The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

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Open to Our Witness

October 7, 2026 / / 0 Comments

Jonah is asleep at the bottom of the ship when the Lord sends a violent storm. The ship is taking on water, the Bible says the boat is beginning to break up. The sailors all believe they’re going to die. They’re each praying to their own gods. These are not Israelite sailors–these are pagans. Idol worshipers. Foreigners. From different countries with different customs and cultures and languages. And they’re scared to death.

They go downstairs and wake up Jonah. We drew straws! We cast lots! We rolled the dice! We shook up the Magic 8-Ball! And it all points to you, Jonah! What’s the deal? Who are you? 

And Jonah, in the middle of the storm, in the middle of the turmoil and chaos, in the middle of the anxiety and fear, in the middle of a foreign mission field on board a pagan ship, says,

“I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.” ~Jonah 1:9

The Scripture says this terrified the sailors even more. What, are you crazy? You’re running away from the God who created the sea, ON THE SEA?!? Who does that?? We’re all dead!!

Here’s what I see in the first chapter of Jonah. The runaway prophet confessed God as Lord, and that’s all it took to save these pagan sailors.

Jonah confesses the Lord out loud to these frightened men. They reluctantly act on Jonah’s instructions, they throw him overboard. And they call on the name of the Lord. They beg the Lord for forgiveness. And when the storm immediately goes away and the sea immediately grows calm, they greatly fear the Lord. They revere the Lord. They’re in awe of the Lord. They’re moved. And they worship the Lord. They offer sacrifices to God and they make vows, they make commitments to God right there on the spot. Jonah confessed the Lord to these pagan sailors. And the sailors saw God. They experienced God’s salvation. And their lives were forever changed.

Hear me on this. The world is not closed to our witness. Even if it’s a weak witness. The world is open.

I imagine when Jonah first payed his fare and boarded that ship, he never dreamed of talking to those sailors about God. They would never listen. Those are some rough dudes. I can’t relate to these guys. Those kinds of people aren’t interested in God. And Jonah goes downstairs to take a nap. But the truth in the next parts of the story tell us that the world is open to our confession. Even when it’s weak.

Our world is in crisis. The world we live in right now is desperate, it’s hopeless. People in Midland are searching for truth. People all around you are dying for something to believe in, something stable and secure to hold on to. People all over the world are rolling the dice, casting lots, drawing straws, shaking the Magic 8-Ball, looking, looking, looking, for answers. Looking for help. And they’re mostly wide open to the truth if we’ll just confess it in front of them.

The sailors were not looking for this witness. They weren’t looking for Jonah’s confession of faith, they weren’t looking for the Creator of Heaven and Earth, they didn’t know what they were looking for. But through Jonah’s witness, as weak as it maybe was, they encountered our God and experienced his salvation from the storm. They acknowledged their helplessness. They realized the futility of rowing against the storm by themselves. And they believed in the Word of God and they acted on it. And they worshiped him.

Open your mouth and confess God as Lord in front of non-believers. The people around you are open.

Peace,
Allan

The Sky is Blue

October 6, 2026 / / 0 Comments

The sky is blue, no matter who says it.

If the biggest liar you know says the grass is green, it still is. You don’t change your mind about it.

If someone you really dislike tells you Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla is great, they are telling you the truth. You don’t stop believing the truth just because you dislike the person who says it.

And if a politician you would never vote for says God is non-binary, he is correct. You don’t change your mind about what you have always believed, what the Bible has always affirmed, and what the Church has always taught, just because a politician outside your preferred party said it. God is still, yes, non-binary.

Our God transcends human gender. God is Spirit, not human. We cannot use human categories to define God. Our God must always be defined in ways that go beyond our human limitations. You probably know this.

God created both male and female to bear his holy image on earth together. Both. The Bible uses both male and female language and metaphors to describe our God. He is the King and he is the Father. He is also the nursing mother and the hen gathering her chicks under her wings. The Scriptures describe God’s Spirit with more female language than male language. God is non-binary. You’ve probably always known and affirmed this truth.

Now, I use male pronouns when I am referring to God–all three persons–the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. When the will of God, his holy Word, became human flesh and blood, it was in the form of a man, Jesus Christ, the Son. Jesus calls God the Father, as do most of the biblical authors. So I do, too. You probably do, too. Even so, you are probably always very aware that God is not really male.

Our God is non-binary, no matter who says it.

