More Good News

May 27, 1999

Dear Beloved Family of God:

Our God is an Awesome God. Even when our circumstances are terribly bleak the Almighty parts the seas of despair and discouragement, and He allows us to cross over to the green pastures and still waters.

On May 10, 1999 we lost Gabriel to an electrical power problem caused by the local electric company's equipment. Gabriel is the name of one of our main computers to our global on-line network to the world. It was named after the angel of the Lord. On May 27, 1999 the electric company decided to replace Gabriel for us. This is a great blessing to Internet Ministries and to the churches of Christ. Gabriel's primary function is in the handling of our worldwide directory database. Gabriel serves as our one of our backup servers and secondary DNS server. God willing a new and more powerful version of Gabriel will be back on-line to the Internet within the next 10 days.

Last Sunday May 23, 1999 I preached at the Cristo Fuente de Agua Viva (Spanish for Christ the Fountain of Living Water). This is a Spanish church that is affiliated with the Assembly of God Church. The message was about accepting Jesus and obeying His Word. After the sermon I invited the assembly to come forward to receive the baptism for the forgiveness of sins or for prayer. There were about 40 in this service and everyone in the church came forward asking for the prayer. It is an awesome and humbling sight to having everyone come forward acknowledging that they need to be more obedient to Christ's commandments. This was the first time that I have preached for this church, and their preacher invited me to come back to preach again.

It is a blessing to be invited to preach the Word of Almighty God to all who call upon the name of Jesus, and it is the obligation and responsibility for the Evangelists in the churches of Christ promote the truth to all beginning in the churches of Christ. As you may already know I am frequently invited to preach to the Denominational Churches regarding the call to the pattern of New Testament Christianity. Almost all of the Denominational Churches that I have encountered in Fort Lauderdale and Miami, Florida, Dallas, Texas, and now in Crystal City, Texas are looking for change in their churches. The change that is most appealing to them is the idea of becoming more and more like the church of the first century. New Testament Christianity is an attractive term for most, and each time that I expound upon its reality the peoples' hunger and thirst for New Testament Christianity grows more and more.

There are today many churches of Christ around the world that have become interested in my efforts to assist the Denominational Churches in their move toward the pattern of New Testament Christianity. A few individuals in the churches of Christ have become upset with the idea of helping to restore the Denominational Churches to the pattern of New Testament Christianity. It is their fear and ignorance of the Holy Scriptures that cause them to think this way, or they are overly zealous for the Lord's church without knowing that we commanded to proclaim the Word of Almighty God to everyone. We must leave our comfort zone and take the Good News of Jesus to the people even if it means to preach the Word in the pulpits of the Denominational Churches. This is not sinful brethren it is righteous and pleasing to the God of the Most High. As you may already know I preach in the Denominational Churches during the times that our local church is not having any services.

A number of Preachers from around the world and within the churches of Christ have notified me that they too are now beginning to reach out to the Denominational Churches with the more accurate way of God. There are a small number of Christians that will not accept this calling to restore the Denominational Churches. These men of little faith will insist that we must keep the Word to ourselves, but this will not be pleasing to God, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I am now beginning to realize why God has always allowed great suffering and hardship in my life. Christians have a love hate attitude toward me. Most Christians love me and they remember me in their prayers, while some despise me through jealousy and wish that I would just die and go away. If it were up to me I would oblige them and go to heaven where I would be better off, but God is not finished with me just yet. In reading the Holy Scriptures I find that such was the case for the Prophets, the Apostles, the Evangelists of early church, and even for Jesus Christ the Son of God. Through the years I have learned that great suffering builds up great reserves of passion and unconditional love within me. It has also served to enhance my understanding of the human condition. The suffering is what also causes me to draw nearer and nearer to Jesus and our heavenly Father.

The Lord's hears our prayers. For the past month I have been praying that the Lord bless the poor Crystal Christ church of Christ with some vehicles of transportation that are needed for transporting people to our church building on Sundays and Wednesday nights and for other activities of the local church. Yesterday I received a phone call from the Woodland West church of Christ in Arlington, Texas who have decided to donate a 1988 Dodge 15 passenger van to the Crystal City church. The van needs new tires, a brake job, and the air-conditioning system needs repairing (an air-condition compressor is needed). The Crystal Beach church of Christ in Crystal Beach, Texas has offered to pay for the brake job. Maybe another congregation or individual would like to help us with the purchase of new tires and the repair of the air-conditioning unit. The Lord's church in Crystal City, Texas is located in the second most poorest county of the state of Texas and the ninth most poorest county in the USA, and we need your help. If you would like to help with the repairs of this van you may contact the Woodland West congregation via Brother Brook T. Roberts at josh2415@arlington.net, you may also contact me via e-mail or phone 830.374.3936. I am also looking for a bus or another passenger van to be used in transporting people to our church building.

I am still looking for a church of Christ that beholds and Eldership of great vision and a heart to promote the Good News of Jesus to the lost souls of this Earth. Our ministry is a successful one in the area of winning souls to Jesus and building up the churches of Christ through out the world, but it is a total failure in the area of obtaining an Eldership to oversee our evangelistic efforts. It seems to me that it is easier to win the lost to Jesus than to convince an Eldership of overseeing a ministry such as ours. I will not give up on finding an Eldership to oversee our ministry. Maybe I need to make a trip to the valley of dry bones. At times I feel like I am calling out from the wilderness in this remote part of Texas near the Mexican border via CyberSpace. Please remember me in your prayers, and ask Almighty God to send us an Eldership that is able to oversee our evangelistic efforts. Thank you for being supportive of this ministry, and for being there for me in prayer.

May the grace of God, the love of Jesus, and the peace of the Holy Spirit be with you and your family forever.

Your brother in Christ Jesus,

E-mail questions or comments to: garcia@church-of-christ.org

The church of Christ at Crystal City

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Last updated on 5/27/1999