Church Requel Blog - Writings of Mark Pierce

3 Lessons Learned From Child Master Teacher

My grandson, Grayden, at Natural History Museum

I'm exhausted this morning. And I have a smile on my face. The past two days I've been studying at the feet of a master teacher: my oldest grandson, Grayden. We enjoyed a day at the Cleveland Natural History Museum, watched the movie Brave, ate at a Chinese restaurant we picked at random off my smart phone, read books together, ate a picnic lunch together, and played a never ending game of Pretend, where I was always the bad guy.

Jesus taught, "Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:3). I am most grateful for these past couple of days. In my dedication to work this summer, I had almost forgotten to be like a little child. Grayden reminded me of 3 important "becoming child-like" lessons.

The universe is wondrous to Grayden

#1 - The Lesson of Wonder. Everything is wondrous to a child. Every exhibit we saw at the Natural History Museum held endless fascination for Grayden. He would point, stare, read, talk, and ask questions. I had forgotten the wonder of our world around us. The largeness of the universe. The smallness of cellular biology. The grandness of the Earth's tetonic plates. The infinitesimalness of Earth compared to other planets, the solar system, the galaxy, and the universe! Life is so amazing and is deserving of my continuous fascination. When did I become such a big deal that I lost the wonder of God's creation?

5 Ways to Turn LUV Into LOVE

Early photo of Mark and Mary Kay, summer of 1978

Today is Valentine's Day - the day of romance. This is the opportunity for love to blossom and for the creative lovers in our midst to demonstrate their passion for their beloveds. As the photo on the right clearly testifies, my love for Mary Kay was young once too! This morning as I reflect on our early passion, I'm also asking the question: "What are the ways that our early LUV turned into a LOVE that has survived these 33 years?" With the total admission that we are still working on it, that we haven't got it figured out at all, that we still struggle, but that we know we truly love each other... I humbly offer these 5 thoughts:

#1 Marriage Is Still The Best Way For True Love To Grow!  Marriage is declining in our society.  The marriage rate has declined to less than half of what it was just 4 decades ago.  Never before has co-habitation been more of an acceptable option in our society.  In fact, couples living together has increased ten-fold since 1960.  I understand all the many reasons for why couples would choose to avoid marriage. Sadly, the failure of marriages is also at an all-time high!  Nevertheless I believe marriage is the best way for true love to grow.  There's something about the commitment of two people promising to remain together as a couple for their lifetime that allows romance to mature into relationship.  It's God's plan and God's idea.  I know you exect to hear me say this since I'm a pastor.  You  should know, though, that marriage is just as much work for Mary Kay and me as it is for anyone else.  Pastors' marriages fail just as much as everyone else!  Mary Kay and I told each other often in our early years that "divorce is not in our vocabulary." Each phase of our married lives has brought new challenges.  We're now entering the empty nest phase.  We're discovering that we each have new work to do to affirm and grow our love in ways that we have not needed to do before.  We don't always succeed.  We mess up.  Knowing that we are committed to the marriage working no matter what helps us through our mistakes and missteps.

#2 Major in Forgiveness, Humility, and Empathy. Here's another piece of advice one expects to hear.  Trust me when I tell you, this is not just a throw-away line.  LUV is all about me and getting my emotional (and other) needs met.  LOVE is entirely about the other person in the relationship.  That means that in many ways LUV has to die in order for LOVE to flourish.  After 33 years I'm here to tell you that LUV doesn't die easily.  I still struggle with my own selfishness.  It's still deliberate, purposeful effort for me to stop looking at things from my point of view and to start looking at things from Mary Kay's point of view.  If marriage were like college I'd say everyone would need 3 majors: Forgiveness, Humility, and Empathy.  Swallowing my pride to say, "I'm sorry," doesn't get easier over time.  Humility doesn't put me down, but definitely raises Mary Kay up. Learning to think (and talk and even act) like Mary Kay is still a struggle sometimes.  The same is true of her.  Yes, it's true.  That saint of a woman I married can sometimes be just as stubborn as me! However, we have both learned that our LOVE is more important than our selfishness.

