The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

AllanStanglin.com

Category: 2 Corinthians (Page 6 of 13)

Desert Time

April 13, 2015 / / 0 Comments

“He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us.” ~2 Corinthians 1:10

We view any hardships we encounter as unpleasant interruptions. Trials and tribulations are distractions that mess up our lives. It’s unfair when something bad happens to us. But Scripture paints things like this from the divine perspective of the Father. Paul says tough times come into our lives to teach us, to show us, not to rely on ourselves, but on God.

“This happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.” ~2 Corinthians 2:9

God’s people have always believed that if you want to hear the voice of God, you go to the desert. You are drawn to God in the desert. You’re brought closer to God in the desert. God is better able to mold you and shape you in the desert. Because in the desert, you can’t survive without God’s direct intervention. If doesn’t provide water, you die. If God doesn’t give you food, you die. If God doesn’t bless you with shade, you don’t survive. If you’re in the desert, you can’t live without God. And you realize it there more than at any other time in your life.

It’s hard in the desert. It’s tough. Hot. Dry. Barren. Very little sign of life anywhere. Surrounded by desolation. And most of the time you don’t know if you’re going to be able to take one more step.

Maybe you’re in the middle of a desert right now. Maybe. Are you? You feel isolated. Alone. Helpless. Something’s happened to get you in this place. A serious illness. A divorce. Somebody died. A job situation. Whatever it is, maybe you don’t know if you can even make it one more day.

I want you to know that this desert time is where our God shapes you. God trains you in the desert. He’s drawing you closer and causing you to depend more on him.

“I’m going to allure you. I will lead you into the desert and speak tenderly to you.” ~Hosea 2:14

Before the Israelites entered the Promised Land, they spent 40 years in the desert. God gave them manna and quail from heaven and water from a rock. And it changed them into the people he wanted them to be. David spent time in the desert, running for his life, hiding in caves. God protected him and provided for him in the oasis at En Gedi. And it changed him into the greatest king Israel’s ever known. Elijah was driven to the desert where God caused an angel from heaven to give him food and then spoke to him personally in that small, still voice. And it shaped him into the Lord’s greatest prophet. When Jesus was baptized the Holy Spirit pushed him into the desert where he was tempted and tortured by Satan and protected and provided for by God.

It took Jesus 40 days. It took Moses 40 years.

God’s promise in Christ is that everything is going to be made right. All will be well. He proved his promise in the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus and in Jesus’ ascension to the place of ultimate power and authority at the right hand of God. Every single thing that’s wrong is being changed. And it’s all being made perfect to dwell forever in the presence of God.

So if things are not well with you today, it means it’s not over yet. It’s not done. And that’s good news! God is at work in you and through you. The Spirit says God will bring to completion that thing he’s started in you. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it. Amen. Maybe while you’re in the desert.

Peace,

Allan

Vision Statement: Part One

March 2, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Remember the Russian comedian Yakov Smirnoff? Born and raised in Russia, Smirnoff lives in the U. S. now — Branson, I think. A lot of his comedy was based on comparing life in Russia to life in the United States. One of his funniest bits is about the first time he ever walked into an American grocery store. He says, “I walked in and one of the first things I saw was powdered milk. You just add water and, boom, you’ve got milk! A couple of aisles over I saw cans of powdered orange juice. You just add water and, boom, you’ve got orange juice. Then I saw a whole shelf of baby powder!”

“What a country!”

Wouldn’t it be great if we just added water to ourselves and became instantly just like Jesus? What if the waters of baptism didn’t only wash away our sins, fill us with God’s Holy Spirit, and connect us to the body of Christ? What if the moment we came up out of the water we were automatically perfect? We know it doesn’t work that way. Whatever you call it — sanctification, salvation, spiritual formation, transformation — it doesn’t happen overnight.

Becoming like Christ is a gradual thing. It’s a process. Scripture calls it “being saved.” The course of being made perfect, being changed into the image of Jesus is difficult and lengthy. But this is exactly what God is doing with those he’s calling and saving. He is forming us into the image of his Son.

