The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

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Category: Romans (Page 2 of 28)

Accept Without Judgment

November 17, 2025 / / 0 Comments

This is our older (by 45-seconds) grandson Elliott, showing off his brand new teeth after his Saturday night bath. He and his brother, Sam, aren’t even four-and-a-half months old yet! This seems early for teeth, right?

As always, you can click on the pic to get the full size. While you’re at it, look at those eyelashes. Man, that’s a good looking kid.

I’m way behind on posting pictures here of Elliott and Samuel, so I’m going to post at least one a day this week, no matter what.

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My posts this week will mainly be excerpts from the sermon we preached here yesterday at Golf Course Road Church on Christian unity from Romans 14-15. As we make plans for our annual “4 Midland” pulpit swap and Thanksgiving service this next weekend, it occurs to me that we have no problem putting aside the doctrinal differences that divide our Christian denominations for the sake of our God-ordained unity in Christ. But we allow disputable matters or matters of opinion to divide us within our own congregation. Why is that? And what do we do about it? Romans 14-15, I believe, has the answer.

The apostle Paul distinguished the disciples in that church in Rome as strong Christians and weak Christians–those are his words, not mine. Romans 14 details the problems Paul is addressing in his letter. The weak believers are vegetarians; the strong believers enjoy a good steak. The weak brothers and sisters keep all the Jewish holy days; the strong brothers and sisters don’t. The weak Christians are developing elaborate worship and lifestyle theologies and drawing lines in the sand over what’s right and what’s wrong; the strong Christians don’t have very many lines and they’re not as concerned about which worship and lifestyle practices are good or bad. The weak are criticizing the strong for being spiritually insensitive; the strong are looking down on the weak for being spiritually immature. The strong proclaim freedom in Christ; the weak say, “Yeah, but that doesn’t mean anything goes.” The weak tell the strong, “You’re wrong;” the strong tell the weak, “Grow up.”

Over what? Over food. Over worship styles and religious traditions. And… keep going?

Over women’s roles and deacons and divorce and remarriage. Song selection and church budgets and Lord’s Supper prayers. Small groups and creeds and Bible translations and politics.

Over… you name it. There are all kinds of issues and beliefs and practices that Christians in the same church argue about.

The Bible makes the solution to this problem easy because it gives both strong Christians and weak Christians the exact same instructions: Accept all Christians and don’t judge any Christians.

“Accept the one whose faith is weak, without passing judgement on disputable matters. One person’s faith allows him to eat everything, but another person, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The one who eats everything must not look down on the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not condemn the one who does, for God has accepted him. Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls.” ~Romans 14:1-4

Nobody look down on anybody. Nobody condemn anybody. For God has accepted him. Accepted who? Whom has God accepted? This brother or sister in Christ who disagrees with you about some church thing. This group of Christians who don’t see eye-to-eye with you on some disputable matter, some matter of opinion, that in no way should ever divide Christians. You are not that guy’s master. You’re not in charge of that Christian.

Whether he stands or falls is up to the Lord. Whether he’s right or wrong is up to the Lord. Paul says we can’t judge that. But then Paul goes ahead and makes the call. He judges it anyway.

“He will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.” ~Romans 14:4

He’ll stand. He’s fine. Whether y’all agree or not, whether y’all are on the same page or not, he’s good because he’s in Christ. Jesus died for him, Paul says in verse 9. That’s the whole reason Jesus died, so he could be the Lord over these things and not you. So you accept him without judgment. Because God accepts him in Christ.

Peace,

Allan

Continuing a Troubling Legacy

August 12, 2025 / / 4 Comments

I am troubled by the Midland School Board’s move to rename Legacy High School back to Lee. The board is meeting this evening and it feels like it’s a done deal.

The school was established in 1961 and named after Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general, as a protest against new federal laws banning segregation. In 2020, the name was finally changed to Legacy High School, in a move that many celebrated as cutting ties once and for all with the Confederate names and symbols. But now, five years later, a few new school board members are changing it back. The proposal is to name the school Midland Lee High School, instead of Robert E. Lee High School. A vote on the matter is scheduled for tonight.

I won’t respond here to this group’s claim that the name won’t be tied to the Confederate General, but only to our high school, exclusively the school’s history and nothing else. That is an insult to the intelligence of everyone who hears it.