Celebrating Smallness

The average size church in America, I'm told, is 75 people.  When I served as a teaching pastor in a large, mega-church I remember wondering how a church could remain less than a hundred people for long.  Now that I've been a church planter for almost 3 years, God has greatly tempered my previous ignorance. If the average size is 75, then it only makes sense that many churches attract fewer than 75.

We had 61 people at Church Requel two weeks ago and we were thrilled! Ironically it was a weekend when Mary Kay and I weren't even there.  We received emails and text messages from many parishioners celebrating the evening.  It felt good.

We're the size church that has to look up to see "average."  With that mindset it's easy to fall into a sense of inadequacy.  We live in a world of "super" things: Super Bowl, supermarket, and megachurch. In such a super atmosphere, where BIG is celebrated, where large numbers equals success, it's easy to suffer from low esteem.

Thanks to the foresight of our leadership team, I'm back to my seminary studies at Ashland Theological Seminary.  Interestingly, the best class available to me this quarter is "Smaller Churches: Challenges & Opportunities."  Wow!  Talk about a class designed just for me.  Small. Challenge. Opportunity.  This class speaks my language!

Lent: According to Patty

Some of the greatest joys in my life are the relationships I've formed within the family.  And none are more joyous than the one I share with Patty Hawk Chappie.  She is my wife's younger sister.  When you see Mary Kay and Patty side by side, you know they're sisters.  Some have even asked me if they are twins.

In my last post about Lent, I mentioned my "wonderful and Catholic sister-in-law."  Patty is a loyal reader of ChurchRequel.com and she wrote a beautiful comment about my latest post.  It was so good I thought it deserved it's own post.  So here is Lent... according to Patty.  This is what she wrote on Facebook:

Enjoyed reading your blog Mark! Lent is a always such a spiritual reflective time for me! ( BTW- I gave up more than chocolate! I also have a revitalized commitment to do for others). I love the traditions of Lent (not in the Bible), focused on remembering Jesus' teachings, resistance of temptation, his sacrifice (gift) to us and renewing our lives to try to live what Jesus taught us in the Bible. It is the very essence of Spring!

And here is what Patty wrote in the comments of the Church Requel blog:

Welcome to Lent Mark! In response to your above reference to chocolate... if you have already given it up and it is of no self discipline or matter of sacrifice then "No... it doesn't count!" The idea is to remember what Jesus did for each of us and to do things for Jesus! So giving up things as well as doing things that Jesus spent his whole life teaching us to do as his followers, spending time in reflection and prayer...THAT is what happens during Lent! It is important to spend a special time to refocus on our spiritual commitment and place. One may argue that everyday we should focus on prayer, self discipline and doing for others...no doubt I agree! But like all things... daily things done without a revitalization become lost in the shuffle... "Why do we do this everyday without thinking?" Lent is a special tradition if you will... a time to remember,reflect, reconcile, pray, renew and celebrate... and to be ever so humbled by Jesus' death and resurrection for each of us. This is nothing I know you don't already realize. It has always been a HUGE part of our Catholic Faith, and I have been deeply touched by and thankful for that. Another tidbit about Lent... the ashes used on our foreheads to make the sign of a cross are from the palms we get on Palm Sunday and have in our homes throughout the year. I also agree with the extra time spent with my fellow church community... it is a wonderful gathering together for extra services, stations of the cross, socializing at Fish Fries, sharing in the joy of new members of the church being baptized at the Easter Vigil on Saturday evening before Easter. I hope your Lent is full of spiritual witness,growth, reflection, and community...You always did have good ideas!!! I enjoyed your article... thanks!

Patty, thanks so much for your input and your reminder of the true meaning of Lent.  As I mentioned in my last blog post, I'm observing Lent this year in my own personal devotional life by reading through the gospel of Matthew and the commentary from N.T. Wright in Lent For Everyone from YouVersion.com.  And... no orange marmalade! :-)

Would Anyone Want to be Like Us?

