Tag Archives: Mark

He feels our touch (Mark 5:30-34) July 25, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Leviticus 19-21

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Mark 5:30-34
Jesus: Who just touched My robe?
His disciples broke the uneasy silence.
Disciples: Jesus, the crowd is so thick that everyone is touching You. Why do You ask, “Who touched Me?”
But Jesus waited. His gaze swept across the crowd to see who had done it. At last, the woman—knowing He was talking about her—pushed forward and dropped to her knees. She was shaking with fear and amazement.
Woman: I touched You.
Then she told Him the reason why. Jesus listened to her story.
Jesus: Daughter, you are well because you dared to believe. Go in peace, and stay well.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

This is another one of those stories that the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, all record. I’ve used the story to talk about the determination of the woman who sought Jesus in that great throng of people that crowded around Him as He tried to walk through the street. Everyone wanted to get close to Him and this woman, in her weakened condition, had to push through all those people. She had to jostle her way through what could probably look like Times Square on New Years’ Eve on a smaller scale.

It took a lot of determination to push through that throng to get to Jesus and touch His cloak. She probably got a lot of those dirty looks you’ve seen in the grocery store when someone tries to cut in line. She probably got pushed around and maybe even knocked down a few times as she tried to squeeze through a tiny opening between two people only to find it close with someone’s elbow in her ribs. It took a lot of tenacity and determination for her to get to the Master. But I don’t want to talk about her determination.

I’ve also talked about her faith in the past. To think, this woman had enough faith that just the touch of the Master’s cloak was enough to heal her. She knew that all she needed to do was get close enough to get a finger on the hem of His garment and all would be well. That simple touch would do what all the physicians she had seen could not do. It would cost her no money, she just needed to believe. But I don’t want to talk about this woman’s faith as great as it was.

What struck me today as I read this story again was that in that whole throng of people pushing and shoving and jostling Him around as He made His way through the city streets, Jesus felt the brush of a single hand against the cloth or the tassles at the very bottom of His cloak. That’s pretty extraordinary to me. I don’t know anyone that can do that. I’m not sure I know very many people, if any, that can discern when someone touches the hem of their cloak or coat hanging on them when no one else is touching them. Just a touch by a passerby as you walk down the street is almost indiscernable. But now try to figure out a new touch among the dozens of hands and bodies that are pressed against you…Wow!

That’s important to this story. It tells me that God knows what I’m doing when no one else does. It tells me my prayers and my desires and my hurts and my questions are not lost in the cacophony of the crowd around me. Even in the noise of the world that seems to drown out my voice to others, God hears. The world may not care about what happens to me and in fact, might press me down in their rush to move along the street of life, but God cares. He won’t let me get lost in the crowd. He knows my touch among the throng of people that crowd around and might try to still my voice.

That’s one of the things I like most about this story. God hears me, even when others don’t. He listens, even when others try to crowd me out. He responds to my touch, even though it is so brief and so gentle that most would never notice a touch has been made. The story tells me God really cares about us individually. He picks us out of the crowd and meets us where we are and meets our specific individual need, not what the roar of the crowd suggests.

It’s easy to get caught up in the crowd. You’ve probably been in some of those at some sports event. The team scores and the crowd goes wild and you get caught up in the excitement. Or picture the crowd as it leaves the stadium. If you want to turn left from the center of the crowd moving forward, it’s an almost impossible task. You get caught up in the crowd and the ushers, the guards, those that try to keep order among the throng of people keep everyone moving in that same direction. One person trying to go the other way is quickly turned around to move along with the crowd. But not with Jesus. He takes us where we need to go. He does what we need, not what the crowd needs. He cares for us just that much. With Him, we are not one in a crowd, we are one. Singularly important to Him in His kingdom.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Live where you are (Mark 5:19) July 24, 2016

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – 1 Thessalonians 1-3

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Mark 5:19
Jesus: Stay here; I want you to go back home to your own people and let them see what the Lord has done—how He has had mercy on you.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

“I want you to go back home to your own people.” The newly freed man didn’t expect that. He probably didn’t want it, either. Like most of us, the man probably wanted to accompany Jesus on His mission journey through the other towns of Galilee and Judea spreading the good news that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. But that wasn’t the mission Jesus gave him. Jesus told him to go home and talk to his family. The people that knew him best.

That’s tough work! Let me give you a sample from the secular side of the world. In my last assignment, I was the Chief of Staff of the Army Medical Department Center and School. That sounds like a fancy title, but not a lot of people know what it really means to be a Chief of Staff or what the Army Medical Department Center and School is all about. But looking back at the job, it was a pretty important position.

