The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

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Category: Salvation (Page 1 of 35)

Trading Places

August 6, 2026 / / 0 Comments

The Gospel is all about trading places. It’s about substitution. Someone taking my place. Me filling in for someone else. Christ Jesus paying a debt he did not owe. Me bearing burdens that belong to my brother. An exchange. A switch-out.

The Gospel is this way because our God is this way.

God is love. And love–real love, intimate love, liberating love, Gospel love–is all about this exchange.

Think about your small group that meets most Sunday nights. Think of the emotionally wounded person in your group. There is no way to listen to and love that person and stay completely emotionally put-together yourself. As you listen to him and attend to him, he will probably begin to feel stronger and better. But that won’t happen without you being emotionally drained yourself. There’s an exchange. A trade. And it takes a toll.

Parenting is the same way. We sacrifice and give and serve in order that our children may live. We decrease so they will increase.

God’s salvation through Jesus works the same way. He submits to us. He leaves his heavenly home. He serves. He sacrifices and suffers. He takes on shame to give you glory. He dies so you can live.

John Stott wrote:

“The essence of sin is we human beings substituting ourselves for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for us. We put ourselves where only God deserves to be; God puts himself where we deserve to be.”

If we’ll open our eyes and look for it, we’ll see that the exchange is all around us. We live in the exchange. We are trading places all the time. This is our salvation and our holy call. Praise God for trading places!

Peace,
Allan

Fullness in Christ

July 27, 2026 / / 0 Comments

“You have been given fullness in Christ.” ~Colossians 2:10

The inspired apostle Paul reminds us in the middle of Colossians 2 that God has so fully identified you with Christ Jesus that whatever happens with Jesus also happens with you. By virtue of your baptism and your “faith in the power of God,” when Jesus died, you died with him. When Jesus was raised from the grave, you were raised with him to walk in newness of a brand new and eternal life.

When you are identified so completely with Christ, you cast aside your whole way of life. Your entire sphere of existence changes. In baptism, you have died to the old way of living, the old alliances, the old allegiances, the old powers that used to control you. You died to all that. And you are alive now to God’s new world of complete and total salvation in Jesus.

“Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules?” ~Colossians 2:20

Why are you still living by the world’s rules? Why do you still submit to the world’s principles? Love those who love you. Assert your rights. Get a high-paying job. Vote for this candidate. Drive this kind of car. Live in that zip code. Argue about your opinions. Insist on your way. Buy a bigger TV for your second house. What is that? What are you chasing? What are you looking for? All those things are destined to die. It may appear to be wisdom, it may sound smart, it may feel right–but it’s based on human thinking and worldly principles.

What do you need that you haven’t already been given abundantly in Jesus? You have HIM. You are in HIM. He has already given you everything he will ever demand and everything he could ever give. Why would you look to anyone else? Or anything else?

God made you alive with Christ, Colossians says. You have been given fullness in Christ.

Peace,
Allan

Holding the Net Together

July 21, 2026 / / 0 Comments

Jesus said he would make us fishers of men, fishers of people. He has sent us out, you and me, to be fishers of “every human.” But you’re not fishing with a pole. You’re not sitting by yourself at the end of a pier with a rod and reel. We’re fishing together with a net. You’re not by yourself holding a stick and a string. We are all holding the net. Together.

It’s a huge net. It’s massive. It’s not the size of a volleyball net, it’s a giant net that spans across generational time and space. And it’s not made of rope or cord; it’s made of Christian seed sown to the Holy Spirit wind.

It’s a song written by Charles Wesley here, a plane assembled by Boeing there, a pie baked by a widow in 1843, an invitation to church written in 1391–God’s Holy Spirit weaves together all these weak and meager threads and it becomes the net. Do you see it?

It’s so big. And it sweeps back and forth across the world. It sweeps across every society and through every culture. The net is drawn in and out through all the decades and centuries. It turns and dips to snag one more soul God is faithfully trying to reach. It speeds up and slows down, it expands and withdraws to catch one more dad, one more teenager, one more generation. While you were sleeping last night, the net was catching souls: maybe a prisoner in Russia, maybe a single mom in Vermont, maybe a cab driver in Tokyo, or a teacher in Nigeria were swept up by the love of Christ.

