Category: Romans (Page 1 of 28)

Family: By Jesus

March 10, 2026 / Allan / 0 Comments

“I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law–a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household. Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” ~Matthew 10:35-37

Why does our Lord Jesus talk this way about family? Jesus had no problem splitting up family businesses, separating sons from their dads with a (snap) “Follow me.” He told a disciple who had just lost his dad to let the dead bury their own dead and get about the urgent business of the Kingdom.

When Jesus was teaching inside someone’s house, he was informed that his mother and brothers were outside looking for him. “Who are my mother and my brothers,” he asked? Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother!” (Mark 3:31-35)

Why does Jesus talk like this about family? Jesus treats family like he treats money and possessions. He talks about family like he talks about the government and the traditions of men. Why? Because to Jesus, every single thing we hold dear must be submitted to him and his Kingdom. Nothing comes between us and following Christ Jesus. Not even family.

You know, Jesus has this weird knack for harpooning the things we treasure the most. He devalues what we overvalue and calls us to something bigger and better. He points us to something holy and eternal. Like with our families.

We probably put too much emphasis on our biological families. I mean, our natural families are notoriously undependable. Unstable. Unreliable. Our families are divided by ambition and selfishness. Our families are separated by geography and greed. Our families are destroyed by divorce and death. You can’t count on your biological family. Yet, if we’re not careful, we can get drawn into idolizing the family. We get sucked in to prioritizing family over God.

We put our kids in sports camps and sign them up for traveling teams at alarmingly younger ages and at increasingly frantic paces like they’re going to be playing baseball and volleyball their whole lives. Their spiritual formation takes a backseat to their athletic formation. We’re more concerned about our kids being popular and successful than we are about them being like Christ. We’re investing more time and money and energy and emotion into our children and grandchildren than we are into the Kingdom and mission of God.

When we do that, we send the wrong message. We distort the Gospel. We communicate the wrong things inside our families and to everyone who’s watching.

Because not everybody has a family.

There are more and more men, women, and children in this fractured world who grow up without moms and dads. Fewer and fewer people are getting married and having kids. You know lots of people who are single–some because they choose to be and some against their will. Some people have tried to make family work, they’ve tried to keep it all together, but it just doesn’t. They don’t have a family. And we hold up biological family as some kind of spiritual ideal, as something to attain to as one of God’s top priorities, and it’s just not! We wind up excluding more and more people from the Gospel.

“Here are my mother and my brothers!”

Jesus devalues what we overvalue and calls us to something bigger and better. He points us to something holy and eternal.

“As God has said, ‘I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God and they will be my people.’ The Lord Almighty says, ‘I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters.'” ~1 Corinthians 6:16, 18

Jesus is showing us a forever family conceived in God’s love and grace and birthed by his precious blood. God’s eternal family is not based on genetics or DNA or last names, but on his compassion and Christ’s sacrifice. Romans 9 says it’s not the natural children who are God’s children, but the children of the promise. The promise is that God will create an eternal family, where everybody belongs together and everybody’s related–no barriers, no restrictions, no distinctions–where everybody belongs and everybody’s equally loved and nurtured and cared for. That’s the promise. That’s the mission of our God.

When you become a Christian, when you give your whole life over to Jesus, you are joined into God’s family. An eternal people born of water and Spirit, a family bigger and better than your biological family, a worldwide barrier-breaking family where we eat and drink together and share and accept and carry each other’s burdens. Together. Where we rejoice and mourn together. Where we support and encourage and grow and work and bless and love. Together.

“He chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love, he adopted us as his children through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.” ~Ephesians 1:4-5

If you say “Yes” to being adopted, if you’ll give yourself to it and really embrace the Church as the family of God, it’ll be the best thing that’s ever happened to you.

