The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

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Category: Creation (Page 1 of 4)

Our Old Testament God

April 29, 2026 / / 0 Comments

It’s been a long, long time since the Dallas Stars were eliminated in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, but after last night’s lethargic Game Five loss to the Minnesota Wild, they’re on the brink. The Stars were sloppy and slow last night in front of the home crowd; every pass seemed like it was a half-second late and a half-inch behind. Dallas has not scored an even-strength goal since Game Two, nine days ago! And the attrition is brutal; we’re losing one defenseman a night. Nils Lundkvist went down Saturday with that awful face laceration and Arttu Hyry left last night with a leg injury.

The beautiful thing about playoff hockey, and the only slim glimmer of hope I have, is that, typically, one game doesn’t have much to do with the next one. The Stars are a great road team and it’s possible their desperation and a little puck luck could result in a crazy 6-1 win in Game Six tomorrow in St. Paul. Then the deciding Game Seven is at home, which is where you want all your Game Sevens.

The Stars have turned bad playoff series around before and they’re capable of doing it now. Otter’s been great in goal and the offensive lines are certainly getting their chances. It’s just that nothing’s bouncing right, and I think they’re starting to feel it. Wyatt Johnston has a total of one point in this series at even-strength; Mikko Rantanen has zero. They’re too talented to go down like this. We’ve said for a month that this series would take seven games. There’s no reason to move away from that thinking now.

Well. Maybe a couple of small reasons.

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“This is what God the Lord says–he who created the heavens and stretched them out,
who spread out the earth and all that comes out of it,
who gives breath to its people,
and life to those who walk on it:
I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness;
I will take hold of your hand.
I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people
and a light for the Gentiles,
to open eyes that are blind,
to free captives from prison,
and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.”
~ Isaiah 42:5-7

The God of the Old Testament is not dead.

The God of Genesis, our Creator God, is still creating today. He is still creating breath today. He is still breathing his divine breath into his people today. He is still giving life.

The God of Exodus, our liberator God, is still delivering today. He is still liberating people. He is still setting people loose and releasing them fully. He is still granting freedom.

What our God has done in the past, he is doing right now today. For you. For your church. For your loved ones. For your city.

This is who God is and what God does. Yesterday, today, and forever.

May we join him. May we partner with our God in breathing new divine life into tired and worn-out souls. Into fatigued and weary saints. Into fading churches and discouraged ministers and exhausted shepherds. May we join God in liberating people from the sins that hold them down. From the burdens that cause their shoulders to stoop. From the bars of shame or addiction or abuse or tradition or doubt that have closed them in.

To his eternal glory and praise!

Peace,
Allan

The Precious Image of God

April 21, 2026 / / 0 Comments

The Scriptures teach us that, in some ways, the holiness and sacredness of our God has been imparted to all of humanity, so that every single human life is holy and sacred and every single human life has divine dignity. When our God put his image on us or in us, we became beings of eternal value. The reason God considers murder to be so heinous is that God made humans in his image (Genesis 9:5-6). The brother of our Lord Jesus and others of the apostles forbid us from speaking ill of others or abusing others with our words because all people have been made in God’s likeness (James 3:9). There is something so valuable about human beings that not only can they not be murdered physically, they can’t even be cursed verbally, based on their divine worthiness as image bearers of God. The precious image of God in or on all people means all people have the divine right to not be mistreated or harmed.

The Bible does not limit these prohibitions to only good people or God’s people or people like us. Regardless of their record or character, all human beings have a heavenly-ordained glory and significance to them because God created them and he loves them.

Nicholas Wolterstorff illustrates this beautifully in his book “Justice: Rights and Wrongs.” He imagines a foreigner, a guy who knows nothing about American history, being confused to learn that the Mount Vernon estate in Virginia is preserved and designated as a national monument. Mount Vernon is revered by Americans as a place of great significance and value. But it doesn’t make sense to this guy because Mount Vernon is small and plain and, as far as historical Virginia plantation houses, has very little to offer in architectural merit or beauty. Why do Americans love this house so much and treat it with so much honor and respect?

Because this is George Washington’s house. The founder of our country lived here. He owned this house.

