Tag: matt greiner lessons

A Bleeding Woman and a Dead Girl

Posted on by holyghostnotes in Book of Mark, Devotionals

Go ahead and spend a few minutes reading today’s section, Mark 5:21-43, so that rather than retelling the story, I can go straight to some meditations on these precious verses.  Here are nine applications from the story of Jairus’s daughter and the bleeding woman. 

1. Our Stories Are Connected

All our stories are connected.  The story of the healing of Jarius’s daughter is intertwined with the story of the healing of the bleeding woman.  This connection is made obvious with the mentioning of “twelve years” in both cases.  The little girl was twelve years old and the woman had been bleeding for twelve years.  Think about their lives, Jarius and his wife welcomed into the world a newborn baby and on the same day, in an unknown home, a woman began to bleed.  One family experienced joy and another fear.  Twelve years later, their paths would intersect, because both their stories were brought together by a need for Jesus.  

We are all connected, but not just in our brokenness, in our hope, also.  People today find it meaningful to recognize our connection as a suffering human race, but we are also connected to each other by what Jesus can do for us.  Your story is connected with someone on the other side of the planet, because Jesus can touch both of you.  The healing hands of Christ hold all the stories of the world together.  

2. Our Efforts Make Things Worse

Our efforts to repair our lives make things worse, not better, so we need to rely on the grace of God.  There was a bleeding woman, “who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse” (Mark 5:26).  The true story of the bleeding woman is also a parable to us about our ability to fix ourselves.  Nobody could heal the woman, no matter who they were.  Even though she spent everything she had, she was no better.  

Spiritually speaking, the same is true for you and me.  There are no people out there who can stop the bleeding in our lives.  And the harder we try, the worse things get.  Most of us know what it’s like to try our absolute hardest at something, only to see it get worse, not better.  Friedrich Nietzsche called human beings “the sick animal,” and I think this is what he meant by such a remarkable phrase.  Most of the time we know we’re sick, but the more we try to repair ourselves, the worse we become; and sometimes, we sabotage ourselves with pain in effort to heal ourselves of pain.  

3. We Need Faith

Faith, not more works, is what we need.  After the bleeding woman reached out and touched the garments of Jesus in order to get healed, Jesus said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease” (Mark 5:34).  Faith made her well, not more money.  Faith made her well, not more opportunities, better circumstances, a new job, different family, more friends, improved possessions, citizen rights, changed policies, and increased morality.  All these other things can be lumped together in the trash can called “good works.”  Yes, they are good, but they are not healing works.  They do not provide salvation from the human disease, they do not stop the spiritual bleeding, they do not help us sick animals to find meaning in life.  

In other words, nothing can take the place of God in our lives.  Even if you spend all the money in the world, you will never be able to do for yourself what God can do for you.  All the success and power you can accumulate in this world doesn’t compare with one touch of the bottom of Jesus’s garment.  A little of Jesus in your life goes a long way, much farther than the intelligence and resources of this world.  This is why faith, not more works, is what we need most.  And if faith is superior to works, then we owe it to ourselves (and those we love) to engage with activities of faith, such as prayer, meditation, partaking in the sacraments, hearing the gospel preached, Christian fellowship, and so forth.

4. Jesus Will Put the Solution out of Reach

Jesus will regularly put the solution out of reach, but that doesn’t mean he’s done working in our lives.  When Jarius first came to Jesus, his daughter was sick, but still alive.  “Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live” (Mark 5:23).  Jarius’s situation was absolutely desperate, so Jesus began to go to his home at once.  However, the situation wasn’t desperate enough, for Jesus knew things could get worse.  On the way to see the sick child, Jesus allowed himself to be interrupted and distracted by the bleeding woman.  He spent just enough time with the woman for further tragedy to strike at Jarius’s home.  

“There came from the ruler’s house some who said, ‘Your daughter is dead’” (Mark 5:35).  While we’ll never know for sure, it seems Jesus tarried long enough to turn a desperate situation into a hopeless one.  In fact, the man from Jarius’s house said, “Why trouble the Teacher any further?” (Mark 5:35), because the situation now was hopeless.  But there’s a lesson here for us to learn.  Whenever you hear yourself saying, “Why trouble God any more with this hopeless situation,” you may be right where God wants you to be.  Don’t give up yet, because God hasn’t given up yet.  

“But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, ‘Do not fear, only believe’” (Mark 5:36).  In terms of boxing, Jesus was not ready to throw in the towel, but wanted to go a few more rounds.  Be careful who you listen to, for there will be those voices in your life that say to you, “Don’t bother about this anymore, because it’s hopeless.”  In critical moments like these, turn your ear to Jesus and listen to what he says, instead.  Chances are, he’s still in the ring fighting for you.  “Do not fear, only believe.”

5. When Suffering, Be Careful about Who You Allow to Get Close

When times are really tough, be careful who you allow into your life.  Even though we’re told over and over again that there were great crowds of people tagging along, notice that Jesus only selected a few to walk with him into the suffering home.  “And he allowed no one to follow him except Peter and James and John…” (Mark 5:37).  As your suffering increases, your friends will decrease, for not everyone has what it takes to face a storm.  Peter, James, and John had what it took to walk with Jesus into the tragedy, but no more than this.  To tell the truth, you don’t want people in your life who can’t hack the pain and difficulty.  You want just a few tried and true friends to be with you when things are really tough.  

6. Allow Jesus to Believe for You

Allow Jesus to believe for you, when you find it hard to believe for yourself.  When Jesus entered the home of Jarius’s daughter, many family members and friends were “weeping and wailing loudly” (Mark 5:38).  Jesus said to them, “Why are you making a commotion and weeping?  The child is not dead but sleeping” (Mark 5:39).  The people laughed at him for saying this, because they knew she was dead (40).  They knew what they saw with their own eyes, heard with their own ears, and felt with their own hands: the little girl was dead.  They found it very hard to believe she was sleeping.  Now, here’s a lesson we’ve got to learn about suffering in life.  The suffering you observe is true, but the suffering Jesus observes is also true.  Yes, you are right, your life sucks, the pain is real, and there is no hope in sight, but guess what?  The things Jesus sees are also right: our pain is not final, but just a pause, like a night’s sleep.  Both are true.  

So when you can only believe the former, trust Jesus to believe the latter for you.  To be clear, Jesus believes in our healing and restoration to life, even when nobody else believes it’s possible for us.  Even when your dreams are dead, with Jesus in the room they are merely sleeping, waiting for him to wake them up.

7. Jesus’s Words Are More Powerful

Jesus’s words are more powerful than the forces of earth.  There’s no doubt that the forces of this world are very powerful, such as disease, nature, technology, and living creatures.  However, Jesus’s words are stronger than all these combined.  Death was strong, but Jesus’s words, “She is not dead but sleeping” were stronger.  And his words, “Talitha cumi” pried her from death’s seemingly impenetrable grip.  Just as a painter’s hand creates when it moves, so do Jesus’s words create when they sound.  If Jesus says, “You are forgiven, then” then a new reality is manifested, a new world is born.  The world changed when it received back the little girl from the dead, and so does our world change when Jesus brings you back to life, forgiven of your sins.  His words about you create a new reality, which no other words about you can erase or conquer.

8. Take Care of Your Miracle

Take care of your miracle.  After Jesus raised her from the dead, Jesus, “…strictly charged them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat” (Mark 5: 43).  When God gives you a gift, you are not off the hook, but you are responsible to care for it.  Jesus made her alive, but they had to keep her alive, by feeding her.  We often forget to take care of the wonderful gifts God gives to us, taking both them and him (God) for granted.  

9. God Can Make It Even Better

Finally, if you’re lucky, life will not work out the way you want, because God makes it even better.  Up until now, Jesus healed in just one way, by touching the sick.  But because of the crowd and fear of being known, the woman “discovered” a different kind of miracle, received by touching Jesus’s robe.  This was new, different, and unforgettable.  Disappointment and suffering birth a better version of you, forcing you to change course and see Jesus from a different vantage point in the crowd.  God loves to do new things, rather than repeat the same old kind of miracle or write the same kind of story.  Sometimes we need to know when to let go of our old dreams in order to let God give us new ones, for some dreams are twelve years in the making.  

