Mark Folk

Ten years ago I was taking part in Henry Blackabys “Experiencing God”. At this time in my life things pretty grim financially for our family and frankly we were in great danger of loosing our home and cars. Needless to say the worry and energy I was expending occupied my waking thoughts. Honestly I was not doing allot of praying or listening to God. Part of the twelve week “Experiencing God” study was a daily hour long quiet time with God exercise. One of those daily exercises specifically ask us to write down everything we were thankful to God for. I remember thinking that  I really did not feel very thankful at the time. I mean I was not thankful at all for the situation I was in. So I thought perhaps I should just skip that days quiet time. I decided to just take a walk in the woods behind my house, with my study journal just in case. I only walked a short distance when I sat down on a large pine tree stump facing towards the west. I just happen to have a view of the distant western mountains and as I looked at that view my heart became thankful for the view, so I wrote it down. I then realized that it was a beautiful day and I was able to be outside in the woods and I was thankful, so I wrote it down. Then it was as though a dam broke and I was flooded with specific things to be thankful for. As fast as I wrote one thing down another was waiting to be remembered and listed on my list. This went on for almost the whole hour when I had the deep sensing that God was very close. In the next seconds I felt the very humbling truth directly from God that He had blessed me abundantly, that he loved me and desired to be involved in my life even if I had gotten into my current financial crisis without his involvement. I began to cry and repent. I then felt God’s invitation to include him in my life daily and my financial mess. God walked with me through that trail and literally took over the burden I was carrying alone and guided me out of that financial purgatory to complete restoration of not only our finances but my heart and daily walk with Him.

Over the last few days God is once again reminding me of his love and blessings of which I am deeply thankful and humbled by.

My beautiful wife and best friend ( Sheri) of 27 years.
My health loving Princess daughters. ( Madison and Sydnee)
My home
My calling and ministry. (New Wilderness Adventures)
The people God has surrounded me with.

Happy Thanksgiving

Your brother and servant in Christ,

Mark Folk

Disruption: 1.    to cause disorder or turmoil in: The news disrupted their conference.
2.    to destroy, usually temporarily, the normal continuance or unity of; interrupt: Telephone service was disrupted for hours.
3.    to break apart: to disrupt a connection.
–adjective
4.    broken apart; disrupted.

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
*   John 14:6 NIV

” Can’t we all just get along”

Does anyone else notice that we are not all getting along. It seems we have more division, hatred, and intolerance than ever. In the so called age of tolerance and political correctness.

These next few words may sound harsh but keep reading please. As a Christian and believer in the one true God I cannot believe how impotent many of us seem to feel in today’s world. Do we not know that we hold the the way to “abundant life within our hearts” It appears that we really don’t believe what God says. How can I say this? I can say this because I have eyes and ears to see and hear.

Point One- The current financial crisis is a direct result of our unbelief in God’s truth and Guidelines for abundant life here and now. Do you know that our entire economy is based on credit. Credit is the ability to borrow money. What does God say about borrowing money. Do we know? Look into it.

Point Two- The American Dream- When did we start believing in Madison Avenue and Wall Street above God. God is the owner and giver of all things. We are his stewards not consumers. We are managers of His resources and He has set very specific guidelines for use of his resources. Look into it.

Point Three- We do not need to fear man. Why do we let even our brothers stumble into destruction when we have the knowledge that will save him? God said it is for lack of knowledge that my children perish. Lovingly speak the truth of God into your brothers life. You have the right and the mandate from God. Speak it plainly. Speak it with authority. Know the truth. Live the truth. God will help you.

Christ followers we are in the world yes, but it is time we were not of the world. We are citizens of the Kingdom of God. Do you believe that is the very best thing. Then share it. It will be a disruption for you and for anyone you tell.

“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.

Matthew 10:34 NIV

I feel the very real temptation to just huddle up with my family and friends and be comfortable and eek out some measure of life that mimics heaven. But I am not there yet. This is not my home and as a Christ follower and his servant I submit to his will and mission on the earth. Look into it.

Your brother and srvant in Christ,

Mark Folk

Last week I had a couple of tough personal encounters that left me hurt and and confused. I had made a couple of calls to people I know  about helping me with a major fundraiser we are doing for the ministry. I really believed these people would answer my calls for help with real understanding and support. Instead I got a range of responses from disinterest to outright criticism that frankly ruined my whole week. Now, you have to understand I was calling people that I had prayed for, walked with and ministered to. My assumption was that these people knew my heart and my calling as a missionary and minister. I really felt rejected and misunderstood.Then I began to feel I was to blame for the responses I was getting. I began to doubt myself and my calling. Then just a couple of nights ago I began to cry out to Jesus about the whole mess. I simply wanted to be comforted by Christ. I was hurt and confused. At first I just felt self pity and just wanted to go of to sleep and just as I quit my questioning I heard Jesus speak. ” This just a little of how I felt when I was rejected by my friends”. I was stunned, humbled and excited. God was opening up the heart of Christ to me that I rarely think of. The humanness of Jesus. I began to feel really connected to Christ.

