Tag: Christ

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Weekly Blog

Who Do You Rely On?

Who do you rely on? Think about that. Who do you need to rely on? The individuals. The institutions or organizations. What would you do if those who you need weren’t there? What would be the impact on your life?

For kids, the obvious answer is their parents. From toddler to young adult, kids rely on Mom and Dad (unfortunately many only have one). As adults, we rely on one another. For those of us married, your spouse is your partner in life. Your young adult children are often still reliant on you, maybe emotionally, sometimes even financially. The elderly rely on others, including family, for their health and wellbeing. Friends need friends. We need one another.

It goes beyond family and friends. Have you ever considered what and who it takes to get food on your table, supplies to your house, or clothes on your body? The supply chain extends from the raw materials, including our farmers, to manufacturing, distribution, transportation, etc. Add to the above our reliance on government, our employers, institutions, organizations, and more.

All of the above is critically important. We couldn’t survive without others. And although I don’t want to minimize our physical needs, here’s the thing…when it comes down to it, who do you rely on more than anyone else? If you’re like most, it’s those who love you the most…that’s who you rely on. So, the question becomes “who loves you the most”? To many of us, the answer is clear…JESUS CHRIST.

God our Father and Jesus Christ, His Son, love us more than we’ll ever know, no matter what we’ve ever done. That love is so great that God gave us His only begotten Son. That love is so strong, that Jesus Christ subjected Himself to His tortuous passion, ending in His execution by painful Crucifixion.

Here’s a visual for you. While Jesus hung on the Cross, every single face in human history…past, present, and future, flashed in front of His, where Jesus met each of us, the sinners He died for, eye to eye. If any one of us were the last person on earth, He would still have died that same tortuous death on the Cross…just for you. There is no greater love.

Here in Holy Week, as we enter the Triduum (from the evening of Holy Thursday to the evening of Easter Sunday), I’d suggest that more than anything or anyone, we need to rely on Jesus. There’s a lot to that…too much to discuss here in the 600 words I allow myself. That said, I can direct you to where it all begins, that is in understanding and internalizing the unconditional love of Jesus Christ. There’s no better time to do that than during Holy Week. Here are some suggestions:

  • Watch The Passion of the Christ, produced by Mel Gibson, with Jim Caviezel as Jesus
  • Read about Jesus’ Passion in one of the Gospels:
    • Matthew 26:30–27:66
    • Mark 14:26–15:47
    • Luke 22:39–23:56
    • John 18:1–19:42
  • Read the Parable of the Prodigal Son, Luke 15:11-32

I’d suggest doing each, maybe during different days of the Triduum…taking each to prayer. Here’s where my journey has brought me. In understanding the unconditional love of Jesus Christ, I now know that the unimaginable achievable, we can live Heaven here on earth, and there is a distinct path to peace, joy, and fulfillment. Who wouldn’t want to rely on that? Or He who gives us that?

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

My prayer is that you truly feel the love of Christ during this Holy Week!!! Happy Easter!!!

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

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 Gift of an All Knowing, Ever Present Mentor

If a parent, maybe you can identify with the following. It has been humbling for me to see our three kids, all of whom are now married, go to their spouses for advice instead of me and my wife. I assume I did the same when I newly married. That said, it’s interesting. With all due respect to our two sons-in-law and our daughter-in-law, each of whom we like a great deal, they don’t have our same life experiences.

As interesting is watching our kids as they matured, making the same mistakes we did when we were their age. Again, not unlike us in our youth, they didn’t go to those in the know. If like me, you’ve probably said to yourself or them, “I wish you would have asked me about that”. It’s just part of human nature…to not learn the lesson without making the mistake.

Here are some questions for us to ponder:

  1. How would you feel if you had someone in your life who knew you better than anyone else; knew your strengths and weaknesses, your likes and dislikes; what it is you were designed for, your life’s calling?
  2. What if that person were always there for you, always present and never letting you down; constantly there to pick you up no matter how many times you fell down, always helping you course correct and prepare for the future?
  3. What if that person loved you so much that his or her ultimate goal was your happiness, your peace, joy, and fulfillment?
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a mentor like the above? Given my first 57 years, with hindsight what it is, I could have saved myself many, many challenges. Assuming I had the maturity and humility to listen, having an all-knowing, ever-present, all loving-mentor would have been a game changer.

