31 January 2013

Psalm 50; Isa. 49:13-23; Gal. 3:1-14; Mark 6:30-46

What a beautiful vision this is!  The nation sees destruction and cannot believe this is not the final word and yet the Lord says, "you ain't seen nothing yet."  The restoration of Israel is more glorious than anything they have yet seen or known.  The vision is of so many children in old age that there isn't room for them all and how amazing would the literal fulfillment of this vision be: "Kings shall be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. With their faces to the ground they shall bow down to you, and lick the dust of your feet."  Indeed they would know that the Lord has done this thing, no other possibility exists.  We are called to wait upon the Lord, not take matters into our own hands, and if we do we will see such things.

Mark emphasizes that the place where the crowd gathered was "desolate."  Three times he uses this word in setting up the miracle.  He wanted to leave no doubt that this was the work of the Lord, no other explanation would work, so why are there those today who give alternative explanations like the people had food with them but were anxious about sharing it until Jesus offered up the meager provision?  Mark is very clear that this was a miracle, he leaves no room for any other means by which food could be provided and in the process makes the parallel to the provision by God of food in the wilderness explicit.  They knew the truth, no matter what anyone might say, the Lord is capable of anything at all.

Paul points to miracles as evidence that it is not the Law but faith that is the Gospel.  Miracles don't happen by Law.  They are excluded.  That is the rationalist objection to miracles, they contravene known laws of nature.  Miracles are themselves acts of God who is able to do what we cannot and they point then to His action being a miraculous intervention in the chain of cause and effect that we know.  Such is the action of grace, it interrupts the cause and effect of sin and death by transferring our sin to Jesus and His righteousness to us and the transaction is accomplished through faith not some act on our part.  The good news is better than anyone ever imagined but it was there all along, beginning in Genesis 15 when Abraham believed God and that was accounted to him as righteousness, before the covenant and the Law.  Take this day to stand on the promises of God to you and live with faith, hope and joy.

29 January 2013

Psalm 45; Isa. 48:12-21; Gal. 1:18-2:10; Mark 6:1-13

In announcing the redemption of His people from Babylon, the Lord reaches back to the beginning of time and the beginning of the nation, their redemption from Egypt.  He points to those two events, the first at the beginning of the passage and the second at the end of it, to establish His credentials and His trustworthiness.  In between the two, they get a short lecture about what might have been had they listened and paid heed to Him.  If they had been obedient their peace would have been like a river, their righteousness like the waves of the sea and they would see the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham regarding their numbers, they would be like the sand at the sea, innumerable.  In spite of their failure to keep covenant, His love and His covenant are everlasting so He will again redeem His wayward people.  Grace and mercy are keys to the relationship as they must be in any relationship.

The people go from astonishment at Jesus' teaching to taking offense in one simple move.  They ask the question where did this man get this teaching to answering it for themselves by reference to His upbringing and their answer is the rationale for offense.  What they know becomes an impenetrable barrier to truth.  They don't know what they think they know.  As He continues teaching in the villages, Jesus sends out the disciples two by two to take charge of unclean spirits.  The disciples are obedient to the commands given them and see healings happen, deliverance from the unclean spirits.  Who are these men and where did they get their power?  They were fishermen, tax collectors and zealots, a random collection of men who became extraordinary through contact with Jesus and being filled with the Holy Spirit, obedience to the commandments given them.  Jesus has come to redeem those who believe and obey.

The churches in Judea know something about Paul but they glorify God because of him.  They glorify God because of the change the Lord worked in Paul, he once was lost but now is found and they accept the change for what it is, an amazing work of God.  Paul continues his personal story by saying that early in his ministry he went to Jerusalem but didn't see any of the leaders of the church except James who is now dead, and then didn't return for fourteen years.  He paid that visit to make sure that the Gospel he was preaching among the Gentiles that salvation was by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone was true and that the apostles had no issues with his ministry.  Even though no one taught him these things, his message was correct, it was from God.  If that is so, then a "gospel" at variance with that is no gospel at all and no truth at all.  Self-reliance, keeping a law, is a failed enterprise, God has redeemed His people in mercy and grace.

