musings on Mark ch.6

Mark 6:1-6.   It's the people closest to us; coworkers, family, and children maybe especially that we have a hard time realizing talent and giftings in. It's so easy to brag about the friend we grew up with who is now a big star. A movie star or musician or such, but what about when we are still close to them? We can gain a sort of popularity or even influence by a connection to the distant star. How about?; we grew up together, went to the same school, same Bible camps, then I went to 4 years of seminary while he slept his way across Europe for 2 years and now he has an amazing ministry and I'm a cashier at Safeway working 50 hours a week just to get by? It's not fair! What's so special about him? Jesus grew up in a society or town where everyone is basically the same or equal. Suddenly He turns 30 and starts healing people and claiming to be the son of God. Everybody was like, we know who you are and where you come from, you can't fool us. Sometimes knowledge or familiarity blind us to the supernatural.

6:7-13   The disciples went out two by two and preached a simple message that people should repent. In 1:15 Jesus said "the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news." In 1:4 John the Baptist preached a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Repent, repent, repent. Should our message be any different today?

     Jesus gave the disciples authority over evil spirits-they drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them. The disciples had yet to receive the Holy Spirit. It was only by Jesus' authority that they are able to do it now.

6:31   Jesus says to his disciples "come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest." Jesus is leading them in the importance of Sabbath rest after a time of ministry. Do we get this?!! Sabbath for man, not man for the Sabbath. The Sabbath was never meant to be a day of well meaning ritual, but rather a time of spiritual renewal thru rest, through no effort of our own.

6:34   Jesus had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. I once heard two older ladies talking. One said she'd been a Christian her whole life but it wasn't until her husband died that she had to forge a faith of her own. She had always lived off of her husband's faith. This is what these people had. The priest took care of all the religious duties and the people did what was commanded of them. They didn't have their own religion or relationship with God. Add to this that Jesus was set to bring change. This change was to take people from a religion of fulfilling duties and ritual (external) to a direct one on one personal religion with their creator (imternal). The religious leaders of the day had no understanding of this or ability to lead people into it. Hence they were sheep without a shepherd.  So Jesus began teaching them many things.

6:45-46   One of the things we get stuck or hung up on is how much man was Jesus and how much God was Jesus? If He was God, then why did He have to pray to God, and if He was man, then why did the demons fear Him? Imagine Jesus has always been in perfect relationship. With God,  with the Holy Spirit. Even with war in heaven they have always been in perfect unity, perfect harmony. Now Jesus has had to leave the group. He's doing a solo tour while His space sits empty on the team's bus. How hard that must have been. So Jesus sends everyone away. He isolates Himself, goes up on a mountainside, and prays. To the degree possible He joins the circle He's always been part of. How refreshing it must have been. Home again. No matter how He loved His companions, the 12 disciples and others, to some degree they were idiots. Trying their very best they could barely grasp the minimum of what Jesus was teaching them. How frustrating it had to be at times for Jesus. Here Jesus demonstrates variety in life. Time for family, time for friends, time to minister, time to recharge. As busy as His life was, He lived Ecclesiastes 3.

6:45-48   So Jesus sent His disciples away on the boat to go across the lake, the He goes away on his own, walks up a mountainside, talks with God. He walks back down and to the lake, then walks out on the water and gets half way across where He meets the disciples. They have been fighting some furious weather and have only managed to reach the middle of the lake. Even if it had been 9pm when they dismissed the 5 thousand men vs.44, that would mean they had been fighting the weather for an easy 6 hours or more. Their muscles had to be jello by now.

6:47-50   Jesus was heading out to the disciples but instead of going straight to them, He makes like He's walking past them. I wonder if He was letting his humorous side out. I can't wait to see how they react to this, this'll be epic. Or, was it something about having to call Him for help? Kind of like, you've obviously got this handled so I'll just keep on walking. I wonder what would have happened if they would have called out to Jesus before He showed up. What if Jesus had been praying on the hill and the disciples called to Him for help? I can only imagine He'd have been there Johhny on the spot. Jesus knew how long to leave them in their trial. He always knows the right time to step into our trial too. How many times do I miss what God is doing in my life because I focus so on getting out of my trial rather than discover what I am getting out of my trial.  They'd been straining at the oars for hours and hours already. Also, I know I seem to forget that this is a monster storm when Jesus is walking on the water. Maybe the first miracle here isn't just Jesus walking on water, in a storm no less, but more like Jesus owning the laws of nature. Maybe in Jesus's eyes He's walking on a beautiful path through a sunny garden and they are right next to Him in a boat on stormy waters. Certainly, however Jesus sees the situation, He is master of it and He calls us, with His help, to be the master of ours.

6:51   Jesus was in a peaceful place already when He stepped into the boat, the boat and it's surroundings became enveloped in that peace.

6:52   The disciples had seen many, many miracles, yet, or maybe because of that, their hearts were hardened.--seeing the supernatural does not create faith in the supernatural--faith is built by believing without seeing.

