John Markum

My New Year’s Resolution

So I already gave a general idea of things to think through this year. Like many of you, I’ve had to narrow that down to a few specific goals for myself. In short, here are a few of the things I’m trying to make happen in 2011:

  • Give more away.
  • Take my wife far away for our 7th anniversary sometime between March and June. Somewhere warm!
  • Attend the NewSpring Leadership Conference in Anderson, SC. I’m totally psyched about this thing!
  • Have a new, record setting year in people who come to Christ, get baptized, and make Saturday nights their church home at Edgewood.
  • Get a new Mac Pro for home business.
  • Sell home in Springfield, MO.
  • Be more Christ-like in thought, word, and action.
  • Go on a missions trip to help a close friend and church planter, Justin Banks of Audacity Church, in Wichita, KS.
  • Model the love of my Heavenly Father to my 3 children (4, by the end of the year!).
  • Get back in the gym. I’ve gotten SO out of the habit!

So what are some of your goals this year? Please share!

Blessings,

John

Thoughts on Marriage

   For some reason I watched Sister Wives for the first time tonight – a show about a family consisting of 1 husband and 3 (soon to be 4) wives and their children. The controversial nature of their family makes them a perfect candidate for TLC programming. While I find the show… enlightening, I am far from promoting their polygomous lifestyle. The show did make me think of some thoughts on marriage in no particular order:

  • God made 1 woman for 1 man. Genesis 2:24
  • Scripture makes no wholesale command against polygamy, except in church leadership. 1 Timothy 3
  • Proverbs 22:3 – ‘nough said!
  • Frank Ramono to son Ray on Everybody Loves Raymond, “If you’ve got a problem with your woman, don’t go get another woman. Now you’ve just got TWO problems!!!”
  • How do you court another woman without committing emotional adultery? Matthew 5:28 
  • Is it not hypocritical for 1 man to have 4 wives, yet each wife is expected to be married to 1 man?
  • Polygamy is against the law in all 50 states. Romans 13
  • My wife (singular) is the only woman who can satisfy all of my needs – emotionally, relationally, and sexually – guilt free.

John

The phrase no pain, no gain has been a mantra for athletes and fitness junkies for years. And what they understand about physical pain needs to be broadened to a much more general use in all of our lives. Pain hurts. That's the whole problem. No one enjoys it, and if someone does, we rightfully

The Premium of Pain