FELLOWSHIP FOR PERFORMING ARTS: GOSPEL OF MARK 16

Max Mclean is a talented actor. He is the founder and artistic director of Christian Fellowship for Performing Arts. I invite you to watch his 3:56-minute rendition of the Gospel of Mark Chapter 16. 

Click the link below and enjoy!

Mark 16

THIS EASTER TURN YOUR EYES TOWARD JESUS

 This Easter, we are called to Turn Our Eyes Toward Jesus. I first did that in 1980, when I gave my shards of my alcoholic life to Him. My life was out of control, and my heart was broken. I had done things I should not have done, and did not do things I should have done (sins of commission and sins of omission).  He took me as I was anyway and forgave me for a litany of sins. There is an old hymn called Turn Your Eyes Toward Jesus. 

Turn your eyes upon Jesus, 

Look full in His wonderful face,

And the things of this world grow strangely dim.

In the light of His glory and grace.                                                                                                                    

My conversion was like that. Things of this world did grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. The following days were filled with divine joy I hadn’t known since earliest childhood. The Holy Spirit filled my whole being; I could be brought to tears just to hear Jesus’ name. He had taken me just as I was, but He didn’t leave me there. I prayed He would make me more like Him and less like me. And so my journey toward the Celestial City began. The narrow path was filled with trials and pitfalls, defeats and victories. I often fell but got up, when I sinned, it was confessed and forgiven through the precious blood Jesus shed for the likes of you and me.

In 1984, I was struck with a serious adult-acquired disability (multiple sclerosis) at the age of thirty. I’ve spent most of my adult life with a creeping paralysis and wide-eyed terrors of severe neurological disease (and then cancer) but I always felt the presence of the Holy Spirit urging me on in my pilgrimage toward heaven.  

I’m now seventy-two years old. What have I discovered over those forty-one years? 

11.    Life is frail. Things can change in an instant. Never take your health for granted. It can be taken from you.

22.   We must not presume that chronic illness or disability is God’s punishment. Suffering may, in fact, be God’s tool to make us more like Christ and less like ourselves. The refiner’s fire. Our Lord said, “… It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire.” (Matthew 18.8.) He was speaking of eternal life, but I also think that begins in this life. Our salvation begins on this side of the grave, when we give our lives to Christ through faith in Him who took away our sins through His sacrifice on the cross. It is through surrender to the will of God that we discover the purpose and meaning of our lives.

33.   God is more concerned about our holiness than our happiness. True happiness is to be found in a personal relationship with Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

This Easter, I invite you to turn your face toward Jesus and accept His free gift of salvation. When all is said and done, what He did on that old rugged cross is all that really matters in the light of His death and resurrection. Jesus Christ is the hope of mankind. 

Listen to Michael W. Smith sing Turn Your Eyes Toward Jesus here. 

MDP

 

 *Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus was written in 1922 by Helen Lemmel. Although blind, she wrote over 400 hymns. See
 https://enjoyingthejourney.org/hymn-history-turn-your-eyes-upon-jesus/. 

DEATH OF A HUMBLE SERVANT OF GOD

 

This year’s Palm Sunday was sad. The previous day the pastor of the church I attend suddenly passed away: Father Les Drewicki (71). It came as a terrible shock to all the parishioners. He was a humble and faithful priest. 

Just last week, Father Les heard my confession. When I was finished, he asked me to consider two questions, then wrote them on a piece of paper: 

"1. What was the motivating factor in Jesus’ life? 

 2. What is the motivating factor in my life?"  

Of course, the motivating factor in Jesus’ life was love—divine Love. Fully God and fully man and God is love. Christ's disciple told us: 

"Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.". Other related verses include 1 John 4:16, which says, "God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him". (1John 4.8) 

Eight verses later, he says again. "Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love."

