The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

AllanStanglin.com

Category: Salvation (Page 1 of 35)

Prayerful. Watchful. Thankful.

August 19, 2026 / / 0 Comments

Rock and Roll has lost another legend and Texas music has lost another one of its sons. Frank Beard, the steady heartbeat of ZZ Top, passed away yesterday at his ranch in Richmond at 77 years of age. A founding member of that “little ol’ band from Texas,” Frank played drums for ZZ Top for 57 years–that ZZ Top boogie don’t woogie without Frank’s shuffling beat underneath. Five years after bassist Dusty Hill’s death, guitarist and lead singer Billy Gibbons is the last man of the famed Texas trio still standing. But he’s vowing that the show will go on. After taking three days off, Gibbons says ZZ Top will perform its scheduled concerts this Friday in Eagle Pass and Saturday and Sunday in Austin, before heading to Michigan and finishing their current tour through the end of November.

Is it still ZZ Top? Or is it just a Billy Gibbons show now? I’m sure Gibbons is wanting to honor Dusty and Frank and what they all started in 1969 by continuing to play as ZZ Top. And maybe it’s a way of stating that ZZ Top is bigger than the three of them. But I’m not sure that it is. It’s not the “same three guys, same three chords” anymore.

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“Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.” ~Colossians 4:2

In the middle of the sickness and disease and death, our God is healing and restoring and creating new life. Pray for it. Watch for it. And be thankful.

In the middle of all the division and discord, our God is reconciling and bringing more people together in Christ. Pray for it. Watch for it. And give him praise.

In the middle of all the violence and war and threats of war, our God is lavishing his love and mercy on all people. Pray for it. Watch for it. And exalt his name.

In the middle of all the uncertainty, in the middle of fake news and broken promises and broken trust, in the middle of the hypocrisy and lies, our God guarantees–by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus–redemption and the forgiveness of sin and eternal life for you and for all of us together. Pray for it. Watch for it. And be thankful.

Peace,
Allan

Always Working

August 17, 2026 / / 0 Comments

I began yesterday’s sermon by talking about the beautiful sunrises and sunsets in Midland. With the land as flat as it is out here in West Texas, and not very many tall buildings, and no trees, the sky is just so big and the sunrises and sunsets are spectacular. Every day. The sunrise is inspiring. The morning clouds. The colors. The sunset is breathtaking. So huge. The power and the beauty. Every day.

I’m not sure I had seen sunrises and sunsets until we moved to Amarillo 15 years ago. It’s not because they don’t have them in Dallas–they do. Every day. But I don’t think I ever really saw one. There are too many tall buildings and trees in the way. The landscape, the hills, the houses and high-rises–all the clutter kept me from seeing what was always there every single day.

But in Amarillo and, now, even more so, in Midland, with most of the clutter removed, I can clearly see what’s always been there. And I can pay better attention to it. And marvel at it. And be thankful.

The point I eventually made is that our God is always at work. Always. Every day. He never stops forgiving and comforting and redeeming and restoring and encouraging and saving. He never stops. Always. Every day. We believe that when God’s Holy Spirit raised Jesus from the grave, he was given power and authority over all things. And this divine power and authority has already defeated sin and death and Satan and all the destructive forces of evil in the universe. So, that means there is nothing–nothing!–nothing wrong, nothing dark, nothing broken, nothing bad, nothing evil in your life that hasn’t already been defeated by our Lord. The almighty Creator and Savior of the world is at work in your life right now. He is. You know he is doing something holy and good and redemptive in your life.

But maybe you don’t see it.

Just because you don’t see it, doesn’t mean it’s not there. Maybe there are too many buildings and trees in the way. Maybe the ups and downs of the terrain are blocking your view. Can you identify the clutter in your life that’s keeping you from realizing the power and the beauty of God’s work in your life?

As soon as the sermon was over, before the benediction, Triston emailed me the gorgeous picture at the top of this post of a sunset from his front porch. And then Herman and Patti sent this one from their driveway. Wow. I wish I’d had those when I put the PowerPoint together on Friday. Thank you for these amazing pictures.

Every morning, the beautiful West Texas sunrise reminds me that the earth is still turning and the God who created it is still in charge. In the evening, the gorgeous West Texas sunset reminds me that God is still working, always working. He is working for what’s best for you and for me right now and for all eternity. He is working in my life and in the lives of all the people I love. He is at work in and through all the people in our church, all the people and circumstances in our city, and all the people and situations around the world. Our God is constantly redeeming and restoring and healing and saving.

Just because you don’t see it doesn’t mean it’s not there.

Peace,
Allan

Trading Places

August 6, 2026 / / 0 Comments

The Gospel is all about trading places. It’s about substitution. Someone taking my place. Me filling in for someone else. Christ Jesus paying a debt he did not owe. Me bearing burdens that belong to my brother. An exchange. A switch-out.

The Gospel is this way because our God is this way.

God is love. And love–real love, intimate love, liberating love, Gospel love–is all about this exchange.