6:54-56   Just a short time ago, before the disciples first mission trip, Jesus had been and could do little due to their lack of faith. But here in Gennesaret people are brought from everywhere to be healed. Jesus could have healed anyone and everyone. His goal is not to use His faith, but the people's faith. He didn't come to grow himself (that'd have been a quick visit), but to mature and build the faith of us, of them, his followers. So, where the people have great faith, Jesus does much, where they have little, Jesus does little. He still does some though, He gives them something to start with. This further illustrates the parable which says he who has much will be given more, and he who has little, even what he has will be taken away.

thoughts on Mark ch.5

5:1-8 The demon was the one to speak to Jesus. The demon knew who Jesus was and even bowed down before Him using the possessed man's body. Not only does the demon believe, but bows down in fear knowing the power he was facing, afraid of what might happen to him.

5:9-13 I've always found this story strange.

#1 What were the demons (here we find out there are many demons possessing him) so afraid of that they would rather be sent into pigs. What is there in a pig to possess anyways?

#2 Why would Jesus submit to such a request? The Son of God even has mercy on demons.

#3 What did the demons gain? As soon as they were sent into the pigs the pigs ran into water and drowned.

I imagine it was avoidance of an impending doom. Once the pigs were dead they would be released to go to their next assignment or whatever and postpone their eventual punishment. Seems funny that the very thing (avoidance or procrastination) that we practice so often is the same tactic these demons use. Maybe one reason the demons are so good at their job with us is they face many of the same obstacles or life problems if you will as we do.

5:19 Post demon possessed man became a missionary.

5:25-30 I believe that Jesus set aside His God-head on earth and the Holy Spirit did the miracles and such, but it appears in this case the healing comes straight from Jesus as it is His power that healed the woman with bleeding.

5:25-34 Although it was power from Jesus that healed her, it was her faith that brought it to fruition.

thoughts on Mark ch.4

4:24 It is said a lot "don't judge or you will be judged". Sometimes we apply this saying to things on earth and sometimes to our future as we meet God and are judged. We will all be judged, both here and by God. The variable is 'how will I be judged?' We live under grace and by the mercy of God are not destroyed for our wickedness, but allowed innumerable times per day to fail God's design for us. As such, God simply asks us to treat others, his other amazing creations, just as we are treated by Him. How we live in relationship to those around us is indeed how we live in relationship with God. How we fulfill the great commission,  to love all people with the love of 1Cor 13, the measure we use to do that is the same measure that will be used to measure us, to judge us. The great commission is to go into all the world and make believers of all men. What is a believer? One who loves out of or thru the love if God. How do we make them believers? By loving them with Christ's love.

4:25 I build and restore bmx bikes from the late 70s-early 90s. The dream is for a bike to be so beautiful as to leave the mouths of fellow enthusiasts gaping wide open and drooling of course. I don't currently have the skills and likely monetary means to do so, but I'm getting closer. I started by just putting old bikes together that I could ride around on and since then each bike has gotten nicer as my skills and knowledge have improved. So it is with my walk with God. He has given me certain natural abilities and skills. When I use these they are honed and improved, and then seeing I've done well God gives me more. If I didn't use them, if I left that old bike outside and never put effort into it, nature would take it's course. Rust would set in and soon even what I had would be gone. So it is with the gifts of God. Left unused and discarded they will simply fade away. Like a foreign language never used, soon the memory of it as well as the muscle memory of the mouth will go away and no longer will you be able to speak it.

4:26-29 The Holy Spirit grows the kingdom of God. It is what we cannot see, the invisible worker. We may plant seed, we may water, but it is the great helper who puts it all together and makes it grow.

4:30-32 These verses talk of the kingdom of God being like a mustard seed. Super small yet becoming huge. I've seen the same of the believer. The smallest most insignificant person becoming huge as they lay their life down and dedicate everything to loving others. Sometimes we know not what God has planted inside us.

4:33&34 We've had thousands of years to study and dissect scripture with mixed results to say the least. Jesus explained everything to the disciples and yet they didn't understand. The Pharisees and religious leaders had all the info, they knew it all, yet they didn't understand. WE have so much info, yet so little understanding. Info, knowledge, is not key to our understanding. The Holy Spirit, relationship with our creator, relationship with His creation is key to our understanding.

4:35-41 Even though the disciples had seen many miracles and many amazing evidences, they still did not believe Jesus was the messiah. The Pharisees later would ask for a sign but Jesus said no sign would be given. Miracles strangely can distract us from God rather than enforcing belief. Faith comes from believing without seeing. When their evidence was removed (Jesus) they finally got it! The disciples finally believed.

thoughts on Mark ch.3

3:1-6 Sometimes the letter of the law contradicts the heart of the law. The sabbath was meant to restore and repair-it is a day of restoration. The ultimate goal of the kingdom of God is to love others. To leave in suffering when healing is available is un-loving. When we condemn those living a gay lifestyle instead of loving them as Christ does, we are using the letter of the law to destroy those we are supposed to love.

