Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. – MARK 8:34

We use the expression, “cross to bear” to encompass a number of things:
sciatica, poor math skills, night blindness, a sweet tooth, a trick knee, or any unfulfilled desires. Only, a cross to bear in the first century was hardly trivial. To see a person carrying a crossbar atop their shoulders would have provoked few questions. A cross-bearing person bore the condemnation of one convicted of only the most heinous of crimes. So extreme was this style of execution that Roman citizens were exempted from it.

As we enter into the roughly forty-day season leading up to Easter, called Lent,  Christians worldwide will deny themselves various things in an effort to connect themselves to the sufferings of Jesus. But, the challenge in Lent isn’t in finding some luxury to go without for a few weeks. It is, however, in connecting whatever that thing is from which we willingly abstain with the true notion of bearing a cross. The apostle Paul describes it like this: “I have been crucified in Christ, it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” So, bearing a cross is about putting to death an old nature (crucified with Christ) with the hope and power of living in a new kind of life (resurrected with Christ at Easter).

To aim our hearts at Easter, join us for our Ash Wednesday service at 7p. In it, we’ll orient ourselves at the truth, the tragic beauty, and the glorious irony of the cross. We’ll consider how our journey toward Easter begins intentionally and deliberately. No child care is provided. But, bring kids of any age you deem appropriate for such an experience.

See you Wednesday Night,

Jeff

Today, Ash Wednesday is the official start of Lent—a season to prepare our hearts for the journey of Easter. Join us as we begin turning our focus toward Jesus and the transforming power of the cross. For daily expressions and prayers for Lent, you can download the Lent Journey card.

Wed, Feb 18, 7p, Worship Center at MCMV

Consider serving our church by opening your home to a Junior High Life Group. We provide everything – you provide the space! For more info, contact Hilary hmccullough@marinerschurch.org

Wednesdays, 7-8:30p

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her…
– EPHESIANS 5:25

I think it was about four or five years into being married where I began to realize something. It was subtle, but nonetheless, significant. My love wasn’t waning. Neither was hers. I think, like so many other habits in our lives, however, I had drifted into a kind of steady stillness in my marriage. There was no crisis. No one
was yelling or threatening. No ultimatum was issued. But, something that used to be there all the time, appeared to be hiding in the routine of everyday living. That early marriage euphoria of new love didn’t appear to be able to bear the weight and sustaining power of a deeper kind of companionship in marriage like I’d hoped. I knew then, I’d need more than pheromone-electro-chemical brain pyrotechnics to build the next portion of our lives upon. Only, I wasn’t sure what that looked like.

Paul describes the way a marriage ought to look in his letter to the Ephesian church. In Roman society, wives were supposed to take care of the house and children as the man’s property. They were little more than servants. They were a necessary component of civil life. But, there wasn’t any expectation of love. When Paul says to the church — to the husbands in the church — “love your wives,” he’s already stating something completely counter-cultural. It might have made sense to say: “watch over” or “look out for” or even “protect.” But he says “love.” Even more so, the love he describes is completely absurd: “…just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.”

Jesus’ love for the church (His bride) isn’t ecstatic temporary elation. It’s not nervous flirtation, nor clammy hands, nor fumbling speech. His ministry wasn’t about amorous fireworks and chemical impulse. No, Jesus saw the church as His beautiful and eternal bride. In that sense, a season of “feeling it” would never cut it.

I discovered something in these words that I have yet to fully grasp — that the essence of a lasting and “radiant” marriage had far more to do with what I was willing to give up than what I was hoping to get. I realized something in that understanding — that in even the most beautiful marriages: MARRIAGE IS REALLY HARD. In the marriages I respect the most, where the couples appear to have the deepest and most compassionate love for each other, all of them speak about the unending trial of learning the art of sacrifice for the other. In other words, like everything else in our faith journey, marriage is a work in progress. Everyone can always use a tune-up no matter what stage or place they’re in.

This Friday night, February 13th we’ll host our own version of that tune-up:
“DATE NIGHT.” $15/couple. Bring your friends. It’s always a hit. Online registration appreciated (required for those needing childcare).
Here’s the run-down:
6:30-7p, Pre-date appetizers
7-8p, Program led by Doug Fields
8-9:30p, Leave to go on a date with your spouse
9:30p, Pick up children from Mariners MV

See you Friday night,

Jeff

Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom. One generation commends your works to another; they tell of your mighty acts. They speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty— and I will meditate on your wonderful works.”
– PSALM 145:3-5

For people who have little familiarity with church parlance, the word “elder” is a little strange. Even stranger is an elder’s job description: “keepers of the vision.” So, when the so-called “keepers of the vision” go away on a retreat together, it conjures up images of a Tolkien-esque cave gathering of bearded kindly wizards holed up in a torch-lit cave. Maybe that is what they do. But, not likely. (I’ve met them. No beards that qualify as wizard-length. They do seem kindly. Though, none of them seem like they’d be comfortable in a cave.)

