May I Have Your Attention? – Mark 16:9-19

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May I Have Your Attention? – Mark 16:9-19

So WHY did Mark’s editors include these five incredible claims: cast out demons, speak in new languages, handle snakes, drink poison, and heal the sick? As Nef put it: for shock value. ALL of these miraculous signs had one goal: to get people’s attention so that you could then tell them about God’s even MORE incredible love.

If we create a culture where we look forward to moments when we can spontaneously and joyfully share God’s love with others – and then celebrate those moments together – we will continue to expand the Kingdom of God and shock our community with our faith.

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Virtue #7 – Ask Questions & Love Skeptics – 8 Short Verses

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Virtue #7 – Ask Questions & Love Skeptics – 8 Short Verses

Curiosity and skepticism are closely related. God is fine with skepticism in the sense of genuine, sincere questioning.

Here’s the great news: God is fine with skepticism in the sense of genuine, sincere questioning. When Thomas doubted Jesus was really back from the dead, Jesus neither rejected nor berated Thomas. Instead, Jesus said intimately welcomed him, “Thomas, I understand why you have doubts. Put your hands in my wounds (wow!) so your experience with Me will transform your relationship with Me in a way that you can never doubt.” God welcomes our wonders and our worries and invites us into life-changing, faith-changing experiences.

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Virtue #5 – Giving Generously – 10 Short Scripture Readings

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Virtue #5 – Giving Generously – 10 Short Scripture Readings

As Christians, we commit to “faithfully participate in the ministries of the Church by our prayers, our presence, our gifts, our service, and our witness, that in everything God may be glorified” (Methodist membership vows).

Elevating the practice of giving means we live into the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1–12): We will give our time, our talents, and our treasures so that the hungry will have food, the naked will have clothes, the homeless will have shelter, the lonely will have friends, the sick will have care, and so on.

As we co-labor with God to love and serve others, let’s keep asking, “How can we elevate our giving – in all its many forms – so that more people can experience the joy, the peace, and the excitement of God’s Kingdom?”

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Mark 16:1-7 – Peter’s Call-Back Story

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Mark 16:1-7 – Peter’s Call-Back Story

Peter’s story of being called back is living proof of God’s amazing grace. Peter’s call-back story presses us to ask two questions about our own lives.
1 - How have we received the Good News of God’s love?
2 - How can we share the Good News of God’s love with others?

Let’s go find the Peters in our community – the people who think they are unworthy of God’s love and remind them that they are worthy of God’s love and our love. Let’s remind them that they are welcomed, they are invited, they are called back to – and needed – in this big, messy family we call the Kingdom of God!

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4 Readings – Mary Magdalene’s Call Story

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4 Readings – Mary Magdalene’s Call Story

If you read the stories surrounding the 13 verses that include Mary Magdalene’s name, you will find that...

  • She’s the last to stay with Jesus at His execution.

  • She’s the first to discover the empty tomb.

  • She’s the first to hear about His resurrection.

  • She’s the first to see, talk with, and touch the resurrected Jesus.

  • She’s the first to be called and sent to tell others about the Good News of His resurrection – thus making her the first apostle to the disciples who would become apostles. She has often been called “the apostle to the apostles” and even been described as the 13th disciple.

As one of our greatest role models, Mary Magdalene’s life presses us to ask several good questions about our own commitment to our faith.

  • How have we experienced God’s transformative presence in our lives?

  • How are we staying close to God?

  • How are we serving God?

  • How are we searching for Jesus?

What better way to live our faith than listening and looking for God’s call so that when God say GO, we can quickly respond with joyful commitment?

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Mark 16:1-8 – Jesus has Risen! What’s Next?

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Mark 16:1-8 – Jesus has Risen! What’s Next?

The Good News of Easter is that the rolled stone and the empty tomb tells us that God is at work in our lives doing what we cannot do. God is actively working for us and with us to create new possibilities beyond our imaginations. Rather than worry about possible problems, we can look to our future with joy and hope.
Today, how will we – individually and as a church – respond to the empty tomb, to the risen Jesus? As we strive to follow God’s lead and expand the Kingdom of God within ourselves and throughout our communities, we must ask, what’s next?

