time – John Markum

“Stop and Look at Me!”

Posted on October 28, 2011 by johnmarkum

Kids, man… I’ve got FOUR!!! And I love the heck out of each of them. But they can also be a handful! There are times when my kids are playing in the house and running around after each other, making noise, and causing general chaos. I’ll sometimes try to speak over the situation with some kind of instruction, like:

“Hey, no running in the house!”
“Don’t you dare throw that at her!”
And my favorite… “BE QUIET!”

Eventually the chaos is more than I can stand and I have to get very direct. I’ll grab one of my children and pull them away from their ruckus, and demand their undivided attention. But even as I am calmly attempting to give them a very clear, direct command to behave the right way, they sometimes will try to pull away from me, eyes pointing back toward their favorite distractions. It’s then that I demand them to “Stop and look at me!” Sometimes I’ll say, “Give me your eyes!” I know that until they pull their mind away from their chaos, they’ll never really hear what I’m trying to tell them.
Is it possible that you and I miss out on what God is trying to tell us because we are so busy with our grown-up chaos? When is the last time you felt God saying, “Stop and look at Me!”
I confess that sometimes my prayers consist of little more than a quick shout-out to God as I’m racing from this meeting to that function, and back to my office before the next function. That’s like my kids running around, doing their thing and giving me a “uh huh, yeah, ok Dad. Whatever you say…” kind of response. They didn’t hear me. And they’re probably not going to act on what I told them. Their eyes give it away. When they’re not listening to me, they’re usually looking away at what they would rather be doing other than talk to me. And God knows that until He “gets our eyes” He doesn’t really have our attention either.

When is the last time that you got out of your chaotic schedule, slowed down, and gave God your undivided attention? If you do have a regular habit of quiet time and prayer, how easily distracted do you get by the demands of your life? What will it take for you to “give God your eyes”? What are the things that you’re often looking at that pull your attention away from stopping and looking at God for a few minutes each day? A cell phone? Computer screen? TV?
Slow down your day for 15 minutes, preferably before the chaos really begins, and quiet yourself, tell God you’re listening, and give Him your “eyes.” You’ll feel closer to Him throughout the day, you’ll likely be a lot less stressed, and you’ll give God priority above all your other pressing demands.

Blessings,

John

From my personal devotions: Psalm 112

Posted on July 12, 2011 by johnmarkum

I started this blog to give people in my church, family, and friends in ministry a means to better connect with me, and hopefully (more importantly) with God. Along those lines, about a week ago, I thought that it might be a good idea to start sharing some of my thoughts straight out of my personal time in God’s Word with my blog viewers. There’s nothing particularly special about what I think, of course. But I hope that as I try out this newer idea that it could serve as an encouragement to many of you, and perhaps for some viewers who may be unsure of where to start in the Bible for your quiet time with God, this can be something that you do with me.

Psalm 112 –

Praise the Lord! How joyful are those who fear the Lord and delight in obeying his commands. Their children will be successful everywhere; an entire generation of godly people will be blessed. They themselves will be wealthy, and their good deeds will last forever. Light shines in the darkness for the godly. They are generous, compassionate, and righteous. Good comes to those who lend money generously and conduct their business fairly. Such people will not be overcome by evil. Those who are righteous will be long remembered. They do not fear bad news; they confidently trust the Lord to care for them. They are confident and fearless and can face their foes triumphantly. They share freely and give generously to those in need. Their good deeds will be remembered forever. They will have influence and honor. The wicked will see this and be infuriated. They will grind their teeth in anger; they will slink away, their hopes thwarted.

My Observations:

Joy, fear of God, and obedience all go together. (v. 1)
My children’s generation will be affected by my obedience to God. (v. 2)
When I walk with God, I have light even in dark places. (v. 4)
3 Words describing those who walk with God: generous, compassionate, righteous. (v. 4)
Bad stuff still happens to righteous people (v. 7), and
by the grace of God, they inevitably win anyway. (v. 8 )
God deals with my adversaries for me. (v. 10)

Blessings,

John

Challenge #5: Serve

Posted on February 28, 2011 by johnmarkum

Edgewood Challenge #5: Give time to serve in one ministry.

There’s this statistic that floats around many churches that says, “20% of the people do 80% of the service.” This stat gets called the 80/20 Stat most of the time and simply points out that only a fraction of most Christians ever give of their time and talent to be part of what the church is doing to impact their city for Christ.

It’s a shame, really. We would claim to believe in a God who saves souls, changes lives, and does the impossible – who is eager to capture us up into His mission to redeem the world to Himself – and we would pass. Because of this, one church leader, Ed Stetzer, began referring to this ratio of people who don’t volunteer themselves to the work of the church as the 80/20 Sin. When you and I make excuses for why we do not get connected in serving, we are trying to say that we believe in Jesus enough to save us, but not enough to give ourselves back to Him.

But what if we really lived it…? What would be the potential of our church – of the Quad Cities – if we lived as though our life was not our own, but we were bought with a price? What if the 80/20 statistic was flopped, and 80 % of the people each took a piece of the ownership in serving? The thought of what that would look like is absolutely breath-taking!

The Bible describes the church as the “body” of Christ. But when 80% of the body is not doing it’s function, the body is paralyzed… or dying. The whole body suffers when even a small part of it is out of order. But a body that is 100% operational is alive, healthy, and powerful. Let’s be that church!

Edgewood is such an amazing place because every week we get to see new people coming through our doors, and the potential to turn our world upside-down for the Gospel has never been greater, or more needed. And because our church has 3 weekend adult services, and a youth service, there are plenty of opportunities to use your time and talents to serve in one ministry. Let’s change our world by the way we serve one another!

Blessings,

John