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timewithgod.blog-city.com — April 2007
Mark 2 What's missing
how I wish they could discover it
I see two "why were they there?" threads running through this chapter. First was the crippled man being lowered through the new hole in the roof, the tax-collector-turned-disciple throwing a banquet to share Jesus with his acquaintances, and the new wineskin flexible enough to hold the new effervescence forming inside of it.
Secondly was the presence of the scribes and Pharisees where the crippled man was healed, at Matthew's house watching the goings-on of the "sinners" and taking notes, and the incompatibility of the "old wineskins" to be able to contain the energy of a new life in Christ.
Jesus' first-hand knowledge of God attracted people by the droves who were hungry to hear something besides the stale religion that was leading them nowhere but to a guilt trip. The crippled man was probably hopeful of walking but left amazed that his sins had been forgiven, the tax collectors and sinners in the forgiveness and lack of condemnation that resulted from their belief, and the new wineskins that were prepared to handle everything that God might be doing.
The scribes and Pharisees were only spies -- the equivalent of schoolyard tattletales who made it their business to use legalism to suck the joy right out of the lives of others -- somehow hoping that, in doing so, they might score points with God. They weren't there to listen and let God change them. They'd been fed a lie from birth and in their misery they perpetuated it for others. They thought they were well and did not recognize their need of Jesus. Their "religion" had caused their souls to atrophy to the point where they'd say no to anything new that came along.
The key here is belief. My commentary says, "Belief involves the will, and they did not want to believe." Perhaps that's why I became so attached to Joel Engels' new song, "I Believe In You" this weekend. It repeats that phrase twice at the start of each chorus, and I was so overwhelmed by worship and stating that very fact, that I could not get it out twice as I sang it. The fact that I could BELIEVE in Christ and proclaim it kept bringing me to a point of overwhelming gratitude to God that left me speechless.
I also grieved terribly for what others are missing, particularly in worship. My commentary said, "The joy and effervescence of the new life must be ALLOWED to EXPRESS themselves," yet instead I see a hotbed of scribes and Pharisees so set in old wineskins and there for the wrong purpose. I wonder if any of them have ever felt the joy and effervescence of the new life, and if so, where it has gone. As Greg Matte mentioned from Nehemiah 8, when God's Word is lifted up, God's people bow down. They also worship standing, bowing low to the ground, and with hands lifted high. I just wish that could happen for us -- that our congregation could finally EXPERIENCE worship and discover how inflexibility has hindered them from real joy in the Lord.
Father, help us.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
Mark 3 More about wrong motives for being at worship, and sorting out needs versus calling
lots here
The scribes had come into the synagogue only to watch Jesus closely to see if He would heal a man on the Sabbath day so they could accuse Him. Whatever was being shared from God's word was irrelevant to them!
Jesus then asked the question of everyone, but it was particularly intended for those plotting against Him"Which is lawful on the Sabbath day: to do good or to do evil, to save a life or to kill?"
I'd always understood that the first part of everything he said was about Himself -- doing good and healing. But I hadn't really thought about His "or's" here. My commentary said, "His question revealed the Pharisees wickedness. They thought it was wrong for him to perform a miracle of healing on the Sabbath, but not wrong for them to plan His destruction on the Sabbath! .... Imagine their hypocrisy and insincerity. They couldn't do anything to help the man, and they resented anyone who could!
Next Jesus had drawn such a crowd on the Sea of Galilee that He had to push off in a boat to be able to preach without being crushed by those clamoring for healing-- This shows us something very important. My commentary said, "Jesus had the power to heal, but His miracles were performed only on those who came for help.... We learn from the savior's ministry that need does not constitute a call. .....Jesus depended on instructions from God the Father as to where and when to serve. So must we.
On a side note, I'd never understood in verse 27 what my commentary revealed -- "Satan is the strong man. The house is his dominion; he is the god of this age. His goods are the people over which he hold sway. Jesus is the One who binds Satan and plunders his house (saves people)."
Father, how terrible that all the scribes were so wrapped up in finding Jesus guilty that they would break Your own laws to do so! All they wanted was things back the way they were, because they were comfortable there! When You begin to move in hearts, all too often people begin to dislike that change! It's also so very easy to feel needed, Father, because of the great need. Help me to sort out what is basically only a need and what constitutes a real calling from You.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
Mark 4 and the condition of my yard
lots of work to be done
Throughout this chapter, I noticed that the condition of a person's heart matters greatly in determining how much he hears and absorbs from God's word, whether read, preached, or taught. My commentary also mentioned how Jesus could see spiritual truth in the natural realm, and that it is there for all of us to see.