Oh. That explains it. The physical merits and quality of the house don’t matter. Since we treasure the owner, we honor his house. What the house looks like or how it functions as a house is irrelevant. Because it was precious to him, and we revere him, it is precious to us.

So we treasure each and every single human being, all of them, as a way of showing respect and honor for their owner and Creator.

Peace,

Allan

Blessing

June 26, 2025 / / 0 Comments

I’ve been away from my phone this morning.
Nico Harrison hasn’t traded Cooper Flagg yet, has he?

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Think about the very first words our God said to the very first human beings. In the creation account in Genesis 1, the text says “God blessed them.” His very first words to his created humans were words of blessing. He created them and he immediately spoke blessings to them.

I wonder what he said.

We don’t know. The text doesn’t tell us. Maybe it was something like this.

You are very good. I made you in my image. You are mine. You belong to me and I belong to you. You are important to me. You are valuable to me. You matter to me. You are deeply loved by me. 

Then almost immediately, these people take what God says is important–people–and make them not important. They take what God blesses as valuable–people–and make them not valuable. There’s murder and revenge, lying and rape, pride and jealousy, violence and drunkenness–all kinds of evil in our hearts and minds and in our actions against each other.

And in Genesis 12, God says, “No! This is not how it’s going to be! What I think is important is going to be important! What I have blessed as valuable is going to be valuable! I am going to bless Abraham and, through him, I am going to bless all the people of the whole world!”

And Jesus takes all that wickedness, rebellion, and sin, he bears it in himself, all the way to the cross, and he leaves it there. And on that third day, when our Lord is raised to life by the Holy Spirit, he doesn’t speak one word of vengeance or punishment or anger or retribution. The very first word Christ Jesus says to his disciples on that resurrection day is, “Peace. Peace be with you.”

You are very good. You are made in God’s image. You are his. You belong to God and he belongs to you. You are important to God. You are valuable to him. You matter to God. You are deeply loved by God.

And his blessing for you and his promise to you is bigger than all your sin.

I think about David, the king of Israel, the man after God’s own heart. What did God see when he looked at David that day and chose him and blessed him? David was just a kid, kind of an afterthought, just a kid hanging out with the sheep. What did God see in him that day?

Did he see David’s fierce violence or his fierce loyalty?

Did he see David as the great psalmist or the notorious outlaw?

Did he see David’s humility and prayers or his rape and murder and lying and sin?

God saw all of it. Every bit of it. And God still picked David. He chose David and blessed him.

And our God chose you in Jesus Christ before the foundations of the earth.

His blessing for you and his promise to you is bigger than all your sin.

Peace,

Allan

New Creation

September 20, 2023 / / 0 Comments

“By him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible… all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things and in him all things hold together… God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross.” ~Colossians 1:15-20

The Creator of the universe, the Creator of all things that have ever existed, the One who spoke and breathed all things into being, and the One who created you and me — the Creator is also the crucified and resurrected Lord Jesus. God through Christ formed and shaped his creation in wonder and beauty and awe. And God through Christ entered his magnificent creation to reconcile all of it. To redeem it and restore it. To recreate the heavens and earth and to recreate me. And you.

“Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation… This is the Gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven.” ~Colossians 1:21-23

The flesh and blood of Jesus Christ was hung on a cross and the whole world went dark again. All the darkness and emptiness and loss that the powers of evil could conjure — it all came together to kill the image of God. But his cruel death resulted in the ultimate and forever defeat of all those dark powers. Chaos and turmoil and sin and death and Satan were eternally destroyed on that great day.

God looked into the deep darkness of the cross, he looked into the lifeless void of the grave, and he created everything brand new all over again. For all of us. For you and for me. Jesus says, “Because I live, you also will live!”

“If anyone is in Christ, there is new creation! The old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ!” ~2 Corinthians 5:17-18

God’s beautiful design and purpose in creation began with Jesus Christ. And his plan for the redemption of all creation runs through Jesus Christ. What Jesus did at the cross shows us what God will do to bring his new creation to every man, woman, and child he’s ever placed on this planet. The same creative love and power that triumphed on the cross in Christ is the same love and power that created and sustains the whole world. The same Jesus who created you is also redeeming you.