28 January 2013

Psalm 41, 52; Isa. 48:1-11; Gal. 1:1-17; Mark 5:21-43

In essence the Lord says that they are taking His Name in vain, they don't know Him but they speak of Him as though they do.  His accusation against them is that their hearts are divided, they will run after idols and also speak of Him, and His glory will not be shared with another.  He speaks of doing a new thing like has never been seen before and says that in the past He has always told them what He was doing prior to doing it so that they would know that it was no coincidence and that His works were not attributable to anything else.  Are we listening to Him to know what He intends to do?

You know it's Mark's Gospel when you see the word immediately so many times in such a short passage.  The flow of blood immediately dried up, Jesus immediately turned to the crowd, the little girl immediately got up and the witnesses were immediately overcome with amazement.  It seems truly amazing that He was able to heal the woman without even knowing who was healed.  She has bet everything on this one chance, she has suffered under medical treatment for so long and now she takes the chance of being among people and touching Him, even though she would certainly have committed a grievous sin by doing so.  She was forbidden to have contact with anyone because of her infirmity because she made them unfit for the temple according to the Law.  Surely this was known in this area, but she took her chance and received wholeness.  Her faith was incredible.  The ruler is desperate for his daughter and even though Jesus has just been in the Decapolis among the tombs and pigs and has now had contact with this woman, none of that matters, only his daughter, and he is rewarded.  I wonder what became of Jairus.

Paul offers a very brief greeting to the church at Galatia.  He has too much business to do to spend time on pleasantries.  He begins very abruptly, "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel…"  The matter is far too important to beat around the bush.  He essentially wants to know what has gotten into them that they are willing to abandon the Gospel.  They need to understand that the Gospel he has preached to them is not something he cooked up on his own, this was given him directly by God and it is of the utmost importance that they get it right and not distort it in any shape, form or fashion.  The Gospel matters and we should have Paul's attitude towards truth, we should challenge strongly any attempt to distort it at all.  God has spoken, we have no right to change what He has said and done.

27 January 2013

Psalm 63, 98; Isa. 47:1-15; Heb. 10:19-31; John 5:2-18

The Lord announces that Babylon is under judgment.  He judged His people and punished them for their apostasy and used the Babylonians as a part of His judgment but they themselves are to be judged and brought down to nothing.  They were an advanced civilization that was the wonder of the world and they believed that such would be the case in perpetuity, similar to what Adolf Hitler believed about the Germanic Third Reich.  Could we, in America, be guilty of a similar way of thinking?  It seems there is always a spiritual degeneracy as civilizations advance.  There is a sense that materialism isn't the answer, that there is something more but the search for that something more is a journey of self-fulfillment.  The Lord says that if He has judged His own people, will not the judgment of these people who are not His people, be all the more severe.

The man whom Jesus heals here leaves me wondering why in the world Jesus bothered with him.  He doesn't simply answer Jesus' question about being healed, he makes his excuse for why he hasn't been healed, no one is there to help him into the water when it is "troubled."  He does, however, obey Jesus' command to take up his bed and walk.  He can't get up to get into the pool but he is suddenly willing and able to get up and carry his "bed", whatever that may consist of, perhaps a mat of some sort.  Obedience to Jesus' command is seen as breaking Sabbath.  The man is, therefore, questioned by the authorities concerning this breach and he points to Jesus as the man who healed him but also the one who commanded him to do this thing, his way of absolving himself for the infraction.  When Jesus speaks to him he tells him to go and sin no more that nothing worse may happen to him and the man's reaction is to inform the leaders that it was Jesus who had healed him.  Two questions arise: why did Jesus say that nothing worse may happen and why did the man go to the leaders with Jesus' name?  Did he sin by doing so?  I would love to know the rest of the story concerning this man.  The best way to read this story is in contrast to the story in John 9, the man born blind, and compare their reactions.

Sometimes it is helpful to break things down into simple terms.  The writer begins by telling what Jesus has done for us, He opened for us a new and living way in His flesh through His blood to enter the holy places.  That is an allusion to the temple where the priest had to take blood into the sanctuary, the holy place, in order to make expiation for sin.  We now need not enter such places with trepidation but with confidence, knowing the sacrifice of Jesus was acceptable to God.  Since He has done this and now is our great high priest, the writer calls on us to act.  Let us: draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water, hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, and consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.  We are called to action not passivity.  We are not to be like the man at the pool, we are to actively participate in our sanctification.  Likewise, we are to remember the lesson of God's judgments against His own people, we are to recall that He has expectations of us and we are to walk in the light of our salvation and also of God's ways.