The Center and School is the place where the Army trained all its enlisted medical specialties and conducted all its leadership training. It is also the place where the doctrine, techniques, tactics, and procedures for medical support in combat and deployed situations is developed and codified for the Army and for much of the Joint medical support around the world. It is the largest allied health training facility in the world, with 3600 staff and faculty graduating more than 40,000 students a year in over 350 different course and 200 medical specialties and sub-specialties. All of the specialties and sub-specialties that can be accredited in civilian schools are accredited by those same boards and institutions to ensure the quality of training and subsequent medical support for our service members is the same or better than their civilian counterparts.

Now that sounds like a fairly impressive organization, right? And the Chief of Staff, my last position in the Army, orchestrates the staff, the department decoratorates, to make sure all of those activities happen the way they are supposed to. For me, it meant pretty long days for three years with back to back meetings all day long from 7:00 am to 6:00 pm almost every day. Thousands of pages of material to read and edit, hundreds of emails every day, and directing all that work to the right staff agencies for action and answers. Fun most days, exciting, exhausting, too.

When I went into a meeting, one of my favorite coffee cups would already be sitting at my seat at the table with steaming coffee. A copy of the briefing slides would be at my place with my favorite brand of pen and paper next to it. Everything ready to go so I when I came into the room for the meeting, I didn’t have to worry about anything but focusing on the meeting I was about to attend. My presence was announced when I walked into the conference room and people stood at attention. Sounds pretty important, doesn’t it?

But when I went home, I wasn’t Colonel Agee anymore. I was dad, Dick, son. No one at home really knew or understood what I did every day when I put on my uniform and went to that building down the street. They knew I did something important because of all the people that recognized me whenever we went anywhere on the installation. They knew Chief of Staff of the Army Medical Department Center and School must be a fairly decent position because my picture was on the wall of half the buildings at Fort Sam Houston and a lot of the policies on the bulletin boards held my signature at the bottom of the page. But they didn’t really think much about it because I was just dad or son or Dick. I took out the trash, helped with dishes, sometimes swept or vacuumed floors, and sometimes folded laundry. I was just a member of the family.

I share that to explain the difficulty in sharing with family sometimes the news of who you are or how you have changed. Frankly, I still wanted to be just dad and son and Dick at home. I was glad to shed Colonel when I walked through the doors at home. But if I wanted to tell them what I did and explain the position I held near the end of my career, I’m not sure most of my family would have understood or accepted the power I wielded as Chief of Staff. I grew up with my brothers and sisters. They knew me. My parents knew the trouble I caused them and all my shortfalls. It would be hard for them to accept the thought that with just a few words dozens or even hundreds of people would do what I asked. They would have a hard time believing I could influence how medical structures operated on battlefields around the world. I was just dad or Dick or son.

The man freed from his demon possession would have a tough time ahead. Jesus wanted him to witness to those who knew him best. He was to show the change in him. He was to share the message and not just talk about it, but live it every day in front of those who knew him best. This changed man was to prove himself to those who did not trust him, those who threw him into the street and chained him up in the cemeteries because he had been a danger to the community. His task would be his toughest assignment. But that’s sometimes what Jesus calls us to do. Live the life He calls us to, just where we are, the toughest place to live. 

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Names mean something (Mark 5:7-9) July 23, 2016

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Luke 23-24

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Mark 5:7-9
Jesus: Come out of that man, you wicked spirit!
Unclean Spirit (shouting): What’s this all about, Jesus, Son of the Most High? In the name of God, I beg You—don’t torture me!
Jesus: What is your name?

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

As with several of the parallel incidents in the gospels, the writers give us just a little different account of the happenings around a particular event. It’s not unlike any eye-witness account you might hear in a court of law if you sit as a juror in a trial. If every witness told the same story about an event in exactly the same way with exactly the same words, the opposing attorney would scream that the witnesses had been rehearsed. No one sees an event exactly the same way another person sees it.

Because of our individual backgrounds, we always see events through our lens. We subconsciously pick out the things that are most important to us. Consequently, we each see every event just a little different than the person sitting right next to us who observes the same event. So we should not be surprised that the gospels shed a little different light on each of these encounters.

Back to the story and two things I’d like us to see from Mark’s observation of Jesus’ command to the man possessed by many demons.

Jesus commands the demon to come out of the man. And the demon replies, “…In the name of God, I beg you…” Did you notice that? The demons serve Satan. They devote their lives to the powers of darkness. That give their all to the enemy of God. They do everything they can to thwart the plans God has for His kingdom and our salvation. They want to capture our soul and turn us to wickedness and away from God and His holiness. These demons want to lead us on the world’s path toward eternal destruction and join them in Satan’s hell.

