Tag: Overwhelming Pursuit

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The Unimaginable is Achievable

What’s been your experience with tragedy? Mine was pretty dramatic. I refer to it as the (3) 2X4’s that came across the back of my head. I lost my family as I knew it, I lost my business, and I lost a lot of money along the way. I was a control freak and I couldn’t hold it together anymore.

One March night in 2006, I literally fell to my knees, crying out. I had a life changing experience with our living God that is hard to describe without getting emotional. For the first time in my life, I felt the presence of God, the unconditional love of God, and didn’t feel alone. Having been surrounded by people my entire life, I finally felt like someone had my back. I learned the following lessons that evening and since:

  • The world’s promises have failed absolutely everyone, including me.
  • We’re not meant to go through life alone; God is the only answer for our lives.
  • In understanding and internalizing God’s unconditional love and forgiveness…
    • The unimaginable is achievable
    • There can be heaven here on earth
    • You can live a life of peace, joy, and fulfillment

The above story may sound crazy to you. But it’s true. Having been overwhelmed most of my life, it happened to me. And for the last 15 years, I’ve embraced my God given purpose and have been living a life of peace, joy, and fulfillment.

The above can happen for you too. It really can. It’s time to go big, to be all that God has called you to be. I invite you to attend this free webinar to see how you can accomplish the same things for your life. It starts here.

REGISTER NOW

As always, 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!!!

Remember: God made you for GREATNESS!!!

Mark Joseph

 

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Weekly Blog

Do You Ever Feel All Alone?

Have you ever felt like you’re running the race of life alone? You may be surrounded by lots of people every day. Or maybe you’re lucky enough to have several good friends. But still, you feel alone. You feel isolated, unable to turn to anyone who truly understands what you’re experiencing.

Yea, I hear you…because I’ve been there.

Not long ago, I read a study that indicated that 50% of adults complain of loneliness. Can you imagine the numbers for teens and young adults? Some observations. First, with social media, our smart devices, the internet, and other technology, while we’ve never been more connected, we’ve never been more isolated. Statistically speaking, people have fewer friends today than decades ago.

When things get challenging, we often are most isolated, doing it to ourselves. That was true for me. I was surrounded by all kinds of people, but felt all alone. I was an island unto myself, not sharing with anyone what was really going on. I remember after the fact, talking to an old buddy, explaining what occurred during my tragic times. He apologized for not being in touch, to which I responded that it probably wouldn’t have mattered in that I wasn’t really willing to communicate the real truth to anyone.

Sharing our true feelings, our challenges, our “secrets”, takes vulnerability, which leads to trust, the foundations to authentic relationship. You know…we’re not meant to go through life alone. We’re meant for community. We’re meant for relationship. With the exception of my wife, where that vulnerability and trust exist, the only place I’ve been able to find it is in my men’s group, where I get tother with the same 3 guys every week to learn more about our faith and grow in fellowship…sharing real life. I’d encourage you to find or start a small group. For ideas, visit https://steubenvilleconferences.com/discipleship-quads/.

There’s another way I’ve found authentic relationship. Can you guess who or what it is? Can you say JESUS? In John 15:15-16, Jesus tells us “I have called you friends…it was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you”.

Jesus wants to be your friend and is there for you. That may sound strange for some, but it’s true. It’s been true for me for the last 15 years. Fortunately, by God’s grace, I learned some critical things that allowed me to leave the loneliness, now being surrounded by the best people I ever have, including JESUS.

If you’d like to make the same transition in your life, I have a message for you today. It’s never too late to become the person God made you to be.  I invite you to attend this free webinar to see how you can accomplish the same things for your life. It starts here.

 

REGISTER NOW

 

As always, 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!!!

Remember: God made you for GREATNESS!!!

Mark Joseph

 

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Weekly Blog

There’s More to Life

How long have you known, in your heart and your gut, that there has to be more to life, that you were meant for bigger things? (BTW, the above applies to just about everyone regardless of whether they’re struggling, wildly successful, or somewhere in between.)

Yea, I hear you…because I’ve been there.

In reading my weekly posts, you know my story. I had some relative success, building a business from me and a part-time secretary to over 100 employees. From the outside, it looked like I was on top of the world. On the inside, I was struggling. My life was running me as opposed to me running my life. The question became, “why”. Why continue doing what I was doing? It wasn’t making me truly happy. Can you relate?

