The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

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Category: Healing (Page 1 of 3)

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

In the Lord

August 23, 2022 / / 0 Comments

“I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to agree with each other in the Lord.” ~Philippians 4:2

Paul wants these two Christians at that church in Philippi to end their dispute with each other. He wants them to reconcile, to patch up their differences, to fix their relationship. But he doesn’t expect them to kiss and makeup by sheer will power or human grit. They won’t be able to reconcile on their own. This kind of reconciliation only happens in the Lord.

Paul’s asking Euodia and Syntyche to put into practice with each other what they know and experience in Christ. They should recognize their fellowship that’s forged by the blood of Jesus. They should acknowledge their mutual love that springs from God’s Holy Spirit. They should affirm their unity of purpose as co-ambassadors for the Kingdom of God. And that’s only going to happen in the Lord. That’s why Paul sounds so sure that it’s going to work. Because when people are in the Lord, surprising things happen. Those who live under the lordship of Jesus are different. We act in surprising ways.

We always forgive the one who wronged us. Not because she said she was sorry, not because he paid me back – we always forgive each other because God in Christ always forgives us. We make sacrifices for each other. Not so we can get what we want, but because the Lord made the ultimate sacrifice for us. We always serve one another. Not so we can look good, but because the Lord served us. We always give to one another, we submit to one another, we defer to one another, because Christ Jesus went to the cross for us.

He died for the sake of our relationship to him. Whatever humility, sacrifice, and service was needed to fix our relationship with God, Jesus did it. Willingly. Obediently.

Remember that love and sacrifice, Euodia. Remember that grace and mercy and forgiveness, Syntyche. And put into practice what you know and believe about Jesus.

Peace,

Allan

Just Say the Word

October 21, 2021 / / 0 Comments

“Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word and my servant will be healed.” ~Matthew 8:8

The commander in the Roman army is probably stationed at a garrison just east of Capernaum. He has total control over the one hundred men in his company. He tells them when to come and go. They don’t sneeze without his permission. Not only that, he controls all the Jews in the land the Roman Empire is occupying. With just a word, this commander can order any Tom, Dick, or Larry to carry his backpack or dig a ditch. Or carry the cross of a condemned criminal.

This centurion understands power. And he says to Jesus, “Just say the word.”

Lord, just as easily as I tell Private Ted to clean his shield or mop the floor or drop and give me twenty – that easy! – you just say the word and my servant will be healed. I know that whatever you say, it happens. You just say the word and the forces that have paralyzed my servant will let him go.

“‘Go! It will be done just as you believed it would.’ And his servant was healed at that very hour.” ~Matthew 8:13

You and I can know in our hearts that there’s no catch with Jesus. There’s no trick. There’s no limit to the goodness of Christ’s intentions or his  power to carry them out. It’s not like Lucy pulling the football away from Charlie Brown the moment he finally commits – never! You can trust God in Christ to fix everything that’s broken in your life and to make right everything that’s gone wrong.

Look at the power of Jesus. He heals this paralyzed servant from a distance. He doesn’t have to touch him, he doesn’t even have to see him. From way downtown! Bang! And it’s so matter of fact. He gave the word. And the servant was healed. Well, yeah.

Jesus, I believe. Just say the word.

The reality in Jesus Christ as the Son of God is that he is almighty, he is powerful, and he alone has both the authority and the power to heal and forgive, to reconcile and protect, to save. He alone also has the great desire. And the boundless love. He willingly went to the cross to make that ultimate reality true for anything and everything that might be broken in your life today.

Jesus, just say the word.

And he did.

In the garden. “Not my will, Father, but yours be done.”

From the cross. “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”

“It is finished.”

Now, there’s a word.

Peace,

Allan

Midland Loves

October 18, 2021 / / 0 Comments

As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people. As the Lord surrounds his people, so his people surround Midland Memorial Hospital. God’s people at GCR and from at least another half dozen Christian churches in Midland spent an hour walking around MMH yesterday, reading Scripture over the hospital, and lifting everyone inside to our Lord in prayer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Father, give our doctors and nurses and health care workers your comfort and peace during what has become an incredibly stressful time. Give them your strength. Give them your rest. Assure these good people with your loving presence.

 

 

 

 

 

 

God, grant our doctors and nurses safety and good health and financial relief. Give them your knowledge and wisdom. Please give them increased compassion and patience. Give them more faith and trust in you. And, dear Lord, give them peace.

 

 

 

 

 

Holy Father, bless our doctors and nurses and all our health care providers with encouragement and hope.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Be merciful to us, O Lord, for we are in distress;
our eyes grow weak with sorrow, our souls and our bodies with grief.
Our strength fails because of our affliction, and our bones grow weak.
But we trust in you, O Lord;
We say, ‘You are our God.'”
~ Psalm 31

House Call: Revelation

February 23, 2021 / / 2 Comments

“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.” ~Luke 5:31

There is so much revealed about Jesus in the very short story of the great banquet at Levi’s house. Who Jesus is and what Jesus came here to do and why and how he came to do it is revealed in his answer to the Pharisees who are questioning the sort of company he keeps. He is a doctor who has come to heal the sick. Those are his words. It sounds kind of like a mission statement, doesn’t it? I am a doctor and I have come to heal the sick. Why?

Because he knows. Jesus knows the world is sick. He knows God’s creation is sick. Men and women and children are sick. Families are sick. Communities and cities are sick. People are hurting, people are suffering, people are in pain and dying. And Jesus says I am the doctor!

The old prophet Jeremiah uses this kind of language as he is proclaiming the miseries of God’s people:

“We had hoped for peace, but no good has come; for a time of healing, but there was only terror… My heart is faint within me. Listen to the cry of my people… My people are crushed, I am crushed. I mourn and horror grips me. Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is there no healing for the wound of my people?” ~Jeremiah 8:15-22

God’s people cry out, “Is there a doctor in the house?” And Jesus Christ, the holy Son of God answers, “I Am! It’s Me!”

I am bringing to you the new age of the Kingdom of God. I am bringing to you new power and new possibilities and new hope that’s never been there before. I’ve got complete forgiveness for you and full holiness and total righteousness. Everything that’s making you sick and tired and weak, everything that’s keeping you from being who and what God created you to be, everything that’s killing you – I’ve got the cure!

You know, a doctor like that – you probably can’t just show up to see him without an appointment. He’s probably booked for six or seven months or more. And a person like you – you probably couldn’t even get an appointment with a doctor like this. A doctor this good probably isn’t taking new patients.

Except, no! Praise God the Great Physician makes house calls! He comes to you and knocks on your door! He comes to you and it doesn’t matter who you are. It doesn’t matter where you are, he meets you right there. Jesus goes to the tax collector’s booth and then he shows up at the tax collector’s house, at his table!

In Revelation 3, Jesus says, “Here I am. I’m right here. I stand at the door and knock.” It’s a house call. Always. “I am standing right here and I’m knocking. And if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in. And I will eat and drink with you and you will eat and drink with me.”

Peace,

Allan

Father, Forgive

September 2, 2020 / / 0 Comments

The Hatred which divides nation from nation,
race from race,
class from class;
Father, forgive.

The Greed which exploits the labors of men
and lays waste to earth;
Father, forgive.

Our Envy of the welfare and happiness
of others;
Father, forgive.

Our Indifference to the plight of the
homeless and the refugee;
Father, forgive.

The Lust which uses for ignoble ends
the bodies of men and women;
Father, forgive.

The Pride which leads us to trust in
ourselves and not in God;
Father, forgive.

Peace,
Allan

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