Yet, when Jesus confronts these demons with the command to leave this tortured man, the demons cry out, “In the name of God…” They know where the real power lies. They understand their boss, Satan has no real authority. He has no real power. He cannot defeat the creator of the universe. His strength cannot match that of the Almighty’s. He knows it and he is very afraid when Jesus comes near.

The demon expects great pain, severe punishment because of who he is and what he’s done when Jesus comes near. The demon is now in the presence of God and expects judgment when he encounters His Son in the flesh. He assumes his eternal punishment will begin right then since Jesus has come from heaven and touched His feet to this planet. The demon assumes time has ended for him. “I beg you – don’t torture me.”

The demon’s response when Jesus came near tells me that when Jesus lives in us, we do not need to fear the evil of this world. Evil cowers in the presence of Christ. If we live by the Spirit as Paul describes it, and let God’s spirit consume us, teach us how to live, and guide our steps each day, we do not need to fear what Satan may put in our path. He will flee in the presence of God. He can not stand in the power and presence of God.

The second thing about this encounter is what we learn about the importance of names. The demon called out God’s name when it saw Jesus. The demon understood that even the mention of His name meant power over him. Then Jesus asked the demon its name. That probably seems strange to us. Why would Jesus ask the demon its name? What’s so important about knowing the demon’s name?

Throughout the Old and New Testaments and on through much of history until just a few years ago in our country, names were important. They meant something. People chose a child’s name carefully because subconsciously a child grew into the meaning of their name as they came to understand what it meant. Think of some of those characters of the Old Testament and see how they lived up to their names: Abraham – father of many; Jacob – deceiver; David – beloved; Elijah – my God is YAHWEH; Job – persecuted. Names are important.

I sorrowed when my school teacher daughter told me about the names of the children in her first class as a teacher – Chaos, Clinique, Shithead, Abcde. Names with horrible or no meaning strapped to children whose parents helped them live up to those standards because they held them to no standards as six and seven year old kids. It makes me wonder sometimes what parents are thinking when they label their children or what God thinks when He pens their name in the books that He will open on judgment day. How much do we live up to the name we are given by our parents?

Legion bowed at the name of Jesus. We will too. If Jesus lives in you, we should live up to His name. It meant something then and it means just as much in the evil times in which we live. 

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

He is in control (Mark 4:39-40) July 22, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Ezekiel 37-42

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Mark 4:39-40
He got up, shouted words into the wind, and commanded the waves.
Jesus: That’s enough! Be still!
And immediately the wind died down to nothing, the waves stopped.
Jesus: How can you be so afraid? After all you’ve seen, where is your faith?

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

The headlines in the news for the last several months seem a little scary to many people. Vacation plans to Europe cancelled. Vacation plans to America cancelled. Our State Department issuing warnings about travel and violence in various countries around the world and the need to exercise caution when traveling. Three countries now issuing warning about entering our country and exercising caution with our law enforcement. There is a lot of fear in the world.

Gun sales are at an all time high. People who would never consider purchasing a weapon because they had always felt safe in their homes, now own weapons and keep them loaded by their beds because of the fear of invasion that runs rampant across our land.

The headlines across our news papers and social media seem to want to spark racial tension and civil war. As the headlines work to grab people’s attention to the rest of the article, the headlines exaggerate what the rest of the article will share in facts, but we read the headlines and it incites hatred, anger, fear, protest, revolt, emotions that cause us to rise up against each other, often in violence.

Fear is the terrorists’ greatest weapon and they are using it well around the world. Terrorism has touched the shores of every continent and invaded the shores of our nation. And many in our nation fear for their safety because of the recent events that claimed the lives of so many people snuffed out without warning. One of the difficulties in dealing with the terrorists we face today is their willingness to die for their cause. When someone values their own life, they will stop the violence short of sacrificing themselves, but when they disregard their own life and are willing to use themselves as the device for destruction, it is very difficult to stop them. Just what we’ve seen in incidents like those in Orlando, Paris, and Nice.

We fear the things we cannot control. Whether it is terrorism, cancer, heart attacks, communicable diseases, storms, we fear these things we cannot control. That’s what was happening with these seasoned sailors. They got caught in the middle of a storm that rose up on the Sea of Galillee while transporting Jesus from one shore to the other. The winds came out of the north whipping up the waves and producing the kind of violent storms that sometimes plagued the area.

They didn’t expect it. They didn’t think the storm would come in like it did. They knew how to read the weather and this storm wasn’t predicted. But it came just the same. And they couldn’t control its effects on their small vessel. If it continued, the vessel would surely sink. They were afraid. But Jesus was with them. And that makes all the difference in the world.

