In this episode, Pastor Mark talks vacation, keeping the Sabbath and the spiritual boost that he receives from communing with God’s creation.
Go to this link to hear the podcast: https://rss.com/podcasts/pastormarkchat/1100736/
Pastor Mark is a Christian Pastor, author, blogger, and sometimes background actor. He brings all of his years of life experience to ask spiritual questions about the ordinary events of life.
Monday Ministerial Musings
By Rev. Mark William Ennis
2023 Blog #35
September 4, 2023
Vacation Blogs 5 of 5
Sabbath Is For God’s Creation
This is my final vacation blog for this year. As you read this I will either be packing and closing my cabin down for the winter or will already be driving on my way back home. My Sabbath is ending and I will be returning to my duties serving the congregation that God has given me to pastor. One of the things that I will be missing upon my return is my communing with nature.
I certainly love the setting of the parsonage that the congregation supplies me to live in. It is a treasure. It sits on one of the largest plots of land in our town and has a wonderful tree line in back of the property. Beyond the tree line is an embankment with a brook at the bottom. Occasionally there are ducks swimming there and once I even saw a snapping turtle swimming upstream. I can’t complain a bit about the parsonage or the property and I certainly enjoy the natural setting of it. Yet, it isn’t the same as communing with nature at my cabin.
Every morning at the cabin I wake up to the sound of woodpeckers. Whenever I walk down to the lake I can see bass jumping. Every walk I take along the quiet roads I hear more birds than cars. Canoe rides are especially enjoyable. I like to paddle to a quiet end of the lake where there are few motorboats. There I sit and listen to the sound of the lake water hitting the rocks along the shore.
The sights are even better than the sounds. In the shallow water I can see the fish and turtles as well as the occasional frog. My canoe passes through lily pads and at one point I need to lower my head to avoid hitting it on a tree branch. The particular inlet beyond that branch is exceptionally quiet with few houses there and one can hear the lack of human noise and simply hear the serenity of God’s creation. Such quiet serenity in God’s created world is perhaps the greatest Sabbath blessing that I receive each year.
Most of us who live in populated areas are inundated with the sights of human construction and human noise. Once a year I am able to hear and see only God’s nature without the clutter and noise that we humans create. Such a place is the best location I know to simply be still and know that God is God and humans are not. It revives my soul to sit in the midst of God’s creation without human distractions.
Yes, I get a bit of this in the parsonage backyard but I get so much more of this in the middle of a lake with no human noises. Being still and feeling God restores my soul. I wish that this soul-revival could last forever. God, however, has other work for me to do and this work is far away from the lake and my canoe. Perhaps this is why God paved the way for me to buy this cabin. God knew that I needed a spiritual recharge every year so that I am able to do the ministry that I am called to do.
My Sabbath is over but the spiritual recharge that it has given me will endure during this coming year.
#ReformedChurchInAmerica #PastorMarkAuthor
#BergenCounty #BergenfieldNJ
#Vacation #Sabbath
#Leisure #SpiritualRefreshment
To read more of Pastor Mark’s writings, please look at his website:
In this episode, Pastor Mark talks vacation, keeping the Sabbath and our need for refreshment. No matter what is your way of refreshment, be sure to use it and periodically be refreshed.
Pastor Mark is a Christian Pastor, author, blogger, and sometimes background actor. He brings all of his years of life experience to ask spiritual questions about the ordinary events of life.
Go to this link to hear the podcast: https://rss.com/podcasts/pastormarkchat/1092417/
Monday Ministerial Musings
By Rev. Mark William Ennis
2023 Blog #34
August 21, 2023
Vacation Blogs 4 of 5
Sabbath Is For Refreshment
This is my fourth week of my Sabbath month and I am enjoying my sabbath even though I’m aware that soon the vacation will end and I’ll be back to my normal life. I love my vacations but wonder how long I really could enjoy such a life of leisure. I think I would get bored if I had such a quiet life for more than a month.
So, what have I been doing during this Sabbath? I have done some cabin renovations. I’ve been working on this renovation project for sixteen years. It was quite deplorable when I bought it. For the past few years I haven’t done massive projects as the price of lumber has increased. When prices diminish I’ll begin larger projects.