3:22&29 Jesus did not use His God-head, His personal authority to heal and cast out demons, but rather it was the Holy Spirit doing the work. When the teachers of the law accused Jesus of casting out demons by beelzebub, they were calling the Holy Spirit satan,since it was the Holy Spirit doing the work. That is the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.

3:31-35 One of the earliest reasons that the religious leaders had to hate Jesus is that He claimed to be the son of God. Calling yourself the son of in their culture was the same as being equal to, so He was essentially claiming to be God. Here He is going much further and saying that anyone who does the will of God becomes a daughter or son of God thru being brother or sister to Jesus. This was incredulous heresy to the religious leaders. Up to this point, the best one could hope for is to be a slave or servant of God. Moses was a friend of God and King David was a man after God's own heart but now we get to be son's and daughter's.  How much more intimate is that? Also, up to this point there is much talk about tribes and the lost tribe (which is the gentiles [me]) being returned. This was the only metaphor Jews could understand. But we have so much more than tribes and land, we have a royal king who is our brother, and a god, the God, who is our father.

thoughts on Mark ch.2

2:1-5 Jesus honored the faith of the paralytics friends by forgiving his (the paralytics) sins.

2:5-12 Saying "your sins are forgiven" is easy, there's no way to prove that it has been done or not done, but to HEAL the paralytic? The proof (in this case) or lack thereof is instant. It is likely the same level of difficulty to heal as to forgive sins, so Jesus proving that He had authority to do one also proves He has authority to do the other.

2:17 In the law, a sick person was cast out, an unbeliever or foreigner was outside the promises and could not be allowed in. Jesus is breaking down their ideology and replacing it with love, love that reaches out and pulls toward the broken, the hurting, the foreigner, the sinner.

2:18-20 Jesus' ministry was a 3-1/2 year mission trip. The disciples were feasting in the presence of the messiah, but when He left, they would mourn and fast for 40 days until they received the promised helper, the Holy Spirit.

2:23-28 The whole of everything God created is for us. To nourish and provide all our needs
after the need for God himself. The plants, the animals, all the earth is to feed and nourish us so we can turn around and praise the one who created it all. The sabbath was created to fill man's needs, not God's. It is a day of healing. Repairing or replacing what has been used up. If we are being down-trodden, or hurt, or broken by way of the sabbath, then the sabbath has no meaning, or worse really, we have reversed God's plan for it, for us.

Thoughts on Mark ch. 1

These are my thoughts as I read thru the book of Mark. I am only putting scripture references in so you'll need to read along with your Bible if you want to  know where I'm coming from. In some cases, you might read scripture first and have to go quite a ways through my comments before finding any correlation. I'm on Chapter 7 as I write this in ones and zeros so it's become apparent to me that these early comments are very short compared to ones to come. Please comment or debate if you like but be kind if you will.

Mark 1:4-John preached a baptism of repentance. Baptism was common for Gentiles, but Jews had no reason til now. Confess sins first, then be baptised. Beginning of a new life.

1:10-heaven being torn open-this wasn't like the clouds parting, this was a tearing of the fabric of our universe, our reality, wherein God's reality, the heavenly realm, and our reality, the earthly realm, were exposed to each other.

1:14-15 THE GOOD NEWS OF GOD: The kingdom of God is near.

1:9-25 Jesus did not begin His ministry until He had been baptised and received the Holy Spirit. Then He was tempted for 40 days. This 40 days was the furnace that forged Him for the work ahead. Notice Jesus didn't do any miracles until receiving the Holy Spirit.

1:38 Jesus came to preach

1:40-44 This may be the first person ever who could have fulfilled the law of showing himself to the priest to be declared pure after having had leprosy.-he did not however go to the priest.

1:23-25 & 40-45 Jesus' ministry had a time line and a master plan if you will. He needed to control the when and where or tempo of people's belief and disbelief also, to ensure the cross and fulfill all the Old Testament prophecy.

my family

This is about my family, not about the show my family which is really funny and much more entertaining than my family.  My wife Christina is almost 4 years younger than I.  Taniesha is the oldest kid at 21.  We adopted her in God (too old to adopt legally) into our family Aug '12 at the ripe old age of 20 while roughly 7 mos pregnant.  Next is Joe Hill at 20.  He is my one child from my first marriage and I haven't had contact with him since he was about 1 yr old.  Next is Anthony at 11, then Joshua at 9, and finally Ashtin, she's a ripe old 7 yrs of age.  Of course, there's also Emma, daughter of Taniesha, and the family project.  Of course daddy, i mean grandpa gets her most of the time, but everybody takes turns (not with diapers).  We were determinately done with kids after Ashtin, however God has/had other plans.  So here we are with our wonderful family of 7 all lovingly bundled into an 850sq ft mansion.  So here's the part that you can't share.  Like, don't tell my family, and especially my wife, but as I look at our family I get a strong feeling that God is not done adding to our numbers.  Shhh.  We are not having any more kids, just to make that clear.  Took care of that with scissors/Morena, but I just have had this funny feeling about our flock increasing.  So....like every other part of life I will wait, and wait, and see what God does.  I will be busy in the waiting, but alas, I will wait to see how God continues to use us.  The end for now.