Author: Mark

Hubby to the greatest gal, Pastor of an amazing community, brother to a bunch of people called my family, lover of God, follower of Jesus.

Praying for the saints

On By MarkIn Bible, PrayLeave a comment

In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints  Eph 6:16-18

What a great word!

The evil one is sending darts, it’s who he is and what he does. But he’s a loser. What we have is our faith in the living God who already won this battle. We have faith. What an amazing gift. That I can know God and trust Him for salvation in the future (heaven awaits us!), but also in today’s salvation. This is a battle and we have a shield. Do I trust Him in what’s happening today and what He’s doing through it all?

God has given us His word, the Bible, our sword. Gotta know it. Must be familiar with it. Read it. Memorize parts. Meditate throughout the day on what you read in the early hours.

As I pay attention throughout the day, God allows me to come before Him on behalf of others. I’m not in this alone, nor are they. We’re in this together. Pray for one another.

The shield was a large ‘body-size’ type of protection. It could be used to stand side by side with others, making a protective wall.  So, we advance. Side by side, praying for one another.

Simply Ask

On By MarkIn church, CommunityLeave a comment

At Grace we’re learning about “Intersections” from our study in Acts. Last Sunday, Philip met a man from Ethiopia at an intersection. This coming Sunday an angry, hate-filled Saul will meet the Lord at an intersection.

When we trust God to lead us to the intersections, we can know He’s bringing someone else there too.  Living on mission means that we know God has us and He’s put us right where He has for a purpose, a season, even just a moment.

Who is in your intersection right now? A neighbor, a friend, family member?  Ask them to join you. Bring them into what God has blessed you with. Simply ask.

This week Grace is hosting the largest BBQ picnic in our history!  Right after our regular church service, we’ll head out to the fields at Sinagua (you can’t miss the huge tent!).  It’ll be awesome to hang out and enjoy some good food. Best part will be to meet people who came because someone simply asked them to come!

Men’s Advance

On By MarkIn Men, TeachingLeave a comment

I love that name. It’s not a retreat, it’s a huddle so we can ‘advance’.  Pray for the men of Grace as we join the men of Calvary Community for our first time at their annual event. I’m honored to teach from Colossians 3 on Saturday night.  Thanks for praying for us.

This Sunday, I’ll resume our study in Acts with the faith of Stephen in chapter 7.

 

 

Mexico

On By MarkIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Please pray for Laurie and I as we head into Mexico.

I’ll be speaking at a family camp this evening in Imuris. Our church has invested in this ministry over the years. We’re looking forward to seeing some dear friends.

Pray that we can encourage the missionaries and that God would bless His Word in the preaching and teaching opportunities.

I’ll be back at Grace this Sunday!

 

New Staff @ Grace

On By MarkIn church, FlagstaffLeave a comment
Welcome Jason, Nicole, Hannah, Nicholas and Tyler Goodman

We are blessed to have Jason Goodman join the team as our Worship Pastor. Jason and Nicole have been married 13 years and now have 3 kids.  Jason served on the pastoral staff at a church in Tennessee before going to Colorado Springs to attend the New Life School of Worship.  We are looking forward to welcoming this family to Flagstaff and to Grace the first of August. Yep, that’s next week!

Serving Sinagua

On By MarkIn church, GraceGivesLeave a comment

Tomorrow our church is taking a portion of our normal worship service to serve the school that we have been meeting in for almost 18 years.  It’s amazing to me to think of how long God has allowed us to meet in this place.

As I was preparing for my message tomorrow, I was reminded that as we serve the school tomorrow we’re serving God and people. Sinagua is not a building. It’s people. Many of them may not be followers of Jesus, but they are people He created. People He loves.  So, we’ll be serving Him and His purposes by taking some time to wipe down some shelves, move some desks and do some clean up work.  I can’t wait.

If you’re a Gracer, here’s the plan for tomorrow:

Come to church and get a good seat. I suggest 9:50.  It’ll be packed tomorrow. There is no children’s ministry or nursery. EVERYONE will be together for our worship and teaching and serving! We will shorten the service significantly so we can jump right in and get to work on some basic projects around the school. We will then gather and finish our time together with lunch.

