Church Requel Blog - Writings of Mark Pierce

#118: The Credibility Gap

Good morning! Our study continues today from the banks of the Clearfork Resevoir. I'm really enjoying the spring weather and the opportunity to get outside for our Bible studies.  I hope you are enjoying them as well. The standard for truth in God's kingdom is simple.  Let your yes be yesand your no be no. Truth has no shades or degrees. A half truth is a whole lie. Join me as we study Matthew 5:33-37.

#118: The Credibility Gap from Mark Pierce on Vimeo.

If you have any difficulty watching the video above, it is also available on Vimeo and on YouTube.  Also you can listen to the audio version either on the Church Requel Audio Blog or take it with you by subscribing to the Church Requel Audio Podcast.

Updates to Church Website

I thought some of you might like to know that I updated our church website this morning.  The front page now reflects our current sermon series, "What's Love Got To Do With It?"  I also updated the calendar to include our fellowship pot luck scheduled for May 15th.  And, of course, each week I include the weekly Bible readings, the weekly sermons, as well as the daily Bible studies.  If you haven't been there in a while, why not go check it out?  Thanks, Mark.

#117: Swearing a Vow

Did you think we would never move on in our Bible study?  Well, today we move on!  And this morning (and for the next couple of days), I am in a new location.  This past weekend someone told me they really like the different locations of our daily study.  He likened it to "Where is Waldo?"  So, today... where is Mark?  How about the Clearfork Resevoir?  Cool!  Now on to the study... There were two kinds of swearing in Jesus' day: frivolous swearing and evasive swearing.  Learn why Jesus taught not to take an oath.  Join Pastor Mark Pierce of Church Requel as we study Matthew 5:33-37.

#117: Swearing a Vow from Mark Pierce on Vimeo.

If you have any difficulty watching the video above, it is also available on Vimeo and on YouTube.  Also you can listen to the audio version either on the Church Requel Audio Blog or take it with you by subscribing to the Church Requel Audio Podcast.

Diffrient: Reinventing the Chair - A Requel Experience!

If you have ever thought that a common object, like the chair you are sitting in, is as good as it's ever going to be, then you need to watch this video.  Niels Diffrient talks about his life in industrial design (and the reason he became a designer instead of a jet pilot). He details his quest to completely rethink the office chair starting from one fundamental data set: the human body.  If you want to watch him discuss the design of the chair, start the video at about 7 minutes into the presentation.  (More of my thoughts on this video are below.)

The reason I wanted to include this on my blog is that I find myself often thinking that most things are as good as they are going to get.  Obviously this is not true about technology and computers.  We are accustomed to thinking that this area of our life will always be improving and changing.  But there are so many other areas of life that we think have advanced as far as they are going to go... the chair for example.  How do you improve something so basic as a chair?  Then along comes a guy like Niels Diffrient who dares to think differently about what the chair should be.

So what does this have to do with me or with Church Requel?  I can't help but think that there are so many ways to improve the church experience and the concept of discipleship.  Some aspects of church life that will seem obvious 20 years from now haven't been thought of yet.  It will take someone with a "Requel" mindset to think outside the box.  I want to be a leader and a thinker like that. 

The idea of the daily Bible study videos are one example.  I'm continuously thinking about how these can be improved and become more helpful to more people.  And I'm wondering about other ways to reach people with the good news of Christ... in ways that haven't been fully developed yet.  If Diffrient can come up with a requel chair, then it should be possible for Church Requel to come up with a different concept of church!

#116: Death or Divorce

Good morning on this Tuesday! This morning we continue our study on Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. The penalty for adultery was death in Old Testament times. A certificate of divorce could be considered merciful. How did this factor into Jesus' teaching? Join me as we continue our study of Matthew 5:31-32.

#116: Death or Divorce from Mark Pierce on Vimeo.

If you have any difficulty watching the video above, it is also available on Vimeo and on YouTube.  Also you can listen to the audio version either on the Church Requel Audio Blog or take it with you by subscribing to the Church Requel Audio Podcast.

#115: The Exception Clause

Good Monday morning everyone! All last week we invested our time into the background of Jesus' teaching on marriage and divorce in his Sermon on the Mount. With that background in mind, today and tomorrow we will focus on exactly what Jesus taught. Jesus provides one exception to the "No Divorce" principle: sexual immorality. Even so, divorce should be the final option. Join me as we continue our study of Matthew 5:31-32.

