The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

AllanStanglin.com

Twinning in Midland

February 23, 2026 / / 0 Comments

How did we get so lucky? We’ve got the boys for ten days at our house in Midland!

Our son-in-law David is taking the bar exam tomorrow and Wednesday in OKC and it seemed like the perfect opportunity to bring Valerie and our twin grandsons to Texas for a week-and-a-half to give him space and quiet to cram. And it’s giving Carrie-Anne and me a refresher on what it’s like to have little infants around. Little rugrats. And, watch where you step! There’s two of them!

Both Elliott and Samuel have just recently learned how to hold their own bottles and feed themselves. That’s great. It would be really something if they could change their own diapers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, I took Valerie and the boys to Blue Sky as soon as I could. You think there’s a cheeseburger like this in Oklahoma? Even if they can’t eat the burger, even if they can only be strapped to the table with a couple of prop Styrofoam cups for a cheesy photo op, I know they could smell the Blue Sky burger. I know they were thrilled. The burgers at the original Blue Sky on Western Street in Amarillo were a life-changer for Valerie, so it was nostalgic for her. And a great joy for me.

Elliott is crawling all over the place. He can get anything he wants, as long as it’s on the floor. And he’s surprisingly quick. The coolest thing in the world is when I walk into the house after work and he crawls to me, stops right at my feet, and holds his arm up. Samuel, on the other hand, hasn’t figured it out yet. He can only go backwards. We don’t know why, but he only pushes himself backwards, he can’t get his booty up and his legs bent to go forward. So two or three times a day he winds up under a chair or a couch. And he doesn’t like it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They’re both eating baby food now like ravenous wolves. I’m not able to get the spoon from their mouths, back into the jar, and back to their mouths fast enough without them screaming at me. They love it, all of it–it doesn’t matter what vegetable, what flavor, what color.

Elliott likes to play rough, so I’m throwing him up in the air and slinging him around every which way, holding him upside down and rolling him on the floor. Sam is a lot more chill. He acts like he’s above everything, like he’s just observing the silliness around him and it amuses him. He giggles and laughs. A lot.

On Thursday, in only two and a half more days, I’m taking Val and the boys to Wichita Falls, the halfway point between here and Tulsa, where David will meet us for lunch and we’ll part ways to our respective states. Almost eight hours away from each other.

You people who live in the same city as your grandkids have got it made.

Peace,
Allan

 

Together 4 Midland

February 22, 2026 / / 0 Comments

I’m still in awe of the grace of God that he would allow us to experience together what we experienced at the “4 Midland” Ash Wednesday service at First Baptist. Our Christian brothers and sisters from all four churches–First Baptist, First Methodist, First Presbyterian, and GCR CofC–worshiped together, sang and prayed together, confessed our sins and repented together, administered and received ashes together, and entered the Christian season of Lent. Together.

How beautiful. How powerful. What a blessing. An honor. What a generous gift of God’s grace.

 

 

 

 

 

The sanctuary was packed with what seemed to be a fairly equal number of us from each of our four congregations. I always joke to GCR that “it’s not a competition; but we want to win.” No, we were all pretty evenly represented Wednesday. And while my brother Darin, the pastor at First Baptist, worries that they just don’t have the chops when it comes to traditional Christian liturgy, they definitely have the music covered. My goodness, the orchestra! And the 85-member choir made up of the choirs and worship teams from all four churches!

It’s a glorious thing when God’s children can put aside their denominational differences to worship and serve together as the one Body of Christ. It’s an undeniable testimony to our community and a tremendous blessing for us. And it’s one way to physically answer the prayer of our Lord.

 

 

 

 

 

I always offer to take our GCR youth group out for ice cream after the 4 Midland Ash Wednesday service. I don’t know how appropriate it is to eat ice cream immediately after entering a season of prayer and fasting, but it gets our kids to the service and it gives me an opportunity to hang out with the coolest youth group on the planet. And, yeah, they are the best.

Over the past dozen years or so, Ash Wednesday has become a vital part of my walk with Christ, an indispensable move in the rhythms that guide my discipleship. I hope it’s that way for you, too. We’re following our Lord now to the cross, to the tomb, and then out of that empty grave. But the journey begins with this season of confession and repentance, reflection and transformation, fasting and prayer. What a gift from God that, for us, it begins with four Midland churches. Together.

Peace,

Allan

Leaning into Liturgy

February 18, 2026 / / 0 Comments

The 4Midland churches are gathering at First Baptist this evening for our annual Ash Wednesday service. This marks the fifth Ash Wednesday service we at GCR have shared with a local congregation of another denomination, and the fourth we’ve co-led as 4Midland. For some of us, this 1,400-year-old Christian tradition is still new. According to Lifeway research, only 25% of Americans observe the season of Lent–that number has stayed the same for over a decade. The Barna Group reports that Churches of Christ are among the “least aware” of traditional Christian liturgical practices.