There’s an expression that may ring true to you, that is “you can never have too much of what you don’t need”. Regardless of what I had achieved, it wasn’t enough. And I’m not just talking about the material things. It was doing things too. I refer to them as the 4 Ps…prominence, possessions, pleasure, and people. I was at a place where nothing was going to fill that God sized hole in the center of my chest.

As the story of my life continues, during a particularly challenging time, absolute tragedy struck, which forced me to my knees. Emerging from that experience, I learned several lessons, not the least of which is that in understanding the unconditional love of Jesus Christ, the unimaginable is achievable.

The statement immediately above may be difficult to comprehend, or even believe. I’m here to tell you it’s true. I found that there’s a different, better way to live….a life of GREATNESS. Having found it for me, I want it for you too. In understanding my God given gifts and identifying my purpose, I’ve learned to live the life God designed for me, the only way of life that was ever going to provide me with peace, joy, and fulfillment.

It’s time to go big, to be all that God has called you to be. I invite you to attend this free webinar to see how you can accomplish the same things for your life. It starts here.

 

REGISTER NOW

 

As always, 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!!!

Remember: God made you for GREATNESS!!!

 

Mark Joseph

Categories
Weekly Blog

Why Bother with this Christianity Stuff?

Why Bother with this Christianity Stuff?

Why bother with Christianity? Or Catholicism? The things taught to us by the Church or are in Scripture? Why trouble ourselves? All the rules and regulations, the things you must do and can’t do. The things you have to give up, to sacrifice, to maybe go to Heaven…why bother?

It would appear that much of the world isn’t buying into Christianity. A quick internet search indicates that:

  • Roughly 31% of the world’s population is Christian, (2.3 of 7.3 billion people), meaning almost 70% is not

  • Islam comes in #2 at 23%.

In the United States, our numbers have been decreasing rapidly, especially upon entrance into the 21st century, where a recent Gallup poll found that church membership fell 20 percent in the past two decades. These numbers are pre-COVID. Further, 1/4 of American adults now say their faith is “none”…the ratio is 1/3 among those under 30. Although Christianity isn’t what it used to be in the US, it’s far worse in Europe and Canada, where many Churches are looked at more as museums.

We live in a post-Christian world. To be sure, secularism is dominating our society. While far fewer people are into their faith, many are hostile towards it. The question is “why”. What wasn’t working. What has changed?

Photo by taryn fry from Pexels

Although not new, there seems to be more of a hyper-focus on the things that will supposedly make us happy….none of them rooted in Christianity. I refer to them as the 4 Ps…prominence (including power), possessions (including wealth and money), pleasure, and people (using them, not authentic friendship). Many of us pursue these things on an endless cycle. I like the visual of the hamster on the wheel in a glass cage:

  • You can’t make the wheel go any faster

  • You’re not sure if anyone…

    • Sees you on the wheel

    • Is on the wheel with you

    • Will catch you if you fall off the wheel

  • You’re watching the world go by around you

  • You’re exhausted, deflated, and frustrated

  • You’re overwhelmed

Not only are we overwhelmed, but we’re not happy…not most of us. We’re chasing, chasing, chasing, looking for something, anything, to fill the God sized hole in the center of our chests.

So to revisit our initial question, “why bother with this Christianity stuff”? The answer is simple. Our Christian faith, our belief in Jesus, is the ONLY source of true and long-lasting happiness that any of us will ever experience.

Never wanting to violate my 600-word cap on these blogs, suffice to say that I don’t have the space here to lay it all out. That said, most of the world, including significantly increasing numbers of us in the United States, just doesn’t get it. As it says in Scripture, “Jesus is the way”. As it turns out, He’s the only way.

How do I know? I experienced it firsthand. I spent my early adult life, into my mid-40s, chasing the 4 Ps. I was on the hamster wheel…exhausted, deflated, and frustrated. Not only was I overwhelmed, but I most certainly wasn’t happy.

Then something happened. I found Jesus in my life. I came to understand and internalize His unconditional love and forgiveness, learning that as such:

  • The unimaginable is achievable

  • There can be Heaven here on earth

  • There is a specific path to Peace, Joy, and Fulfillment

The 4 Ps didn’t cut it for me and they won’t cut it for you. It’s Jesus and our Christian faith, which is the only way you’ll find the happiness (peace, joy, and fulfillment) that you’ve so desperately been seeking.

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

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

Mark Joseph