I do want to address the other thing I’ve heard several times over the past couple of months: This move to rename the high school after Lee is not racially motivated, the African Americans in our community don’t see it as racist, Black people in Midland are not offended, they don’t really care. My question for the board is: Who would they complain to?

What if a middle-aged Black man drives past Lee High School every day on his way to and from work? Maybe his children go to this school. He sees Lee stickers on the back of every other pickup in Midland County. He sees Confederate flags flying out the back of some of those trucks and in front of some of the houses and ranches they belong to. He sees that name “Lee” and the history it represents every day. In the newspaper and on TV, on the sides of helmets and across the fronts of jerseys, on the wall of our restaurants and the sides of our buildings–every single day. If he hated that name and the symbols associated with it, if he found the name and the symbols to be an affront to his dignity and a source of deep pain, who would he complain to?

Oh, I see, you’re trying to put yourself in his shoes.
Yes. Yes, I am.

Shouldn’t we all be doing that? As a Christian speaking to mostly, I think, fellow Christians, isn’t that exactly what our Lord Jesus did? Isn’t that our calling as disciples of Christ, to empathize, to sympathize to walk alongside and understand?

Minorities–by the very definition of the word in conjunction with the broken ways of our world–African Americans, Hispanics, minorities, generally speaking, do not experience an equal status. In this country, because of past history and current structures and a thousand other complicating factors, minorities do not have the same opportunities. The playing field is not level. In our city, African Americans make up less than eight-percent of the population. They are marginalized. Who would they complain to? What could they possibly say? What power do they have? What choice do they have?

But they have complained. They have expressed their disgust with the name. They do speak often about what that name communicates to them.

My question for Christians who want to change the name back to Lee is: If you know how African Americans read that name, if you know the name and the symbols associated with it make minorities feel vulnerable and oppressed, why would you insist? Why would you fight with your words and your good name for a mascot or a logo that you know causes deep pain?

Scripture says be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. In that same Romans 12 context, the Bible says live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, it says, but be willing to associate with people of low position, people who don’t enjoy the same status or numbers or power. Christians treat others the way we want to be treated. We love our neighbors as ourselves. Christians who are seeking the attitude, or the mind, of Christ, the Bible says, consider the needs of others more important than their own.

Slippery slope arguments about erasing history and heritage are completely missing the point. The question for Christians is: Will you identify with the city that’s fading away or with the enduring city that’s coming? Will you love your neighbor more than you love a school name or a flag? Will you love your neighbor more than you love the history and heritage of the South? Will you love the African American men and women of our community more than you love the faded words on your 25-year-old diploma?

We’re known for a lot of things here in Midland. We are known as a people of great generosity. We go out of our way to sacrifice to help others, to give to others, to take care of others, to make others feel loved and like they belong. Can’t we apply those same guiding values and principles to how we name our high school? For the sake of others?

Minorities have a much different experience and viewpoint about life in our city than we do. Our Lord would try to put himself in their shoes. Actually, he did.

Peace,

Allan

Beyond the Law

August 11, 2025 / / 0 Comments

“In Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” ~Galatians 5:6

We are not saved by obeying the law or observing the traditions or keeping the rules, we are saved by our faith in Christ alone. That’s the point of Paul’s letter to the churches in Galatia. And it’s one that bears much repeating.

Circumcision? Doesn’t count! Uncircumcision? Who cares! In Christ Jesus, those kinds of things don’t have any force. It doesn’t exercise any power.

Worship styles? Don’t count! Denominational differences? Who cares! Women’s roles, baptism methods, spiritual gifts–you name it! Small groups, Wednesday nights, lectionaries and missionaries, premillennial or amillennial, kitchens and KJVs–don’t give it any energy! Don’t waste your time. Don’t worry about it, don’t fight over it, and don’t divide over it. Why? Because it doesn’t count! The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. That’s it. Do we trust that, or not?

“There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful humans to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful humans, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us.” ~ Romans 8:1-4

God in Christ has fulfilled the entirety of the law’s purposes on our behalf. The whole point of the law and the rules has been fulfilled for us by Jesus. That’s the whole point of Jesus! Do we trust that or not?

