Message
Gospel of John: (Intro) A LIGHT in the darkness! (Advent 1) God has made himself known: In grief and loss
Jn 1:1-18, 3:19-20, 8:12, 12:46

1st Sunday of Advent, 2023: God makes himself known in grief and loss.  Advent is all about waiting, longing, and anticipation.  Waiting for what?  Longing for what?  Anticipating what?  

For hundreds of years God’s people waited for a Messiah, a Savior, a Deliverer.  And since Jesus came 2,000 yrs ago, God’s people have been waiting for 2,000 yrs for him to return again.  What are we waiting for, longing for, anticipating now?  Essentially, we are waiting for what is wrong to be made right.  Things are not what they are supposed to be.  The wrong is oft so strong… We experience grief, sorrow and loss on a daily basis. 

“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

Advent is a wonderful opportunity to live into Jesus.  His first coming brings about repentance and salvation, the call to follow him and walk in faithfulness. His second coming will bring about a new heavens and a new earth, where all things will be made new and right.  

But in the meantime, we live in the in-between times of Jesus coming.  It’s a time of advent – longing, waiting and anticipation.  There is a strong theme in scripture of God making himself known in grief and loss.  It can be summed up in a phrase from our text for this coming Sunday from the Gospel of John 1:5, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”  Summed up in an advent song: “Light of the World, you stepped down into darkness…”  Jesus became flesh and ‘moved into our neighborhood.’  The neighborhood of our grief and loss.  

Frederick Dale Bruner in his commentary on the Gospel of John encourages us not only to believe in Jesus, but to live into Jesus.  As we anticipate Christmas and Jesus coming again, a 2nd time, embrace ‘the already but not yet’ truth of Immanuel, God with us, even in the midst of our grieving and losses we experience.  

See you Sunday,

    Mark 

Message
The Day of the Lord (Advent 1)
2 Peter 3

Happy Thanksgiving!  As you gather with others, may thanksgiving grow in your hearts and minds as you recall all that God has done, is doing, and will do!

Sunday we complete our series on 1st and 2nd Peter, Our Living Hope.  Throughout our series, Peter has been clarifying our identity in Christ, encouraging us to walk in the light of Christ – to be ‘in the world but not of it.’  Basically, calling us to deeper faithfulness, holiness, and discipleship.  

Fact is, life is full of decisions and choices.  In Christ, we are given unbelievable freedom.  And with that freedom comes much discernment and responsibility.  So here are 12 areas of discernment to help navigate the gray areas of life, the freedom choices we encounter everyday, that can lead us into deeper faithfulness, holiness, and discipleship: 

• Overindulgence: Am I addicted to it?  
• Self-awareness: Do you know yourself and your weaknesses?
• Stumbling Block: Do others around you take offense?
• Time: Is the time spent on it equal to it’s true worth?
• The Flow: Is the majority of culture preoccupied with it?  
• Escapism: Is your engagement avoiding reality and its problems?
• Redemptive: Is it a redeemable or redemptive activity?
• Priorities: Is time and energy spent in line with priorities, what really matters?
• Proactive: What about God’s priorities?  
• Sacred/Secular Split: Is God in it? (He should be!)
• Conscience: Does your participation in it bother you, bring guilt or shame?
• Authority: What do those in authority (mentor) say about it?

Happy Thanksgiving!  Give Thanks!  And happy discerning!  
   See you Sunday!
        Pastor Mark 

Message
OLH: True and False Teachers – Discerning the Difference
2 Peter 2

Last week the text of 2 Peter 1 ended with the verse, “Prophecy (Scripture) never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”  I have been thinking about that phrase all week, “carried along by the Holy Spirit.”  

Theologians have given this a term when speaking about Scripture – Organic Inspiration.  What that means is that in the speaking and writing of Scripture, it’s 100% human involvement and 100% God involvement.  

This seems to be a good description of what everyday life can be, should be, why not have it be – living life in Christ.  Organically inspired!  Meaning,  being carried along by the Holy Spirit – 100% God and our involvement – all of me and all of God.    

There’s a song, once quite popular, by John Legend, titled All of Me.  It’s not a song about relationship with God. Its focus is on a romantic relationship between people.  It’s hallmark lyric when the song soars is, “All of me loves all of you.”  

And I’m back to organic inspiration.  The integration of faith and life, in living life in Christ, being carried along by the Holy Spirit involves my life, God’s love, my faith, God’s strength and power at work in me, 100% God and 100% human involvement, all of me loves all of God and God absolutely loves me.  Even with all my imperfections.  

Organic inspiration seems important for understanding and reading Scripture as well as important for living life well.  

As we dive into chapter 2 of 2nd Peter, be good to keep this idea of organic inspiration at the forefront of our exploration of it.