The mission of the Church is a huge net and you’re holding onto it with us. Your faith and hope and love keep that net moving. Your good deeds for others, the ways you proclaim and share the love and grace of God with your words and acts of service–all of that contributes to our Lord’s salvation net.

The net is floating today by the eternal seeds of the Kingdom sown at GCR by Bert Mercer, Doug Parsons, and Ronnie White. When you serve a meal at Family Promise, when you read to kids at Emerson Elementary, when you write a check for Missions Sunday, when you send a card to your co-worker, when you use blue food coloring and whipped cream at VBS to tell the story of Jesus walking on the water, you are helping to maneuver that massive net.

When you warmly greet a visitor at church on Sunday morning, when you buy lunch for the guy behind you in the drive-thru, when you pray for your neighbor, the Holy Spirit breath of God moves another corner of that net to snare one more lost soul.

Here at our church in Midland, I think about Willie Goudeau and Yvonne Brooks and James and Debbie VanStavern who are still holding that net with Gabby and Kendall and M.J. and Preston. Frances Collins and Wanda McGraw are holding that net; so are Dalton and Hannah Mills, Philip and Caitlin Landry, and Justin and Anna Washburn.

So are you. You’re holding the net. We are, all of us, right now today and forever, connected together by the mission of the Church.

Peace,
Allan

The Status is Not Quo

July 14, 2026 / / 0 Comments

The Texas Rangers are in first place at the All Star break, with a one-and-a-half game lead over the M’s. I did not have that on my bingo card a month ago. With Cory Seager out, Evan Carter hitting below his weight, and half their starters catching rides to the games on buses from Frisco and Round Rock, this team is a contender! I’m not sure it’s enough to compel Ray Davis to open up his checkbook in the next couple of weeks. But there’s hope. Especially in the putrid American League this year. There’s hope.

“To this end we labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in us.” ~Colossians 1:29

There’s an old story about a shoe company that sent two representatives to a third-world country. After three days, the first rep phoned his boss and said, “Nobody here wears shoes! There’s no potential here!” The second rep phoned his boss and exclaimed, “Nobody here wears shoes! There’s unlimited potential for an outstanding market here!”

We can’t escape the really tough stuff in our world; it’s always right in front of us. The politics, the race issues, and a thousand other things that seem to divide us; drawing lines and choosing sides, poverty and injustice, violence and godlessness–it’s everywhere. If we’re not careful, we can give up on the ideas of reconciliation and connection, of healing and redeeming. We can just want to hunker down and play it safe, for our own sakes. Don’t risk it. It’s never going to change. It’s not worth it. It’s always going to be this way now. The status is always going to be quo.

No. Wrong answer.

Children of God and followers of Jesus who are sent by God’s Holy Spirit on his mission never take that position. The new creation energy of our God is working in us and through us. His mighty strength is empowering his salvation mission for Midland and for the whole world. God’s energy, God’s power, and God’s will to bring all people together in him means the status is not quo.

God’s energy working so powerfully within us means wonders have not ceased, possibilities we never dreamed of are bound to happen, and hope is a for-real legitimate position for us to take.

The same God of your Bible, the same mighty Creator and powerful deliverer, is still at work right now today. The God who created breath is still giving breath today; the God who liberated people then is still liberating people today.

We have nothing to fear. We know that God is with us in Christ, that he will deliver us in Christ, and that he really is saving the world through Christ. There’s unlimited potential for new creation in you and in your community. And you and I are so unbelievably blessed and privileged to be in the middle of it with him. And with one another.

Peace,
Allan

Time to Wake Up

February 13, 2026 / / 0 Comments

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“Do this [love your neighbor as yourself], understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.” ~Romans 13:11-14

In the undeniable darkness of this present age, most people are ordering their lives according to the world’s rules and the world’s attitudes and values and styles. Even though the old world is passing away! The new world is already breaking in! The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus has already inaugurated the new age of the eternal Kingdom of God, and his followers live according to the culture of that new age.