The very fact that Christ was willingly chose to leave eternity, step into time, take on human form, and be cruelly crucified on a cross to offer reconciliation to God for sinful humanity is all the evidence I need to confirm His motivation. Within His divine love, he demonstrated His love to us, and how we should show our love toward Him and others. Faith and belief in Him.

“For God so loved that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.” — John 3:16-18 

 Saint Paul said, “And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us…”—Ephesians 5:2a. Jesus is our example.

Christ gave us an example of loving Him through service to others. 

“When [Jesus] had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, ‘Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.’” John 13:12-14 (ESV)

What we have done for others will be remembered at the end of time.

“Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’ How we respond to people in need matters!

Father Drewicki’s second question to me was penetrating indeed. “What is the motivating factor in your life?” I would like to think that the motivating factor in my life is also love, but in my heart, I know that is not true. So much of my life has been motivated by self-interest, self-centredness, self-aggrandisement, and pride. My love for Christ and my neighbour has been found deficient and insufficient. 

Father Drewicki’s questions to me the week before he died will stay with me for a long time. I want to become more like Jesus Christ and less like me.

So let me ask you the humble priest's question. What is the motivating factor in your life? 

MDP 

PODCAST INTERVIEW WITH COLLEEN SWINDOLL THOMPSON (Chuck Swindoll's daughter)

 

Colleen Swindoll Thompson has a wonderful podcast called Reframing Ministries. It’s part of the radio ministry of her father, Chuck Swindoll, called Insight For Living.  What is Reframing Ministries? See a short 3:44 YouTube clip explaining it. Click here.

I was interviewed by Colleen on her podcast in 2019, shortly after the Lord raised me from years in an electric wheelchair and paralysis as an old man, after more than 30 years with aggressive MS and paralysis. 

It has been 6 years since the interview. I am still walking! To listen to that interview, click here   — Mark

CURRENCY OF MY SOUL

Decades of suffering with aggressive degenerative disability (MS) caused me to deal in the currency of my soul. It has been tough slugging because it deals with the essence of my being and how I saw myself in the world and how I acted and reacted in and to the world. My first 30 years were healthy and athletic, and then I was disabled using cane(s), crutches and wheelchairs. Who was I? What had I become? Why? How was I to deal with the sorrow and grief that coursed through my veins, breaking my heart and the hearts of those who loved me. 

With God's help, I was able to cross my river of grief at my adult-acquired disability to discover a new self. The old self was gone as surely as if I had died. I needed to grieve my loss, then search for a new self and a new self-identity. A new Mark emerged—different to be sure—but no less alive or vital than the previous Mark. My soul answered Yes to the fundamental question: Is life worth living, even if it seems to be in hopeless circumstances? Victor Frankel was a survivor of Nazi death camps. In his remarkable book Man's Search For Meaning, he wrote:

    "In the consciousness of one's inner value is anchored in higher more spiritual things and cannot be shaken by camp life. But how many free men, let alone prisoners possess it?"

I could relate to this. My wheelchair was a prison for my broken body, but it also liberated me spiritually by driving me inward to deal with my inner brokenness. I had to deal with the darkness of sin. Frankel also wrote: "If there is to be any meaning in life at all, then there must be a meaning in suffering."

This struck a full chord. My journey with the neurological degeneration of MS served as a purifying fire. Some men are guilty of sins of the flesh, gluttony, jealousy or envy, fits of anger, alcohol or drug abuse. I am guilty of the worst sin: Pride. Pride was what made the devil the devil!

I needed to be brought low and have that infernal pride crushed. I think MS was God's tool. There were times when I could not dress myself or tie my own shoes, times when I needed to be propped up in my electric wheelchair to keep me from sagging to one side or the other, times when I needed to be diapered, times when I couldn't speak and my hearing was affected. Times when my vision was impaired so much I couldn't read, times when my hands were too weak to cut the meat on my dish at meals. Someone else had to do it for me. Creeping paralysis made me triplegic (the loss of use of three limbs).  We had to build a wheelchair-accessible home. There were times when I was virtually bedridden and needed a hoist to get me out of bed. I needed to come to a necessary point where I was dependent on others to do many basic daily things. I needed humiliation and shame to understand that I was not in charge of my life and that my pride and independence needed to give way to humility of interdependence. My health was gone. My career was over at the age of thirty-eight then put out to pasture. The only thing left to me was love (both human and divine). I needed to surrender every shard of my life to Christ and be willing to accept whatever His will might be. I needed to become content in whatever state I found myself in because the Holy Spirit was with me and in me. It was in surrender that I found freedom. 

