Category: Weekly Blog

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Weekly Blog

Big News…What a Gift

Starting in April, we’re going to have several free webinars that will be geared towards helping people with much that robs them of true peace, joy, and fulfillment. This will be followed by an online course that we’ll be offered on an incredibly affordable basis. Like with my books, anyone who can’t afford it, can have it for free. The important thing is getting the message out, as explained below.

Many of you know my story. An abbreviate version follows. For the longest time, I was on the hamster wheel of life…stressed, deflated, exhausted, frustrated…always chasing and incredibly overwhelmed. With what looked like relative success from the outside, I was crumbling on the inside. I wasn’t happy. I certainly wasn’t fulfilled.

Significant tragedy struck and I was literally forced to my knees. Crying out, I unexpectedly and for the first time in my life experienced the presence, unconditional love, and forgiveness of Jesus Christ. The experience launched me on an incredible journey that included much needed healing.

Given the lessons learned, including discovering my God given gifts, understanding the specific purpose for which I was put on this earth, and that God made me (all of us) for greatness, I became committed to determine what occurred in my life…including the things I suffered from and how I overcame them, all by God’s grace.

Now living a life of peace, joy, and fulfillment, I created a curriculum to help others. That’s my story. What will yours’ be?

How This is Different

To be sure, this is faith-based stuff. But different from most “religion classes” (this is nothing like the traditional religion class), the subject material is incredibly relevant to your life. Not just spiritual, historical, or theoretical…but relevant.

You see, I found a secret that practically no one talks about (in our faith or anywhere else). In short, when I discovered who God truly is, coupled with how He made me and how He feels about me, it rocked my world. It changed my life forever. The lessons I learned include:

  • The unimaginable is truly achievable
  • We can live Heaven here on earth
  • There is a path to peace, joy, and fulfillment

It probably sounds crazy to you, but all of the above is absolutely true. I’m proof of it for the last 15 years.

If you’re like most, you’re exhausted and frustrated. You’re overwhelmed.

Some feel there has to be more to life than the daily grind. And others just want peace in their lives. Here’s the truth:

  • You don’t have to be overwhelmed
  • There is more to life than what you’re currently living
  • You can have a life of peace…joy and fulfillment
  • You were made for GREATNESS!!!

In what I’ve put together, I don’t just speak the above words, but walk you through a process where you understand and internalize these principles for your life. Should you engage, it’s going to rock your world and change your life forever….like it did mine.

Although we’re not yet ready to have folks register, you can check things out at https://mark-joseph-ministries.mykajabi.com/.

As always, please contact me at Mark@MarkJosephMinistries.com with comments, questions, concerns, challenges, or prayer requests.

God Bless you on your Path to Peace, Joy, and Fulfillment!!!

Remember…God made you for GREATNESS!!!

 

Mark Joseph

 

 

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Weekly Blog

The Boiling Frog and the Church

A quick internet search dispels the myth of the boiling frog. Who knew? From Wikipedia, “the boiling frog” is a fable describing a frog being slowly boiled alive. The premise is that if a frog is put suddenly into boiling water, it will jump out, but if the frog is put in tepid water which is then brought to a boil slowly, it will not perceive the danger and will be cooked to death”. Tests indicate that the frog jumps out of the water as the temperature rises and it becomes uncomfortable.

The story is often used as a metaphor for the inability or unwillingness of people to react to or be aware of initiatives or threats that arise gradually”. I don’t know about you, but whether a fallacy or not, I feel like the boiling frog of late. Over the course of the last year, particularly related to COVID, but otherwise too, we have witnessed our government take more and more control over our lives, locally and nationally. While the actual health impact of the pandemic can be debated, what can’t be disputed are the changes we’ve been forced to endure, whether related to our:

  • Churches
  • Restaurants
  • Work
  • Schools
  • Stores
  • Gyms

And the list goes on. In the greatest and freest country in world history, under penalty of law (and shame), we are being forced to act a certain way. We continue to destroy lives and livelihoods.

