How I Spent My Sabbatical

Greetings in the Name of the Lord:

“See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him” (1 John 3:1, NLT).

The entire world it seems was turned upside down in 2020 with the global pandemic known as COVID 19. It has caused us to change the way we do life. People working, learning and worshipping from home. Unfortunately, it also has meant that there are many empty seats at the dinner table with so many dying from the terrible virus. May all of you who have lost a loved one or being adversely affected by this virus be comforted by the God of all comfort (1 Cor. 1:3-4).

For me 2020 has also not been life as usual. Back in March, I met with our leadership team at the Ohio Ministry Network for our annual state of the church meeting. Just a few minutes into the meeting one of the Network officers look at me and said, “Mark, you look absolutely exhausted! Maybe you should consider taking a sabbatical?” At the time I dismissed the idea, but several weeks later, after church my wife and daughter looked at me and said, “you really need to take that sabbatical!” This time I knew it was time to take a break. Honestly, I was in a very dark place, and I truly was exhausted in every way that a man can be exhausted. So, after speaking to our leadership, and with the help from our sister church in the next community, I decided to take a four-month sabbatical from the church. Since I already had a second knee replacement surgery scheduled for October 1st it seemed like a good time to start. After nearly four months of rest, reflection, and working on myself I will be returning to the church I have pastored for nearly fourteen years this coming Sunday (January 24). Therefore, I’d like to share some of the things I learned during that time.

  1. I am God’s child; I have value; I have worth; I am God’s child! After several weeks of recovery from surgery I started seeing a Christian counselor (yes, that’s okay), and one of the best things he did for me was to have me read a book entitled “Identity Matters” by Terry Wardle. Now there have been two books that I can truly say have changed my life; one is the Bible, and the other is Identity Matters! The premise of the book is that we need to see ourselves through God’s eyes and not the world’s eyes. For maybe the first time I truly understood who I am…I am God’s child, and I don’t have to earn his love and acceptance! All my life I’ve been told I wasn’t good enough. I wasn’t smart enough. I wasn’t skinny enough. I wasn’t good looking enough. I wasn’t athletic enough. In fact, in many different times in my life I’ve been told I would never amount to anything. And being a Pastor has not helped this problem at all! Over the years I’ve been told I couldn’t preach, pray, lead, play the guitar or sing. Well, if you hear something enough you begin to believe it. However, after reading Identity Matters, I learned that my identity is in Christ, and to him I am his child, and therefore, I’m better than good enough!
  2. Focus on your strengths not your weaknesses. My wife Tina and I went on a Pastoral retreat with a ministry called Standing Stone Ministries. We basically spent a week at the home of another ministry couple who loved us, listened to us, feed us (way too much) and pampered us. Their names are Barry and Brenda, and they will now be our friends and mentors for life! They are awesome! We learned so much during that week! We worked on strengthening our marriage through a famous book called “The Five Love Languages” by Gary Chapman. We also learned to focus on our strengths from a book called “Clifton Strengths.” The basic idea behind this book is to focus on what you do well and not on what you don’t do well. For years I’ve been trying to do things that I’m just not very good at because I was led to believe that this was part of the Pastor’s job. However, I learned that I needed to do what I do well and leave the other stuff to someone who is gifted in that area and has a passion for those things. From now on I’m doing me!
  3. Yes, we rested too! One of the spiritual disciplines that is often overlooked in our busy world is rest. It’s a Biblical as you can get, but we get so busy we forget that even God rested! So, Tina and I right before Christmas spent a few days in Ohio’s Amish Country, thanks in part to a gift from the Ohio Ministry Network (thanks guys)! It was relaxing and restful (yes, we ate too much there too). We spent some time just enjoying some of the simple things in life and time in each other’s company. It was a plus that it was Christmas time, and everything was decorated for the season. It was beautiful! About a week later, after having four cruises canceled on us during the year, we decided to cast caution to the wind and spent five days in an all-inclusive beach resort in Jamaica! It was warm, relaxing and peaceful. Oh yeah, they say, “Yah Mon,” to everything! One more thing, my daughter asked me to find the Jamaican Bobsled Team, so, of course I made a point of asking everybody where I could find them? On the second day, Tina made me stop! 
  4. Sometimes a Pastor and his family just need to go to church. I know some of you will look at this and go “what? Don’t they do that all the time?” Not really! You see for a Pastor and his family church on Sunday morning is work. They are expected to lead and perform every Sunday, and this is so draining, both physically and spiritually. Sometimes a Pastor and his family need to just go to another church and just be one of the people. To be able to go sit down and take in some spiritual nourishment instead of constantly giving out. Well, we got to this during our sabbatical. We attended our sister church, Center Point Church, in Marion, OH. It was very refreshing! Pastor Brent, his staff, and congregation all treated us like family. Furthermore, Pastor Brent sent Jeff and Pastor Amy to New Life to fill in while we were gone. Thank you, Pastor Brent, and everyone at Center Point.

