Posts by Justo Dorantes (Page 8)

The Bible often compares our Christian life as a race. There are ways to run a race and ways in which we should not. Like a sprinter who pulls up lame in the 100-meter dash, so is the Christian who does not maintain confidence in Christ firm until the end. The Christian life is a daily commitment to follow Jesus (Lk. 9:23). It is a race which must be completed (Heb. 12:1-2). One cannot stop half-way through the race. We…

Toward the end of every year in December there is a group of members at Beltline (English speaking congregation) that brings presents to our Hispanic children. Every year our children wait eagerly that special Saturday in which presents are brought and a breakfast is served for them. On many occasions those recipients of those Christmas gifts are families who have been visiting our congregation. To make them feel welcomed we include them in the list and presents are brought to…

The following is a general description from Justo Dorantes Sr. about his encounter with two men on the beach. Brothers, what I am about to describe is hard to explain. I am amazed at the hand of God in different situations in this world. God continues to share the gospel of salvation with people who are truly seeking him. God puts people like me in the right place to share the good news. Just in the same way that God…

A million, a billion, a trillion, a quadrillion, quintillion, sextillion, septillion, octillion, nonillion, centillion—lots of names for big numbers. I thought the name of the largest number was “google,” but I just learned that there is a new name for the largest number. It is “googolplexian.” These names are based on English. Do you know the name of the largest number in Greek? The Greek word is murioi and is translated in the New King James as “myriad.” In the…

As it was the case with most of the churches, we were also in a way forced to worship online because of the corona virus. We used to upload our audio sermons on audio only and power point. The next step was to upload our worship and sermons on video. We had an unexpected result. We had many hundreds of views and the following weeks we had hundreds of friendship requests from friends of our friends. Our Hispanic members were…

So, who is the richest man in the world? The names of some of them are readily recognized in America—Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Mark Zuckerberg, Michael Bloomberg, the Koch brothers, the Walton family and the Mars Family. We may not know all of them, but who has not heard of Amazon, Microsoft, Walmart, Mars candy bars or Tesla? It is hard to imagine Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the world and the founder of Amazon, increasing his…

The resurrection of Christ from the tomb spotlights, like a laser beam, several important truths that demand recognition and attention. The resurrection is the focal point of the gospel and Christianity. Anyone could appear on the scene and claim to be “the Christ.” Anyone could identify himself as “the Son of God.” Anyone facing death could say he will come back from the grave. Anyone could make these claims. But Christ really did rise from the dead and come forth…

My family has a heart for evangelism. The reason is because the Bible says that we need to be evangelistic. Yes, but another reason that my family has the heart for evangelism is because one American member of the Church of Christ cared enough to take the gospel to the Yucatan more than forty years ago. Once he arrived there, he baptized two couples. One of those couples were my mom and my dad. Thanks to that American brother in…

We do this every day as soon as we wake up. It happens to people around the world every day of their lives, few of us like the way we look the first time we see ourselves each day in the mirror, so it is not long before we begin making changes to our appearance. Usually, before we leave the house, we take a final look in the mirror hoping that we look presentable and acceptable to others. The Bible…

Christianity was born into a world filled with racial prejudice. It occurred many times, but the most obvious was the attitude of the Jews toward Gentiles. Godliness abhors any assumed racial superiority! The Bible provides us with an “equalization factor”: “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). This is true regardless of race. The element of sin cuts across economic, racial and intellectual boundaries. Christ brought equality, the basis of which is obedience, not…

The passenger tapped the cab driver on the shoulder to ask him something. The driver screamed, lost control of the car, nearly hit a bus, went up on the sidewalk, and stopped inches from a department store window. For a second everything went quiet in the cab, then the driver said, “Look mister, don’t ever do that again. You scared me half to death!” The passenger apologized and said he didn’t realize that a little tap could scare him so…

Charles Plumb was a US Navy jet pilot in Vietnam. After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected and parachuted into enemy hands. He was captured and spent 6 years in a communist Vietnamese prison. He survived the ordeal and now lectures on lessons learned from that experience. The story about Charles Plumb, “Who Packs Your Parachute”, is a strong and interesting true story that has been shared with many people over the years…