In this week’s episode Pastor Mark celebrates Rev. Sally Azar who was the first Palestinian Christian woman to be ordained in Old City Jerusalem. He also prays that this new event will be the beginning of positive changes toward peace in the Holy Land.
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.
Just a few weeks ago our news media were full of stories of an uprising of violence in Israel and Palestine. It was sad to read about the attacks, the killings and incarcerations between these half- brothers and half-sisters.
Even though I don’t believe that the violence will help the Palestinian cause, I can understand the rage of the Palestinians, especially those living in East Jerusalem. In East Jerusalem, Palestinians are forced to use license plates of a different color to distinguish them from their Israeli neighbors. They pay taxes but are not given the right to vote. In short, they are treated as second class citizens in a nation where they and their ancestors have lived for thousands of years. My guess is that any violent outbursts from Palestinians against the authorities of Israel or its citizens simply results in harsh reactions from the Israeli military.
In the midst of this turmoil, I heard some very good news from the Old City of Jerusalem. Rev. Sally Azar was ordained as the first Palestinian Christian Woman to be ordained in the Holy Land. Rev. Azar grew up as a Palestinian Christian in Jerusalem. She completed her theological studies at the Near East School of Theology in Beirut, Lebanon and was ordained on January 22, 2023. She is now an ordained minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan, the Holy Land and for all Christians in Palestine.
We in the Reformed Church in America ought to feel especially happy over this ordination. One of the most influential instructors in Rev. Azar’s education was one of our Reformed Church missionaries, Rev. Peter Ford. He and his wife, Betty, have been missionaries in the Middle-East since the 1980’s. By coincidence I was present in Rochester and saw his senior exams for ordination.
Now we see the fruit of his work in the ordination of Rev. Azar. There have been times when we wonder if our mission work and our financial contributions will ever bare fruit. I imagine that all of us have wondered if our faithful efforts are worth it. I haven’t seen Rev. Ford in forty years but I imagine even he wondered at times if he his efforts were in vain. Now we see the reward for his labors with this new “first” for this region.
I can only hope and pray that this is only one of new “firsts” for this region. Will other new things come? Will Israel grant full citizenship for Palestinians? Will new settlements in the occupied lands cease? Will Israel return the occupied lands to Palestine? Will Israelis and Palestinians learn to respect and love each other as the half-siblings that they are? With this new event in Old Jerusalem, one can only hope that this is only the beginning of better things.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. (v. 17)
About one billion Valentine’s Day cards are exchanged each year worldwide. That’s a lot of cards expressing love and devotion! God sent the ultimate Valentine’s Day card to all of us by sending his Son, Jesus the Christ, to die for us and rise again, so we can be in a loving relationship to God.
You have probably figured out that maintaining a loving relationship with someone is not always easy. We mess up. We hold grudges. Our pride gets in the way. And when we do something to hurt our loved ones, someone needs to take the first step in reconciliation. And then, to make the relationship grow healthy and strong, both parties must respond to each other’s love.
God desires to have the most intimate, loving relationship with us. He does not mess up, but we do. A lot! And because God passionately wants us to be his, he has taken the first step in reconciliation. He has forgiven us. The innocent, perfect Son of God took on all our offenses, forever making restitution and clearing away all our guilt. Proverbs 16:6 states, “By steadfast love and faithfulness iniquity is atoned for.” God has sent us the most fervent Valentine’s Day card we will ever receive and wants us to respond with our own love and devotion to be his. —Donna Harold
As you pray, respond to God’s Valentine’s Day card by devoting your steadfast love to him.
In this week’s episode Pastor Mark talks the tragedy of the earthquake in turkey and Syria how you can contribute to relief efforts.
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.
My life is not perfect but compared to how most people live in the world I have a pretty privileged life. Whenever I find myself complaining over stupid things I look at the news from the world. I usually see reports on people suffering in ways that I have never experienced, nor do I want to ever experience.
Last week I did not have to seek out the news. The news found me. My social media and news alerts all sent me notices of the massive earthquake that struck the nation of Turkey. The first reports I read told me that there were 2,000 people died in the quake. The early reports I read did not reveal how many people were injured or left homeless.
As later reports came out I learned that 25,000 people died in the quake. In addition, 80,000 people have been injured and 2 million are now homeless refugees. These numbers can overwhelm any nation. Turkey has been overwhelmed and refugee camps are struggling to shelter and feed the massive amount of refugees.
To put this in context, the town of Bergenfield is 28,000, just a bit more than the amount of the deceased in Turkey. The total population of Bergen and Hudson counties is about 1.5 million people. The amount of Turkish refugees exceeds the population of our county and the county to our south. Can you image these two counties needing to evacuate and needing to be housed in tents? Is there any doubt why the Turks are overwhelmed trying to care for the living and burying the dead?
