288 - “His Heart Breaks For You” Mark 6-7

 WHAT DO I REALLY NEED TO MINISTER?  Mark 6: 8 -9"Don't think you need a lot of extra equipment for ministry. You are the equipment. No special appeals for funds. Keep it simple. 

WHAT IS MY RESPONSE WHEN I AM OVERLOOKED? Mark 6:11  "If you're not welcomed, not listened to, quietly withdraw. Don't make a scene. Shrug your shoulders and be on your way."  C. S. Lewis' 8th chapter of Mere Christianity was the teacher's lesson plan yesterday...the real test of pride in my life is my response when friends and family don't listen to us and push us away---when we are rejected.  God so showed up for me in that chapter yesterday in the midst of being overlooked this week.  

WHAT HOPE DO I HAVE TO MINISTER IN MY OWN MESS?  Mark 6: 12 -13 With joyful urgency, the fledgling disciples sent the demons packing and brought wellness.  I love it!  Gives me hope in my own mess that I can send a few demons on their way!

DO PEOPLE WANT MORE OF HIM BECAUSE OF ME?  Mark 6:20 Something in John kept pulling Herod back to Jesus. 

DO YOU KNOW THAT HIS HEART BREAKS FOR YOU?  Mark 6:34 - At the sight of them, his heart broke—like sheep with no shepherd they were. He went right to work teaching them.  6:38---five loaves and two fish.  6:50---take Courage...it's Me...don't be afraid in midst of your storms.  HE knows our frame and His Heart breaks for us as we wrestle through storms and needs.  

IS YOUR HEART IN THE RIGHT PLACE?  Then rejoice today no matter how hard you may fall or how much you don't know what your next step is---it's not fatal.  Mark 7:7  "These people make a big show of saying the right thing, but their heart isn't in it...it's what comes out of a person that pollutes: obscenities, lusts, thefts, murders, adulteries, greed, depravity, deceptive dealings, carousing, mean looks, slander, arrogance, foolishness."  Make your heart right with your God this moment---that's all you have anyway---this moment.

287 - “The Time Has Come” Mark 4-5

 

The. Time. Has. Come.

The last words of the prophet Malachi still ring 400 years later. Malachi alluded that "the day is coming that shall set them ablaze;" the Sun of Righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. Here He is saying:
Don't let the world rule your life. "The worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. Mark 4:19. Instead, "hear the Word and accept it." Mark 4:20.

"Keep On Believing" no matter what you see. Mark 5:36. No matter if your world jumps in front of you when you're standing in line to talk to Jesus. No matter if your dreams die before you when Jesus is promising to move on your behalf. No matter if people give up on you and Jesus does not deal with them. No matter what, keep on believing.

The Sun of Righteousness has come to dispel the darkness, scatter the gloom, wipe off the oppression, take care of the injustice. He. Has. Come. and that changes everything. And we need to change our mind about everything. The Light of the World is here.

May we, your servants, hold You dear. Have compassion on us. 
For you will build us up. Appear in Your Glory, O God."

286 - “Mixing personal comfort with Spiritual Reality” Mark 1-3

 Mark 1:1 "Make ready the way of the LORD."  God prepares the way for Christ to enter our world and our hearts.  He has been stirring us for a long time.  Stirring us even this day.  He will baptize us with the Holy Spirit.  "If You are willing, You can make me clean."  Mark 1:40  Clean --- on the outside and inside.  

The young follower Mark came from a home of wealth.  He "mixed personal comfort with spiritual reality."  66LL.  Mark even aborted his ministry trip with Paul and Barnabas and sailed back to Jerusalem alone (Acts 13:1-13).  A failure--but make no mistake, failure never stops God's Plan.  The more we see Christ, the more we see our own hearts and whether we are willing to suffer loss for Him.  

Kingdom Living is serving not entitlement nor comfort; it is denying self and enduring suffering; it is living with hope here and now, real joy.  Kingdom Life is now.  Just like Mark finished well fighting his entitlement to the blessing of this life, may we too keep on believing in the dark, in the silence, even in the blessings.  

285 - “Unuttered Questions and Fears”

 

The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you... Matthew 28:5-7. 

This Risen Christ. 

A hope & joy to his followers. 

A confusion & terror to his enemies. 

"We do not read of any words as spoken by the women, but the words which they now heard were an answer to their unuttered questionings and fears."

I hold unuttered questions, unspeakable fears. And I don't have to verbalized anything to this Risen Christ Who is no longer here. He knows. 

Just live for the world where He went. 

PHOTO: Full Moon over all our unuttered longings. 

284 - "Watch Every Dream Go Down In Dust and Yearn to Be Involved in Kingdom Living" Matthew 25-26

Matthew 25:21- "You have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much.  Enter into the joy of your Master."

Matthew 25:25 - "So, I was afraid..."  The servant did nothing with what he was entrusted. The Redeemer had given him just a little.  The servant should have, at least, invested the one talent given to him by the One who owned him.  Do I live afraid to take the risk with the investment of what God has given to me?   The Parable of the Talents does not imply that by improving our talents, our abilities, our resources, we are then entitled to Divine Grace. We are all called to be servants of our Redeemer promoting ourselves---No!---promoting His Glory. There's a Grander Story here than just our story. We are constrained by the Love of Christ, controlled by His Love, to live no longer for ourselves. Am I willing to take a risk to invest in Eternity? These words come to mind again this week:

"Faith as I'm growing to understand it more, is about looking beyond my circumstances to a person. To have faith in better circumstances, even in God creating better circumstances, is not true faith. I want to be the kind of man who can watch every dream go down in flames and still yearn to be intimately involved in kingdom living, intimately involved with my Friend the King, and still be willing to take another risk just because it delights Him for me to do so. And my flesh shivers to think about it."    Shattered Dreams

PHOTO: 

283 - "What Circumstances Riddle My Soul?" Matthew 23-24

                                                                 

What circumstances riddle my soul this day?  Will faith be found among us?  The Kingdom is near!  I can wrestle with a Good God just like these disciples wrestled to find faith.  "I can live to give and not to grasp.  I can bring a taste of heaven to earth."  66 LL. Thy Kingdom come. Stay Awake. Be Vigilant. You have no idea when the Son of Man is going to show up. Matthew 24:30-31. The Arrival of the Son of Man will fill the skies---no one will miss that! Get Ready. his angels with a trumpet sound will pull in God's chosen from the four winds, from pole to pole. 

