Wed, 03 Apr 2024 20:47:32 -0500WeeblyThu, 15 Feb 2024 17:22:58 GMThttp://trinitylutherandothan.org/trinity-tidings/coachs-contemplations3141311I recently saw the title of an article “The Gray Church.”  There are churches with no youth that are very healthy, but they are out of balance.
 
We all feel this profoundly and long to hear the voices of children and youth. How do we change this? What can we do to bring in more young people.
 
The young people that have come to Trinity in the past few years have told me how welcomed and loved they have felt, but how do we them to come?
 
We often ask what can we do to attract more young people. Our ladies groups are good at doing things to invite others to. (Crafts, Lunch, &  Games) and I am sure there are other things we can do to create interest. But are we stuck on bringing them here?
 
Is it about making church attractive to young or old or is it about seeking them out and befriending them.  Jesus left heaven and came to earth. He came to seek and to save the lost. How can we bring Jesus to them what can I do to help others. Where can I go to be involved in the lives of people young or old.
 
I don’t think I have the energy to join the over 50 softball league let alone the young men’s soccer league, but I can make a special effort to connect with the people I meet every day just doing business. The yard man, the handy man, the health care worker,  the grocery clerk, etc.
 
 I challenge us to come up with ways we can bring Jesus to them, even if they do not join our church, at least I have given them the love of Jesus.

]]>Sat, 01 Jul 2023 05:00:00 GMThttp://trinitylutherandothan.org/trinity-tidings/coachs-contemplations6316374Having just celebrated our freedom on July 4th. What is true freedom?
St. Paul says,
You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
Because Jesus has freed us from the need to save ourselves, we are free to be about our Father’s business of saving others.
Many say, “God is all I need.” This is a wonderful thought and it is true that all I need is found in God, but God has also created us to be in community and to be family to each other.
 Simon and Garfunkle sang a song “I am a Rock” In which they claim friendship causes pain.  No one knows that, better than Christ who for the joy set before him endured the cross. The song, I believe satirically proclaims the solution to be; avoid friendship. Jesus, however, chooses to befriend, us knowing how much it will hurt.
St. Paul says, “We are the body of Christ.  … The eye cannot say to the hand I don’t need you.” When one part of the body hurts the whole Body hurts. We have so many members that are sick or not able to do the things they used to do. As a result we all hurt. Paul admonishes us to have equal concern for each other. Jesus has my pain, therefore, I can focus on and share the pain of others.
My prayer is this that our church would see the pain in those around us and choose as Christ did, to bear the pain that they might better know the Love of Christ.

]]>Thu, 01 Jun 2023 05:00:00 GMThttp://trinitylutherandothan.org/trinity-tidings/coachs-contemplations9201383Having just celebrated Pentecost, there is one detail in the story that always stands out to me. Beyond the Holy Spirit filling the disciples with boldness of faith God uses the ordinary build His church.
 
 5Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. … 7Utterly amazed, they asked: "Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? 8Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? 9Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11(both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs--we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!"
 
The Holy Spirit moved the disciple to proclaim the salvation given through Jesus’ death and resurrection, but it also created faith in those visitors who heard the disciples. They then returned to their homes and the Holy Spirit led them to share their faith with their families, friends and neighbors. Most scholars believe this is how the church in Rome came into being. It was not planted by Paul or the other apostles, but by lay people who had heard the message of Jesus and believed. We later see the same thing happen when the Christians in Jerusalem are persecuted. They move to new countries and plant churches in their new home towns.
 
