9:9-10 Some things we are not meant to know now--that could mean in this present age or just in this moment of time, and God will reveal it to us at a later time. The disciples didn't understand what Jesus meant when He said "rising from the dead." This was Peter, James, and John here, the inner circle, but 3 other times in ch. 8, 9, and 10 Jesus tells the disciples plainly that He will be killed and rise in 3 days. Even after He had risen they didn't get it. Jesus gave them many 'pieces' that later would add to the whole of their ministry, their faith.
9:14-29 The disciples had experience healing people and driving out demons but they couldn't drive this one out. The disciples are missing a key ingredient. They had not yet received the Holy Spirit, and unlike their earlier mission trip, this time Jesus had not given them His power. So they need to pray. They need power greater than their own.
9:23-25 The father gets the right answer here. This should be our prayer. Lord, I have faith, help me to have more. In this case though, it appears that Jesus heals his son not because of his faith but because of the crowd. Not healing him would have hurt the faith of the crowd. It also appears that in this case, healing him is likely what the father needed for his faith to grow.
9:37 This is the crux of kingdom relationship we must understand. When we love others, we are loving Jesus. When we love Jesus, we are loving God. All of relationship with God boil down to relationship with people. There is an additional element here. The child. Children have not been so contaminated by fact. They believe the impossible, they love without reason. There is a simple beauty to the kingdom that stymies our reason, eats at our logic. How many times do we ask a child, they answer simply, and we reply, "it's just not that simple."? Maybe it is. Maybe it is we who have it wrong.
9:38-41 I think it's our judgement. We see something different and condemn it; never stopping to put our kingdom glasses on, no, no, no, no, no, that's not the way to do it. You are not the one to do it. How often do we crush the work of God because we don't know what He is doing?
9:42-50 Here Jesus is trying to show us just how grave it is for us to be out of tune with Him. When we are out of tune with Him we have the opportunity to send others to hell. Better be sensitive to the Spirit and work with than to........perhaps a little too much insensitivity to the Spirit and not only do we send others to hell but ourselves as well. Best to keep a finger on the pulse. Perhaps this is a place for a mentor or a prayer/accountability partner, definitely where our need for community is laid bare.
Friday, October 31, 2014
Mark ch.8
I hope somebody enjoys reading these. I've gone all the way through Mark but I've been typing these on my phone so it takes forever, just a little lazy when it comes to taking time to sit down and actually do this. Of course, there is that little thing of actually finishing something. That's kind of a rarity in itself. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this, God bless.
8:11-12 The Pharisees asked for a sign. Jesus had done many miraculous things up to this point, even His disciples had done so on their mission trip. None of this was done in secret. The Pharisees had seen much of this, yet they asked for a sign from heaven. Another sign. Jesus refuses their request. He knew that another sign would only serve to harden their hears further. In another book is added--no sign shall be given except the sign of Jonah. Jonah went to Ninevah and performed no miracles, preached repent, and they did so. Jesus came with lots of miracles and preached repent and the religious folk asked for more signs. Their hearts were already hard as stone.
8:14-21 The disciples had seen Jesus do many miraculous things, they also had done some, but somehow they still didn't get it.
8:22-26 This is the only recorded miracle where Jesus has to do it twice before the person is healed. Not only this but Jesus also took him out of his village to heal him. Both of these were quite unusual. Jesus doesn't heal just to show His power, He heals to reach us deep down inside. I imagine He partially healed this man in order to allow his faith time to grow. And I believe his village was a hindrant to his faith. Jesus says "don't go into the village". He doesn't have to tell anyone he's been healed as they would have known immediately. The villagers might have stolen his new found faith if given a chance. The first part of his healing is on the faith of those who brought him to Jesus. The second however, is on his faith. That's the whole point. The people didn't NEED to be healed, they would have continued to live out there lives as they always had and been ok. No, Jesus heals No.1 to show His power, and No.2 to spark the faith of them and those around them. To show everyone that something new was here. Hey, pay attention. Heaven has come to earth and is right in front of you. Believe in me and you shall join me in my kingdom. Everything Jesus does in some way point to this core directive. It's all about your eternity. Instead of praying for someones behavior to change, pray for their relationship with God to grow, or pray for them to find a relationship with God. Once that seed has been planted deep inside, God can begin, or continue, to grow them. Everything grows out of the seed within. When that seed changes or comes alive, then the behaviors and actions of un-health will also begin to change. This is why it's so futile to fight for anti-abortion legislation, or a Christian nation, or other such noble purposes. The necessary change does not come from the top down but rather from deep inside. The heart is the necessary change. When the heart changes, then everything else does also.
8:27-30 Over and over we see the disciples just not get it. Here, Peter proclames Jesus is "The Messiah", so it's not that they just don't get it. They get that Jesus is the Messiah, they just don't understand who the Messiah is, what He is all about.
