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.

Classic Passages

On By MarkIn Bible2 Comments

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve come across Proverbs 3:5-6. Many of you know that I read the Proverbs through each month. Along with the monthly drive-by, I also see this passage referred to often in cards and even in a Bible my dad once signed for me. I love this passage.

Prov 3:5-6
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
6 In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.

What I’m learning is what it means to ‘trust’. We trust God for our salvation, through Jesus. We trust that ‘all things work together for good’, Rom 8:28. But are we trusting Him with today.

What is it that God is leading you to trust Him with today? Your financial stuff? Job? Family? A snag? A bump in your road? Your health? What is it that God wants you to turn over to Him and know that He’s got your back? He doesn’t promise that it all goes away and everything is great, and good, and comfortable. What He tells us, is that as we trust Him and acknowledge Him, He’ll make our paths straight. He’ll make sense out of our chaos because He is ALWAYS working.

Trust Him. Go ahead, I’m right behind you.

Christmas is JESUS

On By MarkIn Christmas3 Comments


For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us

Titus 2:11; 3:4

The Word became flesh

God became man

Light entered darkness

All-sufficient became dependent

The Ever Present Help became the ever needy baby

King of kings humbled himself among his subjects

Creator came to the created

Infinite joined the finite

Wonderful came to not so wonderful

Counselor came to those in need of his counsel

Mighty God came to the extremely weak

Everlasting entered time

Father sent the Son to show the world God

Prince of Peace entered chaos

The God of humanity has come to rescue, to bring life-saving measures that we desperately need. He comes for the sorrowful, the resentful, the depressed, and the oppressed. He’s the God of the second chance, the third chance and the thirtieth.

Jesus, God with us, is the God of all comfort, healing, purpose, meaning and life. He’s not an option, He’s not an offer to be considered, He’s the Creator, the King, the ever present One, the all-sufficient One, the One who needs no introduction and deserves nothing less than an eternal ovation, He will be worshiped and praised. One day, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus is God, that the Baby of Bethlehem, is in fact the Savior of the World, God with us, God come to be in us.

Happy Birthday to my Laurie.

On By MarkIn LaurieLeave a comment

Yesterday was Laurie’s birthday. We’re both at that age where you start to think less and less of the birthday. Still love the birthday celebrations and making a fuss, but do we have to add a year to the age?

Because I was to do a wedding in Holbrook, we stayed Thursday night at La Posada in Winslow. I highly recommend this place. Especially the restaurant. I’d drive the 45 minutes just for the meal. After a great breakfast and leisurely morning, we headed to Sun Valley AZ for the wedding of Brian Fries and Jessica Pruitt. It was a great wedding with several sweet touches that made it unique.

Laurie and I then headed home to Flag where we enjoyed a nice meal and caught a movie. It was a great day that I thoroughly enjoyed sharing with my best gal ever.

Blessings

On By MarkIn Christmas, Flagstaff, SalvationLeave a comment

Some people complain about Mondays.  I probably have also. But not this Monday.

Yesterday was the first of the Christmas sermons and 5 people crossed the line of faith to place their trust in Jesus alone for eternal life!  AND we also had 3 baptized, 1 who just recently was saved at Grace!  It is such a blessing to be a part of God’s activity.  Yesterday, I was really going for 2 Cor 5:21 in the sermon, when I came across vs 20 that best summarized the point that we are invited to be participants in the Christmas Story, not merely onlookers.

20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

God makes his appeal to lost people through us!  Let’s not simply observe Christmas, let’s participate. Be an ambassador for Christ!

Flagstaff is under a Blizzard warning right now.  Snow is falling big time and schools have already cancelled for Tuesday.  NAU/CCC have also called off finals for today.  A blessing for some, I’m guessing. Also, we’re closing the church office for the remainder of today, and probably tomorrow also.

As we all enjoy the snow and the adjusted schedule that goes along with it, let’s be careful, and thankful!

Praying for…

On By MarkIn PrayLeave a comment

In John 17 Jesus prayed to His Father.  Not only is it an amazing chapter because we get to listen in to what Jesus said to the Father about what was about to happen, but also because we can observe a model in praying.

Much like the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6 [sometimes called the Disciple’s prayer, while this one in John 17 is the Lord’s Prayer] Jesus shows us that prayer begins with the Father. It’s about Him. His will. His glory. Jesus begins with the relationship between the Son and the Father. Our prayers should begin with God, not us and our stuff.  Get a vision of the greatness of God as you pray.

Then Jesus prayed for his guys. The disciples that were no doubt listening in.  He prayed for them. He knew what they were about to encounter.  He prayed that the Father would now ‘keep them’.  That’s awesome. We should pray for each other. We should think of our brothers and sisters as the team we’re on and the team we need to pray for.

Then he prayed for those who would believe. As you might know, that’s us. He prayed for us.  How cool would it be if in our prayers, we prayed for those that are going to get saved.  At church, what about the empty seats?  What about your neighbor?  Let’s pray for those that will soon be on the team.

Thanksgiving and Family

On By MarkIn Family, Laurie, ZacLeave a comment

Laurie and I are enjoying a few days here in Oregon with her mom.  Today, we’ll drive over to the coast and meet up with more family for the feast day tomorrow.

This Thanksgiving I’m very aware and grateful for my family.  I spent a few days in South Carolina early this fall with my nephew Zac and his great family.  I’m blessed with great family all around.  I have a great mother-in-law.  She’s easy to be around and is very grateful for the little effort I can put in to do a little clean up here and there.  Laurie comes from good people.