Your destiny is not determined by fate or fluke or luck, but by our loving and gracious Father. The earth is not a random accident in the chemistry lab of the universe. There is meaning and purpose to all of creation. But we can’t understand it, we can’t comprehend creation or God’s purposes for creation apart from Christ.

If the heavens and the earth and everything and everyone in them are created by Christ and exist for Christ, then it’s never meaningless or without direction. And it’s never beyond the reach of God’s Holy Spirit. It’s never out of range of God’s holy possibility. It’s never past God’s capacity to create.

I wonder if, right now, your life feels formless and empty. Is there a void or a darkness in your life? Does chaos reign instead of calm? Is there any pain in your soul? Is there bitterness in your heart? How much disappointment is in there? How much hurt? How much sin?

God’s Holy Spirit is near. God’s Spirit is hovering, he is moving over you right now. He is hovering over your darkness, he is moving over your emptiness. He sees your pain and confusion. He knows about your sin. He is near. He is hovering. Moving.

And you pray. Maybe out loud. Maybe through tears.

Create in me.

And God says, “I can.”

Lord, breathe into me.

And God says, “I can.”

Make something new out of the chaos of my life.

And God says, “I will.”

Shine light into my darkness, Lord. Bring life into my soul. Create in me your holy image and your Holy Spirit.

And God says, through our Lord Jesus who was and is and is to come, “Behold! I am making all things new!”

Peace,

Allan

The Creator is Still Creating

September 19, 2023 / / 0 Comments

The word “create” is used six times in Genesis 1-2. It’s used seventeen times in Isaiah.

In Isaiah, God’s prophet is speaking to God’s people who are living in a dark and dreadful place. Because of their sin, they have been separated from the place God put them. They’ve been scattered and driven away by the Babylonian Empire. They’re living in exile in a foreign land. But God promises that because he created them and saved them and because he loves them, he’s going to create in them and for them something brand new.

“Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand,
or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens?
Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket
or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance?…
…Do you not know? Have you not heard?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood since the earth was founded?…
…Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry hosts one by one, and calls them each by name…
…Do you not know? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth!”
~Isaiah 40:12-28

The Spirit of God who hovered over the deep darkness in the beginning continues to move, he continues to create. Genesis 1-2 is not just telling us how the world began. It’s not just an origin story to tell us how the sun was made and how the elephant got its name. It is a testimony to the ongoing creation work of God’s Spirit in our world right now.

“The poor and needy search for water, but there is none;
their tongues are parched with thirst.
But I, the Lord, will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.
I will make rivers flow on barren heights, and springs within the valleys.
I will turn the desert into pools of water, and the parched ground into springs.
I will put in the desert the cedar and acacia, the myrtle and the olive.
I will set pines in the wasteland, the fir and the cypress together,
so that people may see and know, may consider and understand,
that the hand of the Lord has done this,
that the Holy One of Israel has created it.”
~Isaiah 41:17-20

The word “create” is not just what God did one time for one week a long time ago. “Create” is what God does today for his saved and called people. The men and women he has placed on this earth and given life and purpose — God creates in them and for them still!

“This is what God the Lord says —
he who created the heavens and stretched them out,
who spread out the earth and all that comes out of it,
who gives breath to its people, and life to those who walk on it:
I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand…
…See, the former things have taken place, and new things I declare!
Before they spring into being I announce them to you!”
~Isaiah 42:5-9

God’s people felt so uncreated in captivity. They felt so empty and dark, so unformed and unfit for where they were and what was happening around them and to them. Isaiah brings every detail of the Genesis creation stories right into the present, right into their lives and their place right now. God reminds his people, “Hey, I’m the Creator! I make brand new things out of nothing! I shine light into darkness! I bring life to where there isn’t any!”

“Everyone who is called by my name,
whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made…
…I am the Lord, your Holy One, Israel’s Creator, your King.”
~Isaiah 43:7, 15

This is creation language from Genesis. I made you. I formed you. I created you. You don’t think I can do it again?

“I have made you, you are my servant;
O Israel, I will not forget you.
I have swept away your offenses like a cloud,
your sins like the morning mist.
Return to me, for I have redeemed you…
…This is what the Lord says — your Redeemer who formed you in the womb:
I am the Lord, who has made all things,
who alone stretched out the heavens,
who spread out the earth by myself.”
~Isaiah 44:21-24

Nothing Israel could do was going to make any difference. God’s people were standing around empty-handed and confused. It was dark and they were dead. They were helpless. Hopeless. Nothing made sense anymore. Everything they were experiencing was totally foreign from what they thought they knew. The only hope they had was for God to do in them and for them something only God can do: create.