Then God released me from my wheelchair, seven years ago, to walk again as an old man.

I will be 72 in May. I've been married to the love of my life for 52
years. My wife and I love Christ. We have contentment and peace. If I had to go back into that electric wheelchair gathering dust in an unused bedroom, for whatever years I have left, I will still praise God. My every 'Why' has been answered in Christ.

MDP

AN UPDATE ABOUT A LITTLE ORPHAN WHO IS AN ORPHAN NO MORE

 This is an update to my previous blog post, "An Orphan Gets a Second Chance at a Forever Family." 

Our little one is here in Canada with us. She is absolutely enthralled with snow. She has made her first snow angel. 

Her first seven years were tumultuous and traumatic. It's going to be a long hard journey for her to heal. But with psychological help, a stable loving home, and God's healing touch, I pray she will be able to reconcile her broken heart with the past and move ahead to reach her full potential. Thank you Lord for answered prayers. 

With all the frenzy of raising two seven-year-old ex-orphans, it is such a blessing but also exhausting for my daughter and her husband.  They must take time for themselves. I've encouraged them to make time for themselves. They mustn't burn the candle at both ends. Rest is important to be at one's best as a parent (and grandparent).

MDP

AFTER A FALSE START AN ORPHAN GETS A SECOND CHANCE TO HAVE A FOREVER FAMILY

 My daughter, Ronaele, is in the process of trying to take legal guardianship of another Haitian orphan whose American adoption failed. She has written that little girl's story and appeal below. (That would make both children in the photo my grandchildren!) My daughter has a heart for orphaned kids and I have a heart for grandchildren. Like arrows, I have a quiver full (to use a Biblical phrase. Psalm 127:3-5)

They were orphans from Haiti, who were torn apart by international adoption. Sophie (our daughter) lives in Canada, Alicha (her best friend & crib-mate from the orphanage), is in Texas.

The last time they saw each other was May 16, 2023 – in Haiti at their orphanage. We took a harrowing flight, to pick up our daughter (Sophie) as kidnappings and killings overtook Port-au-Prince. Once we were handed Sophie, we boarded our plane and white-knuckled it out of Haiti, hoping bullets didn’t pepper the plane. 

What was to come for Sophie’s best friend just 11 months later was another story altogether. She was evacuated in a now historic rescue of a few of Haiti’s orphans by a US military evacuation. Alicha was among six orphans who endured this particular life & death evacuation, however, her real fight would start once she reached US soil. Six days after her arrival, her adoptive parents were suddenly dealing with a family crisis that threatened the future of her life in Texas. We fought to bring her to Canada last May, but the process was too overwhelming for the parents and complications that forced us to back off. By August, it was clear that it was not meant to be (yet) and we tried to pick up the pieces of my daughter's broken heart. We lost contact with the family to preserve our hearts from further heartbreak. They would have to find each other later in life ... but God wasn't done.

THE BACK STORY:

SOPHIE-our daughter, was brought home to Canada in 2023 after an 8 1/2 year adoption process. To say the adoption program in Haiti is broken, is an understatement. Born in the slums of Cite Soleil, her mother somehow managed safe passage of newborn Sophie to a nearby hospital. Cite Soleil is a place that people go to, but they usually don’t make it out. When she had gained weight, she was brought to an orphanage in the hills above Port-au-Prince, where she remained until she was six.

