Two Churches Fight in Roswell

From God Discussion:

Members of two different churches in Roswell, New Mexico, are fighting over who interprets scriptures correctly.

Armed with signs, Bibles, and a camera, members of Old Paths Baptist Church showed up in front of the Church on the Move on November 28 to proclaim that Church on the Move's members were headed to hell.

This weekend, KOB Eyewitness News released a video of the ensuing shouting match and physical fights. Associate Pastor Savino Sanchez, 63, of the Church on the Move was taken to the ground by members of Old Paths Baptist Church. Three members of Old Paths Baptist Church, including their leader, street preacher Jeremy De Los Santos, were charged for the incident. Members of Old Paths had been in at least two other incidents around the city just a day earlier.

"They may not like our method, they may think or method is too confrontational, nevertheless its our right to preach in public," proclaimed De Los Santos.

You Might Be At A Cowboy Church

Rick Derrick is a man outstanding in his field.

He's also the preacher for the newly-established West of the Pecos Cowboy Church in Pecos, Texas.  Soon they will build a building on this dusty patch of land.

What is a cowboy church, you ask?  Well, here are some things you might look for at a cowboy church. Some of these were taken from the church's own Facebook page, and some were taken from Baptistboard.com.  I found the pictures here and there:

• If baptism is referred to as a branding and most folks' Bibles have a Gideon's stamp on the cover, you might be a member of the Cowboy Church.

• If the last thing you do at church is sing "Happy Trails to You" and the pastor says "Ya'll come back now you hear," you might be at a Cowboy Church.

• If people say "Yee Haw" instead of "Amen" at the end of a prayer, you might be at a Cowboy Church.

• If the baptistry is a galvanized horse trough, you might be at a Cowboy Church.

• If your cutting horse has more formal training than your pastor, you might be at a Cowboy Church.

• If the bucking machine was the most popular event at your VBS, you might be at a Cowboy Church.

• If the playground has several roping dummies, you might be at a Cowboy Church.

• If you get slapped in the face with a rope as you are walking through the parking lot, you might be at a Cowboy Church.

Easter

"Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen!"

Luke 24:5b-6a

Jesus, Noah, and the Dinosaurs

Liz found these items while searching for something else. They left me speechless...


This is a "full-size" ark with dinosaurs:

All this reminded me of a Bizarro cartoon from November 2008:

Scripture Sign

Check out the verse. The original site missed it.

For Her Son and Jesus ...

(The Huffmans used to minister in Kermit before they moved to Lubbock and opened an excellent bookstore. I hope all three of my readers will shop there. The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal published this touching story about them in their Sunday February 15th edition. I am excerpting it without permission as always.)

Melody Huffman, 51, keeps memories alive.

She dresses up as Aunt Lydia (as in Lydia from Thyatira, from the book of Acts) in a modest purple robe (like the kind Lydia might have sold) inside her Christian book store, The Bible Barn. She tells stories about giants and whales and fiery furnaces. On Feb. 7, five little kids - some she knew, some she didn't - marched around the store and blew kazoos and sucked on Dum Dums and the walls of Jericho came down.

"What do you think the name of this city is?" she asks her audience. "Do you think it's called Lubbock?"

Noooo.

"Do you think it's called Dallas?"

Noooo.

"No, not Dallas. It's ... called ... Jerrrrrichooo. Can you say that? One, two, three: Jerrrricchooo."
Monty, Huffman's husband, watches and smiles.

"She's been a Bible class teacher all her life," says Monty, 52, a minister at Central Lubbock Church of Christ, where the two attend. "She's probably been teaching Bible class since she was a pre-teenager. She's had 40 years of experience. It's something on her heart, and a way to use her gifts for something good."

The couple opened The Bible Barn in September 2007. Aunt Lydia was born two months later.

"I just love kids and just wanted to have something where they could come," Melody says of her alter ego and the weekly story time she calls Matthew's Korner, named in honor of her son. "I thought it would be something to help bring people in, something different. It's little. It's been slow. Sometimes kids are here; sometimes they're not, you know. But I'm always ready."

Ready or not

On Aug. 9, 1991, she wasn't ready. Parents never are, even when they know God holds the future and they'll all meet again one day. But little Matthew, 7 years, 1 month, and 1 day old when he died, was as ready as anyone's ever been.

The whole family was in Brazil. Melody and Monty were missionaries. The boys, Matthew and Micah, chased lizards and climbed trees. On Saturday night, Aug. 3, Matthew got sick. He was vomiting. He had headaches. The doctors said it was the Brazilian mumps. It wasn't.

"I was in the backseat as we were driving 30 miles to the hospital," Melody says with tears in her eyes. "And Matthew kept reaching out. He had spinal meningitis. He'd already gone blind and lost his ability to walk, and he just kept reaching his hand.

"I'd hold it and he'd tell me, 'No, I don't want it.' And, just in desperation I said, 'Well whatever you want, I'll get it. Just tell me.' And he just said, 'I'm trying to reach Jesus' hand,' and his hand closed in the air and ... that was it."

Telling stories

Christian author Max Lucado, a former missionary to Brazil himself and pastor of Oak Hills Church of Christ in San Antonio where relatives of the Huffmans attended, wrote about their ordeal in his 1993 book "And the Angels Were Silent."

"Max wrote about that and what his last words were," Melody said. " 'I'm reaching for Jesus.' "

It's still hard to talk about. Some days she can't. But each Saturday she'll sit down in front of photos of Matthew, framed and hung on the wall in his "Korner," and tell other people's children all the stories she used to tell him.

Five-year-old Andy Woods even kind of looks like him.

"What's that?" he asks, sucker in his mouth, pointing to a book just before things get going on Saturday.

"That is a book about The Story Keepers," Melody says. "They keep the story of Jesus alive."
(OTHER VOICES: Matthew Morine has a great post about the future of the largest churches of Christ. Check it out.)

Here's a Biblical Question!

( Not a Borg cube.)

Revelation 21:1-4

1Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."

I know that many Bible experts read this blog, so I thought I would pose this question to you guys and ladies. A friend at church thinks that this song is unbiblical because it refers to the events described in Revelation 21:1-4 as being in the future. He says the new Jerusalem is in fact the church in the present age, and that God has already wiped all tears away from our eyes and that there is no reason for tears if we are in Christ. I told him I didn't agree because this life still has plenty of tears, even under the best conditions.

So I guess the question is: Revelation 21 - past, present or future?

Does anyone want to weigh in on this one?

The Stick Figure Bible # 3

1 Corinthians 13

1. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.


2. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
   
3. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames,but have not love, I gain nothing.
   
4. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.



5. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.



6. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.


7. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.


8. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.


9. For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
10. but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.













11. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.


























12. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.






And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

The Stick Figure Bible #2

Ephesians 5:19 "Do not get drunk with wine, which leads to debauchery."

"...Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs..."

Acts 20:27 "I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God."




Ephesians 4:29 "Let no unwholesome communication come out of your mouth."
1 John 3:8 "The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work."Ephesians 4:32 "Be kind and compassionate to one another."Matthew 4:19 " 'Follow me', Jesus said, 'and I will make you fishers of men.' "A stick figure wedding?Leviticus 19:32 "Rise in the presence of the aged, show respect for the elderly and revere your God. I am the Lord..." Leviticus 19:33 "When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him..."