I’m also thankful for my side of the family tree.  I have lots of them to be thankful for. We don’t get to be together very often. But when we do, it is a highlight.  I could spend Thanksgiving with any of my family members and be a happy camper.

I’m reminded of how this all came about.  You see, my dad, and Laurie’s dad, came from what we would today call a broken, somewhat dysfunctional home. Had they carried on what they grew up with, I can’t imagine where I’d be today.  But, the Lord graciously saved them.  They single-handedly changed the world for a whole slew of us kids.  15 kids grew up in 2 Christian, God-honoring homes.

I don’t dwell on that very often, but when I think of it, I’m blown away.  Two young men came to Jesus.  Maybe later I’ll write more about that. Today…I’m just thankful.

Thanks

On By MarkIn GRACE, Jesus!, ThanksLeave a comment

Okay. Here we go. The week of thanksgiving is upon us.  I know, I know, it’s all predictable and everything, but seriously, we have much to be thankful for, and we need to give thanks.

Giving thanks seems a bit different than merely saying thanks.  It’s easy to say thanks. Especially right after we’ve somehow been motivated.  Someone gives you something, you say thanks. Someone holds the door, say thanks.  The last cookie is offered to you, you better say thanks, and maybe break it in half!

But to ‘give’ thanks takes a little more thought. And it shouldn’t be limited by the season.  Giving thanks is like going out of your way to ‘say’ thanks.  Don’t just say thanks for the obvious right in front of you, the open door, the cookie (half). Think and consider what you have, what you are blessed by and then go out of your way to give the thanks to whom it is due.

I want to give God thanks. For a lot of things.  My wife, my family heritage, my faith, my church family, my town, my struggles, my friends, staff, neighbors, my health, my home.  I want to especially give Him thanks for bringing 8 people to Himself this week.  Eight people that are now in a personal relationship with God all because of His great love for them.  Like me, none of the eight deserve this gift they received, they couldn’t buy it, couldn’t work long enough or hard enough to earn it. But because of Jesus, they have it.  And so do I. For that I’m most thankful.

Love One Another – An Opportunity

On By MarkIn Christmas, Flagstaff, GRACE, Thanks8 Comments

There are various ways we show our love for one another. Here are a couple of opportunities and a reminder for you to consider this week.

Love Others Around the World

Thanks to everyone at Grace for taking shoe boxes to fill for Operation Christmas Child. The boxes are due this Sunday and next.  Thanks for sharing God’s love with children around the world.

Love Others in Our Community

We have just learned of a great opportunity to bless our neighbors right here in Flagstaff.  The Sunshine Rescue Mission is putting together their annual Thanksgiving food boxes that they will give out the week of Thanksgiving.  Here’s how WE can help.  Buy a turkey and deliver it to SRM Monday through Friday within the next two weeks.

AMAZING TIP:  This week Fry’s has frozen Jenni-o turkeys on sale for 40 cents a pound.  I bought mine this morning, for like $7 and saved $24!  So NOW is a great time to go get your turkey, keep it in the freezer until next week when you can drop it off at the mission.  It might be helpful for us to keep track of how many we can provide, so please comment below that you’re in, or drop me an email.  Let’s do this!

Love One Another through your church

This Sunday is an opportunity to worship together at 10 a.m. and then join with us for lunch and our membership class right after church at the ministry center. We love the “one anothers” of our church as we join together for the common mission of Grace Community.

Pay it forward

On By MarkIn GRACE, Laurie, LoveLeave a comment

Yesterday we looked at John 15:12-17 to gain an understanding of Jesus’ command to love each other.  In our Grace Group last night the discussion turned to ways we can love those near us that often get passed by in our busyness.  Laurie and I shared our recent experience of being so blessed by a couple of meals when we were both sick for a few days.

It is uncommon for us to both have the cruds at the same, but we did, and it wasn’t pretty.  Two different families of Grace offered to bring us meals, on the same day.  It was awesome!  As we retold the story last night, we realized how effective that jesture of love really was for us.  We actually began to feel much better physically after this show of love and support was so clearly demonstrated.  The food was amazing, homemade soups, desserts, the whole deal.  But what made such an impact on us was the generous love.  Laurie went on to tell how she almost immediately wanted to go and do the same thing for someone, simply because of what it did for her.  And so she did.

As we discuss our intentions to graciously and intentionally demonstrate God’s unconditional love to those nearest us, think of how you have been blessed.  How have you seen sacrificial love evidenced in your circle?  Whatever that is, it might be a good way to pass it on to someone in your life that is just longing for the same.  I’m pretty sure as God prompts you to bless someone, that person has a real need and is open to God’s message of love through you!  Remember from yesterday, love is a sacrifice, a willingness to pay the price.  I can’t wait to hear more stories of God’s people loving all over each other!  Remember, “by this will they know you are my disciples.”  That’s the point.  We’re His!  Let’s do this.

One more quick thought for this Monday. Tonight I’m starting our next class.  This one is “How to Study the Bible”.  This is a 4-week course on hermeneutics, how we interpret the Bible for clear, accurate understanding.  Remember, when God have us the Bible, it was to be understood.  It can happen.  Come and join me tonight at the Ministry Center at 6:30.  The $5 cost covers handouts for the 4 weeks.  DO NOT let a mere 5 bucks keep you from learning one of the most important things you’ll need as you follow Christ.  If you’re broke, come anyway, I’ll spot you the five.  I really want to see a bunch of you get this material!