A Message from Pastor Mark Is Christmas Pagan? Here are the ten most common erroneous beliefs about Christmas being tied to paganism. First, Christmas is the Roman feast of Saturnalia.” Saturnalia, honoring the Roman god Saturn, ran from December 17 to 23. Christmas on December 25 doesn’t even overlap. There’s no evidence the early Church chose this date to compete with Saturnalia. Second, “Christmas is actually the feast of Sol Invictus”. Sol Invictus was declared in AD 274. Hippolytus of Rome linked Jesus’s birth to December 25 in AD 20. If anything, Sol Invictus may have been Rome’s attempt to counter Christmas. Third, “Christmas is the celebration of the winter solstice.” The solstice is around December 21, not December 25. Christians picked December 25 because it is 9 months after March 25, the Annunciation. Fourth, “Mithras was born on December 25.” There is no historical evidence linking Mithras to that date. Besides, the celebration of Christmas predates the cult [...]

A Message from Pastor Mark Dear Church Family, What an incredible concert last Sunday evening! I’m so grateful for Carey and Michael and their teams. The choir and orchestra, and the children’s choir truly led us to worship. I wanted to share part of the testimony of Marnie Thielke, who went to be with Jesus recently. Pete, her husband, gave me permission to share. It just shows you that God can multiply our offerings to Him to change eternity: Marnie Thielke and John Ensor were fellow students at Bethel College in the 70's. In 2013, they reconnected at a fundraiser with two foundations in Texas. John was seeking to fund a campaign designed by the pastors/leaders of the underground church in China, to train up 1 million people in their churches in biblical pro-life ethics and equip them to rescue mothers and babies from forced abortion. At that presentation, one of the foundations was skeptical because John's work in [...]

A Message from Pastor Mark Dear Church Family, Hope everyone had a blessed Thanksgiving. I love this time of year and look for opportunities to build bridges for the Gospel. I also want to thank you for your patience regarding our water issue this last Sunday. Our team diligently worked throughout the weekend to get it resolved by Sunday, but it just didn’t work out that way. I appreciate Pastor Carey, Michael Wilcox, Carol Horton, and Dr. Ashlock for helping us to have an online worship experience. One of our members told me that he and his wife drove up on Sunday and after they found out we had cancelled in person services, decided to drive to Glen Rose to go to First Baptist there. But the LORD began to speak to his heart about going to a small church he was familiar with from some friends who attend there. The pastor, out of the blue, said, “Brother do [...]

A Message from Pastor Mark Dear Church Family, Read this by Chad Bird and thought it might speak to you like it did me: Making a Mockery of Ordination The Hebrew phrase commonly translated as "ordained" in the Old Testament is literally "to fill the hands." For instance, when God told Moses, "Thus you shall ordain Aaron and his sons," (Exod. 29:9), he said in Hebrew, וּמִלֵּאתָ֥ יַֽד־אַהֲרֹ֖ן וְיַד־בָּנָֽיו, that is, you shall "fill the hand of Aaron and the hand of his sons." Why "fill the hands"? It reflects the ritual act of sacrifices being placed in the hands of men becoming priests (cf. Lev. 8:27), which they then offer before the LORD. To be ordained in Israel, therefore, like our word "mandate" (lit. "give into the hand"), was to be "handed" an office in which you use your hands for holy things. This ordination given by God was sometimes twisted and mocked in Israel. For instance, we read [...]

A Message from Pastor Mark Dear Church Family, I read this and it was so insightful I wanted to share it with you all: The Devil Left Him Until an Opportune Time John closes his Gospel by saying that Jesus did many other things, but if all those details were included, the world itself would not be a big enough library to hold all the books. It’s a good reminder to us that there are huge gaps in our knowledge, not only of what Jesus did but also of what he suffered. Yes, God has given us everything we *need* to know about our Lord’s life in the four Gospels, but nowhere near everything we *could have known.* Among those “could-have-knowns” is how many times the devil tempted Jesus. In Luke 4, at the end of the temptation account, Luke writes that the devil left Jesus “until an opportune time” (4:13). I suspect we focus so much on those [...]

A Message from Pastor Mark Dear Church Family, I’m so proud to serve with you all and from time to time I get to hear a powerful testimony from one of my brothers or sisters here. Friday morning at our Men’s Ministry prayer breakfast, I heard Miller Scanlan share his testimony and his wisdom on discipling other men. I asked him if I could share this here. I thought it would encourage you all! Good morning, I was honored and humbled when asked to speak before this group. This morning I wanted to share some of my experiences working with others, mainly covering discipling or mentoring, but before that I wanted to share part of my story and how God brought me to where I am today. I was raised in NM on a ranch where I learned the value of hard work and trust in myself. There was not much God introduced in my life, a handful of [...]