For me, personally, by God’s grace, tonight’s will be my 13th Ash Wednesday service. Ash Wednesday and this season of Lent have become a vital part of my walk with Christ, an indispensable move in the rhythms that guide my Christian discipleship. If you live in the Permian Basin, I invite you to join us at 6:30pm at First Baptist in Midland. If you live outside the Basin, I urge you to find an Ash Wednesday service today and lean into it.

Ash Wednesday meets us in our desperate need for repentance. It reminds us of the Gospel need to mourn sin and grieve its terrible consequences. Ash Wednesday takes our sin and suffering seriously. It’s a sober kickoff to 40-days of fasting and prayer, confession and repentance, reflection and transformation.

Right now, the American church is struggling with unity while we’re wrapped up in our country’s bitterly divided politics. American Christians are fighting for contentment and joy while we live in a culture obsessed with consumption. We’re wanting to point our minds to Christ while the world around us is drowning in social media and other digital distractions.

Our spiritual needs are tied directly to the unstable ways of the world.

Leaning into the ancient church calendar is a helpful way to anchor yourself and your church in Gospel rhythms that counter whatever might be happening in the world or in the news cycle; remembering that the story of God is bigger than the story of your state or your career or your nation or your church; orienting yourself toward the larger story of God and his people, God and his creation, God and his salvation mission through Christ Jesus–we participate in a stable pattern of faith and faithfulness in contrast to all the things right in front of us we can’t control. The natural disasters are real. So are the political problems and the racial injustice and our complicated relationships. The Church calendar reminds us of God’s providence in the chaos, of his calm and faithful presence in the raging storm.

And we do it together. Practicing these ancient liturgies is done in community with the global Church, it connects us to all Christians everywhere for all time. It helps to counter-program the uniquely American individualism that erodes our dependence on God and one another. It trains us to think and behave and relate in common unity with other followers.

Ash Wednesday reminds us that we need to repent, both individually and corporately, and it gives us the venue and the tools to do it together with other sinners turned saints by the life-giving blood of Jesus.

If you’ve never been to one, I encourage you to find an Ash Wednesday service today and give yourself to it. Ask God to speak to you, to show you something you need to see, to transform you. Then lean into it. Surrender to the service and the readings and the songs and the prayers. Participate fully, expecting that God will do something in you and through you for his glory.

It’s never too late to try a 1,400-year-old tradition.

Peace,
Allan

In the Face of Christ

February 17, 2026 / / 0 Comments

I was looking last week at the results of a recent poll conducted by the American Psychological Association that says almost all of us are stressed out and anxious about things that are out of our control. Multiple things. According to the research, 30% of Americans say most days they are so stressed out they can’t function. Over things like inflation, violence, crime, the political climate, and the racial climate. Among those polled, 76% say the future of the nation is a significant source of stress, while 68% say we are living in the country’s lowest point of their lifetimes.

Well, of course we’re stressed out and anxious.

We’re doomscrolling our phones and our feeds, we’re being discipled by our digital devices that are designed to raise our blood pressure. So, we’re constantly taking in the bad news of local and global turmoil and chaos and conflict with an increasing lack of civility as the backdrop–people seem to be so mean. It feels like there’s so much hate. And the tyranny of the constant connection to the unprecedented exposure and pressure through the digital platforms that are intentionally designed to divide us and profit off our polarization has us so worked up we feel like we have to have an immediate and dug-in position on a 13-minute Super Bowl halftime show by a performer we hadn’t heard of three weeks ago!

In the face of so much, our salvation can seem like a smaller thing. The dawn of a new day feels a long way away in the suffocating darkness of right now.

And I don’t know a thing about your marriage. Or your relationship with your children. I don’t know about your situation at work. Or your finances. Or that sin in your life you can’t shake. Or that thing you did a long time ago that you can’t forget. I don’t know how chaotic your life feels or if the things happening around you or to you feel totally out of your control. I don’t know the personal pain or betrayal. I don’t know your wounds. I don’t know how dark it feels where you are. How far away from God you feel. How far away from love and joy and peace you feel.

But I do know this.

You can have faith in the middle of your fears. You can be calm and certain in the chaos of your circumstance. You can experience eternal life while walking through the valley of the shadow of death.

“God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” ~2 Corinthians 4:6

We see the light in the face of Christ. When we look at Jesus, we are given the perfect knowledge of the glory of our God. We see what God is up to when we look at our Lord. We realize, in Jesus, that our God does his best work in the dark.

Jesus was born at night.

The sun disappeared and the earth was plunged into darkness as he died.

God’s Holy Spirit raised him from the dead “while it was still dark.”

New life always starts in the dark. A seed in the ground. A baby in the womb. Jesus in the tomb. A church in a shift. A Christian in a crisis.

We know the darkness of death has been broken by the light of the power of God’s Holy Spirit. The silence of the night has been pierced by the trumpet blast of the dawning of a brand new day. Our God is the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they are. And we know the very last words our Lord Jesus said to us as he ascended to the seat of all authority and power at the right hand of God: “I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Which, is closer than you think.

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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