RevMarple @ Niagara

Thanks for Your Prayers and Sympathy

revmarple@hotmail.com (revmarple) — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 14:20:00 +0000

Much thanks for all of your expressions of sympathy and your prayers both leading up to and after the passing of my grandmother Alma Elizabeth (Heffner) Luck on Wednesday morning. I really appreciate it. I will be preaching at her funeral in Florida tomorrow morning.

Her obit can be found here.

God is Great

revmarple@hotmail.com (revmarple) — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 13:43:00 +0000

So much going on to the glory of God that I have not even stopped to make a post recently. Much thanks to all of you for your hard work and generosity.

The Maundy Thursday worship service was powerful. Good Friday Men's Breakfast was excellent -- somewhere around 138 people hearing testimony to what God did in the life of Dr. Fast. The time of reading through the New Testament was fascinating. I was there for most of the first four hours, was reminded of some of the differences in the presentations of Matthew and Mark and heard and spoke part of the opening of Luke. The SS Easter egg hunt also was incredibly well organized and it was very well attended. We were able to reach out and draw in many from the community. Got to play my clarinet at the sunrise service at Old Fort Niagara on Easter morning. Thanks be to God for sending out so many to hear the word of God and to praise His name here at 8 and 11 am.

May the glory go to God alone. Amen.

Naked Cupcakes

revmarple@hotmail.com (revmarple) — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 13:19:00 +0000

We had fun dressing our own naked cupcakes at the potluck last night! They tasted great!

This week has been an especially uplifting one for me, despite fighting a cold, because I am seeing us encouraging one another and because you remind me to be sure to take care of myself and my family. Praise be to God for you.

Sermon Titles

revmarple@hotmail.com (revmarple) — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 18:30:00 +0000

I was thrilled to hear this week that people are discussing the sermon titles on the sign out front at work and are looking forward to seeing what the next one on the sign will be. Next step is to get them in to hear the sermons.

New Arrival

revmarple@hotmail.com (revmarple) — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 21:37:00 +0000

Much thanks for all that you have done to welcome Arwen into the world and care for us during this time. I give thanks to God for those of you that kept Leia company in the hospital when I was ill, prayed for us during times of illness, brought us food after she came home, and everything else you have done. Thanks again.

Sleeping

revmarple@hotmail.com (revmarple) — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 14:25:00 +0000

Attractive Wiring

revmarple@hotmail.com (revmarple) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 14:00:00 +0000

Some lament the passing of the time when a community would come together to do a barn raising or to build each other's homes. Television programs have even developed to do this and put it on display to inspire communities to keep it going. Thanks be to God that our church has people who come together to help each other with such things. Our work is more attractive than that often done by the world.

Sprinkle

revmarple@hotmail.com (revmarple) — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 19:43:00 +0000

Much thanks to the generous women for the Sprinkle for Leia and Arwen! Some of you are not in the pictures because you were hard at work behind the scenes. Thanks to all who made it a most special time!

Retreat

revmarple@hotmail.com (revmarple) — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 14:19:00 +0000

The next couple days I will be away for a clergy retreat, unless Arwen comes early. I had just told the elders and deacons at their training that their training was a mini-retreat. It was mentioned that in the past there had been times when different groups would do retreats and I said it has to begin with those in leadership doing so. Thus I am going to do so myself by going to the presbytery's retreat for those ordained as ministers of word and sacrament.

I hope that this year will be one where we will all be able to slow down and get away to reflect on what God is doing within us and through us and on His will for us.

Annual Report

revmarple@hotmail.com (revmarple) — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 14:35:00 +0000

Grace and Peace from Our Lord Jesus Christ!

When I pray for you, I do not cease to give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for you. It is He who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light, delivered you from the domain of darkness and transferred you into the kingdom of His beloved Son and poured out His Spirit upon you. And I have the privilege and joy of preaching to you concerning the Spirit who is within you and praying for you to be filled with Him.