The Holy Spirit uses ordinary people to build and strengthen the church. He uses each of us to touch the lives and hearts of the people of our community. Showing them the love of Jesus and telling them of His Grace and Forgiveness. The Holy Spirit goes with those words and actions and gives faith to those who hear. Many of those people did not plan to be missionaries they fled for their lives and God used them along the way. Likewise God uses us. May, the Holy Spirit use each of us as his witnesses.
]]>Wed, 01 Mar 2023 06:00:00 GMThttp://trinitylutherandothan.org/trinity-tidings/coachs-contemplations8158449The Season of Lent is a time of repentance, reflection, and rejuvenation. Lent is filled with all kinds of traditions. Traditions are the reflection of the faith of our ancestors alive in us, but following traditions without any understanding of why we do what we do is an indication that our own faith is very weak.
It is good, therefore, from time to time to look at our traditions and ask why we observed these traditions and what do they mean. The Church Calendar is designed to help us review the story of salvation from start to finish each year. It keeps us focused on what God has done for us. We began with Advent, we heard the prophets foretell the coming of the Savior. Christmas recounted the birth of Jesus who would save us from our sin. Epiphany begins with the coming of the Magi (wise men) and emphasizes Jesus mission to save all mankind.   As we begin Lent our focus changes to the suffering of Christ and how He saved us by dying for our sins.
To better understand the price Jesus paid for our sin we observe a time of fasting. The forty day period is a reminder of the forty day fast Jesus observed at the start of His ministry. Historically,  the church has encouraged joint fasts. These fasts have helped to deepen the appreciation of what Christ did for us, but also were intended to aid others. Members were encouraged fast from meat and eat fish. This also helped the poor fishermen in their villages.
We also fast from other things. Our church gives up the word “Alleluia” for Lent. Historically, the church fasted from all partying for the forty days. Weddings and other major celebrations were postponed until after the fast. Mardi Gras (fat Tuesday), was the day to clean out the cupboards and get rid of all the fat. It became a day to celebrate the blessings God has given us in contrast to the suffering He endured to save us. Unfortunately like all Christian Holidays secular society takes over and morphs them into days of self centered decadence.    
The observation of Lent is intended to help us focus. The fasting is designed to help us understand the price Jesus paid for our salvation. The forty days does not include the Sundays. They are breaks in the fast to help us continue and remind us that we cannot be Holy without Christ. He continually infuses us with His Grace and empowers us to keep following Jesus.
May this Lenten Season truly give each of us a greater appreciation of God’s Grace in Christ.
 Pastor Mark  
]]>Wed, 01 Feb 2023 06:00:00 GMThttp://trinitylutherandothan.org/trinity-tidings/coachs-contemplations8642055As we close out the season of Epiphany and transition into Lent it is good to reflect on what it all means.
Christmas is the celebration of the coming of the Christ Child, but Jesus does not stay the little baby in the manger. The Wisemen saw the star and set out to find Jesus. The scriptures tell us this Child is the Way, Truth and Light. The people sitting in darkness have seen a Great Light. Jesus is baptized and begins his ministry of giving and healing. Christmas is about Jesus being present with us and all the gifts and blessings that accompany him. This gift is so grand and extravagant it encompasses all of humanity, every human people group.
The magnificence of who this Jesus is brought to a climax on The Sunday of the Transfiguration as Jesus gives Peter, James, and John and glimpse of his true radiance. It is a shame that all of our Christian Holidays have degraded into secular celebrations. Christmas focuses on Santa Clause and ends December 25th.  Epiphany and the splendor of what Jesus brings as the Light of the World is lost and the last day of Epiphany a day of decadence before we make our sacrificial recognition of Jesus going to the cross. (I could go on about Easter and the Easter Bunny and All Saints becoming All Demon Night.)
Epiphany is the celebration of Jesus’ brilliance and God’s extravagant blessings given in and through Jesus.  

“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!”
So, Epiphany goes out with a Grand Finally. In the parade we see symbols of God’s abundant blessing showered upon us and we feast knowing one day we will feast together with Christ in the Feast of Heaven.
May this Mardi Gras remind you of how blessed you are in Christ Jesus.

Pastor Mark
]]>Sun, 01 Jan 2023 06:00:00 GMThttp://trinitylutherandothan.org/trinity-tidings/coachs-contemplations50823641 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
The Creator of All things came into the World He created and they did understand.
It always amazes me how blind we can be. Have you ever spent time looking for something and given up only to come back later and see it sitting there in plain view right where you had been looking before.
 