8:31-33 Peter sure takes the brunt of things, He's like Jesus' lead go getter. He rises to the top over and over only to fall the hardest--both here and at Jesus' execution. This is the process of forging. Peter is the Rock. This rock must not be broken, therefore Jesus breaks him in certain ways in order to forge him into a man who will not break. A man who knows that the prize is far greater than the punishment.
8:33 How often could this be said of each of us? How many times do we pray for God to bind Satan or destroy our sin nature when in reality it is God putting us through this thing-maybe even at our own prayer for growth. Too often our view is of one piece when God has the whole picture and can see where this piece fits.
8:34-38 This is us. No where in here is going to church every Sunday and back to life on Monday. No, this is a once for all battle call.
8:11-12 The Pharisees asked for a sign. Jesus had done many miraculous things up to this point, even His disciples had done so on their mission trip. None of this was done in secret. The Pharisees had seen much of this, yet they asked for a sign from heaven. Another sign. Jesus refuses their request. He knew that another sign would only serve to harden their hears further. In another book is added--no sign shall be given except the sign of Jonah. Jonah went to Ninevah and performed no miracles, preached repent, and they did so. Jesus came with lots of miracles and preached repent and the religious folk asked for more signs. Their hearts were already hard as stone.
8:14-21 The disciples had seen Jesus do many miraculous things, they also had done some, but somehow they still didn't get it.
8:22-26 This is the only recorded miracle where Jesus has to do it twice before the person is healed. Not only this but Jesus also took him out of his village to heal him. Both of these were quite unusual. Jesus doesn't heal just to show His power, He heals to reach us deep down inside. I imagine He partially healed this man in order to allow his faith time to grow. And I believe his village was a hindrant to his faith. Jesus says "don't go into the village". He doesn't have to tell anyone he's been healed as they would have known immediately. The villagers might have stolen his new found faith if given a chance. The first part of his healing is on the faith of those who brought him to Jesus. The second however, is on his faith. That's the whole point. The people didn't NEED to be healed, they would have continued to live out there lives as they always had and been ok. No, Jesus heals No.1 to show His power, and No.2 to spark the faith of them and those around them. To show everyone that something new was here. Hey, pay attention. Heaven has come to earth and is right in front of you. Believe in me and you shall join me in my kingdom. Everything Jesus does in some way point to this core directive. It's all about your eternity. Instead of praying for someones behavior to change, pray for their relationship with God to grow, or pray for them to find a relationship with God. Once that seed has been planted deep inside, God can begin, or continue, to grow them. Everything grows out of the seed within. When that seed changes or comes alive, then the behaviors and actions of un-health will also begin to change. This is why it's so futile to fight for anti-abortion legislation, or a Christian nation, or other such noble purposes. The necessary change does not come from the top down but rather from deep inside. The heart is the necessary change. When the heart changes, then everything else does also.
8:27-30 Over and over we see the disciples just not get it. Here, Peter proclames Jesus is "The Messiah", so it's not that they just don't get it. They get that Jesus is the Messiah, they just don't understand who the Messiah is, what He is all about.
8:31-33 Peter sure takes the brunt of things, He's like Jesus' lead go getter. He rises to the top over and over only to fall the hardest--both here and at Jesus' execution. This is the process of forging. Peter is the Rock. This rock must not be broken, therefore Jesus breaks him in certain ways in order to forge him into a man who will not break. A man who knows that the prize is far greater than the punishment.
8:33 How often could this be said of each of us? How many times do we pray for God to bind Satan or destroy our sin nature when in reality it is God putting us through this thing-maybe even at our own prayer for growth. Too often our view is of one piece when God has the whole picture and can see where this piece fits.
8:34-38 This is us. No where in here is going to church every Sunday and back to life on Monday. No, this is a once for all battle call.
Thursday, October 23, 2014
God and satan
Have you ever wondered if God has ever been proud of satan? Like, satan is God's creation and he does bring amazing things out of us sometimes even if it is for bad, so I just wonder. Hmmm...
Mark 7
7:1-13 The religious leaders had put following law above loving people. God is love. Our love towards God is not flowers or candy or toys as it would be for a spouse or child, it is not that direct toward God. But, when we love others directly, we are expressing our love for God, to God.
7:15-19 No little amount of controversy in these verses. Jesus declared all foods clean. It seems here that Jesus is unbinding the Levitical or Mosaic law here. You know, the stuff about split hoofs and chews the cud. That's the way I read it. However, the law was for the Jewish people of Israel and I'm not one of them either. My guess is that those who still follow the Old Testament food law do not see pig and such as food because they are unclean animal and an unclean animal would never be considered food and therefore clean food has no relation to unclean animal. That's my best guess. Whether you believe this or believe bacon and all other foods are good to eat, we do good to honor our conscience, to honor God by obeying what our conviction holds.