“Behold! I will create new heavens and a new earth!
The former things will not be remembered,
nor will they come to mind!
But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create,
for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy.
I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people;
the sound of weeping and crying will be heard in it no more.”
~Isaiah 65:17-19

God, create in us something new. Breathe in us, O God. Form us. Make us. Bring to us your light and life. Create in us your Spirit and your holy image.

God’s Spirit is near. God’s Spirit is hovering over our darkness and emptiness and our sins. God’s Spirit is moving.

Peace,

Allan

The Creator is Near

September 18, 2023 / / 0 Comments

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” ~Genesis 1:1-2

Before God created the heavens and the earth, there was no creation. There was nothing. Emptiness. Darkness. Chaos. Formless and void. No life. No shape. No nothing.

But God’s Spirit is near. God’s Spirit is hovering, moving over the darkness and emptiness. God looks into the formless void, he looks into the lifeless deep. And he creates. God breathes. And God speaks.

Let there be light! And there was brilliant light.

Let there be skies and seas and dry ground! And there were oceans and continents and tropical islands and vast deserts and lakes and plants and trees.

Let there be lights in the sky! And there were suns and moons and galaxies and billions of stars and morning and night and months and years and four different seasons.

And God created life! Life in the waters and life in the skies. Great varieties of birds to fill the air and amazing kinds of fish to fills the seas and rivers and lakes.

And God created the animals! Wild animals and livestock. Creeping things. Beasts and cattle. Little bugs and giant hippos. Amphibians and mammals and those weird monkeys that look like Jimmy Durante.

And God saw that it was good. It is all very good, every bit of it. And we know it’s good. It’s all so good. Why does the Grand Canyon take your breath away? Why do people weep at Niagara Falls? Why do children squeal with delight trying to catch a butterfly? Why do we put pictures of snow-capped mountains on our laptops? Why do we brag so much about the West Texas sunsets? Because it’s all so good. Everything our God creates is good.

But it’s nothing compared to what comes next. All of that is just a warm up for the main event. All the goodness and greatness of the first five-and-a-half days of creation are nothing compared to the goodness and greatness of God creating people. When God created man and woman, he blew the top off the whole thing! God creates man and woman from the dirt of the earth and into his own image. God’s holy image. And he breathes into men and women his own holy breath, the breath of his eternal life, his Holy Spirit. If you want to look at the apex of God’s creation, if you want to see God’s masterpiece, you look at people. It’s us.

We say things like, “I need to spend more time in God’s creation” and “I really sense the presence of God in creation” or “I love being in God’s creation.” We’re usually thinking about a day in the mountains, not a day with the in-laws. We much prefer time spent at the lake over time spent with people at work or church.

The way the Bible reveals creation to us, you and I are the very best part. We are the “very good” of God’s creation.

The truth of Genesis 1-2 is that our God is the Creator. God is the initiator, God is the power. And it’ s all good.

God said. God made. God created. God blessed. God gave. God formed. God breathed. God placed. God called. Over and over again, in a rhythm, in a cadence. There’s purpose here, there’s control. Where there once was darkness, God creates light. Where there was emptiness, God fills by his grace. Where there was chaos, God brings his divine order. Where there was no life, God breathes his holy breath of eternal life. And it’s all so very good.

But maybe things don’t seem so very good to you. Maybe your life or your place where God has put you isn’t so good. Maybe your life feels formless and empty. Is there a void or a darkness in your life? Does chaos reign instead of calm? Is there a pain in your soul? Is there bitterness in your heart? How much disappointment is in there? How much hurt? How much sin?

And you pray, God, create in me something new. Breathe in me, God. Form inside me. Make me. Bring to me life and light. Create in me your Spirit and your holy image.

Well, God’s Spirit is near. God’s Spirit is hovering over your darkness and emptiness. God’s Spirit is moving over your pain and your void. God is hovering. He is the Creator. And he is moving. He is near.

Peace,

Allan

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