St. Paul says the wisdom of God is foolishness to man.
This seems more and more true every day. The world’s morality is upside down.
Even when we do get things right we don’t recognize the need to do them in the right order.
 
St Paul made this very clear in saying, “At just the right time God sent Jesus to redeem the world.”
Satan’s lies are all around us. And they are so crafty.
He even sends us to scripture to see the wrong passages just to lead us down the wrong path.
He wants us to believe Jesus is the enemy and that he is the savior. When, in fact, his end goal is to keep us from being saved by Jesus.  His motive is pure malice he just wants to hurt God and hurting God’s beloved humans causes God the most pain.
 
Here we are in the afterglow of Christmas. God’s pure light, Jesus, has been born.
If the World really believed Christmas was the beginning of our salvation would it be so quick to take down the decorations and move on?
 
But not only has the darkness not understood, but the darkness has not over taken the light.
 
This Jesus has broken the power of Satan’s lies. God has proved his love for us in that while we were still sinner Jesus gave his life for us. 
 
My prayer for all of us as we begin a new year is that we continue to press on, and that We would listen to Jesus and hear him declare how much he loves us.
 Pastor Mark
]]>Thu, 01 Dec 2022 06:00:00 GMThttp://trinitylutherandothan.org/trinity-tidings/coachs-contemplations6194547Advent is a season of waiting.
“They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings as eagles;
they shall run, and not be weary;
and they shall walk, and not faint” (Isa. 40:31).
This last month has been hard. Sickness, death and all kinds of struggles. We see violence all around our world. It is so easy to get discouraged. It is no wonder that people decorate for Christmas earlier and earlier. I believe it is a communal cry for peace. We long for the childhood feelings of joy we had at Christmas. All the world was good.
But the Peace and Joy are not in the decorations. They are not in the presents and the food. The Peace and Joy of Christmas are in the Love and Hope received from the Christ. I also think this is the reason so many end Christmas so quickly. The decorations, and presents are over and nothing changed. The struggles and strife is still there.
But Christmas is about the Word becoming flesh and dwelling with us. We love all the family visits at Christmas, but they are over too quickly. Jesus tells the disciples even as He ascends into Heaven “I am with you always.  
Satan wants us to give up and write God off. Jesus said only the father knows the time he plans to complete our salvation. Jesus doesn’t even know what time of year it will happen.
We are not good at waiting. We want everything now, but Jesus tells us to trust him. During this Advent season we are again reminded of how faithful God is. He promises to keep his promises. As we look back to the first Christmas we see how the ancients waited. We see how they sometimes in their discouragement stopped watching. But God, calls us back says again wait and tasks us to remind each other of how He has kept His Promises in the past.
Speak God’s Grace to each other every day. Remind each other that His love endures forever. And may His Holy Spirit fill you with confidence in his faithfulness. God has not forgotten us and he is working behind the scenes to complete our salvation.
Pastor Mark

]]>Wed, 02 Nov 2022 16:19:03 GMThttp://trinitylutherandothan.org/trinity-tidings/kocsis-kontemplations8473557Coach’s Contemplations,
Can you believe it is November? Everything from the weather to the clocks is changing. We close out October with the ritual of Halloween and begin November with the celebration of All The Saints. Thanksgiving morphs into Christmas. In church we move from All Saints Day to the End Times and Judgment Day to Thanks Giving and Christ the King Sunday and then we reboot to Advent.
 
In many ways the whole month is an illustration of Halloween/All Saints Day.
 
On Halloween we mock death. We decorate with all the scary stuff; grave stones, fake decaying bodies, skulls, whole skeletons, ghosts spirits and evil things, creepy bugs and witches. It is a recognition of all the scary stuff in our world.  We do so with the attitude of laughing it off, but the reality is this world is scary and death is always lurking in the shadows. Then morning comes and it is All Saints Day and we are reminded that Jesus has conquered all the scary stuff and promises to be with us always.  
 
Satan wants us to forget All Saints Day and to be stuck pretending the scary stuff will not get us or even to let us believe it will get us and there is no hope of escaping it. As I have been contemplating this the verses of the hymns for this duel two sided day keep running through my head.
 