The Breakdown

  1. Which of the above truths (found in the headings) stood out to you? Why? 
  2. What are some things we can do to move away from self-reliance and begin to rely more on God?
  3. Has God ever seemed to put the solution you needed out of reach?  What happened?  What did you learn about yourself?  About God?

Christ Our Pig

Posted on by holyghostnotes in Book of Mark, Devotionals

Mark 5:1-20

I know what you may be thinking, how can we be so irreverent, comparing the Son of God to a pig!  I don’t mean to be too much of a ham, but I think you’ll find this idea to be quite tasty, if I have the chops to pull it off.  Though it’s a meaty message, it has the potential to blow your house down.  Before you turn up your snout at my pig puns, I’ll get on with telling the tail. 

The Wild Side of Grace

In the last devotional, we heard Jesus say, “Let us go across to the other side” (Mark 4:35).  We learned that Jesus wants to take us from the side of the “law” to the side of “grace,” passing through a storm along the way.  Now that we’re through the storm and on the other side, we enter the wild world of grace.  Our passage begins, “They came to the other side…” (Mark 5:1).  We’re entering a fantastic world, where things aren’t what they seem to be and anything can happen.  More precisely, the things we would never expect to happen, happen.  This is an important distinction for those who think they’ve figured out what God is like and who ends up on top.

The Most Terrifying Man

It all starts in the land of the Gerasenes when a crazed man rushed out of the tombs toward Jesus.  If you had to score this guy on a “dudes I wouldn’t like to meet in a dark alley” scale, then he would get high marks in all the categories.  He was incredibly strong, able to break the shackles and chains they attempted to bind him with; he was mentally insane, evidenced by his cutting himself with stones and crying out in a loud voice; and, he was evil, being possessed by many demons.  This guy scored a perfect ten in the three major categories of a terrifying monster: strength, lack of sanity, and satanic possession.  

As you would expect, he was no match for Jesus, who commanded the unclean spirit to leave the poor man.  The man fell down on the ground before Jesus and begged him not to torment him.  Jesus asked the man, “What is your name?” to which the demon responded, “My name is Legion, for we are many” (Mark 5:9).  As it turns out, Legion was a community of about two thousand demons.

Legion’s Wish

If it weren’t crazy enough, here’s where the story gets really interesting.  Legion, “begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country” (Mark 5:10).  They wanted to continue to live in the land of the Gerasenes, which was an area on the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee.  They wanted to stay in that area and continue to find hosts to enter and destroy, just as they had done to the man.  

Pause for a moment and think, for this is where most people fail to pick up on this first clue on the meaning of the story.  The demons want to stay alive in the land of the Gerasenes.  If you were Jesus, who not only had power over demons, but also hated what they did to people, would you grant them their wish?  Would you let them continue to live in the land of the Gerasenes?  If so, then why did he cast them out in the first place?

And Now for Some Pigs

“Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him, saying, ‘Send us to the pigs; let us enter them.’” (Mark 5:12).  Legion, who wanted to stay alive in the region, begged Jesus to let them take a herd of pigs as their host.  That seemed like a good compromise to them: they would leave the man alone, but would also get to continue to live.  

“So he gave them permission” (Mark 5:13).

What?  Is Jesus going soft on satan?  Rather than seeing this as Jesus compromising with the devil, let’s keep reading to see what happened.  

“And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea.” (Mark 5:13).  The demons got their wish, the pigs did a pork roll into the sea, and the man returned to normal.  The pig herdsmen, “…came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had the legion, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid” (Mark 5:15).   

Pigs Can’t Fly, But…

But pigs can swim.  Did you know that?  I grew up on a farm and my neighbors had both pigs and a pond.  I can testify that pigs can swim, especially when they get hot, which seems to be all the time.  If you don’t believe me, then just google it.  In fact, pigs are very strong swimmers, which begs the question, “Why did they drown?”  

Put this fact of porcine nauticality alongside our previous observation that the demons begged Jesus to keep them in the region so they could continue to live in another host, and you’ll begin to see what was happening.  Jesus, as you probably guessed, was not about to compromise with the devil; he wasn’t going to give them their wish and allow them to take another host in the land of the Gerasenes.  When he gave them permission to enter the pigs, he knew something they didn’t know.

The Noble Pig

Legion thought they won the case, because they got to enter the pigs, but Jesus knew the stout heart of the noble pig.  You see, many people think the demons overwhelmed the pigs so that they hoofed crazily toward the sea to die, but that understanding doesn’t make sense, given that the demons wanted to continue to live in the land of the Gerasenes.  If they wanted to continue to live, once they got their wish, then why would they have driven the pigs to kill themselves?  Even more, if pigs are such good swimmers, then how did they drown?

It’s better to see that the demons underestimated both the character and capability of the noble pig.  The pigs were in cahoots with Jesus; just as Jesus had power over the storm, so did he have power over the herd.  The pigs didn’t lose control, but the pigs maintained control and ran to their deaths.  They did it by sacrificing themselves in the sea.  Even though they could swim, they chose to die, rather than allow the demons to continue to haunt the land.

Foreshadow the Cross

A sacrifice was made, a man was freed, and demons were destroyed.  These are the elements of the cross, given ahead of time, in this titillating story.  

Just as Jesus would sacrifice himself in order to free people from sin, so did the pigs sacrifice themselves to free the man and his country of the horrible demons.  Just as Jesus didn’t rely on his powers as God to save himself, but set them aside, emptying himself (Philippians 2), so did the pigs not rely on their powers to swim, but set them aside, in order to die in the sea.  What a vivid image of how God takes our sin and plunges it into the heart of the sea (Micah 7:19)!  And that’s no hogwash.

Things Aren’t What They Seem

Finally, let’s see how this story applies to our lives.  First, in the country of grace, things aren’t what they seem to be.  Remember, everywhere Jesus goes, he’s trying to demonstrate to the religious leaders of his time that they are misleading the people and do not understand the grace of God, because of their insistence on keeping the law.  Jesus uses a pig to show that God is not what we make him out to be; in fact, God is wholly other than we expect.  We cannot manipulate God into being the kind of Being we think he should be.  Many people remake God in their image in order to support their personal agendas.  But God is wild, like a pig, and will not be remade according to our desires.  Further, most people don’t realize when they encounter God, in the first place.  We don’t encounter God in the holy times, the good times, the predictable times; rather, we encounter God in the mud and mire, the worst times, the uncharted moments of our lives, when things are the messiest.  

The religious leaders of the day believed the pig to be ceremonially unclean, one of the vilest creatures imaginable.  It’s no wonder that in the land of grace, Jesus chose to represent himself in the pig, which is the least predictable, lowest, and least likely representation imaginable.  In the same way, God shows up in your life when you least expect, through a means that is both humble and humbling.  God is not in the thing that seems the closest, but that which seems the farthest.  As we’ve seen, Jesus is constantly using words, ideas, and events that confuse us, harden our hearts, and keep us from figuring out God on our own, in order to get us to realize salvation does not come from our abilities, but from his grace.  

Yes, Christ our pig is an emblem of grace, because it’s Jesus as we would never expect, doing for us what we could never do, in a way we would never recognize.  Christ as pig is a precursor to Christ on the cross, for “he had no form or majesty that we should desire to look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.  He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” (Isaiah 53:2-3).  Just as the Pharisees despised the pig, so would they despise Jesus.  

And if the idea of Christ as pig is something you find yourself despising, then it’s probably closest to the truth.

The demon-possessed man is the human counterpart to the pigs.  Just as pigs were considered unclean, unusable, and unlikely, so was the man.  Just as the pigs were an emblem of grace-given, so was the man an emblem of grace-received.  Remember, he was the farthest from what you would expect to be a citizen of heaven, for he was insane, demon-possessed, and a force of destruction.  Yet, Jesus loved this man and had mercy on him (Mark 5:19).  Likewise, you are no “worse” than the man possessed by two thousand demons; if God loved him and changed his life, then be assured God loves you and can change you.  

