A few random thoughts from a week in the life of EBC:

Yesterday, I was sitting in a room with a couple and their three children who are giving their lives for the Kingdom in Brazil in the Amazon basin. Aaron sat in the front of our worship room and he wept for the sake of the gospel and the people that he deeply loves in NW Brazil. I love his heart. I love that God is inviting us to strategically partner in this area of the world. I am really thinking that this partnership is bigger than us. I am highly confident that it is not bigger than our God!

Walking through Colossians is incredible. Attempting to recognize the gravity and worth given for me is absolutely awesome. God has provided me with a glorious rescue. Yeah, it’s good to be free. As we talked about Lazarus, it is truly joy-filled to be called out of death. But, in Christ, it’s even better than that… Christ doesn’t just invite me to step out of death, but He brings me more and more and more alive. Christ invites me to remove my grave clothes and to run free in Him. I am continuing to allow the unfathomable work of the cross settle into my life, my heart, my minutes, my days. Daily, I have the thrill of tasting more of life and more of Christ. What a gift. Grace amazing!

As I type, I’m on the road to ATL to hang out with our family ministry team. Over the next few days, we will think “Orange.’ We will think about merging the family (red = heart) and the church (yellow = the flame), which creates a beautiful orange. We long to paint our families orange… our kids orange… our church orange as we leave greatest impact for God’s great glory. It will be a fun week.

This past weekend, I had the chance to sit in a room with a bunch of folks thinking about spiritual formation. It was so stinkin’ good to consider how to make much room for Christ to be Himself. This ‘roundtable’ was in Tallahassee and I had the chance to facilitate with a group of people from all kinds of places, with one commonality – elevating Christ. What a great discussion. Beyond that, I sat at Dick Howser stadium with my 6 year old son and watched the ‘Noles play Miami. Sadly, UM won but I still felt like I really won by getting to hang out with an amazing little dude who happens to be my son!

Hey, I love you guys and I love sharing this huge God journey with you. I am amazed by what God is doing in our fellowship. May he be free to be Himself in the life of our church.

By Grace… For Glory,
Mark

Prayer releases the Christ-life. I love prayer. I love the joy of entering a conversation with the creator of the universe. I love knowing that we step, with confidence and boldness, directly into the presence of God via prayer by the grace of Christ. So, we've asked our fellowship to engage in a highly intentional prayer for one another.

For the next month, choose two or three people and pray Colossians 1.9 - 14 over and into their lives. Jot them a note.... drop a text.... an e mail.... post on MySpace or Facebook.... give them a call. Simply take a few moments, over the next month, to let the few that you are praying for know specifically what you are praying for them. Use Colossians 1 as a great guide. This could be fun and profound! Prayer gives birth to the ridiculous!

This past weekend was crazy beautiful. For those of us who ventured through all 3 services, we had the thrill of watching 15 baptized as followers of Christ. Life change.... immersion in Christ. Baptism is such a beautiful and symbolic moment. The reality and truth that we are fully covered by the grace of Christ and we will never escape His presence is awesome. Watching someone explode from the water with the trust dripping from them that anyone in Christ is a new creation. Old is gone. All things are new.

It was a great day around EBC. I love Christ. I love His rescue. I love being in worship with a whole slew of people who revel in our rescue. I am praying that God will continue to awaken us to His presence and His holiness and His power and His life. As we awaken, may we be used to awaken others to the wonder of our God.

Enjoy today.

By Grace... For Glory,

Mark

What a great week around Emmanuel. I love receiving e mails and hearing about God at work in the lives of families. I love knowing that our families are experiencing the Word together and the Word is SO alive and it is shaping and changing families.

You should meet Hailey... She is so stinkin' cute and her mom sent me the greatest e mail about her. The fam is memorizing Colossians together, and Hailey was stepping up to the plate on the first two verses. Here is the e-mail that I received: wanted to share a conversation from our dinner table. Hailey, our 5 year old, was quoting Colossians 1:1-2. I, Paul, am writing this letter. I am an opossum of Jesus just like God said. Our brother Timothy helps me write. We are sending this letter to our brothers and sisters in Orlando. At which point I said, “he’s writing to a church in Colosse. That’s why it’s called “Colossians”. Hailey said, “I know but I like Orlando. That’s where Disney World is and where Miss Danielle lives! You belong to Christ : ) This ranks as one of my favorite e mails of all time!

What a thrill to celebrate 6 people baptized as a symbol of their abandon and immersion in the Christ-life. I love LOVE baptism! We will celebrate this weekend with another dozen or so people being baptized. I love life-change and Christ and His radical revolution of our lives! I love the image and truth of the baptism celebration.

From the teaching Sunday, I am not surprised that I am decaying. (2 Cor 4.16) My hair grows in places its not supposed to and doesn't grow where needed.... my knees hurt... my daughter thinks that I'm too 'gray'.... my hands are wrinkly....... On a more serious note, as I make my way through this journey called life, it is so painfully clear to me that our outer bodies are decaying. I am disturbed by the decay of sickness and poverty and struggle and disease and pain and death. I love that there is an inner part of me that is being renewed every day and that will never stop growing and becoming and changing and, ultimately, being revolutionized by Christ in me! As I decay on the outside, I have the thrill of knowing that my inner core is exploding with more of Christ and more of life and more passion and purpose. I will never stop growing in my core. That is beautiful!

I am praying that we are a group of people who are well known for sharing an interior beauty. Our outside is such a small portion of our story, because our inner core is becoming more and more like Christ and that there is this sense of awe by the love and hope and passion that emanates in and through us. I love and long to be a part of a movement like that. May we invest more time on the strength of our inner core than we do on maintaining that which is decaying.

I hope that you guys have a massively great week. Enjoy Christ.

By Grace... For Glory,

Mark

It was good to be away last week. It's good to return home. I love driving back on Hwy 90 at Midnight last Friday and rolling up on the EBC sign. As I pulled into the city, I had such a rush of thanksgiving and love for what God is up to in our little hamlet. A few amazing things happened this past week while I was away.



- a new friend of mind, who has recently embraced Christ, is on day 5 of addiction recovery. She was so pumped to tell me about her steps during Weekend Encounter. Yeah, I love that Christ is an amazing redeemer.

- I love listening to worship back at home as I ventured away for the weekend. Our students are simply amazing and leading us in worship. It is beautiful for me as I am led to the cross by the generation behind me. I thank God for Doug Whitaker. He challenged our fellowship from the Word and left me with the desire to experience Christ. (and also to eat a bit of cheesecake!) We have an incredible staff team at EBC. Simply amazing!

- a team of 15 went to New Orleans and changed a home.... a life... restoration happened. It was beautiful! We partnered with Operation Noah (www.namb.net/noah) and I expect that we will partner quite a bit more. Check out our team.... they changed a bit of the world last week!

I'm still a bit challenged by the idea that I am biblically compelled to live a life that is congruent with the worth given for me. I have no idea how to pull that off. I love that Jesus will strengthen me and fill me and live through me. I find it a weighty responsibility to live worthy of this amazing gospel. The running passion of my heart is to hear the words of Christ, as I enter eternal glory, 'well done, you have been good and you have been faithful with all that I gave you.' Those words, flowing from the lips of Christ to me, are consuming and hope-filled!

I hope that your week is filled with the desire to pursue Christ... to know Christ.... to experience Christ...and to spill His life onto the lives of those around you.

By Grace... For Glory,
Mark