Don’t get me wrong. My wife and I are taking COVID very seriously, following all the protocols, with it dramatically impacting our lives over the last 12 months. Related, many of us are familiar with Bill Murray’s Groundhog Day, where he lives the same day over and over. We were just commenting on us living Groundhog Week, with it being the same week after week after week. Thank God Spring is right around the corner.

It’s not politically controversial to note that the current administration is in favor of greater government control over our lives, given its stated agenda and actions. Our liberties are decreasing. We’re all the boiling frogs while the rich and powerful appear to be getting more rich and powerful.

So, what does the Church have to say about this. Chapter 2, Article 1 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church addresses The Person and Society. Two paragraphs make the primary points:

  • CCC 1881 – Each community is defined by its purpose and consequently obeys specific rules; but “the human person is and ought to be the principle, the subject and the end of all social institutions.
  • CCC 1883 – Socialization also presents dangers. Excessive intervention by the state can threaten personal freedom and initiative. The teaching of the Church has elaborated the principle of subsidiarity, according to which “a community of a higher order should not interfere in the internal life of a community of a lower order, i.e. family, depriving the latter of its functions, but rather should support it in case of need and help to coordinate its activity with the activities of the rest of society, always with a view to the common good.

I’d invite you to read the entire Chapter…find the Catechism on the internet with a quick search if you don’t have a copy.

So, as always, here’s the $64,000 question. What are we to do? Here are some ideas:

  1. Do your own research, identifying the issues. We can’t solve for something we don’t understand.
  2. Pray about it:
    1. What are we witnessing being done by our government versus the teachings of the Church?
    2. What is the Lord calling us to do, collectively and individually?
  3. Take action:
    1. Given your God given talents and treasures, how is our Lord asking you to spend some of your time?
    2. Love God, love others, share our faith

Point 3b speaks specifically to the Great Commandments and the Great Commission, spoken to us by Jesus. My sense is that if we as Christians spent more time on these three things (love God, love others, share our faith), the rest, including everything above, would take care of itself.

As always, please feel free to contact me at Mark@MarkJosephMinistries.com with questions, comments, concerns, challenges, or prayer requests.

God Bless you on your Path to Peace, Joy, and Fulfillment!!!

Remember…God made you for Greatness!!!

Mark Joseph

 

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Weekly Blog

Losing a Classmate

A couple weeks ago, I went to the funeral of a college classmate. Although I had not seen Midge, who died way too young, since graduating 35 years ago, I felt compelled to attend. Not a surprise, there I saw Mary Anne, Midge’s college roommate and lifelong best friend since grade school. My college roommate (Jim) and I had a connection with Midge and Mary Anne, in that we were all from Pittsburgh. We hadn’t known each other prior to college, nor did we see one another between semesters, but we had that common bond that connected us. Interesting how that happens.

Realizing that it’s 35 years ago and my memory isn’t what it used to be, I can’t remember ever seeing Midge separate from Mary Anne. They were inseparable….always together. And always, always SMILING AND LAUGHING. Reflecting on it, I can’t recall ever meeting two more joy filled people during that time in my life. What a great memory.

Fr. Tom, who was the Celebrant for Midge’s Funeral Mass, is Mary Anne’s brother, and as such has known Midge his entire life. During his homily/eulogy, he told stories of her life, always smiling and laughing, always bringing joy to other people. While he also used words like “love” and “courage”, he said his lasting memory of Midge would be “joy”. Independent of circumstance, she apparently never lost that joy during her 20-month battle with cancer.

Over the last 60 days, I lost two other friends who exuded pure joy. They are Fr. Jose Robles-Sanchez and Joy Rapp, two outstanding individuals I knew from our Steubenville Conference Ministry. Again, always smiling and like Midge, always concerned about the other person. Always bringing joy to others.

Being my age or younger, all three died way too young. If we believe what we say we believe (and I do), we know they’re in a much better place. Praise God!!! But what about us? What are we to do? What lessons do we take from losing such wonderful people…so young?