Name Your Demon

This brings us to a second application, tell Jesus the name of your demon.  When Jesus first met the man, he asked him, “What is your name?” (Mark 5:9).  I find this to be an important question for all those who struggle to overcome sin.  We need to be able to give a name to our demons and then tell it to Jesus.  If you want Jesus to break the power of the sin in your life, then you must begin by being honest and vulnerable with him.  Name your demon.  What is possessing you?  What are you struggling with?  This is the first question Jesus asks you and the first way you can find healing.  

Porn.  Gambling.  Envy.  Self-pity.  Lying.  Bragging.  Self-hatred.  Prostitutes.  Bestiality.  Violence.  Abuse.  Foulness.  Hypocrisy.  Addiction.  Alcohol.  Drugs.  Stealing.  Gossip.  Manipulation.  Idolatry.  Greed.    

Tell Jesus the name of your demon(s).

New Ears

Jesus has said over and over in Mark’s gospel, “if you have ears to hear…”  This is his way of telling you that you need a new kind of hearing to understand what he’s saying.  It’s not the kind of hearing you’re used to, where God is predictable, controllable, and fashionable.  We’re used to hearing the demonic message: if you do good, then you will earn God’s favor; if you do bad, then God will condemn you.”  Again, that’s the message our ears are most attuned to hearing.  Jesus wants to give you ears to hear the message that the ordinary person can’t hear, can’t tolerate, and can’t imagine.  We need new ears to hear the new message, “If you try to earn merit with God, then you will be condemned; but, if you name your demon, bring Jesus your sin, then he will forgive and accept you, for God loves you, just as you are.”  

Christ our pig.  He took your demons into himself and ran headlong to the cross, where he put aside his power of life in order to embrace the weakness of death for you.  Perhaps today, Christ our pig is the gospel message you’ve finally been able to hear.  

The Breakdown

  1. If the demons wanted to continue to live in the land, then why would they force the pigs to kill themselves?  If pigs can swim, then why did they drown?  What do you think of this interpretation? 
  2. Have you ever felt like too much of an outcast to be accepted by God or used by him?  How does the story of the demon possessed man help you see otherwise?  
  3. If you’re struggling to find a mission in life, consider what Jesus told the man in verse 19.  How could you do the same?  What was the reaction of the people who heard the man? 
  4. Name your demon(s).  Tell the name to God. Be completely honest.  If this doesn’t ease your conscience, then name your demons to a trusted person in your life.

Storm Grace

Posted on by holyghostnotes in Book of Mark, Devotionals

On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.”  And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him.  And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling.  But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”  And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.  He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?”  And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” —Mark 4:35-41

The Second Way

There are two ways God can convince us we are saved by grace, rather than by doing works of the law.  The first is to show us our inability to keep the law, revealing to us all the ways we constantly break the law, even when trying to do good works.  The second way God can convince us we are saved by grace is to show us that he himself doesn’t act within the law (even while we are trying to do good works).  Our passage today demonstrates God’s grace from this second way.

At first, you might be offended by the claim that God doesn’t act within the law; however, to require God to obey the law would be to make God lower than the law.  It would make the law into a false god that the true God had to obey.  If you’ve ever read through the Bible, whether you’ve realized it or not, you’ve encountered God acting outside the law.  For instance, God threatened to kill Moses (Exodus 4); God saved the wicked pagan Ninevites, when he should have destroyed them (Jonah 4); God ruined the life of righteous Job (Job 2); and God killed dutiful Uzzah (1 Chronicles 13).  Although we must obey the law, God is outside the law, because he’s the supreme law Giver. 

There are two ways God can teach us we are saved by grace, the first is to show us our inability to keep the law, but the second is to show us that he himself doesn’t always act within the law—even when we humans do all the right things.  

Yes, sometimes God sends a storm in the middle of fruitful ministry, potentially destroying it all.

God Sends the Storm

I don’t know about you, but I’ve always been uncomfortable after reading the story of the storm at sea.  Jesus and the disciples just got done doing many days of ministry, helping hundreds of people nobody else would touch.  A great crowd was following Jesus and the disciples, seeking to know God better and obey the teaching of Jesus.  The disciples were low on food and rest, and just needed to get away to recuperate.  They got into a boat, pushed off into the sea, and hoped to spend a quiet night resting and getting ready for more ministry.  Jesus, like all the others, is exhausted, so he falls asleep.  That’s when God sends the storm.  The expression “no rest for the weary” is quite fitting here.

“God Owes Me”

According to our understanding of the law, if I do good works, then God should reward me, right?  If I give myself to ministry, day after day, year after year, then God should “pay” me what I’ve earned.  Now, we wouldn’t put it so crassly, but, let’s be honest, that’s what we’re really thinking.  

Do you know what it truly means to have a sin nature?  It doesn’t mean that we break the law, but it first means that we think keeping the law will save us.  The deepest root of sin is the belief “God owes me.”   When I read the Bible, God owes me.  When I pray, God owes me.  When I serve my neighbor, God owes me.  When I keep my purity, God owes me.  When I perform good works, God owes me.  When I give my life to ministry, God owes me.  This lethal mentality is so ingrained in our hearts that God sometimes needs to take drastic measures to convince us otherwise.  He has to send a storm.

By acting outside our law, God shows us that he doesn’t play the “God owes me” game.  

Here’s what the disciples must have been thinking on the boat, as it was being shredded by the storm and they were moments from being lost in the sea forever: “I’ve been helping lepers, loving tax collectors and sinners, and following around the Son of God, himself…so God sent a storm to kill me.”

Can you see?  If that statement doesn’t make any sense to you, it’s because your mind has been conditioned by the law, not grace.  Better, your mind approves of the law more than it approves of grace.

Jesus Wept Slept

The story goes to great lengths to prove to us that Jesus is acting outside the normal rules we would expect.  “But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion…” (Mark 4:38).  It’s not just that God sent the storm to destroy their ministry, but it’s also that Jesus seems not to care at all!  He’s the only one who’s fast asleep, while all the others are bailing water!   “…And they woke him and said to him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’” (Mark 4:38).  In other words, by sleeping while everyone else was awake, Jesus showed them a God who acts outside the “social” law.  Jesus cared for strangers and lepers, but he wouldn’t even care for his closest friends! 

God will go to extremes to break us of our addiction to the law.  Sometimes, this is the only way to get us to accept grace.  Grace is what saves us apart from the law, even when we fail to keep the law, grace will not fail to keep us.

His Voice Violated Natural Law

When they were finally able to wake up the sleeping Savior, Jesus, yet again, acted outside the law: he spoke to the storm and caused it to grow calm.  With only his voice, he calmed the raging sea, violating the laws of nature and common knowledge.  He proved he was not one who had to obey the law, but all laws had to obey him, even natural ones.   

When the law rages and threatens to destroy you, remember that Jesus stands outside the law and is able to silence the storm with just his voice.  We’re even told in verse 36 that Jesus came “just as he was” with no tricks or tools up his sleeves.

“And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?’” (Mark 4:41).  In other words, “Who is this that can act outside the law?”   

To the Other Side

Finally, consider the opening verse of this story.   “On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side.’” (Mark 4:35).  This statement is not just for the first disciples, but it is for us, too.  Jesus looks into our faces and says, “Let’s go across to the other side.”  What other side?  He wants to take us from the side of the law to the side of grace.  But it won’t be an easy journey, because the shore of the law has a terrible tide that keeps pulling us back.  If we’re honest, we feel safe with the law, but unsafe with grace.  That’s why grace must begin with a storm.  It must begin by taking us away from the familiarity and safety of a merit-based existence.

Jesus wants to take us to the other shore, from law to grace.  In order to make this journey, we have to go through a storm.  If you want to make this journey, you will be transformed, you will not come back the same.  Jesus won’t be another predictable, likeable rule-giver, but he will be the Lord God enfleshed.  At times, you will be terrified of him.

“He said to them, ‘Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?’” (Mark 4:40).  Jesus is looking for faith in himself, not faith in the “God owes me” system.  It’s terrifying to meet a Being who can operate outside the law, but it’s the only way he can save us, for we all have broken the law and deserve to come under its condemnation.  

This passage is not about the popular, sentimental idea “God is with me in the storm,” but it’s about the God who sends the storm, in order to terrify us away from our reliance on good works to impress him, as well as, convince us of grace, which is our full acceptance from him apart from our doing works of the law.

There are two ways to convince us of grace.  The first is to show us we cannot keep the law, and the second is to show us God will not. 