As I pondered that, thinking about the yard outside my study windows, I found about every mix mentioned in every parable. In some places, the grass is perfect. In some, sand has been hauled in to fill ruts made during renovation. In others, untended weeds have grown beyond what I'd normally allow as I struggle to find time to work in the yard. The Turffalo grass I planted last year is struggling valiantly to make a comeback after 6 months of no water or rain due to the broken sprinkler system supply line. Some ground in the backyard is fertile, but devoid of all life, still suffering from months of being beaten down by our dogs which have been gone for 14 months now.
As I prioritized how to proceed, the broken sprinkler pipe had to be fixed first. I dreaded it, and spent 3 days getting it uncovered, fixed, and inspected for leaks so that I could water. Next came the filling in of the ruts with sand. The grass will take care of the rest there. But I'm left with the twin problems of removing the weeds and mowing the grass, since it's easier to find the weeds when the grass hasn't been mowed! The one drawback is that yard work can take away from family time, and right now my boys are not tall enough to handle the mower and they have the stamina and attention spans for only about 15-20 minutes of yard work at a time.
The whole thing reminded me of the quandary we were discussing last weekend about our youth group. We have such a wide range of "soul soils" on Wednesday nights, and they all need to be tended. For many, there are issues which need accountability, and I think we're discovering quite a bit more rocky soil than we'd first thought existed. It's quite hard to prioritize our "attack plans", just as I'm finding in my yard.
I guess like my yard, the Water of Life cannot be disregarded. The flow must continue. And the jobs of tending the weeds and cutting the grass sure seem to require equal amounts of time and work, often overlapping and getting in the way of each other. But no yard becomes a beautiful garden without lots of commitment, hard work, and water.
Father, guide us in determining the best attack plan. Enable Russ to see clearly the vision You have for this youth group. Then ready the plants, the grass, the weeds, and the workers for what's coming.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
Mark 5 Giving up control of the steering wheel without fear
Let Jesus drive
I was amazed at the many faces of fear in this chapter. The people on the east side of the Sea of Galilee feared the man possessed by demons. The demons inside him feared what Jesus would do to them. The pigs feared life after being possessed by the demons. The people feared Jesus once they witnessed the awesome change in the man's life. In fear, they begged Jesus to leave the area, possibly fearful for their possessions as well.
Jairus feared for his daughter's life. The woman who was healed of her bleeding fell at Jesus' feet in fear of having tapped into His divine power. Jairus' fear probably ratcheted up another notch when they came to tell him that his daughter had died.
For those who believed, Jesus dispelled their fears, leading them to new and renewed lives. Those who didn't rightly feared the Biblical command to fear the One who can cast their soul into hell.
The difference lies within each of us and how we choose to encounter the Master. Unlike those of this world, giving complete control to this Master produces peace, not fear, and that's the opposite of most people's understanding of giving up their control. We just have to trust the One who's taken over the steering wheel.
Father, I'm so glad that years ago You gently coaxed me to let go and let You control my life. I'd made a mess of it, and was living in fear. Now there's not one thing I'd change about how You've run things. Thank You for being the One who banishes fear.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
Mark 6 When life gets harried
do what Jesus did
My sister sent me an email joke yesterday about a new Survivor series where men are dropped off on an island with 3 kids each and an unending agenda of "motherhood" duties to be performed. Clearly it was written for women, deriding me as totally unable to handle the stress of raising kids and being their own persons. Yet my sister added, "Can you relate to this?" And I certainly could (except the part about shaving legs and applying makeup).
Despite a lot of amazing miracles and incredible information here, God seems to be focusing me instead on interruptions, work, and rest.
Whenever Jesus taught, He was actually at work, and He experienced a frustrating day at work in His own hometown, in which He couldn't seem to get anything done because of the unbelief of those around Him.
Later, Jesus experienced a very harried day after His disciples had returned from going out in pairs to teach and heal. The crowds (customers) refused to let up. He and His disciples couldn't stop even for lunch. Jesus recognized their and His own need for rest and He set off in a boat with them, but the crowd arrived ahead of them on the other side. The only rest they'd gotten was while sailing or rowing the boat!
Tired but caring, Jesus started teaching again, only to eventually have His disciples tell Him what couldn't be done -- 5,000 men plus women and children had no food. Despite His coaching, they couldn't see the solution, so He miraculously provided for everyone Himself. It was a miracle that His hands didn't get cramped from breaking the bread that many times!
Rather than claiming "leader" privileges, He sent His disciples on out in a boat and took care of sending the people home. Then, instead of sleeping, He went to the hills to pray. The disciples weren't getting much rest, though, either because they were fighting a really strong wind, having to row their boat against it.
