June 2026 Newsletter

Welcome to a new format for The Methodist Church of Aztec’s online newsletter. If you prefer to receive the newsletter in hard copy format, just let Caroline know to keep printing them up for you. They’ll likely always be available in the back of the sanctuary. It will be mailed to those that are home bound that want it.

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Books of the Bible – Answers

Last month we gave you an odd paragraph that was basically a word search puzzle with 30 books of the Bible hidden within the paragraph. Here’s where they are (look for the bolded text in dark blue).

The Answers – Highlighted

There are 30 books of the Bible in this paragraph. Can you find them? This is a most remarkable puzzle. It was found by a gentleman in an airplane seat pocket on a flight from Los Angeles to Honolulu. Keeping him occupied for hours. He enjoyed it so much he passed it on to some friends. One friend from Illinois worked on this while fishing from his john boat. Another friend studied it while playing his banjo. Elaine Taylor, a columnist friend was so intrigued by it she mentioned it in her weekly newspaper column. Another friend judges the job of solving this puzzle so involving, she brews a cup of tea to help her nerves. There will be some names that are really easy to spot. That’s a fact. Some people, however, will soon find themselves in a jam, especially since the book names are not necessarily capitalized. Truthfully, from answers we get, we are forced to admit it usually takes a minister or scholar to see some of them at the worst. Research has shown that something in our genes is responsible for the difficulty we have in seeing the books in this paragraph. During a recent fund raising event, which featured this puzzle, the Alpha Delta Phi lemonade booth set a new sales record. The local paper, The Chronicle, surveyed over 200 patrons who reported that this puzzle was one of the most difficult they had ever seen. As Daniel Humana humbly puts it, the books are all right there in plain view hidden from sight. Those able to find all of them will hear lamentations from those who have to be shown. One revelation that may help is that books like Timothy and Samuel may occur without their numbers. Also, keep in mind that punctuation and spacers in the middle are normal. A chipper attitude will help you compete really well against those who claim to know the answers. Remember there is no need for a mass exodus, there really are 30 books of the Bible lurking somewhere in the paragraph waiting to be found.

If you can’t see the bold blue text to see the books’ names… here’s a list for you in the order they are found in the paragraph:

Bible Crossword

Before you go… here is an AI generated Biblical Crossword Puzzle for you (you’ll need to click on the link and then print it). Answers to be provided next moth.

Christogram: Alpha-Omega

I’m back with a new Christogram,  a combination of letters that symbolize the name of our savior, Jesus Christ. Earlier, I discussed the Chi-Ro Christogram:  ⳩ (looks like an X super-imposed over a P).  Then I talked about the Iota-Eta-Sigma Christogram which, in English, is the IHS abbreviation. This article will report on a more known version of a symbol of our God, the Alpha and Omega:  Α and Ω (upper case) or α and ω (lower case).

Check out the north stained glass window for our version of this Christogram.

In my recollection, I seem to think that I see this Christogram more often with the lower case alpha and upper case omega, but I could be totally wrong (it’s been known to happen):  αΩ.  Of course, now that I look for these examples, I can’t find them. But there are examples with a mixture of upper/lower case letters.

Wikipedia shows a picture of a coat of arms for a town in Germany surrounding the Chi-Ro using upper case letters for both (Α and Ω). And a picture from some catacombs in Rome which has the Chi-Ro Christogram surrounded by the capital alpha (Α) and lower case omega(ω).

But how do these two Greek letters equate to our God? Where did this come from?

Most of you already know that God is referenced in the Bible as the Alpha and Omega; if not from the Bible then at least from songs we sometimes sing. Without looking it up, however, I couldn’t remember where it came from.

It turns out that it is found in the Book of Revelation three times:

As John introduces himself at the beginning of Revelation, he references what Jesus tells him in his vision.

1:8I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.

Then John repeats what God tells him just after the new Earth and heaven appear to him.

21:6He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life.

Lastly, during his warning and invitation to join Him, our savior, Jesus Christ tells us

22:13I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

So why those two letters? It turns out that Revelation was originally written in Greek which has 24 letters.  The first is alpha (Αα), the last is omega (Ωω).

Much like in our alphabet when we say we’ve got everything covered from A to Z. When God tells us He is the Alpha and Omega He is telling us that He is everything: the beginning, the end, and everything in between!

Amen.

Now, just because of who I am, I’m wondering why the Bible translators who’ve translated most everything to English for us didn’t change Alpha to “A” and Omega to “Z”?