Author: Scott Lane

Re:Verse passage – Mark 6:45-53 (day five)  

It might be easy to become critical and skeptical of the disciples and their inability to perceive who their Rabbi actually was. Perhaps they’re not so different than we are- even thousands of years later. The words and thoughts of Donald English are too profound and convicting to try to summarize or restate.

“We are often no better. We may be fine when God comes to us in Christ along the recognizable avenues, even if they are miraculous, so long as they are good and affirming. How awesomely splendid to have distributed bread to a crowd, knowing how little Jesus began with and yet seeing that there was more than enough for everyone. Many of us have our own version of that experience. But how different it was in the middle of the night, when the wind was high, and rowing hard, and safety threatened, to see a ghostly figure dimly passing you by on the water!

Most Christians have our own version of that, too. It happens when events conspire to disappoint us, or trusted friends hurt us, or illness and loneliness overtake us, or spiritual dryness oppresses us. The bread-providing master at the center of the crowd is often then more like the ghostly figure on the stormy sea ‘wishing to pass us by’. It is much easier then to take fright and cry out. But such experiences are meant to have the opposite effect. They are intended to strengthen our faith, to assure us that we are growing, to signal that Jesus can trust us to go through such storms, not needing to have our hands held all the time, but knowing that the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who feeds his people and stills the storms and walks on the waters, will never leave us or forsake us. It is in that sense that the darkest days we go through can produce the greatest degree of inner illumination”.

Re:Verse passage – Mark 6:30-44 (day five).

We know that Mark’s Gospel was greatly influenced by Peter’s personal experiences with Jesus. It is interesting that only Mark uses “shepherd language” to describe Jesus’ compassion. Perhaps Peter upon reflection and being later challenged and encouraged by Jesus (post resurrection) saw what was happening at a different and deeper level. Mark uses the word picture of a shepherd and sheep in his account of the Feeding of the Five Thousand. When Jesus told Peter (three times) “Feed my sheep”, it permanently changed the way Peter saw people. And it also shaped the way he looked back and processed Jesus’ thoughts, words, and actions. Seems that a life lesson was learned. Lord, teach us (this life lesson) to see and love people the way You do. The whole person. Like a shepherd. 

Re:Verse passage – Mark 6:14-29 (day five). What a sad and ominous picture of a human heart and soul that has hardened and dried up. Herod heard and was actually intrigued by the truth that John the Baptist preached. He was both perplexed and stirred. Yet, Herod never surrendered his heart. He in fact, moved further and further away from the Lord, and his ordering of the execution of John the Baptist seemed to be the final straw. A few chapters later in Mark, Jesus will ask, “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?”  Here we see the answer. We have a visual example and reminder. It is dangerous to deny or even delay in responding and surrendering to the power and prompting of the Holy Spirit. (“Any place that does not receive you or listen to you, as you go out from there, shake the dust off the soles of your feet for a testimony against them.”)

Re:Verse passage – Mark 6:7-13 (day five) “and He instructed them that they should take nothing for their journey, except a mere staff—”

I love to look at the way Jesus teaches. He wisely uses parables, actions, questions, decisions, and here, (in our Re:Verse passage) even instructions. It is worth noting the first and only thing He tells His disciples to bring on this assigned journey is a staff. Practically this would serve them as a walking stick. This was to be a physically demanding excursion. But, perhaps more importantly this staff would serve as a reminder of their role and perspective in this mission trip- a shepherd. They were being sent on mission to do evangelism and ministry as a shepherd would. In love, compassion, kindness, and humility. It might have been easy to be conceited and even arrogant doing this ministry. After all, they had been given authority by Jesus Himself. They could have had the wrong perspective and motivation. A good reminder to us, we should not beat people up in our participation in ministry and evangelism. Rather we should faithfully speak, serve, and encourage in love and humility- like a shepherd. It will be this kind of shepherd’s love and humility that often facilitates listening, learning, and trusting. “Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.”   “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.”

Re:Verse passage – Mark 6:1-6 (day five)  They were so close- those familiar with Jesus since His childhood. They saw. They heard. They encountered. They witnessed firsthand the Son of God growing up. They even asked the right questions…Where?? What??  Yet, they missed it. They missed Him- for who He really was. The reaction was spot on- amazement/astonishment. The response was way off base. How? Why?  Let me suggest because they turned inward instead of upward. They began to answer those really good questions and observations on their own (amongst themselves)- based on their own understanding and experiences. “This is what I know and understand from my limited perspective”.  “This is what we’ve always known and seen”. What could have happened if they had asked Jesus those questions?  Those amazing words of life taught by Jesus in the synagogue fell on deaf ears (just like the soils). What if Jesus was given the opportunity to unpack the truths He was teaching instead of the slander and accusations that quickly bubbled up?  A lesson for us as read we the scriptures and listen to sermons (every time). Where is the source of our answers and responses? Our own wisdom and experience, or from the One who has “the words of eternal life”.