The Breakdown

  1. Be honest, has God ever done anything that didn’t make sense to you?  That caused you to be afraid or get angry?  If you could say anything to God, what would it be?  
  2. How did you grow from the “storm experience” in question 1? 
  3. What is the difference between humanity’s relationship to the law and God’s relationship to the law?  Do you agree or disagree with the concept that God is obligated to obey all the commandments?  Can God still be good if he is able to act outside the law?
  4. Examine yourself.  Where are you holding on to the “God owes me” mentality?

You Don’t Really Understand the Bible, and That’s Good

Posted on by holyghostnotes in Book of Mark, Devotionals

And he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it?  It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”  With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it.  He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything. —Mark 4:30-34

You may be tempted to read the parable of the mustard seed and try to figure it out.  “Oh, the kingdom of God is very tiny, like a mustard seed…This means we only need a tiny bit of faith.  Then it grows into the largest plant in the garden…This means God can do great things with my tiny faith.  You see, simple!”  

But keep reading the passage, for it goes on to say, “With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it” (33).  Most were not able to hear what Jesus truly meant by the parables, including the disciples!   “He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything” (34).  Jesus spoke the word in parables only, he did not give interpretations.  However, he explained in private to his disciples.  

This brings me to the truth most people overlook: if his own disciples, who spent every moment of the day with him, did not even understand his parables, then what makes us think we will?  They could see his body language, hear his tone, and feel his gravitas.  They shared his cultural background, spoke his language, and understood the idioms and slang of their time.  They slept with him, ate with him, and walked with him from town to town.  They experienced his emotions, knew the color of his eyes, and met his mom and dad.  Again, if the first disciples couldn’t understand his parables without an explanation, then neither can we!  So be careful of trying to figure out his parables on your own, for they weren’t meant to be “solved” like math problems.  

Nobody enters the kingdom of God with their intelligence.  And just as you cannot think your way to heaven, neither can you act your way to heaven. 

What was the purpose of the parables then?  They were meant to confuse, blind, paralyze, and harden.  They were meant to put the hearer in such a state of shock that he wouldn’t dare to move, out of fear, angst, and bewilderment.  They were meant to leave us shaking our heads, muttering to ourselves, “Then who can be saved?  Who can be saved?”  The parables expose our idols and toxic confidence in ourselves and they keep us from being able to manipulate God, forcing him to accept us because of how we act, what we say, or what we believe.  

The parables force us to go to Jesus and ask him to explain to us the meaning of his words.  Let me say it again, the parables compel us to go humbly to Jesus for help.

The parable of the mustard seed offends us, for no matter what good we do, we are bested by a minuscule seed dropped in the dirt.  It doesn’t need our help.  It starts smaller than we are, yet grows larger than we’ll ever dare to dream.  Its purpose is not flashy, but is satisfied with being a resting place for birds.  While our cravings are legion, the seed only needs dirt, light, and water.  Every day, it stretches out its limbs and praises its Creator, doing what it was planted here to do, both bound to the earth and as free as the birds in the air who shelter in it.

Jesus sought to offend all those who trusted in themselves and the “size” of their spirituality, so he used the mustard seed to accomplish his ministry of offense.  Those who trusted in themselves would point their fingers at others and arrogantly say, “Look at him, he is completely hopeless.  Look at her enormous sin and her minuscule faith.  Look at those corrupt people, who know very little about God.”  Yet the tiny mustard seed grows into the largest plant in the garden.  In this way, the parable of the mustard seed is a celebration of hopelessness.

The effect of the parables is to do to us what God did to Abraham.  God gave Abraham astounding promises; God would give Abraham many children and much land.  Yet, by the time Abraham and his wife were a hundred years old, they were childless nomads.  God had to reduce their hopes and dreams down to the size of a mustard seed.  That’s God’s typical method when dealing out his promises to us.  Before fulfilling the promise, he must empty us of natural strength, opportunity, and realistic parameters.

This prepares the way for grace.  

Likewise, the parables are to get us to say, “That’s completely unrealistic…there’s no way that’s happening!”  When we’ve been reduced down to practically nothing, then God begins to cause growth, for he doesn’t want us to rely on ourselves, but him alone. 

If you can see a way forward in your trial right now, then you’re not small enough yet. God may very well wait until circumstances are even more desperate.  We don’t grow by being rich in spirit, but by being poor in spirit.  True growth begins in the ground.  And it doesn’t end until your limbs reach the heavens. 

The parables aren’t meant to be figured out, but they are meant to get you to put your trust in Jesus. 

The Breakdown

  1. Have you ever felt as small as a grain of mustard seed in the face of your enormous circumstances? Talk to a friend about it or write about it.
  2. How can this parable guide your prayer life?
  3. How can this parable help you to understand true humility?  True pride?

Perfectly Good Sinner

Posted on by holyghostnotes in Ghost Writer

Moses gave God many excuses the day he spoke with him in the burning bush.  Even though the dry bush was on fire in the desert, it was not consumed, which indicates to us that God was about to be encountered outside the normal laws of nature and reason.  We were just told Moses killed a man at the end of Exodus 2, so the reader reasonably assumes Moses will give this excuse when he meets God a chapter later at the burning bush.  

Out of the burning bush, God told Moses, “Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt” (Exodus 3:10).  For the rest of chapter 3 and into chapter 4, Moses gave God a string of excuses as to why he could not do what God commanded.  Moses first used the excuse of pedigree, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh?” (3:11).  So God assured Moses he would be with him to back him up.  Then Moses used the people of Israel as an excuse, saying they wouldn’t recognize God unless God gave his own sacred name, so God complied with Moses’s request.  Third, Moses said the people would not believe him or listen to his voice, Exodus 4:1, so God told Moses what to do in response.  Finally, Moses gave the excuse of his own lack of eloquence in speech (4:10), but God provided yet another solution.

Did you notice the excuse Moses did not give?  We’d expect Moses to say right away, “But, God, I’m a terrible sinner, for I have killed a man, and someone who takes a human life should not be allowed to be used by you for a great mission.”  This kind of excuse seems reasonable to us, because we feel most comfortable operating under the law, rather than grace.  To operate under the law means, “If I do this, then I can’t do this.”  If I am immoral and kill a man, then I should not be allowed to be used by God for his great purpose of bringing his people out of slavery in Egypt.

However, if you haven’t figured it out by now, God does not operate under the law, but by grace.  The burning bush tipped us off, for just as the bush operated outside the law of fire, so does God’s selection of people operate outside the law of morality.  Many people think God’s hands are tied just because they have messed up, but that’s thinking like the law, rather than thinking like God.  God thinks according to grace, not law.  Ever since we digested the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we have been looking at the world through the lense of the law, again, thinking, “Because I did this, then I can’t do this.”  Our eyes were opened and we have been trying to discern good from evil, which is the function of the law, ever since. 

Many people believe God is done with them, just because they sinned and broke the law, but God hasn’t even begun to use them yet.  Look squarely at your sin; now look squarely at grace.  Don’t use your sin as an excuse.  Instead, say to yourself, “God isn’t finished with me yet, but God is only just beginning with me.”

The law is always there to accuse you, it never lets up.  And it doesn’t need to be written on tablets of stone to do the job, for it’s ingrained on our souls.  Whether we know the Ten Commandments or not, we are conditioned to bring the law into every part of our lives and measure our experiences according to it.  Our minds accuse us day and night.  Satan, whose name means, ‘the adversary,’ often accuses us moment by moment.  We are accused of not being good enough to be used by God, to be accepted by God, or to be loved by God.  But just because the dry bush is on fire, doesn’t mean it will be consumed by it.

In the same way, just because the fire of guilt is blazing on you, doesn’t mean it will consume you.  The God of grace uses guilty sinners to do his great work.  God used Moses, a murderer, to lead his people out of slavery and then to deliever God’s perfect law to the people—how ironic!  And so, God can use you, sinner, to lead his people out of bondage and then to teach them the right way to live.

Don’t let your conscience replace your God.  All idolatry begins with the law, with some devious observation of human logic, which goes, “This can’t be, because of this.”  Ever since Adam and Eve, we have been trusting how we see things more than how God sees things.  

