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Showing posts from February 10, 2013

Bike Racks and Church

Thanks to Legacy Cyclists who donated the funds Several months ago I wrote about The Bikeable Church by Sean Benesh. The idea of a bike-friendly church captured my attention, and we now have bike racks placed around our church campus. Why? Plano and North Dallas have a large cycling population. We have a cycling group connected to Legacy Church that includes over 50 riders. We provide parking places for car. Why not bicycles? Sam and Paul installing a rack The issue for me is that in our community cycling is a hobby and not part of our day-to-day lives. (Some would say our faith is like that too. ) My hope is that we can take away the excuse, "If I did ride my bike to church or work, there's no place to put my bike." My prayer is that more churches and businesses will provide for those who will ride instead of drive . You now have no excuse to ride your bike to Legacy on a beautiful day. Paul Olson, Me, Sam Montag, Jim Hoyt, Mike Tenbusch

Happy are the Unhappy!?!

When we read The Beatitudes , we are surprised at whom Jesus blessed and why. The second Beatitude may be one of those. Here's my paraphrase of it:   Happy are the unhappy because they will be comforted. ( Matthew 5:4 ) Not that we purposefully want to make ourselves unhappy or mournful so we can receive comfort, but the promise of Jesus is if we find ourselves in that condition, comfort from him is a promise. How does being unhappy (mournful) help in our spiritual growth? We try to avoid that condition, don't we? How could Jesus put value on us feeling this way? In my book, A New Way of Living , I point out that mourning is the next step in our path to spiritual wellness because it follows our awareness of our spiritual poverty . Jesus blessed those who were "poor in spirit" and promised them access to his kingdom. Mourning is evidence of our own confession of spiritual poverty . Take King David's mournful confession recorded in Psalms 51:3-5 after