God is working all things together for your salvation and your good and His glory. Looking back at the past year it is amazing to see how He was at work to bring us together. Thanks be to God for your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all the saints. I have seen your love for me and my family from the first day we arrived. I have witnessed and can testify to your hard-work and your words and deeds of encouragement. I have only been here for three months, but I have learned much about you and your joys and challenges. And I look forward to getting to know you all better.

This coming year I want to visit with many of you at your homes in order to continue to learn about you and your joys and challenges and your vision for the church. This will help me to better pray for you and preach to you and for me to be able to testify to what I see God doing in your lives. I will also continue to faithfully devote myself to study, teach and proclaim the word of God to you. Many of you have expressed a desire and see a need in our church for more Bible Studies and small groups or other similar ministries. I see the development of such ministries as the biggest challenge we can undertake together this year, but also as the most rewarding thing we can do for each other and for the spread of the gospel in this community. I am praying that your hard work and encouragement of one another will see this take place. As your teaching shepherd, these things are my top priorities for 2010.

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you this year as He has been during this past year. Amen.

In Christ,
Rev. Justin Lee Marple

One Lucky Pastor

revmarple@hotmail.com (revmarple) — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 17:51:00 +0000

It is kind of funny how the TV show Numbers gave me the numbers for my sermon today. Funny that it happened to be the new episode for the Friday before the sermon. Funny that I actually watched the episode before Sunday rather than putting it off until later. What a coincidence.

I am lucky to be your pastor. I am lucky to be married to Leia and to have the children that we do. I am lucky to have more than enough food to put on the table.

Are you lucky?

Listen to the sermon from today again if this way of talking disturbs your theology.

Snow

revmarple@hotmail.com (revmarple) — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 17:51:00 +0000

Our first big snowfall here made coming to church on the first Sunday of the year interesting. Thanks be to God for those who did so much today so that we could worship together. Who prayed for snow?

He is Born!

revmarple@hotmail.com (revmarple) — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 18:39:00 +0000

Livestock and humans both braved the elements this year to remind people about Jesus. Record crowds came inside to enjoy soup and other food and drink. Two Christmas Eve and one Christmas morning service that pointed crowds of people to Jesus, not to mention Sundays like today. Great special music throughout. What a great outreach! Let's follow up on it together!

Living Nativity

revmarple@hotmail.com (revmarple) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 15:20:00 +0000

Still calling the nations to stream to Jesus as they do to the Falls. How appropriate that we call them to come to Jesus just as the wise men from the nations did so long ago.

A Big Week

revmarple@hotmail.com (revmarple) — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 13:59:00 +0000

This last week has been a big one -- last Sunday was my installation and then we bought a home on Wednesday.

Hard Work

revmarple@hotmail.com (revmarple) — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 18:50:00 +0000

Thanks be to God for such a hard working congregation. We have all been practicing what I have been preaching about each part contributing to the work of the whole. Much of this work is behind the scenes and not seen with the eyes.

Even as I speak there are people downstairs getting set up for the installation dinner. We have had hard workers set up the nativity scene and hang the greens. We have a hard working choir that is always preparing weeks in advance and the coming cantata has been getting ready for a long time. Even I, though you see me a lot, have been hard at work behind the scenes putting together bulletins and sermons for the special times of worship and for Sunday.

And some of the fruit of that hard work we have already seen. We have seen it in worship, we see it when we look around the sanctuary at the greens, we have seen it in the 50+ Christmas Dinner. There is a lot that goes on in preparation for all of these kinds of things. And there is fruit that we have not seen yet, but will, like with regard to the installation and dinner this afternoon, the nativity scene, cantata, etc. And there is fruit that we may never see but is there. God shows us enough of the fruit to encourage us to keep going.

The work that you do contributes to a bigger harvest than you will ever know. Thanks be to God.

Advent Begins

revmarple@hotmail.com (revmarple) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 18:28:00 +0000

We have built a manger scene, we have hung the greens, we have begun lighting the advent candles.

As we prepare to celebrate the birth of Christ, may we remember that Christ is coming again. He is not coming on our timetable, but on that of God the Father. He is not coming in a manger scene, but His second advent will be a glorious scene.

Are you ready?

Are you prepared?

May "Come Lord Jesus" be our prayer.

