Month: December 2012

RE Verse reading–Mark 1:19-20, 3:13-17, 10:35-45 (Day 2)
Serve the church?! Why?! Isn’t it full of power-hungry self-promoters? Yes. Hasn’t it broken friendships over petty and ultimately meaningless squabbles? At times…yes. Why serve such a thing? Because Jesus served the church (10:45). How did Jesus respond to power-hungry self-promoters (Mark 10:37)? Jesus doesn’t reject them. He instructs them (10:38-39). Jesus doesn’t lash out at them. He paints a larger picture for them (10:40). Jesus doesn’t walk away from them. He calls them closer to himself (10:42). You may not like the church…and you probably have good reasons. But don’t fool yourself into thinking that you can have Jesus and not have the ones for whom He gave Himself as a ransom. Perhaps there is no better cure for your own power-hungry, self-promoting soul than serving other power-hungry self-promoters in the church near you.

RE Verse reading–Mark 1:19-20, 3:13-17, 10:35-45 (day one)
“Let one of us sit at your right hand and the other at your left in glory.”  (vs 10:37)  The Bible does not speak critically of ambition per se.  “If any man ASPIRES to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do”  (1 Timothy 3:3)  It does, however, speak against “SELFISH ambition” (James 3:16)–desire for recognition or privilege that benefits self, only self, primarily self.  This week we will consider (hopefully with self-awareness and humility) James and John’s request to “sit at the right and left hand”.  Was it selfish?  Yes, at least in part.  The Lord’s refusal of their request, the anger of the other disciples, and the necessary, subsequent teaching all indicate that the “sons of Thunder”  were not yet mature in their desires or their prayers.  They had ambitions that were not like servant-hearted or Christ-like.  Friend, what do you request from Christ?  Do you have godly ambitions?

RE Verse reading–Mark 1:16-18, 8: 27-33, 14:26-31, 66-72, 16:5-7 (day seven)
“Get behind me, Satan!  You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”  (8:33)  Stress makes me stupid.  I don ‘t know why.  It just does.  Put me in a threatening situation and my inner fears take over.  I “close down the shop” and become a committee of one. . . trusting my own counsel, making my own decisions.  Obsessed, afraid, and empty.  Not a pretty picture.  Rather than trusting the Lord, I try to control Him, dictate to Him.  Peter and I are similar in this tendency.  My wake up call is also like Peter’s.  The Lord turns away from me.  His Spirit is grieved, quenched.  Recognizing that I have closed Him out, He warns that He will go on without me if I continue in this posture.  Painful?  Yes.  Necessary? Yes.  “Those whom the Lord loves, He disciplines”  (Hebrews 12:6)  One way is to leave us behind.

RE Verse reading–Mark 1:16-18, 8:27-33, 14:26-31,66-72, 16:5-7 (day six)
” ‘Get behind me, Satan!’ He said. ‘You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.’ ” (8:33)  It is a subject we don’t like to think about.  Suffering.  Definitely not a man thing.  It calls from us either courage or cowardice.  Neither is an easy road.  Jesus said it is a God thing.  “The Son of Man must suffer”,  He said in vs 31.  Christians too will have a cross to carry He adds in vs 34.  It is a part of the equation that God knows is necessary.  If we love Him, if we believe Him we have to “have it in our minds” ie. embrace it with courage, accept it with trust.  To resist it is to insist that we know better than God (just as Peter did in this story).  “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God”  (Acts 14:2)  It is a God thing.

RE Verse reading–Mark 1:16-18, 8:27-33, 14:26-31, 66-72, 16:5-7 (day five)
It is the biggest question that we will ever need to answer. In Mark 8:29 Jesus gets down to the nitty gritty. “But what about YOU?” he asked. “Who do YOU say I am?” (emphasis added) How each of us answers this question will ultimately define our faith, belief system, and our trust in the scripture. In a conversation last week with my kids, we were talking about how the answer to this question is the ultimate litmus test of each and every religion. The question we must ask when investigating or confronted by another pattern of spirituality is “What do they say/believe about Jesus.?” Will they follow Biblical teaching? Will they try to reduce or explain away his humanity or divinity? It is a question that each of us is accountable to answer for ourselves. The answer will tell the world what we believe about God, The Scripture, Salvation, and so much more.

