Have you ever had one of those moments where you realize that the younger version of you was smarter than the current version of you?  That happened to me recently while reflecting on my resolutions from years ago.  Here’s what I had written several years ago as part of my New Year’s Resolutions:

I resolve to ask five key questions at the end of each day:

• What did I procrastinate today?
• Whom did I encourage today?
• How did I lead others today?
• What am I proud of today?
• Where did God show up today?

This was not the only resolution I made that January, but it should have been.  If I did these five things every day, I’d be a better husband, father, pastor, leader, and more by now.  That would have been smart.  Perhaps this year as I think about resolutions it would be smart if I listened to that younger version of me!

Maybe you’re not a “resolution” kind of person.  Maybe you’ve made and broken too many resolutions, and just decided you don’t want to add more failure to your resume.  But let me urge you to reconsider.  Let me urge you to think about what this next year could be if God actually showed up and began to transform your life.  What would your January look like if Jesus met you in the kitchen each morning and walked with you through your day?  Where would he encourage you?  Where would he challenge you?  Where would he nudge you?  Where would he heal you?  Where would he stand in your path and point you toward a different way?  Let those be the basis for your resolutions.  And let God be the one who gives you strength to persevere and change this coming year.

I hope you’ll join us this month as we learn to develop strong, healthy habits that will allow us to change and grow in the coming year!

-Pastor Mark

P.S. Yes, I’m making the list above my resolution again for this year!

Over the course of a year I write at least 50 blog posts like this.  If you’re honest, some of them are more helpful to you than others, right?  What if you could help make more of them helpful?  Well now you can!

I’d like to ask you for your best ideas on what topics would be helpful for you in this space.  Do you need more encouragement, resources, inspiration, information, etc.  Would you like more links to other sites, more personal stories from Seneca Creek, more Bible background info, or more videos of cats?  What areas are a challenge for you as you live out your faith from Monday to Saturday?

This is your chance to help me in the coming year.  The point of this blog is to help all of us in the journey of integrating our faith with our real life.  So if you would be willing to offer your suggestions, I’ll do my very best to use them in the coming year.  And together we’ll become a better version of who God made us to be!

Simply use the comment section below to add your ideas.  You can do so anonymously, or better yet, add your name.

Thank you for a great year…and thank you for your ideas on how we can make next year even better!

-Pastor Mark

Last Friday’s shooting in Connecticut is a tragedy we’ll not soon forget.  And it causes many of us to re-evaluate our daily routines and our organizational policies in an attempt to ensure that nothing like that ever happens again.  We feel compelled to do something in an effort to control the world around us in a way that creates assurances.  However, we may be acting in vain.

Jesus pointed out that we cannot even add one hour to our life by all our efforts and worry.  Planning and prudence and perseverance are all good qualities.  But they are not guarantees that this world, and the people in it, will bend to our wills.  Jesus’ solution was simple.  Instead of seeking a life that is firmly under your control, instead seek God and his ways.

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own.  Mt. 6:33-34

The message of Christmas is this: God invaded our world through the Incarnation because our efforts to control life would never succeed.  We needed outside intervention.  We needed God to resume his place on the throne.  In the aftermath of last week’s shooting in Newtown, that message rings louder still.  God has invaded our world because he knows what we need and he has the power to provide it.  That is the assurance of the Christian faith.  And that is the only assurance we need.  Emmanuel.  God is with us.

I hope you can join us for a special Christmas Eve service this year.  Choose from either Sunday morning at 9:15 or 11:00 a.m., OR Monday evening at 5:00 or 7:00 p.m.  It will be a moment to remember.

I’m listening to the news reports of the horrific slaughter in the school in Connecticut. I’m fighting back tears and the urge to be sick. No one has answers for this kind of tragedy.
And as we draw closer to Christmas, I’m reminded of the haunting words of Tennyson in his Christmas carol, “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.”

I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar carols play,
And mild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men…

And in despair I bowed my head:
“There is no peace on earth,” I said,
“For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth he sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,
With peace on earth, good will to men.”

Today it can seem like the song of peace is being mocked.  But I remain hopeful that God is not dead…nor does he sleep.  And my prayers go out to the aching hearts of those who have lost so much on this day.

By my calculations you’ve been listening to Christmas music in the marketplace for about a month already.  There are probably songs you’re SICK of (like the one about Grandma and the reindeer), and others that you enjoy.  But do you have a favorite?  I do.

Truthfully there are a number of songs that really get to me, but one of the deepest and richest of all is “O Holy Night.”  I’ve copied the lyrics below because they’re worth reading.  Slowly.