ALICHA: Sophie’s crib and soul-mate, arrived at the orphanage two months after Sophie in 2017. She too, was abandoned by a similar fate. 

Sophie’s happy ending was supposed to end in Alberta, Canada.  Alicha would settle in Texas, USA after her evacuation last Easter. It was supposed to be a happy ending.

It was not. 

What was really strange was that Sophie AND Alicha’s story was unusually long. Almost a decade passed (our paperwork started before for Sophie's adoption before she was born!). The same was true for Alicha's original adoptive family in Texas. Both girls' files were persistently delayed…and almost simultaneously in how the central authority was processing their files. The other families matched to children at the same orphanage had left with their kids after four or five years in the process, so how these two best friends managed to “wait for each other” was a baffling phenomenon since the Central Authority is not involved in the friendships of kids, nor do they care. But this was not a friendship; they were crib-mates since birth—sisters in every sense, except genetics. It wasn’t long before I was able to track down the adoptive family for Alicha (the little girl that was always in on Sophie’s zoom calls in Haiti). 

All hell broke loose in February 2024, trapping orphans from freedom & throwing their adoptive families into mental anguish.

I know … I was on a chat with Alicha’s adoptive mom. As the US Embassy was trying (after multiple failed attempts) to land the helicopter in the night— bullets were flying. Would any of these kids have to take one? Alicia’s evacuation could have easily been our reality, it was luck of the draw who you were matched to. Alicha could have just as easily been ours—but, our little angel, Sophie, was fast asleep in her bed, while Alicha was fighting for her freedom and life. I assure you, with every word, I tried to console the mother. It futile. An adopted home-bound orphan is a valuable asset to Haiti’s gangs. We were acutely aware of this and the dangers the child was facing. It meant foreign money was attached to that child. And so is love. 

What price do you put on love? And what about the price of freedom? What would you pay for that? What’s it worth? Angels were perched on each tiny shoulder that night. Whisked away after the helicopter’s third attempt—bullets flying like skittles. Critical documents, however, were left behind in the ordeal—which would prove to be a major hurdle for us. MAJOR. 

February 11, 2025: “The Text”. The day life changed for us. The adoptive family was once again in an impossible situation. Plus Alicha's trauma of losing her old life in Haiti, her loss of Sophie, her nannies, plus whatever she saw in the 3-day evacuation, had spiralled into the reality we have now! It was clear the girls couldn't do life apart. We are scrambling to pick up the baton, ANY baton to get her reunited with Sophie before we lose her forever to the re-adoption program in the USA. This must not happen! I will fight till the end to not let this happen.

The girls are lost without each other. like peanut-butter-and-jam. I cannot fill the hole in my daughter’s heart from the loss of Alicha either. This seems to be an impossible situation, with many wheels turning;  we are working with four lawyers to find a resolution to this tragic circumstance. The GoFundMe funds raised will be used for legal fees, agency fees, medical expenses and trauma therapy. (To help click HERE). 

Simply put, we do not want to have to ask the former adoptive parents for any further financial assistance once Alicha is here. They have been through enough. We will pick up the pieces as best we can for all involved, God willing.

The path ahead is a heavy one, but this will be Alicha's chance at healing—together with Sophie. We’re humbly asking our global Christian village to assist so we can concentrate on Alicha and not the costs that we and her adoptive family are facing to pull this off. We are honoured that their story has touched so many hearts across (at least) three countries and we beg that you please share, far and wide. These girls are living a testament to the power of love, loyalty, and friendship. 

There are still miracles playing out in the land most have given up on. Haiti's children, with their futures lying in the balance between gunshots and lullabies. If you listen carefully, the children have lessons for us all. Hope is never lost. And we need our Christian village in 2025. Despite our fear and worry, we brace for the fight of a lifetime, to reunite two orphans after a very VERY long & broken road back to each other.

“ I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you.”  

—John 14:18

Help us be the Lord's vehicle for Him to come to them, now and forever. Thank you and God bless. — Ronaele Pound