Monday,..turned to 'Saturday'....with Mark !

It was Christmas Season and all through the house,....not a creature was stirring ,...just Brother Mark!,.....thinkin' about !

Rather than waiting for Monday, and ' Mondays With Mark ' ( which, along with more consistency with all of this blog's pages, will be much more active with the coming year ),
we decided to share mark's insight now.

It's Christmas night and I reflect on the day. Barbara is asleep as she needs to be at work by 6 AM, and I just finished watching " CHRISTMAS EVE " while I awaited my toothache to subside.
The movie is very much about 'doing the right thing', even if you don't see how it makes a difference. You find out that a series of people, each doing the right thing, fit into God's plan
unbeknownst to them ( but as we know, divinely planned by God ).  Doing the right thing wasn't easy and came at a cost to each, but the result was miraculous for those who benefited from their individual acts of ' doing the RIGHT THING ', or ' doing the' GOD THING '.

What was the 'right thing', and how do you recognize it, then act on it?  It's very simple, yet incredibly hard at the same time!  Do as Christ lived and told us,  love God and love one another 
as you would like to be loved yourself !!! .
The second part, the love another like you want to be loved requires ' EMPATHY '.  Empathy?
What is empathy?, ... How do you come by empathy?  ... I'm glad you asked!

EMPATHY, 9 it's a 17 point word in 'Scrabble'.  www.I.word.com defines it as the action of understanding, being aware of,  being sensitive to,  vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts,  and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner: also: the capacity for this.
( PLEASE READ THIS DEFINITION THROUGH A FEW TIMES BEFORE YOU CONTINUE TO READ THIS POST, ... I'LL WAIT,...IN FACT, i'LL READ IT OVER WITH YOU ! )

As a self identified Christ believer/follower I claim that 'EMPATHY', is a 100 point word in 'Scrabble'. !!!  It's what Christmas is TRULY about, it's what our lives as proclaimed believers should be about !

WORD PICTURE : think of ' empathy ' as a sort of God Given radar. Picture it, make the beeping sound in you mind, watch the line sweep it's way across the scope. Before we became believers, and as new believers, our ' empathy ' may have been offline or had a limited range, ... anywhere between inches or a few yards!.  As we mature in our faith, that's religious speak for having a relationship with Christ, which is religious talk  for getting to know, understand, and have empathy for God. Which is religious talk  for coming to grips with ' why God loves me ! NO MATTER WHAT!
As that relationship deepens,  God increases our ' empathy ' range, to 'feet, yards,miles, ...tens of thousands of them. There is no limit! " It's range is as far as our Love for God Is. ".
Our God's ' empathy ' radar range is as UNLIMITED !,  as is His ' ,LOVE, FOR EACH OF US !

             " AMEN !,....you 'go' Mark ! ",,,,,    ( edited by bill ,... as I also
                                                                               assumed secretarial duties for this posting! )

So, what's up with with this ' Radar ' thing?  ...  How do we use it ?   Radar is used to identify things in your vicinity or path that you likely would not notice on your own.
"I'm a Captain of a ship, ...there's dense fog! ... and my radar shows a boat dead ahead!,....Collision Course!
CRAAASH ! , we collided, ' grab the life jackets! , launch the life boats, we're SINKING!

What went wrong ?  " I saw the boat on the radar,....... I had empathy for the person!

                                                            LIGHTBULB !!!

                                                     ............ " I NEVER CHANGED COURSE ! "   , ... wow!

Before I go on,...it's confession time. God made known to me someone on my empathy radar. The right thing to do was to invite this person over to spend Christmas with my family and I. But, i didn't do this. I failed at loving another as I would like to be loved. Instead of knowing I did the right thing, 

, ( the GOD/CHRIST thing )  I feel guilt and failure.  Fortunately, I have a Savior to wipe clean the slate, and God gives all of us the opportunity to turn to Him whilst strengthening faith and healing our hearts when we knowledge our mistakes, and seek His help, which is His Will, to correct our paths.

How do we learn to react correctly when someone/something comes into view on our empathy radar?  We turn to Holy Scripture , With examining 'how' Jesus lived.  For Christ is fulfillment of Scripture!  Think of our Scriptures as an ' instruction manual ' directly from our God. our Creator, our Father ! '  It's a pretty fair bet that living as possibly close (in our human frailty) To the letter of God's given desires for us, ..the better poised we are to gain the peace of God. We will have the eternal, perfect, holy relationship with God by living leading a life in the footsteps of Jesus.