I've been thinking all day about the short video clip I put up this morning.  In the clip I made the point that often, in church, we require people to become like us before we allow them to be a part of our church.  I wondered if at Church Requel, or in other churches, we force people to become like us rather than to become like Christ.  But does this beg the question of whether anyone would want to become like us in the first place?  I mean, is there anything particularly attractive about who we are in Christ that makes anyone say to themselves, "I can't put my finger on it, but there is something about those people that makes me want to check them out"?

I'm not talking about happiness exactly.  And certainly we all have the same amount of problems that anyone else has.  But is there something different about us because of Christ in us?  Stop and think about it.  We are creatures who have a relationship with the all-powerful, all-loving, all-knowing Creator.  We have left the chains of our corruption behind us and have the hope of heaven before us.  We know we will receive a resurrected body and live a resurrected life in a resurrected place with the resurrected Savior!  No matter what we face now, a future forevermore with loving friends and loving family and a loving God awaits us.  Shouldn't that make a difference in how we live life?

We may be hurt.  We may be suffering.  We may be sick.  We are most definitely dying.  Everyone is.  But shouldn't we as Christ-followers somehow actually be more alive than ever - despite these hardships?  If this were true about us, that we were somehow living life to an even fuller capacity, because of the incarnation of Christ in and through us, well then... I suppose it would be ok for someone to want to be more like us because then... they would also want to be more like Christ!

The Friendship Challenge of Launching a New Church

This coming weekend is an anniversary of sorts for Mary Kay and me.  Sunday morning, December 14th of 2008 was the first day that we invited a few others to join us in our living room to worship together.  That gathering eventually became Church Requel.  A few of those folks are still with us, but not many.  One year later, 164 video Bible studies later, and 52 weekend sermons later we still will gather this coming weekend.  Our location will be Mid-Ohio Conference Center instead of our living room and we'll have around five dozen folks instead of one dozen. 

After one year I think I can conclusively say that launching a new church has been the most difficult thing I have ever attempted in my 52-year-old life.  You may say that I haven't attempted many difficult things.  And that may be true.  However, I have had the experience of leaving a secure sales position (I worked as an account executive for Merrill Lynch and Prudential-Bache in my younger years) to start a new business from scratch (Pierce Financial Planning).  While that was tough, it was nothing like what Mary Kay and I have experienced this past year in launching Church Requel.

When we started the business back in 1990, we maintained all of our close friend relationships.  Then, as is also true now, our close friends revolve around our church experience.  So when we started Pierce Financial Planning, we still saw all our friends every weekend.  For the pastor launching a new church, however, the dynamics of the friend relationship is infinitely more complicated.

The dear people who joined us at our home one year ago eventually had to make the decision of whether or not they would continue to worship at Church Requel.  Thankfully some of them have stayed with us.  But most, understandably, have decided that friendship does not include the obligation to help launch a new church.  On top of that, many of the people who we thought were friends have not had any contact with us since leaving our former church and starting this new church.  In other words, for Mary Kay and me the sacrifice of launching a new church has included the sacrifice of leaving some relationships behind.

I'm sure this is not how it is supposed to be.  And I'm also sure that I'm as responsible for this as anybody.  But for people who are as relationship oriented as both Mary Kay and me, this aspect of starting over is the most painful.  Without question this friendship aspect of launching a new church has been the "low" for us.

Interestingly the "high" is also relationship oriented.  Some people have proven themselves as good friends to us, determined to maintain our relationship regardless or our (or their) decision to attend Church Requel or not.  In addition to that, we are making new relationships all the time.  This morning I had coffee with another fellow, my age, who has recently begun attending Church Requel.  It's early yet, but I'm thinking that we have a lot in common.  We might strike up a new friendship that would never have existed had we not stepped out in faith one year ago to begin this new church.

I don't tend to be the kind of person who rides the emotional roller coaster.  And I'm normally firmly anchored in the reality of "what is" rather than continuously wishing for "what might have been."  With that said, I definitely feel tossed around over this past year emotionally.  And that's not necessarily a bad thing.  What has grown enormously for me out of this tossing experience is my faith in my calling to preach the gospel of Christ Jesus and my friendship relationship with His Spirit in my life.  I know His Spirit is continuously with me and provides for me.  That provision includes human friendships as well.