Reflections on Presbytery

revmarple@hotmail.com (revmarple) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 14:26:00 +0000

Yesterday's presbytery meeting was encouraging. I was encouraged by the welcome that the presbytery gave to me, I was encouraged by the members of the Niagara PNC who came to the meeting by their presence and words, I was encouraged by the opportunities to fellowship with people I had met previously as well as by getting to know people I had not met. It seems to me that this should be one of the primarily purposes of presbytery because it is one of the primary purposes of the church.

It is important that we not neglect to meet together regularly to encourage one another and to worship together. It would be somewhat hypocritical of me not to attend presbytery since it is the church to which I belong (pastors are not members of the local church where they serve) and I am always encouraging others to come to church. It would be hypocritical for me to encourage people to serve on committees or other teams of the church if I am not willing to serve on a presbytery committee or other team.

The installation is coming up and that is a worship service of the presbytery. So you have an opportunity coming to participate in such worship. I hope that you come, it will be a great encouragement to me.

Encouraging One Another

revmarple@hotmail.com (revmarple) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 14:11:00 +0000

One of the things that really encouraged me last Sunday was to see many of our youth come to worship. The church is a multi-generational community where we learn in practice with one another the lessons of the school of Christ that build one another up in love.

One of the themes of encouraging people to come to worship is to show them how much they are encouraging others by their presence. For example, I told the youth that they should be encouraged because not only did they encourage Janice and I who had asked them to come because they actually did come, but that they also encouraged family members to come with them, and they encouraged everyone else who was in worship that day. The ways that they encouraged others they may never see completely. For example, other parents may go home and tell their children that they were there and so encourage them.

And this is not true only for these youth. It is true for all of us. We encourage each other when we come and participate in worship. We are not spectators of a show but we join together with each other to praise God, to pray to God, and to hear and see God's word. Do not underestimate the difference you make and do not underestimate how much you encourage others (even if they never tell you, though it would be helpful if they did). When you make worship a regular priority it can be inspiring to many others to do the same or at least to strive for that goal.

We likewise encourage one another when we come to worship for funerals and when we come to committees and small groups and do visitation. Indeed, let us continue to meet together to encourage one another daily as well as weekly (Heb 10:24-25). Thanks be to God for you.

The Blissful Blessed

revmarple@hotmail.com (revmarple) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 18:42:00 +0000

I like to tell Presbyterians that we should be the blissful blessed and not the frozen chosen. It always amazes me as I visit those who are unable to come to church how they will often point me to Jesus and are very aware of how blessed they are. Suffering can bring this kind of clarity. You may go to be a blessing to them, but they will be a blessing to you.

A Well of Living Waters

revmarple@hotmail.com (revmarple) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 19:20:00 +0000

Inspired by my home visits this week, we went up to see Old Fort Niagara. This is a picture of a well in "the Castle" at the fort.

Wells have great significance in the Bible because of the importance of water to the physical body. Song of Songs even speaks of the ideal woman saying, "A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon" (4:15). Of course the impure Samaritan woman at the well said to Jesus, "Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?" (John 4:11). And Jesus replied, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life" (4:13-14).

Thanks be to God for His word.

As I begin to make my way around to your homes, it is refreshing to see the church is a well of living waters.

Jesus I Am Resting, Resting

revmarple@hotmail.com (revmarple) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 17:52:00 +0000

Niagara is an incredibly hardworking congregation. After putting in long hours yesterday at the church bazaar (not to mention all of the long hours of preparation that went into it and the regularly-scheduled hard work of the various other committees and organizations of the church), today you were able to rest in Jesus -- worship.

One of the things the Puritans were quick to note about the Sabbath is that it is a day for resting in God but not a day for idleness and laziness. Our surrounding culture tends to identify rest with being idle. To be sure, the Sabbath is a day where we stop (Sabbath means to stop or cease). But it is not a day to do nothing just as God did not then do nothing on the seventh day (which still continues today as you will note that the Genesis passage does not indicate that it has ended, that is until Christ returns).

