Tag: evangelize

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Why Share the Love of Christ?

In reading Scripture, the answer to the above is obvious. With all the things Jesus said while here on earth, two of the most impactful were the Great Commandments (Mark 12:29-31) and Great Commission, in summary…love God, love your neighbor, and share the Gospel message (love of Christ). I’d suggest that these weren’t mere suggestions from our Lord. He was specific.   

In the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20), Jesus said before ascending to Heaven, 19 “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, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”

Verse 20 gets less attention that 19. Jesus tells us, “behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age”. Related, it’s my lived experience that the only path to peace, joy, and fulfillment is to say “yes” to Jesus. It’s what Jesus promises us in verse 20. 

Saying “yes” to Jesus means being His Disciple, a part of which is making other Disciples. The question is “how” do we do this. My first suggestion is to not hit people over the head with our Bibles. Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care. We need to love them first, where they are, for who they are. 

We’ve all heard the merits of teaching a man to fish as opposed to feeding him a fish. Discipleship calls on us to teach others how to become teachers of teachers, i.e. Disciples making Disciples. To do so, we need to exercise humility: 

  • The discipleship relationship is not that of a doctor to a patient, teacher to a student, or even a Priest to a parishioner 
  • It is founded in a personal relationship with a brother or sister in Christ. 
  • The intent isn’t to mold versions of ourselves, but to help others be Disciples for Christ, to be like Jesus 

As St. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11:1, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ”. There are several elements to evangelizing:

  • Be prayerful – you can’t give away what you don’t have
  • Pray for those God puts in front of you
  • Build relationships with others – learn their stories so that you can share in a way that is relevant to them. 

Pope Paul VI stated, “Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses”. We’re called to share our faith, which means sharing our story. We do so by sharing…

  • Your life before you recognized Christ as a meaningful part of it
  • How you came to know Jesus Christ (your conversion)
  • Your life in Christ, including the challenges
  • Make the invitation to others to join you on the journey

We hear of Peter and the other fishermen dropping their nets. Others leave behind their former lives to follow Jesus, which is the most important decision a person can ever make. Our call is to follow Jesus consciously and intentionally with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength. Once made, that decision should drive everything in your life. Once made, you have the opportunity for peace, joy, and fulfillment. 

Remember, being a Disciple includes making Disciples. If interested in a model that is engaging, effective, and free of charge, go to https://steubenvilleconferences.com/discipleship-quads/, or contact me. I’d be happy to share with you. 

As always, please email me at [email protected] with questions, concerns, comments, 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

Serving Others Serves Us 

Not a surprise, we are called to serve others. We can point to numerous places in Scripture. A couple examples:

  • John 15:17, Jesus said, “This I command you; that you love one another”. 
  • Matthew 25:44, where it says, “Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to You?” Then He shall respond to them by saying: “Amen I say to you, whenever you did not do it to one of these least, neither did you do it to Me”.

We need to see Christ in all and be Christ to all. You’re hard pressed to meet anyone who serves those in need who doesn’t feel strongly that they’re being ministered to more than those they’re serving.  

I read once that if we decided to, that the United States in of itself, could solve for world hunger. I’ve been challenged on that in saying it during speaking engagements. I believe it to be true based on the source, but regardless, here’s the question.  What are we doing, you and I, to solve for hunger our in our neighborhoods?

The types of hunger could include: 

  • Physical
  • Financial
  • Emotional 
  • Spiritual

There are so many opportunities to serve. Did you know that more than 50% of those in nursing homes are never visited? That’s pre-COVID stat. What do you think it is now? Our mothers, fathers, siblings, and friends. So many people are broken. Our kids, our neighbors…people seeking the love of Christ, whether they know it or not. 

There are so many opportunities to show the love of Christ to others. We live in a culture that loves things and uses people. We are called to use things and love people. 

 

Seeing the Face of Christ in Others 

Just before COVID, I went on my first mission trip to Haiti. Being good friends with the President of Life Teen, an organization that serves close to 2,000 Parishes and their youth ministry programs, about 20 of us stayed at Life Teen’s mission base. 

I have trouble sleeping when I’m in my bed and in my house. I’m not an outdoorsman…never camped in my life. In Haiti, I was among 12 other guys, with netted beds to keep the mosquitoes off us. On a concrete floor, critters were scampering back and forth…not sure what they were.  

The cold showers were very cold. The food, although interesting and tasted ok most of the time, I ate little of because of the conditions I saw it being prepared in. 

We did work on the mission base and out in the community. I experienced poverty that I had never witnessed before. People live in deplorable conditions, with no electricity or running water. With no means of disposal, garbage was everywhere, and I mean everywhere. Everyplace we went, there was a stench that I never experienced before. Roads were almost unnavigable. No paving. Huge potholes every so many feet, and parts of roads washed away. 

My primary take-aways:

  • It’s incomprehensible that there’s so much poverty in our backyard…no more than 2-hour flight from the US
  • I’ve never seen so many people smile so much. The Haitian people, poorer than poor, living in huts, with no running water or electricity, are joy-filled people. It’s amazing. It’s incredible to see. 
  • I came home convicted that I needed to start serving those in need in some capacity. 

I’ve allowed COVID to get in the way. Given what I saw and given where I am on my faith journey, I need to do this…working with those in need. I have failed to date, which I’m not proud of. My wife and I have talked about it. We need to do it. Please pray for us. 

I hope in reading this you’ll consider doing the same….seeing Christ in others. 