We are not where we were one year ago.  And that's a good thing.  We're not yet where we will be one year from now.  And that's good too.  For now I will enjoy the moment... the enjoyment of friendships that have stood the test of change as well as the new relationships that will result from the test of change.

Putting on the New Self

Happy Friday everyone!  This is going to be a great day!  The weather here in Mansfield is glorious.  Later today I'm bringing my grandson, Grayden, over for Grandpa's first annual back to school camp out.  I can't wait! 

But this morning I'm spending a little time in God's Word thinking about our Church Requel service on Sunday.  I thought you might enjoy a few thoughts from me before you come to church... thoughts that could prepare you for our teaching time together Sunday.

This morning I listened to Tami's reading of Ephesians 4:17-32.  Didn't she do a GREAT job?  I'm so encouraged every time I listen to our Ephesians CD that we recorded.  (Didn't get a copy?  Email me or go to the Church Requel Audio Blog to listen.)  When Tami read that we should "put off our old self" and then "put on our new self," I was especially encouraged.  What encouraged me?  So many things that I could never fit it all into a Sunday morning sermon.  Here's a few things I'm thinking this morning.  (Maybe there's something you could add?)

• The normal, expected progress for any Christ-follower is to redress our habits - the putting off of the old and the putting on of the new.  The really cool thing about this is that this is not something that will happen in the great bye and bye, when we receive our new, glorious bodies.  The Bible tells us this is something that should be happening now, in this present world!
• We get the BIG picture as well as the detailed stuff.  The BIG picture is to become the new creation fashioned after God Himself.  The details come as a description (not just a definition) of what this looks like.  Examples include being able to be angry WITHOUT sinning - not an easy accomplishment!...; doing honest work that provides for more than just our personal needs; talk that encourages others and doesn't tear down; living life in such a way that does not grieve the Spirit of God
• The putting on of the new self and the taking off of the old self is not something God does for us.  He lets us change our own clothes!
• He gives us a moral "fashion sense."  We are walking around in dirty, torn, rags of moral clothing.  The Bible descibes our old moral fashion sense with these words: old, deceitful, corrupt, impure, darkened, hard, callous.  Sadly, we don't know just how bad we look because of our own ignorance.  But gives us His fashion sense.  We now can appreciate our new moral clothing which is described as new, renewed, created after the likeness of God.  In other words, we get to dress our way of life after the very way God does for Himself!  Is that cool or what?

Those are just some of my thoughts this morning.  I'd love to hear yours.  Please feel free to comment to this blog post.  Let's get some community going here.  What excites you about Ephesians 4:17-32?

The Forever of Each Moment

My friends, I thought you might enjoy a few notes from my Journal this morning.

O LORD, make me know my end
and what is the measure of my days;
let me know how fleeting I am!
Psalm 39:4

I don't think this means that I, as a mortal human, want to know how I will die - or even exactly when my end will come.  I think it means that every day I need desperately to remember, to be reminded, that my days will have an end.  I am mortal.  As obvious as this plain simple fact is, somehow we cocoon ourselves with the veil of immortality.  We live our days as if we will live, here on Earth, forever.  Because of this, to waste a day feels like no big deal.

In fact, every day is a precious gift.  To know the "measure of my days" is not to know the number of days remaining to me as much as knowing that there is a number of days remaining.  That's what makes them precious and valuable.  The measure of each day becomes increasingly valuable as I recognize that the number of days left to me is measurable.  In other words, the more measurable the days of my life are, the more immeasurable each one becomes.

Why would I want to know how fleeting I am?  Because as I recognize how fleeting I am I also recognize how permanent You are, my Father.  The only immortality my soul will know is the connection I have with You.  To know You, Father, is to know eternity, permanence, and immortality.  So teach me the truth of the Psalm.  Help me to live it out each day.  Help me to know immortality not in the forever of all days, but rather to experience immortality in the forever of each moment.

