faithrunner

This Sunday we begin a new series of messages at Legacy Church about which I am both excited and cautious. They say don't mix religion and politics, but like our Leader we will address both. We took our series title from Shane Claiborne's book by the same title. We will not follow Shane's outline or end up where he does on every issue, but we liked the title and the look (and many of his conclusions) so we copied it. Here's the teaser for the series: This year’s historic presidential election race has exposed the moral and political heart of our nation as few before it. Our message series, “Jesus for President,” will invite us to respond to people who find themselves faced with the issues both candidates and voters are talking about. How do we as “citizens of heaven” respond like Jesus to people who suffer injustice or who differ in our beliefs about religion and politics, race, same-sex marriage, the war, the solution to poverty and housing, and immigration? ...

You could not help but see the significance of last week's events in American history. The first African-American man was nominated for the office of President at the Democratic National Convention . He gave his acceptance speech on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr's "I have a Dream" Speech, one of the finest in the English language. Obama's charisma and message of change surely gained new support and galvanized those who are ready to call him, Mr. President. The next morning, John McCain, chose Sarah Palin as his VP running mate . Mrs. Palin will the first woman nominated to a presidential ticket in the history of the GOP . Not only is she the first person from Alaska to be on such a ticket, she is a wife with five children: one, a 5-month old special needs child; another, a 17-year-old unmarried, pregnant daughter. She has her hands full at home. She now has her plate full with a vice presidential race. Her political credentials may be lacking, ...

School has started for the Wilkes family! Kim returns to Plano Senior High School to teach Math , but with no Cheerleader Sponsor duties this year. (Praise the Lord!) She's already loving the students she will lead this year. Summer began her first official week with students in her room! She teaches special needs preschoolers at Barron Early Childhood School in Plano. She is part of the PPCD programs provided for the children, who she loves already. Here she is with Kim in her classroom ready for the first day of school , and I had to include her father's most proud moment: her first payroll check ! She's officially on her own. Of course, we'll still help out if she needs it like we did with Storey, but she's providing for herself now. That makes 2 for 2 getting kidos into the work force and the future God has for them. We had a time of commissioning at Legacy this past Sunday for teachers and students who began their school year this week. We believe every...

Sunday I was to be out at our granddaughter's dedication in Waco, but that got changed last week. I mentioned in front of Lisa and Markus that I had no assignments Sunday since I had Kenyon to speak in my place. You guessed it. They asked that I join the ranks of the parents who volunteer each week in the preschool area . I had no excuse, and I had written that book about servant leadership, so... I had a blast with the children and discovered the quality security, programming, and care of the children that happens each week at Legacy. Everything was planned for us--from check in/out sheets to a schedule with singing, a Bible story, puppets, and a craft--with a little time on the playground to burn off some energy--if you can do that for kindergarten age children! Dave and Natalie Elliot lead the large group session, while Lisa led us in the music portion. My experienced and enthusiastic partner was Alethea Crossman . (That's us on the playground.) All of it coordinated by Cr...

I have my first radio interview today about my new book An Angel in the Flame . It is at 3:00 p.m. CST August 12 on WORD FM 101.5 Pittsburgh, PA . I haven't done one of these since Jesus on Leadership came out over ten years ago. Thanks to Cheryl Shelton-Pruitt who is investing her talents and skills as a publicist into my book and to Jacky Johnson for handling the details. Doug Henson created the website for the book. All of them have donated what they do for my book. I'm humbled and blown away by their generosity. Yesterday was a great day at Legacy, if you are not following the current message series Heroes of the Faith , check it out . I will post later about the surprise guest we had in the service yesterday.

Several weeks ago a friend said I should read Dallas Willard's book, Hearing God Developing a Conversational Relationship with God . I wish I had listened to him then. I could have used the help. This week in our series Heroes of the Faith , I am addressing God's in-the-middle-of-the-night call to boy Samuel . ( 1 Samuel 3 ) I find myself wanting God to break into my sleep and speak as clearly as He did to Samuel, but that has not happened yet. I wake up a lot at night, but seldom to the voice of God --or, was it? Willard scans the biblical record and offers the following ways in which God addressed people : a phenomenon plus a voice a supernatural messenger or an angel dreams and visions an audible voice [like with Samuel, Moses and Paul] the human voice the human spirit or the "still small voice" (page 91) Willard describes each of these ways God communicated with people, and he concludes those are still ways in which we can hear God today . He has a healthy discu...

And you thought you had a vacation. Here are some pics from my staycation this year. Here I am demolishing our front dining room wall that had termite damage since we moved in the house in 1995. We are finally getting around to correcting it, but when we got into repairs we had to take out the entire wall . Now, I need to remember how to hang dry wall, tape and bed, texture and paint...sounds like a job to hire out. (I look like we did when we gutted houses after Hurricane Katrina. Turned out to be good training for this project.) We took a break from destroying the wall to make a visit to my parents' home in East Texas . It was a great break from all I am doing, and we had a blast. Here we are playing a form of dominoes called Mexican Train. We played it for hours ...that's Ryan next to Summer with the hat on. He's the bf. Kim won as she always does. Maybe it's because she always keeps score. Ryan also helped us split wood from a fallen tree one evening. It was still...