faithrunner

When Paul, the Apostle, wrote his friends in Philippi he sent the letter with Epaphroditus. In that same letter Paul called his messenger, " my brother, fellow worker and fellow soldier ." ( Phil. 2:25 ) You can tell by the words Paul used that Epaphroditus was a close friend who shared much of his life and ministry. We are blessed by God when he sends an Epaphroditus into our lives , and this past weekend I had the privilege of riding with and for a guy whom I consider Epaphroditus in my life. Paul Olson is a two time cancer survivor . His wife, Karen, is a breast cancer survivor. I have known them and their children since the 1980s when Paul moved down here from NY with J C Penney. I baptized him, walked through cancer with him, and Kim and I have shared the same life group with Karen and Paul over the years. Paul began cycling about three years ago after his last battle with cancer and has been a regular rider with Legacy Cyclists since he started riding. He had ridden th...

We are in our third week of our fall LifeGroup semester at Legacy , and I continue to not only enjoy but thrive off the relationships we have in our LifeGroup. We love continuing our friendships with those we have known for years while widening our circle of friends with those who are new to the group. Kim and I cherish Sunday evenings when our group gathers at our house to share part of our lives together. One of our core values at Legacy is " Authentic community fosters spiritual growth and transformed lives ," and LifeGroups are our visible expression of that value . Relationships are the glue that holds the church together, and authentic community is how those relationships grow. This past weekend several of us in our LifeGroup made shared some of our lives together at one of the group's parent's lake house. [You can see we were not roughing it by any means.] We slept late, took a walk (in circles at times), sat on the porch (even before make up!) and talked,...

This past Sunday, my message was " Church is a verb: people who serve in the name of Jesus ." (To hear the message, go here .) I described how Peter and John served the deepest need of the beggar who asked them for money by telling him , " Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth walk ." ( Acts 3:6 ) I challenged each of us to serve the emotional, physical, and spiritual needs of others in the name of Jesus without prejudice and we would see great and wonderful things happen like Peter and John did. The Wish 100 inaugural bike rally was a way for some of us to serve the need of children with serious illnesses in the name of Jesus. We did this as riding as Team Legacy . Here are some of us at the start line. 104 Team Legacy members rode among the 1400+ riders to raise funds for the Make-a-Wish Foundation of North Texas . We were the largest team ! Some team members rode with the mayors of six cities carryi...

Few people ever have an idea and then see it happen. How many times have you heard someone say how much they wanted to do something significant only to fall back into their routine of normalcy? Kendall Brown is not one of those people. I met Kendall when he was at youth camp and I was recruiting for Baylor University in the summer of 1973 . At the First Baptist, Richardson camp he had such a reputation as a trouble maker (in a good way) Billy Crockett wrote a song about him. That was my introduction to Kendall--he was synonymous with fun-loving tro uble and mischievousness . A doctor? Not so much. He went to Baylor, married Becky (I did the wedding), entered med school, graduated, and set up his practice in North Dallas. They joined Legacy in 1993 . He has played the drums and percussion in our worship band since, and he was also one of the first three or four riders in what is now Legacy Cyclists . (Second from left, the MS150 2007 team) About a year ago , Dr. Brown, when he be...

Last Sunday I taught on the miracle at Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the gathered followers of Jesus. You can hear it here . One point I made was: The miracle of Pentecost was that everyone heard about "the wonders of God," not that the followers of Jesus experienced something . ( Acts 2:5-12 ) American Christianity has come to place more value on religious experience than on the purpose behind the Holy Spirit in our lives. We judge our church services, which include the music and message, by how we feel when we leave the place. If we are inspired or encouraged, "God was there." If we leave feeling flat, something must have been wrong with the musicians or preacher. We travel from church to church like fast food junkies looking for the best meal deal that satisfies our experiential appetites. (Of course, the worship leaders, which includes the preacher, are responsible for bringing their best to the Lord.) Given the equality of excellence, we stil...

Last Friday was our nation remembered the attack on our country by terrorists September 11, 2001. We paused and prayed for the over 3,000 who lost their lives that day and for the nearly 5,000 who have given their lives in the war that followed. Two things were different about that remembrance for me this year. One was the deep sense to pray for our enemies. As a follower of Jesus I am compelled to pray for those who not only attacked on 9/11 but those who continue to plan and execute ill will on this country. The second thing was our country's continued disregard for the one million plus abortions that continue to be performed in our country each year. We should remember the almost 9,000 deaths related to the war, but what about the 8 million plus unborn that did not see life in that same time period? On September 12 several from Legacy Church joined others from the area to to walk in the rain for life. Legacy Church has been in partnership with Real Options for Women si...

Saturday, I joined several from the Legacy Cycling group to ride the HH100 in Wichita Falls, TX . We went down on Friday to wander through the Expo, watch the real riders race through town, and carbo load on the spaghetti dinner. We then spent the night in the downtown YMCA racquetball court, a Jim Craig/Legacy Cyclist tradition. Billy Allen won the prize for the largest blowup bed , and I won't name who snored the loudest! After very little sleep, we rode to the starting line where we joined over 14,000 riders in 64 degree temperature . It was an awesome day, ride, and trip with friends. After we baptized in the Craig's pool last Saturday , we rode and shared a little bit of life together this weekend. Sounds like community we all long for. Church on wheels! Sunday, we ended our month of family worship with worship in music, communion, and baptism. We baptized 8 people; two families with a parent and two children being baptized. Everyone had a story that told of how they cam...