He controls things we cannot. He controls the results of the storm. In fact, He should the disciples and those in all those other boats that traveled with them that He controlled the storm itself. With just a word the winds stopped, the waves calmed, the rain ceased. The storm obeyed His voice.

So what do we learn from all of this? I think it tells us that despite all the evil around us, we do not need to be afraid. Yes, there are terrorists that want to kill innocent people to advance their cause. We can’t control them, but God can and we don’t need to be afraid. He will either protect us from our enemy or use us in those moments to advance His plans for His world. He is still in control. Not the terrorist. We don’t need to be afraid. Do I understand why He allows all those things to happen? No, except perhaps He is still delaying the outpouring of His wrath in the hope that just one more will ask for His forgiveness and join the ranks of the redeemed in His kingdom.

We can be like Paul as he wrote in prison, which is better to live or die? If we live we get to continue to do God’s work, see more people won to Him, help to grow His kingdom, experience His mercy and grace here. If we die, we are ushered into His presence where we can rejoice with Him forever. So why should we fear the circumstance we face but cannot control. Things we cannot control will continue to happen all around us. But if Jesus is with us, we don’t need to be afraid. He is still in control of all things and still knows what is best for us. His actions and His timing is perfect. We may not understand it right now, but He is God and we can trust Him.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Will you be that candle? (Mark 4:30-32) (July 21, 2016)

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Proverbs 11-12

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Mark 4:30-32
Jesus: What else is the kingdom of God like? What earthly thing can we compare it to? The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, the tiniest seed you can sow. But after that seed is planted, it grows into the largest plant in the garden, a plant so big that birds can build their nests in the shade of its branches.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

Wikipedia tells us the candela is the International Standard base unit of luminous intensity; that is, luminous power per unit solid angle emitted by a point light source in a particular direction. Luminous intensity is analogous to radiant intensity, but instead of simply adding up the contributions of every wavelength of light in the source’s spectrum, the contribution of each wavelength is weighted by the standard luminosity function (a model of the sensitivity of the human eye to different wavelengths). A common candle emits light with a luminous intensity of roughly one candela. If emission in some directions is blocked by an opaque barrier, the emission would still be approximately one candela in the directions that are not obscured.

Like most other International Standard base units, the candela has an operational definition—it is defined by a description of a physical process that will produce one candela of luminous intensity. Since the 16th General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) in 1979, the candela has been defined as:

The luminous intensity, in a given direction, of a source that emits monochromatic radiation of frequency 540×10(12) hertz and that has a radiant intensity in that direction of 1⁄683 watt per steradian.

The definition describes how to produce a light source that (by definition) emits one candela. Such a source could then be used to calibrate instruments designed to measure luminous intensity.

The candela is sometimes still called by the old name candle, such as in foot-candle and the modern definition of candlepower.

So why bring up the definition of the candela? Well, we don’t know much about mustard seeds like they did in Jesus’ day. But probably most of us have participated in a service or memorial or some event like the following.

The crowd is given an unlit candle as they come into the auditorium and asked to just hold it until they are told what to do with it later in the program or service. At the right time, maybe at an invitation or a commitment service, a call to missions, a light the world theme or some such event, the speaker has all the lights in the auditorium not just dimmed but extinguished. The auditorium goes black.

As the speaker continues, one candle is lit. It’s a small thing, barely visible from the cheap seats in the balcony at the far end away from the podium, but it is visible. That one candle gives out about one candela of radiant lux, about 12 1/2 lumens if you want to measure the luminous lux. That’s it. Not much to try and conquer the darkness that engulfed the auditorium just a few minutes earlier.

Then the speaker does something you probably expected by this point. That one candle touches the candle of a person nearby, then those two lit candles touch two more, then those four touch four more, and so it goes until every candle that each person holds has that same small flame burning in the hand of its holder. Suddenly, the auditorium is no longer dark, but instead is bathed in hundreds, maybe thousands of candela as each lighted candle adds 12 1/2 more lumens to the auditorium.

In just a few minutes, that one candle, barely visible from the back of the room, becomes the single flame that fans the flame of every candle in every hand that fills the whole room with light. The darkness has been dispelled, but it started with just that one candle.

That’s how God’s word spreads, too. Like the mustard seed that grows into a bush the size of a tree where birds build their nests or like that single candle used to light others that finally engulf the whole room with light, when we share God’s mercy and grace and love with those around us, something happens. His spirit works to spread that fire not only in us, but into those with whom we share. His spirit is always at work. He leads us to people who are ready to hear His word if we will listen to His guiding voice and share when He tells us to. He knows when the time is perfect.

