On June 1, Mewbourne Oil Company (MOC) marked six decades in the oil and gas industry. Founded in 1965 by Curtis Mewbourne, the company began its journey in the Permian Basin before expanding operations into the Anadarko Basin in 1976. Today, MOC employs more than 800 people and has grown into one of the largest oil and gas companies in America.
I received an email with a survey for evangelical pastors from a church curriculum provider the other day. In it, I was asked how often a Gospel presentation was offered at my church. Generally speaking, we offer an invitation to accept the Good News every Sunday. On occasion, there has been a Sunday where an invitation wasn’t offered to accept the message of Jesus. Church leaders can get fearful, maybe fearful is too strong of a word, of confronting non-church people (non-followers of Jesus) with the Gospel. There is pressure on pastors and church leaders to keep from running people off with the confrontational message about sin and our need for a Savior. Supposedly, many churches don’t even use terminology like “sin”, “salvation”, or “you must be born again”. The message of “love God and love people” (a critical message of Christianity) is typically what resonates with churches that are uncomfortable with evangelism. The survey I took brought up these types of concerns. I am nominally aware of the trends of churches and the concerns of pastors who do not wish to offend people due to the confrontational nature of Jesus’ message of forgiveness and transformation. The truth is, the Gospel message is confrontational. And, until a person can admit their sins and repent of those sins against God and then, by faith, believe in Jesus as the one God sent to die on our behalf, salvation isn’t possible. I accepted that message a long time ago and I am not ashamed of that message. I will continue to present it to anyone willing to consider it for it is the power of God for salvation (Rm 1:16). What are your thoughts? Are the concerns over the church’s invitation to respond to the Gospel at the end of a service merited? Why or why not? Email me at ty@fbcartesia.org and maybe we both can make sharing the Good News about Jesus easier and more effective. (FYI “Repent of your sins”: Mt 3:2, Rv 2:16, Mt. 4:17, Mk 1:15, Ac 2:38, Ac 3:19, Lk 13:3; “be born again” Mt 3:3, 2 Cr 5:17, Ez 36:26-27, Ti 3:5, 1 Pt 1:23, Rm 6:4, Ep 2:4-5, 1 Jn 5:1, Ja 1:18; “salvation” 2 Co 6:2, Rm 13:11)
Sanchez filed the lawsuit through his attorney Benjamen Gubernick against Lea County Board of Commissioners in January, claiming his civil rights under the New Mexico Constitution and First Amendment of the United States Constitution were violated.
Starting July 1, hair braiders will be exempt from the requirement of a cosmetology license to practice hair braiding due to the recently signed “Exempting Hair Braiding from Provisions of the Barbers and Cosmetologists Act.”
In recent weeks the media again has been pre-occupied by celebrities, including the ones attending the Bezos-Sanchez wedding in Venice, and the “news” that it took 900 hours to make the bride’s dress.