Well, the sabbatical is over, and I’m rested and refreshed. Time to get back to work. We’ll see you this Sunday at New Life!

Christmas Devotion

Greetings In The Name Of The Lord:

First of all let me say that you haven’t heard from me in a while because I’ve been on sabbatical. During that time God has shown me a lot of wonderful things and done some amazing things in my life. What I want to share with you this Christmas Eve is not something I wrote on my own, but it was a part of my devotions this morning and it is too good not to share. Enjoy!

On this wonderful Christmas Eve let’s take a moment to reflect on the heart of Jesus. Let’s take a moment to meditate on the depth of his love for us. It must have been love and love alone that would cause God to take on flesh and dwell among us. It must have been love alone that would give him the desire to leave perfection and take on the suffering and limitations of a human being. Think of the differences! Think of the implications of his decision! Can you imagine being the Maker of heaven and earth and choosing to make yourself low unto the point of death for the sake of humans who have gone astray? For us Christmas is a time of great rejoicing. It’s a time of joy, nostalgia, and fond remembrance. For Jesus, it was a time of great sacrifice. Jesus says in John 6:51, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” You and I have been afforded eternal life in utter perfection because of the magnitude of Jesus’ love for us. We’ve been granted boundless communion with our Creator simply because he made a way for us where we couldn’t. Isaiah 53:4-6 says, “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” As we celebrate this Christmas Eve, let’s remember what Jesus carried in his heart for us prior to his birth. Let’s remember the depth of his love for us that he would subject himself to flesh. Let’s press into communion with God and give God the only gift he’s after: our hearts. And let’s worship our Bread of Life in whom we’ve been granted the eternal gift of relationship with our heavenly Father.

Merry Christmas to all!

In Christ,

Pastor Mark

Rescue

Matthew 6:13 (NLT2) 
13 And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one. 

Jesus was not immune from the schemes of the devil, and he wants his disciples to be on their guard against him. At the end of v. 13 Jesus says, “And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.” And deliver us from the evil one. Our souls have an enemy, and his devices of evil include temptation to participate in that evil. If we are led astray by his temptations, eventually we will end up in his hands. The evil one comes only to steal and to kill, says Jesus. He wants to steal our health, steal our joy and our love. If he is successful in his endeavors, we will enter into an eternal death in which we will forever be separated from the love of Christ. We are praying that God would keep us safe as we venture through life in the Lord’s service.” Jesus wanted his followers to place their trust in God during trying times and to pray for deliverance from the evil one and his deceit. All Christians struggle with temptation. Believers who pray these words realize their sinful nature and their need to depend on God in the face of temptation. Are you trusting Jesus?

In Christ,

Pastor Mark

Lead Us

Greetings In The Name Of The Lord:

Matthew 6:13 (ESV) 
13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. 

One thing that becomes unmistakable to a new believer is that this Christian life is not always a bed of roses. In fact, sometimes it’s hard work! In the first part of v. 13 Jesus says, “And lead us not into temptation…” Lead us not into temptation. Up until now, the prayer has been dealing with our relationship with the Father and with those around us. Here the prayer changes, now dealing with us going out into the world with the message of God’s love and forgiveness. The Greek word translated temptation does not mean “enticement to do evil” but “testing.” Sometimes God allows his people to be “tested” by temptation. But this testing is never without a purpose: God is always working to refine his people, teach them to depend on him, and strengthen their character to be more like him. How he does this differs in every person’s life. The prayer, then, is that we not yield to temptation(Barton, 32). “When you take us out into the world, Father, to do your bidding, to advance your kingdom, give us the strength to be in the world but not of the world.” We need to pray daily for the strength and wisdom to pass the tests that come our way. In Matthew 26:41 (NLT2), Jesus says, “Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak!”  Everywhere we look and go there is temptation. There’s temptation at work. There’s temptation at the grocery store. There is temptation in the parking lot and on the highway. There’s temptation at school. There’s certainly temptation on the internet. So, we need to constantly be asking God to protect us from these things. Guide us, Lord, as we seek to follow you every day.