Will we see the results of our labor? Maybe, maybe not. It’s not our responsibility to save people from their sins. We can’t do that. We can’t even win them to the kingdom. Not within our power. But what we can do is tell others what He has done and is doing in our lives. We can act as His witnesses and tell them about Jesus and the good news of His kingdom right here for those willing to give themselves to Him. God does all the rest.

You might feel like one candle in the darkness sometimes. But remember that single candle begins to lighten the whole room. That event or service or memorial you remember with all those candles lit and providing light in that auditorium started with one candle touching another. Are you willing to be that candle in a dark world? 

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

God does the work (Mark 4:26-29) July 20, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Psalms 84-86

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Mark 4:26-29
Jesus: Here is what the kingdom of God is like: a man who throws seeds onto the earth. Day and night, as he works and as he sleeps, the seeds sprout and climb out into the light, even though he doesn’t understand how it works. It’s as though the soil itself produced the grain somehow—from a sprouted stalk to ripened fruit. But however it happens, when he sees that the grain has grown and ripened, he gets his sickle and begins to cut it because the harvest has come.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

Did you ever do one of those experiments as a kid where you put a seed in something that would let you watch it grow throughout it’s whole cycle? Maybe you put it in a glass jar filled with water and all the right nutrients to allow it to grow. Maybe you put it in a similar jar, but put the seeds right next to the glass so that you could watch the process but not have too much water and perhaps rot the roots. Maybe you put the seeds between two glass plates and watched the growth. There are a lot of ways to watch the beginnings of life spring from a single seed, but no matter how you watch the process, it still seems miraculous.

Scientists tell us the total sum of matter doesn’t change, so chemical processes that happen in that tiny seed start to convert water and air nutrients around it into the spout and stalk and finally the mature plant that comes from that tiny seed. Whether talking about a tiny flower or a giant oak, the results are still pretty miraculous. We think we understand all the science behind that growth, but do we really? We find bits and pieces that lead us to yet another step in the process, but ultimately, every scientist comes back to a circular argument about how plant and animal life begins unless God, the creator, is introduced into the equation.

It’s like the Big Bang theory that so many atheists like to hang their hat on. They forget the theory came decades ago from a priest who tried to explain the expanding universe and said out of nothing God created all things from a single point of nothingness. And from that first point of nothingness, God spoke light, energy, into place. From that point using the math that Einstein used to develop his Energy = Mass x the Speed of Light squared, God changed that pure light that He created from nothing, that energy into mass and lots of it. The universe came into being and has expanded ever since. The Big Bang.

So why bring that up? Why talk about seeds and the expanding universe and theories that can’t really be proven but all ultimately lead back to an Almighty Creator and Designer of all things?

First, I mentioned several days ago that scripture isn’t a science book. It tells what God did for us, but not how He did it. If God used a Big Bang to create everything in the universe, that’s fine with me. I really don’t care how God put everything in place. I just know He did. If He molded each planet and star and galaxy with His own hands and carefully placed each one in its own orbit, I’m fine with that, too. The Hebrew words in Genesis are vague enough in the ancient language either sense is possible and either one is okay with me. God is still God and in charge of all things. How He choose to do His work is not within my authority to debate with Him. He is God, we are not. If that offends you, go back and read His word again. You’ll find scripture doesn’t tell us how God created all things other than He spoke and it happened. How it happened, not a clue. His word handed down to us is not a science book.

Second, the thought that when we are part of His kingdom building and do our small part, the simple tasks He asks us to do, He does the rest and we don’t need to know how He does it. If we will sow seeds of kindness, He can use them to grow His grace in the hearts of those who receive it. If we sow His love, He multiplies it and it spreads not just to the ones we love, but well beyond them to touch many who see and hear of that love through the stories of those we touch. If we share the story of Jesus, God’s spirit helps it mature in fertile ground.

We don’t need to worry and fret about what happens to the gifts we share with others, prophecy, teaching, healing, hospitality, or any number of other gifts. When we share them, God uses them the way He sees fit and they spread His love and mercy and grace into the hearts and lives of others. Isaiah records God’s message to us:
So it is when I declare something.
My word will go out and not return to Me empty,
But it will do what I wanted;
it will accomplish what I determined.