A lot of my time was catching up on the reading that I have been neglecting during the year. Reading is my refreshment. I helps me learn how and what others think, it gives me good and valuable knowledge and helps ground me. It has been my practice to read each and every day since I can remember. Even in college during finals week I would not go to sleep without reading a bit of a novel. Maybe I would have done better at finals if I had given up such reading, but maybe I would have done worse as my mind would have been less relaxed and ready to take exams.
This month I am now enjoying the wonderful gift of having the time to really read and delve into knowledge that I haven’t had up until now. I must give a shout out to Elder Bill from my congregation who gave me my latest addition to my book collection. It is the one hundredth anniversary history of National Geographic. It is a wonderful read and I feel energized after finishing each chapter.
What is my favorite activity on vacation? It is sitting in my porch swing with a good read in my hand. I am grateful for this opportunity. It is truly my Sabbath refreshment and rejuvenation. Yes, it will end soon, but I’ll face a new year refreshed and ready to serve when my down time is over.
Not everyone finds such recharging from reading. What is your way to refreshment? I hope that you take time the time you need for whatever works to refresh yourselves. If we neglect our time of leisure, we will never have the energy we need for our work.
#ReformedChurchInAmerica #PastorMarkAuthor
#BergenCounty #BergenfieldNJ
#Vacation #Sabbath
#Leisure #Refreshment
To read more of Pastor Mark’s writings, please look at his website:
In this episode, Pastor Mark talks vacation and keeping the Sabbath including hospitality to others, even those who are not family.
Pastor Mark is a Christian Pastor, author, blogger, and sometimes background actor. He brings all of his years of life experience to ask spiritual questions about the ordinary events of life.
Go to this link to hear the podcast: https://rss.com/podcasts/pastormarkchat/1083910/
Monday Ministerial Musings
By Rev. Mark William Ennis
2023 Blog #33
August 21, 2023
Vacation Blogs 3 of 5
Sabbath Is For Hospitality
This is my third week of my Sabbath month and I am feeling more relaxed than I have been since last summer when I enjoyed such a vacation. One of the most wonderful things that I have experienced, and given, is hospitality. Hospitality, whether given or received is something to celebrate on Sabbath.
Each week at First Reformed Church of Wynantskill, NY I am extended tremendous hospitality with fine food, good coffee and incredible conversation. It certainly helps that my wife grew up in this church and her father pastored there for twenty years. Nevertheless, the welcomes are warm and although I only see these people one month a year it feels like I see them every day. I began to wonder if I should extend hospitality to the extent that I receive it.
Next door to my lake house is a long-time resident of the lake community. He has had many difficulties in life including debt issues and some family estrangements. He feels lonely at times, and a bit remorseful and guilty over a few things from the past. He has a good heart and has helped me a number of times in August acclimating to life near the lake. In the past few years his health has declined and he is unable to continue with the part-time job that got him out of the house each day.
Several neighbors helped him get on the local Meals on Wheels so that nutrition would not be an issue for him. Several neighbors take turns bringing him food and chatting with him. He lives mostly in his chair and rarely gets out of it.
The neighbor who most often brings him food was going to be away a few days and asked me to bring the neighbor a plate of food after each dinner. It seemed to me that he might like some company so instead of bringing food to him I invited him to our dinner table and he gratefully accepted.
It was difficult helping him get up and get out. He needed a walker to walk up to the house and he took some time to get up our steps, into the house and be seated at the table. It certainly took effort to have him come but it was worth it. He sat at the table as he enjoyed eating in community instead of alone. Rather than listening to TV noise in the background, he heard the sounds of noisy children and their antics. He seemed to enjoy it as he remembered happier times with his family.
Entertaining my neighbor has become a regular event during this vacation. The fellowship seemed to do more good for him than the nutrition and socialization is always better than isolation. It also did me a lot of good. It allowed me the chance to be hospitable in return for all the times that I have received hospitality. There were times when he wasn’t feeling able to make the walk to our house and I missed him when he wasn’t there. He is always good company.