Think about your small group that meets most Sunday nights. Think of the emotionally wounded person in your group. There is no way to listen to and love that person and stay completely emotionally put-together yourself. As you listen to him and attend to him, he will probably begin to feel stronger and better. But that won’t happen without you being emotionally drained yourself. There’s an exchange. A trade. And it takes a toll.

Parenting is the same way. We sacrifice and give and serve in order that our children may live. We decrease so they will increase.

God’s salvation through Jesus works the same way. He submits to us. He leaves his heavenly home. He serves. He sacrifices and suffers. He takes on shame to give you glory. He dies so you can live.

John Stott wrote:

“The essence of sin is we human beings substituting ourselves for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for us. We put ourselves where only God deserves to be; God puts himself where we deserve to be.”

If we’ll open our eyes and look for it, we’ll see that the exchange is all around us. We live in the exchange. We are trading places all the time. This is our salvation and our holy call. Praise God for trading places!

Peace,
Allan

Fullness in Christ

July 27, 2026 / / 0 Comments

“You have been given fullness in Christ.” ~Colossians 2:10

The inspired apostle Paul reminds us in the middle of Colossians 2 that God has so fully identified you with Christ Jesus that whatever happens with Jesus also happens with you. By virtue of your baptism and your “faith in the power of God,” when Jesus died, you died with him. When Jesus was raised from the grave, you were raised with him to walk in newness of a brand new and eternal life.

When you are identified so completely with Christ, you cast aside your whole way of life. Your entire sphere of existence changes. In baptism, you have died to the old way of living, the old alliances, the old allegiances, the old powers that used to control you. You died to all that. And you are alive now to God’s new world of complete and total salvation in Jesus.

“Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules?” ~Colossians 2:20

Why are you still living by the world’s rules? Why do you still submit to the world’s principles? Love those who love you. Assert your rights. Get a high-paying job. Vote for this candidate. Drive this kind of car. Live in that zip code. Argue about your opinions. Insist on your way. Buy a bigger TV for your second house. What is that? What are you chasing? What are you looking for? All those things are destined to die. It may appear to be wisdom, it may sound smart, it may feel right–but it’s based on human thinking and worldly principles.

What do you need that you haven’t already been given abundantly in Jesus? You have HIM. You are in HIM. He has already given you everything he will ever demand and everything he could ever give. Why would you look to anyone else? Or anything else?

God made you alive with Christ, Colossians says. You have been given fullness in Christ.

Peace,
Allan

Holding the Net Together

July 21, 2026 / / 0 Comments

Jesus said he would make us fishers of men, fishers of people. He has sent us out, you and me, to be fishers of “every human.” But you’re not fishing with a pole. You’re not sitting by yourself at the end of a pier with a rod and reel. We’re fishing together with a net. You’re not by yourself holding a stick and a string. We are all holding the net. Together.

It’s a huge net. It’s massive. It’s not the size of a volleyball net, it’s a giant net that spans across generational time and space. And it’s not made of rope or cord; it’s made of Christian seed sown to the Holy Spirit wind.

It’s a song written by Charles Wesley here, a plane assembled by Boeing there, a pie baked by a widow in 1843, an invitation to church written in 1391–God’s Holy Spirit weaves together all these weak and meager threads and it becomes the net. Do you see it?

It’s so big. And it sweeps back and forth across the world. It sweeps across every society and through every culture. The net is drawn in and out through all the decades and centuries. It turns and dips to snag one more soul God is faithfully trying to reach. It speeds up and slows down, it expands and withdraws to catch one more dad, one more teenager, one more generation. While you were sleeping last night, the net was catching souls: maybe a prisoner in Russia, maybe a single mom in Vermont, maybe a cab driver in Tokyo, or a teacher in Nigeria were swept up by the love of Christ.

The mission of the Church is a huge net and you’re holding onto it with us. Your faith and hope and love keep that net moving. Your good deeds for others, the ways you proclaim and share the love and grace of God with your words and acts of service–all of that contributes to our Lord’s salvation net.

The net is floating today by the eternal seeds of the Kingdom sown at GCR by Bert Mercer, Doug Parsons, and Ronnie White. When you serve a meal at Family Promise, when you read to kids at Emerson Elementary, when you write a check for Missions Sunday, when you send a card to your co-worker, when you use blue food coloring and whipped cream at VBS to tell the story of Jesus walking on the water, you are helping to maneuver that massive net.

When you warmly greet a visitor at church on Sunday morning, when you buy lunch for the guy behind you in the drive-thru, when you pray for your neighbor, the Holy Spirit breath of God moves another corner of that net to snare one more lost soul.

Here at our church in Midland, I think about Willie Goudeau and Yvonne Brooks and James and Debbie VanStavern who are still holding that net with Gabby and Kendall and M.J. and Preston. Frances Collins and Wanda McGraw are holding that net; so are Dalton and Hannah Mills, Philip and Caitlin Landry, and Justin and Anna Washburn.

So are you. You’re holding the net. We are, all of us, right now today and forever, connected together by the mission of the Church.

Peace,
Allan

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

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