It’s been a while since I have felt like writing. Since Roberts death alot has happened that I can’t share in a blog. What I can share is that through the last six weeks Christ has interrupted my day to day routines by pulling me closer to identification with him. I didn’t expect God to show me more of his heart through grief.

I will try to share some with you in the days to come. For now I think I will listen.

Mark

 It’s Sunday night after Roberts memorial service and for the first time since Wednesday I am alone with my grief for my brother.  I miss him, I miss   knowing he is. Robert knew and understood what it was to be a part of our family. Robert like me and Chris and Elizabeth knew what it was to be in a family that chose to serve God above anything else. Robert shared a maturity and understanding of servant hood that our father and mother lived out before our eyes and taught us to live as well. Robert and I were related by blood and by spirit but also by  a shared life that no one else can understand. I miss my brother because he knew me and loved me as only brother can.

In our western world we have been indoctrinated into a particular way of defining success. To be successful means to come up with a product, idea or service that will answer the needs of a group of people then market, package and sell it. Most companies today have successfully taken their marketing to a new level by actually creating an image around their product or service and offering that image as a preferred way of life to their customers. As I said we are so indoctrinated in this way of life that Gods ways can seem cruel and counter to common sense.

Here is the truth. Think of every story from the Bible you know and think of a name from that story. Do you have a name? Now let me ask you a simple question. How popular were they in their own day when they began to be obedient to God. I will tell you. Not popular at all. Are you with me? Now follow this through and watch how families, friends, tribes reacted to them as they followed God despite conventional wisdom. You see it right. People responded when things were well or prosperous, but if there were a drought or famine the crowds would split faster than God parted the Red Sea.

Ok, more truth and my point. When Jesus went to the cross and died so that the world could have life eternal your name was on his mind. Your life flashed before his eyes and he went into hell to save your life. Today, yes this very day he desires the most intimate of fellowship with you and your relationship with him is unique and precious and he pursues it fiercely.

Matthew 18:12
“Look at it this way. If someone has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders off, doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine and go after the one?

As we walk with God in a personal relationship we will find ourselves hearing his voice, recognizing his truth more and more and the things of this world will grow strangely dim including the importance of worldly success or popularity.

Your brother and servant in Christ,

Mark Folk

COPYRIGHT MARK FOLK 2007

Eph 1:11
It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living

How do you define your life? Think about it.

Do you define it by the things you own?

By your education?

By the money you have in the bank?

By what you have accomplished?

Do you define yourself by your age?

Most of us define ourselves by the silliest things, by the cars we drive, or the car a NASCAR driver drives. A lot of us define ourselves by sports teams; TV shows computers, or our careers. Why do we do this? Why do we wish so much to belong to some larger story? Do you know?

Here is the truth. Each of us does belong to a large story and within that story we have a desired role that only we can carry out. You see our creator, God set you and I right in the midst of a heroic love story amidst the back drop of a life and death struggle and all creation is awaiting you to play you part. This is the truth. Do not look at anyone else for your part ask God and he will tell you then begin to prepare to live out everything your good heart really desires to be. I promise.

Take a step of faith and ask your brothers and sisters what they see in you of God’s image and you will be astounded!

Your brother and servant in Christ,

Mark

COPYRIGHT MARK FOLK 2007

John 14:6
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

We seek knowledge, techniques and principles in an effort to get more from life. We live in an age of reason and logic and we thrive on information, we seek it like some great treasure hoping it will bring us fulfillment.

Our thirst for truth will never be quenched by more knowledge. Jesus came to us when we were lost in darkness, completely lost without a way out and we were quite content in our dark caves thinking that we had life. Jesus came to you and I and said this is not the reality you were meant for I have come to show you to the way to real life. Jesus talked about the reality we were meant for in stories and parables to reach our hearts and minds. Then Jesus opened the way to reality at Golgotha.

Jesus is now our way, our truth, and our life. He is our light in Holy Scripture that reveals what all truth is about- Reality. We now look through Jesus on the cross to life in The Kingdom of God. Our journey is now one of desire as set in our hearts by our Father God. Jesus is the light by which we travel now into the life God wants for us now and for all eternity. Now you and I seek truth that leads us home to our Father.