#115: The Exception Clause from Mark Pierce on Vimeo.

If you have any difficulty watching the video above, it is also available on Vimeo and on YouTube.  Also you can listen to the audio version either on the Church Requel Audio Blog or take it with you by subscribing to the Church Requel Audio Podcast.

Sermon: "Becoming"

What's love got to do with it?  Not only is that the title to Tina Turner's 1984 hit single.  It is also the title of the new Sermon series we will be enjoying through the end of May.  Each of the teachings will come from our study of 1 John.  Today our teaching is titled "Becoming" and our study comes from 1 John 3:1-8.  I hope you enjoy today's talk!  I have made the sermon notes and handouts available for you:

• Download 090426 Becoming HANDOUT Answers
• Download 090426 Becoming HANDOUT
• Download 090426 Becoming TEACHING NOTES

Sermon: "Becoming" from Mark Pierce on Vimeo.

If you have any difficulty watching the video above, it is also available directly on Vimeo.  Also you can listen to the audio version either on the Church Requel Audio Blog or take it with you by subscribing to the Church Requel Audio Podcast.

1 John Readings

Between now and the end of May, Church Requel will be focused on a weekly series from 1 John.  I am encouraging all those who attend Church Requel to read the short letter of 1 John as often as possible, every day if you can do it.  To help you with this, I have personally recorded a reading from 1 John using the English Standard Version.  It takes less than 18 minutes to listen to the entire letter of 1 John!  Those coming to the church will receive a free CD with the readings on it.  If you would like to download your own mp3 files with my readings of 1 John, you may do so below. (If you just click on the files, the file will usually play in your browser.  If you'd like to download, right click and then save.)

• Download 1 John Chapter 1
• Download 1 John Chapter 2
• Download 1 John Chapter 3
• Download 1 John Chapter 4
• Download 1 John Chapter 5

#114: Hillel and Shammai

I'm glad you could join me on this Saturday morning. I'm back down on the Bike Trail again this morning and I'm really excited about today's teaching. What do two rabbis, Hillel and Shammai, have to do with Jesus' Sermon on the Mount? Find out here! Join me as we continue our study of Matthew 5:31-32.

#114: Hillel and Shammai from Mark Pierce on Vimeo.

If you have any difficulty watching the video above, it is also available on Vimeo and on YouTube.  Also you can listen to the audio version either on the Church Requel Audio Blog or take it with you by subscribing to the Church Requel Audio Podcast.

#113: Reality of Divorce

Good Friday morning! I continue our Bible study this morning from the B&O Bike Trail. Today I am by the flooded bog on the northern end of the trail. Often this place is bone dry, but with all the rain is now filled to the brim with water. Now on to the morning's study... while the ideal of marriage was held high by Hebrews in Jesus' day, the reality of divorce in the 1st century was that a man could divorce his wife for almost any reason. Join me as we continue our study of Matthew 5:31-32.

#113: Reality of Divorce from Mark Pierce on Vimeo.

If you have any difficulty watching the video above, it is also available on Vimeo and on YouTube.  Also you can listen to the audio version either on the Church Requel Audio Blog or take it with you by subscribing to the Church Requel Audio Podcast.

#112: Ideal of Marriage

Good morning everyone! It's great to have you here to share another Bible study. I'm on the B&O Bike Trail this morning! We turn to the ancient Hebrew people and examine their view of marriage and divorce. Today we consider the ideal of marriage. Tomorrow, we'll look at the reality of divorce.  Join me as we continue our study of Matthew 5:31-32.

#112: Ideal of Marriage from Mark Pierce on Vimeo.

If you have any difficulty watching the video above, it is also available on Vimeo and on YouTube.  Also you can listen to the audio version either on the Church Requel Audio Blog or take it with you by subscribing to the Church Requel Audio Podcast.

Dissolution by C.J. Sansom

Last night I finished the Audible version of C.J. Sansom's  book, Dissolution.  I'm not exactly sure how I came upon this author.  I think I read somewhere about his newest book, Revelation (the fourth in the series).  I guess my logic was that I want to read the first book first.

