I’ve had cortisone injections in my knee on multiple occasions so I thought how could it be any worse to have injections in my thumbs. Boy was I wrong! As I learned, there is much more pain involved in injecting the smaller thumb joints than in injecting the larger knee joint. I wish I’d known that before so I could have been better prepared for what was to come.

This experience reminded me that when we face trials, pain, and difficulties, the things that we go through to work through those problems can sometimes be more painful than we expected, and at the time we are going through them it may even be more painful than what we are trying to change, fix, or do.

However, throughout scripture we have example after example of the fact that very often trials, difficulties, pain and hard work often precede a new work or blessing of the Lord, so rather than run from the pain, we can go through it with God’s grace, looking forward to all that He is doing and is going to do.

I’m hoping and praying that the pain I went through with the injections in my thumbs will result in significant relief after the medication takes effect, but we can know without a doubt that when we face trials, difficulties and pain that God will use it for our growth and our good. In James 1:2-4 we read:

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

What trial, difficulty or pain are you facing? Trust God to meet your needs, to see you through and to bring growth and good out of whatever you face.

                                       Trusting and Praising,

                                                   Mark

Years ago I bought a small chainsaw for removing tree limbs and large bushes. It has worked well but whenever I walked past it in the garage I always felt that it had greater potential, like cutting down a tree. The problem was I never had a tree to cut down, until recently.

Late last year it appeared that our flowering plum tree had died. It was a beautiful tree and I didn’t want to cut it down without going through this spring to see if it would bloom again. It didn’t so I knew what had to be done. It was a bitter sweet situation, I hated to lose the beauty of our tree, but since it was dead, I couldn’t wait to take my chainsaw to it. The job is now done and while I miss our tree, I don’t miss having a dead, barren tree out our kitchen window and how good it was to push my chainsaw to reach its full potential.

In the sports world they often talk about potential; for example, the potential of an athlete to reach a superior level of performance or the potential of a team to make a run for a championship. But the truth of the matter is, that like the potential of my chainsaw, all of the potential in the world makes no difference if steps are never taken to reach it.

As a church we have a long history of serving Jesus in our neighborhood and community, but Jesus isn’t through with us yet, and as His people, through His Spirit working in us, we have the potential to do new and even greater things than we’ve ever done before.

As we move through the pastoral transition process, seeking who God has as the next pastor for Medford Friends Church, please be praying for His clear leading and guidance. God has a plan and our potential as a church body will be fulfilled as we discern His plan and follow it.

                                           God’s Grace and Peace,

                                                           Mark

Since our 27 month old grandson Jack was a baby he has been riding with me in my pickup, which happens to have a large Oregon State University OS decal in the back window. When he was about 20 months old or so I was dressing Jack in a pair of Oregon State sweat pants and when he noticed the OS emblem on the pants he pointed to it and said “pickup.”

Jack has been wearing Oregon State gear since he was born but now he (and all the rest of us) calls all of his Oregon State gear his pickup clothes. He has pickup shirts, pickup pants, and even pickup rain boots and they are among his favorite clothes to wear. 

At a young age Jack made an identification that has changed the way he looks at his wardrobe and has helped make our lives easier as he is always willing to put on pickup clothes.

When we identify with Jesus it changes the way we look at ourselves and our lives. Regarding the way that he identified with Jesus, in Galatians 2:20 Paul wrote; “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Paul realized that by giving his life to Jesus and totally identifying with Him that he no longer lived for himself, but that he had died to himself and now lived for Jesus. With that identification and realization Paul put his own goals, dreams, desires and ambitions aside and lived to follow and serve Jesus, wherever Jesus called him to go and whatever Jesus called him to do. Paul’s total identification with Jesus meant that Jesus was able to work in and through his life so completely that it was as if Jesus Himself was doing the ministry. Which He was as He empowered Paul to serve Him.

With whom or what do you identify? Like Paul, can you say, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me?” What difference does or would this total identification with Jesus make in your life? 

Identifying with Jesus, as Paul did, is a continual process, the more we understand of ourselves the more we can give to Jesus as we grow in our understanding of Him. This month spend some time with Jesus growing in your identification with Him and see what He desires to do in and through your life as you follow and serve Him.

                                                                               God’s Grace and Peace,

                                                                                                         Mark

The National Football League was founded in 1920 and has a long history of change and innovation. Although many of those changes have come incrementally or quite slowly, 2014 saw the league making a couple of its more bold and risky moves. This year they changed the format of the Pro Bowl and for the first time ever, scheduled the Super Bowl in an outdoor stadium in a cold weather city. Time will tell if these changes will pay off or not, but you have to give the NFL credit for being willing to shake things up a bit.

In our spiritual lives it can be easy to become comfortable with the familiar, to get into a rut, to run on auto pilot. It’s not that being in a comfort zone is all bad, that being in a rut can’t still take us forward or that auto pilot isn’t a safe way to fly, in fact, the problem may be that all of those things are too safe and keep us from taking risks for Jesus and from experiencing new ways that He wants to work in and through our lives.

If you look up the word new in a concordance and read the verses listed it’s clear that God is into doing new things. He puts a new song in our mouths, He gives us a new heart and a new spirit, He has made a new covenant with us, He makes us a new creation, and ultimately, He will give us a new heaven and a new earth.

God likes to do new things for, in and among His people and as we move through the pastoral transition process, we should be prayerfully looking for, and even expecting, God to do a new thing among us. And as we seek God’s work and will in our individual lives, as well we should not be surprised that God is doing a new thing in us too.

As God works and moves to do new things among us may Psalm 149:1 be true of us, “Praise the Lord. Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise in the assembly of the saints.”  

                                                                            Trusting as God Leads,

                                                                                                  Mark