The Connection Between Delighting and Desiring

This is an unusual Sunday morning for Mary Kay and me.  Rather than the rush to get ready to serve at church, we are staying home this morning.  Mary is still not feeling well and I'm sure being at church would be awkward this morning... for everyone.  But ingrained habits of teaching and sharing God's Word do not easily go away.  So I thought I would share with you one of my journal entries this week.

Good morning Father,

Thank You for this day.  Thank You for good friends.  Thank You for the opportunity to come before You.  Thank You for Your Presence in my life.  Thank You for Your Word in my life.

This morning I continue to consider Psalm 37.  Verse 4 reads like this:  "Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart."  How do I delight myself in the LORD?  And how is this connected with the desires of my heart?  The "how to's" of delighting in the LORD might include:

• Continuously being aware of His Presence.  There are no secrets from God.  He is with me at all times.  The issue is not His Presence, but my awareness of His Presence.  Do I live out each moment of each day delighting that God's Spirit is with me?
• Remembering that God is an "inside" God, not an "outside" God.  By this I mean He knows my inside feelings, emotions, and motivations.  He truly is a God "of the heart."  This was so key to Jesus' Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 - 7.  So I might as well give up on the idea of being a different person on the outside than I am on the inside.
• Working daily on the inside me.  Here is a truth worthy of reminder.  God knows me better than I know myself.  I tend to hide my inner self from myself.  I don't like to look deep beneath the outer surface to fully understand what I am feeling and why I am doing what I'm doing.  I must look square on at the disgusting parts of me and commit to changing those character areas that are flawed.
• Asking for help.  The truth is that we do not have the ability to change ourselves by ourselves.  We need God's help.  And we need the help of our community.  That's why being in community with other Christians is so vital.
• Disciplining myself to sit down daily with God to allow Him to work in me and on me.  This is why a Quiet Time or devotional discipline is so important.

Now one might reasonably ask what any of this has to do with delight.  It sounds a lot more like work than a party.  Delight is work, but it is also a party, a delight!  Anyone who has ever been responsible for throwing a really good party knows that it doesn't happen without planning and effort.  But the work is worth it.  Even the work for a great party is delightful.  Consider the planning, work, and experience of a wedding reception.  Shouldn't every aspect of it be a delight to the bride and groom?

But then we come to the question of the connection between delighting in the LORD and the desires of my heart.  Is this some kind of formula for success?  Is it like this:  Do these things and then God will give you whatever you want? 

Actually (surprisingly) the answer is "yes."  Before jumping up and down with outrage, consider first what you will want.  What will be the desires of your heart if you are continuously aware of God's Presence, remembering that God is an "inside" God, working daily on the inside you, asking for help, and disciplining yourself to sit down daily with God?  Your desires will be God's desires.  There will be a union of your will with His will.  You'll desire His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven!

Oh Father, help me to be this kind of inside person with You.  Work in and on me.  Confront me with my wrong motivations, mend my broken and corrupted spirit.  Heal me so that You can use me.  May the desires of my heart be the same as the desires of Your heart.  I love You. 

Your adopted son, Mark

Thanksgiving in Tough Times

This Thanksgiving will probably be a different holiday for most people because of the tough times in which we're living.  This evening I will have the opportunity to speak to Crossroads on the topic, "Thanksgiving in Tough Times."  I thought that this topic might also benefit Church Requel subscribers, so I recorded this short 8 minute video.  Enjoy!

Why I Love Mornings With God - Part 5

I love mornings with God.  Often I will wake up long before the sun rises and experience the feeling that God is waiting for me.  It's time to get up, to get showered, to get that cup of coffee, to get to my time with God.  I have learned that this experience is not new with me.  God loves mornings!  After all, He created them.  Early in the worship life of the Levites, God established early morning worship.  In the Psalms, we learn that God renews us during our mornings with him.  He also reminds us of His never ending mercy in the mornings!  All of these are great reasons to build into our lives the habit of an early morning time with God.

