faithrunner

Easter Weekend was great this year. Kenyon and the Worship Team did a wonderful job of preparing Good Friday and Easter services that were moving and filled with purpose and meaning. I was fortunate to be part of them. My Easter message, " If it's not true, we're hosed " was from Paul's own words in 1 Corinthians 15:1-34 . Andres' FaithStory told it all. I hope we can make that available to everyone. Legacy Church continues to be healthy and not only attract many people to its message and mission but Legacy continues to see themselves as God's people to help others trust Jesus. This is a very good season for the church these days. It was so good to worship with the Legacy Family on the most hope-filled day of the year! And, all of my family was here for the weekend! Storey (and Cambell Grace to be) and Graham came in Friday night, and Summer was here all week on spring break. It was a blast to be with them. Shopping for the coming grandchild, doing littl...

I have not been here for some time because I have been writing like crazy to meet two deadlines. One is a small group listening guide for Legacy in our next series, Escape the Blur: slowing down to make room for God. I'm hurrying up to slow down! The second deadline is the second installment of the biblical overview for Clarity Press. A little over a year ago Yahweh : Divine Encounters in the Old Testament came out. It was an overview of the Old Testament. I am finishing up the overview of the Gospels called, Christos . I will finish this week. I will write every morning on Jesus' Passion, which coincides with this year's Holy Week. I look forward to some wonderful times encountering my Leader and Rescuer in both word and spirit. Oh, the unexpected things? The first was that 22 people rode with the Legacy Cyclists last Sunday! The group has grown from 3 a year ago to almost 40 in the "roster." Very cool. Many of us are training for the MS 150 in May . (More abo...

Two unexpected events effected my emotions today. One was that Brett Favre retired. I now have no hero in the NFL. What I liked about Favre was that he was a leader. He could take any group of men over the past 17 years and somehow get them to work together as a team. You could see it in his eyes and how he handled his teammates. They liked following him. The other thing I liked about him was that he loved the game. Even when he got sacked you saw him smile and say something to the guy who just busted him. At 38 he played like he was 22, and I loved that about him. Finally, I liked him because he had a life outside the game that counted . Yeah, he holds a ton of records for passing and scoring, but He loved his wife and served her during her battle with cancer. He did not leave her, but cared for her, and that's huge to me. The other unexpected thing that happened was that it snowed in Dallas last night . Not much but enough to look like winter--in March! Those of you I know who...

After we finished the conference Friday morning-- N. T. Wright and communion--we headed to the nearby beaches to enjoy the beautiful San Diego area. Here we are on the boardwalk at Mission View Beach. Kenyon, Libby, Michelle, Asher, Troy, me, Angela, and Scottie with Kim taking the picture made quite the roving tourist tribe. Kim had a blast practicing being a grandmother by holding Asher every chance she could. Asher was a great traveling child. I hope my grandchild will be as good. Troy and Michelle lived in this part of CA for a year before they came to Legacy. He could not resist the waves when we got near the water, which was a warm 57 degrees and the air temp was about 70. So, when he looked at me and said let's surf, I said, let's go. The rest of the group walked along the beach and chilled while Troy and I fought--I mean--rode the waves. (Troy can actually surf. I chose a boogie board.) Here we are before getting wet. Here I am coming out of the water later. Only my t...

Got up this morning and wrote. This was easy to do since my body is still on Central Standard Time. I then ran from the hotel to the convention center and the joined the running group which is part of the convention. Twenty of us circled the nearby mall in the most ideal weather to run in that I have experienced in a long time. It was fun listening to the runners from MI and WA and other places talking about this was the first time they had worn shorts and a t-shirt to run in for months. I was glad I live in N TX again. This morning Charles Colson was the plenary speaker. His new book, The Faith , What Christians Believe, Why They Believe It, and Why it Matters, was the center of his talk. It was a reminder of the power of the Gospel and historical, orthodox faith in a culture like ours that continues to push it to the sidelines. He defined culture as, "Religion incarnate." Interesting. I was encouraged to continue to preach and teach the basics of the faith in order to jo...

I'm headed with the pastoral staff--minus Markus and Lisa, who are staying home to have a baby-- to San Diego and the annual National Pastor's Convention . It's always a great time to connect with partners in ministry and hear some thought-provoking people. I love the break and time of inspiration--and the fun of being with people you like being around all the time. I'm looking forward to hearing Greg Boyd and Phyllis Tickle , along with some of the other great authors and speakers there. I'll post along the way to let you know what I am hearing and let you in on some of the conversations.

I'm teaching through 1 Corinthians for B H Carroll Theological Institute at Legacy, and last night we were supposed to cover 1 Corinthians 13 . If you remember, Paul explains that love is supreme to any claim to spiritual giftedness. One of the ways he did that was to write that when he was a child he talked like a child, he thought like a child, and he reasoned like a child. (v. 11) I had kept a note from Storey when she was 7 with my notes to illustrate child-like reasoning. Check out the scanned note attached here. That IS an example of both child-like spelling AND reasoning. Cute, but inaccurate. Cherished by a Dad, but her reasoning would never win a national mock trial tournament. Paul went on to say that now that he was a man he put away childish things like public displays of ecstatic utterances to prove one's spirituality. (v. 11, 12) He had picked up the adult-like work of love, which was not as cute, but made a difference in the lives of those he served. It was g...