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Mark 11:1-11 – A Donkey and Palm Sunday

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Mark 11:1-11 – A Donkey and Palm Sunday

One of my favorite ways to approach stories like this is to put myself into each character’s role and ponder how I might have felt or reacted in the moment. Today’s short story gives us several options. I invite you to ask yourselves the same questions I’ve been pondering this week.

As we end our season of Lent, as we spend the next five days traveling with Jesus to the cross, let us wait on God. And as God leads us, may we step bravely, one dusty hoof in front of the other, forward with hope.

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Mark 8:27-30 – “Who do you say I am?”

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Mark 8:27-30 – “Who do you say I am?”

As modern-day disciples of Jesus continuing 2,000 years of the Christian tradition, our faith calls us to be the hands and feet of Jesus. Once we have our answer – individually and as a church – to Jesus’ question, then our bodies (and our church as the Body of Christ) open ourselves afresh to God’s Spirit moving within us and through us. Once we have our answer, we have the foundation required to survive life’s storms and launch new ministries. Like the disciples, once we have our answer, nothing can stop us from being Jesus’ hands and feet, sharing God’s love with a broken, hurting, waiting world. This is how the Kingdom of Heaven becomes a living, breathing, life-giving reality around us.

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Mark 7:24-30 – The Power of Persistence and Compassion

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Mark 7:24-30 – The Power of Persistence and Compassion

From the Torah through the Gospels, our faith is rich with stories of an infinitely wise and powerful God who loves us so much that we can argue for mercy and blessings. These stories show, time and again, that our persistence draws out God’s compassion. That’s a powerful connection.

The question to us today is how can each of us invite others into God’s loving, welcoming presence – regardless of their circumstances? Every time we make an effort to be the hands and feet of Jesus, we answer that question – one person at a time. And that, my friends, is how we grow the Kingdom of God!

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Mark 6:30-44 – Driven by Compassion

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Mark 6:30-44 – Driven by Compassion

Jesus’ overwhelming compassion for others was a core, driving element of His entire ministry. To those who came to Him with sincere hearts, He always responded with open arms, endless mercy, and unexpected generosity. If we allow ourselves to receive God’s embrace, compassion, and generosity, our lives will be forever changed. If we in turn offer the same to others, both our lives and theirs will be changed all the more.
This is the interactive, hands-on dynamic of God’s Kingdom. And this is how we change lives.

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Mark 5:21-43 – “Don’t be afraid. Just have faith.”

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Mark 5:21-43 – “Don’t be afraid. Just have faith.”

The beauty of the Good News of God’s love is that Jesus shared it so freely and in so many different ways. The Kingdom of God is not about increasing what we have, not even for the church we love. The Kingdom of God is about being present, with ourselves and with others, and helping others connect with and experience God’s creative, loving, healing presence. When we’re able to create those moments, everyone can celebrate renewed life.

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Seedlings in the Kingdom of God – Mark 4:24-41

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Seedlings in the Kingdom of God – Mark 4:24-41

Whether it’s within you, in your home, your office, your classroom, or anywhere else, know that each one of you is an important part of God’s active and ongoing creation. We all have our own roles to play in God’s garden. We can take great relief knowing that – by design – we do not have total control and success does not depend on any one of us. Thank God! And we can take great joy knowing that God is working alongside us as we, together, help the Kingdom of God grow in magnificent ways that bless us and the people in our community.

It may be cold today, but spring is coming, and I hope that you, like me, are looking forward to seeing what God grows around us.

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Reaching Out for Healing – Mark 3:1-6, 31-35

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Reaching Out for Healing – Mark 3:1-6, 31-35

God offers us love, acceptance and healing with no strings attached. All we have to do is respond to the Holy Spirit’s invitations.
When we ask God to lead us, we need to actively listen for God to respond to our prayers. And when God asks us to do something, we need to have faith that God can act in mighty ways through the most routine actions.

