There is an old saying that is absolutely true; you never have a second chance to make a first impression.  All of us have visited churches where our first impression was less than positive.  No one shook our hands, the services were dry and the people were too.  The truth is first impressions matter and sometimes no amount of work on the backside can make up for a poor first impression.  A statistic I recently read stated that, on average, people make eleven decisions about things in the first seven seconds.  Think about that; inside the first minute of coming in contact with Eastland Baptist Church people are making decisions about us whether good or bad.  These first impressions can be called moments of truths, or MOT’s.   If we are smart we will not underestimate these moments.   Let’s consider Read more…

Hedges serve many different purposes: beautification, privacy, shade, boundary-marking, and required landscaping, to name a few. While hedges have unique purposes they require specific maintenance and care. Unkempt hedges look absolutely awful. I remember growing up next door to a neighbor that didn’t trim his hedges. A few small hedges grew until they covered the entire front of his house. The kind of hedges we are considering are not landscaping hedges but the boundaries we need to protect our greatest treasures: our marriage and our family. American culture is engaged in an all-out attack on marriage and the family. The attack comes in many different forms, each one ready to destroy those things that mean the most to us. Proverbs 22:3 says, “A prudent man forseeth the evil and hideth himself, but the simple pass on and are punished.” We are instructed in this verse to consider the destructive forces around us and take action to protect ourselves from danger. Fifty percent of marriages today end in divorce – a staggering statistic, Read more…

Today we are bombarded with information; our world is filled with advertisements, billboards, TV ads, radio spots, informational flyers, and newspapers all trying to sell us something or persuade us that a product is worthy of our dollar.   However, even in this age of mass media and seemingly limitless information people still tend to trust one source of information more than any other; that source is simply “word of mouth”.   Rumors or “word of mouth” can carry positive information or negative.  Unfortunately, people seemed pre-conditioned to share negative aspects of their experiences.  The White House Office of Consumer affairs finds that a dissatisfied customer shares their unpleasant experience with nine other people.  A California market research firm shows that dissatisfied automobile customers tell their stories totwenty-two other people on average.  A bad experience at a bank can be rehearsed in the ears of fifty-five other individuals according to one study.  I can only assume that someone who has a bad church experience will most likely have the same tendency to share his or her bad news in a similar way.  However, a church that is thinking can Read more…

Mientras más conozco acerca de la vida del personaje del cual estamos aprendiendo los miércoles por la noche en nuestra serie de predicaciones “Dios Lo Encamino Para Bien” basado en la historia de José; más me doy cuenta que Dios es grande y que Él trabaja en una manera sobrenatural en las vidas de todos aquellos que se dejan usar por Él.

De cómo tomo a una familia tan llena de problemas, tan llena de diferentes personalidades; de un padre de familia que tenía un pasado tan controversial y una madre que tenía serios problemas con su integridad. Si usted no conoce esta historia le animo a que la lea en el libro de Génesis. Read more…

Msnbc.com posted a great article this past week entitled, “No friends? It’s worse for your health than being fat.” The article supports a growing body of research that states that in the last two decades Americans are growing in their loneliness.

In our world of technological advancement one would think we are creating an easier environment for social connections.  However, the article states that instead of growing closer, people are becoming more and more socially isolated. The research concludes that Facebook, texting, chatting, and other electronic connections are not the same as friendship and are not an adequate substitute for friendship.

Loneliness is perhaps one of the most painful feelings, and it comes at a cost. Psychologist Julianne Holt-Lunstad found that “a lack of social relationships was equivalent to smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day.” One research team concluded that “People with strong social relationships were 50 percent less likely to die early than people without such support.” Read more…