Luther’s “A Mighty Fortress” and “For All The Saints”
 
Though hordes of Devils fill the land, All threatening to devour us,
They cannot overpower us. … Were they to take our house, honor child or spouse, though life be wrenched away, They cannot win the day.
The Kingdoms our forever.
 
But then there breaks a yet more glorious day,
 The Saints, Triumphant rise in bright array;
The King of Glory passes on His way. Alleluia! Alleluia!
 
So, November takes us from Halloween to Christ the King and our home with Him in the New Heaven and Earth and we gather with our savior Jesus at the Great Feast of Thanks Giving (The Eucharist) together forever, Amen!  

]]>Wed, 05 Oct 2022 13:38:28 GMThttp://trinitylutherandothan.org/trinity-tidings/kocsis-kontemplations5723253Well it is that time of year again. The Methodist pumpkins of the Wiregrass have gathered for their annual convention on the Lawn of 1st Methodist. There is a crispness in the air that says fall is here. The fields of  the Wiregrass are literally “white with harvest”. For or me this time of year seems like a respite a chance to take a breath. The heat of Summer is  giving hints of relief to come.
 
November we will hit the ground running with the Holidays and the new year. So it is a time good time for reflection, to look back and see how God has blessed us and provided for us over these recent days.
 
In spite of all the hardships; covid, political strife, the war in Ukraine, fires, drought, hurricane, sickness, family struggles, and all kinds of other stuff that we are bombarded with God is still with us as we reflect the Reformation the end of this month we should focus on the insights into God’s love and grace that Martin Luther found in the study of God’s Word. After struggling for years in fear of God’s wrath, Luther encountered the love and grace of God, in his study of scripture.
 
God spoke to Martin in the written word and told him how much he loved him. Having experienced God’s love,  the same man who was so scared of God, that he went to confession over and over again every day, writes the hymn  “A Mighty Fortress.” In Psalm 46 God spoke to him and gave him confidence that God is his protector and savior.
 
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,
    though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam,  though the mountains tremble at its swelling.
4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High.
5 God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns.
6 The nations rage, the kingdoms totter; he utters his voice, the earth melts.
7 The Lord of hosts is with us;   the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Like the renewing of the season, God has renewed us in Christ Jesus and promises to totally renew the planet, restoring all things.
]]>Thu, 01 Sep 2022 05:00:00 GMThttp://trinitylutherandothan.org/trinity-tidings/coachs-contemplations9957377There has been a lot of discussion in recent weeks about our rights being stripped away.
Rights are an interesting concept. I don’t think we really understand that rights are something that are given to us. Unless you live in total isolation, I am convinced every time we exercise our right someone else has to yield their rights. When I learned to drive we were taught to yield the right of way in given situations.  We were also taught not to simply claim the right of way, but wait for it to be yielded to you.
Years ago someone I know bought a piece of rural property in Texas to build a house on and they were surprised to find out if they wanted the cattle to stay off their property they had to build a fence. Ranchers are not responsible for where the cattle graze. In order for the property owner to exercise his right to be cow free he had to forcibly take away the cows right to enter his land.
When my wife says you can fix what you want for dinner she is yielding her right to me. I could claim that right but that means I am denying her that right.
This is the basic trait of humanity that Satan taps into in the Garden of Eden when he says to Adam and Eve can’t you see that fruit is good to eat, take it and enjoy it you have a right to it.
I cringe when Ads say things like, “indulge yourself you deserve it.”  Unfortunately my friends we do not deserve it.  We do not get the impact of God’s Word, “The wages of sin is death.” We do not even have the right to live.  
This is what makes the Gospel so revolutionary. Jesus does not claim his right to be The Son of God, but yields it to us.
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  (Hebrews 12)
Behold what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God. (1 John 3)
This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. (1 John 4)
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Phillipians 2)
Jesus does not claim His right as the son of God, but becomes sin on our behalf that we may be called the Sons of God.
Pastor Mark
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