I do hope that when my vacation ends I will not forget this lesson in hospitality. If all of us as well as our faith communities showed good hospitality how much better and stronger would we all be? May hospitality be something that we all practice each and every day.
#ReformedChurchInAmerica #PastorMarkAuthor
#BergenCounty #BergenfieldNJ
#Vacation #Sabbath
#Hospitality #Relationships
To read more of Pastor Mark’s writings, please look at his website:
In this episode, Pastor Mark talks vacation and keeping the Sabbath that God requires of us and how keeping the Sabbath can be such a blessing to us and our Families.
Pastor Mark is a Christian Pastor, author, blogger, and sometimes background actor. He brings all of his years of life experience to ask spiritual questions about the ordinary events of life.
Go to this link to hear the podcast: https://rss.com/podcasts/pastormarkchat/1074932/
Sabbath Is For Family
Monday Ministerial Musings
By Rev. Mark William Ennis
2023 Blog #33
August 14, 2023
Vacation Blogs 2 of 5
Sabbath Is For Family
This is my second week of my Sabbath month and it is magnificent. I have put aside my work and am enjoying life in my cabin by the lake. Last week I wrote, and podcasted about taking time for God. This week I want to talk about taking time for family. My sabbath is about family also.
It has been fun to entertain my oldest Grandson this past week. We have enjoyed spending time together, going on trips, and doing bonding activities of many varieties. But my family time has been more than that. Last night I spent the evening with all three of my grandsons, their parents, and even my brother-in-law and sister-in-law. Needless to say, my small cabin was very crowded.
My kitchen table holds six people but there were twelve people gathered around the table for dinner. We brought in a second table and chairs from the backyard. The small cabin was bursting with people and the noise that comes from three young children. There was not a moment when things were quiet. Other people might view this as a problem or at least a nuisance. Not me. I view the noise and chaos as a blessing.
I want my grandchildren to be loud when they are enjoying themselves. I want the whole family to be crowded into a small place. What is the alternatives to these activities? Not having the family gathered in one place! Not having children enjoying life being kids and instead feeling uncomfortable during family gatherings! Would anyone wish that?
In our society, we find ourselves busy with work and activities, often at the expense of our relationships and families. Sabbath is a time to affirm and re-kindle these familial relationships. Such relationships require time spent with one another and there is no substitute for time. We are the people that we are because people older than ourselves formed relationships with us, taught us and mentored us. Now it is our turn to foster relationships with those family members younger than us.
Yes, it was work to set up our dinner. Yes, there was a lot of cleanup to do following the meal. Yes, the noise could be annoying at times. But we gave the family, especially the children, memories that will last for lifetimes. If good relations are formed within families, all the work and inconvenience is more than worth it.
Sabbath is for families do we neglect our families or take time to nurture relationships with family members. What a blessing it was to feed the crazy, noisy family members.
#ReformedChurchInAmerica #PastorMarkAuthor
#BergenCounty #BergenfieldNJ
#Vacation #Sabbath
#HonoringGod #Family
To read more of Pastor Mark’s writings, please look at his website:
Our daily devotional is a re-post with permission from Words Of Hope. Come view our website at www.clintonave.org.
Seeing the Invisible
Read: Hebrews 11:1-3
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. (v. 1)
Planting a garden is an act of hope. When I plant a seed in my garden, I don’t know if we’ll get heavy rain and the seed will be flooded away, or if we’ll have too much heat when the plant is young and it will be scorched, or if the weather will be just perfect for growth.
I also don’t know what will happen to me in the time it takes that seed to grow. I trust that I’ll be around to see it bear fruit. And yet I still plant the seeds. I trust that the rhythms that God breathed into life at creation will continue and that this tiny seed will produce new life.
Our faith in God is also an act of hope. We don’t see God face to face, but we see the evidence of his work in our midst. It’s obvious that everything in the world is not the way God intended it to be, but we can see the rhythms and designs of creation in the world around us.
We see brokenness, but we also see God’s care for us in the love of those around us. We may not see it, but we trust that God is working to reconcile everything back to himself (Col. 1:20). We believe this because God’s Word tells us it’s so. Faith is trusting that God’s Word is true and that God will keep his promises.
As you pray, ask God to help you have faith in him.
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