The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

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Category: Hope (Page 1 of 4)

The Status is Not Quo

July 14, 2026 / / 0 Comments

The Texas Rangers are in first place at the All Star break, with a one-and-a-half game lead over the M’s. I did not have that on my bingo card a month ago. With Cory Seager out, Evan Carter hitting below his weight, and half their starters catching rides to the games on buses from Frisco and Round Rock, this team is a contender! I’m not sure it’s enough to compel Ray Davis to open up his checkbook in the next couple of weeks. But there’s hope. Especially in the putrid American League this year. There’s hope.

“To this end we labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in us.” ~Colossians 1:29

There’s an old story about a shoe company that sent two representatives to a third-world country. After three days, the first rep phoned his boss and said, “Nobody here wears shoes! There’s no potential here!” The second rep phoned his boss and exclaimed, “Nobody here wears shoes! There’s unlimited potential for an outstanding market here!”

We can’t escape the really tough stuff in our world; it’s always right in front of us. The politics, the race issues, and a thousand other things that seem to divide us; drawing lines and choosing sides, poverty and injustice, violence and godlessness–it’s everywhere. If we’re not careful, we can give up on the ideas of reconciliation and connection, of healing and redeeming. We can just want to hunker down and play it safe, for our own sakes. Don’t risk it. It’s never going to change. It’s not worth it. It’s always going to be this way now. The status is always going to be quo.

No. Wrong answer.

Children of God and followers of Jesus who are sent by God’s Holy Spirit on his mission never take that position. The new creation energy of our God is working in us and through us. His mighty strength is empowering his salvation mission for Midland and for the whole world. God’s energy, God’s power, and God’s will to bring all people together in him means the status is not quo.

God’s energy working so powerfully within us means wonders have not ceased, possibilities we never dreamed of are bound to happen, and hope is a for-real legitimate position for us to take.

The same God of your Bible, the same mighty Creator and powerful deliverer, is still at work right now today. The God who created breath is still giving breath today; the God who liberated people then is still liberating people today.

We have nothing to fear. We know that God is with us in Christ, that he will deliver us in Christ, and that he really is saving the world through Christ. There’s unlimited potential for new creation in you and in your community. And you and I are so unbelievably blessed and privileged to be in the middle of it with him. And with one another.

Peace,
Allan

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

The Prophetic Tasks

May 4, 2026 / / 0 Comments

How about a loaded quote today from a true Christian prophet who passed from this life to the next almost two years ago. The quote is more than 15 years old, but it’s never been more true than right now.

“The prophetic tasks of the Church are to tell the truth in a society that lives in illusion, grieve in a society that practices denial, and express hope in a society that lives in despair.” ~Walter Brueggemann

A Juneteenth Prayer

June 19, 2025 / / 0 Comments

On this Juneteenth holiday, I invite you to join me in prayer to our God for three things:

~ lament to our Lord the atrocities of slavery and acknowledge to him this country’s sins of racism and segregation

~ thank God for the progress we’ve made  and that we are not where we once were, as individuals and in this country

~ personally resolve before God to continue fighting racism and segregation in all its forms in our communities, our families, and our churches

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Juneteenth used to be an exclusively Texas thing. For Texas Monthly’s wonderful profile of Opal Lee, the Fort Worth grandmother who almost single-handedly turned our Lone Star tradition into an official national holiday, click here.

You might also check out the work Jerry Taylor and others are doing at the Carl Spain Center on Race Studies and Spiritual Action on the campus of Abilene Christian University. Their website is here.

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Finally, this Juneteenth prayer I have borrowed from the Archdiocese of Baltimore:

We pray, O Lord, for change. 
Jesus, you revealed God through your wise words and loving deeds, 
and we encounter you still today in the faces of those whom society has pushed to the margins. 
Guide us, through the love you revealed, 
to establish the justice you proclaimed, 
that all peoples might dwell in harmony and peace, 
united by that one love that binds us to each other and to you. 
And most of all, Lord, change our routine worship and work
into genuine encounter with you and our better selves
so that our lives will be changed for the good of all. 
May it be so in Christ Jesus. Amen. 

Peace,

Allan

The Hope of Grace

December 28, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Comfort yourselves.
It is not from yourselves that you should expect grace.
But on the contrary, it is in expecting nothing from yourselves.
That is where you receive the hope of grace.

~ Pascal

You Will Come to Life

August 20, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Things don’t always seem really great. Things don’t always go the way you thought they might. In fact, sometimes, things are really rotten. Things at home. Things at church. People in your family. Situations. Issues. Sometimes it can seem hopeless. Sometimes it can be overwhelming. You don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel. You can’t believe it’s possible for this or that to work out for good. There’s no way.

“Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone.” ~Ezekiel 37:11

Have you looked at the cross lately?

You know, we live by faith, not by sight. We live by the Spirit, not by the flesh. We serve a Lord who has already defeated every single thing that would ever come between us and our God-ordained potential and purpose as his children living in his eternal Kingdom. Our God looks at his Son dying—deader than dead—on that cruel tree and sees hope. He sees possibility. God looks into the darkness of the tomb and sees eternal life. He looks at Sarah’s barren womb and the 100 candles on Abraham’s birthday cake and sees an entire nation of millions of his people. And our God looks at your life, he looks at your church, he looks at the mess that is you and/or the people around you, and he sees great promise. He sees things we don’t see.

“I will put breath in you, and you will come to life.” ~Ezekiel 37:6

The things happening to you or around you—whatever they are, they are not a joke. It’s nothing to be taken lightly. I’m sure it’s all quite serious.

But the cross of Christ and that empty tomb remind us that it’s also nothing to worry about. It’s nothing to lose sleep over. It’s nothing to sweat. The power of the cross and the resurrection of Jesus takes away all doubt and fear and replaces it with holy power and confidence.

God’s power is made perfect in weakness. And you are weak. You are so pitiful. So am I. We are, together, some of the weakest, most pitiful people around.

And that, my brothers and sisters, gives me great courage and hope.

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Here are a few pictures from the second night of our own personal World Series parade in Arlington. Carly and Collin joined us Friday at the ballpark where we received free promotional giveaway championship hoodies, which are short-sleeved and weird; took pictures with the World Series banner, which looks tiny and insignificant next to that massive video board;  the World Series trophy, which was displayed inside Chuck Morgan’s P.A. booth and brought tears to my eyes; and the huge World Series championship ring that was just meant to be climbed on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Peace,

Allan

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