I'm really glad that I did!  After reading Dissolution I know I want to read all the books that Sansom writes.  This book is in the genre of historical fiction.  In particular, the tale is set in the mid 16th century during King Henry VIII's reign.  The central character is Matthew Shardlake, a humpbacked attorney serving Thomas Cromwell.  Cromwell was the chief minister to King Henry.

If you like historical fiction, and in particular the Tudor era, I think you will love this book.  Shardlake is sent to a monastery to investigate a murder.  England has recently changed from a Catholic nation to the new Reformed religion with King Henry VIII as the head of the church.  The king's second wife has recently lost her head and everyone is watching their own neck too.  The monastery has many monks still loyal to the pope, but outwardly holding allegiance to the king. 

Shardlake is of the reformed conviction, but as the book progresses, he becomes aware of his own religious naivety.  Is there a connection between monastery closings and land acquisitions by the King's nobles? 

I loved this book because it firmly placed me within a time when religious conviction and affiliation could easily mean life and death.  Sansom does a marvelous job with all the details.  We take so much for granted in this modern and democratic society.  Tudor England was much different!

I also greatly enjoyed the reading of this book by Simon Jones.  Jones does a masterful job of reading with just the right amount of British flair!  I love listening to Audible books.  I have an account with them, in which I purchase one new audio book each month.  I am surprised how much more I can "read" if I take advantage of driving and workout times.

If you love historical fiction and whodunits, and on top of that you like the Reformist England period of the mid-16th century, I think you'll find this book (and I hope this series) worth getting.  If you want a special treat, buy the audio books and find the time to listen.  In my estimation, you'll be glad you did.

#111: Ancient Greek Marriage

Good morning again, everyone. I hope you are enjoying these studies as much as I am! Today we consider ancient Greek marriage. The Greeks had a very low view of women and considered sexual relationships outside of marriage to be normal and expected. Into this society Jesus taught on God's view of marriage and divorce. Join me as we continue to study Matthew 5:31-32.

#111: Ancient Greek Marriage from Mark Pierce on Vimeo.

If you have any difficulty watching the video above, it is also available on Vimeo and on YouTube.  Also you can listen to the audio version either on the Church Requel Audio Blog or take it with you by subscribing to the Church Requel Audio Podcast.

God is Great, God is Good

Tonight I turned in one of my credo papers for my Theology class on the nature of God.  I used as my theme a simple prayer I learned as a child.  I thought that some of you might be interested in reading my work. 

God is great.God is good.
Let us thank Him for our food.
Amen.

This simple child’s prayer I learned before I have distinct memories of learning.  I have taught it to all four of my children and now I listen as my grandchildren recite it.  Until this week’s study upon the attributes of God, I thought of the prayer as only a simple prayer for simple minds.  Now I see the profundity hidden within the simplicity.  Within this simple prayer I recognize the essential affirmations within the Christian faith about the being and nature of God  and His relation to creation.

God is great.

As a child I knew that God is great.  But, then, to a child, all things are great.  As we grow and mature, what once was large becomes small.  We return to a house or a yard or a school that we remember as being enormous, only to be surprised by its normality.  It seems as though as we grow larger, everything around us grows smaller in comparison.

But this is not so with God.  Surely if we are careless in out thinking, we may cordon away our childhood thoughts of the great God.  This, however, is not the result of God becoming smaller, but rather our thinking of God becoming smaller.  If we focus upon the greatness of God, as I have done this week, we find that our brains begin to hurt because our thoughts cannot contain God or His greatness.  I wonder if Isaiah experienced a headache upon penning these words of God: “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:9 ESV).

God Centered or Man Centered?

I am enjoying my Theology class at Ashland Theological Seminary immensely. There's just something about thinking deeply on Who God is that is both deeply challenging and fulfilling at the same time.  Speaking as one fully engaged in full-time ministry, it's surprisingly easy to forget Who God Is and what He means to me daily.  So when I come across something absolutely incredible in my textbook and I write in my margin, "Should read and be reminded daily," I thought that my readers may also be interested in reading this brief excerpt.  (Put into today's lingo, consider the following a retweet from Millard Erickson!)

