The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

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Making Waves

July 14, 2022 / / 0 Comments

130 kids from the 5th grade down.
77 church volunteers.
52 beach balls.
10 buckets of confetti.
5 experiential learning and doing stations.
3 exciting nights.
1 crazy shark named Davy Wavy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tonight is the last night of Vacation Bible School at the Golf Course Road Church and it has been nothing less than a smashing success. I’m so proud of Kristin and Ashlee and Shannon for whipping up a wonderful plan to get our kids and their friends worshiping God, learning to trust Jesus, participating in local missions, and just having a blast together in the name of following our Lord. And I’m so proud of our church family. Those 77 volunteers don’t count the couple of dozen or so who helped decorate the church building on Saturday. So, in my view, this is a genuine all-church event. Our entire church has come together so beautifully to pull this off for the sake of our kids. And we’ve had a lot of fun doing it.

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve received so much joy watching Mark do his thing. He is a supremely talented teacher who connects so well with the children, and they love him. To watch Mark physically involve the kids with the Gospel stories about Christ, to see the boat he built for our stage, to be in the room when Mark is ad-libbing with a six-foot-tall walking and talking shark named Davy Wavy, is to appreciate not only his gifts, but his eagerness to share them with God’s Church. What a true blessing for all of us.

By the way, Brandon’s Davy Wavy is really the hit of the week. Why it takes him a full night to memorize a simple ten-word memory verse is beyond me. And I can’t decide if his voice sounds more like the Cookie Monster or Redd Foxx. But his energy and enthusiasm for the gig is making him the star of the show, no doubt.

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you to Kristin and Ashlee and their incredible group of teachers and volunteers. I’m so grateful to belong to a church and a ministry team that values teaching our kids how to love like Jesus. Each night has featured a different non-profit organization that’s doing Gospel work locally in Midland – Mission Agape, Reflections, and the MISD’s Family Support System – and our kids have  spent some of their time during each night working with that ministry. They’ve packed food for needy families in the Permian Basin, packed gift bags of socks and makeup and other essentials for women rescued from sex trafficking, and tonight they’re packing hygiene kits for at-risk students in our schools. Our kids are making waves in our community that will continue to have significant impact for weeks and months.

 

 

 

 

 

This has been an important week at GCR. We’re connecting together. We’re coming together for a common purpose. We’re teaching our children and worshiping God and serving our city in Jesus’ name and meeting a lot of new people and having a fantastic time doing it. May we have a terrific final night. May God’s name be praised and his grace be received. And may our Lord’s will be done in us and through us in Midland just as it is in heaven.

Peace,

Allan

Life, Light, and Love

July 13, 2022 / / 3 Comments

“What is good for us always comes by three unequivocal words: life, light, and love. Defending life, witnessing light, living out love; these remain forever. They are the specific duty of anyone who calls upon God, following Christ’s unmistakable example.

An assembly where people do not love each other, where they accuse each other, where there is rancor or hatred, cannot call itself Christian.

A person who keeps silent about the truth, who hides the light, is not Christian.

A people which kills, which deteriorates the quality of life, which suffocates the poor, which is not free, is not a Christian people.

This is terribly costly. It is drawn from the silence of God. It calls for swimming against the stream. It demands lengthy prayer. And no fear.”

~ From The God Who Comes, by Carlo Carretto

Gather Me

July 12, 2022 / / 0 Comments

O God, gather me now
to be with you
as you are with me.

Soothe my tiredness;
quiet my fretfulness;
curb my aimlessness;
relieve my compulsiveness;
let me be easy for a moment.

O Lord, release me from the fears and guilts which grip me so tightly;
from the expectations and opinions which I so tightly grip;
that I may be open to receiving what you give,
to risking something genuinely new,
to learning something refreshingly different.

O  God, gather me now
to be with you
as you are with me.

Amen.