God just expects us to carry out the simple tasks He gives us to do. They’re not always easy, but they’re usually simple to understand. When we do, He does the rest.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Learn more than a first grader (Mark 4:24-25)

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – 2 Kings 11-15

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Mark 4:24-25
Jesus: So consider carefully the things you’re hearing. If you put it to use, you’ll be given more to wrestle with—much more. Those who have listened will receive more, but those who don’t hear will forget even the little they’ve failed to understand.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

I always enjoyed science and math in high school and so made chemistry my major in college. I admit, by the time I finished college, I wasn’t so enamored with chemistry anymore and knew I didn’t want to be a chemist the rest of my life, but during those school years, I really did enjoy the classes. I enjoyed learning about the fundamentals of how atoms and molecules were put together and why one compound interacted with another to make something entirely different. I enjoyed learning about the different orbitals electrons occupy and how you could manipulate those electrons to do some incredible things with a variety of substances by adding or subtracting energy or by using some other catalyst to nudge those electrons toward another element’s orbital structure to make those atomic bonds do what you want them to do.

Each year, as I progressed further into the science, I learned more about the intricacies of how elements and molecules and energy worked together to create new compounds that can be either useful to us or detrimental to us. Each year the science built on the year before. I could never have understood pharmaceutical chemistry if I hadn’t taken and understood organic chemistry first. After getting into pharmaceutical chemistry, I understood why all the prerequisites were necessary. I needed everyone of them to understand what was going on when you introduced a chemical into the bloodstream and how it might affect the blood/brain barrier, the cell walls, how it attached to some particular receptacle in the body and so forth. Every time I learned some new piece of knowledge, two or three more pieces of knowledge became available, but not before.

The same thing happens in math if you think about it. Before you can multiple, you need to know how to add. Before you can do algebra, you need to have multiplication mastered. Before you tackle calculus, algebra, trigonometry, and geometry should be in your repertoire. And as you begin to master each of those skills, new horizons of learning open up for you so that you can solve problems with ever increasing difficulty that as a grade schooler learning to add, you would never have a clue how to begin to solve if your life depended on it.

That’s the way it is with spiritual things. Too many times, people think they should be able to open the Bible and know all the answers about life by reading the book. It doesn’t work that way. We forget that regardless of our physical age, when we are born again, by the Spirit of God, we are spiritual infants. We know just enough about spiritual things to have our sins forgiven and begin to follow God’s leading.

As we continue to read His word, pray about it, follow the teaching He gives us, we begin to learn more each day. We figure out what it really means to let Jesus be Lord of our life. But we can’t learn that until after we’ve had our sins forgiven and committed ourselves to Him. Only then do we begin to gain the additional knowledge about His guidance and leadership in our life, because until then, it’s like that second grader reading a calculus book.

By the same token, God doesn’t expect us to stay infants or toddlers or first graders forever. He expects us to learn and grow in Him. He expects us to read and study His word. He expects us to ask Him about it. He wants to teach us and guide us through life. But until we decide we will expend some effort and learn from Him, we will stay stuck in first grade, content with just knowing how to add and nothing else. We will miss so much of what He has available for us.

We live in a society that really doesn’t think much about learning when you consider that most Americans read less than one book a year after graduating from high school. By our behavior, we demonstrate we don’t have much desire to learn more. I cringe when I compare the literacy skills of a Civil War private with those of our college graduates. The privates 150 years ago conveyed their thoughts much more articulately than our graduates today.

That means we must break the mold to study God’s word. We must be different from the crowd in two distinct ways if we expect to learn about spiritual things. First, we must actually be willing to study. That in itself is a rarity in today’s society, but a necessity if we are to learn what God wants. Second, we must let God into our life as Savior and Lord. Until we give Him mastery of our life, we will only see the words in His book with as much understanding as that first grader trying to read.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Playing hide-and-seek (Mark 4:21-23) July 18, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Leviticus 16-18

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Mark 4:21-23
Jesus: When you bring a lamp into the house, do you put it under a box or stuff it under your bed? Or do you set it on top of a table or chest? Those things that are hidden are meant to be revealed, and what is concealed is meant to be brought out where its light can shine.
All who have ears to hear, let them listen.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

Do you play hide-and-seek as a kid? I think it’s a popular game for most kids in almost every society. And I think we can get pretty good at it the older we get. As toddlers, we think that covering our eyes so that we can’t see anyone else means they can’t see us, but as we mature, we learn to hide in closets, find spaces in the cabinets, discover those hidden holes behind boxes in the garage. We find all kinds of places that others forget to look in and can stay hidden for a long time before anyone finds us. We can get pretty good at hiding.

I’m afraid too many of us have taken that hide-and-seek mentality and applied it to our faith. Are you that good at hiding your faith? I’ll have to admit, that’s one thing Muslim women do not do well. You can tell when they wear their burka what religion they practice. It’s hard for someone in a burka to hide their religion. But what about you? Do others know what you believe? Christians often look a lot like the crowd around them, or do they, or should they? Christians often are found the same place as everyone else, or are they, or should they? Christians often sound the same as everyone around them, or do they, or should they?

