Join us at a Social Night as we offer community and build relationships with the elderly while sharing stories. Every last Thursday of the month, 6:30-8p. Contact Debi.
Thursday, January 30, 6:30p, Atria Del Sol Senior Center
All posts by Mariners MV
A Note From Jeff Maguire
I look up at your macro-skies, dark and enormous, your handmade sky-jewelry, Moon and stars mounted in their settings. Then I look at my micro-self and wonder, Why do you bother with us?
PSALM 8:3-4 (MSG)
Somehow, in all of what God has made (and is presently sustaining), he BOTHERS with us — with me. We live in a world where we are constantly being reminded that we are mostly bothersome. Even more honestly, we’ve become trained that other people are mostly bothersome to us. Somehow the God-given dignity inherent in all people loses its primacy the moment we get a little annoyed. This is the reason flight attendants, restaurant servers, families slowly pushing a double-jogger stroller on a sidewalk, and inattentive drivers lose their “human being credentials” when we get annoyed… bothered. They are an obstacle to our real, true, full experience of life.
Yet, God chooses to “bother” Himself with us. If there is anyone capable of causing annoyance, it’s us. We are perpetually needy. We are always unsatisfied. We live under the belief that we need and deserve more. But, God chose us. He still chooses us everyday. He willingly chooses to listen to us. He chooses to continue to give gifts. And, when the rest of His majestic creation continues to treat us like we’re somehow in the way of their full experience of life, He welcomes us in His presence, treating us as though we were “a little lower than the angels” PSALM 8:5 (NIV).
This Sunday, we’ll begin our series on relationships called “Beautiful Mess”. All those people we love (and someday hope to love) — the ones that drive us crazy — they’re the ones who help to create both the beauty and the mess of being together. It is my hope, that at least in some small way, that reality — that God finds us worthy enough to bother himself with us, will sink in. Because, it is in the experience of being deeply loved that we are able to love deeply, transforming the mess (however messy it is) into beauty. Be sure to include someone in need of relational hope or help.
Looking forward to being together this Sunday,
Jeff
A Note From Jeff Maguire
We spent New Year’s Eve at a neighborhood party of families like our own. All the parents hovered over a table of hors d’oeuvres, eating pot stickers and potato skins, tiny chimichangas and hot wings, all the while remaining unswerving in our commitment to make 2014 the year we eat only “jicama and tofu.” Our kids jumped in a rented bounce house in the dark, periodically reminding the rest of us that it may not have been the safest unsupervised decision (one kid got a visit from the tooth fairy on New Year’s Eve as a result of a collision).
But, it IS the new year. Now, the New Year’s resolution mania is gaining momentum. Even in the face of incredibly dismal success rates (one study reported that only 8% of people are successful in achieving their resolution goals), people still make them. People want a chance to start over, to make things new, to improve. Over and over again, studies indicate that people with clear plans, achievable goals, and accountability see monumental increases in chances for success.
So, consider this very unsurprising resolution from the pastor: read the Bible. I know you nearly fainted from the shock of that idea — a pastor… the Bible. Reading the Bible won’t give you “sculpted” abs, it won’t help you come into money, and it won’t grow back any hair you lost in 2013. But, it will rightly orient your heart toward God. If the notion of reading the entire Bible is too daunting, start with reading a portion of it. If you’re following along in the Daily Message (available at the Global Bookstore), read the entire daily read or just one part of it. If you’ve never read the Bible, read a little. If you’ve read a little, read a little more. For the mobile tech savvy, download the free YouVersion Bible app and start this reading plan called “Discipleship Journal’s Book-at-a-Time Reading Plan” (it follows the same breakdown as the Mariners Daily Message Bible). You can do it. We can do it.
Yesterday, on Day 1 of the plan, we read this: “…You thrill to God’s Word, you chew on Scripture day and night. You’re a tree replanted in Eden, bearing fresh fruit every month, Never dropping a leaf, always in blossom.” Psalm 1:2-3 [MSG]
Might that be our experience of living in God’s Word during 2014.
See you this Sunday,
-Jeff
Esther: It’s Tough Being a Woman by Beth Moore
Join us as we explore and learn from Esther-a profile in courage. Beth Moore provides a very personal examination of this great story of threat and deliverance and shows how applicable the story of Esther is to our lives today.