This is the same line that took out Adam and Eve in the very beginning, and has been taking out perfectly good sinners ever since.  Imagine finding a bagel on a tray at work.  One of your coworkers takes the tray and is about to throw out this last bagel.  But you say to her, “Don’t throw that away, it’s a perfectly good bagel!”   Now imagine going to an animal shelter and finding a dog someone had dropped off because of some ‘defects.’  Sure, the dog isn’t perfect, but you see something loveable in him.  While another owner got rid of him, you look at this animal and say to yourself, “This is a perfectly good dog!” so you take him home.  Despite living in a culture of waste, we know when something is still perfectly good, whether bagels or beagles. 

If you have a sin, confess it to God and to others and then repent from it.  That’s about all you can do, besides try to make amends with the one(s) you offended.  But after that, it’s just you and the burning bush.  You are free to walk in grace, which is outside of the law, and do what God has called you to do.  He does not plan to consume you, but use you.

You are a perfectly good sinner.  Don’t let the law keep you on the sideline or toss you in the can, because grace has other plans for your life.  Your mission is not about your moral track record, but it’s about the glory of God, which happens to burn the brightest in the driest, darkest, and most common bushes.  

God always chooses the least, lowest, and lost.  Go ahead and read the Bible from cover to cover and see this dizzying pattern for yourself.  He knows that sinners shine the brightest—always have, always will.

The Gospel in Five Seconds

Posted on by holyghostnotes in Book of Mark, Devotionals

Today’s Bible passage, Mark 4:26-29, gives us a succinct and powerful way of thinking of the gospel.  It’s so quick you can read it in five seconds and so powerful it will affect you the rest of your life.  First read the passage and then I’ll give you the five second version: 

And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground.  He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how.  The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.  But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”  –Mark 4:26-29

Think of the expression, “You reap what you sow.”  It means you’ll have to pay the consequences for the all the wrongs you’ve done.  You can’t escape your past.  The seeds of sin will become a harvest of punishment and destruction.  

Now for the good news.  Here’s the gospel in five seconds: You don’t reap what you sow, but God reaps what he sows.

At the beginning of chapter 4, verses 1-20, Jesus told another parable about a farmer.  He clearly taught the farmer was God, the seed was the word of God, and the soil was people.  We have no reason not to keep the same understanding of the components of the first parable in our passage today.  

God plants his word into our lives, just as a seed is planted into the ground.  God watches over the seed, day and night, protecting it and caring for it.  He patiently waits for the kingdom of God to grow in our hearts.  As soon as the kingdom of God has grown up fully in us, he harvests it.  

The good news of the gospel is even though I’ve sown many seeds of sin into my life, I don’t reap the harvest of a life of sin.  Instead, I get to keep the harvest of the seed that God has planted in my life.  The fruit of sin is death, but the fruit of righteousness is life.  The harvest of sin is destruction, but the harvest of Jesus is resurrection.  Thank God he put the seed of his word into my life!  

You don’t reap what you sow, but God reaps what he sows and gives it to you.  God plants perfect seed in you and you get to have the harvest!  If you have received the word of God as a seed in your heart, then you will not reap the harvest of your life of sin.  Instead, you will reap the harvest of Jesus’s perfect life of faithfulness and love.  You don’t reap what you sow, but God reaps what he sows in you and then he gives it to you for eternity.     

The Breakdown

  1. What are the “sin seeds” you sowed into your life that you are most concerned about? Confess them to God.  If this honest confession doesn’t ease your conscience, then confess these sins to a trusted person in your life. 
  2. Have you received the word of grace into your life?  Do this by trusting God’s love for you in Jesus Christ.  Rely on the life and death of Jesus to deal with your sin and make you whole and acceptable.
  3. If God has sowed his word into your life, what will he reap?  What is the harvest he will get for himself from the ground of your life?  Do you accept yourself as much as God accepts you?  Why or why not?

Pastor, Please Stop Dissing Self-Help Books

Posted on by holyghostnotes in Ghost Writer

It was an ordinary Sunday.  There I was, sitting at church with my family, when the pastor went on a rant, blurting out a favorite string of four letter words: SELF HELP BOOK, intentionally pronouncing each word as if he were swearing.  He’d done this before, as have many preachers I have heard.  He’d just made a theological point that sounded convincing, paused, and then reached for the application, thinking it was a left-hook from out of nowhere, when, in fact, I could see it coming a mile away.  With finger pointed toward the heavens for emphasis, he prophesied, “…and that’s why the self-help section of the bookstore cannot help you!”  (Dramatic pause), “…because it teaches you to build your self-esteem, pat yourself on the back, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.”  

I had heard it all before many times.  As I sat there with my kids, I wondered what they thought.  How was the pastor’s rant about self-help books received by my boys?  Or what about the struggling alcoholic in the congregation?  The porn addict?  The couple struggling to get a hold of their finances?  The anorexic woman?  It seemed to me that such a blanket statement about the self-help section of a bookstore was not only damaging, but fundamentally wrong.  Here are ten reasons why. 

1. It’s Lazy

First, it’s lazy.  Imagine you’re watching a marathon race.  Although you’ve never run more than two consecutive miles your whole life, you notice the running technique or gear of one of the marathon competitors, and you say, “Look at that idiot!  He shouldn’t be running!  That’s no way to run!”  But, the fact is, he’s actually running a marathon and will soon finish, while you aren’t.  So who are you to critique him?  I’ve got news for you, running a marathon is easier than writing and publishing a book.  So, pastor, until your name is on the spine of a book in the bookstore (and I don’t mean self-published!), then be careful when you criticize those whose names are.  It doesn’t make you look very good.

2. It’s Sends the Wrong Message to Our Kids

Second, it sends the wrong message to our kids, especially boys.  Boys struggle to ask for help, as it is.  Now you’re telling them that it’s wrong to try to help yourself?  Boys rarely read in the first place, and this just gives them another excuse not to read.  What if they struggle with porn, do you want them to keep away from a book like Gary Wilson’s Your Brain on Porn?  It’s in the self-help section, by the way.  Or maybe your daughter is struggling with being an introvert, should she shy away from Susan Cain’s groundbreaking book Quiet?  Also in the self-help section.  By degrading self-help books, we are discouraging our kids from admitting they need help and seeking it in a healthy way.  (Or perhaps they should just seek the advice of their peers on social media?—sarcasm intended.) Instead, they feel ashamed to ask for help and even more ashamed to rely on some of the wonderful, professional resources that are available to them.  Picture a teenage boy sneaking around in the bookstore, only he’s not trying to look at dirty magazines, but he’s trying to find a book on understanding his emotions from the self-help section(!).    

3. Taking Responsibility for Yourself Is Not a Bad Thing

Third, what’s so wrong with self-help, anyway?  What’s so wrong with trying to help yourself?  Since when is taking responsibility for yourself a bad thing?  The Bible constantly tells us to take responsibility for ourselves and put good habits into practice.  In fact, the entire book of Proverbs reads like a self-help book, arguably the best self-help book ever.  Are you suggesting we be irresponsible?  Don’t help ourselves, but wait for others to take care of us?  Just sit back and relax?  Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life has an entire chapter titled “Tell the Truth.”  Is that so misguided?  Another chapter is called, “Assume that the person you’re listening to might know something you don’t.”  That would be an appropriate chapter for some pastors to read.

4. We Need to Humble Ourselves

Fourth, we need to humble ourselves before the counsel of others.  Self-help books have the ability to catch our blindspots.  Typically, the authors are experts in their areas and have something worthwhile to say.  Are we too proud to listen?  Remember, if God can talk through an ass (Numbers 22), then surely he can talk through a self-help book!  I’ve found that God speaks to me through the most unlikely people and sources; God can even speak to us through our pain.  Don’t be too proud to listen to the counsel of others, no matter who they are.  