~Ted Loder

Made Himself Nothing

July 5, 2022 / / 0 Comments

“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross!” ~ Philippians 2:5-8

Jesus did not consider his equality with God something to be used for his own benefit. Jesus saw his position and power as a way to serve others. A way to serve all. He became a servant. The Greek word in the text is actually “slave.” Deprived of the most basic human rights. No rights. No freedom. No choice. No voice. He gave up all that for the sake of others. In his own words, Jesus came not to be served, but to serve.

Our Lord never exercised his rights. He never asserted his rights.

This is so important for us to consider. As citizens of the United States of America coming off a three-day weekend celebrating the country’s independence, we should reflect on our priorities as they fall into line behind those of our Lord.

Jesus never fought for or defended his rights. He never lobbied for his rights or complained about his rights. He didn’t worry about losing his rights or step forward to keep his rights.

Christ Jesus, our King, gave up his rights. All his rights. He denied his rights.

And he invites us to do the same. He invites us to imitate him.

“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” ~ Mark 8:34

Jesus left everything. He considered the glory he shared with the Father in heaven nothing. He came here to suffer, to be deserted by his family and friends, to be tortured and executed  like a criminal for people like you and me. For all people.

And he didn’t have to. Jesus had the authority. He had the power. The armies of heaven were at his disposal. He had ten thousand angels on speed dial. Jesus and his followers could have marched to Rome in the morning, overthrown the government that afternoon, hang Caesar from the highest tree and still been home in time for dinner. Jesus could have given each of his apostles his own country and they could have run the government the way it needs to be run. But, instead, he gave up his rights and died. He gave himself up.

And he summons us to do the same.

Peace,

Allan

Tranquility, Gentleness, Strength

June 30, 2022 / / 6 Comments

If we desire a simple test of the quality of our spiritual life, a consideration of the tranquility, gentleness, and strength with which we deal with the circumstances of our outward life will serve us better than anything that is based on the loftiness of our religious notions, or fervor of our religious feelings. It is a test that can be applied anywhere and at any time. Tranquility, gentleness, and strength, carrying us through the changes of weather, the ups and downs of the route, the varied surface of the road; the inequalities of family life, emotional and professional disappointments, the sudden intervention of bad fortune or bad health, the rising and falling of our religious temperature. Tranquility, gentleness, and strength are the threefold imprint of the Spirit on the souls surrendered to his great action.

~ The Spiritual Life, Evelyn Underhill

Common Ground

June 28, 2022 / / 1 Comment

We Christians belong to a self-described God of reconciliation who has given us, in his words, the ministry of reconciliation. We are charged by the nature of our own salvation to be a people who seek common ground, who build bridges, who foster restoration of relationships. So, where is the common ground for conversation in the Pro Choice v. Pro Life standoff?

There is no conversation happening. Both sides of this contentious issue are dug in and refuse to budge. There are no attempts to understand, there are no efforts to empathize with the other side. There are only degrading insults and lightning-fast judgments. So, where is the common ground?

What if both sides of this fight have something valid and vital to defend? Don’t they?

Pro-Choicers are desperate to defend the rights of women. They are compelled to protect the bodies of women, to protect against the exploitation of women, to protect against women being told by men what they can and cannot do without any say in the matter. They want to secure the equal rights of all women medically, socially, and economically. That’s what is driving their position. And isn’t that something we all believe is a vital and valid cause? Aren’t those things to which we all should be committed?

Pro-Lifers are desperate to uphold the intrinsic equal dignity and protect the life of every single human being, born and unborn. The deep, eternal value of every person, regardless of perceived disability or inconvenience to society, is what compels their position. Speaking for and standing alongside the most vulnerable among us. That is a vital and valid cause. Aren’t those things to which we all should be committed?

Isn’t that the common ground Pro-Lifers share with Pro-Choicers? Isn’t there room in that realm for genuine empathy, maybe even a little identity, with the other side? Both sides want to take care of women and children and their families. Both sides want women in our society to enjoy the same rights and privileges of men. Certainly, children of God and followers of Jesus want these things. Aren’t we charged by our Lord to point this out and act on it?

Peace,

Allan

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