7:20-23 Jesus went to great pains to try and teach us that the heart is what matters. In the old way I could make an offering and follow the law, but have hardness in my heart. With Jesus however, it is no longer based on what is seen externally but in the heart. This is why we struggle so. We can't see the heart so we judge what we can see, the action. Too often the two are light years apart. Fortunately, God looks at the heart and gives us grace accordingly.
How often, if we knew, would we find that the man just busted for drunk driving or cheating on his wife one more time is the man in whose heart God is working mighty change? Yet I judge him as being the same old drunkard or the guy that will never learn to keep it in his pants. The way I judge him is the way I will treat him. I may destroy the work God is doing without even knowing, all because I judge.
7:24-30 Jesus came to the Jews. The Jews were God's chosen people and He needed to teach them the father heart of God so they could be missionaries to all people's of the earth.. the disciples had enough on their plate already, they were not ready to understand the gift of God was no longer just for Jew, but for every man, everywhere. As such, Jesus tried to keep his work mostly to the Jewish. Here though was an outsider who already knew what Jesus was teying so hard to teach the disciples. Jesus didn't just, oh, what the heck, since your here I'll go ahead and do this. No, Jesus heals her daughter because of her faith. She was not leaving without what she came for. Oh that we would have that kind of faith.
7:31-37 There is a great parallel between Jeus' ministry and the way God modulates free will and destiny in our lives. Jesus is trying to control His fame, His destiny. He needs to achieve or establish His God-head to the disciples, yet still end up on the cross. Here Jesus is controlling or preserving His (destiny) by leaving the Jewish areas and going into more pagan areas, preventing the people from trying to crown Him. But at the same time He doesn't control their (free will) by choosing who comes to Him for healing. Same is true in our lives. God has an end game for each of us and He controls certain details but at the same time He gives us free will for other details and yet we always end up precisely where we are supposed to be. So they bring a deaf and mostly mute person to Jesus and He heals him. He allowed their free will. Then He commands them not to tell anyone. His control. But they go and blabber it to everyone. Seems like chaos for Jesus' ministry. Yet, He still ends up exactly where He needs to be after 3-1/2 years of this. So it is in our lives. Looks like so many years of chaos, but .......
7:15-19 No little amount of controversy in these verses. Jesus declared all foods clean. It seems here that Jesus is unbinding the Levitical or Mosaic law here. You know, the stuff about split hoofs and chews the cud. That's the way I read it. However, the law was for the Jewish people of Israel and I'm not one of them either. My guess is that those who still follow the Old Testament food law do not see pig and such as food because they are unclean animal and an unclean animal would never be considered food and therefore clean food has no relation to unclean animal. That's my best guess. Whether you believe this or believe bacon and all other foods are good to eat, we do good to honor our conscience, to honor God by obeying what our conviction holds.
7:20-23 Jesus went to great pains to try and teach us that the heart is what matters. In the old way I could make an offering and follow the law, but have hardness in my heart. With Jesus however, it is no longer based on what is seen externally but in the heart. This is why we struggle so. We can't see the heart so we judge what we can see, the action. Too often the two are light years apart. Fortunately, God looks at the heart and gives us grace accordingly.
How often, if we knew, would we find that the man just busted for drunk driving or cheating on his wife one more time is the man in whose heart God is working mighty change? Yet I judge him as being the same old drunkard or the guy that will never learn to keep it in his pants. The way I judge him is the way I will treat him. I may destroy the work God is doing without even knowing, all because I judge.
7:24-30 Jesus came to the Jews. The Jews were God's chosen people and He needed to teach them the father heart of God so they could be missionaries to all people's of the earth.. the disciples had enough on their plate already, they were not ready to understand the gift of God was no longer just for Jew, but for every man, everywhere. As such, Jesus tried to keep his work mostly to the Jewish. Here though was an outsider who already knew what Jesus was teying so hard to teach the disciples. Jesus didn't just, oh, what the heck, since your here I'll go ahead and do this. No, Jesus heals her daughter because of her faith. She was not leaving without what she came for. Oh that we would have that kind of faith.
7:31-37 There is a great parallel between Jeus' ministry and the way God modulates free will and destiny in our lives. Jesus is trying to control His fame, His destiny. He needs to achieve or establish His God-head to the disciples, yet still end up on the cross. Here Jesus is controlling or preserving His (destiny) by leaving the Jewish areas and going into more pagan areas, preventing the people from trying to crown Him. But at the same time He doesn't control their (free will) by choosing who comes to Him for healing. Same is true in our lives. God has an end game for each of us and He controls certain details but at the same time He gives us free will for other details and yet we always end up precisely where we are supposed to be. So they bring a deaf and mostly mute person to Jesus and He heals him. He allowed their free will. Then He commands them not to tell anyone. His control. But they go and blabber it to everyone. Seems like chaos for Jesus' ministry. Yet, He still ends up exactly where He needs to be after 3-1/2 years of this. So it is in our lives. Looks like so many years of chaos, but .......
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