As always, please email me at [email protected] with questions, concerns, comments, 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 Real Deal

During this series we’ve talked about the things that overwhelm us, and how many of those things are rooted in lies about who we are and where our true value lies. We’ve talked about our need to succeed and how it’s born out of our perception that we have to earn love. We’ve addressed lack of self-love and fear, tragedy and isolation, and the reality of our wounds and resentments. All of this helps us get a clearer picture of why our lives are the way they are, why peace, joy, and fulfillment evade us, and why we’re overwhelmed — but it still doesn’t provide the answer as to how we fix it.   

Most are seeking a better life, desiring to better understand their purpose, and just plain fed up with being fed up and overwhelmed. The world’s promises have all proved empty, but there’s another promise that never fails. It may sound simplistic, but it’s absolutely true: God is the only answer for our lives. God is the only thing that can fill up the hole in our hearts, the ultimate source of the unconditional love we desire. Most of us understand that love through conversion.  

My Conversion

My conversion was not something I anticipated. Nor did I volunteer for it. It was more like being hit across the back of the head with three 2x4s. I was at an all-time low. I had lost my marriage and my family as I knew it, something that I had not signed up for. My business, my pride and joy and my identity, was significantly down-sized. And I had lost a lot of money due to some very foolish decisions along the way. I was a control freak and had lost all control. I couldn’t hold it together anymore. My world was falling apart. The walls were caving in. 

I don’t know if you can relate to this, but the stress and the pressure literally forced me to my knees one night in March 2006. I couldn’t take it anymore, I broke. I fell to my knees at the side of my bed, sobbing. I couldn’t stop crying, I mean snot flying. I was a 43-year-old man and I was a mess. I remember saying over and over again, “I can’t do this alone anymore, I can’t do this alone anymore, I can’t do this alone anymore.” I only stopped due to pure exhaustion, still kneeling but now resting my head on the bed. 

I had never heard the audible voice of God, but I felt a real calm come over the room and a peace come over me. I felt Jesus Christ’s presence, a feeling unlike anything I had ever experienced before. And in my heart, I heard him say, “You’re not alone. I am here for you.” I heard it over and over again, like he was answering me in direct response. “You’re not alone. I am here for you . . . You’re not alone. I am here for you.” 

It’s difficult to truly express how I felt. That was the moment that I not only felt God’s real presence in my life for the first time, but I experienced his unconditional love. I realized I couldn’t do it alone, and I didn’t have to. He was and is there for me. A huge burden was lifted off me. I had encountered God, a God whom I could rely on, a God who loves me. I literally felt different. I was different, now knowing God’s love. 

My conversion rocked my world and changed my life forever. That’s my unique story. Yours’ will be just as impactful for you as mine has been for me. If you haven’t had this experience yet, do not give up. If I’ve learned nothing else, I know this for certain: God wants our conversion more than we do. 

The Invitation

God is constantly inviting us into a relationship with him. He uses everything that happens to us, the good and the bad. The trouble is, we’re so busy being overwhelmed that we often miss his invitation. God invites us to turn to him, to bring our hurts, fears, past experiences, our everything to him in truth. This is what we mean when we talk about “conversion.” It will change your life…it changed mine. 

If you’ve not experienced conversion yet and would like to, I point to ways to help the process in my book, as identified last week. Happy to shoot them to you’d if you like. 

As always, please email me at [email protected] with questions, comments, concerns, or prayer requests. 

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

Remember…God made you for Greatness!!!

Mark Joseph

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Weekly Blog

The Most Important Thing

We began this series the first week of the year, identifying that we’re all overwhelmed, with me indicating that sometimes we know it and sometimes we don’t. Over the next several weeks, I unpacked what it is that I believe contributes so dramatically to us being overwhelmed. It all begins with us growing up believing that we have to earn the love of other people (conditional love). The more or better we perform, the more love we perceive we receive. When we don’t perform well or to the satisfaction of others (not necessarily reality, but as perceived by us), we believe we aren’t liked, we aren’t loved. Think about it in your life. 

This conditional love causes us to lack self-love, which creates in us fear, which then prevents us from doing or trying what we’re truly called to, using our God given gifts, and meeting our full potential. Instead pursuing the things that society says will make us happy…prominence, possessions, pleasure, and people, we work tirelessly trying to earn the love of others and fill the God sized hole in the center of our chests. Overwhelmed, we feel like the hamster on the wheel in glass cage. 

Path to Peace, Joy, and Fulfillment

Over the next several weeks, we’re going to discuss the ONLY thing that can allow us to solve for the above. I’m going to detail for you the path that our Lord took me on, one of conversion, healing, and transformation…being the very best I can be, who He called me to be.  

As you’ll learn next week, it all begins with conversion, which is when we understand our identify in Christ, truly internalizing the unconditional love and forgiveness of God our Father.  This step is absolutely critical to your path to peace, joy, and fulfillment. Without it, you’ll never get there. 

Here’s an observation. Unless we know the love of Christ, little else matters. Over the last several years, I’ve come to say, if every Priest, and if we extend to the non-Catholic Christian world…every Pastor and Minister, gave every homily, sermon, and message, every Sunday for the next 5 years on the unconditional love of Christ, it just wouldn’t be enough…because we just don’t get it. 

Moreover, God made us for greatness, as identified in Scripture, i.e., Jeremiah 1:5 and 29:11. The problem…no one talks about it. How about this, which is absolute truth…

God loves you more than you’ll ever know, no matter what you’ve ever done. He made you with very special and unique gifts and talents, putting you on this earth for a specific purpose. God made you for Greatness!!! 

On page 71 of my book, I identify several ways you can help yourself towards conversion. If you don’t have a copy but would like the list, shoot me a note. 

As always, please feel free to contact me at [email protected], with questions, comments, concerns, or prayer requests. 

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

Remember…God made you for GREATNESS!!!

Mark Joseph