And having said all of that, be sure to continue to stop, not to be idle (the old proverb went something like "idle hands are the Devil's workshop") but to rest in God. You might listen to the sermon again, read and study today's passages in their context, you might read ahead in the book of Ephesians to see where we are going, or you might pray for God to give you rest in the midst of the chaos of your life. Take your whole Sabbath (wholly and holy to God) and take time each day to rest.

There is plenty of work in the weeks and months ahead, thanks be to God that He has made you so hard-working and thanks be to God for the Sabbath and those times of rest He gives us with each night. May we continue to live out of His rest!

Getting Organized

revmarple@hotmail.com (revmarple) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 17:47:00 +0000

The Holy Spirit is indeed a Spirit of order and not only did God bring order out of those beginnings in Genesis 1 but much of the work of ministry that we all share requires that He make order out of the beginnings in our lives. Thus this week in many respects has been a week of getting organized and oriented.

We all know that the better organized we are the more work it will save down the road. I think the reason so many people put getting organized off indefinitely is that it takes a lot of time up front. But as someone once said, we often allow the tyranny of the urgent rather than dealing with those things that are important but are not urgent. Thus (to organize these thoughts) it has been described that everything fits under one of four categories: urgent and important, urgent but not very important, not urgent but important, and not urgent and not important. The tendency is to let the urgent but not very important things crowd out the not urgent but important work that needs to be done.

I have tried to focus on the urgent and important and the not urgent but important things this week. For example, on the personal front, it is not terribly urgent for us to move into our own home since we have such a nice place to stay until then but it is important for us to do that. So we are moving forward with the purchase of our own home. And, for some more examples, this week has included a funeral for a precious infant (urgent and important) as well as getting organized (not urgent, but important). Thankfully it was a week where the urgent but unimportant did not reign but instead the Spirit of order brought the rule of God.

We, the Niagara Presbyterian Church, celebrated seventy-three years of calling the nations to stream to Jesus Christ as they do to the Falls, with dinner and entertainment last night. May we always remember that calling the nations with the good news of Christ Jesus is urgent and important.

Your Support for Life

revmarple@hotmail.com (revmarple) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 18:16:00 +0000

This week I went to the Chicago area for the Presbyterians Pro-Life (PPL) annual meeting of the Board of Directors. This is a wonderful group. The meetings and other opportunities for fellowship and devotion with members of the board and the host church were an uplifting, encouraging, and energizing experience for me in my walk with Christ. Together we are doing acts of mercy for women, men, and children (including those in the womb) and standing for Scripture's teachings on life.

And you have a part in that work and witness. In the terms of call that you as a congregation approved, you donated the time of your pastor and you provided financial assistance for me to go. And I wanted to take this opportunity to give thanks to God for your support. As you may not be aware, our denomination's health insurance covers all induced abortions (provided they are 'legal' according to state and federal law). I hope that you will join us in prayer that this will end soon and that there will be a great Reformation of our whole denomination according to Scripture.

As with all things, you can do more than this. A few ideas: you can help our team at General Assembly, you can give direct financial support to the mission of PPL (info on their website), and if you are on Facebook you can even join the PPL group to show your support. Stay tuned, for other ways you can help. And, as always, I am available for prayer and counseling and as a resource for you to have the tools to help one another and for you to reach out to others in need. Again, thanks be to God for you.

Thanks Be to God for You

revmarple@hotmail.com (revmarple) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 20:27:00 +0000

We arrived in Niagara just in time for the lake effect rain and were welcomed by this gracious sign. Thankfully, we were able to unpack the truck when it was not raining (a week ago Saturday) and yesterday (Saturday) we were even able to go to the Apple Festival in Lockport before it rained. And this first Sunday it has held off too. So it has let up from time to time. But despite the way we often look at rain in modern American culture, it is a blessing from God.

Jesus said, God "makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust" (Matt 5:45). Indeed, rain is a blessing from God for both those who believe and those who do not. And we should likewise be a blessing to all, and especially to those of the household of faith (cf. Gal 6:10).

So it is fitting that this rain has been accompanied by many people showering blessings upon us. God is blessing us through all of you who have helped us so much. Much thanks be to God for you!