Rev. Mark Marxhausen

The 8th chapter of Luke is packed with some of the most powerful adventures with Jesus. First, Jesus tells the disciples, He wants to go to the other side of the lake. After departing for the other side, Jesus decides to take a nap. While sailing (evidently there were no motors allowed on this lake), a powerful storm pops up and the boat starts sinking. The disciples panic, wake Jesus up, to which He stands...

There are times when I’m reading the Word of God that some of the strangest things jump right off the page and hit me right between the eyes. I have to stop reading and let my imagination go on a bit of a road trip for a moment, if you know what I mean. I believe it’s the beauty of each of us and how God has created us and who we are, that the...

Forgive me my trespasses as I forgive those who trespass against me. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.

But if you tell me to, I will let the nets down.

Have you ever thought of what it would have been like to be the parents of Jesus?

Have you ever noticed, as soon as you start praying, and you really know God is answering your request, that’s when you start asking the questions?

Though our family didn’t live on a farm, I worked on a farm as a kid growing up. It was the only job available in the little town I grew up in. I loved working on the farm. You were up really early in the morning and you worked till late at night, but it was good.

You can ask my children if I’m telling the truth, but one of the things I have always told them was, “It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish!” Little did they know that there dad wasn’t all that brilliant in making that up, because he got it from the Bible. That’s right, King Solomon said it before I ever did.

So I started reading the book of Ecclesiastes today. I read chapters 1-4. It’s a great book, written by King Solomon – a very wise man. In it you can tell he’s on a mission – to find the meaning of life. And at first when you start reading this book of the Bible you start with a very gloomy outlook. He tells us life is boring and “as senseless as chasing the wind.” As...

Sometimes the evidence around us must be too great or we are utterly blind.  That’s why we don’t pay attention to the facts. We overlook them or ignore them, thinking that whatever the outcome is, it couldn’t happen to us. Let me prove my point. Every year people are seriously hurt in car accidents because they refuse to wear their seatbelts – though they were not just suggested to wear them but were mandated to...

When we think of God we generally only see Him from whatever side our hearts and faith are coming from. What I mean by that is, we generally look upon God as loving, kind, and compassionate, and those things are all true. As a matter of fact we could backup each one of those attributes with Bible verses. But there are times when life isn’t going so fair and we might have a little different...

Though I don’t remember the exact year (somewhere around the early 1990’s), I do remember my first missions trip. It was to the beautiful country of Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan was part of the Soviet Union, but Communism had just fallen and the Soviet Union was dissolving. It was prime time for the Gospel of Jesus Christ to infiltrate the land, since prior to that, it wasn’t allowed. I was asked to go with a small group...