O Holy Night! The stars are brightly shining,
It is the night of the dear Saviour’s birth.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining.
Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
Fall on your knees! Oh, hear the angel voices!
O night divine, oh night when Christ was born;
O night, O Holy Night , O night divine!
O night, O Holy Night , O night divine!

Led by the light of faith serenely beaming,
With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand;
So led by light of a star sweetly gleaming,
Here came the wise men from Orient land.
The King of kings lay thus in lowly manger,
In all our trials born to be our Friend;
He knows our need,
To our weakness is no stranger.
Behold your King, before Him lowly bend!
Behold your King, before Him lowly bend!

Truly He taught us to love one another,
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother.
And in his name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
Let all within us praise His holy name
Christ is the Lord! Then ever, ever praise we,
His power and glory ever more proclaim!
His power and glory ever more proclaim!

Now take two minutes and read them again.

• The soul felt it’s worth…
• A thrill of hope…
• Born to be our Friend…
• He knows our need…
• His law is love…
• The slave is our brother…
• All oppression shall cease…

It doesn’t get any better than that.  I hope you’ll join us in giving away the HOPE of Christ this Christmas.

While you’re at it, join in the conversation and share your favorite Christmas carol in the comment section below.

-Pastor Mark

P.S. Don’t forget to join us this Sunday for a special PowerHouse FX presentation: The Big Give – a Born Legacy.  It’s a great time for all ages!

We (rightly) believe in a God who is all-powerful.  The theologians call it “omnipotent.”  Maybe you’ve even asked God to pour a little power into your life situation.  But did you realize that this powerful partnership with God can be stymied by you and me?

Here’s the evidence.  Jesus was moving throughout Israel, demonstrating God’s power in people’s lives, remarkable, miraculous power to heal and restore.  He stopped in his hometown.  And then we find the following comment in Matthew 13:58:

He [Jesus] did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.

The demon-stomping, storm-stopping, disease-evicting miracle worker was handcuffed by the very people he grew up with.  All because of one simple reason: lack of faith.  Maybe they thought they knew him too well.  Maybe they didn’t want him to succeed.  We don’t really know why their faith was absent.  But because it was, God was effectively handcuffed.

Before you get upset, and start to type an email reminding me that nothing is impossible with God, let me say this.  I believe that.  God doesn’t need my approval or yours.  He can do whatever he pleases.  Yet for some reason, he is pleased to work through our faith.

When you’re facing a God-sized problem, do you believe God can actually do something about it?  As we’ve talked about inviting others to consider following Jesus, do you think about friends and family and conclude, “There’s no way they’d ever consider God”?  Or do you have faith that God just might want to do a modern miracle in that person’s life?  Or in yours?

• It’s presumptuous to say, “I know God WILL display his power and do this thing for me.”
• It’s disastrous to say, “I know God WON’T display his power and do this thing for me.”
• But it’s powerfully effective to say, “I know God CAN display his power and do this thing for me.”

You have the key for the handcuffs.  Unleash the power of God.  Have faith.  Pray and plan as if God is going to show up.

-Pastor Mark

P.S. If you want to review some of the resources I mentioned last Sunday, you can find them here.

Many of our prayers are for safety. But I’d like to challenge you to pray a dangerous prayer this December.

Last Sunday I mentioned a prayer strategy developed by Frank Laubach, called the “Can I Help You” prayer, or the CIHU prayer. The idea is that we pray to God to help connect him to the people in our lives, especially those who are “missing” from God’s family.  It’s a dangerous prayer because it will very likely cause some conversations that we’ll need God’s help for. It will cause our lives to careen out of the comfort zone and into the unknown zone, where we’ll have to rely on God.

So as we head into the Christmas season, I’d like to challenge you to join me in making the CIHU prayer part of every day. At least once a day, when we’re around others who are far from God, we will pray that we could help connect that person with God, and vice versa. Then we’ll see how God answers that prayer.

Are you up to the challenge?  Are you willing to pray a dangerous prayer?

-Pastor Mark

P.S. I invite you to join me for an all church prayer gathering this Sunday evening at 6 pm. We’ll provide some pizza, then we’ll pray for all those people God wants to reach through Seneca Creek this Christmas season.  And if you need prayer, we’ll have teams on hand to pray with you individually as well. See you then!

OOPS!  Due to a technical error, you’re probably looking for this week’s blog post on the Christmas Prayer Challenge.  Click here to go to that post.  Sorry!

Tell me if this sounds familiar.  You’re driving, and the lane next to you has to merge with yours.  Someone tries to jump in front of you, even though you were CLEARLY there first.  Out of the kindness of your heart you let them slide in front.  And then…they don’t even bother to give you the courtesy thank-you wave!  “How could they be so ungrateful?”, you blurt out.  It’s the least they could do, right?  Something in us recoils at ingratitude, turning up our noses as if it’s a pile of rotting manure!

