One life. That’s all we get. How are you living it? Are you living it as a Christian? If not, why not?

Scripture teaches us not to delay in finding our answers. 2 Corinthians 6:1-2 says, “not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says, ‘In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.’ Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” There is truly no time like the present. In fact, all we have is the present. “Today, if you hear [God’s] voice, do not harden your hearts,” (Ps. 95:7-8).

Today is the day of salvation. Not tomorrow. Today.

There is no guarantee that there is tomorrow for you or for anyone. This is what we learn from Psalm 90:12. “Teach us to number our days, O Lord.” Today could be your last. Are you ready for what comes next? Are you ready for eternity?

In Luke 12:20 Jesus teaches us that we can spend our days pursuing present goals: a nice house and car, a padded retirement, extra toys and gadgets, vacations, comfort, leisure, experiences, etc., but if we do not prepare for the inevitable end of life (everyone dies), we are nothing but fools. It’s because our souls do not die that we should concern ourselves with what will become of them when our bodies die. To this end, the ancients developed what is possibly the best bumper sticker phrase ever. Memento mori, which means remember that you die. Or as Genesis 3:19 puts it, “out of [the ground] you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

This is enough to get the attention of anyone who does not suffer from a petrified heart. All of it is to say repent of your sin. Repent of your short-sited view of life. Repent of thinking that there will always be tomorrow. Repent of taking God for granted and not living as He has commanded. Look your forthcoming death in the eyes, and humbly turn to

Jesus Christ for help. He is the answer. He is your soul’s deliverance from an eternity of regret, misery, loneliness, and despair. He is how and why your forgiven body will be resurrected from the grave, and He is the only way for your soul to be reunited with your resurrected body so that the whole you can live forever in pleasure and peace.

A lot of people call themselves Christian. 70% of Americans claim such an identity. How many of them go to church (Ex. 20:8-11; Heb. 10:24- 25)? How many don’t know the Ten Commandments? How many can’t summarize their faith, and tell their neighbors about the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? How many don’t know how to pray, or have forgotten the prayer our Lord taught us (Luke 11:1- 11)? How many deny that they’re sinners and think that the way to heaven is found in morality, you know, being a “good person”? How many have been baptized or know that Jesus makes Himself present with His people every week to serve us His very own holy Body and Blood, which is not only the substance of our redemption but also what strengthens us for daily living, spiritually and physically?

How many “Christians” are Laodiceans?

It was to the church in Laodicea that Jesus said, “because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth,” (Rev. 3:16). There are a lot of lukewarm Christians in the world today. May you and I never be numbered among them! To this end, let us consider Jesus’ words from Matthew 7:21. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”

Let us trust in the one who did and does the will of our Father. Let us be truly Christian, dying to self and living in Christ (John 3:30; Gal. 2:20- 21; 5:24-25). Let us believe in Jesus Christ, crucified for the forgiveness of our sins. Let us, by the power of the Holy Spirit, live our baptismal faith, humbly trusting the Scriptures, and clinging to Jesus’ cross. Let us each live like the ancients who used the phrase memento mori (remember that you die) to keep them from taking for granted God’s will, Word, and way, so that like all true Christians we may memento Christi (remember Christ).

Your servant in Christ,

Pastor Bramwell

Grace, mercy, and peace to you, in the name of our risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

Two things happened on April 26, 2022. Our denomination, the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod, turned 175 years old and our congregation turned 116. In some of my spare time, I’ve looked through our church records in search of why our founders chose the name, St. Mark. I have yet to find anything definitive.

This year it dawned on me that the answer may rest with the calendar. Our congregation was officially formed on April 26, 1906. Do you know which saint is remembered on April 25? That’s right, St. Mark. Could it be that the date is the answer? Did our ancestors have an appreciation for the proximity of the two dates? Your guess is as good as mine. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter.

The name, however, is important. Your name communicates information about who you are, and the same is true for our congregation. Thank the Lord that our predecessors chose a good one. Right?

So, who is St. Mark? He is the author of one of the four gospels, which is why we refer to him as St. Mark, the Evangelist. Matthew, Luke, and John bear this title, too. Already we understand what our name communicates about us. We are people of the Gospel, like St. Mark. We are evangelists! Mark was a companion to both Peter and Paul, traveling with them and helping them share their apostolic teaching with the world. All these years later, that is what we’re about, isn’t it?

But there is more!

As Rev. William Weedon writes in his book, Celebrating the Saints, Mark’s gospel is a “fast-paced action account” that has been called “a Passion narrative with a preface.” Mark’s gospel “provides a beautiful picture of Christ as the conquering King, who battles and drives out the enemies of the human race (the demons) …” How fitting then, that the Church came to symbolize St. Mark with the kingly and ferocious (battle-ready) lion with wings and an open Bible.

Obviously, lions don’t have wings. They identify the evangelists as messengers of God, sharing the same Good News of Jesus Christ that the angelic messengers do. That is to say, they communicate the heavenly origin of the Gospel. This message is shared through the Word of Holy Scripture, and so St. Mark’s winged lion is presented with the Good Book.

St. Mark was bold in the face of persecution, which resulted in his martyrdom in AD 68. Why? Because he was unashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. By the grace of God, this is who we are, too! It’s for this reason that I thought it fitting to create our own version of St. Mark’s symbol which will prove helpful in communicating who we are as a congregation: Bold evangelists who, like our namesake, are unashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I pray you will find the image a fitting representation of our congregation’s name, and who you are as Christians. You have been baptized into the one true King, saved by His cross. Yours is a heavenly identity, revealed through the Holy Bible. We are bold disciples of Christ Jesus following in the footsteps of believers who in 1906, on the day after the commemoration of St. Mark’s martyrdom, took action to form a congregation that would save the lives of their current and future neighbors, in Ferndale and throughout all of Humboldt County.

Your servant in Christ,

Pastor Bramwell

2 Cor. 12:10