Anne. Oh, I’d be a “Christian.” I’d be in a church somewhere. But I’m not sure I’d be a disciple. And I know without a doubt, without her encouragement and confidence, I would not be a preacher of the Gospel.

We celebrate 18 beautiful years of marriage together this Sunday. More on her then. Thank you, Lord.

I’m grateful for the blessings of our three little girls. So precious. So talented. So sweet. So funny. So fun. They make me laugh. They keep us entertained—Carley with her wild, out of control dancing; Valerie with her outstanding sense of humor and funny faces; Whitney with her enthusiasm and passion for whatever it is she happens to be doing at the moment. They each love life so much. And I’m blessed to be able to experience my Father’s world through their eyes. Thank you, Lord.

I’m thankful for all of my family. My mom and dad who passed on the faith to me. There was never ever any doubt growing up that our Lord was the absolute most important thing to my parents and our family. And I’m grateful for that example that was rooted deep in my being, part of my DNA, even if it did take a while to blossom. I’m thankful for my sister, Rhonda, and for the thousands of happy memories we have growing up together. She never let go of me. And there were times when common sense says she should have. I’m thankful for my sister, Sharon, and for the compassion she has for others. She is a selfless giver, caring for the sick, raising the fallen, encouraging the burdened. She, too, has a passion for life and lives it to its fullest. I’m thankful for my brother, Keith, and for his deep love for God’s Word and for the Church. His wisdom far exceeds mine. His insights are invaluable to me. I find that every phone conversation with him leaves me encouraged and upbeat and confident and ready to tackle anything that comes my way in the name of the Lord. Those conversations need to happen more often, not less. All of my family, all of my aunts and uncles and cousins and grandparents and in-laws, they all serve in wonderful ways to care for me and love me and push me. They’ve all been used by my Father, at different points, to mold me and shape me into the man I am. Thank you, Lord.

And I praise God today for giving me — me! — the opportunity to preach his Word. Are you kidding?!? Me? It’s the most amazing thing of all. Me. He sees something in me I never saw. He has a belief in me I’ve never had in myself. His faith in me is greater than my faith in him. I’m not worthy. I’m not holy. What does he think he’s doing, making me against all human logic the preacher at this huge church at Legacy? None of it makes any sense. He’s pushing me. He’s challenging me. He’s expecting great things out of me. Big things. And I know that he knows that I know it’s all going to have to come from him. And that gives me strength and confidence and courage and boldness. It’s all him. Thank you, Lord.

“Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” ~Colossians 3:17

Peace,

Allan

About Last Night…

November 21, 2007 / Allan / 1 Comment

My family and I had such a great time at last night’s Pancake Supper and Thanksgiving service here at Legacy. There were less than 150 of us here. But everybody came early for the dinner, had a lot of time to just sit around and visit, we had tons of kids all running around the concourse area, it was loud and light and fun, and then we all moved in to the worship center together for a wonderful time of worship to our heavenly Father who makes all of it possible.

All the young families with kids were down front, singing with high energy and gusto. Inspiring. Most of the church doesn’t get to worship with the children, we don’t see them very much, because they’re generally in the back. It was fantastic. The readings from Scripture calling us to be thankful and to live our lives in gratitude for the gifts from our God were, as Jim pointed out, so simple and so clear and so beautiful. The prayers were worded in such a way that we felt taken straight to the throne of our Father. And when we were finished, it still took almost an hour to clear the building out.

Why did last night feel different? Last night just really felt like a family. What was it? Did everybody else feel that way, or is it just me? I loved it. I’d like to capture the dynamic from last night and figure out some way to duplicate it at every Sunday assembly. Is it a small group thing? I don’t think so. I think last night would have felt the same if we’d had 500 there. What was it? Was it that everyone was so relaxed? Was it because I wasn’t preaching? (Don’t answer that.)

I’d love to get your thoughts on this. How can we work, what can we do, to foster that same kind of atmosphere every time we get together?

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**Legacy Construction Update**

At 1:00 yesterday afternoon they began pouring the slab in the new Worship Center. Click on the pictures to enlarge.

Notice in the lower right hand corner where Jackie, Bonny, and Suzanne couldn’t help themselves and actually stuck their hands in the cement. That’s the bathroom area of the building. Hopefully there will actually be a wall there, definitely some tile or linoleum, to cover it up. Crazy gals. It’s the one think Kent wasn’t paying attention to out there. I threatened to take away his hard hat.