  • Come at 9:50
  • Everyone will be together in the service
  • Wear your work clothes
  • Worship will start right @ 10
  • I’ll be teaching a brief message
  • 10:35 we will be getting to our projects
  • There is something for everyone!
  • You will be encouraged to work together as a family
  • Lunch will be awesome, as always.
What a great way to serve God!  We get to bless Sinagua (remember, Sinagua is people, not a building!) And we get to work together, side by side, getting to know others in our church.

Entrusted with the Gospel

On By MarkIn church, commitment, GospelLeave a comment

Yesterday was our “Vision Update” Sunday.  On Jan 1, I talked specifics about Grace Community Church and what I believed God was leading us to do during this year.  Yesterday was exactly 6 months, so it was a good time for an update.

I am so excited for the plans God has for Grace Church.  It’s hard to put into a few words on this page all that is happening and the why of it all. Let me jump to the end. I ended with a brief picture of Paul writing to Timothy at the end of his first letter. Paul had just worded a ‘charge’ if you will, kind of a call to arms, “O man of God…fight the good fight of faith.”  Then he closes in verse 20 with “O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you.”

I can’t go into all of it here, but you can listen if you’d like on our website, and you could even skip to the last part like maybe the 41 minute mark (how’s that, a pastor saying skip to the end!)

Not unlike Timothy, we too have had the gospel entrusted to us to carry on and carry out. I don’t know where we got the notion that this was an option. It’s a command, a commission, it’s a way of life. A way of life that says, “there’s nothing in the world more important than receiving what God has for me and then living a life in response to that gift of grace and passing it on to others.”

3 Pots

On By MarkIn Mentors, Teaching3 Comments

A very thoughtful couple recently gave me this small fountain for my office.  They’ve been paying attention!

We’re all the middle pot.  For this to function the middle pot must both receive and give.  If you’re receiving and not giving, you’ll become bloated and not healthy. Think of the Dead Sea.  Water only flows into it.

If you’re giving and not receiving, you’ll run dry.  Imagine how long it takes for the fountain to cease flowing if the water from the top stops.  You can only give out what you’re receiving.

Who is speaking into your life?

And into whose life are you speaking?

Ministry – Am I receiving? Am I giving?

Truth – Am I reading, studying, learning? Am I sharing, teaching?

Relationships – Am I listening? Am I speaking the truth in love?

“You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”  2 Tim 2:1-2

 

Father’s Day

On By MarkIn Family, MenLeave a comment

I know, I know, Father’s Day has come and gone. In Sunday’s sermon, I talked about the significance of dads that have been touched by God.

Here’s where my thought came from:

I was reading last week in 1 Kings. You remember how you keep seeing this pattern of how the next king in the line did what his father did, whether good or evil?  For instance, “He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and walked in the way of his father, and in his sin which he made Israel to sin.”  That is 15:26, but really there’s a whole slew of verses just like that. Point is, the sin of the father was easy to pass on to the next king, and guess what the consequence was?

Perhaps you’ve read or heard me say before how blessed I am by who my father was.  You see both my dad and my wife’s father were not raised in homes where they were taught the things of the Lord.  And actually it was a pretty dismal outlook when you consider the other details that I wont go into here. Looking on from the outside, you might assume that neither of them had a chance or would ever amount to much.

           

Then God touched them.  Without a dad, or anyone in the home to point the way, my dad was 12 when he trusted in Jesus for his salvation. Laurie’s dad was 15.  And guess what? Everything changed. Each would go on to marry amazing Christian women who were raised in wonderful, God honoring homes. Each would raise a large family of Christ followers. And each became missionaries.  I’ve never tried to do the math of the influence, I’ll let God keep that record, but I must believe it’s amazing.

You see dads, it matters. Yesterday at Grace as we were honoring our dads, we were also getting a quick report from our youth who just returned, (like seriously 6 hours earlier) from a week at Hume Lake, where 11 students trusted Jesus for their salvation.  Imagine the young person whose life changed this very week, and imagine the next generation who just may be impacted by each of those individuals.  Is there a Jim Smith in that group, a Larry Cardoza?  Maybe. Probably. How about most definitely?