“I tell you the truth, no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the Gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and fields) and in the age to come, eternal life.” ~Mark 10:29-30

Peace,

Allan

Time to Wake Up

February 13, 2026 / Allan / 0 Comments

“Do this [love your neighbor as yourself], understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.” ~Romans 13:11-14

In the undeniable darkness of this present age, most people are ordering their lives according to the world’s rules and the world’s attitudes and values and styles. Even though the old world is passing away! The new world is already breaking in! The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus has already inaugurated the new age of the eternal Kingdom of God, and his followers live according to the culture of that new age.

Most people are asleep; but the new day is dawning and it’s time for all children of God and disciples of Jesus to wake up!

We know what God has done in Christ Jesus. We know what God is doing and what he has promised to do. So, we live accordingly. That’s what governs our conducts and our attitudes. We understand the times. The Bible says the Day of the Lord may not have come just yet, but it’s so close, it’s so inevitable and unstoppable, we should live as though it is already here. Our human impulses, our flesh, the sinful nature–that’s not what dictates our behavior. We live in the presence and power of our Lord whose rescue is closer than we think. We need to be aware of that.

In the darkness of right now–the political polarities and the economic uncertainties and the racial injustice and the ramped-up rhetoric and the ugly behavior; you know how dark it is. We’re seeing so much division and selfishness and anger and violence and isolation. We’re seeing it all. And if you’re not awake, if you’re sleepwalking through this stuff, you can get caught up in all that mess and get yourself into some real trouble. You can trade the love and grace and peace and sacrifice and forgiveness of Christ for the power and might and tribalism and hate and strife of the world. The hour has come to wake up. We belong to the Day, and it’s just around the corner.

“You are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So, then, let us not be like others who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled… Since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath, but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” ~1 Thessalonians 5:4-9

We do not compromise our faith or our behaviors just because we’re enduring some darkness. We respond to the darkness by walking in the light. We never allow our current circumstances to compromise our commitment to Christ. His new creation is closer than we think. So we meet the present difficulties with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

The Transforming Church

January 14, 2026 / Allan / 0 Comments

“The closer we draw to the Church, the closer Christ draws to us.” ~ Kenneth B

I’m still posting some excerpts from this past Sunday’s sermon on how we are transformed more into the image of Jesus in and through the local church. I am also sharing some lines from the excellent article I found Monday–a few days too late!–written by Kenneth B on Substack about the same topic. You can read his outstanding piece here.

The main point of Sunday’s sermon is that the differences we have with one another in our churches are precisely the areas where our Father shapes us into his image. It’s in those differences and disappointments that the Spirit changes us to more consistently think like God and more regularly and predictably act like Jesus. We have different ideas, different preferences, different buttons and triggers–there’s never going to be anything we all agree on together within our churches.

And that’s okay.

If we had to agree with everybody in our churches on everything, Carrie-Anne and I would be at two different churches.

If unity means uniformity, a bunch of us are going to have stop thinking. Nobody wants that.

God’s people are messy in community. But I think that’s the point.

“You are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people, and members of God’s household… In him, you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” ~ Ephesians 2:19-22

“In fact, God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.” ~ 1 Corinthians 12:18

I believe that every man, woman, and child in your church is there because God placed them there. You are a part of your congregation for a reason: God’s reason. We need each other if God’s going to work in us and through us the way he intends. Our mindset must be: We are together in this church because of what God is doing in Christ. If that’s the mindset, then we commit to one another. We vow to make it work.

We were watching a TV show a couple of weeks ago in which two of the characters work together, and they’re dating. They’re in a relationship. He did something at work she didn’t like, something that messed up what she was trying to accomplish, and it made her angry. So she broke up with him. It’s over. And he said, “So, that’s how it is? You don’t get your way and you sever the relationship? You’re going to be a sad and lonely woman.”

Some people leave their church when they don’t get their way. They just leave because something’s not going the way they want.