A Son of Adam, bothered by Satan, not only spiritually (like us all) but also physically.  Followers of Christ, not able to do anything about it.  Do the things of God rest on our hearts with deep conviction? What am I truly convinced of? How can the Truth be instrumental in our own hands of becoming faith in others? By our tiny faith, we will draw out from others the people God intended for them to be. 

PHOTO: A new sun. A new day. God arrives. And This Day may be the Day He fills the skies. Live like it is. 

282 - "The Messiah of My Dreams" Matthew 21-22

                              

Matthew 21:9 - "Hosanna to the Son of David!  Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord! Hosanna in the Highest!"  And when He entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, "Who is This?" The point is that a king would come riding upon a horse when he was bent on war; 

but he came riding upon an ass for he was coming in peace. 
This action of Jesus is a sign that He was not the warrior figure men dreamed of, 
but the Prince of Peace. No one saw it that way at that time, not even the disciples...
They were looking for the Messiah of their own dreams and their own wishful thinking.  William Barclay

Do I look this day for the Messiah of my own dreams, my own wishful thinking?  
Or do I embrace The Deliverer Who Has Come to Save Me and Set Me Free?

PHOTO:  The clouds 2,000 years later.

281 - "No Big People/ No Little People" Matthew 18-20

“Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”  Matthew 18:2.   I wonder if the disciples thought it would be one of them since they left it "all" for Him.  Left their jobs.  Left their families.  Left their children.  Surely!  Yet, they are still raw around the edges in ambition and selfishness and jealousy and the list goes on.  They ask for themselves, don't they?  For their confirmation of their own self worth.  What's the problem here?  What's the problem with me---for I deeply struggle with what others think of me and where I am in my life.  Would my life be validated if I was a flourishing bestseller author and speaker, like a Woman of Faith touring brigade.  Or, if I had one million friends on Twitter.  Or, if I had a church of 10,000 who loved my every bible study word. 

There are no degrees of greatness on earth.  We all wrestle with evil.  We aren't the example----Christ is.  So, why do I still struggle to be somebody?  It could be that my world shouts out to me that I have not arrived nor ever will.  Maybe, it's my own words that I say to myself.  Never the matter, it's not the question to ask.  There are no big people and little people in God's Economy, not in this life even though our world is set up as the bigs and the littles.  

So, what's the point here:  Humble yourself as a child.  Matthew 18:4.

280 - "Curved In On Ourselves" Matthew 15-17

                                                       

Matthew 15:18 - "But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander."   Incurvatus in se----Latin for "curved inward on oneself."  Romans 7: 18-19 - "For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing."  

       Augustine coined the phrase "curved in on itself."  
       Martin Luther expounded on the phrase by writing:  
       "Our nature, by the corruption of the first sin, 
       being so deeply curved in on itself 
       not only bends the best gifts of God towards itself & enjoys them 
       (as is plain in the works-righteous and hypocrites), 
       but rather even uses God Himself in order to attain these gifts, 
       and also fails to realize that it so wickedly, curvedly, and viciously 
       seeks all things, even God, for its own sake."

PHOTO: A bridge over troubled waters. Troubles happen to all of us. But it is our arrogance in our hearts that wreaks the most havoc. All because we are curved in on ourselves. Lose your life.

279 - "Five Loaves & Two Fish" Matthew 13-14

Are you listening, really listening?  Jesus told stories to their God-blessed ears and God-blessed eyes.  He repeated the question again and again---are you really listening.  Tell stories.  "Whenever someone has a ready heart, the insights and understandings flow freely" when Jesus told stories (13:12).  Shouldn't we?
Matthew 14

We're here to talk about God and what He's up to in our lives. Our experiences are not the means to find  God---they are the context in which we find God. 

It's the stories that nudge us to a welcome awakening. Matthew 13:13. 

It's my story that has provided the context of knowing God.

We see the rest of the story in this chapter.  John had called Herod's relationship with his sister-in-law what it truly was---adultery.  And it cost him his head.  I'm so "taken" with John in a dungeon and Jesus answering his question that the blind would see, the deaf hear, the lame walk.  But not you, John.  Life is so upside down than what I think at times.   When Jesus learned of his death, He slipped away but was so "taken" with the crowd that gathered that He not only spoke to them but also fed 5,000 from 5 loaves and 2 fish.  

How in the world will I ever find rest for my soul knowing I might be left in a dungeon waiting to be beheaded.  5 Loaves and 2 Fish.  Only God can change my weary worn soul.  Next, a storm comes up at sea....the disciples are panicked.  At 4:00am Jesus walks on water to His Followers.  Take Courage - 14:27.  Makes me think how God never sleeps, never slumbers to watch over us each night.  Only He can walk on water to make us stay alive, come alive.  5 Loaves and 2 Fish.  Would you make each of us a little more alive today than yesterday?

PHOTO: Rockport, Texas. Walking on the shore, thinking about God and how we can even come close to understanding an all-present, all-knowing God.