Simple, Right ! ........... except, human nature is to lean toward the lies of satan ( sorry, I refuse to capitalize the name! ).    But as the famous line of a Clint Eastwood movie, ... "we don need no stinkin' instructinz! "  We all make the same mistakes as Eve and Adam, believing in the lies of satan, and that we don't need God and God doesn't have our interests at heart.

" Hog - Wash "

......... ( it's bill editing and getting hid dander up. )

This  choice has/had consequences. The consequence is loss of spirit ! , we no longer are as we were. We can't be in God Because God is Spirit, and we've lost track of ours. But God so loved His creation and so desires an eternal relationship with His creation, he sent His only begotten Son, Jesus to show us " The Way ", and erase our sins so that we may be resurrected , and that our souls will be united with that of our Savior as well as the Father.

Christ lived as a man, was tempted, felt anguish and pain, endured persecution, torture, and death to atone for OUR sins, so at resurrection we can become the complete Holy Spirits who will enjoy eternal relationship with a Holy Spirit God !

The one thing Christ cannot and will not do for us is to force us into this relationship with Him.

God gave us free-will, and this is most inviolate. We need to freely accept this 'gift' of a new Holy life from God. We accept this gift when we believe wholeheartedly that Jesus is the Son of God. 

He is the Christ. That He is our righteousness in eternity through the Divine Exchange at the mount where he freely and out of Love, ....paid for the sins of humanity !

Full circle, when we accept this gift of life it comes with some responsibilities, .. ........................  the "Great Commission"  to spread the " GOOD NEWS " of the Gospel to every corner of the world. 

Why ?,...  need you ask?,.....   so ALL of God's creation,  ...  ALL of humanity have the opportunity to freely accept God's gift of a new spirit life through believing in His Son, Jesus Christ.

Having empathy and choosing to act rightly isn't to make this present life better , ... ( but, it does )

nor does it indicate you've earned something, it's to lead humanity to Christ so they might choose a relationship with Christ and accept His gift of eternity. 

What Would Jesus Do ? , ... Each time you inadvertently or by mishap hurt someone, you make it more likely they reject or push away this free and wondrous blessing from Father God.

That's it tonight,...it's 2:23 AM  EST

If you want scripture citations, have conversation, care to make a comment, or get in touch ,.....

PLEASE COMMENT !

NOTE :  All negative comments may be directed specifically of Brother Mark.

               All positive comments may be directed to Pastor Bill.

                                                                               ( it's Good to be the Editor of a fellowship

                                                                                           of good humored Christians !  haha! )

                                         God Bless !  and we wish you all a safe happy,                                                   and Christ Filled 

         New Year !

.....in Loving Christian Fellowship,  Step With Christ Ministries.

Verily, Verily,...I say unto you,... the Christ is the True Meaning !

Dearest Brothers and Sisters in Christ !



Step With Christ Ministries would like to extend every blessing to you as we celebrate The Birth of Our Savior!  May we never forget the TRUE meaning of Christmas !



Simply put, the coming of our Prophesied Messiah, is yet ANOTHER of God's foretold 

' Love Promises '  come True. Today may we praise our God and Messiah for their endless 

Grace, Mercy, and Blessings. May we, as we are responsible to do,.....'Share the Story with

the generations' in effort to glorify the endless love of God.



Merry Christmas to ALL !  and may the Holy Spirit within, guide us to the inspiration of others

in effort for all to bear fruit that is pleasing to the eyes of God, and to share 'The Good News' of

Salvation through Christ.



May The Lord touch your hearts on this most Holy of days !

Happy Hanukkah ! To our Jewish Brother and Sisters

Shalom Beloved,

As some of you are aware, Step with Christ Ministries is a supporting partner of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, and follows the Messianic Jew initiative quite closely.
On a personal level, and as it pertains to my own continual Ministry training, I feel as though Jewish Rabbi mentors such as those involved with the fellowship as well as Rabbi Schneider from Discovering The Jewish Jesus,and  Rabbi Eckstein offer Old Testament insight that only adds to our understanding of the New Testament, and magnifies the power and understanding of the Godhead. I firmly believe that the Judaic roots of the Christian Faith bring a more complete understanding of the Power, Glory, and Love of God!
These teachers as well as so many others give Christians a more robust understanding of how the Old and New testaments are connected. As ( Marie ), a follower from Philadelphia so eloquently yet simply puts it, " Jesus did not come to abolish the old Testament, but to fulfill it. ''

Today, much of Christianity tends to completely forget the Old Testament, Marie, as well as myself are happy to have found teachers from the Messianic Jew initiative which tie these two books together in such a way that one cannot help but to more fully understand how they together create a much deeper level of FAITH in our Father and Creator. The highlighting of the plethora of God's Love Promises foretold by His chosen messengers,and Prophets culminating to the greatest promise of all with the birth of Our Messiah provides not only for an immensely deep and well founded level of faith, but additionally a fuller understanding of the powerful Love our Creator has for each of us.