5. Don’t Overgeneralize

Fifth, before you make a blanket statement about self-help books, get a clue about them first!  What if I were to say, “All men are pigs” or “All pastors are swindlers?”  Obviously, it’s not true!  Think about your sweeping statements concerning self-help books.  Think about 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey, would the world be a better place without it?  Obviously not, for it’s a wonderful and insightful book!  Another helpful book is The Life-Changing Habit of Tidying up by Marie Kondo.  One of my favorites is Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, whose masterpiece self-help book was birthed from his time in a Jewish concentration camp.  Is this book bad, too?  Are you saying there’s no value in reading White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism, by Robin DiAngelo?  What kind of a message are we sending by denouncing this book in the self-help section?  Another wonderful book is When Breath Becomes Air by the late Dr. Paul Kalanithi, who wrote down his thoughts on what makes life worth living, just before he died as a young man.  This book is gold, not fools gold.  Other books to glean wisdom from are Whatcha Gonna Do with That Duck by Seth Godin, The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr, Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life by James Hollis, or 12 Ways Your Phone is Changing You by Tony Reinke.  Here are two other life changing books, Healing the Shame that Binds You by John Bradshaw and Life of the Beloved by Henri Nouwen.  Dispense with these books at your own risk!

6. Discern Good and Bad Self-help Books

Sixth, just as there are useful and dreadful theology books, so there are good and bad self-help books, so don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater (if you’re tempted to, then get a copy of On Becoming Babywise by Robert Bucknam; you’ll find it in the self-help section).  I’ve heard about or read many terrible theology books, but I don’t, therefore, write off all theology books.  I don’t say to my friends, “Don’t go in the religion section at Barnes and Noble!”  Imagine telling an alcoholic to stay away from the classic Alcoholics Anonymous, just because it’s in the self-help department.

7. Teach Us to Read Responsibly

Seventh, rather than criticizing all self-help books, teach us to read responsibly instead.  If you have an issue with a certain self-help book, then tell your people about it specifically.  Tell us why.  Know the book you’re referring to, because you’ve read it, and provide an informed critique.  Don’t just blast all self-help books, as if you’ve read them all, for that would be disingenuous, not to mention arrogant.  Then go read David Brooks’s The Road to Character, which is in the self-help section. 

8. Beware of Presenting a False Dichotomy

Eighth, beware of presenting a false dichotomy between self-help reading and Bible reading.  Just because you read self-help books, doesn’t mean you can’t read the Bible, too!  In fact, the best practice is to read the Bible along with every other kind of book you read.  Compare your self-help book with the Bible.  How are they the same?  Where do they differ?  What light can a self-help book shed on the Bible and what light can the Bible shed on the self-help book?  Trust me, the Bible can hold its ground next to any self-help book.  The Bible is not threatened one bit, so stop acting like it is.  Don’t worry, pastor, long after all self-help books go out of print, the Bible will remain the number one bestseller of all time.  (To learn what a false dichotomy is, read Nathaniel Bluedorn’s The Fallacy Detective, a bestseller in the self-help section.)

9. Expose Yourself to Different Genres

Ninth, don’t underestimate the value of exposing yourself to different genres of books, such as self-help books.  Here’s a helpful analogy.  It greatly benefits a heavy metal drummer, for instance, to listen to jazz, gospel, or classical music!  To expose yourself to different genres doesn’t hinder your playing, but helps your playing.  The same is true with the various genres of books.  This is one of the reasons why the Bible contains so many different genres of writing, such as poetry, law, lament, wisdom, gospel, narrative, history, prophecy, personal letter, etc.  This is also why we should read fiction, history, poetry, essay, memoir, theology, technical, and even self-help books!  

10. The Goal Is Wholeness

Tenth, the goal of life is wholeness or integrity, rather than compartmentalization.  By restricting yourself to one department in the bookstore, you run the danger of “departmentalizing” your life.  Instead of allowing all the parts of yourself to work together, you’re shaming some parts and neglecting other parts.  This is a recipe for disaster.  We are commanded to love God with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength, not just one department of us.  Whenever we say something is “off limits,” we keep it outside our consciousness, rejected.  Just like Jonah couldn’t run away from his calling, but it came to the surface and swallowed him whole, so will the neglected parts of ourselves come back to devour us.  Blatantly to reject a whole area of life, in this case, self-help, rather than integrating it into your whole person, you run away from an opportunity for self-knowledge, self-examination, self-critique, and self-discovery.  In fact, the sixteenth century reformer John Calvin wrote in Institutes that unless we know ourselves, then we cannot know God.  You see, there is a truth to the cliche, “That person is so heavenly minded that he’s no earthly good.”  And to think there’s not proves the point.  

To conclude, I’m not suggesting a church should preach self-help, for the church must preach the biblical gospel.  However, there’s no reason why a pastor cannot use self-help books to point to the gospel, help people understand themselves, and give additional resources to deal with the complexities of life. 

Hidden God

Posted on by holyghostnotes in Book of Mark, Devotionals

Mark 4:21-25

In the last devotional, we learned about a farmer who sowed seed into the ground (Mark 4:1-20).  Keep that in mind as you read and think about today’s Scripture passage, Mark 4:21-25.  Take the first two verses together: 

And he said to them, “Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand?”  For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest; nor is anything secret except to come to light.” (Mark 4:21-22)

In order to understand the meaning of this passage, go straight to the word “for.”  “For nothing is hidden…”  The word “for” gives us the powerful and important underlying principle.  If you want to understand more about God, then you have to know this principle.  It’s that hidden things will be revealed and secrets will be uncovered.  You see, for ages and ages there has been a “hidden” God.  Humanity knew a little about God, but not much.  Religion, philosophy, science, law, art, and human wisdom helped us some, but each of these fell short.  

Although God kept himself hidden from us, he still gave us promises along the way.  These promises pointed forward to the day when the hidden God would reveal himself.  His secrets would be uncovered and light would pour in for us to see what he was like. 

A seed is hidden in the ground and the farmer waits.  Promises are buried in history and the One who promised waits.  Neither is benign, but each throbs with potential, for, when it comes to the mysteries and promises of God, “nothing is hidden except to be made manifest; nor is anything secret except to come to light.”  It was only a matter of time until the promises came to light.  

After starting with the “for” in verse 22, we can then consider the application found in verse 21, “Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand?”  In other words, things that shine light are put where they can be most effective.  Lamps go on stands, not hidden under baskets or beds.  God’s revelatory word, in the last parable known as the seed, will be placed where it will shine the brightest, because the hidden secret of God will come to light.

The hidden God reveals both himself and his plan for the world.  The light will shine from the right places for us to see what God wants us to see.  What is it that God wants us to see?  What is God’s secret?  God’s secret, which has been both promised and hidden from the foundation of the world, is that he would become a human being, suffer for our sins, and offer us free salvation in Jesus Christ.  The mystery of God, which is now being uncovered, is the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus.  The hidden God is now revealing himself as the God who loves us, is for us, and has the perfect plan to redeem us.  

This gospel is the incredible secret of the cosmos, which even angels have longed to peer into (1 Peter 1:12).  

Then Jesus adds in verse 23, “If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”  Jesus isn’t referring to physical ears, but to a special kind of hearing.  If you can “hear” the secret mystery of the gospel of Jesus, then you will be able to know and understand even more of the hidden secrets of God.  By knowing this mystery of God, then you have a kind of decoder ring, which will help you understand other mysteries of life.  Knowing the love of God opens up the universe to you.

So Jesus goes on to say, “Pay attention to what you hear: with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you” (Mark 4:24).  If you put on your special decoder ring and listen to God through the gospel message, then even more mysteries will open up for you.  The “measure” refers to the way you calculate what you see in life.  Think of it like the Metric system or the US Standard system; but instead, it’s the “Gospel system.”  You use the Gospel system, the good news of the love of God, by which to measure all life.  

It’s popular today to measure life with nihilism, which measures life with cynicism and the rejection of morality and divine transcendence.  If the measure you measure life with is nihilism, then you have to make up your own rules, life becomes meaningless, and human politics becomes the highest form of “salvation.”  We’re just a bunch of animals fighting it out to the finish, seeing which group has the most power to come out on top.  There are no guiding principles, no stars to look up to in the sky.

But, as Jesus warns, if the measure you measure with is nihilism, then nihilism will be measured to you.  You become meaningless.  You become rejected.  As Psalm 115 similarly warns, we become what we put on top (Psalm 115:8).

