Mark: Jesus breaks more “rules”

Continuing in Mark 2

Mark 2:18 – The Pharisees would fast, as would John the Baptist’s disciples. Curious as to why Jesus’ disciples did not, some people questioned Jesus.

Mark 2:19-20 – Jesus likened it to a party. Who goes to a party to fast? While Jesus is on earth, it is a time to celebrate and enjoy the company. Once we goes away, then it will be time to fast. Obviously, Jesus believes in fasting as he did it while in the desert prior to beginning his ministry. But at this time it was not the most important thing since they had Jesus with them.

Mark 2:21-22 – Jesus compares his teachings on faith and the Pharisees’ legalism to pouring new wine into cracked bottles. It would never work. You can’t compare the two teachings nor can you try to line them up. Jesus was raising the bar and making things a heart issue rather than just a list of things to do or not do.

Mark 2:23-24 – The disciples are continuing on their journey and they walk through a field of wheat. This was on the sabbath, and as they walked they picked some fields of wheat. The paparazzi of Pharisees’ jumped out and accused them of working on the Sabbath.

Mark 2:25-26 – Jesus throws some scripture at them, using David as an example. The Pharisees’ knew their scripture so they knew exactly what Jesus was talking about.

Mark 2:27-28 – Again, the Pharisees had taken something that was a blessing (the sabbath) and turned it into a burden through legalism. The sabbath was given to man, by God, as a day of rest but the Pharisees’ had turned it into a curse because of the rules and regulations they added. Jesus reminded them that he was bigger than the sabbath and was lord over it.

Mark: Crowded House

Mark 2

2:1-2 – Jesus was in town and a crowd gathered. Our churches should be crowded. This house was packed when Jesus was in the house. Churches should be packed on Sunday as well when Jesus is in the midst.

2:3-4 – It’s some good friends who will take a man paralyzed to Jesus. They knew who could change the man’s life and so they did what they could to get him inside to where Jesus is.

2:5 – Jesus, impressed at the friend’s dedication and the man’s faith that Jesus could heal him, forgave the man’s sins. This just set up what was to come next.

2:6-7 – The teachers of the law immediately started whispering to themselves accusations that Jesus blaspheming. When you’re doing great things for God, people are going to attack. Bank on it.

2:8-12 – Jesus knows what they are thinking and shows them that they haven’t seen anything yet. Not only will he forgive the man’s sins, but he’ll heal him. Jesus demonstrated that you cannot put God in a box. Just forgiving sins is one thing, but healing a paralyzed man and seeing him walk right in front of your own eyes, now that’s a miracle!

2:13 – Once again, Jesus continues on his journey, preaching to all those who would listen.

2:14 – Jesus calls on a tax collector to follow him. A tax collector was not liked by other Jewish people because of their involvement with the Roman government. It was a Jewish person, in collaboration with the Romans to fleece other Jewish people. They were despised, yet Jesus calls Levi while he’s working one day.

2:15 – That evening Jesus is having dinner with what the Message translation calls a “collection of disreputable guests” because, don’t miss it, many had become followers.  The world sees a collection of undesirables, Jesus sees friends and now followers.  Who do we want in our church?

2:16 – The teachers of the law came running again complaining to the disciples about the company that Jesus was keeping.

2:17 – Jesus speaks up again, proclaiming that these are the people he came to help: those far from God not the righteous. Today’s church can get the same accusations thrown at it: you don’t know the kind of people you have coming to your church. That’s ok, let them keep coming and we’ll keep sharing Jesus with them.

Mark: Jesus heals the leper

Continuing my journey through the book of Mark with focus on Jesus’ leadership and discipleship.

1:35 – In the middle of the night, Jesus withdraws to pray.  This is already becoming a trend early in his ministry.  He withdraws to spend regular time with God the Father.

1:38 – Once the discples found Jesus, he asked that they go to more towns so he can preach.  “That is why I’ve come,” he states.  There is no mention of miracles being a reason he came.  (more on this below)

1:40-41 – A man with leprosy approached Jesus begging him for healing. Lepers were looked down upon as cursed. The man had faith that Jesus could heal him, he just asked if he was willing. And Jesus was moved with compassion and healed him.

1:43-44 – Jesus strongly instructed the man to not tell anyone about the healing. In this early stage of ministry, Jesus may have not wanted a crowd looking for miracles but instead wanted to teach. After all, verse 38 states that Jesus had come to teach and preach.

1:45 – But like any life-change, this man could not keep quiet about it and he told everyone. Jesus was left hiding out away from the crowds. But they soon found him.