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

Being saved means being changed: changed into the image of Jesus, shaped into his character, formed into his nature. It’s conducting ourselves every day in a manner worthy of the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord. Paul tells the Galatians he’s agonizing until Christ is formed in them. He writes in Romans that we’re predestined by God to be conformed to the image of his Son. He writes to the Colossians and says the goal of everything God is doing with Jews and Gentiles alike is “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

But it’s slow. It takes time.

That’s why the very first word in our vision statement is “Becoming.” We want to constantly remind ourselves and proclaim as loud as we can to anyone who’s listening that nobody at Central Church of Christ has arrived. Nobody here is perfect. Nobody here has it all figured out. We are becoming like Christ. It’s a process. You know, some people won’t give life in Christ a chance because there are so many church people out there who think they’ve got all the answers. We want it to be known up front that we’re still pretty much a mess. Yes, we’re on our way. But nobody’s there yet. It’s a journey of ups and downs, of thrilling victories and devastating setbacks. We still have a lot to learn, we still make terrible mistakes. There’s a place in our church for anybody who has questions or doubts, for anybody who still says or does the wrong thing from time to time, for anybody who doesn’t feel perfect. Because we’re all in that little boat, fighting the storm, straining at the oars. But in the middle of all that, God is making us more like Jesus. It’s slow, but he’s doing it.

 

Happy Texas Independence Day!

Allan

God’s Not Done

July 18, 2014 / / 0 Comments

So, you were baptized! Great news! Praise God! Hallelujah!

What happens between now and the time you’re saved?

Your salvation is a process, right? Lots of wonderful things happen at baptism: you confess that Jesus is Lord and you put all of your faith and trust in him to remove your sins; you commit to follow in Christ’s steps as a loyal disciple; you become one with Jesus as you die and are buried and are raised up with him in baptism; you receive the gift of God’s Holy Spirit living inside you; you’re initiated into the Lord’s Body, the Church of Jesus Christ. All that happens at baptism. Justification. Reconciliation. A righteous standing before God. Peace. Joy.

But that’s not the last step. In as many ways as you can imagine, baptism has never been the last step.

We are being saved.

Being saved means being changed into the image of Jesus. It means being shaped into his character, being formed into his nature. It means we spend our lives “working out our salvation” (Philippians 2:12), we are predestined by God to be conformed to the image of his Son (Romans 8:29), we are to bear the likeness of the Christ from heaven (1 Corinthians 15:49). Paul says he agonizes and prays “until Christ is formed in you” (Galatians 4:19). We are all

“being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 3:18)

God is saving us by making us like Jesus. Being saved is becoming like Christ. Acting like Christ. Talking like Christ. Thinking and behaving like Christ. Sacrificing and serving like Christ. That’s our salvation. That’s God’s good purpose and what God is doing with us today.

And that takes time. It doesn’t happen overnight. It’s not an immediate thing.

None of us is done. Our salvation is not complete. None of us. There’s nobody alive God is finished with yet. Until the day you die or the day our Lord returns in glory — whichever comes first for you — until that last day, our God is working in you to give you more humility. He’s renewing your mind to make you more sacrificial for others. He’s transforming your attitude and your actions to better reflect the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

If we’re not careful, we can view our baptism as God’s completed work. We can think we’ve already arrived, that we’ve changed enough, that we’ve done enough, that we have nothing else to learn or do until we’re saved. We might think, “I’ve been baptized, so God’s done with me what he wanted to do.” Or, “I’ve been baptized, so God’s got me in his holy holding area until I die.” Or, “I’ve been baptized, so God’s put me in neutral here until I get to heaven.” It might be arrogance, it might be complacency, it might be ignorance — all three are killers!

