Author Archives: Mark

Let There Be Peace

Posted on December 4, 2015 by Mark

This is a season of hoping for peace on earth and goodwill among men. And why should we not hope? The angels announced it to be so at the birth of Jesus.  Yet, where do we find ourselves two thousand … Continue reading →

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Checklist for a Great Worship Service

Posted on April 22, 2015 by Mark

My wife does most of the legwork of planning the Sunday morning worship service orders for our church.  She and I talk through the theme and then she sets to the task of choosing songs and putting them in an order along … Continue reading →

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What’s Good about Good Friday?

Posted on April 3, 2015 by Mark

Have you ever wondered what is good about Good Friday? How can the things that happened on that day and the horrors of Christ’s suffering be good?  How can it be good that he was falsely accused and wrongly condemned and … Continue reading →

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The Leader, the Witch and the Warning

Posted on March 21, 2015 by Mark

The encounter of King Saul with the witch of En Dor in 1 Samuel 28 is one of the most bizarre incidents in Saul’s life, and even more so, in all the Bible. Who was this woman? What kind of … Continue reading →

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Adapt or Die

Posted on February 22, 2015 by Mark

A little over a week ago, jihadists executed 21 Christian Egyptian men.  None of the martyrs were wealthy or educated.  They had gone to Libya looking for work and ended up in the hands of ISIS.  In a picture accompanying the article … Continue reading →

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Praying in the Garden

Posted on April 18, 2014 by Mark

The night Jesus was betrayed and arrested he went with his disciples to a favorite place, a quiet place at night I’m sure called the Garden of Gethsemane.  It was in this place that the final minutes ticked down to … Continue reading →

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“How Long ’til We Get There?”

Posted on December 15, 2013 by Mark

When I was a kid, traveling was part of our Christmas holiday.  My family lived in Maryland and my grandparents lived in New York state.  As soon as Christmas break arrived my parents, four siblings and I would pile into … Continue reading →

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The Resistance to Christmas

Posted on December 12, 2013 by Mark

The other night in family devotions we read from John Piper’s Good News of Great Joy: Daily Readings for Advent, published by Desiring God.  The reading focused on the theme of resistance to Jesus and highlighted two demonstrations of resistance in … Continue reading →

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What’s Your Number, Pastor?

Posted on October 14, 2013 by Mark

There it was in an email I had received.  I predicted out loud to my wife on our way home from church that another one was slipping away.  My mind raced to figure out what I could do to tighten … Continue reading →

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The Knowledge of Good and Evil

Posted on June 26, 2013 by Mark

“What God says doesn’t matter! What God declares to be off-limits isn’t really off-limits if you don’t want it to be off-limits.  You have just as much right to decide good and evil for yourself as God does.  If you want … Continue reading →

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