Each year, the elders go away together to get a direction for where God is leading Mariners Church. In many respects, the greatest gift an elder can give to the church is an ability to listen — to patiently and faithfully hear God’s voice. One of the key components of their retreat is to identify the church verse for the year. Last year, the elders identified Jeremiah 17:7-8, which reads: “…Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream…”

The church verse is always best understood in the rear-view mirror. In other words, it’s difficult to predict all of the implications for what the passage means in an anticipatory posture. Rather, looking back over the last year, God’s story in and through that verse becomes much clearer.

We can point to moments where God’s provision seemed unlikely. We have seen people’s lives turned around in the meaningful community of Rooted and life groups. Each week, new people are finding a home in Jesus that they never thought possible. Old arid voices, drought laden and life-stealing, are being washed away in fresh hope and outbursts of joy. Those in the desert are discovering they are less alone than they thought and their lives are producing unlikely and even impossible fruit.

So, the elders have come back. They have heard God speak. They have given us a church verse (Psalm 145:3-5). I can’t wait to see the story God writes in 2015. I wonder what “mighty acts” and “wonderful works” we’ll look back upon.

See you Sunday,

Jeff

The Man Book is a series by the men of Mariners MV for you. Ten ordinary men will share how our extraordinary God is bringing about powerful and compelling change to their lives. For more info contact Derek. For more info, click here.

Thursdays through Apr 9, 7-8a, Lobby, Man Book: $10 (optional) 
Thursdays through Apr 9, 7-8:30p, Children’s Theater, Man Book: $10 (optional)

The crowds… followed him. He welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed healing. – LUKE 9:11

The world is full of duo’s necessarily bound together for all of time. In fact, so common are the pairing of many things, you only need one to be aware of know the other:
– Peanut butter and _______.
– Macaroni and _______.
– To quote the erudite rap trio of my youth, the Beastie Boys:
“I like my sugar with coffee and _________.” (cream).

Clearly, I’ve been on a bit of health kick at the outset of this year. As such, all of the above pairings are presently prohibited. But, you get the idea. Whether it’s Batman and Robin, Ross and Rachel, thunder and lightning, or shake and bake, there is another famous pairing often overlooked in the Bible. It’s a pairing critical to understanding Jesus’ message.

The ministry of Jesus can be characterized by the dual components of announcing or, to use a more Christian-y sounding word, “proclaiming” something called the Kingdom of God and secondarily demonstrating what that Kingdom message actually looks like. So, throughout the accounts of Jesus’ ministry there is a consistent pattern: proclamation and demonstration.

For most contemporary followers of Jesus, we are fine with Kingdom proclamation, so long as it’s accomplished with some measure of skill and tact. But, we’re a little more resistant to any demonstration of that kingdom. Sure, we want it to be real and somehow tangible. But we don’t want a few things that may go with it.  After all, we don’t want to believe something that may not be true — because something miraculous, by definition, has to fly in the face of the plausible outcomes. We live in a world of rational thought, medical experts, data, and causes and effects. Additionally, we don’t want to associate ourselves with anything that may fall into the category of side-show circus chicanery at the hands of church illusionists who pray on the simple minded. And… we’re highly private people who don’t want to admit that the pressure on us to seem perfect is often greater than our very real and glaringly imperfect pain.

But, we do need God’s intervention into our lives in pointed and real ways. We have giant needs for our marriages, our physical health, our mental health, our addictions, our past wounds, and our secret lives — all of which are always inching closer and closer to that place where they can no longer be managed or smoothed over. So, despite all of our reservations, despite how foolish it might seem to us and to everyone else, we do the most honest thing we know how to do: we ask God for help. We fearfully, and faithfully look to God to powerfully re-link the dynamic duo of His Word with His deeds in us. We need healing for our brokenness.

This week, we’ll ask God to do one thing we desperately want but are afraid to publicly seek — healing. There will be no illusions. There will be no circus. There will be no fake exaggerations and made-up stories. But, we will boldly ask God to heal us with His power. In so doing, we will seek God to UNLEASH the IMPOSSIBLE in us.

See you Sunday,
Jeff