You need to know that God is not done with you yet. You need to be aware that God is still working on you. I don’t care how long ago you were baptized or how many great things you’ve done in the name of Jesus, God still has things to teach you. He still has things to show you. He is still changing you and he is still very interested in seeing you grow and in using you for his good purposes.

Peace,

Allan

Holy Ministry

June 4, 2013 / / 1 Comment

From start to finish, the Scriptures call God’s people to be different from the rest of the world. We are called to be separate. To be distinct from the culture. The apostle Paul sets his argument up in 2 Corinthians with a series of five rhetorical questions in which the answers are all negative. The answers to his questions are either none or nothing.

What do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Nothing.

What fellowship can light have with darkness? None.

What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? None.

What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? Nothing.

What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? None.

What true Texan roots for the New York Yankees? None.

Paul could have gone on and on. And he kinda does. But he’s making the point that this point doesn’t really need making. It’s obvious. The Kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world are at severe odds. They always have been. We are called to stand out to the world as being very different from the world.

Now, let’s be clear, Paul is not talking about Christians withdrawing from the world. He’s not saying that Christians should only do business with other Christians, that we should only live in Christian neighborhoods, and eat only with other Christians in Christian restaurants. He’s not saying we have to play on Christian sports teams and go to Christian schools and exercise with Christian yoga groups at Christian church buildings. Those kinds of things aren’t even options, and never have been, throughout most of the world throughout all of history. Being involved in and in community with non-Christians is not only unavoidable and necessary, it’s actually essential for the spread of the Gospel. Paul’s not talking about a church commune out on a big ranch somewhere or a Christian compound up in the mountains. He’s talking about purifying the Christian community in order to do ministry.

We will not be able to minister to the world and thus fulfill God’s purpose for his church unless we show the people of the world that we are different.

From Resident Aliens by Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon:

“The most interesting, creative, political solutions we Christians have to offer our troubled society are not new laws, advice to Congress, or increased funding for social programs. The most creative social strategy we have to offer is the church. Here we show the world a manner of life the world can never achieve through social coercion or governmental action. We serve the world by showing it something that it is not, namely, a place where God is forming a family out of strangers.

The world needs the church, not to help the world run more smoothly or to make the world a better and safer place for Christians to live. Rather, the world needs the church because, without the church, the world does not know who it is. The only way for the world to know that it needs redeeming is for the church to point to the Redeemer by being a redeemed people. The way for the world to know that it needs redeeming, that it is broken and fallen, is for the church to enable the world to strike hard against something which is an alternative to what the world offers.”

The ministry of the church is not just to spread a message. The goal of the ministry is not merely information. We don’t assemble together and live and die together like we’re students in a classroom taking notes on theology. We are a pocket of God’s presence in the world. And from this pocket of God’s presence we are taking his world back from enemy hands. We live in enemy occupied territory. And God uses our alternative faith community and our transformed ways of thinking and speaking and acting to win it back.

“God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.” ~1 Thessalonians 4:7

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Speaking of Hauerwas, score another one for P-Grove! My great friend Jim Martin has been announced as the new vice-president at Harding School of Theology in Memphis. Jim is a godly man; beyond reproach; trustworthy and true. Our God speaks to Jim and I know that Jim listens. He is God’s dear friend. And I believe our God regards Jim as one of his greatest servants. And now our Lord has given him that next job.

If the people he leads at Harding receive just a tiny fraction of the blessings and strength and wisdom that Jim has given to me… Man, I can’t imagine the great impact this is going to have on God’s eternal Kingdom.

Peace,

Allan

Making Many Rich

May 30, 2013 / / 1 Comment

“…genuine, yet regarded as imposters; known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich.” ~2 Corinthians 6:9-10

Paul says Christian ministry is a spectacular joy and a debilitating hardship. When he’s talking about ministry, Paul describes both blessing and suffering. And it’s not an oxymoron, like “jumbo shrimp,” in which the two words in a phrase cancel each other out. It’s not “rap music.” Or “military intelligence.” Or “random order.” Blessing and suffering actually always go together in Christian ministry.