No! That misses the whole point of Christian community! It’s a family, it’s like a marriage. You work it out. You don’t leave. You work through it. And it’s hard and it’s painful and sometimes it’s disappointing and sometimes it hurts. But this is precisely what leads to spiritual growth. This is what facilitates increased Christ-likeness. You don’t treat your church like you treat your car or your shampoo. Your mindset is: I am all in with these people in this place because God has put me here and he’s doing something.

“In Christ, we, who are many, form one body. And each member belongs to all the others.” ~ Romans 12:5

We belong together in our church communities. And it’s in your church community where God’s grace transforms you. Being together all the time with people you don’t necessarily agree with, worshiping and serving together, living and dying together with people you didn’t choose, forces us to grow in Christ-likeness.

Love one another. Build one another up. Encourage one another. Honor one another. Be in harmony with one another. Pray for one another. Be devoted to one another. Instruct one another. Greet one another. Accept one another. Serve one another. Be patient with one another. Be kind and compassionate to one another. Submit to one another. Forgive one another. These biblical commands can only be obeyed in community. We can only follow our Lord’s instructions if we’re together, if we really belong to each other. And when we do these things, by God’s grace, when we commit to this way of being together in Christian community, we’ll find that we are more consistently thinking like God and more regularly and predictably acting like Jesus.

This is how God works. And where.

I’ll end today with this paragraph from the Kenneth B article. Again, I urge you to read the whole thing here.

“A personal relationship with Jesus Christ is real, but it is not solitary. It is lived through the Church. You do not discover Christ by escaping the community, but by joining it. You do not grow closer to God by seeking exceptional moments, but by entering the ordinary pattern of worship, repentance, fasting, and love that has formed saints for two thousand years… We meet him as members of his Body. We are saved together, healed together, shaped together, and restored together. Even our most personal experiences of grace arise from the shared life of the Church, it’s sacraments, its Scriptures, its prayers, its elders, its martyrs, and its saints… In the ancient world, to speak of knowing Christ personally was to speak of being united to his Body, standing shoulder to shoulder with the community he founded, and learning from the people who had already learned to pray, to repent, to love, and to die with hope.”

Peace,
Allan

We Who Are Strong

November 20, 2025 / Allan / 0 Comments

I told you I was behind on posting pictures of our new grandsons. This is the official four-month-old picture on top of the giraffe thing that was taken on the 8th, and another one of the boys propped up in the recliner before we went out to run some errands. It’s been almost two weeks since they hit four months. Elliott rolled over this week for the first time and is now doing it constantly. One morning soon, Valerie is going to walk in and they’re going to be standing up in their cribs, holding on to the top rails, and laughing.

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There’s a question that’s been burning in my bones the past few weeks, and I can’t shake it. As we approach this Sunday’s annual “4 Midland” pulpit swap and Thanksgiving Service, I’m deeply bothered by the twin realities in my own congregation.

We do not expect the Presbyterians to change their minds about predestination. We do not insist that the Baptists alter their views on the salvation efficacy of baptism. We don’t demand that the Methodists start sharing the communion meal every week. Yet we easily and joyfully set those doctrinal issues aside for the sake of our Christian unity, for the sake of worshiping and serving together, and the powerful Gospel witness it is to our city. At the same time, some of us are arguing and even dividing with our brothers and sisters within our own congregation over much lesser things.

Why would we ever expect everybody at GCR to agree on everything? If you don’t agree with everybody at GCR, do you leave? You decide you can’t worship and serve with people in your own church family because a few of them don’t see a couple of things the same way you do? Does Romans 14-15 have anything to say about this?

“We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For even Christ did not please himself.” ~Romans 15:1-3

As children of God and followers of Christ, we take our example from Jesus. The holy Son of God is the one who calls us and inspires us and empowers us to worship and serve and live together the way we do. We know that our Lord Jesus never did anything to please himself. Instead, he gave up everything, he sacrificed everything, to benefit and build up others. And by choosing to serve others instead of pleasing himself, Jesus sets the pattern that we have to make our own. Putting others first. Considering the needs of others more important than our own.

