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Category: Holy Spirit (Page 1 of 15)

The Source

July 7, 2026 / / 0 Comments

“…the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven.” ~Colossians 1:5

It’s interesting to me that the Bible says hope is the source of our faith and love. Hope doesn’t come from faith; it’s the opposite. Our Christian faith is grounded in our hope, our hope in what God is holding in heaven–this thing that God is storing for you, this future glory with Christ, these eternal promises of God we know are coming true. Not hope in the things of this world. Not hope in career or family, not hope in scholarships or degrees, not hope in elections or Supreme Courts, not hope in science or technology–hope in what God is holding for us in heaven. The confidence, the assurance we have for that coming day when we know that everything that’s broken will be fixed and everything that’s gone wrong will be made right.

Christian hope is not blind optimism with no foundation to it. It’s not like, “I hope the Cowboys win the Super Bowl this year;” that’s just wishful thinking. That’s totally blind! That’s what led Alexander Pope to write, “Blessed is the one who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.” In other words, don’t get your hopes up and you can’t be let down.

For us Christians who are indwelled by God’s Holy Spirit, our hopes are always way up! We expect everything! We expect every hour of every day that our God is at work in this world through Jesus Christ and that he is reconciling all things and all people back to himself! Our hope is secure because God himself guarantees it and he seals it by placing his Spirit inside us.

That Christian hope is what compels us to love. It’s not a feeling or an emotion; it’s an intentional commitment to actions that seek to help others, actions that join God in fixing things and making things right. Cups of cold water, hospital and prison visits, food for the hungry and clothes for the poor, defending the accused and standing with the oppressed–a love in the Spirit that partners with God’s salvation work of redeeming and restoring the world.

Our Christian faith and our Christ-like love changes lives and it changes our city and the whole world. And it springs from our common hope.

Peace,
Allan

For All the Saints

July 6, 2026 / / 0 Comments

“We have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints…” ~Colossians 1:4

A “love in the Spirit” (Colossians 1:8) loves all the saints, all the saved. No exceptions. No loopholes. You don’t love some people in your church, you don’t show love to most of the people in your church–your “love in the Spirit” is a love for all the saints. And the writer of Colossians mentions those saints specifically in chapter 3, just in case you’re wondering, just in case you thought you had an out:

Greeks and Jews
Circumcised and uncircumcised
Barbarian and Scythian
Slave and free
Rangers fans and Astros fans.

A Christ-like love is a love for all the saints. No background checks, no application forms, no boxes to check, or requirements to meet. Our Lord Jesus has taken the burden off us of having to decide who to love and who not to love. He says our God causes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust. God blesses everyone. God loves everyone. So, whoever is around me is going to get rained on! I’m going to love whoever is by me or in front of me. If you’re near me, you’re going to get loved.

Jesus says “Love one another as I have loved you.”

It’s like you’re a FedEx driver. All the love is from God; you’re just the delivery guy! God fills your truck and you deliver the package. I heard Rick Atchley say this at Pepperdine a couple of months ago: “God’s love is not poured to be stored; we are filled to be spilled for the sake of others.”

And God will test you on it. He’ll give you pop quizzes to see if you’re loving all the saints. God will put difficult people in your life to stretch you to love them. And he usually does that at church. He’ll put a very difficult person right next to you in your Bible class. God will place a couple of impossible people right behind you in the Worship Center. He’ll put a difficult person in your small group. He does it all the time! The call is to love that hard person with your love in the Spirit.

If you are a baptized follower of Christ, you have received the gift of God’s Holy Spirit. And part of that gift is love. Divine love. Holy Spirit love. A love for all the saints.

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

Fulfilling the Law

August 18, 2025 / / 0 Comments

Here’s the last thing, I think, I’ll write about salvation and the law for a while. It’s a huge topic with lots of talking points, lots of opportunity to get into the weeds, and plenty of far-reaching ramifications. But I like to follow the lead of our Lord and boil it down to everything hanging on love. All the law and the prophets, everything God ever taught or ever thought, all of God’s plans for his people and his creation–it all hangs on love.

“Let no debt remain outstanding except the continuing debt to love one another, for the one who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. The commandments, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not covet,’ and whatever other commandments there may be, are summed up in this one rule: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law.” ~Romans 13:8-10

Here’s a bottom line deal for you. If you do not love everybody, then you have to deny all the most basic things all Christians believe. If I harshly criticize anybody, if I refuse to forgive anybody, if I discriminate in any way, if I ignore or neglect anybody, if I make any move to harm anyone for any reason, then I have to reject almost all the basic points of Christian belief.

We believe that all men and women are created by God in the image of God. All men and women. Period.

We believe our God loves all people. All people. Period.

We believe Jesus died on the cross because God wants all people to be forgiven and saved, including you and your neighbor, equally.

We believe in treating others the same way we want to be treated.

We believe our God calls us to show his divine love to all people everywhere–no exceptions.

Serving others in love keeps all the commands. Serving others in love makes all the beliefs real–not just something we know in our heads, but something we live with our lives, that changes us and fulfills the eternal will of our God.

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We were delighted to welcome Josh Ross to GCR Church this past weekend to train our adult Bible class teachers on “The Spirit Poured Out,” a twelve-week curriculum he wrote for us on the person, presence, and power of God’s Holy Spirit. Of course, it’s excellent. And I am beside myself with hope and anticipation for the conversations we’re going to have and God’s will we’re going to wrestle and the formation that’s going to happen in and through our congregation during the next three months.

I believe our church recognized in Josh what Carrie-Anne and I have known for years: his uncompromising commitment to our Lord and the ways of Christ and his unwavering love for God’s people. It’s infectious.

