division – Mark Joseph Ministries

Regardless of whether you’re on the political left or right, or right down the middle as an independent, we can probably all agree that our country is facing challenging times. In talking to folks, although the above is the consensus, it’s typically followed up with:

“There’s nothing I can do” (or)
“What can I do about it?”

As indicated in previous posts, I’d suggest taking that question to prayer, like we should all things, asking God to speak into our challenges and our lives. That said, there are three things that all of us as Christians can and should do, assuming we want to make a positive impact on those around us and the broader society…yes our country.

Those three things are indicated in the:

Great Commandments – Mark 12: 30-31 or Matthew 22:37-39
1. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength”.
2. “The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Great Commission – Matthew 28:19-20
1. “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.

I heard a Priest once say that hardly anyone confesses sinning against the First Commandment, which is “I am the Lord your God: you shall not have strange Gods before me”. The fact is that in abiding by this Commandment, including how it is stated in the positive above (“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength”), the other 9 Commandments are much less an issue. I don’t say this because they’re not important. I say it because if we truly love God and do so before all else, the degree to which we sin is far less.

In abiding by the first part of the Great Commandments, we’re happier and healthier, helping those around us to be the same.

Many of us know the Golden Rule as “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. Jesus tells us this in Matthew 7:12. Stated in the positive, as Jesus expressed in the Great Commandments, we are to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. What kind of world would we live in if this were always first and foremost in our minds?

The Great Commission speaks to our call, not a mere suggestion by Jesus, to share the love of Christ, to share our faith with others. Jesus makes the point that He’ll be with us every step along the way.

So many in our society, as evidenced by the dramatic decline in practicing Christians (including Catholics), don’t know the love of Christ. Statistically we’ve gone from 75% claiming themselves as being Christian in the 80s and 90s to just 50% today.

What would happen if we could change the above trend? Think about it. Think about the impact it would have. In summary, love God, love others, and share our faith. What would our country look like if we all did a lot more of that?

The next time you think “there’s nothing I can do” (or) “what can I do about it?”, do the above. Again…Love God. Love others. Share our faith.

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

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

Remember….God made you for GREATNESS!!!

Mark Joseph

This April 25^th, the Feast Day of St. Mark, it will be three years since I began doing this weekly blog. I could be wrong, but I don’t think I’ve missed a week. Prior to launch, I did something like 20 blogs and had them in the “can” (my wife loves kidding me when I use that term). For the longest time now, I’ve been writing weekly. Each blog takes me 1-2 hours, followed by Mary Kate, my editor and designer, doing her thing prior to posting.

As you know, I often base the content on current events, then tying it back to our faith. Or I might write on a topic specific to my book or something on my heart based on what’s going on in my life.

Well, I started thinking about a topic for this blog mid-week, wrestled with some ideas this past Saturday, then spent 4 hours on Sunday…before scrapping what I had done.

I felt called to write about the Trump rally and events at the U.S. Capitol on January 6^th. I included commentary on CNN trying to get FOX News thrown off the air and Apple, Amazon, and Google shutting down Parler, one of the very few politically agnostic social media platforms, where they allow for free expression, without risk of being “deplatformed” or censored.

Lastly, I wrote a piece on an excellent book I just read, where Dr. Ralph Martin did an incredible job of laying out many challenges of our modern-day Church in, “A Church in Crisis: Pathways Forward”. I highly recommend it…you can get it at https://stpaulcenter.com/product/a-church-in-crisis-pathways-forward/. My plan was to tie all of the above to the concept of “truth”, in the secular world, then noting the required albeit not always achieved, leadership role of the Church.

Photo by Lisa Fotios from Pexels

Then it blew up on me. Sickened by the vitriol that exists on social media (I shut it down several weeks ago), from our politicians, and on the news (I watch much less than I used to), I couldn’t figure out how to address the real issues without offending some. And I guess that’s the point of this blog. We used to live in a country where there was a free exchange of ideas, where we debated the issues as opposed to attacking one another’s character. You may have heard, “hate the sin, not the sinner”.

The above doesn’t exist today. Instead, we have “cancel culture” and censorship. To be honest, I’m mad and I’m sad. I can’t believe we are the country we have become. Why are we so divided? I’ve been paying close attention to Presidential politics since Ronald Reagan and we’ve never seen anything like this. It all seems to center around Donald Trump.

I know why our political elite hate Donald Trump. He’s gotten in the way of their power and greed. He was disrupting the welfare (Democrat) and warfare (Republican) states. I just don’t understand why the hate by so many others. Even if you strongly disagree with all his policies, why all the tremendous hate? The absolute disgust…that has resulted in the most toxic of environments? I had a lot of hate in me at one time in my life. It’s not a healthy place to be.

Photo by cottonbro from Pexels

It’s been amazing and sad to watch. I don’t know how we’re going to recover. I do know this. My faith has never been more important to me. I’m committed to clinging to the Cross, the teachings of the Church and that in Holy Scripture. I’m going to double down on my prayer life, continuing to include those who disagree with me. I’m going to concentrate on living my faith the best I can, which means loving my wife and kids and all those who Jesus puts in my path.

I hope you’ll do what I just described above. Let’s all pray for our country and its leaders. They certainly need it.

As always, please feel free to 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!!!!
Always remember…you were made for GREATNESS!!!

Mark Joseph