I have some good news and some bad news. Let’s do the bad first. There is no one on this earth, for the history of humanity, who has been capable of 1-3 above. With best efforts and really great people in many of our lives, the above is just an impossibility. Blame it on the human condition.

Here’s the very good news. What is described above in 1-3 does exist in the Person of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

  • As evidenced by His torturous death on the Cross, He loves you unconditionally, wanting the very best for you.
  • It’s scriptural (Jeremiah 1:5 and 29:11, John 10:10) that God His Father, made you for greatness, knowing intimately your every gift and talent.
  • Through His Holy Spirit, He’s always with you…always.

There’s an expression in the recovery program (AA), that I believe can serve all of us, no matter who we are or what our experiences. That is, “let go and let God”. How do we know our Heavenly Mentor….by being in relationship with Him and abiding by His Will. We do that through prayer and the Sacraments (if Catholic), through encounter and community.

Doing the above, which is a function of embracing God’s unconditional love, will result in for you:

  • The unimaginable being achievable
  • Living Heaven here on earth
  • Experiencing true Peace, Joy, and Fulfillment

As always, please reach out to me at Mark@MarkJosephMinistires.com, with questions, comments, concerns, challenges and/or prayer requests.

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

Mark Joseph

Categories
Weekly Blog

The Scripture Verse Women Like the Least

I’m sure most women know it before I even identify it….Ephesians 5:22, “wives should be subordinate to their husbands”. Currently doing the “Bible in a Year”, I read and pray through several verses every day. Today was this one, surrounded by several others, which really put it into context.

As I’ve indicated on several occasions, I’m not a Scripture scholar nor theologian. So, although I’m sure that there is biblical rationale to the above verse, I’m not arguing that here, but making a broader point. Ephesians 5:21 precedes verse 22, stating “be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ.” Here St. Paul indicates that husbands and wives need to rely on one another, as peers and partners.

Please stick with me here. I’m making some points, but need to site some more Scripture to do so.

My favorite verse from Ephesians is 5:25, “husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and handed himself over for her”. Here’s the thing…Jesus was crucified on the Cross, the most torturous death he could have experienced, for the Church, for us. St. Paul is saying that a husband must be willing to die for his bride. I don’t know about you, but I think it’s pretty special when anyone is willing to die for me. Most husbands I know, as protectors and providers, are literally willing to die for their wives and their children. I know it was true of my Dad and it’s true of me.

Ephesians 30-33 read, “…because we are members of his body”. For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak in reference to Christ and the church. In any case, each one of you should love his wife as himself, and the wife should respect her husband.

Photo by Asad Photo Maldives from Pexels

To me, the above means that we’re a team…wives and husbands. One flesh, inseparable, unlike any other relationship that exists, incredibly unique and very special. As husband and wife, we are always to be there for one another, loving and supporting each other.

With the divorce rate today, no different among Catholics and other Christians as compared to others, we don’t live this truth. I was guilty of this, having been divorced from my first wife. Fortunate to receive an annulment and now married to my best friend for the past 11 years, here’s the big difference. We don’t see divorce as an option. Like any couple, we have our issues. Everything isn’t perfect…just ask my wife. But there’s no “out”. Understanding what St. Paul states above, trying to live it, actively pursuing our faith together and being blessed by God’s grace, we know we’ll survive…and most of the time we thrive.

My wife is my #1 priority. Like our parents before us, we do everything together. We joke that “we’re all we got”. Although we have others in our lives, our Mothers, our kids, other family and friends, there’s a certain reality to that statement. Whether here in Pittsburgh or Nevada and Arizona, where we love spending time, we’re all we need, knowing each other’s love and knowing the love of Christ.

Society is built on the family. Strong families are a result of solid marriages. Although we may not agree with every word of every verse, I think we can take some lessons from St. Paul in Ephesians 5:21-33.

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

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

Mark Joseph