Do we hide in plain sight? Are we individually and collectively guilty of doing what Jesus implied when He talked about the covering up the lamp? Do we try to hide the light God puts in us when He saves us from our sins? Are we afraid to let His light shine through us so the world can see what He has done in us? Those are implications we have from Jesus’ words and the observations we see in the world around us.

Christians have become invisible. We look and sound like everyone else. Co-workers are surprised at the announcement of our faith. Neighbors are shocked if we suddenly say we won’t do something because we say we are Christian. They look at our behavior, our speech, our lifestyle and ask, “So what’s different about you?” What do we answer? What is different about us? How do people know that we are Christian? Can they see God’s light shining through us without us telling them?

I guess to know whether others can see that light we first have to have that light. It comes only by giving ourselves wholly to God. Body, soul, and spirit. Everything. Making Him Lord, Director, Guide, for everything we do. When we do that, God will begin to change us. He first forgives our sins and takes away the guilt we carry because of past sins. When that guilt is gone, it changes our countenance. That burden disappears and we begin to look different. We exude a peace and joy that is inexplicable to those around us because it doesn’t depend on the circumstances in which we find ourselves.

Next God begins to transform us from the inside out. As Paul tells us in Romans, He renews our mind, He changes the way we think. We begin to think like He thinks because when we let Him begin to direct our thoughts. We begin to see others the way He sees them. We see others through His eyes of love and compassion and mercy and grace. We long to see others freed from the weight of sin and adopted into His family as we have been.

Then as we continue to listen to God and obey His will in our lives, we begin to bear His fruit in our lives. Those things Paul talks about in Galatians. We begin to show evidence of all of those fruit growing in us – unconditional love, joy, peace, patience, kindheartedness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These characteristics cannot be hidden. They come out in our relationships with others. These traits are so seldom seen in the world today that they jump out and flash in front of those around us like a strobe light.

Those who have given themselves fully to God and are living obediently to Him cannot hide. They are like a light on a hill, shining so everyone can see them. Everyone who looks in their direction sees their character, the fruit of the spirit shining through them. The love, joy, peace, patience, kindheartedness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control that can only come from a life guided and directed by God radiates from their innermost being touching everyone who comes in contact with them.

Real Christians lose at playing hide-and-seek with their faith every single time. How well do you play? 

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

–

We are brothers and sisters (Mark 3:33-35) July 17, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Colossians 3-4

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Mark 3:33-35
Jesus looked around.
Jesus (answering them): Who are My mother and brothers?
He called into the silence. No one spoke.
At last His gaze swept across those gathered close, and Jesus smiled.
Jesus: You, here, are My mother and My brothers! Whoever does the will of God is My true family.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

Have you ever thought about why we call each other brothers and sisters in the Christian community? Perhaps Jesus started it with His announcement this day when His siblings tried to drag Him back home from His ministry. From all appearances, it seems His earthly father died sometime during Jesus’ teen years and Jesus became the bread-winner for the family. Now at age 30, He sets out to begin His ministry sharing the good news that the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

In this day and time, 30 was the magic age to be counted as an adult, wise enough to share your opinion and be heard. I’m pretty sure Jesus didn’t wait until now to share His thoughts with His family and friends. I’m sure He shaped His ministry and what He was going to do well before His 30th birthday. But to be heard by the masses, He needed to follow the rules of the temple and He did. He needed to follow most of the civil laws and He did. He needed to obey most of the temple laws and He broke only a few and only when a greater good was at stake.

I think He leaned on His mother and brothers and sisters to listen to His sermons and hone His speaking skills, shape His messages, help Him navigate some of the questions people would have for Him. I think He took all of that time in His formative years and studied, learned all He could of the scriptures and how His real Father wanted Him to share them with the world. And I’m sure He shared those thoughts with his brothers and sisters. The probably thought of Him like Joseph’s brothers did. Ready to throw Him in the loony bin or in the cistern to die at times.

But Jesus was their brother and they came to rescue Him from the stories they heard from their friends about the ridicule He received from the Pharisees. They wanted to make sure the priests didn’t carry out the rumors they heard about arresting Him, stopping His message any way possible, even imprisoning or killing Him if necessary. His brothers and sisters tried to protect Him from the mob forming on the opposite side of the crowds that followed Him.

But when Jesus heard they came to take Him home to protect Him, He looked into the eyes of those gathered around Him and said, “You are My mother and brothers and sisters.”

I think when He began to teach about the kingdom of heaven and helped those around Him understand God adopts us into His family, we become brothers and sisters, God’s children, in a very real sense. God wants us to understand how close a relationship we should have with each other as we join this communion of saints, those whose sins have been washed away by the blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God, the perfect sacrifice for us.