And the Bible puts this on the strong Christians. It’s up to the strong, not the weak, to make sure this happens. It’s up to the strong to make the sacrifices and concessions to our weaker brothers and sisters. That’s not easy. It’s much easier to be the weaker Christian, drawing the lines and insisting that other Christians cater to me.

Strong Christians–that should be Christians who’ve been following Jesus a long time; it’s not always, but it should be–with strong faith realize that the more you sacrifice and the more you give up for others, the more like Christ you are. The more you insist on your own way and the more you assert yourself for your own interests, the less like Christ you are.

So, if all of us decided today, to a person, that would put ourselves at the back of the line, that we would all bend over backwards to make everybody else happy and sacrifice our own feelings and opinions in order to build up others–if we all did that? Wow!

If we all accepted one another, just like Christ. If we all bore the failings of the weak, just like Christ. If we all pleased our neighbor for his good, just like Christ. It still won’t result in a perfect church. It won’t eliminate our differences of opinion. It won’t do away with the arguments and debates. But it would mean figuring out how to worship and serve and live together.

We know for sure that the Christ who unites us is greater by far than the differences that may divide us. And our grace-filled conversations and our mercy-full interactions with each other and our shared commitment to our Christian unity will reflect and bear witness to that conviction. It’ll prove it.

Peace,

Allan

Stop Saying “Salvation Issue”

November 19, 2025 / Allan / 6 Comments

Watch this video. It’s our twin grandsons, Elliott and Samuel, two Thursdays ago, “meeting” each other for the very first time. I promise it will be the best 25-seconds of your day.

Twins Talking

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I love listening to Cowboys fans after Dallas beats a really bad team. All they need to do is go on a run. It’s finally coming together. This is the catalyst. The Cowboys got their fourth win the Monday before Thanksgiving week–seems kinda late. The four wins have come against the Raiders (2-8), the Jets (2-8), the Giants (2-9), and Washington (3-8). Monday was the only game all year Dallas held an opponent to under 20 points. Next up, Dallas plays the Eagles, Chiefs, Lions, Vikings, and Chargers. In that order. Yeah, they’re about to go on a run all right.

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Today’s post is a bit of an aside in our conversation this week about Christian unity and accepting our brothers and sisters in Christ and refusing to judge other Christians or churches according to beliefs or practices that may differ from mine or yours. This is a suggestion. I believe this is a good idea for all of us. It’s at least something to consider.

Stop saying “salvation issue.”

Most Christians I know agree that we should not divide over “disputable matters” or “matters of opinion.” The problem, as we discussed here yesterday, comes when people believe a disputable matter is actually a matter of doctrine or faith. Many Christians I know call it a “salvation issue.”

When we start talking about “salvation issues,” we rank things in order of importance to God and according to what’s going to save us and what’s going to condemn us. We talk about baptism and church and communion and worship. But we don’t talk about helping the poor or loving our enemies or forgiving others, which the Bible says are actually the more important matters. Jesus calls those things the weightier matters. So, at best, we have a misunderstanding of the things that are most important to God or, at worst, we’re really only concerned with what’s important to us.

If we insist on using the term, I would suggest that all things are “salvation issues.” Everything is a “salvation issue.” Whether a church has a kitchen or not is a “salvation issue,” not because the kitchen is right or wrong, but because of how you treat people who feel differently about it than you do.

Give me a break. You people who don’t have kitchens in your churches. Grow up. You’re so legalistic and patternistic. You’re like the Pharisees. You’re more worried about the things of man than the things of God. Big picture, man. When are y’all going to get serious about the Kingdom of God?

You people who have kitchens in your churches. I guess you’ll do anything. You see any church kitchens in the Bible? I guess the Bible doesn’t mean as much to you as it does to me. You let the culture dictate everything in your church? When are y’all going to get serious about the Scriptures?

See how kitchens is a “salvation issue?” Not the kitchen itself, but your heart. Your attitude.