The perfect Son of God, the one who’s never broken the law, took on your sin, he became your sin for you and took all of it to the cross. And when your sin is condemned in him, you become in God’s eyes like you’ve never sinned. Through his life, death, and resurrection, Jesus has taken care of absolutely everything to set you totally free from sin and death. Now, is your faith in that? Or is it in something else?

We spend so much energy debating worship styles and doctrinal positions and denominational differences, when there’s only one thing that matters. We argue about methods and traditions and structures and rules, when there’s only one thing that’s important. We get worked up over interpretations and translations and obligations, but only one thing counts.

You can only experience God’s freedom when you give all of yourself to the fact that your salvation has already been secured, that there’s nothing left to do, that it’s all been done. When you embrace that in faith, now you’re living in freedom. In Christ alone, you are free from your sins and anything that’s ever happened in your past. You’re free to stop worrying about yourself and your rights and your preferences and your understandings and to start loving and serving other people so that walls can be torn down and wounds can be healed. You’re not anxiously fretting about your standing with God, you’re not looking for proof of who’s in and who’s out. You are free! Free to become what God created you to be, what you always wanted to be, you just didn’t know what it was.

And whatever rules there are, whatever obligations remain, you are free to live above them and beyond them. You don’t worry about the law or the rules because your faith in Christ alone has you loving so much. Our faith expresses itself through love. And that makes the rules and laws irrelevant.

Here’s the best way to illustrate this:

There are laws in the State of Texas, and federal laws, that regulate how parents must treat their children. Child welfare laws. There are state and federally mandated requirements about food and nutrition, about not locking your kids in a closet; there are laws that prohibit physical and verbal abuse, laws regulating how much school my children get and their living conditions.

I have no idea what those laws are.

And you know what? I don’t care! I don’t. Why would I?

My deep, undying, committed, all-in love for my children has me so far beyond the letter of those laws, they don’t matter to me. I’m not under those laws. They don’t concern me. I’ve blown past all that. My love for my kids makes the law irrelevant. I’m free from those laws.

The Gospel truth is that you are saved because Jesus Christ has become for you your righteousness, holiness, and peace. You faith in him, and in that, compels you to love. It moves you so much that the law doesn’t matter. It transforms your heart and your head, it changes your principles and priorities, so the rules no longer matter. The Gospel truth and your faith in Christ alone moves you to defend the weak and stand with the accused and speak up for the oppressed. It motivates you to give and forgive with abandon. It empowers you to let go and live the way God lives, with abundant grace and giving everybody the benefit of the doubt.

That’s the only thing that counts.

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Carrie-Anne and I spent this past weekend up in Tulsa with Elliott and Samuel who turned one-month-old on Friday. We spent a little bit of time visiting with their parents, too. As always, you can click on the pictures to get the full size. You should especially click on that first one. Look at these guys!

Peace,
Allan

The Law Doesn’t Save

August 10, 2025 / / 0 Comments

“I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law or by believing what you heard? Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law or because you believed what you heard?” ~ Galatians 3:2, 5

I love Whataburger. I could eat at Whataburger twice a day for three weeks and be just fine. My lunch Whataburger is on Andrews Highway here in Midland and they know me when I walk in the door. They know my order. Number One with cheese and everything on it, extra onions. Unless the Pico de Gallo burger is back for a limited time. I ease into my corner booth with that burger and those piping hot fries and spicy ketchup and the latest issue of Texas Monthly or Christianity today and I’m good for like five hours. I love Whataburger. It’s easy and it makes me happy.

But it’s not good for me. It’s killing me. I know it, my doctor knows it, my family knows it. Whataburger is bad for me.

So Carrie-Anne lays down this law: No more Whataburger. Eat at Subway. Get the six-inch Black Forest Ham on wheat. No chips. Get the apple slices. You know, that’s a really good rule. It’s a good law. That commandment is holy and righteous and good. If I eat at Subway, it’ll benefit me greatly. I’ll enjoy a greater peace with my body and the freedom to tuck in my shirts. I should not eat at Whataburger.

But in the middle of the day, when it’s time for lunch, I get in my truck and…

If I go right out of the church parking lot, Subway is just right there. But if I go left and jump on Andrews Highway, Whataburger is just right there.

