Church Blog (Page 12)

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…

“Does the New Testament teach that Christians must be present at every meeting of the church?” This is not a question that can be answered with a simple “yes” or “no.” There are several elements to the issue that must be taken into consideration. Perhaps the most controversial passage relating to this matter is Hebrews 10:24-25. Before we consider the text specifically, perhaps some background would be helpful. There is a sense of urgency to the book of Hebrews. The…

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…

Last week was a special day for Juan and his wife as they became United States citizens. It has been several months of preparation and studying for them to become U. S. citizens. It was about two o’clock in the afternoon that I got the call from Pedro. He told me “We did it! We passed the test.” It has been about fifteen years ago that Pedro and his wife left Medellin, Colombia and move to Orlando, Fl. From there…

A voice message was left in my cell phone three days ago by a Spanish speaking person. It was a message spoken in very good English, as a matter of fact I may say that it was a better English than mine. The message was left by Benny, a person who I baptized in Alabama about twelve years ago. I met Benny one morning as he called me inquiring about English classes. He saw my ad about our English classes…