There are many reasons to dislike James Talarico’s politics. His comment about God being non-binary came on the Texas House floor in 2021 when he was arguing against a bill that would ban transgender athletes from women’s sports. I think allowing transgendered women to compete in women’s sports would be a terrible public policy. And I think calling our God non-binary to support a policy like that is a horrible misuse of our Christian faith; it’s out of context and out of line. But it doesn’t mean all of a sudden God is binary now. He’s not. You can’t change your understanding about that just because Talarico said it and you don’t like Talarico. We cannot interpret the Bible through the lens of our politics. We must interpret our politics through the lens of the Bible.

The sky is blue. No matter who says it.

Peace,
Allan

Answering the Call

October 5, 2026 / / 0 Comments

Missions Month at GCR has become just about my favorite time of the year because we get to hang out with some of the very best people I know. Brad and Melissa Hooley, our Nexus church-planting partners from the Mountain View Christian Church in Kalispell, Montana, spent the weekend with us and we had an absolute blast getting caught up on everything the Lord is doing up there. We grilled fajitas for ten Saturday night and ate and laughed and prayed together around our dining room table. Brad and Melissa led our communion time Sunday and then we celebrated GCR CrocktoberFest with a Crockpot potluck feast after church. While the little kids played loudly, Jason Kumalo told us all the great salvation things God is doing in and through our Namwianga Missions partners in Zambia. Brad and Melissa joined us in the DP room Sunday afternoon to watch the Texans yellow flag themselves into a loss to the Cowboys. Then we hoofed it back to church for a pizza party with the GCR group that visited Kalispell three summers ago when Mountain View Christian first launched. We capped the night with a rousing game of “99” back at Stanglin Manor in which I was the first one eliminated and Brad ran the table to win. Mostly graciously.

I’m not even sure it’s possible. But if it is, I almost had too much sopapilla cheesecake.

God bless the Hooleys–all six of them!–and our brothers and sisters at Mountain View Christian.

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To help us better understand our God’s will to save the whole world and our role in his salvation plans, we are spending four Sundays in Jonah–one chapter of the story per Sunday. One of the takeaways from yesterday’s lesson is that God’s call is very clear. Always. He tells Jonah to go and preach to Nineveh. Very direct and to the point. There’s no misinterpreting or misunderstanding God’s call on Jonah. It’s really very simple. Go and preach to Nineveh.

Nineveh is the capital city of the Assyrian Empire. The Assyrians are Israel’s national enemies.

Jonah doesn’t misunderstand God’s call. God’s call is crystal clear. Jonah just disagrees with God’s way of dealing with the bad situation in Nineveh. I can almost hear Jonah:

Nineveh? Seriously? Those people are terrible! You don’t preach to people like that; you wipe ’em out! You destroy them! Those people are despicable! They have no regard for human rights! They treat women horribly! They’re always starting wars! They kill people at the drop of a hat! They don’t believe in our God! They don’t share our values! They’re all crazy! Come on, God, you’ve seen the news! Those people are insane! They’ve always been that way and they will be that way forever! They’re trying to take over the world and force their philosophy on everybody! They’d love to see us all dead! Have you read the things they write? Have you seen their videos? The best thing that could happen to them is you blowing them to Kingdom come! We should turn that whole part of the world into a giant sand trap!

I’ve been reading Jonah’s forwarded emails.

God wants all the people of Nineveh saved. He wants them to repent and come into a saving relationship with him. And God wants to use Jonah to make it happen. But Jonah doesn’t want to participate in the salvation of this particular people. So Jonah runs. I think he knows he can’t run away from God, but maybe he can get lost in another culture, another place, where he can ignore God. Jonah can maybe immerse himself in other things. He can become overly occupied with his possessions, his job, his hobbies, sports, a house, maybe a wife and kids.

The country we live in would tell us we have “enemies” in Iran. You may know that Iran is one of the two or three places in the world right now where Christianity is growing the fastest. Our government would tell us we have “enemies” in Russia and China. And our God loves them and he wants them to be saved. We know that. But sometimes our language and our prayers and our forwarded emails and posts don’t reflect that.

How quickly we forget that while we were God’s enemies, Christ died for us.

We have “enemies” right here in Midland. You have “enemies” in your town, too. Enemies of our property values. Enemies of our employment figures and tax rates. Enemies of our political positions and comfort zones. And our God’s unmistakable call is to take to them the Good News of salvation in Christ Jesus.

It’s clear.

