A New Chapter

So many times in Scripture the human participants in God's story get to turn the page on the past and move forward into a new chapter in their lives. It is not that the past disappears, but that the past is encapsulated and put behind them.
This does not mean that the past has no significance in the new chapter, but that its role is celebrated and liberated from the endless cycle of collapse.
Take the Israelite's entering the Promised Land. The miraculous Exodus from the land of Egypt, with its slavery ad oppression should have been a quick journey. But instead, it was filled with rebellion and shortsightedness. They had seen the LORD deliver them from Egypt with all that entailed. They could look each day that the visible manifestation of the LORD's presence in the pillar of cloud and fire. They could see His provision of food and water. They could see all this, but they still tried to run the show their own way.
Eventually, those who were younger than 21 at the time of the Exodus were standing ready to enter the promise after wandering for forty years in the wilderness. They could have closed the book on rebellion and opened a new chapter on obedience. But they didn't. Oh how history would have been different if they had fully obeyed.
What would be different about your history if you had obeyed at those key moments?

We have another adventure starting soon in our lives. We have a mission call to spend a number of months in another country serving those who wear the uniform and their families. It will mean time away from our family here where we live, and time in a temporary setting, among people we don't know, doing work that has eternal consequences.
We need your prayers. We need your financial support, no matter how small. We stand ready to walk into the next chapter. Will you join with us?
If you would like to join us, please go to Cadence.org.
Thanks in advance. 

What’s in a Title

Mark 1:1

      So why is the title of a book so important? A title can doom a book to obscurity. Some titles sell the book. In today’s competitive marketplace, a title must capture your imagination. The image on the cover must enliven some image that gets you to pick up the book, flip it over and do a bit more exploring, maybe even read the first paragraph. If you aren’t captured by that point, most people will simply put the book back on the shelf and continue looking. A title can say a lot about a book, not only by what it says, but also by what it doesn’t say.

      Mark starts his book by telling us of the beginning of the facts of the good news, and not of the beginning of his book. He could have told us how he decided to write down what he had experienced like the Gospel writer Luke, but he didn’t. He starts with the unfolding of the good news that is contained in the life and ministry of Jesus. He starts by focusing on the start of Jesus mission as the LORD’s Servant.

      Beginnings are important to Mark. He speaks of them repeatedly throughout his book (see 1:1, 45; 4:1; 5:17, 20; 6:2, 7, 34, 55; 8:11, 31, 32; 10:28, 32, 41, 47; 11:15; 12:1; 13:5; 14:19, 33, 65, 69, 71; 15:8, 18). Some might say that this is simply the way Mark spoke of transitions as he wrote. But I think it is more than that. If you look at these passages, they all speak of the beginning of a new action on the part of the person or people involved.

      The way we start things can determine their outcome. If we beginning practicing a new musical instrument incorrectly, it can be very difficult to unlearn the bad habit once it is formed. The same is true in sports and many other activities in life. It is true in our spiritual life as well. If we begin our day by surfing the web and reading about all the horror in the world, our day may take a very different direction than if we start in the Word and prayer. If we don’t learn the whole Gospel, but only focus on God’s love, we can get a warped view of our relationships and responsibilities. We become blind to all that He is calling us to do.        

      We learn from this simple start that Mark is not about many things, but one thing: Jesus. This is good news about Him. He is the Christ, the Messiah, the Promised One. He is the One whose coming was announced hundreds of years before it happened. He fulfills all the expectations of the world for a solution to the problems that plague us in our darkest hours. He can solve global problems and problems of a single human heart.

      How can He do that? He does this by being uniquely related to the Creator of the Universe. He is the Son of God. And because of that relationship, He is able to offer us a connection that was lost by the First Family.

      What beginnings are you going to encounter today? How are you going to handle them in light of Jesus presence in your life? Will you allow fear and anxiety to overtake you? Will you recognize the opportunity presented to you in each beginning to make a change in direction for the better? Will you see the beginning as a door opened by the LORD, one in which He is present?