Re:Verse passage – Mark 5:21-34 (day five)

And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your affliction.”

What an amazing moment for this woman. Suddenly she feels strength, power, hope, and joy. Having cloaked herself in the crowd from all kinds of emotions (mainly fear) she then comes forward. She finally feels safe. Something deeper and eternal is happening in her heart. There is trust and honesty. She tells Jesus “the whole truth”. Her story and experiences now are being used to point to the power and love of Christ. Just like the woman at the well. There is relationship- “daughter”. And there is peace. Peace with God. Peace with others. Peace inside her own heart and mind. Peace with who she really is and who she can become. Tell your Heavenly Father the “whole truth” and find that kind of peace!!

Re:Verse passage – Mark 5:21-23, 35-43(day five) Taking the child by the hand, He *said to her, “Talitha kum!” (which translated means, “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”).
We have seen in previous encounters that Jesus is in fact approachable. People coming to Him and Him listening. That’s how this interaction with a desperate father begins. “My little daughter is at the point of death; please come and lay Your hands on her, so that she will get well and live.”What we learn is that the prayers and pleas of those who seek Jesus never fall on deaf ears. He listens and He hears. There is great peace and comfort found in that truth. But Jesus goes (to her house) and He touches a dead body. Jesus is not intimidated or the least bit reserved in places that are awkward, uncomfortable, or even hopeless for us. In fact, He is confident, encouraging, and able to help (heal and bring hope). So today, welcome/bring Jesus to those most tender and vulnerable places in your heart and life that need hope, wisdom, strength, and peace. He went into their home. He touched her body. He will be there with you!!

Re:Verse passage – Mark 5:1-20 (day five). And He did not let him, but He *said to him, “Go home to your people and report to them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He had mercy on you.”
How long had this new believer been saved?  Minutes? Hours? At the most, a day. There was no training or handbook or scripture memory. There was no system for “sharing the gospel”. He hadn’t been to Sunday School or even heard one sermon. Hasn’t been baptized. All he had (all he needed) was his newly found faith and his story. Yet, Jesus gave him the assignment to stay and faithfully tell his story. The story of God’s grace, and a changed heart and a new life. “And everyone was amazed.”

What is the story of your faith?  How you met and encountered Christ?  How your life and heart have changed because of Him?  That’s YOUR story that YOU get to tell. It’s enough. It’s powerful. It’s what people need to see and hear!!  Maybe the Christian faith is more about biography than theology. 

Re:Verse passage – Mark 4:35-41 (day five)

And He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
Harsh words from the disciples (to Jesus) and from Jesus (to the disciples). They accuse Him (falsely) and He rebukes them (correctly). The source of their accusation and subject of His rebuke are the same- fear. The fear Jesus rebukes was causing them to feel helpless, hopeless, forgotten, and unloved. Jesus challenges them to replace this kind of fear with faith. Good for me to remember if/when I experience these same kinds of emotions (whether in a storm or not). Am I filled with fear or with faith. In my mind I wonder what a faith-filled reaction from the disciples would have looked and sounded like?  Would they have woken him up? If so, how would they have spoken to Jesus?  Would they have worshipped (Paul and Silas)?  Would they have prayed (Jesus in Gethsemane)?  Would they have quoted scriptures (Jesus in the wilderness)?  Lord give grace that would replace our fears with faith!!

Re:Verse passage – Mark 4:26-32 (day four). Will be a longer post today.  Does this first parable leave you feeling helpless or hopeful?  For a harvest there are parts the man does and parts he cannot do.  Accountability/responsibility vs. trust/faith.  Jerry Bridges describes it this way in his book “The Pursuit of Holiness”.

“A farmer plows his field, sows the seed and fertilizes and cultivates—all the while knowing that in the final analysis he is utterly dependent on forces outside of himself. He knows he cannot cause the seed to germinate, nor can he produce the rain and sunshine for growing and harvesting the crop. For a successful harvest, he is dependent on these things from God.

Yet the farmer knows that unless he diligently pursues his responsibilities to plow, plant, fertilize, and cultivate, he cannot expect a harvest at the end of the season. In a sense he is in partnership with God, and he will reap its benefits only when he has fulfilled his own responsibilities.

Farming is a joint venture between God and the farmer. The farmer cannot do what God must do, and God will not do what the farmer should do.

We can say just as accurately that the pursuit of holiness is a joint venture between God and the Christian. No one can attain any degree of holiness without God working in his life, but just as surely no one will attain it without effort on his own part. God has made it possible for us to walk in holiness. But he has given to us the responsibility of doing the walking; He does not do that for us”.