26 January 2013

Psalm 30, 32; Isa. 46:1-13; Eph. 6:10-24; Mark 5:1-20

The gods of the nations must be carried about on animals and the burden of the gods, the idols, is too great to be borne by the beasts of burden.  On the other hand, the people of God are not asked to bear the burden of Yahweh, He bears them and He never tires, never wearies, He will carry them their entire lives, from the womb to grey hairs.  Why should a god be a burden to people?  The God of Israel promises salvation.  None of the other gods can possibly be termed gods if they were created by men out of other created things.  We may not make idols and call them gods but it would be a good thing if we took the time to see what it is in our lives that lays burdens on us and demands they be served by us.  The answer is to let those things go, put them back in their rightful place.  Is it your house that requires you to work yourself to death, leaving no room for serving the Lord?  Is it something else that demands most of your time and attention?  Like the Israelites, He is calling you to return to the one who has carried and will carry you and has saved you through eternity.

Jesus appears to have gone across the sea this night for one purpose, to deliver and save this demon-possessed man.  Jews didn't go over to the Decapolis, it was a pagan country.  They also didn't go among the tombs of pagan peoples, but Jesus did.  He went because He had compassion on the man.  He healed him and then He got back in the boat and returned but not before commissioning the man as a missionary to his own people.  He sent him to tell all that Jesus had done.  He delivered the man that had tormented them, they all knew who he was, and they marveled at the power that had set him free, they knew the power required to accomplish this miracle.  If Jesus can set this man free, what can He do to set you free today?

Paul doesn't tell the Ephesians that they are to move out against the schemes of the devil and to fight against "the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places."  He tells them they are to stand against these things.  He knows that the devil is coming against us, just as Peter warned, " Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour."  He will come looking for us, we don't have to go looking for him.  We need only be prepared and Paul tells us how, put on the armor of God and stand.  Let us commit to the spiritual disciplines of putting on that armor so that we are prepared for the battle that will undoubtedly come.

25 January 2013

Psalm 31; Isa. 45:18-25; Eph. 6:1-9; Mark 4:35-41

The Lord calls His people to Himself.  He has made Himself known and is making Himself known, all that is required is to come to Him.  He calls them out from the nations who are worshippers of idols.  The refrain that runs through the passage is that He is the Lord or God and there is no other.  Either that statement is true or it is false.  If it is true then the response is simple, leave the false gods and come to the one true God.  If it is false then you should reject this god as false.  All that is required is that they/we turn to Him and be saved, He does the saving, He gives life, righteousness and strength.  One day the truth of His claim will be seen and known by all. 

So, whom do the wind and sea obey?  That should tell you everything you need to know.  They at least got one of the questions right that evening.  Their first question, "Teacher, don't you care that we are perishing?" is a far bigger question than they could have imagined that night.  The answer is that Jesus' mission was completely on account of the fact that they were perishing.  There was nothing on earth He cared about as much as that.  Everything He did was to save them from perishing.  When He spoke to the waves He commanded peace, but afterwards, when He turned to the disciples He asked why they were afraid.  I feel certain everyone in the boat was indeed filled with fear.  His solution to the problem of fear was not a command to them to have peace and be still but to have faith.  Faith is the antidote to fear.  Faith that He cares and is capable of dealing with any situation. 

Paul commands bondservants or slaves to obey their masters as they would Christ.  Does that mean that their masters are as Christ to them?  No, it means that they are in fact not bondservants of these masters at all, they are bondservants of Christ, and their service is rendered to Him and not to any man.  All that we do is service to Him.  It comes down to an issue of sovereignty, whatever our situation in life may be, it is because in God's good, perfect and pleasing will that is where He has us, otherwise we would be somewhere else.  We are to serve Him in our situation, whatever that may require unless illegal or immoral.  Obedience is the command Paul gives to all.  How can we see our current situation as service to Him?  