If the measure you measure life with is the love of God, on the other hand, then the love of God will be measured to you!  “…and still more will be added to you.”  Now we’re ready to understand Jesus’s conclusion to this section, “For to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away” (Mark 4:25).  The more light you have, the more of God and his promises you will be able to see.  Picture the scene at the end of the movie National Treasure.  Nicholas Cage held a single torch, which revealed a small amount of treasure in the treasure room; but, then he lit another light and the flames began to spread around the room, illuminating more and more, revealing greater and greater treasure.  The room looked endless and the view of the treasure seemed never to end.  In the same way, once the light of the gospel shines on the love of God, then more light will begin to shine and the love of God will seem to go on forever.  You truly will never be able to see the end of it.

However, if you don’t have the light of the gospel, then the opposite happens.  Since you don’t know God is for you, as the gospel proclaims, then you think God is against you.  And if you believe God is against you, then darkness and despair will swallow you completely, until, “even what he has will be taken away.”  In other words, even the small amount of love and hope you cling to will be absorbed by this darkness and despair if you don’t know God loves you.  

Experientially, we know that life works this way, for if we believe there is no God and no purpose for life, if we believe everything is meaningless, if we believe we are a mistake or rejected matter of the cosmos, then not even the simple pleasures of life can bring us calm, so we might as well give up.  

It’s not up to me to define who God is; God is who he has revealed himself to be.  Much to our joy, God has revealed himself to be the Savior, Jesus Christ.  This is what he most wants you to know about him; this is the secret he whispers to you every day in his word.  As we continue to read the book of Mark together, his whispers will get louder and louder, until they culminate with a shout on the cross.  From the cross, Jesus shouts to us the love of God.

“If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”  

The Breakdown

  1. What is the mystery of the hidden God?  
  2. Be honest, what “system” do you normally use to measure life?  How do you measure happiness? Sadness? 
  3. What would it look like to measure your life with the “Gospel” system?

Pandemic God

Posted on by holyghostnotes in Book of Mark, Devotionals

Mark 4:1-20

It’s alive in the air.  Anyone can catch it, because it does not discriminate.  It’s more dangerous in crowds, which was the case in the story we’re about to consider.  It’s transmitted orally and will change your life forever.  According to Jesus, you have a one in four chance of being irreversibly infected.  

In our story, some put on religious masks so as not to catch it.  They covered themselves with the mask of self-righteousness.  They didn’t want what Jesus was passing on to the crowd.  As you’ve guessed, I’m not talking about the coronavirus, but something much older, more upending, the Christ virus.

This is the pandemic of grace.  

In Mark 4:1-20, Jesus taught a very large crowd by the sea.  It was so large he had to quarantine himself in a boat off the shore to make room.  He told them a strange parable about a farmer who went out to sow seed.  Some seed fell on the path, but the birds came and devoured it immediately.  Some seed fell on rocky ground, but its roots could not go deep enough, so when the sun came out, it withered and died.  Some seed fell among thorns, which ended up choking out the seed, so it produced no grain.  But the last seed fell into good soil, and produced much fruit for the farmer, even a yield of up to a hundredfold.  

The parable confused the disciples, even though Jesus said it was the simplest parable.  If they couldn’t understand this one, then there’s no way they could understand any of the other parables (Mark 4:13)!  Jesus explained to them the seed was the word of God.  Then he said the birds along the trodden path were Satan; the rocky ground was the tribulations and persecutions of life; and the thorns were the cares of the world, deceitfulness of riches, and the desire for other things.  But the seed that produced a harvest were those who heard the word and accepted it, bearing fruit.

The disciples still didn’t understand why Jesus had to teach the crowd with parables.  Since he had such a great opportunity to influence a large crowd, why didn’t he simply make himself as plain as possible?   But Jesus wasn’t interested in clarity, because he wasn’t merely instructing like the Pharisees did; rather, Jesus was doing something else altogether, bringing spiritually dead people to life.  So Jesus told them, “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.’” (Mark 4:11-12).

This is where most people are confused about Jesus Christ.  They think he was just a good teacher, but Jesus didn’t come to be a teacher (he came to be a Savior).  In fact, he tried hard to make his lessons confusing, not clear.  Jesus didn’t teach us formulas or definitions, but secrets and mysteries.  “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God…”  Again, why did he do this?  He did it so people would not be able to figure it out on their own, so that, “they may indeed see but not perceive…lest they should turn and be forgiven.”  Wait, what?   Did Jesus teach in riddles in order to keep people from being able to understand and find forgiveness?  Sort of, but let me explain.

Jesus was not interested in educating people so they could figure out life on their own, because he knew it wasn’t possible in this world.  Jesus did not come to give us more rules to learn and keep; God had already given the world a set of commandments, and Lord knows how that turned out.  Instead, Jesus came to give us himself and make us alive.  And the way to do this is not through instruction, but proclamation, which is what’s meant by sowing seed in the parable.  Jesus wanted to confine people to the only pathway to finding forgiveness, which was through him.  To find forgiveness apart from Christ was not possible, the proof being nobody had been able to instruct the soul to forgiveness in the history of the world, no matter what the religion, philosophy, or leader had been. 

So the sower sows the word of God.  The word of God is a seed, which contains the life of God in it.  This seed, even though small, has the potential to plant the kingdom of God in your heart.  You and I are dead because of sin, so the only hope for us is not instruction, but renegeration.  We do not need to be instructed by the word of God, but infected by the word of God.  The word of God needs to hijack every cell in our being, replicate itself, and start a new life from the inside out. 

God’s word needs to be planted into our hearts, take root, grow, and bear fruit.  The Pharisees thought they could bear fruit apart from the word of Jesus, but they were mistaken, as are most people today.  In our time, there’s a movement that revolves around advanced intellectual instruction, via podcasts and other media formats, seeking to help us flourish with the best possible instruction.  I’m thinking of Jordan Peterson, in particular, or TED Talks.  Don’t get me wrong, I love to listen to Jordan Peterson and learn much from him!  On one level, everyone can benefit from this sort of first rate teaching.  But, and here’s the point, this sort of high level teaching has been around for millenia, so there’s nothing new about it.  It will help you for a while, but that is all.  It will improve your life, but that’s its limit.  Jordan Peterson had nothing on the Pharisees, for they could teach just as well as he could, if not better.  

But their teaching was not in the same category of the simple proclamation of Jesus.  

Jesus was talking about preaching the word of God, which makes dead hearts come to life.  This is why he did it in a way some couldn’t figure out, because if you could figure it out with your intellectual skills, then it wouldn’t be a gift of grace.  If you could figure it out on your own, then it would be a religious “work.”  The Pharisees were good at figuring things out, but they couldn’t figure out Jesus Christ and his simple parable of the farmer and his seed!  It wasn’t that it went above their heads, but it went below their heads and bounced right off their hard hearts.

Instruction and high quality teaching do not make the grass grow.  

Instead, we need to expose ourselves to the Christ virus.  We must drop our masks of self-sufficiency and breathe in deeply the orally transmitted, preached word of God.  There is no other way to come alive.  And we know this from experience.  No matter how much we learn, how good our habits, and all the positive practices we attempt to put to use, at the end of the day, we still manage to muck up our lives.  Can you relate?  

I’ve got eleven intellectually informative podcasts I listen to on a regular basis and none of them can keep my heart from envying others.  None of them can keep my eyes from lusting.  None of them can keep my lips from lying to make myself look better.  None can keep my intellect from thinking it’s better than others or from judging those with whom I disagree.  None can keep my conscience from being riddled with guilt and despair, to the point where I want to give up.  Can you relate?

We know from experience that we cannot save ourselves, but if left to ourselves, will ruin ourselves and take out others in the process.  

Jesus didn’t come to give us more of the same, but he came to infect us with the word of grace and bring us to life.  He came to plant a tiny seed of hope in our hearts that would grow into the size of a kingdom, apart from anything we do.  If you’re infected by the Christ virus, you will come alive and then have the potential to infect others to life. 

The application for this text is remarkably simple and clear.  Jesus is calling us to listen to Bible preaching, allowing the Bible to drip feed into our souls.  There’s no replacement for this.  I’m not talking about instruction or fancy teaching, but the word of grace proclaimed to you, week after week after week.  We need to hear about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.  We need to be infected by the truths of justification and redemption.  Other teachings might be able to show you where you need to go, but they can’t take you there, for they have no intrinsic power.  The preaching of the gospel, on the other hand, has intrinsic power, just as a seed has life within itself. 