In Christ,

Pastor Mark

Asking For Forgiveness

Greetings In The Name of The Lord:

In the John Wayne movie, “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon,” The John Wayne character is noted for telling people, “never apologize, mister, it’s a sign of weakness.” I hate to tell you this, but as much as I love John Wayne movies, his character is dead wrong on this one. When we’re wrong, we need to admit it, and ask forgiveness. Even to our kids, when we blow it with them. An important part of prayer is acknowledging our sinfulness to God and asking for his forgiveness. In. Matthew 5:12 Jesus says, “…and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us.” God has given us territory that is ours, and his provision within that territory is full and without want. Yet for some reason we often stray from our land and try to take what is not ours. We trespass into our neighbor’s land and incur a debt we cannot pay. When we sin against someone, we are saying, “God, what you have given to me is not enough.” And for this we must ask forgiveness. We need to be aware that God has set a path for us; he has called us and given us a destiny. In this prayer we are asking God to help us not to stray from his place within his kingdom. And when other people stray from their path onto ours, hurting us and abusing us and causing us pain, then we need to forgive them as God has forgiven us. “Keep us, Lord, from being indebted to you in withholding forgiveness from others.”

In Christ,

Pastor Mark

Give Us Our Needs

Greetings In The Name Of The Lord:

Matthew 6:11 (NLT2) 
11  Give us today the food we need, 

This is the third in a series on the “Lord’s Prayer,” or as I prefer to refer to it, the “Model Prayer.” The focus of the model prayer now shifts from “your,” to “us.” In v. 11 Jesus says, “Give us today the food we need.”  As humans, we are needy beings. In prayer we can admit those needs. We have physical needs—food, shelter, clothing—that must be met daily. We need health in our bodies. We have spiritual and emotional needs—hope, someone to love, faith—that also must be cared for daily. We need strength in our spirits. All of this is included in “daily bread.” This is where we pull a chair up to our Father’s table. We acknowledge that he has the means to feed us—whatever our hunger is. We go to him with our most basics needs anticipating he will feed us from his bounty. We ask because it demonstrates not only our need, but our trust in his provision for us.” God will meet all our NEEDS according to His riches. 

Philippians 4:19 (NLT2) 
19  And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus. 

Now our name it and claim it friends will take from this that God has to give me whatever I want. If I want a new Corvette or my own private jet all I have to do is ask God for it and he has to give it to me. But that’s not what this verse says at all. In fact, the context is talking about being content with what you already have. The verse in the model prayer is talking about “our daily bread,” in other words, “the bread I need for today.” God is not our errand boy! It’s not his job to give us the latest and greatest gadget. He meets our needs not necessarily our wants.

In Christ,

Pastor Mark

Your Kingdom Come

Greetings In The Name Of The Lord:

Matthew 6:10 (ESV) 
10  Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 

Today I would like to continue with a series I started a while back regarding the model prayer. Jesus continues the model prayer by talking about one of his favorite subjects, the Kingdom. Here Jesus says, “Yes, you’ve been fully adopted into God’s family. You have every right to be talking to him, but do you realize who your Daddy is? He’s the King!” Not a king, the King. So, we say, “I want what you want, Daddy. Your Kingdom is an awesome kingdom of light and love, and I want your Kingdom to advance in this world of darkness and hate. My desire is the same as your desire: to see everyone come out of this world of sin and into your Kingdom of forgiveness. I want your rule to advance and be known in this world.” Because the will of God is the glory of heaven, the doing of it is the blessedness of heaven. As the will is done, the kingdom of heaven comes into the heart.

When we pray for His Kingdom and will to be done, His desire become our desire. 