When I hear about another denomination growing out of a church because of some doctrinal issue or something that caused the congregation to split, I grieve. I don’t think God intended for us to grow apart with all our petty differences that make up all our denominations. Today a quick search on Google will tell you there are almost 40,000 different denominations, each thinking their individual practices are “The Way” to salvation.

I think the Apostles would be appalled if they saw the state of the church today. Instead of brothers and sisters, we have become at best distant cousins that don’t recognize each other and don’t acknowledge the other exists because we have so little contact and so little in common. We certainly don’t feel like those other folks are brothers and sisters if they are so far afield in their doctrinal thinking, right?

Jesus wants us to think differently. He wants us to recognize that if we carry His name, we are brothers and sisters. We should love each other, not like cousins, but like brothers and sisters. We should care for all those people who have come to Him in repentance and been adopted into His family the same way we would our flesh and blood brothers and sisters.

Jesus wants all of us to remember the few words Christendom agrees on found in the Apostles’ Creed that has come down to us from the very early days of “The Way” as it was called then. I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic* Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting.

Amen.
When we share those words together, we are brothers and sisters. Members of God’s great family.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

It’s time to unite (Mark 3:23-29) July 16, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Luke 15-16

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Mark 3:23-29
Jesus: Listen. How can Satan drive out Satan? A kingdom that makes war against itself will collapse. A household divided against itself cannot stand. If Satan opposes himself, he cannot stand and is finished.
If you want to break into the house of a strong man and plunder it, you have to bind him first. Then you can do whatever you want with his possessions. Listen, the truth is that people can be forgiven of almost anything. God has been known to forgive many things, even blasphemy. But speaking evil of the Spirit of God is an unforgivable sin that will follow you into eternity.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

Jesus wants us united as His church. He wants us to come together to carry out the mission He gave us before He ascended into heaven on a cloud. He wants us to have that single aim, to go and make disciple, teaching them the things He taught His first disciples. So how have we gotten to where we are today with the divide between all those denominations and branches and Catholic and Protestant and everything in between.

Somewhere along the line, we let that thing called selfishness slip in again. I want my way. Even in building the kingdom. I want to believe the way I want. I want to interpret what Jesus said the way I want. I want to live the commandments the way I think they should be lived. I want to hear sermons that touch me the way I want them to. We get into this selfish mode even in our religions. We pick and choose and establish our faith around our desires and our will and our wants even while trying to seek God’s will.

One of the things that slapped me in the face several years ago as I was trying to find God’s will for my life was the selfishness of that very thought. God’s will for my life. I started thinking about that and discovered I kept looking the wrong direction for what I should do next. I was looking for God to point at my life instead of me running toward His.

It sounds like a simple change in thought, but it is a tremendous revolution in your pattern of thinking, really. It’s the renewing of your mind, Paul talks about in Romans 12, because the tables turn. Instead of asking where I’m going next to find favor with Him, I instead ask God where He is going and I will follow. When we begin to change the thought from what is Your will for me, to just what is Your will, things begin to change. It’s just a little thing, but taking me out of the equation changes your focus and brings others into your thoughts clearer and brighter than ever before.

I think it’s this process Jesus taught us in the garden when He prayed “not My will, but Your will be done.” I think it helps us live in the spirit seeking God’s will always. I think it means listening for His voice wherever we are and looking for those opportunities to share His love whenever we have the chance. I think it changes our whole outlook if we just change that single way we ask about God’s will for life. Not my will, not even His will for me, just His will and I’ll go there.

If we would all begin to change our thought process to follow God explicitly in this way, I think the division in churches would disappear. If we would sincerely ask what God’s will was and stop there and then follow, I think the violence in the streets would be curbed significantly. I think we would find revivals sparked around the world. I think we would see healing taking place. I think the church and the world would be very different if we just asked God about His will and followed.

But instead, we forget to ask and go our own way. We want what we want and so we fight each other. We can’t agree on the simplest things and so disrupt the work of the kingdom with our selfishness. We forget the real task at hand, sharing the good news that Jesus came to give His life that we might have abundant, everlasting life. We forget He came to fulfill our lives and bring joy through forgiveness of our sins and we bicker and fight with each other instead of standing together against the real enemy – sin.

Jesus told those that thought He cast out demons by the power of Satan that Satan would lose his strength and power if his minions fought against each other. Isn’t the same true of the church? If we war against each other, don’t we lose the strength and power we could experience if we worked together in unity. Jesus continually called us to unity. It’s about time, the church rose up together against the evil of this world instead of bickering with each other. 

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.