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Should We Not Be Concerned?

April 8, 2026 / / 0 Comments

“Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?” ~Jonah 4:11

The last line in the short story of Jonah reveals very clearly our God’s heart and his will. The closing question is extended by God to his nationalistic prophet who has expressed in both word and deed that he cares much more about his own comfort and security than he does for the welfare of the people he calls “enemies.” God’s question challenges the way Jonah thinks and acts. And it should shape our attitudes and transform our hearts to be more in line with those of our Lord.

American Christians have always tended to confuse our religion and faith with our country and our patriotism–this is nothing new. Country singer Neal McCoy sang the national anthem at the Texas Rangers home opener Friday, but he started by asking the baseball fans in attendance to recite the Pledge of Allegiance first. And he ended the pledge–“…with liberty and justice for all!“–by saying “Amen!” Like it’s a prayer. Like it’s sacred or holy.

Again, this is not new. Neither is invoking God and faith and religion to justify a government’s acts of terrible violence and war. Constantine did it early in the fourth century and every emperor, king, prime minister, and president before and since has done the same thing. Generals and kings and presidents have always ginned up support for their wars by telling us that God is on our side.

But the conflation of patriotism and faith in the U,S. has accelerated to such a degree over the past 15 years that many Christians today are uncritically supporting a president who uses increasingly profane language to make over-the-top threats of violence and annihilation against an entire civilization in the name of our Savior. The president and his newly designated “Secretary of War” continue to insist daily and sometimes hourly that killing our country’s enemies is God’s holy will. Donald Trump ends a social media post from the White House threatening to rain “all hell” down on Iran with “Glory be to God!” Pete Hegseth asks our God in public prayer to “help every round find its mark against the enemies of righteousness and our great nation.” He prays in the name of Jesus for “overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy” and for enemies of America to be delivered to “the eternal damnation prepared for them.” Then on Easter Sunday, again Monday, and into the afternoon yesterday, in an obscene act of bullying and bluster, in a torrent of vile words and images, the president threatened to completely destroy Iran’s power plants and bridges, to take out their water treatment plants, to bomb Iran “back into the stone ages,” and to end their entire civilization.

“Should I not be concerned?”

Iran has more than ninety-three-million people. Should I not be concerned about that great nation? Iran has almost two-million Christians and, for more than ten years, the world’s fastest-growing Church. Should I not be concerned?

“As surely as I live,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live.” ~Ezekiel 33:11

The American Empire and the Kingdom of God are not the same thing. The will of the U.S. president and the will of our God are not the same. To endorse the attitude, the words, and the actions coming out of the White House regarding Iran as God’s will is to deny our Christ and his Gospel. After all, our Lord died for us (you and me) while we (you and me) were his enemies. Doesn’t supporting this administration’s assertions that indiscriminate violence against the people of Iran is God’s will deny just about everything Scripture teaches us about the nature and will of our Father? Doesn’t refusing to speak out loud against it make one complicit? Just listening to the president speak like this has an effect on us. It shapes us. It forms us.

Christians do not celebrate the death of human beings made in the image of our God and loved by our Father. No matter how ruthless and evil some of those leaders in Iran are, we love our enemies. We pray for our enemies and their families. We do good things for our enemies. We show concern. Should we not be concerned?

“Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” ~Luke 6:27-28
“Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.” ~Matthew 5;44-45

It is good for followers of Jesus to grieve with and weep for the people of Iran who have been abused, terrorized, tortured, and killed by their government. It is proper to mourn the loss of soldiers and civilians who are trapped in the middle of this terrible conflict. It’s okay to acknowledge God’s sovereign use of nations and armies to enact his justice. It is right to join the faithful lament of the prophets and the groaning of the martyred souls under the altar and cry out to our God, “How long?!? How much longer are you going to allow this to continue?!? When will you finally put all things to right?!?”

This is a time for prayer. Reflection. Meditation. Thanksgiving. Mixed feelings. It is not a time to hate. It is not a time to insult or gloat. It is not a time to defend a world leader bent on killing so many people and destroying so many lives in the name of our God who, even Jonah confesses, is “gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, and abounding in love.”

For Christians, this is a time to be concerned.