RE Verse reading–Mark 1:16-18, 8:27-33, 14:26-31, 66-72, 16:5-7 (day four)
These verses give us a snapshot of Peter’s life and his interaction with the Savior.  Some of the experiences were positive, some were negative.  All of them served to teach and train Peter.  Jesus had big plans for Peter…he was to become a fisher of men, a leader among the disciples, and a rock in the early church.  Peter is deeply moved by each of these incidents.  He was learning…he was being ‘sanctified’.  Sanctification according to Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem is “a progressive work of God and man that makes us more and more free from sin and like Christ in our actual lives.”  Question:  Will we make mistakes?  Yes!  The real question is, ‘will we learn from our mistakes and grow more and more like Christ through our responses?’  Are you giving attention to sanctification in your life?  Are you becoming more like Christ each day?

RE Verse reading–Mark 1:16-18; 8:27-33; 14:26-31, 66-72; 16:5-7 (Day Three)
“At once they left their nets and followed him.”  What do you think you can’t live without?  For Peter and the other fishermen who followed Jesus, it was the tools of their trade.  But they left them behind when they actually began to pay attention to what Jesus was saying.  When they paid attention to Jesus, they could hear God calling to them. Their jobs did not prevent, per se, their devotion to the Lord.  But the way they gave themselves to their work certainly did.  Paying attention to Jesus ended up requiring that they make major shifts in the way they structured their days in order to hear him more intently and more clearly.  So they rearranged their lives.  They learned what they could live without—and what they could not.

RE Verse reading–Mark 1:16-18, 8:27-33, 14:26-31,66-72, 16:5-7 (day two)
When Jesus met Peter, he didn’t make Peter a leader. Peter brought natural gifting that has made many great leaders. Quick wit, passion, risk-taking ability, forcefulness, and courage are marks that cause leaders to rise in the ranks of military, business and academic achievement. Peter had all of these marks…before Jesus. Peter would even go so far as to attempt to lead Jesus himself telling him what he could and could not say, plan or expect (Mark 8:32). When Jesus met Peter, he made Peter a follower (Mark 1:17). It was only the leadership of Jesus that would eclipse the leadership of Peter. Peter found a leader greater than he, and so Peter became a follower. Have you yet found a leader greater than you? If so, perhaps you like Peter… and me…find yourself attempting to lead the Leader and after feeling the sting of His rebuke needing to remember whose wisdom, wit, passion, integrity and courage really is superior.

RE Verse reading–Mark 1:16-18, 8:27-33, 14:26-31,66-72, 16:5-7 (day one)
” ‘Come, follow me,’ Jesus said. . .at once they left their nets and followed him.” (1:17-18) In 1970 I decided to follow Jesus.  I know some resist the idea that people have any part in salvation, But I still believe that Christ called me to follow and (like Peter) a decision was required of me. What I didn’t know at that time was how much of me was still undecided and unsurrendered. Like Peter in Mark 8, I had days (later) when I thought I knew better than the Lord. I argued my ideas and preferences. Like Peter in Mark 14, I had moments when my pride blinded me to the things that Jesus could see. How grateful I am that my story is also like Peter’s in Mark 16, when the Lord, following moral collapse, was patient and kind to “call again”. I am grateful Peter decided to trust the Lord again.  I am grateful I did as well.

RE Verse reading–Mark 1:1-11 (day seven)
“The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God”  (vs 1)  People these days are searching for good news.  In the face of economic and political crisis, the human heart looks desperately for hope.  As Christians, we have the privilege of giving it to them.  Euangellos is Mark’s word.  Note the similarity to our word evangelism.  It means “good news” and is usually translated gospel.  It is truth(s) that has a beneficial effect on human life–truth(s) from God that produces good results. . .for everyone who believes.  We are not ashamed of the gospel! ( Romans 1:16)  While some consider us naive to hold this confidence, we do not retreat from the hope that people can be rescued and the world restored by the power of God and the gospel He has given.  We “amen” the angel who spoke of  “good news of great joy” (Luke 2:10)  How/where does this good news begin?  Mark knows!