Here’s one of my lessons. We’ve all heard that love is a decision, not a feeling. In unpacking that, I think we can agree it is true. For me, I’d like to make joy a decision, not an emotion. Looking at Midge and Mary Anne, Fr. Jose and Joy as examples, I want to live in a place of joy, independent of substance or circumstance. I want to smile and laugh. I want to bring joy to others.

As evidenced on my website and the things I write about and speak on, I firmly believe that there is a Path to Peace, Joy, and Fulfillment. I also believe that God made each of us uniquely, with special gifts, for a specific purpose. God made you for Greatness!! It’s in using those gifts and pursuing your God given purpose that you can experience joy (along with peace and fulfillment). There’s one more important factor. To experience true joy, again independent of substance or circumstance, you need to know the unconditional love of Jesus Christ (if you want more info on that, please reach out to me). May we all be so blessed!!!

As always, please contact me at Mark@MarkJosephMinistries.com with questions, comments, concerns, challenges, or prayer requests.

God Bless you on your Path to Peace, Joy, and Fulfillment!!!

Remember…God made you for GREATNESS!!!

Mark Joseph

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Weekly Blog

Is Satan Real?

My wife (Cyndi) and I just watched the movie, Let Him Go, where Kevin Costner (George) and Diane Lane (Margaret) play parents to their son who dies in a horse accident. Their widowed daughter-in-law (Lorna) remarries to what turns out be an abusive husband. Prior to the new couple moving out of town without telling anyone, Margaret witnesses the abuse levied on her 3-yearold grandson (Jimmy) and her daughter-in-law.

Set in the early 1960s, the grandparents leave their Montana home for North Dakota to find their grandson. What they found was not only startling to them, but to the viewer (Cyndi and me included). Lorna’s new mother-in-law, Blanch, is an absolute “witch”. In fact, that word can’t begin to describe how evil this woman is. A more appropriate word would be Satan.

Blanch, incredibly controlling, had her grown sons under her spell, all complicit in her evil. Although dark, it’s a compelling movie, where good prevails over evil, where one sacrifices his life to save others, while stepping on the head of Satan. Sound familiar?

The next morning, I said to Cyndi in referencing the movie, “you know, there are truly evil people in this world”. It’s not difficult to identify them, i.e. ISIS fighters, numerous foreign dictators who oppress their people, even those in our country who commit violent and/or deviant crimes, especially to the young. As I’ve indicated in previous blogs, as Christians we believe that abortion is an intrinsic evil as well.

We can see Satan in the examples above. For those who don’t think about it, Satan is clearly active in our world. In last week’s post, I indicated that we are all beloved children of God. Although it can be difficult to understand, so are those who commit such atrocities. Given their free will, they’ve turned their back on God and choose evil instead. Related to heaven or hell, again God allows our free will to determine our ultimate destination.

Is Satan real to you?

Does your spirituality include consideration of the evil one? I never gave it much consideration prior to my conversion, but since there are times that I’ve felt under attack by Satan. And I certainly see the work of Satan in our world.

The above isn’t meant to scare you, but to identify the role of Satan in our lives. We know there is good and evil in our world. We also know that Jesus Christ was brutally crucified, enduring a torturous death, to conquer sin, to provide us with a path to salvation. He loves us that much. God the Father loves us that much, sacrificing His only begotten Son so that we can have the opportunity for eternal life.

Fear, anxiety, anger, violence, division, abuse (and many more) are the work of Satan. It’s only in knowing the unconditional love of Jesus Christ that:

  • The unimaginable is achievable
  • There can be Heaven here on earth
  • You can be on a distinct path to peace, joy, and fulfillment

As always, feel free to contact me at Mark@MarkJosephMinistries.com with questions, comments, concerns, challenges, or prayer requests.

God Bless you on your Path to Peace, Joy, and Fulfillment!!!

Remember…God made you for GREATNESS!!!

Mark Joseph