Peace (not as the world gives it),
Allan

 

Christian Ethics Apply Only to Christians

April 2, 2026 / / 0 Comments

For those of us who live in the Basin, our annual 4Midland Maundy Thursday service is at 7:00 this evening at First Methodist Church. Our four churches–GCR CofC, First Baptist, First Methodist, and First Presbyterian–are coming together to remember our Lord’s last supper with his apostles in that upper room. It’s a powerful experience and a great joy to see a nearly 100-member choir made up of singers from all four of our congregations and to see and hear the Scriptures read and re-enacted by folks from all four churches. But it is a somber service. It’s a service that grabs your heart and soul and all of your senses. The sounds of the thirty pieces of silver hitting the plate, the nails being driven into our Savior’s hands and feet, the impending darkness of the whole scene. The betrayal. The sorrow. The grief. The suffering. And the love; oh, the matchless, limitless love!

Over the years, Maundy Thursday has become a very important part of my walk with Jesus. This is one of the ways I follow him. If you live in Midland or anywhere close, I invite you to this powerful assembly this evening. You’ll be so blessed by the experience. Maybe even transformed.

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Why are some Christians trying to force society into conforming to our values and ethics? The Christian life is only for Christians. The Gospel does not make sense outside of Church.

Thou shalt not kill. Blessed are the poor. The last shall be first. Love your enemies. Protect the foreigners. Don’t repay evil with evil. Obeying the teachings of Jesus and living the life of Jesus only makes sense if there’s a strong community of faith to back it up. We do Church and Christianity a great injustice when we say our Christian ethics do make sense in the world. I hear some Christians say that all people, whether they’re believers or not, should affirm and adopt our Christian ethics. Because they make sense. The governments and schools and all rational people should be forced to accept our Christian attitudes and practices and then America will be a better place to live.

No.

Following Jesus does not make sense. It’s not logical or rational outside the community of faith and the social support and habits and vision of God’s Church. The Church is different. The Church does not mirror the world, of course; and we don’t wring our hands and get too worked up over the world. By the grace of God and the power of his Holy Spirit, we live in HIS world–the real world that’s already arrived in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and the eternal world that’s coming.

We have to submit ourselves to the revelation and receive Church as the gift it is. The Church is the gift of Christ as he embodies himself in the world, as Jesus calls and restores, as he redeems and re-creates. And it’s so much bigger and wider and deeper and higher than anything we can manipulate or take charge of. We don’t start church or establish church or run church. We enter church and participate in church: the acceptance of a new born-again water and Spirit identity in baptism, the resurrection meal, the reading of and obedience to holy Scripture, prayer, confession and forgiveness, welcoming the stranger and outcast, speaking and working for justice and peace, healing and truth, beauty and redemption.

There are the world’s ways and there are the opposite ways of Christ Jesus. His ways don’t make sense for non-Christians.

Peace,
Allan

Too Much Holy Spirit?

April 1, 2026 / / 0 Comments

I’m leading off with a couple of pictures from the 25th Annual Horsemen Campout last weekend at Cooper Lake. The festivities began with a massive barbecue lunch on Dan Miller’s back porch: brisket, turkey, sausage, ribs, all the trimmings, and peach cobbler, provided by the legendary Mesquite Barbecue. Perfect. We ate too much, laughed too hard, and almost stayed too long. We concluded the traditional opening ceremonies with a time of intense prayer for our brother, who’s just not physically able to make it to the lake anymore. And he returned the favor over us. Each of us got the “hedge of protection.” And then Dan had to tell us to scram.

The weather Thursday was perfect. The cold front blew in early Friday afternoon, prompting Kevin and I to channel our inner Dan-O and rig up a wind break with a giant tarp and 72 bungee cords. It must have raised the wind chill at our picnic table by ten degrees! We sent Dan the picture. He was proud.

Steak and potatoes for dinner. Breakfast tacos in the mornings. Coffee out of Ol’ Blue. Lots of chips and snacks. A little less hiking than in years past. A few more conversations about our physical health and ailments than I’m comfortable with. Deep discussions into the night about church membership, baptism, parenting and grandparenting, women’s roles, congregational leadership structures, and Wolfgang Van Halen. And more prayer. Lots of prayer. For our families. Our churches and ministries. For Dan and Debbie. For each other.

I thank God for these three great friends. For Dan’s inspiring faithfulness in the middle of the Parkinson’s Disease that is robbing him of his physical abilities, but not his spirit or trust in the Lord. For Kevin’s enduring tenacity and hope, for his faith to always see what’s on the other side and point it out to us. And for Jason’s humor and love, his uncompromising love for the least of these that amazes everybody except the people who know him best.

