Tag Roger Lamb

It is absolutely amazing that a few ignorant fishermen could spread a revolution around the world. Only God can do things like that.

Things are not always what they appear to be. Just a few seconds were left in an important high school football game that would determine the final state championship playoff spot. The favored team was ahead by two points and they had the ball on the opponent’s 40-yard line. To win, all they had to do was fall on the ball and let the clock run out. But the coach sent in a play that so totally rattled his team in the huddle that they were called for a delay-of-game penalty. Although confused and perplexed, the team ran the play that the coach had called: the quarterback handed the ball to the tailback, who then ran 55 yards in the WRONG direction – into his own end zone! A sure victory had now turned into a tie game because of the two-point safety. What a crazy coach! That is what everyone in the stands and on the field thought. But remember, things are not always what they appear to be. The coach knew exactly what he was doing. You see, because of the way the season had gone, his team had to defeat their opponents in this final game by at least four points. With only seconds left in the game and ahead by only two points, his team would have had to score on just one final play when they were 40 yards from the goal line – nearly impossible. He knew that by his causing the game to be tied with the safety, his team would have a much better chance to win in overtime. And they did! They won by six points and went on to the state championship playoffs.

Twenty years ago a few people in Boston began to dream. By today’s standards it was a small dream – a dream to evangelize the four million people living in the Boston area with its 200,000 university students. But God had much bigger things in mind, planned before time began. Just this week in Boston, a scene was played out that gives us just a glimmer of the countless lives that have been influenced for eternity by that small beginning. Theresa Slade is dying of cancer at age 59. She is a wife and a mother. In the world’s eyes, this is a tragedy. It is sad, but not tragic, because Theresa became a disciple of Jesus Christ 15 years ago when she was born again in the waters of baptism and became a part of the Boston Church of Christ. Through those 15 years she had an impact on many lives with her example and her teaching. Her spiritual family, physical family and friends decided to do something unique.

The Internet is the fastest-growing and most powerful communication medium in history. If you exit the information superhighway for a few months, you may not recognize it when you return. The growth rate of the Internet is astounding. It took 38 years for radio to reach 50 million homes in this country. Television did the same in 13 years. The Internet has done it in only five years! The World Wide Web (referred to as the WWW or just “the Web”) is doubling its number of websites every six months. To get on the information superhighway, all one needs is a computer, a modem and an Internet service provider. Millions of people visit Cyberspace every day to bank online, pay bills, find a job, buy or sell almost anything (even pizza or groceries), book travel, track a FedEx package, read a magazine, research any topic, find a map to anywhere on Earth, trade stock, locate anyone who has a telephone number or e-mail address, make  free international phone calls, play games, find computer programs to do nearly anything, listen to and even watch live events, buy or lease real estate, take college courses, trace their family tree, correspond with people around the world and do thousands of other things. Every day new, innovative uses are being implemented.

The men of the Los Angeles International Church of Christ were increasingly filled “with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction” in the month of September. It began with the decision to host Men’s Forums in each of the 10 Regions of the church on the weekend of October 2-4. Inspired by our women hosting their Women’s Days and by the tremendously successful Men’s Day recently held in Mexico City, we decided to mobilize our men. Earlier this year, under the leadership of World Sector Leader Peter Garcia-Bengochea, the 1,037 men of the Mexico City Church had an attendance of 5,000 at a hard-hitting spiritually-oriented men’s event. Following their lead, we designed our Men’s Forum to be much more than an evangelistic service. We wanted it to be both a revival for our men and an opportunity to share our faith with our friends.