Carrie-Anne and I have known Josh and his family for more than 25 years. Josh’s dad, Rick, was the preacher at the Mesquite CofC when Carrie-Anne and I began worshiping and serving there in October 1999. Rick was the first preacher I really listened to, the first guy in a pulpit who connected the dots for me and, more than that, the first preacher whose life I noticed clearly reflected a commitment to Christlikeness. Josh’s mom, Beverly, became a mentor and friend for Carrie-Anne in ways that still profoundly resonate in Carrie-Anne’s walk with Jesus and in our marriage and family. Josh’s big sister Jenny and her husband David became very good friends of ours–I was driving to Houston with David to see the Astros and Giants on the morning of 9/11. Josh and his younger brother Jonathan were these two dynamic young men who had a fire for the Lord and a passion for discipleship and obvious gifts for speaking and leading in God’s Kingdom.  This was the setting–the time and place and people–God used to call me into congregational ministry.

The first time we went to the Tulsa Workshop, it was with Rick and Beverly and Jenny and David. And it was mind-blowing. Earth-shaking. Paradigm shattering. I started organizing  men’s retreats at Mesquite. I led a 24 Hours of Prayer at Mesquite. I taught that Room 201 Bible class. We sat behind Jason and Tiersa, next to Chris and Liz, in front of Brian and Terri. I led worship at Mesquite. We started that Second Saturday Servants. I rappelled out of a second-story air conditioning vent into the worship center for a VBS bit. The Four Horsemen made those vows to each other and our families and started those Wednesday night dinners and those Tuesday morning Bible studies. I started reading John Mark Hicks and C.S. Lewis. Those three years at that church were the most intensely formative times for Carrie-Anne and me in our discipleship to Jesus. That Mesquite church was a dysfunctional mess, but our gracious God used that church and those people at that time to transform me into a proclaimer of his Good News.

It’s not Josh’s fault, but in my mind and my heart he is forever connected to that time and place and people that still mean so much to me. So, I just absolutely love the guy. We had a blast hanging out together this weekend, and I know our church at GCR is going to be blessed for the next three months and beyond as we dive into his material on the Holy Spirit. As Josh told us several times, we don’t need a perfect understanding of the Holy Spirit, but we do need a working understanding.

I thank God for the gifts he’s given his servant Josh and for Josh’s eagerness to share those gifts with GCR this weekend. I thank God for the whole Ross family and the eternal impact they’ve had on me and my family. And I thank God for that Church of Christ in Mesquite.

Peace,

Allan

Trusting the Good News

April 24, 2025 / / 0 Comments

Every single time the New Testament says somebody is filled with the Holy Spirit, without exception, their mouths open and they start talking about Jesus. Most of those instances are in Acts and Luke, but they are all remarkably consistent. And intentional. The Bible is telling us that the indwelling Spirit gives us the power, he gives us the boldness and courage, to share the Good News with others. You can do and say things for our Lord Jesus with God living inside you that you could never do by yourself.

This is God’s plan. This is how he works. It’s part of the Good News. The problem is, we don’t trust it. We don’t always trust the way God works to spread the Good News and expand his Kingdom to save people.

We don’t trust the Gospel to connect and transform people. Or we don’t trust God’s way or God’s Spirit to communicate his Good News through us. We forget that there’s not one single person I could talk to about Jesus that God’s Spirit hasn’t already been working on. When God puts somebody in my path and an opportunity right in front of me, the fact is that he has been convincing them and drawing them and preparing them for a while now. God’s already started something with this person a long time ago and he’d be thrilled if I just jumped in and shared the fun.

Pew Research released their state of the church report two weeks ago. According to their surveys and research, in 2007,  63% of all Texans went to church at least once a month. In 2024, just 17 years later, the percentage of Texas residents who go to church at least once a month is down to 38%. The odds are right now today higher than they’ve ever been in your life that your next-door-neighbor doesn’t go to church. The odds are higher right now than they’ve ever been since you were born that your co-worker is not a Christian.

And I’m guessing you don’t know how to talk to them about it. The very thought of talking to your friend or neighbor about Jesus or about the Good News makes your stomach fall into your socks. You say you don’t know how to have a spiritual conversation.

Yes, you do. You just don’t trust it. You don’t trust the Good News. Or you don’t trust God’s plan or God’s Spirit.

Talking to people about Jesus is a Holy Spirit activity. You don’t have to start anything with your neighbor or classmate; God’s already started it! Our Lord tells us that God’s Spirit is at work around the clock convincing men and women, exposing what’s wrong in the world, and drawing all people to himself. The Holy Spirit is convicting people of their sin and compelling men and women to seek righteousness and avoid judgment. God’s Spirit is working hard on people all around you. And this same Spirit lives inside you, empowering you like you can’t believe.

Pray that God will open a door, pray that you proclaim Christ clearly, and make the most of every opportunity (Colossians 4:3-5). The Holy Spirit will put the person directly in front of you, the Holy Spirit will tell you what to say, and the Holy Spirit will do with your conversation what’s going to be best, what he’s already planned and been working on. If you’ll only trust the Good News.

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The Dallas Stars have played three games against Colorado in this first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, they have led the Avalanche for a total of just 62-seconds, and yet they are leading the series two games to one. Two come-from-behind overtime thrillers. Last night, the Stars had to kill off a four-minute double-minor power play at the end of regulation and at the start of overtime just to get to Tyler Seguin’s sudden death winner. For drama, athleticism, pressure, grit, adrenaline, anticipation, and edge-of-your seat tension, there is nothing better than overtime playoff hockey. It’s like having a heart attack on a roller coaster in an electrical storm. Can’t wait til Saturday.

Go Stars

Allan

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