   See you Sunday!  
      Pastor Mark

Message
Confirming Our Call and Election
2 Peter 1

Our journey through the letter of 1st Peter has been so good!  Continues to resonate.  So if there is a 1st Peter, there must be a 2nd, and there is!  So we go from good to challenging in 1st Peter, to 2nd Peter, “I wish you would?!”  So we will.

3 weeks for 3 chapters.  Some text for this Sunday from 2nd Peter 1 with some of my slight paraphrasing to have the connections flow, “Through faith in Jesus, because of Jesus, God’s divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life (which is…) to participate in the divine nature and escaping the world’s corruption caused by evil desires.  (So here is what to do) Make every effort to add to faith – goodness, to goodness – knowledge, to knowledge – self-control, to self-control – perseverance, to perseverance – godliness, to godliness – mutual affection, to mutual affection – love. 

Whoever increases in these things is effective and productive, bringing God glory.  Whoever doesn’t is near-sighted, even blind.  One remembers God’s love and lives it out.  The other forgets God’s love and doesn’t.  

Which do you want to be?  
Got Jesus?  
Get on with it :).

See you Sunday, 2nd Peter 1, 
   Pastor Mark

Message
Stand Firm in the Faith
1 Peter 4:12-5:13

1 Peter 5:8-9 says, “Be alert and of sober mind.  Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.  Resist him.  Stand firm in the faith.”  

We used to live a couple blocks from a zoo.  At night you could hear the lions roar.  What if one escaped and was roaming around the neighborhood?  What would you do?  I wouldn’t go down a dark alley alone.  I would travel with others (and make sure I could run faster than at least one other person).  I would take it seriously.  I’d shore up any vulnerabilities I would have, look out for loved ones, secure our home… 

Sounds like a spiritual conversation waiting to happen.  And it will, Lord willing, Sunday November 5th.  Don’t be square, be free to share, see you there,

Pastor Mark 

Message
OLH: Living for God
1 Peter 4:1-11

Sunday is Reformation Sunday, a day of celebrating the most important things: Salvation in Jesus by Grace alone, through Faith alone, in Jesus alone, standing on the Word of God alone, all for the Glory of God alone.  When Luther rediscovered the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and became vocal with his objections to the abuses of the day, a reformation movement began.  Are we in need of reformation today?  In what ways? If in doubt, watch the news.  If in denial, look around to your city and neighborhood.  And if still unsure, look within.  

Peter speaks much about re-formation in his letter.  We continue Sunday with 1 Peter 4:1-11.  When it comes to re-formation, Peter says, “Be alert, of sober mind, so that you may pray… and love each other deeply, serve others!”  He also says what not to do :).  

God is in the re-forming business and calls us to engage in re-formation, having the ‘same attitude as Jesus.  See you Sunday,
    Pastor Mark

Message
OLH: Suffering for Doing Good
1 Peter 3:8-22

I heard someone say the other day, “If this happens, I’m going to do such and such!” And what this person said they would do wasn’t something good, in fact, it was very bad.  I suppose that could be said another way, “This person did this to me, so I’m going to do such and such.”  

Peter says in 1st Peter 2 &3, that bad things happen to good people.  He says we may suffer for doing good.  So I guess we can expect this to happen from time to time.  It could be something someone does to us, or something bad that just comes to us because we live in a broken and sinful world.  All the while we are simply ‘doing good’ and trying to be good.  

Love your enemies?  Return evil with good?  That’s a radical call.

What are we to do, as followers of Jesus, when these things happen?  I recently reviewed the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7, and was stunned to find once again, the radical teachings of Jesus.  He says to ‘love our enemies’, to ‘turn the other cheek’, and to ‘do unto others as you would have them do to you’.  He doesn’t say, ‘do to others what they have done (bad) to you.’  

Peter says another radical thing in response to ‘suffering for doing good.’  He says, “Do not repay evil for evil, or insult for insult.  On the contrary, return evil with blessing.”  Wow.  He even says that ‘if you suffer for doing good, you are blessed.’  That’s a radical statement.  

How can this posture be maintained in a world of trouble and sin, insult and Injury, hatred and revenge?  ONLY in the power of God through Jesus Christ.  Looking forward to Sunday – Potluck Fellowship Meal, Communion, Worship, the Word Proclaimed, Engaged in Community, learning about Grace, Truth, Love, and Witness.  

Love your enemies?  Return evil with good?  That’s a radical call.  
    Pastor Mark

Message
OLH: Holy Living – A Secondary Mission Yielding to a Greater Mission (In Christ)
1 Peter 2:11-3:7

Brothers and Sisters in Christ, 

What does it look like to ‘die to one’s self and rise to new life’ in Jesus Christ as taught in Scripture?  What does it look like to live out Jesus Sermon on the Mount teaching, ‘do to others as you would have them do to you?’  How does it look to live out love as Jesus calls his followers to do in the Spirit of God, ‘no greater love has anyone than this, than to lay down their life for another?’  These are things of a ‘greater mission.’   