We believe our Lord meant it when he said love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. We believe in the Great Commission. We understand Christ calls us to be his witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and all over the whole world, to the very ends of the earth. We believe witnessing like that, showing God’s love and mercy to our enemies, imitates our Lord.

Our Savior crosses all the barriers that separate people–social, cultural, racial, political, geographical, economic–he smashes through all that to save violent outcasts, those possessed by demons, warring Zealots, traitorous tax collectors, Roman centurions, and thieves on crosses. He broke through all those barriers to save you. And me.

And our God unmistakably calls us to reach out to others the same way.

Peace,
Allan

All In On the Stars

October 1, 2026 / / 0 Comments

Scattershooting while wondering whatever happened to Dexter Clinkscale…

If you’re the Cowboys and you’re trading for a starting cornerback, what better way to insure that your new player will fit in with your secondary than  if that player is already out with an injury? Jerry Wayne sent two draft picks to the Steelers last night for Joey Porter, Jr. He has three total interceptions in his three years in the NFL. He hasn’t played a down this year because of a nagging back injury and will not suit up against the Texans this Sunday. I’m not sure how this helps Christian Davis.

The Houston Texans are 0-3 and their quarterback, C.J. Stroud, looks absolutely lost. Good thing they’re hosting Dallas this Sunday. If there’s one thing the Cowboys defense can do, it’s make mediocre quarterbacks look like Joe Montana. Remember Russell Wilson throwing for 450 yards and three touchdowns against Dallas last year, a couple of weeks before the Giants cut him? Remember J.J. McCarthy lighting up the Cowboys for 250 yards and two scores? The Vikings demoted him to third string and then traded him to New York. Jordan Love aired it out for 337 yards and three TDS and Caleb Williams totaled 298 yards and four touchdowns in wins for the Packers and Bears. I’ll also mention Bryce Young’s three touchdown passes and Bo Nix’s four touchdown tosses to beat Dallas last year. And I’ll point to Jaxson Dart’s three touchdown passes against the Cowboys on opening night this year. Receivers are running wide open and wild through the Dallas secondary again. I’m thinking Stroud has a career game this Sunday. And then gets traded to Carolina in November.

I have no confidence in Arch Manning. None. He is still paralyzed in the pocket and looks like he’s never seen a zone defense before. Texas has plenty of weapons on offense but, because of their quarterback, they’re struggling to score 20 points. Manning holds the ball way too long, locks on receivers way too early, misses wide open targets, and takes unnecessary sacks. The Longhorns have a potential national championship caliber defense that should keep them close in every game, and Arch should get a little better as the season moves forward. But it’s hard to imagine him leading the ‘Horns to a title.

It came down to the Rangers and Astros. One of the two teams was going to be the first in Major League Baseball history to qualify for the playoffs with a losing record. It seems like that distinction would fit the Rangers’ history and narrative better than Houston’s, but the Astros were able to win their last regular season series and the Rangers couldn’t. Yikes. The Rangers have finished with a non-winning record in nine of the past ten seasons, the exception being their World Series Championship year of 2023. It’s more than obvious now that the 2023 Rangers, to a man, had career years they haven’t been able to match since. Their runs per game average was lower this year than it was last year! It’s time to blow this whole thing up. Past time. This isn’t working. I would keep Nimmo, Wyatt, Jung, Zeke, and Latz. That’s it. Everybody else is on the table. It will be difficult to move some of the pieces–no-trade clauses and bloated contracts are a barrier. But I’m guessing Chris Young is on the phone right now doing everything he can to remake this thing. Give Skip a break, man. Bless his heart.

I’m nauseated by the television networks and streaming platforms promoting their NBA games with footage and pics of Luka Doncic and Jalen Brunson. Luka is the NBA’s scoring leader from last year and Brunson is the Finals MVP for the champion Knicks. They were both Dallas Mavericks. Together.

The puck finally drops on the Stars season tomorrow night against St Louis! Yes!! The one dependable, consistent sports entity in my life that never fails to thrill me with joy and hope and breathless expectation. This is the year, right? It has to be! If Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin are both healthy, then everybody’s healthy! And rested! And hungry! This is certainly Benn’s and Seguin’s last chance to win the elusive Stanley Cup. Why not? Robo is playing for another contract. Mikko is motivated after last year’s postseason disappearing act. Wyatt is faster and stronger. Otter’s as good as there is in the NHL. This is it! I can’t wait for all the poke checks, trapezoids, face washings, five-holes, top shelfs, flying Chiclets, drop passes, hat tricks, power plays, slap shots, one-timers, biscuits in the basket, Razor Reaugh’s linguistic largesse, and grinders and goons getting chippy and chapped in a jam-packed barn!