Thursday mornings 1/16 – 4/3
9:30AM – 11:30AM, MCMV Children’s Theater
$20 (Materials Only) or
$65 (Materials and Parking)
Childcare available for additional fee
Register for study and childcare online.
Contact Sunny with questions.
A Note From Jeff Maguire
By now, the hysteria of Christmas is beginning to wind down (we hope, anyways). We’re wearing the news clothes and playing with all the new toys. Some of us are faced with the challenge of returning that new sweater vest with the Elvis/Santa emblazoned on the chest to a mall full of people looking to find one more deal in after-Christmas sales all the while avoiding the potential hurt feelings of people who were convinced the sweater was a sure-fire hit. The refrigerator is full of left-overs and, somewhere on the horizon, our “normal” lives are starting to take shape.
But, that’s where all the real meaning of Christmas comes to bear on our lives: when television stations are no longer airing the endless loop of the burning yule log and radio stations’ “sounds of the season” simply means “our normal broadcast of easy listening hits.” That’s where all the implications of Jesus at Christmas become real. Because, it’s in our normal lives: the going to work, solving problems, mowing the lawn, and handling the stuff of life where being someone who follows Jesus, matters. No longer is life about getting ready for Christmas. Instead, it’s about living in it — about living with Him.
Therein lies the challenge. What does it mean to Christmas when the world relegates Jesus to little more than a seasonal decoration and a kind of Disney-mystical wizard responsible for something called “Christmas magic?”
So… Merry Christmas,
Jeff
Chili Van
Serve a hot meal, provide fellowship and prayer to people through the Chili Van.
Sign up online. Questions? Contact Bryan.
Tuesdays, 4:30-6p, Capistrano Beach
A Note From Jeff Maguire
People love to be invited. Your friends and neighbors who know you have a church home at Christmas Eve want to be included in it. In fact, they’ll wonder why you didn’t think to include them. Christmas is one of the rare times in the world where people make a gap in their schedule to consider Jesus. Remember that the miracle of Christmas isn’t that there were angels, or stars, or kings, or dangerous journeys, or donkeys, or Myrrh (whatever that is).
The miracle of Christmas is that God, the One who authored the creation of the universe, comes to walk among us — not the privileged few with unblemished pasts and perfect families. But, us, real us: the people struggling to cobble together a life of joy and hope amid real pain and real need. Who is it that you could include in the experience of Christmas this season at Mariners MV? Merry Christmas.
See you on Sunday,
Jeff
A Note From Jeff Maguire
“All your children will be taught by the Lord, and great will be their peace.” – Isaiah 54:13
Regardless of what anyone thinks or says about this season, kids feature prominently in it. We recall our own childhood memories of bad sweaters and awkward pictures, road trips and dinners, and family reunions and Christmas Eve traditions. For those of us with young kids we hope to build new and lasting memories — things they’ll hold onto that connect them to Jesus. We read the Bible stories. We build anticipation. We watch the same specials on television. We know that Christmas matters — especially to kids.
At Mariners MV, we care deeply about kids. From the worship leaders, to the storytellers, to those who hold crying babies, and to the hard-working staff who hold it all together — kids matter to us. For this reason, when someone makes a transition out of our children’s ministry team, we feel it.
After many years of faithful service, Becky Lee has decided to transition off our Children’s Ministry team. For so many families and countless kids, Becky has been the face of welcome and safety. She knows kids’ names and families’ stories. She helps even the most reticent kid find a way into laughter and celebration. With Becky, Jesus is not merely taught about in stories and in clever songs, He’s lived out in her life, expressed in her unmistakable joy. While Becky will be greatly missed, our kids’ experience is our utmost priority. We are actively pursuing the search for our next Children’s Pastor
and have a plan in place for the interim.
Please join us on Sunday, December 22nd as we pray for her and Francis as they take their next steps in marriage and ministry together.
See you on Sunday,
Jeff
Unearth the Remarkable at Winter Camp!
Zip line, Frisbee, golf, low ropes, basketball, rock wall, malt shop, hiking, paintball, ping pong, football, sledding hill, air hockey, Big Oak Cafe and the Arte Shoppe are some of the activities we’ll have for our junior high students. Find out more and sign up!
January 17-20
Thousand Pines, Crestline, CA
HSM Winter Camp
Unplug from the craziness of life for a weekend, and come hang out in the mountains with HSM!
Find out more here and register.
Feb 14-17, $250, $225 before Jan. 1
Thousand Pines