We will always have discontent in our flesh if we make knowledge our goal. Jesus is our contentment for he has brought God’s Kingdom to us.

“Truth is about what reality is”- CS Lewis

Your brother and servant in Christ,

Mark Folk

Pr 8:6
Don’t miss a word of this - I’m telling you how to live well, I’m telling you how to live at your best.

1 Thessalonians 2:7-12
7 We weren’t aloof with you. We took you just as you were. We were never patronizing, never condescending, but we cared for you the way a mother cares for her children. 8 We loved you dearly. Not content to just pass on the Message, we wanted to give you our hearts. And we did. 9 You remember us in those days, friends, working our fingers to the bone, up half the night, moonlighting so you wouldn’t have the burden of supporting us while we proclaimed God’s Message to you. 10 You saw with your own eyes how discreet and courteous we were among you, with keen sensitivity to you as fellow believers. And God knows we weren’t freeloaders! 11 You experienced it all firsthand. With each of you we were like a father with his child, 12 holding your hand, whispering encouragement, showing you step-by-step how to live well before God, who called us into his own kingdom, into this delightful life.

I love these scriptures. How exciting it must have been as the Apostles went out after Jesus ascended into Heaven to spread the good news of the new life now available to everyone. Of course as thousands of people were being transformed into new beings they had to become teachers and guides instructing how to live in their new lives.  Now I honestly think they were surprised to find themselves in the position of teachers. Teachers of what quickly became “The Way”

I can imagine that Jesus was looking down on his protégé from Heaven smiling as they began to realize what he had been up to for three years so patiently with them. Jesus is the most brilliant teacher to ever live.

Read the words of scripture above once again. Do you see it?
Instructions on how to live. That is astounding isn’t it? They are not harping on how they are doing things wrong they are instructing on how to live well in their new life. Every teacher knows this you do not teach someone by talking about doing something wrong. You teach them the correct way.

Why does so much of religion focus on how badly we have lived and screwed up keeping most believers in a state of confusion and guilt and most unbelievers far far away from most Churches or anything that hint of religion? Listen, you and I have entered eternity through the Grace of God and the sacrifice of Jesus. God fulfilled his promise and our old lives have passed away along with our sin. God does not want us standing at the foot of the cross in perpetual grief over our past sin life. He is done with it and expects us to relearn how to live in the freedom he purchased through his only Son.

Listen don’t go back to the old life for anything but God’s glory through your testimony and do not let anyone else keep you there. Go where you receive instruction for living and growing in your new life. Most of us have spent way too much time lamenting over voided sin.

I am talking to you my brothers and sisters in Christ. I write with the assumption that you are believers and follow Christ as Lord and Savior now Citizens of Heaven.

Your brother and servant in Christ,

Mark

Gal: 5:22
But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard - things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments,    

The Message

When I was a teen-ager living at home my mother had a part time job working at the Hickory Bible center in Hickory, NC. Her job was simply helping customers with their purchases. In my young mind I remember thinking how appropriate it was for a pastors wife (my mother) working in a place helping customers find and purchase Bibles and Christian materials. It seemed like a place my mother would be happy and safe among Christian people.

From time to time I would visit my mom at her job at the Bible center and on one particular occasion I was looking through the music while my mom was helping a man with a Bible that had been left for gold leaf embossing. I was oblivious to the details of mom’s interaction with the customer until I heard a raised voice of anger directed at my mom. Immediately I was aware of nothing else and quickly moved over to the counter where the my mother was trying to fend off some anger directed at her due to a misspelled name on the Bible. I remember how I felt mad, embarrassed, and protective as I watched my mom apologize and assure the customer that the mistake would be corrected and how the customer (who was buying a Bible) still angry treated my mom with disdain. Once the customer left the store I went to my mothers aid ready to share in well deserved anger at what she had just gone through. I was prepared for defending my mother by sharing anger at the rude customer. I was not prepared for how my mother responded to the situation. Instead of angry words and defending her-self against the undeserved verbal assault my mother responded with compassion for the man. Her words were that he had probably had a bad day or had been hurt by someone. I was diffused and confused by her response and had no idea of the level of wisdom my mom exhibited and lived out in that moment.

Today at forty-seven years I finally understand how as we develop a close daily walk with Christ we take on more of his heart and less of our fleshly response to people. We begin to see people through God’s heart for them.

Your brother and servant in Christ,

Mark