But none of these reasons alone are the best reason for an early morning quiet time.  The first and best reason to invest the early morning hours with God is because this was the habit of Jesus!  "And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed"  (Mark 1:35).  The gospel writer of Mark wants us to know in the very first chapter of his gospel that Jesus got up earlier than the rest of his disciples so he could pray. 

Mark informs us that the night before was hectic and filled with ministry.  Verse 32 tells us that the previous "evening at sundown they brought to him all who were sick or oppressed."  Verse 33 further clarifies that "the whole city was gathered together at the door."  The sun was setting, the day should have been over, but this was when the whole city showed up with a problem for Jesus.  I don't know about you, but my tendency after a big night like that would be to take it easy the next morning.  I'd want some rest, some time to recharge my batteries.  I'd want to sleep in!

Why I Love Mornings With God - Part 4

This morning when I left our home the skies were still pitch black; there was not even a hint of the sun in the eastern sky.  As I looked up I took in the most spectacular sight of the stars shining with all their glory.  It was a moment that made me stop in my driveway and breathe in deeply the glory of God all about me.  As I drove to my breakfast haunt, I left the sun roof (star roof?) of my car open just so I could continue to take in the panorama of God’s work.  It was only 45 degrees outside, but I didn’t care.  This was a time to recall God’s great mercy to me.

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
“The LORD is my portion,” says the soul,
“therefore I will hope in him.” (Lamentations 3:22-24)

I love mornings with God.  And I think He loves mornings too!  Morning was one of the very first things He created.  He established morning worship as one of the greatest duties of Israel’s Levites.  Morning is a continuous sign of renewal.

Why I Love Mornings With God - Part 3

Mornings with God is one of the highlights of my life.  Its not that mornings are the only opportunity to enjoy time with God.  He is present with us always.  I AM saying there is something very special about mornings with God.  I believe this for 5 reasons.  First, morning was one of God's first creations.  Second, morning worship was one of the important duties of the Levites.  This morning I'd like to consider the third reason why mornings with God is so special:  Morning is a sign of renewal.

"Like grass that is renewed in the morning: in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers."  Psalm 90:5b,6

This is one of those Bible verses that on the surface sound so cool, until you look a little closer and understand what is being said.  What exactly is like grass that is renewed in the morning?  As my high school English teacher would ask, "What is the antecedent for it?"  The answer?  Man.  You and me.  WE are like grass that flourishes and is renewed, but then by evening, fades and withers.  Not so cool.

You might ask what this has to do with enjoying Quiet Time with God in the morning.  The point is that even though we might live out a normal lifetime for humans, compared to God our 70 or so years is like grass that withers in a day.  In fact, the only things that have any eternal consequence are the encounters we have with the eternal God.  And THAT leads us to our daily morning opportunity:

Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.  Psalm 90:14

How do we gain a heart of wisdom, living a life aware of each day's value?  By starting it in the presence of the eternal God.  By knowing that the only things I do today that will matter are eternal things - time with God, time with His Word, and investments with the people HE LOVES! 

My natural inclination in the morning is to get going doing all the urgent things that I think must be done.  The urgent, not necessarily the important.  So I have to do the UNnatural.  The only way I know to not be enslaved to the urgent, but rather serve the important and the eternal, is to begin my day with God.  I ask Him to teach me to number my days, to let me know how important today is, so that I might serve Him in a way that pleases Him.  I promise you this is a GREAT way to begin the day!

Why I Love Mornings with God - Part 2

This week I'm considering why mornings with God are so special.  If you missed it, you can read part 1 here.  I'm sure there are many reasons to invest time in the early morning with God, more than I could write about.  Having said that, we are examining five good reasons from God's Word.  Today I'd like to examine the next reason.

Reason #2 - Morning Worship was one of the important duties of the Levites.  As I read through the Bible I see a continuous return to the twin themes of mornings and worship, as if somehow they are both braided together.  Consider 1 Chronicles 23:30.

"And they were to stand every morning, thanking and praising the Lord, and likewise at evening."