They were working under huge floodlights when we left at about 8:30 last night. This is what it looks like this morning. They’ve poured from the back foyer area into the actual auditorium up to the point where the slope begins toward the front. They’re scheduled to finish the entire slab by next Tuesday.

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Tonia Beard sent me these Thanksgiving cartoons this morning. Enjoy.

TanningTurkey

Peace,

Allan

Well Done, Good & Faithful Servant

November 20, 2007 / Allan / 0 Comments

“Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.” ~Revelation 14:13

We just got word here at the Legacy church offices that Stan Stafford, our brand new 100-year-old brother in Christ, has died and has passed from this life to the next to be with our Father forever. What a beautiful, bittersweet day.

Please click here to read my post about Stan and the day he was baptized here back in October, 16 days shy of his 100th birthday.

My every encounter with Stan over the past three or four months was uplifting. I’m so grateful to our Lord for the mercy and grace he showed to Stan and for the way our Father used this gentleman to teach us lessons about that same mercy and love. I’m so glad my mom and dad got to meet Stan three weeks ago. I’m grateful for the way the Smiths and the Jennings loved Stan and took care of him and met his needs. And I pray that our Father will send more Stans our way and that we’ll seek out more people exactly like Stan to bring to our Savior.

As I was walking back up the center aisle during the last song this past Sunday morning, Stan shook my hand from his wheelchair parked next to the sound booth at the back of our worship center. He smiled and said, “Great job.” I should have said the same thing to him. Great job.

Allan

Satan's Ally: The Church

November 20, 2007 / Allan / 1 Comment

“…fortunately it is quite invisible to these humans.” ~Screwtape

While writing to encourage his nephew / apprentice Wormwood in C. S. Lewis’ masterpiece, senior tempter Screwtape observes that many converts to Christianity have been reclaimed for hell. He tries to downplay the significance of Wormwood’s human “patient,” the one he’s charged with getting to hell, becoming a Christian by pointing out that, “One of our great allies at present is the Church itself.”

“Do not misunderstand me,” Screwtape explains. “I do not mean the Church as we see her spread out through all time and space and rooted in eternity, terrible as with an army with banners. That, I confess, is a spectacle which makes our boldest tempters uneasy. But fortunately it is quite invisible to these humans.”

Satan and his devils prey on our continual confusion between appearance and reality. We sometimes view the Church based on purely physical terms: does it have a steeple, how many members, what’s their contribution, do they have a praise team, are they friendly, were the restrooms clean, is it well lit, is there enough parking, do they have a program for singles? And we view people in the Church the same way: what is she wearing, why did he say that, he didn’t say ‘hi’ to me, she’s been divorced, he never smiles, they don’t discipline their kids, they don’t come to Bible class.

I suppose it’s quite obvious how the devils in hell, intent on separating us from our God, could see the Church as a great ally. How we view and judge the Church sometimes completely contradicts, and therefore undermines, what are our true beliefs about the Church. We know the Church is God’s elect. But when we fuss and argue and split over insignificant issues and ideas, when we treat each other worse than we treat strangers at the store, we can’t help but see the Church as worldly and ordinary. Nothing special. We know that men and women are created in the image of God and made to live for eternity. Forever. But when we see an old man or a sick woman, or when we notice deformities or other frailties, or when we focus on our own aches and pains, we all begin to seem very temporary. The one we sit next to in our Church assembly, to us, may seem weak and silly. To Satan and his devils, that same person is known in hell as a “great warrior” in the Kingdom of God. But we don’t see it.

If we’re not careful, that constant confusion between appearance and reality can kill us. Judging the Church and God’s people in the Church based on outward physical appearance and not invisible unseen reality plays right into the devil’s hands.

Peace,

Allan

Favorite Day

November 19, 2007 / Allan / 1 Comment

Sunday is still my favorite day of the week.