In the middle of the night, Jesus came walking on the water to them and got in the boat. They had no time to rest even that morning as the crowds once more overwhelmed them.
Father, You know how hectic things are right now for me as well. Yet You help me carve out time alone with my boys as You did yesterday, as we all worked together on the lawn. I know the next few weeks will be tough at work, at least through May. I pray that more than anything else You will help me to show patience and understanding and let me view interruptions not as frustrating moments but instead as opportunities for service as Your Son taught us here in this chapter.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
Mark 7 What's left unsaid
Their worship of Me is .....
There is something about what I read today that "sticks in my craw." I find it difficult to deal with, yet it keeps coming up. I even spent time this morning asking God to show me where my thinking was wrong. I want to be careful not to even suppose that I have a lock on what God is saying and that others do not.
First, the verses that brought it to light again:
"The Pharisees and the teachers of the law said to Jesus, 'Why don't Your followers obey the unwritten laws?'.... Jesus answered, "....You have stopped following the commands of God, and you follow only human teachings....You cleverly ignore the commands of God so you can follow your own teachings .... By your own rules, which you teach people, you are rejecting what God said....Looking up to heaven, He sighed...."
From my commentary:
"The religious leaders delighted in imposing the rules and the people accepted them meekly, satisfied with a system of rituals without reality.... The Pharisees and scribes came all the way from Jerusalem to meet Him, and their life attitudes were so negative and faultfinding that all they saw was unwashed hands..... Their big eyes were opened wide to the little and marginal, and blind to the big....They left a criticism; He left a conversion. They picked flaws, He picked followers. Jesus quickly pointed out the hypocrisy of such behavior ... By elaborate rituals, they pretended to worship God.....It's what comes out of the heart that defiles a person .... In the context, the thought here is that human tradition should be listed here, too."
And from my sidebar:
"Many Pharisees of Jesus' day believed that their rituals demonstrated respect for God ...Jesus showed that faith was more important.....I'd never thought of God as One who sighs...."
But the thing that wrapped it all together was Jesus' quote from Isaiah: "These people show honor to me with words, but their hearts are FAR FROM ME. Their worship of Me is worthless."
For now, I'm going to leave it up to God to let this marinate in the hearts of anyone who reads it, so that they can determine whether they get the same word that I'm deeply saddened over.
Father, that's all I can write for now.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
Mark 8 Getting a change of heart
God plants HIS desires within us, removing ours
Jesus' words are almost haunting, and a challenge to every man:
"If people want to follow Me, they must give up the things they want. They must be willing even to give up their lives to follow Me. Those who want to save their lives will give up true life. But those who give up their lives for Me and for the Good News will have true life. It is worth nothing for them to have the whole world if they lose their souls. They could never pay back enough to buy back their souls."
I think when many read it, they first choke and stumble on the words in that first sentence, putting emphasis on the word "want". What they fail to understand is that the emphasis probably belongs on the word "they" before it. For I've in my own life as Jesus has given me "the desires of my heart" -- never the things that I want being delivered to me, but instead, He plants in my heart new desires He wants me to have. So we aren't left with a whole lifetime of unfulfilled "wants". Instead, with the things He desires now firmly entrenched in our hearts, we receive new fulfillment every day in many unexpected ways.
Our petty human wants are so often like the story of the orphan playing with the broken, useless toy, because it's "his", when a whole roomful of toys awaits him in his new room.
Father, thank You for removing my desire to go after my wants and for replacing that desire with Your desires firmly planted in my heart. Had You not done this, I would likely have been a miserable, begrudging servant. But because You made that change, I am happy doing things I once would have loathed! What a difference You've made in my life!
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
Mark 9 Dealing with failure
a lifelong task for spiritual victory
My commentary noted that this chapter seems to be full of failures: Peter spoke clumsily at the Transfiguration, the disciples couldn't cast out a demon, they argued over who was the greatest, and then they demonstrated a sectarian spirit.
And it seems like God is addressing constant failure or the sure possibility of failure in the life of a Christian. The verses that pointed me to that are:
(7) "This is My Son! Listen to Him!"
(19) "You people have no faith .... How long must I put up with You?"
(24) "I do believe! Help me to believe more!"
(42-50) which speak of it being better to lose a part of us that is causing us to sin in order to be ready to enter the Kingdom of God.
About verse 24, my commentary said, "The father expressed the paradox of faith and unbelief experienced by God's people .... We want to believe, yet find ourselves filled with doubt. We hate this inward, unreasonable contradiction, yet seem to fight it in vain."
