Living – Page 11 – John Markum

The Role of the Church in times of Crisis

Posted on December 19, 2012 by johnmarkum

This Friday it will have been one full week since a disturbed man murdered his own mother and then proceeded to slaughter dozens of people – mostly small children – at the school where his mother had taught, finally taking his own life. What happened before nightfall of that same day was a phenomenon to watch:

Some people started blaming guns.
Others argued for greater use of guns for protection against such people.
Political positions were asserted
Some prayers were given…

All of this is normal – we like to assign blame. And personally, I sense a gross oversight in one source to consider blaming: the man who did this. But I digress…

The thing that honestly frustrated me more than any of that was how many people, Christians mostly, were quick to start using this tragedy as a political soap box. Now, don’t misunderstand me. I am a strong advocate of our American right to keep and bear arms. Even aside from constitutional provision, I have a God-given mandate to protect my home and family. A right I will relinquish to no one.

But my point is, that there were dozens of families in Connecticut that went to bed that night with one less family member than they started the day with… And in even less of a window of time, many people hundreds or thousands of miles away who profess the name of Jesus, had used their family’s virtual Hell as a cliche political statement on Facebook. I think something’s wrong here…

Yes, Christ-followers should stand up for their rights. Yes, we should answer those who would seek to take those rights from us. But we also have a much higher calling and responsibility to consider. Such as:

The families who lost people from this
The people who are saying “Where is God?” in all of this
Other Christ-followers who are confused and needing direction
Others who have also experienced a terrible loss

One of my favorite passages of Scripture is Luke 4:18-19 where Jesus says, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captive, and recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.“

It seems apparent to me, that Jesus’ bigger concern had to do with connecting people to their God-given potential in Him. He was about meeting needs, healing, delivery, recovery, liberty, and preaching the message of the Kingdom. If we claim to follow Him, then these are the thing we should be about also.

There would have been no lack of hot, politically-charged issues in Jesus’ day. And granted, He occasionally addressed them. But His default move when tragedy struck had less to do with political action and more to do with hands-on involvement in the situation.

If we truly want to be like Jesus, we must also humble ourselves and let that mindset lead our behavior – and our opinions. I’m not even saying that you and I should not express political opinions. Far from it, in fact! My point, concisely put, is that we change the world by the love of God working through us to others.

Blessings,

Pastor John

PS – And yes, I would address your congressman of choice regarding your desire to maintain your constitutional rights. If strict laws would keep things like this from happening, then the one against murder would have been enough.

Critics are awesome!

Posted on September 15, 2012 by johnmarkum

Words I thought I would never say… Before you use this outrageous statement as a reason to justify your critical spirit, first allow me to elaborate on a few important details:

Criticism is in contrast to edifying; Edifying builds, Criticizing tears down.
Criticism requires zero talent. Anyone can be a critic. They’re not special.
Criticism is not a spiritual gift, calling, or “ministry”. Period.
Almost every critic has accomplished minimally in their area of criticism.
Critics usually point out flaws with no intentions of doing anything about it.

So if I clearly dislike critics, why would I say they’re awesome? Because…

They stand in stark contrast to those actually accomplishing something.
They often give us GREAT ideas when they say, “You can’t _______”
Jesus had critics too, so we’re in great company when we get criticized!

If you have someone criticizing you for following God’s calling over your life, don’t stress. No one remembers a critic. I choose to take my criticism from the people who love me and are invest in my life, family, and ministry. Anyone else, doesn’t really get why you’re doing it anyway. Those “doing” will always be misunderstood by those who are not. Consider the source, take useful feedback, and leave the rest. Choose to see the potential… even in a critic.

Blessings,

Pastor John

Teach Us to Pray

Posted on August 22, 2012 by johnmarkum

Matthew 6:5-13

6 things to include every time you pray, based on the model prayer that Jesus gives here in Matthew 6:

Praise: “Hallowed be Your name.” The Bible tells us in Psalms that God “inhabits” the praises of His people. Always take the opportunity to thank God for who He is and what He’s done.
Submission: “Your will be done.” This is not the last time we hear Christ praying this to the Father. God does His greatest, most intimate work through those who are broken before Him.
Needs: “Give us this day our daily bread.” Interestingly, Christ does not encourage us to pray for material abundance, but rather only for our “daily” needs. In other words, living paycheck-to-paycheck is a gift from God and something to be desired!
Forgiveness/Repentance: “Forgive us…” Demonstrates humility and a desire to remove all things that impair our fellowship with our Heavenly Father.
Others: “as we forgive those who have trespassed against us.” It’s good to pray for yourself, but there is more power when we pray for each other.
Submission: Christ ends His model prayer much as He began it, in acknowledging and anticipating God’s will, and praising Him. “Amen” literally means “so be it” or, “let it be so.”

I’ve also recently heard from one of my leaders that he grew up learning the acronym PRAY: Praise, Repentance, Ask for others, Yourself. I thought that was pretty good also!

Blessings,

John