I had to actually think about that three weeks ago when Carrie-Anne and I filled out a personal inventory / survey in the Young Families class here at Legacy. One of the questions in the “just getting to know you” section that included queries about favorite colors, books, vacation spots, etc., was “What is your favorite day of the week?” And I put Sunday. One of the other questions was “Employer, City” and I wrote “God, Heaven.” But Sunday really is my favorite day of the week because it’s the one day I get to spend with a thousand different Christian believers all in one building at one time. And, to me, that, just as much if not more than anything else, speaks to the power of our God. It testifies to the miracle of our Savior. It’s amazing to me that so many of us, from different backgrounds and different mindsets and worldviews and opinions and beliefs and customs and traditions and circumstances can be brought together as family in one place to submit to each other and love each and serve each other in the name of Jesus. Amazing.

God creates us, brings us together, and sustains us to be family. And it can be really messy.

As we make the move here at Legacy from a church that does small groups to a Small Groups Church, we talk all the time about how we don’t believe for a second that Small Groups is going to solve all our problems. If anything, it’s going to create a whole new set of problems. When a thousand people make the decision to get intimately involved in each other’s lives, it gets messy. None of us is perfect. We’ve all got our baggage and issues and viewpoints and struggles and faults. It won’t be easy.

Eugene Peterson—by now, you know, one of my favorite authors—writes about the church as a messy community in his book The Jesus Way.

“Community is intricate and complex. Living in community as a people of God is inherently messy. A congregation consists of people of various moods, ideas, needs, experiences, gifts and injuries, desires and disappointments, blessings and losses, intelligence and stupidity, living in proximity and in respect for one another, and believingly in worship of God. It is not easy and it is not simple. Not every situation can be anticipated. Novel combinations of circumstances take us by surprise. No community worth its salt has ever existed very long without attending painstakingly to particular conditions.”

All of this is true. And it’s never more true than when we all get together on Sundays. Despite our differences, we unite together in the blood of Jesus to worship our Father and love each other and serve each other.

Sunday is still my favorite day of the week because I get to see all of it up close. I stand in the back of the worship center during that closing song and benediction and look out over all my brothers and sisters and I’m moved at what God is able to do with his children. How does this continue to happen? I see the faces and the families while I’m preaching, recognizing my brothers and sisters who are hurting, rejoicing, worried, rebelling, working, arguing, and healing. How is that God keeps this thing together? It’s incredible to me.

Every Sunday is a roller coaster for me. A different roller coaster every week. I know every Sunday morning that there will be ups and downs and dangerous turns and even a couple of loops. But the ride is a little different every time. The good and the bad, the rejoicing and the mourning, the praise and the complaints, an exhilerating acceleration I didn’t expect, a gut-wrenching turn I didn’t see coming, all of us in the same car, all in the family of God. Every Sunday.

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9-1. How do you argue with that? 9-1. It speaks for itself. And it doesn’t matter who they’ve beaten or how small or large the margin of victory. 9-1 is what it is. It says the Cowboys are a very good football team. And there’s no other way to see it. Even if their pass defense is ranked 24th in the league. Even if Andre Gurod makes every shotgun snap a wild adventure. Even if Flozell Adams moves early like he’s got some kind of false start incentive clause in his contract. Even if Tony Romo throws sidearm. Even if Roy Williams couldn’t cover you on a post route. Even if their number one receiver is a proven ticking time bomb of a quarterback killer and a lockerroom cancer. Even if they don’t have a solid number one running back. 9-1 speaks for itself.

In a league in which it’s extremely difficult to win, the Cowboys keep winning. It’s very impressive. Things bounce their way. They make big plays when they have to. They make up for their mistakes. Their mutual confidence in their coaches and in each other is rare. They really, truly believe they can get to the Super Bowl and win it, regardless of whether they meet the Patriots or the Colts or the ’78 Steelers.

Yesterday’s win over the ‘Skins was impressive. Romo struggled. The secondary got lit up. Nobody appeared to be in sync. Coaches seemed a little confused. Play-calling was suspect.

And they won. They beat a division rival that was desperate for a win, much more desperate than the Cowboys were. Washington needed that game. But the Cowboys wouldn’t let them have it. Very impressive.

I just wish it could have been anybody — ANYBODY — other than Terrell Owens with the four scores.

Peace,

Allan

Go Ye Means Stay!