As Hanukkah began at sunset last evening, I thought it to be an opportune time to First and Foremost wish our Jewish Brothers and Sisters a very Happy Hanukkah with heartfelt wishes for Godly blessings throughout the upcoming year. We pray that turmoil and atrocities in the area quell and leave the firm understanding that " The Lord is Indeed Our Protector ", firmly understood by ALL.

( The Following ' Story of Hanukkah ', has been extrapolated from my " Discovering The Jewish Jesus "  December newsletter as it is a succinct and short depiction of the Jewish Holiday of Hanukkah,.................The Feast of Dedication.

The Story of Hanukkah

Hanukkah is thought of by most of us as an exclusively Jewish holiday. Interestingly enough, the only place that Hanukkah is mentioned in the Holy Bible is in the New Testament: " At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem" ( John 10:22 )

The Hebrew word Hanukkah means dedication, and therefore called, The Feast of Dedication. This feast commemorates the Jewish people's rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem to the Lord.

The history of Hanukkah began when the Greco-Assyrians invaded and captured Jerusalem. They attempted to destroy the culture and religion of the Jews, and desecrate the Temple of the Lord. During this time, a group of Greco-Assyrian soldiers marched into a Jewish settlement and demanded that the Priest there, Mattathias, sacrifice a pig to their pagan god, Zeus. Because Mattathias feared the Lord more than the soldiers, he refused to sacrifice the pig!  A fellow Jewish onlooker, fearing the Greco-Assyrians wrath, volunteered to sacrifice the pig. In response to this,

Mattathias drew his sword and killed him.

This act of conviction and courage was so inspiring to the rest of the Jews that they right there and then  joined Mattathias and formed an army. Under the leadership of Judah ( Mattathias' son )

this army of our Lord successfully stopped the Greco Assyrians from overtaking their settlement, and eventually drove them out of the whole region!, including Jerusalem and the Temple !

This victory climaxed with the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem, and the innauguration of The Feast of Dedication in 164 BC.

When the Jews lit the Menorah ( the lampstand inside the Temple ), during the re-dedication they found that there was only enough oil to burn for ONE day. However, tradition states that the oil burned supernaturally EIGHT days!!!  Thus, the Hanukkah menorah that Jewish people light each year has eight candles, representing these eight miraculous days of burning. An additional 9th 'Servant' candle on the Hanukkah Menorah is used to light the additional candles each night of Hanukkah.

" LOOK FOR HOW MANY WAYS TO BLESS ISRAEL AND THE JEWISH PEOPLE. PRAY FOR THEM. GIVE TO THE PURPOSES OF THEIR SALVATION. YOU WILL BE BLESSED."

                                                                           ....... ( Genesis 12:3 )

Again, Happy Hanukkah to our Jewish brothers and sisters. May the Lord our God bless you with the everlasting and overwhelming Peace of the Holy Spirit !

STEP WITH CHRIST MINISTRIES 

" How Great Is Our God ! "

Blessings to All and Happy Friday !



Just a quick drop of  "inspiration ", as I continue with our broader update!

,

I hope to have a ' special ensemble ' accompany me next month when I'm honored to lead worship in January at First Christian Church in beautiful Kittery Point, Maine.

( check back for a date. )



On the personal level, Joshua Aaron indeed relates how Great our God Truly Is, The Jewish Heritage of Jesus, The roots of our Christian Faith and Old Testament History.

Have a " Blessed Day " in Christ Jesus!



God Bless!

..







 

Dear Father !

Dear Father,

Father, I am ever so gracious that I've been granted your constant, un-interupted presence in my life due to the most divine exchange at Calvary.
Whether I'm up or down, happy or sad, done wrong or done right, you are eternally with me!
Your help, protection, provision, strength and peace are constantly with me. 

Lord, you are indeed my sufficiency. With you I have NO need. I pray you help me to relate this faithful reality to all whose path I may cross along the journey you have planned for me.

I commit to evangelize the Good News of salvation through your Holy Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, through the remainder of my human life !!!  I pray you continue to stir the Holy Spirit within me and bless my words so that the ears of my brothers and sisters take a step beyond simply listening, but to actually HEAR the good news.

Please continue to enlighten my ways so that I may be an effective vessel of true Christianity.
I ask this in the name of your most Holy Son whose ways and words I strive to emulate with each passing day.

I am yours Father !
May you bless my ways, that I would be pleasing to your eyes.
                                                                                                               AMEN !!!!!!