While you may think it’s just the conditioning of your mom’s incessant reminders to use “please” and “thank you,” there’s actually something more going on.  Gratitude is the normal, healthy, life-giving response of God’s creation.  (I discussed this recently on a Sunday morning.)  When gratitude is replaced by ingratitude the created order is thrown out.  There’s an incursion of the enemy of God, bringing with him deception (I did it on my own), and death (the absence of the life-giving Spirit of God).  Ingratitude stinks up our world with the rotting smell of the death of God’s life for us.  This is why Paul tells one church to “give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you.”  (1 Thess 5:18)  God’s will is where God’s purposes and plans are being put into play.  Another way to talk about it is where God is “king,” or the kingdom of God.  That’s why Jesus tells his followers to pray, “YOUR kingdom come, YOUR will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

It turns out that the simple act of giving thanks can be what ushers in a sliver of the kingdom of God.  It brings God’s will and God’s kingdom into this darkened world.  And the aroma of Christlikeness that Paul talks about (2 Cor. 2:15) begins to overpower the stench of ingratitude.

So this Thanksgiving, sit up tall, and take a deep breath.  What do you smell?  Is it life-giving gratitude, giving thanks in all circumstances?  Of is it the rotting stench of ingratitude?  I’m going with gratitude!

-Pastor Mark

P.S. If you have something you want to go on record as being grateful for, use the comment box below!

Apparently a woman in Cleveland recently made a really bad choice while driving.  And as a consequence, a local judge sentenced her to hold up a sign at a busy intersection, declaring that she was an idiot.  Now you may think that’s a great idea, or you may think it’s a bad idea, but here’s what I think…

I think that we’ve all made bad choices at some point.  (Maybe you didn’t drive onto the sidewalk to avoid stopping for the school bus like the woman above did, but admit it, you’ve made some clunkers.)  And I for one am extremely glad that I don’t have to parade around in public with a poster scrawled with my mistakes.  I am extremely glad that God gives me a different option; the option of grace.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.  (Eph. 2:8)

Grace means I don’t have to bear the full weight of my mess.  Grace means that my identity is not that of someone who made stupid choices.  Grace means that I don’t have to shuffle around in shame.  Grace means I’m not sentenced to hold the idiot sign.

We could all fill a shopping cart full of posters with the mistakes we made.  But today, by the grace of God, we can give thanks for Jesus Christ, the one who allows us to put down the sign, and take up the cross, and follow him into a life of hope and transformation!

-Pastor Mark

Well the robo-calls and the endless mud-slinging TV ads are over.  (It’s okay to say “Amen!”)  So now what?  Does it all matter?  Here are a few thoughts from a friend of mine.

In the days before the election, Alvin Sanders wrote these words:

1. We know who is going to win. A flawed man working in a faulty system living in a broken world. Guarantee you that is who is going to win.
2. We also know that neither candidate made the sun come up this morning or will make it set this evening.
3. And I am pretty sure that if your personal choice does not win, you are not in charge of deciding if the world is going to come to an end!  (http://alvinsanders.net/2012/11/06/3-things-to-keep-in-mind-on-election-day/)

And he’s absolutely right.  From the president on down to the local dog-catcher, every elected official is a flawed person working in a faulty system living in a broken world.  All the more reason why the church of Jesus Christ needs to ignite the HOPE of Christ in every corner of every community.  That’s the only way to true restoration.  And by the way, those imperfect elected officials…they could use prayer.  Even if they aren’t willing to acknowledge it.  What if we put as much time into praying for those in office as we did trying to get them elected?

Alvin’s also right about making the sun come up and go back down.  There’s a whole lot of rhetoric (a.k.a. empty promises) in the campaigns. But as the writer of Proverbs puts it, the king’s heart is in the Lord’s hands. (Pr. 21:1)  If you want to know who can actually change things, it’s God.  Sure, he sometimes uses government and its leaders.  But often times, he simply uses the power of the Word of God and the Spirit of God.  Please don’t act like your candidate is going to save the world.

And finally, the world as we know it will come to an end some day.  But it won’t be the fault of the Democrats or the Republicans (or the Libertarians, or any other group).  And until that day comes, there’s work to be done.  As Jesus said, the fields are ripe for the harvest.  (Jn. 4:35)

So in a country that’s fed up with political promises that end up in the dumpster, let’s resolve to offer real hope, and real change.  Not in a president, or senator, or council-member…but in a King.

-Pastor Mark