Church Blog

Church Blog

Time Is On My Side

When your beloved leaves, don’t worry because time is on your side. At least that is what Jerry Ragovoy would have us believe in his ballad made famous by the Rolling Stones. Mick Jagger convinces us that if we wait long enough, she will come back because time is on our side. But, is time really on man’s side? Could Mick be wrong? The Bible teaches that time is not on our side. It marches on relentlessly and stops abruptly.…

Choose Forgiveness Over Retaliation

With nearly record highs in the month of February, it is obvious Texas winter is over and summer has begun. March holds the threat of 90-degree days as well as a possible frost. However, March also brings a new topic in our Choose Well preaching theme. This month we will focus on forgiveness. This week, we begin with a look at God’s inexplicable desire to forgive humanity. In the popular Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32), we will see…

Luke and the Holy Spirit in Acts

In the Synoptics, Luke makes more references to the Holy Spirit than Matthew and Mark. This trend continues in the book of Acts that contains about seventy references to the Spirit. Luke views the presence of the Holy Spirit to be a key element in Christianity. First, Luke connects the Spirit with the ability to preach the gospel. In chapter 1, Luke repeats Jesus’s promise that the apostles would be baptized with the Holy Spirit (1:4-5). This reception of the…

Why We Are Going

Each year as we begin planning for and training our missionaries for a week of laboring for the Kingdom in Jamaica, I am struck with the question “Why?” Why do we put so much effort on the mission trip? The simple answer is found in Mark 16:15, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” The New Life mandates we share the Gospel with the world around us, and beyond. The Gospel is not limited to…

A Heart Filled with Love

Nineteenth century poet William Bell Scott wrote Maryanne, a poem telling the story of a boy and girl growing up in the country side professing their love for one another. As the years passed, the girl cast longing eyes to the city and left the country and the boy behind to marry herself to high society. Her new love lured her into the sewers of sin, staining the purity of her past with the prostitution of her present. While she…

God With Us

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son” (1 John 4:10). As the humble king stared into the celestial expanse, God’s concern overwhelmed him, “What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?” (Psa. 8:4). Those words were spoken generations before God even appeared with us as Emmanuel, which means “God with us” (Mat. 1:23), and is the embodiment…

Total Commitment

She was a Gentile, but her declaration of faith echoes throughout history. Ruth’s testimony confronts the unbeliever and encourages the believer, proclaiming a pattern of total commitment. Too many people today dabble in Christ. They inch to the water’s edge, test it, and draw back in fear of commitment. To those, Christ said, “Whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” (Mat 10:38). Jesus wants total commitment. Ruth shows us what that looks like.…

Easier at the Beginning

It is easier to resist at the beginning that at the end.” So said the strip of white paper wisdom. Often fortune cookies are trite and worthless, yet this one spoke an ancient truth—a truth as ancient as God himself (1 Cor. 10:6-15). How many hearts have been broken, lives shattered, tears cried because people were ignorant of the difficulties of resisting at the end instead of the beginning? Eli learned this lesson the hard way. His sons were “worthless…

What is Not Assumed

Gregory of Nazianzus was born into a Christian family in Cappadocia. His father, bishop of Nazianzus, gave Gregory an intense religious education. He studied in Caesarea, Caesarea Philippi, Alexandria, and Athens. While in Athens, he roomed with his friend and fellow Cappadocian, Basil of Caesarea. Gregory returned home to teach rhetoric in 356 ad. At that time, he dedicated himself to asceticism and caring for his parents. Later, Basil convinced Gregory to join him at his monastery in Pontus where…

Opening the Door to 2024

As the expiration date on the year 2023 swiftly approaches the University church can look back on a wonderful year. The sweet fellowship, mountains of service, and attention to our divine mission has carried us to the doorstep of another year, and the future looks as bright as our history. It is difficult to think of the University church without thinking about Focal Point, one of our main projects each year. This year’s slate of speakers was not only top…

Five Factors of Acts 2:38

In Acts 1:8, Luke reveals a general outline of the book as a whole, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Their witness to the gospel would begin in Jerusalem and make its way to Rome where it would be set to go to the “end of the earth.” While the book records…

Brothers, What Shall We Do?

Hundreds of thousands of Jews milled the streets of Jerusalem shopping, talking, and laughing. In a moment everything average about that day stopped. They heard a whooshing sound, and it drew everyone’s attention to a group of crazy men who were marginalized when their leader was punished for blasphemy. Now they were drunk at nine o’clock in the morning, spouting gibberish, and making a spectacle of themselves as the multitude watched. Then Peter stood, saying, “These people are not drunk,…