What Did Jesus Say? (Mark 1:14)

The first words that Jesus spoke in the gospel of Mark were, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near.” I hear the words of Jesus and I see in my mind what Daniel saw in the night visions. “I saw One like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was escorted before Him. He was given authority to rule, and glory, and a kingdom; so that those of every people, nation, and language should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and His kingdom is one that will not be destroyed” (Daniel 7:13,14). The time had come for the curse to be broken. When the curse was broken the arrogant words of Satan would be silenced and dominion would be given to the rightful king.

I hear in the words of Jesus the long-awaited fulfillment of this prophecy for the coming of the rule and reign of the Son of Man. This is good news! However, I also look with wonder at the setting in which Jesus made this proclamation. John has been arrested. Israel is under the heels of Rome. It doesn’t look like a picture of the Son of Man establishing His kingly rule - His dominion - His sovereign government. But what did Jesus say? “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near” (Mark 1:15).

Those who had been waiting for the coming of messiah believed that he would come and break the yoke of Rome, but there was a greater plan. The messiah had come to break the yoke of Satan in the heart of every man. His rule and reign would include ruling and reigning in the lives of every people, nation and language. In order to establish the kingdom of God, the serpent’s head must be crushed and the Son of Man’s heel must be bruised. The kingdom of God was near because the time had been fulfilled. Jesus had come to break the curse by His death on the cross.

But there was more to this proclamation of good news. There was a call to respond. “Repent and believe in the good news.”  Repent, to change the mind, to accept the will God. This was the message of John, who had gone before Jesus to prepare the hearts and minds of the people for the kingdom of God. Those who had repented were able to hear the good news, but those who didn’t humble themselves with repentance rejected the messiah.

Jesus not only said to repent, He also said to believe in the good news. What does it mean to believe? It means that you put your confidence and trust in the One who came to set up His kingdom. Satan came into the garden offering man the right to rule himself and be his own god. He lied, and man’s rebellion against the dominion of God brought death. Now, at last, the time was fulfilled for the curse to be broken. Jesus came saying, “Believe the truth, reject the lie. The kingdom of God is near.”

How?

My friend and I were talking about diets. Linda is very practical. I sent her a link to a diet that I was interested in. Her response was, “Very sensible stuff. The trick is just to actually DO it.” So, what is the difference between knowing something and doing it? Why is it so difficult? How do you take something you believe and make it something that you live?

I confess there are things I want to do, goals I want to reach. I want my life to be well-lived. I don’t want to be simply a dreamer who wakes up when my life is over to find nothing but disheveled bed sheets produced from sleepwalking. In Colossians 3:2 it says that we are to set our minds, we are to have understanding, to seek for, things above. How?

My first step is faith. Is that right? Is that really the first step? I remember when I was a young teenager telling my mother that I wanted to have more faith. She told me that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. She invited me to wake up with her the next morning at 5 a.m. if I wanted more faith and begin reading the Bible. That was over 50 years ago. How did my actions affect my faith? By hearing the word of God I learned who it was that I was putting my faith in.

Faith isn’t just an idle belief. If I simply fill my mind with lofty ideas of who God is, and I am constantly thinking about how much Jesus loves me, but not allowing those thoughts to affect how I live, then it is the same as being a glutton with a library filled with books about healthy eating. True faith involves action. My faith is seen when I take the intangible truths that I believe in and make them tangible by my actions.

Again I ask, how? How do I take something that I believe in and make it something that I live? Is it because I’ve been waking up early ever since I was a child seeking truth, seeking God? Is it my efforts to act on what I believe that breathes life into my faith? No, it’s more than that. To be more than a dreamer, to be fully awake, you must be made alive in the spiritual realm. It is only when you have put your faith in the word of God, concerning the Kingdom of God, and received the breath of God that is the Spirit of God, that you can be fully alive.

A Life Full of Days

I did the math and was surprised to find that the “ripe old age” that David died at was less than five years older than I am! This stopped me in my tracks. It seems like most of my life is lived in a mad dash focusing more on where I’m going than where I am at the moment. My next thought was that if I will be reaching the age that the Bible considers a full life within the next five years, I should make a five year plan. But wait a minute. Wasn’t my response a continuation of looking more into the future than gazing at the present?

I looked again at the verse that told about when David died, and I was struck by the phrase that he had lived his life, “full of days.” What would my life look like if I focused more on the days of my life than I did the years of my life? God revealed Himself to Moses as “I Am.” In Revelations we are offered grace and peace from, "the One who is, and was, and is to come” (Revelations 1:4)"

There is grace and peace from the One who is, but what else can I discover if I live in the present? “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1). I wonder if I sometimes miss the refuge and strength, grace and peace of the day because I’m focused on the worries of tomorrow?