And I thank God for these weekends that help me re-set my calling and my heart.

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I hear Christians say the funniest things in Bible class. Or in the foyer after church. During a Bible class series on the Holy Spirit, or following a couple of sermons about the Holy Spirit, I’ve heard disciples of Jesus say things like, “You can talk too much about the Holy Spirit.” “You can put too much focus on the Holy Spirit.” “You don’t want to overemphasize the Holy Spirit; that might lead to who knows what.”

Wait.

It won’t lead to “who knows what.” We know exactly what it will lead to. If we’ll pay more attention to the Spirit, if we’ll listen to the Spirit, if we’ll give God’s Holy Spirit total control over our church, we know the result.

“Live by the Spirit… The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” ~Galatians 5:16, 22-23

I don’t know about your church, but my church could use more love and joy and peace. We need more patience in our church, and kindness and goodness. Where I worship and serve, we could use more faithfulness and gentleness and self-control. When the Holy Spirit accomplishes that in the church, it’s so much more powerful than speaking in tongues or healing! When the Holy Spirit produces that kind of fruit in God’s Church, the whole world will know the Kingdom of God is here!

“Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” ~Galatians 5:25

Peace,
Allan

Receive the Holy Spirit

March 25, 2026 / / 0 Comments

“As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And, with that, he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” ~John 20:21-22

As the Father has sent me, I am sending you. I am sending you to do the things I’ve done in all the ways I’ve done them. I’m commissioning you to heal the sick and proclaim the Kingdom of God. I’m charging you to turn the other cheek and go the extra mile and love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.

We do not have the abilities on our own to do what Jesus did in the ways he did them. We are the Body of Christ, the real, physical, flesh-and-blood presence of Jesus in this world. That’s the call. That’s the charge. That’s the whole point of the Church. That’s the mission.

But how?

We can’t.

He knows. He breathes on us and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

The Holy Spirit transforms our inabilities. God’s Spirit teaches us things we could never come up with on our own. The Bible says no one can even make the Christian confession, Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit transforms our inabilities and gives us the gifts and the powers to do things we just can’t do by ourselves.

“The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” ~John 14:26

“Do not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit.” ~Mark 13:11

No one naturally loves his enemies. No one naturally turns the other cheek. Nobody naturally lays down her rights or would rather be wronged than fight. But Jesus says those are the things that separate his followers from just good people. Those are the things that are required if we are to be his Church. So the Holy Spirit infuses us with the power to do it. The Spirit forms in us the character traits we need to live like our Lord. He gives us strength so we can follow his way of weakness. He gives us power so we can take care of the helpless. He gives us peace so we can endure the hostility.

If being a Christian is just about being nice and giving to charity and not cussing too much, you don’t need the Holy Spirit for that!

But the Church is following Jesus. And you can’t really follow him–I can’t, you can’t, we can’t–without the fellowship of the Spirit who transforms our inabilities and provides us the power to live like people without the Spirit don’t. Can’t.

The Holy Spirit will teach you. The Holy Spirit will remind you. The Holy Spirit will give you.

And it takes time. This kind of transformation doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a process. Sometimes it feels like it’s happening and sometimes it doesn’t feel like anything is happening. And it’s hard to measure. God doesn’t send out quarterly reports. But we know his Spirit is working on us. We know we are being changed.

“We all reflect the Lord’s glory and are being changed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” ~2 Corinthians 3:18

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The 25th Annual Four Horsemen weekend for me and the three men God has used–is still using!–to shape me the most begins with lunch tomorrow at Dan’s home in Garland and then two nights of camping at Cooper Lake in East Texas. I thank God for these three great friends: for Dan’s unquenchable encouragement and contagious hope, for Kevin’s curiosity and reflection and everlasting support, and for Jason’s constant consistent in-the-trenches-with-me brotherly love. I can’t wait to see these guys. We will mercilessly rip each other to shreds and selflessly lift one another up to the Lord in prayer. We will eat good food, throw rocks at raccoons, hike the lakeside trails, exaggerate our stories, one of us will almost be killed, and we will gut-laugh the whole time.

Twenty-five years. The Silver Soiree. Kevin, we might have to revive the historic Chilean Sea Bass. And stop right there.