And so it is that I, as someone who lives in peace and prosperity, feels obligated to contribute to our Reformed Church in America Fund in order to fund these refugee camps and to help alleviate the suffering. I will be praying for these refuges, those who have been injured and those who are morning these deaths, but that is not enough. I need to “put my money where my mouth is.” This weekend I made a contribution to relief in Turkey. I ask that anyone who is reading this blog to also contribute.
It is easy to contribute. Simply click on the following weblink to make your contribution:
In this week’s episode Pastor Mark talks about how finite our lives are and the need to do go today and not put it off for tomorrow.
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.
A few weeks ago my car reached a milestone. She reached 100,000 miles. Of course, I photographed the event when she moved her odometer from 99,999 miles to this new mileage total of 100,000. Few people photograph the ordinary as much as I do but I take pleasure in doing it.
Nothing happened when the odometer changed to this number. There was no trumpet fanfare. No balloons or confetti fell from the roof of the car. My car, “Irma,” did not even seem to notice. She just kept driving along as if nothing ever happened and ultimately got me to my destination.
My grandmother always told me on each of her birthdays, “age is just a number.” I guess for a car, mileage is “just a number.”
Shortly after “Irma” turned 100,000 miles, my grandson Zechariah had a birthday, Pam had a birthday, then my daughter Leah had a birthday and I followed a day later. Another Grandson, Sammy, will have a birthday in a few weeks. After each birthday I did not see any changes in those who celebrated birthdays. They acted the same and looked the same. They went to the same schools or the same places of employment. Nothing visible changed from these age-markers so why do we mark them with celebrations?
I wonder if we mark them for the same reason that we count innings in baseball or that there are timers at other sporting events. Often a team that is behind in a sporting match will see that time is running out and be spurred on to try a bit harder. I even know people outside the world of sports who do not work well without a firm deadline.
Do birthdays serve as reminder that our days/years/miles on earth are finite? We have but a short period of time to do all of our good that we will do in our lives. Let us not waste our time. If there is good to be done, let us do it now. If there is peace to create, today is the day. If there is a blessing to give, there is no time like the present. In doing Jesus’ work, today is the day, not tomorrow.
There is a great deal of work for us to do. Let us do it now. We are finite.
In this week’s episode Pastor Mark talks about Elvis impersonators and challenges all of us to imitate Jesus.
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.
Last Friday I had the privilege of attending a show at the Englewood PAC. I have been there before and have never been disappointed by their performances. This show was of two Elvis impersonators and seemed somehow timely since Elvis’ daughter died so recently. One impersonator played the younger Elvis while the other played the older one. The outfits were different and the music was different. There was two distinct performances but each was good.
I have always had a heart for good impersonation. When I was young I enjoyed the satire of David Frey and Rich Little. Of course, at every stage of my education there were people who could mimic teachers and be very popular because of their abilities. These performances were not meant to be flattering to those who were being imitated, unlike the Elvis performance which had the aim of honoring Elvis and paying tribute to his life and music.
Rich Little is still doing comedy but David Frey died about a year ago. Of course, Elvis has been dead for decades. I wish that we still had him with us. I suppose that in one sense we do have him. We have his music, we have videos of his performances. we have those who strive to imitate him to give us the feeling that we had the privlige of attending an Elvis concert.
During the performance it seemed obvious that these two performers, really loved and respected Elvis. For them their performances almost seemed like labors of love. I was once told that imitation is the best form of flattery. I guess that this shows the admiration that these two had for Elvis.
Whom do we imitate? Whom do we love enough to model our lives after? I do hope that we all accept the challenge to imitate Jesus the risen Lord. For some of us this is an obligation. Those of us who call ourselves “Christian” have a special obligation to imitate Jesus. If we love him we must imitate him. This is a vow that we took when we chose to be part of his church.
People who are not Christian still might be moved to imitate Jesus. Even if they do not believe that he is divine or the savior of the world, they might think that he is a teacher who is worthy of being imitated.
Are we willing to imitate Jesus? Are we willing to be positive change agents in the world? Are we willing to pray for people who claim to be our enemies? Are we willing to bless those who curse us? Are we willing to seek reconciliation with those who have hurt us or those who we believe have hurt us?
We celebrate those who imitate Elvis. Perhaps we can make the world a better place by imitating Jesus. The world will be a better place when we all imitate Jesus. We will never do it perfectly, but the world will be better because we tried.
May we all strive to make our lives imitate Jesus.
In this week’s episode Pastor Mark talks about long-term friendships and an unexpected reunion that he had this past weekend.
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.
Pastor Mark Author 