I find a blessing in Deuteronomy 33:25, “As your days so shall your strength be.” Now here is my question, can I claim that blessing too? I think it is available if I ask for it. I think perhaps this is what is meant when Jesus taught us that in prayer we are to ask for “daily bread.”

So, here I am at the dawning of a new day, watching the sun rise and filled with the knowledge of my inadequacies. Do I really believe in a God who calls Himself  “I Am”? Do I really believe that there is “grace and peace” for me from the “One who is”? Is God really my “refuge and strength”? Is He “a very present help in trouble” and can I trust Him to provide the strength that I need for this day? He told me to ask for “daily bread,” and so I will. I will also ask that when my days come to an end, whether it’s five or twenty five years from now, that each day will be full and satisfying. I pray that I might live each day in communion with the One who is. Because isn’t daily communion the same as daily bread?

Learning to Find Peace

I had unexpectedly stepped into a nest of yellow jackets! Suddenly I was swarmed by angry, stinging bees. They were plunging their stingers into my legs, buzzing with fury all around my face. That memory from my childhood still causes me to shudder. There are other memories that draw me back in time to hurts I’d rather forget; memories I would rather not think about. Yet sometimes things happen that reawaken the pain of the past. Recently, I was confronted by such a reawakening and again I felt as if I was being attacked by a swarm of bees.

Negative memories and negative emotions began to haunt my mind. My prayers were childlike and simple, “Father, help me! I don’t know what to do! I don’t know how to respond!” In answer to my prayer I read Colossians 3. In the light of God’s word I saw myself clearly. I felt like a vulnerable child engulfed in the embrace of my Father. I had been heard. I had been answered. I grabbed a piece of paper and a pen and quickly wrote the words in bold letters and put it on my refrigerator.

Therefore, God’s chosen ones, holy and loved, put on heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, accepting one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a complaint against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so also you must forgive. Above all, put on love--the perfect bond of unity (Colossians 3:12-14)

I just had one more problem. Although I knew that my prayer was both heard and answered, I couldn’t figure out what the answer meant. Now I had the answer to my my prayer, but I still had all my negative emotions and hurts. So my prayer changed and I began to ask God how I was supposed to put away the anger that I felt and put on love. I wanted to, but to be honest I simply didn’t know how.

I kept thinking about it, reading it, meditating on it, praying about it. I didn’t want to be fake. I didn’t want to pretend. Finally, one day I saw the verse differently. I had been focusing on what I needed to do, trying to figure out how I was supposed to put off all my negativity and put on love. Suddenly I realized what the "therefore" was there for. I could put on love, not because I chose to, but because God had chosen me. I could choose to have a holy response instead of a fleshy response because God had chosen to sanctify me by the blood of His Son. I could choose to love only because God had chosen to love me! With the eyes of my heart finally opened, I realized that by faith I had access to everything I needed. When I understood this, I was able at last to let the peace of the Messiah, to which I was called, control my heart.

Temptation (Mark 1:12,13)

“Immediately the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness 40 days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and the angels began to serve Him” (Mark 1:12,13).

With these words the contest between the Antichrist and the Christ unfolds. Satan had slithered out of the garden of Eden having won a victory over the first Adam. In the garden, where every need was met, there was still a lust for what was forbidden. What stood in the way of gaining the wisdom this forbidden fruit promised? It was the word of God that said, “If you eat the fruit of this tree you will surely die.” So, Satan accused God of lying. The word of God was discarded for what the eye lusted after. With that victory Satan began to establish his dominion of darkness.

Death did come. The ground that had produced a garden now produced the thorn. The animals that Adam had named became wild. But all was not lost, because a promise was given that one day the Christ would come and the curse would be broken. John was told that the One that he would see the Spirit descending on and resting on would be the long-awaited Messiah. As soon as Jesus came out of the water from His baptism, the heavens were torn open and the Spirit descended on Him. And a voice came from heaven declaring Jesus to be God’s beloved Son in whom  God delighted. What happened next? “Immediately the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness” (Mark 1:12).

Jesus didn’t go into the wilderness because Satan lured Him there. He went because the Spirit brought Him to the wilderness with power. It was at the Spirit’s leading. The testing would be set to last 40 days. The 40 days of testing were not dictated by Satan but ordained by God. At no time has Satan ever ruled over God’s authority.

In the wilderness, among the wild animals, Satan tempted Jesus. For 40 days He was tempted, not in a garden where he had plenty, but in the wilderness where he had hunger. In the wilderness as in the garden the accuser took the word of God and twisted it. At the heart of all the temptations, whether in the garden or in the wilderness, was an invitation to join Satan in his rebellion. At the edge of time Satan had determined to raise his throne above the throne of God. In the garden it appeared he had won the contest. He was the ruler of  the dominion of darkness. But now the Christ, the King of Light, had come into the wilderness, fasting and hungry and vulnerable, wrapped in the garb of human flesh. It was here that the Antichrist tested and tempted the Christ.