Where else is God calling us to step forward and hold out our hands?
Where else is God leading us – individually and as a faith community?
Are we listening? Are we looking? Are we ready and willing to say, “Yes Lord, if You lead us, we’ll follow. We may be a bit nervous, so be patient with us.

As we follow God’s lead, we can take GREAT comfort in Jesus’ final words from today’s reading: “Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”

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Join Us for Dinner! – Mark 2:1-17

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Join Us for Dinner! – Mark 2:1-17

As God’s children, we are ALL warmly invited and declared worthy of celebrating our loving relationship with God through the elements of bread and juice, symbolically connecting us to the table where Jesus shared a meal with Levi and his very imperfect friends.

There is space for everyone: those who have been miraculously healed, those who are skeptical of healings; those who are curious; those who have been rejected by communities of faith, and those who have never before shared in this meal.

This is what the Kingdom of God looks like, everyone equally welcomed, equally accepted, equally embraced. This is a diverse Kingdom that we can ALL call home!

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Nurturing Our Childlike Faith – Mark 1:21-39

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Nurturing Our Childlike Faith – Mark 1:21-39

Whatever Jesus preached, He backed up with undeniable demonstrations of His message put into action. Today, our actions of service should reflect our words of faith. As our faith grows deeper, we can expect our actions to grow bolder as we share the Good News that EVERYONE is a precious child of the living God created in God’s loving image, designed to serve as God calls each of us.
Today’s story presents us several challenging questions.

  • First, listen: are we listening for God to speak to us in new ways and, perhaps, through unlikely people?

  • Second, grow: are we open to letting God’s activity in our lives increase our childlike faith – our willingness and capacity to believe in the mysterious?

  • Third, share: when we do experience God’s activity in our lives, are we willing to share that to encourage each other and attract others?

  • Fourth, reconnect: as much as we believe we are called to put our faith into the actions of serving others, are we willing to disconnect from everything so that we can reconnect with God through intentional one-on-one time?

  • Finally, clarify: are we willing to let the lure of God’s Spirit guide our lives rather than the lure of what our culture seeks from us?

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Accepting God’s Invitations – Mark 1:16-20

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Accepting God’s Invitations – Mark 1:16-20

When God calls us, it’s an invitation to become a more active participant with God as we, together, strive to live into Jesus’ command for us to love God, love ourselves, and love each other (Matthew 22:34-40). Every time we answer yes to God, we grow the Kingdom of God in our hearts and in our communities. In the coming days and weeks, I encourage each of you to pray, “Lord, I am available and willing. What do you have in mind for me?” With that as our prayer and God as our partner, our future is filled with incredible possibilities!

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Tempted and Moving On – Mark 1:12-15

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Tempted and Moving On – Mark 1:12-15

As individuals and as a faith community, I encourage all of us to address whatever tempts us. And I encourage us to do this with each other. By doing so, we can genuinely look out for and support each other.

With Jesus as our role model and with God actively supporting us, let us bravely address whatever tempts us so that we can confidently move on and move into new seasons of loving God, loving ourselves, and loving others.

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Our Mysterious and Intimately Loving God – Mark 1:1-11

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Our Mysterious and Intimately Loving God – Mark 1:1-11

We can use today’s last two verses to remind ourselves that…
1) God is not way out there; God is intimately close to us and has gone to great lengths throughout history to demonstrate that.
2) God’s presence is mysterious, and that’s ok. We must learn to embrace what we can’t capture, control, or fully explain. Nevertheless, we must explain our faith and our spiritual experiences (as best we can) so that others may be drawn to God through us.
3) God loves passionately, and we can learn how to love others by seeing how God loved Jesus – Himself in the flesh.

When we keep these verses in the forefront of our hearts and minds, we are FAR more likely to deeply experience God’s love and peace within ourselves. These verses ALSO push us to follow God’s example and make God’s love – through us – up close and personal to the people around us. That is how we create Kingdom of God moments in our homes and in our communities!

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