Go Stars.
Allan

HE PASSED!

September 10, 2026 / / 0 Comments

OUR SON-IN-LAW PASSED THE BAR EXAM!!! OUR SON-IN-LAW PASSED THE BAR EXAM!!
WHEW!!!
HE PASSED!!!

Congratulations to David for this official recognition and validation of his hard work and for the immediate and substantial salary increase with the Tulsa County District Attorney’s office. Hooray! Now they can afford those twins!

David was notified of his success at 12-noon today and I was on the phone with them at 12:20. I told David that he had now increased his standing as my favorite son-in-law. David asked, “Even though I’m a Sooners fan?” I reminded him that he and Collin are both OU fans so “y’all started out tied in last place.” David inched ahead of Collin last summer with the glorious gift of our grandsons. But today’s bar exam success, coupled with Collin’s job moving Carley to Phoenix last month, puts David solidly at the top of the rankings. I think maybe an all-access pass to Rangers Spring Training in Surprise, complete with lodging and restaurant recommendations, would really help Collin’s case.

Speaking of Collin and the Bear, Happy Birthday today to Carley. I’m sorry that David has stolen her thunder. She and Collin are headed to San Diego in the morning for a combination work/birthday trip. They’re driving. Not flying. San Diego is only five hours from Phoenix. That’s a benefit of moving to Arizona I can understand.

The Purpose of Marriage

September 8, 2026 / / 0 Comments

This picture is almost 37-years-old. Two pretty good lookin’ kids. Very much in love. Clueless. Inexperienced. Naive. But very much in love.

The Bible addresses the purpose of marriage at the end of Ephesians 5. We should love our spouses the same way Jesus loves his Church, we should imitate the humility of that love and the sacrifice and service of that love in our marriages. But we should also practice the goal of that love, the whole point of the mutual sacrifice and service. Why did Jesus love us and give himself up for us?

“…Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the Word, and to present her to himself as a radiant Church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.” ~ Ephesians 5:25-27

Jesus loved us and gave himself up for us in order to change us! To cleanse us! To remove all our stains and flaws and sins and blemishes in order to make us holy and glorious and blameless!

Everything that God is doing in our lives through Christ and the Holy Spirit is geared toward changing us. Transformation. Sanctification. That’s our salvation, that’s the goal. That’s the purpose of Jesus’ marriage to his bride, the Church. And the Bible says that’s the purpose of your marriage to your spouse: to commit to each other, to serve and sacrifice for each other, to help each other become more and more like Jesus.

I was honored Friday night to officiate the wedding of Jimmy and Logan, a great young couple in our church at GCR. They got married in the beautiful Cypress Creek Church in Wimberley, where Logan was baptized. When I do weddings today, I look at the bride and groom standing in front of me–all dressed up, so young, so beautiful, so put together–and I’m tempted to say, “Man, y’all look great, but it’s all downhill from here. You’ll never ever look as good as you do right now.”

But that’s not true. Not if you and your spouse are both committed to the transforming work God is doing with both of you in your marriage. If you can see your husband the way God sees him, if you can see in your wife what God sees in her, and if you can both work by his grace toward that goal together, you will become more beautiful day by day with an ever-increasing glory that comes from the Lord.

Carrie-Anne and I took this picture Friday at Jimmy and Logan’s wedding. We’re a little wrinkled. We’re both gray. Our skin is not as tight. We’re not quite as sleek as we were 37 years ago. The world looks at us, both in our late 50s, and sees us declining. The world says we are becoming less and less every day in several important ways. But that’s not true. Carrie-Anne and I are trying to see each other becoming more and more beautiful in Christ. We’re trying to cleanse each other and wash and clothe each other, we’re trying to see what God sees, we’re trying to join him in his transforming work.

Someday, we’ll see it clearly, this glory that will be revealed in us.

What we should say on our wedding day is, “As great as you look today, someday we’re going to stand together in the presence of God and you’re going to be so eternally perfect. And I promise to work with God for you as he makes that happen.”

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Carrie-Anne headed straight for Tulsa super early Saturday morning to get some time with the boys. She took them a couple of Texas flag sippy cups that we bought on the square in Wimberley, and they took to them pretty fast. You can’t be too diligent when your grandsons live in Oklahoma.

Peace,
Allan

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