Turning The Page

Hey Guys,

I recently listened to the podcast: The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill.
For those of you that might not know, Mars Hill was a church planted by Mark Driscol in Seattle, Washington in 1996. Mars Hill went from a small church plant to running around 15,000 in attendance in around 15 campuses. The growth happened rapidly. They held an Easter service at Quest Field, home of the Seattle Seahawks. There were around 17,000 that attended that service.

Mark Driscol became a very well-known pastor due to his brash language and his charisma. By the end of 2014 Mars Hill had closed its doors. There was a very toxic culture in this church. There was pride, arrogance, and some downright dirty things happening behind the scenes that many attenders were not totally aware of. The leadership tolerated many character flaws by Mark Driscol because of his name and the astronomic growth at the church.

I don’t want to go into much detail but I will say that it was obvious that everything became about Mark Driscol and advancing his brand. What does that have to do with us? Well, I think pastors and church members need to be aware of the ditches on the side of the road.
There is a group of people that love the pastor so much they don’t pay attention to how he handles the text he is preaching. There is another group of people that do not like the pastor so much so that they don’t listen to anything he says, even though he is handling the text rightly.
As we turn the page on a New Day, a New Month, a New Year, let us think about who we are in Christ Jesus. Let us commit to Turn Through the Pages of Scripture every day. Let us conform to the image of Christ together. Let’s read God’s Word daily. Let’s open the Word together and let God speak to us through His Word proclaimed.

Let us repent of past sins. Let us give and receive forgiveness from others. Then, let us move forward together and not allow the past to determine our future.
Along with the increased motivation for change or growth brought by a new year, a reminder that Jesus offers—even insists on—is that we are a different creature once we have met and established our faith in him.

2 Corinthians 5:17
(NASB95)
17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

As we face a new year in front of us, we are offered the chance to start fresh.
“So great is the change the grace of God makes in the soul, that, as it follows, old things are passed away—old thoughts, old principles, and old practices, are passed away; and all these things must become new”
‌(Matthew Henry, commentary on 2 Corinthians 5, https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/mhc/2Cr/2Cr_005.cfm?a=1083017).

Don’t let what happened yesterday, last week, last month, last year, keep you living a life of defeat. A child of God has victory in Jesus. Satan will lie to you and tell you that you can’t be used by God because of your past. Satan doesn’t want you making a difference for God, ever. Don’t allow him to claim a victory in your life that Jesus has already won. A child of God has a new life in Christ Jesus, a new identity. Don’t let Satan convince you otherwise.

The ”New Year” is always an exciting time. We make “resolutions” about what we are going to do. Usually, those “resolutions” last a few days and we allow ourselves to drift back into whatever it was that we wanted to change. In Christ, each day is a new opportunity to be “resolved”.

Luke 9:23
23 And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.
 
Serving Him,


Bro. Joey