If we have fully understood who and what God is, we will see him as the supreme being.  We will make him the Lord, the one who is to be pleased and whose will is to be done.  This reminder is needed in our day, for we have a tendency to slip from a theocentric [God-centered] to an anthropocentric [man-centered] ordering of our religious lives.  This leads to what might be called "inverted theology."  Instead of regarding God as our Lord, whose glory is the supreme value and whose will is to be done, we regard him as our servant.  He is expected to meet all of our perceived needs and to answer to our standards of what is right and wrong.  We need to learn from Samuel, whose response when the Lord called him was, "Speak, for your servant is listening" (1 Sam. 3:10).  He did not see this an an opportunity to pour out his concerns to the Lord, saying, "Listen, LORD, your servant speaks."  [Highlights are my own.]  When we adopt the latter stance, we in effect make ourselves God.  We presume to know what is right and what is best.  In so doing, we take upon ourselves a great responsibility: to guide our own lives.  But it is God who knows what is best in the long run.  He is the almighty and loving Lord.  He has created us, not we him, and we exist for his glory, not he for ours.  We will stand before him in the last judgment, not he before us.  If we have truly understood God's nature, then with Jesus our first concern in prayer will not be for the granting of our desires.  It will rather be, "Hallowed be your name.  Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."  [Millard Erickson, Christian Theology (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1998), 326.]

#110: Ancient Roman Marriage

To understand the world in which Jesus talked about marriage and divorce, we must first understand the ancient Roman view of marriage and divorce. Would you be surprised to learn that in the first 500 years of the Roman Commonwealth, there was not a single recorded divorce? Yet 2 to 3 centuries later, by Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, divorce was rampant. What happened? Join me as we continue our study of Matthew 5:31-32 to find out the answer.

#110: Ancient Roman Marriage from Mark Pierce on Vimeo.

If you have any difficulty watching the video above, it is also available on Vimeo and on YouTube.  Also you can listen to the audio version either on the Church Requel Audio Blog or take it with you by subscribing to the Church Requel Audio Podcast.

New Sermon Series: "What's Love Got To Do With It?"

Beginning Sunday, April 26th, we will begin a new sermon series entitled, "What's Love Got To Do With It?"  We will continue our study of 1 John, which coincidentally happens to be on the weekly Bible reading schedule.  What difference does the love of God make in our daily lives?  Don't miss a single session, starting this Sunday.  10AM.  Church Requel.  A community loving God and loving people.

#109: Divorce in America

Good morning! We begin this week's Bible study series by considering divorce in America. Jesus talked about divorce quite plainly in His Sermon on the Mount. To fully understand Jesus today and historically, this week look at modern divorce and compare it to the way divorce was treated in Jesus' day. In the next few days we'll look at marriage and divorce in the 1st century. Join me for our study of Matthew 5:31-32.

#109: Divorce In America from Mark Pierce on Vimeo.

If you have any difficulty watching the video above, it is also available on Vimeo and on YouTube.  Also you can listen to the audio version either on the Church Requel Audio Blog or take it with you by subscribing to the Church Requel Audio Podcast.

Upcoming Week in Bible Studies

Good evening friends.  Would you like to know where we are going this week in our Bible studies?  All week we will be considering Jesus' teaching on divorce in his Sermon on the Mount.  To fully grasp this teaching, we need to not only know about divorce in our day, but we should also understand divorce in Jesus' day.  Once we understand this we will see just how significant this teaching truly is!

• Monday - #109: Divorce in America
• Tuesday - #110: Ancient Roman Marriage
• Wednesday - #111: Ancient Greek Marriage
• Thursday - #112: Ideal of Marriage
• Friday - #113: Reality of Divorce
• Saturday - #114: Hillel & Shammai

I'm really looking forward to sharing this study with you.  I hope you can join me every day.  See you tomorrow.  Mark

Walk In The Light

Today was a unique day in the short history of Church Requel.  Jesse Parkhurst did a great job of leading us in worship.  And Ron Spon did an admirable job of bringing us the teaching for today from 1 John 1:5-10.  Mary Kay and I enjoyed Friday night and Saturday at Cedarville University, where our youngest daughter, Jillian, performed in Elliv - only the biggest show all year long!  We had a great time, especially knowing that everything was all taken care of back at Church Requel. 

The Apostle John advises us to walk in the light.  What is the light and who walks there?  This is our study of 1 John 1:5-10 today.  There is no video version of this sermon.  But if you'd like to listen, download the sermon audio here and listen here now or subscribe to the Church Requel Audio Podcast.