We learn a number of interesting things from 1 Chronicles 23.  King David took seriously the responsibility for the house of the Lord.  He made sure that the sons of Levi (Levites) were available to serve the priests, the sons of Aaron.  To make sure that there were enough Levites to help, David lowered the age of service from age 30 to age 20 (v. 27).  We read in verse 5 that there were 4,000 gatekeepers.  As we shall see in a moment, this may be one of the largest "Praise Teams" ever assembled!

Among their other duties, these Levite gatekeepers "were to stand every morning thanking and praising the Lord."  One of the cool things I love about Crossroads is the outdoor speakers.  As one nears the front entrance of our church, he or she will hear contemporary praise music welcoming him or her to the building.  This was the same idea in David's and Solomon's time.  Each morning and each evening the Levites would assemble about the entrances and offer their thanks and their praise to the Lord.  Anyone within hearing distance would know another day had begun or another day had ended by hundreds or thousands of voices of praise that surrounded the temple.

You may be thinking: 'Great history lesson.  But what does this have to do with me?"  Consider this.  We know that King David organized the Levites.  But King Solomon (David's son) built the temple.  In other words, God made sure that the appropriate praise and thanksgiving teams had been organized before the first stone was ever laid for the building itself.  Which comes first, the house of worship or the worship itself?  God's answer is clear:  He desires our worship in the form of praise and thanksgiving.  And when did David provide for this to happen?  In the mornings and in the evenings.  When the day began and when the day ended.

Doesn't it just make sense that we take our cue from King David and likewise offer our own praise and thanksgiving every morning? In the morning as dawn is breaking we are reminded afresh that God has created a new day.  A new day of opportunities.  A new day to serve him.  A new day to get it right.  I encourage you to consider setting aside a portion of your morning to praise God for the upcoming day.  Thank Him ahead of time for His presence in your life.

Remind yourself that today is the only day you have.  Yesterday is gone.  Tomorrow is only imagination.  Today is reality.  Today is eternity.  Today is your day to be with God.

Why I Love Mornings With God - Part 1

I love mornings with God.  For many years I have enjoyed the habit of rising early in the morning, going to a local restaurant, drinking several cups of coffee, while I read my Bible and journal my thoughts.  This hasn't always been true in my life though.  The first 40 years or so I usually got up barely in time to make it to work.  Like all good habits, getting up early to be with my Lord, has taken discipline.  But it is so worth it!

Yesterday morning during my Quiet Time I addressed the question in my journal about why early mornings with God are so important.  While I'm sure there are many more good reasons, I found five solid reasons out of God's Word for why the morning is so important.  This morning I will share the first reason.  Stay tuned for the other four in future posts.

Reason #1 - Morning was one of God's first creations!  Go back to the creation story in Genesis 1.  I think you'll be surprised at what you find there. 

And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.  And God saw that the light was good.  And God separated the light from the darkness.  God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.  And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.  Genesis 1:3-5

Before God created, there was never anything like "morning."  All was darkness.  Imagine that first Day when darkness gave way to light.  It was something new, something called "morning."  And it was good!  If you doubt the significance of this event to God, consider that Genesis recalls the last part of verse 5 six more times in v. 8, 13, 19, 23, and 31.  Go ahead and look at your own Bible.  I'll be right here when you get back.

Why do you suppose that God repeated this "and there was evening, and there was morning" six different times?  Do we dismiss this simply as formulaic, like the repeat chorus in a hymn?  Or is there something more to this?  Could it be God's way of saying to you and to me that the morning is a very special sign to us?

There is a physical reality to God's creation.  There is morning because He wills it so, because He thought of it.  He designed it.  We take it for granted because we have seen "morning" every day of our existence.  But the creation account in Genesis reminds us that this has not always been the case.  Before God created, there was no such thing as "morning."

We suppose in our own arrogance that there is science to explain the morning.  Earth rotates about its axis and enjoys light as it turns towards the Sun.  But even this is God's design, his plan and it only continues because He desires that it does so.  Don't get me wrong.  I love science.  I love discovery.  I love finding out how God designed things!