Jesus said there were four kinds of soil: trodden, rocky, thorny, and good.  Since God is the farmer, then surely he knows the difference between good and bad soil; any experienced farmer, let alone a divine one, would know not to plant seed into trodden, rocky, or thorny soil.  So why doesn’t the farmer discriminate?  I’d like to suggest that at some point in our lives, we are all of these.  The farmer doesn’t sow seed just once, but year after year.  Likewise, in the different soil seasons of our lives, we need to continue to expose ourselves to the seed of the farmer.  Let Him sow the seed in good times and in bad, healthy and sick, plenty and want.  

When all else fails, and it will, listen to the preached word of God.  You may think you don’t need it, but so did the Pharisees, whom Jesus condemned.  You may think you don’t need church or sermons, but Jesus is clearly telling us we do; remember, this is the easiest parable to understand.  If you don’t understand why you need to listen to the proclaimed word of God, then nothing else can be done for you.  And it’s not because you’re a bad person, per se, but it’s because you think you’re too good.  Your heart is hard, just like the trodden soil in the parable.  

Faith does not begin with our actions, but ends with them—thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.  Faith begins in secret, with the word of God floating through the air, entering our hearts, and taking root.  And it’s all by grace.  God is not safe, but God is pandemic. 

The Breakdown

  1. Why do you think Jesus chose to represent God as a farmer?  Why did he choose to represent people as soil?  What do they have in common? 
  2. Think about the four types of soil.  Which one seems most like you right now?  Which “season” are you in?  Why?  Be detailed.
  3. When was the last time you heard a sermon based on the Bible?  In our time, it’s easy to access quality sermons; are there any you listen to regularly?  Two Bible preachers to check out are Colin Smith (Unlocking the Bible podcast) and Timothy Keller (Gospel in Life podcast).

The Reframe

Posted on by holyghostnotes in Book of Mark, Devotionals

Mark 3:31-35

The families we grew up in have an enormous impact on us as adults; all the wounds we received as children will continue to cause us hurt long after we’ve moved away from home.  Each person unconsciously holds on to the various verbal and nonverbal messages communicated from his or her family of origin and these messages are hard to shake.  Such messages might include: kids don’t matter; I have to sneak to take care of myself; if I want anything done, I have to do it myself; don’t trust adults; my needs don’t matter; I have to be bad to be noticed; or I have to be perfect.  

Jesus also grew up in a family, who, no doubt, communicated certain messages to his maturing self, as well.  In his day and age, families were much closer-knit than ours.  His culture was more a culture of shame than ours, so family loyalty was highly prized.  Especially as a Jew, fidelity to the family was the penultimate value, right behind fidelity to God.  In fact, “honor your father and mother” was the hinge on which the Ten Commandments turned.

As we learned in a past devotional, Jesus’s family didn’t support him or believe in his mission.  As Mark 3:21 clearly stated, they thought he’d gone mad.  “He is out of his mind,” they said.  True, Jesus was not a child anymore at this point, but, we still have to believe that messages like this are hard to absorb from one’s family, even at the age of thirty.  Can you imagine if your family thought you had legitimately gone insane?  There you are, sitting at home with some friends, when you hear a knock at the door.  Your mom and siblings were there to take you away to put you into a home for the mentally ill.  How does this scenario sit with you?

This scenario was not hypothetical with Jesus, but this is precisely what happened.  Let’s pick up where we left off with Mark 3:31-35.  “And his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him” (31).  They wanted to take him away, because they thought he was insane.  How would Jesus deal with his family?  In a sense, the fate of the world rested on how Jesus responded to the knock at the door.  

Everyone knows family conflict is the worst kind of conflict, so let’s pay attention closely to how Jesus navigated these troubling waters.  He did something I call “the reframe,” which I’d like to teach to you, so you can better handle conflicts in life.  

“And a crowd was sitting around him [Jesus] and they said to him, ‘Your mother and your brothers are outside, seeking you’” (Mark 3:32).  They were seeking him to put a stop to him.  They wanted to take him away by force, shut him up, and disband his ministry, because they thought he was a lunatic.  In fairness to them, people were probably giving his family a bad name because of Jesus.  

Let’s be honest for a moment, what would we have done?  You have a direction or idea for your life, but your family doesn’t support you.  You begin to express yourself a certain way and your family mocks you.  You start to hang out with people nobody else likes and your family tells you to your face how much they hate your new friends.  You start to become more spiritual and your family wonders if you’re in a cult or dabbling in the demonic.  All this and more was happening to Jesus.  You or I would have been tempted to have a pity party.  We would have seriously questioned ourselves, wondering if we’d missed the mark.  We would entertain doubt and probably despair, as well.  We may even drop our goals and cave to the pressure of our mom, dad, brothers, and sisters.  Even as a thirty year old, it’s nearly impossible to outrun the messages of our family.

But here’s what Jesus did, he reframed the entire situation.  To reframe is to step back, look at the situation objectively, and retell the ‘story’ to yourself in a positive light.  Think of it like this, just like the modern media seems to put a negative spin on the day’s news, to reframe is to put a positive spin on the day’s news.  As we’ll learn, the very best way to reframe is to put a ‘gospel’ spin on your life.  

So, Instead of falling into the pit of negativity or self-pity, this is what happened:

And he answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?  And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers!  For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.’ (Mark 3:33-34)  

If Jesus’s family of origin wasn’t going to support and encourage him, he wouldn’t let it ruin his mission—and thank God for that!  In a flash of divine inspiration, he looked at his aggravating situation and put a new frame on it, saying, “Who are my mother and my brothers?”  

A family is supposed to stick together and help each other achieve goals.  The profoundest and truest definition of family is people who help each other do the will of God.  Jesus continued, “For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.”  True family members help each other love God, do his will, and stay the course.  In that moment, Jesus reframed who his true family was, not the ones banging on the door to take him away from the will of God, but those eager strangers who’d gathered around him to hear more about his mission.  

“Here are my mother and my brothers!”  What a way to reframe family conflict!  Instead of feeling sorry for himself, he took joy in the good he could find around him.  And you could do the same.

Maybe your spouse works nights and, as a result, you don’t get to have family dinners together.  Instead of bemoaning this, reframe it: you can have breakfasts together and be the first people each other sees every day!  Maybe you went through a horrible breakup in a relationship.  Instead of beating yourself up and repeating to yourself all the predictable putdowns, reframe your story by celebrating the person you can become.  You have the opportunity to learn more about yourself, grow in character, find a new ministry, and become a well of compassion to others in need.  

Or perhaps you just had a really bad day.  Reframe it and say, “Everybody has bad days and I know good days are to come; one thing I know for sure is God’s mercies are new every morning.”  

By reframing your life, you take yourself out of the victim’s seat and learn to see the positive things that are happening in your life.  It may take some time to get the hang of, but keep at it and you’ll get better.  

Here’s one more thing about learning to reframe.  The best “frame” you can use is the cross.  The cross is the secret power behind Jesus’s words about his new family.  Because Jesus knew about the cross, he was able to foresee it’s profound and eternal effects.  The cross tears down walls between people and unites us all as one.  Strangers and enemies become family, because of the cross.  By peering through the frame of the cross, Jesus could see the reality of his eternal family, even while his earthly family rejected him.  

There will be moments in your life that feel cursed, but don’t let the curses of this world write your story.  The gospel means your story is actually “good news.”  The gospel turns every failure into good news, every loss into good news, every disappointment into good news, and every struggle into good news.  How?  Jesus absorbed all curses on the cross and exchanged them for blessing.  Look through the frame of the cross to reframe your life and discover a treasury of blessing.  

We’ll help you along the way as we continue to dig deeper into Mark’s gospel.  But for now, that’s the end of chapter three!  If these devotionals have been helpful, be sure to share them with your friends!

The Breakdown

  1. Do you have family conflicts?  How does knowing a little more about Jesus’s story help?
  2. What are the negative ‘stories’ you’re telling yourself right now?  How could you reframe one of them?
  3. The cross is a treasure chest of riches for us.  Can you name some of the treasures that come from the cross?  Try to name at least ten of them.