Matthew 26:39 (NLT2) 
39  He went on a little farther and bowed with his face to the ground, praying, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” 

As we pray and ask God for his Kingdom to come on earth, and His will to be done, what we are asking of Him is for more and more people to come into that intimate relationship with him that we have. His will is for more and more people to come to him, repent, be forgiven, saved and filled with the Holy Spirit. That is what Ohio for Jesus if all about! It’s about seeing the Kingdom of God come to Ohio! It’s about seeing people set free by the power of God and receive forgiveness through the cross. And that is what we are asking for when we pray for His Kingdom and will to be done. Are you praying for his Kingdom to come?

In Christ,

Pastor Mark

What’s So Good About Good Friday?

Greetings In The Name Of The Lord:

John 19:30 (ESV) 
30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. 

Dennis Bratcher said, “Good Friday is not a day of celebration but of mourning, both for the death of Jesus and for the sins of the world that his death represents. Yet, although Friday is a solemn time, it is not without its own joy. For while it is important to place the Resurrection against the darkness of Good Friday, likewise the somberness of Good Friday should always be seen with the hope of Resurrection Sunday. As the well- known sermon title vividly illustrates: “It’s Friday. But Sunday’s a’comin’!”

Now if Dennis Bratcher is correct, and I believe he is, then why do we call it Good Friday? What’s so good about Jesus dying? Well, everything! You see, for us to be right with God again someone needed to take our place. It says it Hebrews 9:22, “Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (ESV). Furthermore, it couldn’t be just anyone’s blood, for the Old Testament requirement was that the animal offered for redemption had to be “spotless.” In other words, it had to be someone without sin, and only Jesus could fill that requirement. So, when Jesus came to earth, he had one mission and that was to go to the cross. So when he said, “It is finished!” He meant his mission was completed. For us, sinful human beings that was very good news! And that is what makes Good Friday so very good!

In Christ,

Pastor Mark

Covid 19

Greetings In The Name Of The Lord:

Philippians 4:4-7 (ESV) 
4  Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5  Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6  do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7  And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

“Pray, and let God worry” (Martin Luther). Over the past several weeks I think I have used the phrase “new territory” more than I’ve used it in my entire life. While we are going through it COVID 19 seems like an enormous catastrophe in global proportions. But is it? My parents’ generation, for example, went through the Great Depression, WWI, WWII, a Polio epidemic, the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis and a host of other catastrophes. Yes, COVID 19 is a series health crisis and we should take it seriously, but we shouldn’t let us derail us in our faith and trust in God. He’s still God, still on His throne, and still in charge of the universe. To put it bluntly, stop worrying, God’s got this! Pray, trust and believe!

In Christ,

Pastor Mark

Teach Us To Pray: Part 1

Greetings In The Name Of The Lord:

Matthew 6:9 (NLT2) 
9 Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. 

In his classic book With Christ In The School Of Prayer, author Andrew Murray says, “Jesus never taught His disciples how to preach, only how to pray.” Many of us who grew up in any church probably memorized “The Lord’s Prayer.” However, I don’t believe this was Jesus’ purpose. His purpose wasn’t to give us a prayer to memorize, but rather a model on which to model our prayer life. In this series I would like to go through what I like to call “The Model Prayer,” section by section. The theme of the first section is Character. 

The first thing that Jesus teaches us in prayer is to recognize the otherness of God. In v. 9, Jesus says, “Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy.” Jesus begins with a simple word that demonstrates an important relational concept: Father. Jesus uses the Aramaic word Abba, an informal name often translated Daddy. It’s an intimate name for an intimate God! Now, none of us would ever deny that Jesus has the right to address God the Father in this fashion. However, what we sometimes fail to recognize is that Jesus is teaching us that we can have the same relationship with the Father as Jesus does. This relationship also transcends barriers. God was just as much Jesus’ Father on earth as he was in heaven. The same is true for us. He is just as much our Father now as he will be when we are in heaven. The other thing we need to recognize is that even though we can have an intimate relationship with the Father, we also need to be aware that he is very different from us. The greatest aspect of God’s character is his holiness. We are to offer respect and reverence to God because he is holy, with no darkness or sin. Christians, who bear the holy name of Christ, must be responsible to honor him in every aspect of their lives. We pause to acknowledge that he is what we long to be. We long to be like God so that his glory will be revealed to the people we meet. When we pray for God’s name to be honored, we pray that this world will honor his name, and we look forward to Christ’ return when that will be a reality.
(Barton, 31).

In Christ,

Pastor Mark