Mark: The start of Jesus ministry

Reading through the Gospels to really study how Jesus did ministry and made disciples. I am blogging the journey. I’m starting in Mark.

1:9-10 – Jesus followed in baptism before his ministry officially started.

1:12 – “At once, the Spirit pushed Jesus out into the wild.” (MSG) After baptism, Jesus’ next step was to go into the wilderness for 40 days to prepare. He had to have alone time with God before he started teaching and gathering disciples. He faced temptation from Satan while there.

1:16-18 – Jesus found Simon and his brother Andrew fishing. He immediately asked them to join him and he would make them fishers of men. Verse 18 says: “They didn’t ask questions. They dropped their nets and followed.”

1:19-20 – Jesus found James and John and made the same offer. Without hesitation, they accepted and followed. They left behind their father, their job, the boat, and employees to follow Jesus. They were committed to following Jesus above anything else.

1:21 – Jesus became involved and teaching.

1:22 – People noticed how Jesus spoke in comparison to the scribes and teachers of the law. Jesus spoke with authority rather than just quoting the law. How can this apply to us? Do we just quote scripture to those around us or do we try to live the Gospel and be the Gospel to those that are far from God?

1:23 – Jesus has his first critic.

1:24 – The demon proclaims who Jesus is and what he has come to do. “I know what you’re up to! You’re the Holy One of God, and you’ve come to destroy us!” (MSG) And Jesus tells him to be quiet. He’s not ready for it to be known.  Why would a demon try to publicly announce Jesus?  Maybe out of fear or to appear like they are working together.  Whatever the reason, the demons knew Jesus eventual reign would mean their eventual destruction.

1:25-26 – Jesus promptly casts out the demon.

1:27-28 – People starting texting each other, blogging about it, and posting twitter updates.  News spread quickly about Jesus’ actions. When things are happening in a ministry, word will spread quickly.

1:29-31 – Jesus meets Simon’s mother-in-law and heals her of her fever. She immediately begins serving them.

1:32-34 – Later that night, Jesus saw more sick and afflicted people. Again, he would not allow the demons to speak since they knew who Jesus really was. Can you imagine the line of people coming to see Jesus? That’s exactly how our church’s should be. It should be traffic problem coming in and leaving our church. When lives are being changed, it will attract those in the community to come and see for themselves.

Size Doesn’t Matter

I’m a student of the church.  I love to read about processes and systems that are working in other churches.  I try to keep up with the blogs of church leaders and follow many on Twitter.  Sometimes church leaders can try to emulate other churches that are growing because we want to grow like that.  “If we get fancy lights, people will come.” or  “If we have this ministry, it will bring people in”.  Just like I wrote about here, at times I struggle with what Perry Noble calls “inspiration but no revelation”.  What he means by that is we can go to conferences and bring up alot of notes of different programs and eye candy and try to put them all in place in our church without ever trying to find out what God wants for us to do.  In reading Luke 9 today I find that I’m not the only one who can think like that.

They started arguing over which of them would be most famous. When Jesus realized how much this mattered to them, he brought a child to his side. “Whoever accepts this child as if the child were me, accepts me,” he said. “And whoever accepts me, accepts the One who sent me. You become great by accepting, not asserting. Your spirit, not your size, makes the difference.” Luke 9:46-48 (The Message)

Jesus uses a child as his illustration.  Jesus was a creative teacher, so we like to use him as our model at CrossPoint to make the message come to life.  But that’s another blog post.

The disciples were becoming preoccupied with their fame instead of Jesus’.  Churches and church staff can do the same.  Who’s fame is it about? Mine or Jesus’?  The disciples wrestled with it and so can we.  The flesh is definately weak when it comes to pride.  Jesus reminds all his followers that it’s only by being fully devoted to Jesus, serving him and others that we can truly be successful in whatever we do.

Daddy Days Part 3

God has taught me so much through my daughter. He speaks to me through our relationship has father-child and also through her childlike faith.

For a while now Sheridan has reached that (sometimes obnoxious) stage of saying daddy ALL THE TIME.  At first it’s cute, but it has become the beginning of every sentence.  I can be looking straight at her and she will still say “Daddy” and I have to acknowledge her before she will continue.  There was a time I loved hearing her say “da-da” or “daddy”.  Sometimes she even just calls me “dad”.  (What 4 year old says that?) I know she’s a four year old but after the 234678 time you hear it, it becomes like fingers on a chalkboard.  So I’ve been trying to train her to just talk to me and not say “daddy” all the time.