Throughout all of 2 Corinthians, Paul says over and over that the power of God is not proven by the absence of pain. God’s approval, his work, is not seen in the absence of suffering. It’s Paul’s faithful endurance in the middle of the pain, his faithful perseverance in the middle of suffering, where God does his greatest work. And in the above passage, Paul says something quite shocking: Many people are made rich through his suffering.

This is the reality that transforms his ministry. He knows that the all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. He’s convinced that God’s power is made perfect in our weakness. He’s sold on the fact that Christ’s grace is sufficient and that God does his best work in the midst of howling emptiness.

We are called to live for others as the very embodiment of the One who died for us. That’s going to involve suffering. And Paul understands that suffering makes him more like Christ — it imitates, in a way, the death of Jesus on the cross. God works through our sufferings, in a way, to save others.

Paul says his personal poverty, by the grace of God, is making many people rich. He has nothing, he says, and yet, because he sees the eternal significance of his hardships, he says “I have everything.” Poor. Yet making many rich.

Then, two chapters later, Paul reminds us: “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.” (2 Cor. 8:9)

Paul makes the connection: God works through us for the sake of the world in very similar ways as he worked/works through Christ Jesus. Our Lord did his very best work, he accomplished the greatest event in the history of mankind, in the deepest and darkest shadows of suffering and death. Your suffering, your poverty, right now by the grace of God, is accomplishing similar things for a desperate and dying world.

Peace,

Allan

The New Has Come!

May 28, 2013 / / 0 Comments

“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” ~2 Corinthians 5:17

We hear the word “new” about thirty-one thousand times a day. All in TV commercials, I think. New this, new that, new everything. Everything’s new. New and improved. New and longer lasting. New and April fresh. No, most of those things aren’t really new. That detergent’s not really new: they just added some blue sprinkles inside the box and a fourth color on the outside of the box. That cereal’s not new; they just replaced the yellow stars with purple ponies. Come on, we’re wise to this scam. The word “new” just means less content, more complicated packaging, at a higher price.

That’s why Paul says “new creation.” Paul says participating in the death and resurrection of Jesus dramatically changes everything. The same God who created the heavens and the earth out of emptiness and darkness takes your emptiness and darkness, he takes your confusion and chaos, and creates a brand new person. You are truly a brand new person, full of God’s Holy Spirit, made to experience all of life in a brand new way. All of this is from God, Paul says.

The same power that was on display when God first said, “Let there be light” is at work in you. The same glory that characterized the forming of the mountains and the seas, the same glory of the making of the sun and the moon and the stars, the same glory that was present in the creation of that very first human being from the dust of the ground in the holy image of Almighty God, that same original and eternal power and glory now characterizes you! And everything around you!

The old has gone; the new has come! He has changed us! He has changed everything! What God has done and is doing in your life is just as magnificent and miraculous as the creation of the world!

I’m glad Paul said, “new creation,” and not just “new.”

“New creation” changes everything.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My good friend Matt Richardson’s grandmother died Sunday in Abilene. He and I were exchanging some texts today about her and about the funeral later this week. He described her to me — “a Godly woman with plenty of spunk.” And then he wrote, “You’ll like her when you meet her.”

“You’ll like her when you meet her.”

Yeah, I love that. I am going to meet Matt’s grandmother some day soon. I will get to know her. And I will like her.

I thanked Matt for writing that, for reminding me that his grandmother lives forever and that we will eat and drink together with our risen King around his banquet table in his eternal Kingdom. For reminding me that my grandmother lives, too. For reminding me that he who believes in Jesus will live, even though he dies, and whoever lives and believes in Jesus will never die.

When I thanked Matt for writing, “You’ll like her when you meet her,” he texted right back:

“I didn’t mean today…”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Carley and the show choir at Bonham Middle School rocked the ’80s last night. If the music from my high school days is considered by today’s kids to be old and nostalgic, what does that make me?

Peace,

Allan

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2025 The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