“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate to do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good… For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do–this I keep on doing! When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.  ~ Romans 7:15-21

I can’t keep the law because I’m hungry. And human. That doesn’t mean the law is bad. It means I’m bad. And faulty. And weak. Carrie-Anne’s going to get a notification and she’ll see the receipt even before I can get back to the church building. I know all this, but I do it anyway. The law is not bad, the rules are not bad–it’s just that the rules can’t save me. No matter how good and holy and righteous the law is, the law can never save me.

“What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord!” ~ Romans 7:24-25

Christ Jesus is the only way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through him. The grace of God and the love of Jesus is the only way that works. So, there’s only one thing that matters.

“The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” ~ Galatians 5:6

Peace,

Allan

Who God Is

June 25, 2025 / / 0 Comments

We are beginning a shepherd selection process here at the GCR Church to choose a few additional elders to join our leadership group. If you belong to GCR, it is especially important that you visit our shepherding page on the church website for information and resources. If you’re not a GCR member, I would still encourage you to check out this page. You’ll find four sermons we preached back in 2023 about elders–qualifications, processes, term limits and sabbaticals, the “lists” in 1 Timothy and Titus, and what to look for in potential shepherds. You’ll also find several excellent resources that include breakdowns of the “qualities” in those two New Testament “lists,” other Scriptures that are just as important in helping discern the right men for the job, and theological answers to the questions of divorce and remarriage, and an elder’s children. I believe you’ll find it very helpful.

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“God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us… When we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son.” ~Romans 5:8, 10

God insists on doing whatever it takes to have a righteous relationship with us so he tells us exactly who he is. He wants us to know him, so he gives us his full name: compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin (Exodus 34:6-7). And then he comes here to show us. He goes to the cross to show us that there are no limits to his love and no end to his faithfulness.

The cross is where God receives the worst sin and evil we can muster. All of our sin, all of our evil, everything that’s wrong and broken in us–our God absorbs all of that at the cross and he turns the other cheek and he forgives. In Christ, God reconciled us back to himself. God is not reconnecting himself back to us. It wasn’t God who was alienated from us! It was we who were alienated from God!

Jesus doesn’t die on the cross to change God’s mind about us. Jesus died on the cross to change your mind about God.

When we look at the cross, we don’t see what God does, we see who God is.

God did not require the death of Jesus. It’s that God came to us in person and we said, “Crucify him.” And when we said, “Crucify him,” God said, “Forgive them.”

When Jesus prayed, “Forgive them” for his murderers, he was not acting contrary to the nature of God. This wasn’t something new. He was revealing the eternal nature of God as faithful and forgiving love. We see at the cross that our God would rather die for his enemies than do them harm. That’s who God is.

Peace,

Allan

Reality Mission

May 5, 2025 / / 0 Comments

“The Word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart; that is, the Word of faith we are proclaiming. That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved… How can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?… Faith comes from hearing the message.” ~Romans 10:8-17

Over the past few decades, we have gotten away from speaking the Good News. Of course, we still believe that God grants us salvation by his grace through faith in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. We haven’t stopped believing. But we’ve stopped talking. We don’t proclaim with our mouths the way we used to, the way we need to.

What do I say? I don’t know what to say!

It might help if we saw our calling to proclaim not so much as engaging a rescue mission, but participating in a reality mission. Ours is a reality mission. The undeniable reality is that someday every knee will bow. Someday every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Jesus is Lord! And the day is certainly coming when all of creation will bow before him and recognize it. So we declare to our neighbors and friends, “You need to change jerseys! There is only one Lord and he is Jesus! You need to be on his side!”

It’s like declaring that dinner’s going to be ready at 6:00. You tell your teenaged kids or you tell your husband, “Hey, we’re eating at 6:00!” They may not show up. They may choose to ignore your declaration or reject your announcement. But you’re still throwing it out there: The food will be on the table at 6:00. You are a messenger with a message.

Have you spoken the Good News lately to somebody who really needs to hear it? Can you picture yourself saying to someone, “Christ Jesus has become for you your righteousness, holiness, and redemption.” Can’t you tell somebody, “Salvation comes by no other name than that of Jesus.” Can’t you say those kinds of things to the people God is placing right in front of you every day?

The Word is near you. It is in your mouth. It is in your heart.

Peace,

Allan

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