Peace,
Allan

The Greatest Need

March 23, 2026 / / 0 Comments

“The greatest need for our times is fellowship, the call simply to be the church, to love one another, and to offer our lives for the sake of the world. The creation of living, breathing, loving communities of faith at the local church level is the foundation of all the answers. The community of faith incarnates a whole new order, offers a visible and concrete alternative, and issues a basic challenge to the world as it is. The church must be called to be the church, to rebuild the kind of community that gives substance to the claims of our faith.”

~ Jim Wallis, Call to Conversion, 1982

Body of Christ: Transformation

March 19, 2026 / / 0 Comments

My bracket is set and I’m ready to start defending my Stanglin Family March Madness Bracket Racket title. I’ve got Texas, Texas A&M, and Texas Tech winning only one game each. I’ve picked Houston, again, to win the national championship. My Final Four is Houston, Duke (gag), Arizona, and Iowa State. The winner gets a celebratory dinner at his/her place of choice and his/her bracket proudly displayed on the refrigerator for a full year.

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We’ve been hammering home the point this week that if anybody is going to meet Jesus today, they’re going to meet him through the Church, the Body of Christ. That’s how our Lord designed it. We are his eyes and mouth and ears, we are his hands and feet, his physical presence in this world. We live our lives as individual disciples and together as his followers in imitation of him so people around us can experience Jesus, so they can see him for who he really is.

Except…

I know the Church. I know the Church and all its weaknesses. I am one of the Church’s weaknesses. I sometimes can be a reason people don’t see Jesus. To some extent, all of us are capable of behaving in ways that might hide the Body of Christ from others or, at worst, behaving in ways that are the opposite of Jesus’ ways.

Because of that, not everybody has a great experience with church. Some people have been hurt by the Church. Some people have been rejected by the Church, God help us. Some people don’t feel supported by the church or encouraged, they don’t feel like they’re a part. Instead of meeting Jesus at church, instead of finding God’s love and forgiveness and acceptance and his fellowship, they experience loneliness at church. Or rejection. Or pain.

As a result, there are people who believe in Jesus and love Jesus and want to follow Jesus, but they don’t want any part of Church. They see the Church or they experience the Church and there’s no way they can believe such a sorry collection of sinners can be related to Jesus.

The Church can be boring. It can be self-centered and self-righteous. It can be hypocritical. It can be worldly. Very worldly. I could go on. The Church has a lot of weaknesses, yes. But the Bible says we’re seeing things right now through a dark glass. We only see a poor reflection of the reality, like looking at a cracked and clouded mirror. The Bible says we’re hoping for what we don’t see yet. And, you know, for all its brokenness and failures, the Church still looks pretty good when she’s all dressed up to worship God on Sunday. Or when she’s fist-bumping elementary students outside their school on Monday. Or feeding homeless people at Family Promise on Tuesday.

The point is that, despite all the problems, based on the words of Jesus in the Bible and our own experiences for over two-thousand years, the poor old Church knows, for better or for worse, this is the form by which the risen Christ has chosen to be present in the world. We are the Body of Christ.

So, if you’re going to have a real relationship with Jesus, you must be connected to his Body. You don’t discover Jesus by escaping his community, but by joining it. You don’t grow closer to God by seeking him by yourself, but by entering the life of his Church, by leaning into and embracing the ordinary patterns of worship, repentance, prayer, knowledge, community, Christian practice, and mission that have formed God’s people for centuries.

We do not meet Christ as isolated individuals. We meet him as devoted members of his Body. We are saved together, we are healed together, we are restored and strengthened and shaped together. When you read the earliest Christian writers, you notice that when they wrote about knowing Christ personally, it was about being united to his Body, standing shoulder to shoulder with the community he founded and submitting to the shared Scriptures and sacraments and saints. The early Christians did not describe salvation as “Me and Jesus,” but as “Us in Christ.” Baptism did not place you in a private booth with God, it plunged you into a people. The communion meal did not evoke private internal feelings about Jesus, it joined your life to the lives of all the other believers at the table.

If you’re looking for a personal relationship with Jesus, you must be where he is. If you’re looking for more in your relationship with Christ, you must be where Jesus always promised to be. In the Scriptures. In the prayers. In the supper. In the worship. In the communion of saints. In the life of his Body. And, as every member of his Body has always discovered, the closer we draw to the Church, the closer Christ draws to us.

Peace,
Allan

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