Most people are asleep; but the new day is dawning and it’s time for all children of God and disciples of Jesus to wake up!

We know what God has done in Christ Jesus. We know what God is doing and what he has promised to do. So, we live accordingly. That’s what governs our conducts and our attitudes. We understand the times. The Bible says the Day of the Lord may not have come just yet, but it’s so close, it’s so inevitable and unstoppable, we should live as though it is already here. Our human impulses, our flesh, the sinful nature–that’s not what dictates our behavior. We live in the presence and power of our Lord whose rescue is closer than we think. We need to be aware of that.

In the darkness of right now–the political polarities and the economic uncertainties and the racial injustice and the ramped-up rhetoric and the ugly behavior; you know how dark it is. We’re seeing so much division and selfishness and anger and violence and isolation. We’re seeing it all. And if you’re not awake, if you’re sleepwalking through this stuff, you can get caught up in all that mess and get yourself into some real trouble. You can trade the love and grace and peace and sacrifice and forgiveness of Christ for the power and might and tribalism and hate and strife of the world. The hour has come to wake up. We belong to the Day, and it’s just around the corner.

“You are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So, then, let us not be like others who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled… Since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath, but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” ~1 Thessalonians 5:4-9

We do not compromise our faith or our behaviors just because we’re enduring some darkness. We respond to the darkness by walking in the light. We never allow our current circumstances to compromise our commitment to Christ. His new creation is closer than we think. So we meet the present difficulties with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

 

He is Able

February 12, 2026 / / 0 Comments

There’s a story at the end of Matthew 9 about two blind guys following Jesus. When Jesus is walking down the road, these guys are right behind him. When Jesus goes indoors, they’re right there with him. They just keep coming around, coming around, coming around. And Jesus finally calls them out. He says to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?”

Able to do what? They haven’t even talked about anything yet.

Hey. Jesus knows. He knows. He knows about the darkness. He knows exactly what you most desperately need.

“Do you believe that I can do this? I’ll do it! I’m about to do it! I’m going to change your life! I’m going to heal you! I’m going to fix you! I’m going to make everything brand new! Do you believe I can do this?!”

They said, “Yes.”

And he did it. Jesus touched they eyes and their sight was restored. The Bible says they spread the Good News about Jesus all over the region. What Good News? That God’s rescue is always closer than you think. That when things are dark, it’s about to happen. It’s always just right there.

The Passover and the Exodus happen in the middle of the night. God parts the Red Sea and delivers his people to freedom in the middle of the night. Daniel is delivered from the lions’ jaws in the middle of the night.

Peter is in a jail in Jerusalem, bound with two chains, locked between two armed guards with sentries at the gates. Then an angel of the Lord breaks those chains and delivers Peter to safety in the middle of the night. And everybody’s preaching about it in the temple courts the next day.

The Lord blasts open the doors of the Philippian jail to free Paul and Silas in the middle of the night. The jailer and his whole family are baptized into Christ that night!

I believe he is still able to do this!

Do you?

We all know it’s dark right now. Really dark. It’s night. It feels like almost everything is unclear and uncertain. It’s hard to see exactly what the chaos of our culture is doing to us. What it’s doing to you. To your relationships. What it’s doing to global stability. What it’s doing to your church. It’s hard to see, it’s hard to know.  It feels dark.

But I believe he is able to do this! If I only know one thing for sure, it is this: Our God has delivered us, he is delivering us, and he will continue to deliver us!

We know our God never leaves us because we still hear the stories. We keep meeting people God is saving and changing, we keep seeing God bringing new people in, we keep hearing the testimonies of people who are being saved by God in their darkness.

Maybe it’s dark for you right now. Maybe it’s hard to see. I think that means our Lord’s salvation for you is a lot closer than you think.

Peace,
Allan

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