But without God there would never be a new morning.  I think He gave us mornings and emphasized it in Genesis because it is a reminder to us of God's unfailing daily presence in our lives.  He is merciful every day.  He reminds us that there is always another day because there is always God.

Each morning when I get up and get to my Quiet Time with God I am reminded that while there is always another day, there will only be one "this day."  This day I have another chance to get it right.  This day I have the opportunity to live fully for God.  This day I enjoy relationship with Him and He reminds me that He will actually delight in relationship with me.  Morning.  There's nothing quite like it!

Focusing on What I Can Do, Not What I Can't

I don't often write down in my blog what I write in my personal journal.  But occasionally I think it might be helpful to some to read it.  Some background first - when I got home from vacation I found out that Tim will be preaching both weekend and Midweek services for awhile.  In so many respects, that's great!  This church needs a full-time executive pastor and I had been pretty busy with preaching before vacation.  And it will be GREAT for the church to hear Tim teach exegetically on Wednesday nights.  However, I was also saddened because I love to preach.  With that in mind, here's this morning's journal entry:

Good morning Father,

Thank You for the way You were with me all day yesterday.  You worked through everyone around me to affirm me and support me.  This morning I am so much less concerned about my lack of preaching opportunities.  I am assured that You will make opportunities as You desire.  No one can stand in Your way!  So why should I worry?

Besides, as You have made clear to me this morning, there are no lack of opportunities for service and speaking for You - if only I open my eyes to what You have for me. 

I also am reminded of all the people here who need pastoral prayer.  Last night Greg and I remained up front until 8:30 PM praying for people.  This morning I remember Ben, Judy, James, Earl, Jeannine, Kevin, and Kym.

Lord, It is such a privilege to serve You as executive pastor.  Forgive my momentary lapse of focusing on what I cannot do rather than rejoicing in what I can do.  Please continue to remind me and encourage me of Your love and favor.

I love You!  Your adopted son, Mark

First Experience with ESV Study Bible

This morning during my quiet time I was reading from 1 John.  I was particularly focused on the fact that John so often emphasizes the reasons for his own writing.  For example in 1:4 John writes, "And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete."  I thought to myself that this is also why I want to write, both in my journal and here on the blog, so that my joy may be complete.  In other words, Christ dwells so richly in my heart that I must write it down so that others may know the same joy as I do!

While I was in my personal quiet time I thought to myself, 'I wonder what the ESV Study Bible has to say about this?'  Yesterday I posted that the ESV Study Bible Blog had made several sections public, including all of 1 John.  So I opened up the PDF file that I had copied yesterday and read it.  Sure enough I found the following note in the Introduction describing the genre of 1 John:

Yet on several counts it is highly letter-like, as seen from the expressed motive of shared joy (1:4), the repeated mentions of the act and purpose of writing to his recipients (13 uses of the Gk. verb “I write”), and the many instances of direct address to the readers.

I am very excited about the release of the ESV Study Bible for the benefit of our Crossroads congregation.  I believe this could help many of our people take the next step in their spiritual maturity.  Here are some of my first observations about this bible from my study this morning:

My Heart Check on Leadership

Today I introduce a new category of blog posts, which I have named "From my Journal."  I keep a daily journal in which I write my prayer life to our Lord.  I do this most mornings very early.  It is so personal that only a few people - my wife and children - have access to it.  (My dad could see it too if he ever asked.)  I learned from an earlier blogging experience not to try to include regular entries into my blog, because I found myself restricted in my journal experiences.  I couldn't write about the most personal and intimate issues because I was always thinking about the public nature of the blog.  So the two universes, Church Requel and my personal journal, are separate but parallel.  Never the twain shall meet.  Until today.

Today I've decided to create a "wormhole" from one to the other.  While the majority of my writings in my journal are not for public use, there might be occasional studies that could benefit others and not present me any problems by sharing.  This blog post is the first sample.  Over the last week I've been concentrating my Quiet Times on 2 Timothy 1:8-9, which reads this way:

"Share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began."

What does this mean for me as a church leader today?  Below are some of my thoughts written over the course of the past several days.