It was during one of these talks that God spoke to me about this.  I may get tired of hearing daddy, daddy, daddy but He desires that kind of relationship with us.  He wants us to call on Him as our Abba, Father.  Galatians 4:6-7 says:

Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.

If we’ve come to know Christ, then we have the Holy Spirit within us.  If we have the Holy Spirit within us, then that spirit communes with the Spirit of God as our Father, our Dad.  We are His sons and daughters.  And He desires us to call on Him at all times.  It’s a constant communication.

I’ll be honest, there are times I desire peace and quiet from the 1001 questions Sheridan asks.  As much as I love her, I’m human and it can get under my skin.  What I’m learning is that God never desires that in our relationship with Him.  All throughout the gospels, Jesus withdrew for prayer time with God.   You know, I don’t think God ever sent Jesus away.  Look at what Jesus said in Matthew 8:28:

“When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am the one I claim to be and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me.

There has to be face time for this kind of instruction from God.  So while I have some things to work on as a parent, we serve a God who wants us to crawl up in His lap and just talk with Him.

Daddy Days Part 2

God has taught me so much through my daughter.  He speaks to me through our relationship has father-child and also through her childlike faith.

I’m loving our daddy-daughter days so far.  I’m already planning ahead what we’re going to do each week.  I think I look forward to it as much as she does.

Also on Monday, Sheridan and I visited Mabry Mill.  My family went there a lot when I was a kid so it was always fun for me to go.  And now I enjoy going with my family, if for nothing more than the nostalgia.  While there, Sheridan was talking about how much fun we were having as we walked hand in hand and I felt the Holy Spirit speak to me.  It caught me off guard at first.  “Don’t make these special days like how some people view my church.  Be careful not to give her one day a week and ignore her the other six.”

I love our daddy-daughter days each week because we are doing things that are fun.  Nikki and I have purposefully cut back in a few areas of the budget so we can put money aside to do some fun things with Sheridan this summer.  I know me.  If we just stayed home, we would end up in front of the tv, not really spending quality time together.  So I am being purposeful about the time together 1 day each week.  However, that could very easily become a token day to make myself feel good that I’m spending time with her.  And sadly so many people view church each week the same way.

I used to be a Sunday morning Christian.  I used to show up at church each week like I was doing God a favor.  I gave Him 90 minutes each week then went about the rest of my week feeling like I was doing just fine on my own.  It wasn’t until I started serving in ministry that I realized the importance of church and then the importance of a daily walk with Christ.  Through that, Jesus became relevant to me and I found out how much I needed him to get me through each day.

So my next step is to invest time each day with Sheridan to build our relationship with each other. What’s your next step in your family?  Is there someone in which you need to invest purposeful, quality time?  What about your personal relationship with Christ?  Where are you with him?  What’s the next step God is calling you to take for Him?

Daddy Days Part 1

God has taught me so much through my daughter.  He speaks to me through our relationship has father-child and also through her childlike faith.

I’ve written some about what God is teaching me about rest.  One way of staying accountable with that during the summer is spending that day with my daughter.  On most weeks that is Friday.  However, this week I had to change it to Monday because Sheridan had to stay with me anyway.  So I took the day off and spent yesterday with her on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

It was a beautiful day and we had a blast together.  We were able to look at God’s creation and talk about Him.  She talked about how big the mountains were and how far you could see them.  I asked her who made the mountains.  “God did”, she said.  Then I asked her: “if God made those mountains, then how big is God?”.  Her eyes widened.  “He’s REALLY big!”

In Matthew 17, a father brought his son to Jesus.  He had originally asked the disciples to help his son but they failed to drive the demon out of the boy.  Jesus rebuked the demon and healed the boy.  Afterwards the disciples asked Jesus why they were not successful.  In verse 20, Jesus responded:

“Because you’re not yet taking God seriously,” said Jesus. “The simple truth is that if you had a mere kernel of faith, a poppy seed, say, you would tell this mountain, ‘Move!’ and it would move. There is nothing you wouldn’t be able to tackle.” (The Message)

Sometimes it takes looking at things from a different perspective to realize who we have on our side.  I love looking at creation to remind myself of how big our God really is.  When I read that story, my human mind wants to think: yeah, but a mountain is huge!  But when you stand on top of a mountain and look down and realize that there’s a Creator that’s even bigger!  Wow, that mountain is huge but we have access to the One who molded it with His hand!  And Jesus said with just a little grain of faith, through Him there’s nothing we can’t accomplish.

So we just need to change our perspective.  Look down at the problem so you can see just how big God really is.