November 16, 2007 / Allan / 2 Comments

I don’t normally read all my favorite blogs every single day. Usually, once a week, I sit down for an hour or so and go through all of them and catch up. Jim Gardner’s blog is packed with insights and usually forces me to look something up in the Bible or in a book on my shelf or somewhere else on line. His blog takes me a while. With Jimmy Mitchell it only takes about three minutes since he only writes about once a month. (I miss you, Jimmy!) Our Youth Minister here at Legacy, Jason Brown, is only in his first month of full-time blogging. But he’s tackling some deep issues and asking some fairly heady questions. His takes me a while, too.

His Wednesday post on missions and mission trips meshed perfectly with my post from yesterday regarding the Rosemont effort in southwest Fort Worth. We had both gone to that kickoff and informational meeting together. So it’s no surprise that our thoughts were focused on the same things.

Our thoughts center on the concept of seeing our own neighborhoods, our own zip codes, as huge mission fields for the Kingdom. The idea of seeing the people all around us as the lost souls that they are, no more and no less important than the lost souls in Africa and South America. Jason’s specific questions deal with the practice of youth mission trips. Why spend all the time and money traveling outside the state or even the country when there’s just as much, if not more, work to be done right across the street?

Here’s what I commented on his blog late last night:

“I was visiting with some brothers and sisters Wednesday about the wonderful work the Rosemont Church of Christ is doing in southwest Fort Worth. They’ve donated their entire campus, all their buildings, and the land it sits on to Continent of Great Cities to plant a huge Spanish-speaking congregation in the middle of what is a huge Hispanic population base in DFW. The discussion turned to our own outreach effort at which point one of our spiritual leaders said, “We don’t have any poor people anywhere near our building. And nobody like that will ever drive to our church.”

That grieves me.

Attitudes and talk like that are nothing less than a writing off of precious people made in the image of our Father. The truth is there are plenty of low-income and/or Spanish-speaking people a stone throw’s away from our building. But we don’t think they’ll fit in. So we don’t even try. And we actively seek to discourage anyone else from trying.

What makes us think that God plants us here, blesses us here, provides for us here, and saves us here — right here in the middle of hundreds of thousands of lost souls — in order to take the Gospel somewhere else?

What makes us think it’s commendable to spend a week or two overseas preaching the Word while we ignore or, worse, write off all our neighbors right here in our own city? What gives us the gall?

I know your post already asks all these same questions. They are real. They are urgent. And they do demand answers.

I think you’re clearly on to something when you speak about our comfort zones. Evangelism is messy. We’d rather create a mess somewhere else and leave, I think, than make one in our own kitchen and have to live with it.”

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It’s sad, very sad, that Major League Baseball’s All-Time Home Run Champion is Barry Bonds.* He’s a lying cheat. But besides that, the holder of the sport’s most sacred record will spend time in federal prison and will never be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Here’s how awful it is: I think it’s the only thing in the world that could ever cause me to root for Alex Rodriguez to keep hitting homers. That shows you how awful the Bonds* thing is. Go Pay-Rod!

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Cowboys-Redskins. The Beautiful Harvey Martin tossing a funeral wreath into the visitors lockerroom at Texas Stadium following a Dallas win over Washington. Diron Talbert calling Roger Staubach a dirty name across the line of scrimmage. George Allen accusing the Cowboys of spying on the Redskins practices with a helicopter. Staubach leaping into the arms of Ron Springs after that game-winning pass to Tony Hill clinched the division in Staubach’s last-ever regular season game. Doomsday versus The Hogs.

Jimmy Johnson’s first Cowboys team getting their only win of the season on the road at RFK—without Aikman. Clint Longley’s mad Thanksgiving Day bomb that sealed his “victory of the uncluttered mind.” Larry Cole’s TD returns. The Texas Stadium crowd singing Happy Birthday to Joe Theisman the night he threw five picks in a blowout loss on the date of his birth. Billy Kilmer. Art Monk. Drew Pearson. Chris Hanberger. Joe Gibbs. Too Tall. Everson Walls. The 1982 NFC Championship Game. Michael Downs and Dennis Thurman breaking up the Smurfs celebration in the Cowboys end zone.

Sunday afternoon will be special. All Cowboys-Redskins games are.

Peace,

Allan

The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

Page 472 of 493

Thank You, Lord

About Last Night…

Well Done, Good & Faithful Servant

Satan's Ally: The Church

Favorite Day

Go Ye Means Stay!

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