About verses 31-32, it said, "We are often afraid to ask, too, and thus lose a blessing." In the context of what God seems to be showing me, that would include asking for help to overcome a besetting sin. That fear of asking might even stem from a fear of living without whatever enjoyment we get from that sin.
About verse 43, it said, "Those who set out on the path of true discipleship must constantly battle with natural desires and appetites. To cater to them spells ruin. To control them insures spiritual victory." I keyed in on the words "natural" and "control", because it does not imply that spiritual victory will happen when we are rid of these things in our lives and no longer have to struggle with them. Instead, it implies a lifelong struggle against our own flesh, where the beating down of whatever urges we face is spiritual victory. It continues, "Unless they are dealt with severely, they can lead to eternal ruin....If that person consistently indulges the flesh, it is clear he was never saved."
It said that verses 49-50 are difficult, but summarized them this way: "Picture the believer's life as a sacrifice to God. It is .... mixed with self-judgments and self renunciation. It is ... offered with a pledge of unalterable devotedness..... He should eradicate anything from his life that would interfere with his divinely-appointed mission."
Father, I know that I too struggle with failure or the fear of it, and with the understanding of how this would be seen by the world -- how it would go against my witness for You. Like everyone, I guess, I'd prefer that You simply remove the source of my failure so I would never again have to deal with it. You have done that in many areas of my life, and I'm so thankful for that. I just don't want to be like the boy's father in this chapter, when Jesus told him that it was not a question of His ability to heal, but of the father's ability to believe. I know nothing is too difficult for You. Help me to believe more!
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
Mark 10 -- a new take on the rich young ruler
It's the self-sufficiency, not the money
My commentary brought out some points in the story of the rich young ruler that I hadn't thought about before:
1) Jesus didn't refuse the title of Good Teacher, but used it to test the man's faith. Was the rich man willing to confess the Lord Jesus as God? Apparently not.
2) Jesus used the law to produce the knowledge of sin. The man still thought he'd get eternal life by doing. Jesus therefore quoted the 5 commandments which deal primarily with our relations to our fellow man. Summed up, they say, "Love your neighbor as yourself."
3) But did he really love his neighbor as himself? Then let him sell everything and give the money to the poor. But simply doing this wouldn't save him.
4) In order to be saved, a man must acknowledge that he is a sinner, falling short of God's holy requirements. Jesus took him back to the Ten Commandments to produce conviction of sin. The man's unwillingness to share his possessions showed that he did not love his neighbor as himself. He should have said, "Lord, if that's what's required, then I'm a sinner. I cannot save myself by my own efforts. Please save me by Your grace." Instead, he loved his property too much.
It wasn't all about the money. It was the self-sufficiency. He had to do it himself.
My commentary also noted that in the Old Testament it was true that riches were a sign of God's favor. He'd promised prosperity to those who obeyed Him. But that's now changed. Instead of a mark of the Lord's blessing, riches are a test of a man's devotedness.
Father, thanks for making it abundantly clear to me that I was, am, and will always be a sinner, and there's not a thing I can do about saving myself -- only Jesus' death and resurrection could do it. Thank You for helping me discover Your delight not being awarded upon my conquests, but received upon my surrender.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
Mark 11 Cursing a fig tree
God created it as an object lesson
I'd always wondered about why Jesus would have cursed a fig tree for not having figs when the verse says that it wasn't the season for figs. My commentary offered an explanation:
"Fig trees in Bible lands produced an early edible fruit before the leaves appeared.... If no early figs appeared, it was a sign that there would be no regular crop later on. When Jesus came to the nation of Israel, there were leaves, which speak of profession, but there was not fruit for God. There was promise without fulfillment, profession with reality. Jesus was hungry for fruit from the nation. Because there was no early fruit, He knew that there would be no later fruit from that unbelieving people, and so He cursed the fig tree. This prepictured the judgment which was to fall on Israel in AD 70."
I suppose it could also be said that God created that fig tree for the very purpose of showing us the importance of bearing fruit.
Peter was stunned the next day when they again passed by the plant and found it withered even to the root. That's when Jesus taught them the incredible lesson about asking for things in prayer and believing that they will happen. Of course, He wasn't speaking of a name-it, claim-it theology. In our prayers, we may find that we have gained an assurance from God -- a promise -- and if we have correctly heard something that aligns with His will for our lives, we will see such miraculous results.
Father, I'm glad to have an explanation for what had been a troublesome incident to me, and a better understanding of asking for things in prayer. I needed that, especially today when I didn't know what to pray for, or how to pray about an issue at work. Help me to pray in Your will and believing that You will answer.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
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