Category: reMARKable

Re:Verse passage – Mark 4:1-20 (day three)

“Do you not understand this parable?”

This question Jesus asked his disciples reveals that not only did they not grasp the points of his parable, they also didn’t know how to listen to him. The things being taught (for instance: the way you live will influence your receptivity to wisdom) are important. But information transfer alone will never make a person fully aware of what is happening in real time. For that, you need a story, because only in a story can you begin to see how your experiences present you with opportunity or questions or temptation or new ways of living. While it might be true to say, “the concerns of this life will keep you from what’s really important,” that doesn’t intersect your life. Jesus said it better: “What feels like a weed growing out of control in you?”

Re:Verse passage – Mark 4:1-20 (day two)  In a similar way these are the ones on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy;  and they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary; then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away. v. 16-17 

Did you make New Years resolutions? How’s that working for you? Sorry, too soon? There is something about turning that calendar over that makes us re-think priorities, and to try and get a handle on areas of our life that we have either neglected or that have gone off the tracks. This is a good and cathartic practice, so why do they so often fail? Everything is well and good in theory, but we rarely weigh how entrenched we have become in our routines and patterns of life. To alter any area can take a seismic shift in our focus. Not impossible, but often more challenging to execute than anticipated. This is the kind of reaction Jesus warned against in this parable. We can see the benefits of fully trusting and following, but we have not counted the cost. It will take a seismic shift in our hearts that can only come from the intervention of the Holy Spirit. Don’t be discouraged, the Lord is in the soul tectonic shifting business. Trust him to plant those seeds in good soil, and let him work in your routines.

Re:Verse passage – Mark 3:31-35 (day seven)

This passage is one of the greatest proofs of the resurrection of Jesus found in Scripture. Help me connect these dots:

“Your brothers are outside looking for You.” Mark 3:32

“For not even His brothers were believing in Him.” John 7:5

“James, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.” James 1:1

How does James (presumed to be James the brother of Jesus) go from thinking his brother is insane to calling himself a “servant” to his “Lord Jesus.” Extra-biblical sources tell us that James goes on to become the leader of the church in Jerusalem and eventually a martyr for Christ. How is this possible if just a few weeks before Jesus died, James didn’t believe? Something extraordinary must have happened to prove to James that Jesus is Lord.

Answer: The Resurrection! If Jesus hadn’t returned from the dead, do you really think his non-believeing brother would go to his death claiming that Christ is risen?!

He is risen indeed!

Re:Verse passage – Mark 3:31-35 (day six)

“…no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit.” -Jesus, John 3:5

Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit. It’s no wonder then the same must be true of us if we are to be his brothers and sisters. It’s always been faith over flesh. Faith in Jesus begets spiritual rebirth, hardwired with a new spiritual DNA. Soon enough, we can’t help but look like family.

Re:Verse passage – Mark 3:31-35 (day five)

“For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother.”  When Jesus proclaimed “the Kingdom of God is at hand” in Mark chapter 1, He was announcing that life would look and feel different as a citizen of this new kingdom. Being a citizen of God’s Kingdom would affect everything. Priorities, practices, prejudices, and now relationships were being redefined by love, service, grace, and obedience. Life in God’s Kingdom was/is larger and longer that people recognize.  It is fitting that Jesus reshapes they way we should think and feel about other believers too- family.  Vulnerability, forgiveness, sacrifice, accountability, and obedience all are distinguishing marks of the members in the “family of God”.

Re:Verse passage – Mark 3:31-35 (day four)

There will always be someone ‘outside’…someone close to you, related to you, or thrown together with you through circumstances…that will be set on distracting or diverting you from obedience to what God wants you to do.  They may make a frontal assault or present as a caring companion offering a common sense approach.  Even more insidious an enemy though is sin.

Sin masquerades as a harmless distraction that can do us no harm.  (Picture trying to run a race when you are entangled in a fishing net.)  In fact, we must recognize sin as a subtle and pervasive enemy that seeks to rob us of spiritual power and victory.  If we call our sin a weakness or bad habit instead of confronting it for what it really is, we can never have victory.  Hebrews 12:1 warns us to throw off the sin that so easily entangles us.  Thank God there is no sin that entangles us that God’s grace does not abound more!  (Romans 5:20)

Re:Verse passage – Mark 3:31-35 (day three)

“Who are my mother and my brothers?”

Did Jesus need the intimacy of family – mother, brother, sister, father? To feel uncomfortable with that question is to recognize that we have deemed need a weakness, a frailty, a liability. But is it? Consider the kind of person for whom fellowship is not an integral part of that person’s being. That person would most certainly not be God, for God is revealed in the scriptures as an eternal fellowship of three persons. Moreover, the only way God is presented to us in the Bible is as a creator seeking fellowship with the created. To distill a “pure” form of God who exists apart from his desire to live with human beings is to suggest a God who doesn’t actually exist. We need fellowship’s intimacy not because we’re weak, but because we bear God’s image.

Re:Verse passage – Mark 3:31-35 (day two) 

For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother. vs. 35

Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you. Exodus 20:12

Caring for each other seems to be a consistent thread of scripture. Whether it is to obey, or to assist, the Bible has much to say about how we should interact with neighbors (everyone) and family (believers). Bob Goff wrote a book confronting this topic called Everybody, Always, and the premise is that we are called to love and serve everybody, always. It’s what Jesus has been saying all along. In the wake of last week’s storms it was an incredible picture of the church to see phone calls and texts from all over the city making sure their brothers and sisters had everything they needed. We don’t need a crisis to act like Jesus. He has given us permission already.