24 January 2013

Psalm 37:1-18; Isa. 45:5-17; Eph. 5:15-33; Mark 4:21-34

The Lord is going to use Cyrus to accomplish His will, the restoration of Israel.  Was anyone in Israel praying for such an event?  We tend to believe we know how God can best accomplish things but we always forget to leave room for the reality that His ways are higher than ours and His thoughts higher than our thoughts.  Are there places in your life where you're waiting for God to do something you believe He has promised and purposed and you're expecting it to come about a certain way.  Maybe this is the time to step back and ask Him to show you how He wants to do these things.  Isaiah was surely taken off guard by this way of bringing about the restoration of Israel.  It would be doubtful that he would have come up with such an idea on his own.  The Lord, however, did exactly this and indeed restored the nation. 

Jesus tells two parables of the kingdom, both of which make clear that His ways are mysterious.  We can explain scientifically how a seed grows but why that should be so is something we cannot fathom.  Nachmonides, a 12^th century Jewish sage in Spain taught concerning creation that everything, all the matter for the universe, was initially contained in something like a mustard seed, except smaller.  Jesus used that analogy for the kingdom 12 centuries prior to that.  Creation, like the kingdom of God, is a deep mystery and we need not understand God's ways but we must have faith that He is able from something as small as a mustard seed to do according to His will.  All we have to do is have faith and share that faith, trusting Him for the results. 

Paul speaks of the mystery of husband and wife becoming one flesh as an analogy for the relationship between Christ and the church and vice versa.  If we would understand one half of the analogy we would understand the other.  How could Jesus love the church given its fractiousness and quarrelsomeness?  He does, however, love the church as a husband loves a wife and husbands are to love their wives as Christ loves the church.  We get caught up in the wives submitting to husbands but if husbands loved their wives as He loves the church then no wife would be unwilling to submit to such a husband.  His love is meant to transform the church, which means us.  Paul sees the marital relationship being transformed by love and submission.  Remember the curse pronounced on Eve, that her desire would be for her husband but he would rule over her?  That desire is to master the man.  Paul sees that love transforms and renews the marital relationship from the curse.  The ways of God are inscrutable but He makes the mysteries known to those who follow Him.  Discipleship and faith come first then we progress in understanding.

23 January 2013

Psalm 38; Isa. 44:24-45:7; Eph. 5:1-14; Mark 4:1-20

The Lord proclaims He is above, over and controlling all things.  He formed us from the womb, He alone created all things, stretched out the heavens and the earth, determines the building and habitation of Jerusalem, brings forth rivers and dries them up, forms light and darkness, makes well being and creates calamity.  For these reasons He should be feared and worshipped, He alone does these things.  In addition to that, He is using Cyrus, the Persian king, even though this king doesn't know Him.  He is providing all Cyrus needs to do what he thinks is his own will but is actually the Lord's will.  Is the Lord hiding Himself from Cyrus or revealing Himself in these things?  Surely coincidence would not be enough to explain all this, there must be another explanation but will the king seek and accept the explanation?  One way or another, willingly or not, the Lord's will is accomplished in all things.  A wonderful passage on the sovereignty, omniscience and omnipotence of God.

Did Jesus teach in parables to hide the truth?  Is that what He meant when He said, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, so that “they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven.”  Why didn't they ask Him the meaning of the parable?  They had an opportunity but didn't want to know.  The parable seems simple, where is the truth hidden?  It is not propositional but must be inferred from the story.  Is our desire to know truth or not?  If so, then we should hunger and thirst for the word of God, we should be like Jesus, living by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.  The problem is we aren't always hungry for His truth, we are too busy with other things too occupied, like Martha, to give ourselves to Him.  The soil of the soul needs more attention.

What do we allow into our lives and our hearts?  There is a children's song that warns, "Be careful little eyes (ears) what you see (hear)."   There is a great truth in that ditty.  We have so many things through movies, TV and worst of all, the internet, which assault us and are available to us and we have to make choices what to allow in, we aren't forced to take in those images.  What we allow to come into our lives matters, it influences us, it isn't benign.  Part of the work of preparation of the soil of the soul is protecting it from weeds, clearing away the stones, keeping out predators.  It is the work we are given to do, sanctification matters and is a synergistic process of our effort and the Holy Spirit working in us.  What are we allowing our eyes to see and our ears to hear?  Again, as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.