We won’t fellowship a church because they sing different songs or pray different prayers than we do or we won’t accept a group of Christians because they understand baptism differently than we do, but we’re okay with lying to our customers or cheating on our spouse or ignoring the poor. We should stop saying “salvation issue” because we don’t do a good job with it. We use that term to categorize what issues are important or not important to us based on our own preferences and opinions. The “salvation issue” is your attitude when you and another Christian disagree on anything.

“The Kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God.” ~Romans 14:17

Romans 14-15 is calling for unity in spirit, not unity in opinion, not unity in practice, not even unity in belief. Unity in spirit so that “with one heart and mouth” we may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Peace,
Allan

Disputable Matters

November 18, 2025 / Allan / 2 Comments

Before we get into part two of this week-long series on Christian unity from Romans 14-15, check out this picture of Sam and his granddad watching college football together two Saturdays ago. The little dude is locked in, huh? Two football zombies right there.

You already know I am a conscientious resistor when it comes to digital technology and smart phones. I never take my cell phone with me into a meeting or a restaurant or to any kind of social or business setting–my phone is always either on my desk or in my truck. Now, I’ve got another reason to make sure my phone is never on me: it keeps me from bugging every single person in my path with two dozen of the latest pictures and videos of my incredible grandchildren.

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Most Christians I know agree that we should never divide over matters of opinion, or what we might call “disputable matters.” That’s the problem the apostle Paul is addressing in Romans 14-15: the Christians in Rome are arguing and separating over what he calls “disputable matters.” When Paul calls on the disciples in Rome to accept one another and stop looking down on others and stop judging others, the context is in these disputable matters.

The problem, though, is that when we argue and divide, at least one of the parties believes the issue is one of doctrine.

In Churches of Christ, we’ve generally used this as a guiding principle:

“In matters of faith, unity; in matters of opinion, liberty; in all things, love.”

That’s a creed, by the way. And it’s fine. It’s good. But it doesn’t help much, because what some Christians consider a matter of opinion, others consider a matter of faith. We don’t agree on which is what. That’s where this gets touchy. Because if you and I are arguing about something and the argument and the feelings are such that it’s threatening to divide us, then at least one of us believes with all our hearts that it’s a matter of doctrine and faith.

But even then, the Bible says it’s okay. It’s not something that should divide us.

“One person considers one day more sacred than another, another person considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. The one who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and the one who abstains, does so to the Lord, and gives thanks to God.” ~Romans 14:5-6

Each of us should be fully convinced that we’re doing is the right thing to do in the eyes of God, but do not bind that on another brother who doesn’t feel the same way. If he believes or practices something different, you assume he’s doing it to the Lord, before the Lord, and in the presence of the Lord with a clear conscience. We give all Christians the benefit of the doubt. We always assume the best. I assume that my sister in Christ who has a different belief or a different practice is not believing or practicing arbitrarily or haphazardly. She’s doing it with careful study and serious prayer and reflection. And she’s fully convinced that she’s doing the godly thing. So everything’s fine. Don’t judge her. Don’t divide from her. Accept her.

As Paul reminds in Romans 14:9-10, this is the whole reason Christ was crucified and resurrected, so he can be Lord over these things and not you. Why are you judging your own brother in Christ? Why are you looking down on other Christians?

Now, there are some things that are non-negotiable doctrinal matters in which Christians must be unified. There are issues of settled, historical, biblical, orthodox Christianity that cannot be argued. As to belief, all of those are in the Apostles’ Creed; as to practice, all of those are in the sacraments; as to ethics, all of that has long been settled by the clear teachings of holy Scripture.

As for everything else? Anything else? Accept. Do not judge.

“To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.” ~Romans 14:4

Peace,

Allan

Category: Romans (Page 1 of 28)

Family: By Jesus

Time to Wake Up

The Transforming Church

We Who Are Strong

Stop Saying “Salvation Issue”

Disputable Matters

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