Category: reMARKable

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

Have you ever had to make a road trip that you weren’t all that excited about? It’s one thing to have to travel somewhere you don’t want to go, but if something upsetting or inconvenient happens on the way, it makes the trip even worse. If you pop a tire or get into a fender bender in the middle of a trip you didn’t want to make, that’s enough to make anyone grumpy.

In Jesus’ day, there were different people groups on each side of the Sea of Galilee. The Jews were on the west side, and Gentiles were on the east. When Jesus and his disciples got on the boat in Capernaum to “get to the other side,” that meant they were traveling to the Gentile-dominated part of the area, an area that many of the disciples had probably avoided in the past. This was probably not a boat ride they were thrilled about. And then, a storm picks up. I’m sure they had plenty of unhappy thoughts running through their minds until they finally burst our in frustration and fear towards Jesus.

But in Christ, nothing happens in vain. The disciples were about to see that even the weather responds to Jesus. Next, and perhaps even more impressively, they’ll see through his ministry on the other side of the sea that even the Gentiles respond to him. Jesus uses miracles in the same way he uses parables – to teach us about who he is and the nature of the kingdom of God. When Jesus calms the storm on the way to minister to pagans, we see that Jesus is truly the king of heaven and earth, and that his kingdom is open to every nation. What will our response to him be?

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

“Jesus himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion.”

Jesus’s sleeping in a boat during a storm on the lake was one indication that he found himself at home in his Father’s world. Another indication: entrusting his body’s safety to the skills of those who piloted the boat while he slept. Would you feel at ease sleeping – or even riding at all – in a vehicle operated by certain folks? Jesus lived in the world unconstrained by overarching concerns for his personal safety. Do you think he minded eating a meal in a public place with his back towards the door? Was he reticent to touch someone with a communicable disease? He cared for his body’s basic needs. The rest of his energy he used to listen and laugh and befriend and shepherd. Seeking to live thusly is a holy quest.

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

They became very much afraid and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?” v. 41

Yesterday in the re:vlog we touched on this verse briefly and I wanted to dig just a little deeper. If these men, who saw Jesus more than any other, were shocked and surprised by his command over the wind and water, what does that say about our own trust in the absolute authority of Jesus? These men should have known better, and yet it is more often in fear and uncertainty that we solidify our trust in the Lord than in plenty. Miracles were happening everywhere, but the disciples themselves were never in harms way. They weren’t suffering from deadly illness, they weren’t blind. They were witnesses, but not necessary recipients. This time on the water shook their faith. Were they assuming that being with Jesus meant being absent from suffering? Did they think that they would only help dispense with grace and mercy, but never receive any themselves? I don’t want to project any of my own inadequacies upon the disciples, but I understand their one-sided faith. It is often in the raging storm that we learn to fear the Lord, but we don’t have to wait for things to fall to pieces to trust. Thank God for the examples set forth in scripture. We should rejoice that we are not fearing for our lives in the raging sea, but we should be absolutely sure that Jesus can be found there.

Re:Verse passage – Mark 4:26-32 (day seven)

he goes to bed at night and gets up by day, and the seed sprouts and grows—how, he himself does not know. vs 27

We often try to do too much, take too much credit, and take on way too much work. We think that we have to do big things for God to get His purpose accomplished. Yet, scripture is very clear, if we plant the seed, God will take care of the growth. That is not an excuse for us to be lazy, “Well God’s purpose will be accomplished anyway.” Rather, it is a calling for us to take our job seriously: Plant the seed!

I tell our youth workers that you might not get to see the growth in our students or reap the harvest, but it is your job to plant the seed now. Sometimes the growth will come in a few months, often its a few years, but God will take care of the growth. Whether it is planting a seed in someone else or taking a step in obedience, the Lord is calling us all to be planters today. Be faithful to plant the seed and trust God to take care of the growth.

so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
    it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
    and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. – Isaiah 55:11

Re:Verse passage – Mark 4:26-32 (day six).

The disciples must have been discouraged. Things weren’t going as they had imagined—people weren’t responding like they’d hoped. Perhaps they thought Jesus’ parables were too obscure, too confusing, and surely there had to be a better way to gather a following than telling stories that sounded like riddles.

The world’s way of accomplishing big things is through force, strength, and control: fill the streets with angry crowds, build up the campaign fund, broaden the base. The world’s answer is always more. More power. More influence. More noise.

But Jesus offers a radically different perspective in Mark 4:26-32. He assures his disciples that it’s not about their strength or strategies—growth is God’s work. He invites them to trust in the small and seemingly insignificant. A farmer plants the seed, but the miracle of life and growth is entirely in God’s hands. The tiniest mustard seed grows into something mighty, providing shelter and blessing beyond what anyone could imagine.

This is the upside-down Kingdom of God. His plans don’t follow our rules or expectations. We certainly wouldn’t send the Savior to die in weakness and shame, but God’s wisdom works through what the world calls foolishness. He uses the small, the humble, and the few to bring about something extraordinary. In God’s hands, little is never wasted, and weakness becomes strength.

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”.

Re:Verse passage – Mark 4:26-32 (day four)

God made this earth and called it good, and all of creation proclaims the glory of God and speaks to his character. Nature doesn’t just make for a great metaphor, it directly shows us God’s goodness and helps us understand how to live as a result. In this parable, nature shows us how to trust in what Pierre Teilhard de Chardin calls “the slow work of God.”

The farmer plants the seed in faith that it will slowly, in the right time, produce fruit. Even if we have a degree in agriculture and understand how plants produce, it is still nothing short of a miracle that God allows fruit to come, slowly but surely, through a small seed. A favorite worship song of mine proclaims, “Oh how nature acquaints us with the nature of patience!”

God is making all things new and establishing his Kingdom in his perfect timing, and we wait longingly for the final harvest when Christ returns in glory. But in the meantime, we have been given everything we need through the blood of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit to “trust in the slow work of God.”

Re:Verse passage – Mark 4:26-32 (day two)

“The soil produces crops by itself; first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head.”

Nothing remains unchanged of all that has been created. All things in the world proceed according to their way. And everything has a way, whether good or bad, desirable or undesirable – fruit, results, effects, endpoints. Sometimes you can trace the origin of an outcome, and sometimes you can’t. It’s all too much to track, regardless. You’ve blamed yourself for hardship when you had no power to change what happened. You’ve credited yourself for success instead of expressing gratitude for good fortune. And amidst it all, unseen, God acts to move this universe along according to his purpose. To learn the way of yielding to God’s activity is the lifelong discipline from which come contentment, thanksgiving, humility, and joy.

Re:Verse passage – Mark 4:26-32 (day two) (A)nd he goes to bed at night and gets up by day, and the seed sprouts and grows—how, he himself does not know. v. 27

Do you like to know how things work? Put another way, do you like to be in control of things? Work, family, relationships, projects, whatever it is, I like to have a sense of being in control. It is one of the reasons I detest roller coasters-that’s a different blog. To some degree or another most of us like that feeling on controlling a situation. There is security in knowing how things will go. Following a recipe can be so rewarding because you know what the result will be if you faithfully follow the plan. Walking in faith is an exercise in trust. We must trust the Lord to do the work that we cannot. Surrender is one of the cardinal principles of following Jesus. The need to know step a, b, and c are lost in the desire to obey and trust the Lord to give you what you need for the moment. For people like me that can sound terrifying, but in the cosmic Kingdom of God, it is reassuring to know that the outcome is not based on me, and if I’m honest that’s really better for us all.