Sunday, we encounter a text in 1st Peter, echoed and amplified in other texts of Scripture as well, speaking to ‘submission’ in relationships.  What does that look like?  This conversation of ‘submission’ in relationships gets quickly into the weeds if we don’t step back and see the bigger mission of God for our relationships.  The word is used over 3 dozen times in Scripture to describe a host of different relationships: citizens and governing authorities, us and Jesus, slaves and masters, husbands and wives, one to another, for example. 

What is God’s greater mission?

I stumbled on a definition of submission that has been very helpful.  ‘Sub’ mission is ‘a secondary mission yielding to a greater mission.‘  Now that’s helpful.  When encountering the word submission in Scripture, and your tendency would be to turn up your nose at it, dismiss it, or be frustrated with it, ask first, “What is God’s greater mission?”  What would be a ‘secondary mission’ in the relationship being described, and how might that secondary mission yield to a greater mission of God’s within the context of the teaching?  

As Steven Curtis Chapman energetically sings as a refrain of one of his past popular songs, ‘I’m diving in, I’m going deep, in over my head I wanna be… the river’s deep, the river’s wide, the river’s water is alive… so sink or swim, I’m diving in.’  ‘Sub’ mission – like a submarine… going under, placing my secondary missions under God’s greater mission.  

We are diving in together, 1 Peter 2:11-3:7, see you Sunday,
  Pastor Mark

Message
OLH: Living Godly Lives in a Pagan Society
1 Peter 2:11-17

‘Cornerstone’, like ‘newborn babies crave pure spiritual milk’, being ‘built up into a spiritual house’, ‘all people are like grass’, ‘refined by fire’, ‘a holy nation, royal priesthood’.  Peter is giving us much to ponder with all of the images, word pictures, metaphors and comparisons.  

At the center of it all is identity in Christ, of being made holy and being called to holiness.  Where Peter goes next in describing what this looks like in everyday life, he goes where few dare to tread, he is a courageous man.  

He opens this new section addressing us as friends and then quickly calls us foreigners and exiles.  Calls us ‘to abstain from sinful desires, living good lives among the pagans.’  He follows this up with calling us to submit to every human authority, including emperors and governors, even as pagan authorities.

I would imagine this kind of instruction may ‘trigger’ some.  It certainly raises lots of questions for me.  On Sunday, in humility, we will open God’s word together.  One thing I love about Scripture is that when we come to a difficult text, it doesn’t stand alone.  It stands in context and in concert with all of Scripture.  Meaning, Scripture interprets Scripture.   In preparation, meditate and reflect on 1 Peter 2:11-17.   

See you Sunday,
   Pastor Mark  

Message
OLH: Come to Him the Living Stone (A chosen people)
1 Peter 2:4-10

Peter, the writer of 1st Peter, is passionate about Jesus.  He can’t help himself in telling the church in his letters all about him – who Jesus is, what Jesus has accomplished, what it means for us and a life well lived.

In our text this week, 1 Peter 2:4-10, Peter, whose name means ‘rock’, describes Jesus as the Living Stone, the Cornerstone, of a spiritual building on which we are being built.  On Jesus, our lives can be built.  Peter even calls us living stones.  

A cornerstone is the first stone in a masonry (brick/stone) foundation.  All other stones of the structure are built upon it, and are set in reference to this critical foundational stone.   In the Greek language, the word holds the meaning of holding the entire structure together.  Peter says that in Christ we are ‘living stones’ placed and set in reference to the ‘Living Stone – Cornerstone (Jesus)’ and we are building built into a ‘spiritual house’ so that we ‘be holy’ and ‘offer spiritual sacrifices to God.’   

What does this mean and how does this look?  Peter gives several outcomes for what this means and what this looks like in our lives.  One of interest to me for this Sunday is in reference to shame.  Peter quotes a verse from the Old Testament, “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a precious cornerstone (Jesus), and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”

“See, I lay a stone in Zion, a precious cornerstone (Jesus), and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”

Shame is a reality that exerts significant influence in our lives, whether aware of it or not.  We consciously or unconsciously subvert it, suppress it, bury it, ignore or obscure it.  Shame infects and affects our lives in deep and significant ways.  The reality of shame is as old as the Garden of Eden.  

Jesus, by way of the cross and an empty tomb gives us everything we need to overcome shame.  Power to wipe away shame – the cross of Jesus Christ.  Power to walk in holiness – the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Jesus is to be the cornerstone of our life and upon this foundation, we can build our life.  Peter quotes Isaiah 28:16 in his letter in reference to Jesus to bring this truth home to our lives.  

Looking to be free of shame?  Look no further than Jesus.  For in Jesus, we have everything we need, and then some, to not only be completely free of shame, but to live a life of holiness.  Can’t wait for Sunday, to see you, to meet with Jesus, to learn together what this all means for a life well lived.

Pastor Mark Quist