I have known what it is like to be tempted in the garden where all my needs are met. I have known what it’s like to lust for more even though my life is full. I have known what it is like to be tempted in a wilderness filled with fears that howl like wild animals. If I only look at life with my eyes of flesh and listen with ears in tune to world, I fail. This is what I’ve learned from Jesus’ example:

1) God is in control.

2) God’s word is true and can be trusted.

3) Satan quotes God’s word with a twist.

4) Satan accuses God of not being worthy of our trust.

5) Great temptations often follow great victory.

6) Temptation comes before our appointed ministry.

7) Victory comes when we listen to God’s word with ears of faith and when we persevere, looking with our spiritual eyes at Him who is invisible. We are invited to acknowledge our weakness and to put our faith in His strength. When we do that we find that sometimes we are aided by unseen angels.

The Problem of Evil (Mark 7:1-12)

“So how shall we live in a world that is filled with evil? How can we protect ourselves and our families? We will start with the instruction that was given us but we will improve it. We will build a wall that is high and thick. We will dig a moat that is deep and overflowing. This will keep the evil away.” However, what they couldn’t see was that the one who handed them the improvement to God’s instructions was the evil one they were trying to combat.

The Pharisees and some of the Scribes approached Jesus ready to do battle. They had already determined that they would destroy him, and so they began their attack by aiming at Jesus’ disciples. “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders, instead of eating bread with unwashed hands?” It wasn’t that their hands were dirty, the problem was that they were not following the traditional cleansing. By the time these traditions began to be written in the Mishnah there were over 35 pages devoted to washing alone! If you could measure righteousness by laws of cleansing, all I can say is, they won!

Jesus, however, was not impressed with their traditions. With his piercing eyes he saw their hearts and proclaimed them hypocrites. He quoted Isaiah, “These people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. They worship Me in vain, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men” (Mark 7:6,7). Then Jesus went on to show how they had invalidated God’s commandment by elevating their own traditions above God’s word. Behind the mask was the ancient foe seeking once more, through the guise of the commandments of men, to raise his throne of judgment above the throne of God.

The simplicity of the words Jesus spoke next are still rocking the world to this day. “Listen to me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that goes into a person from the outside can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him. If anyone has ears to hear, he should hear” (Mark 7:14-16)! Yet, even his disciples didn’t understand. He had to explain that the heart of the problem was the problem of the heart.

The purpose of the commandments and law of God was to expose the heart. Jesus told his disciples that it was from within people’s hearts that came evil thoughts, sexual immoralities, thefts, murders, adulteries, greed, evil actions, deceit, lewdness, stinginess, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness. There is no wall that is high or wide enough nor moat deep  enough to keep us away from evil when the evil is from our own hearts. The purpose of the law was to point out the need for a Savior.

A Cry For Help (Mark 7:24-30)

I asked my friend to tell her story. She began hesitantly. “I’m not sure what Sarah wanted me to say. The prayers I prayed for my son weren’t eloquent; in fact, sometimes I couldn’t find the words to express what was in my heart.” She told how she had prayed for eight long years while her son was ensnared by drugs. I listened and nodded with understanding. I knew what it was as a mother to pray for my children when words were replaced by tears.

“Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is cruelly tormented by a demon” (Matthew 15:22). My translation says that she kept crying out, but when I looked it up in the Greek it translated the word “crying out” as screaming or shrieking. In Mark it says that Jesus had entered a house hoping that no one would know it. But she had found Him and she wasn’t going to leave without being granted mercy for herself and for her child.

Who was she? In Mark she is identified as a Greek, a Syrophonician by birth. Matthew refers to her as a Canaanite. She was from the same pagan region that the infamous Jezebel had been from. All of these ways of identifying her would point her out as an enemy of the Jews. Yet here she was, crying for mercy and falling at Jesus' feet. Not only that, but three times she calls Jesus “Lord.”

This story is unsettling though, because at first Jesus didn’t say a word to her. Jesus’ disciples assumed that He felt the same way about this intrusion as they did, and urged Him to get rid of the nuisance. Instead, Jesus said to her that He had been sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Her simple response was, “ Lord, help me.” Now the picture changed from lost sheep to children, and Jesus asked if was right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the pet dogs. She had come on behalf of her own child, and she knew Jesus was her only hope. And she refused to let go of Him until He blessed her by helping her child. Her response was a response of faith that even the dogs were allowed to eat the crumbs that fell from the table.

Here is a basic fact: She believed in Jesus. She knelt at His feet in worship. She had a child who was being cruelly tormented by a demon, and because she loved her child, she had come to Jesus for help.

I look at this story and remember why Jesus came. I see a reflection of the Heavenly Father’s heart in this grieving mother. To set His children free from the snares of Satan, He gave His one and only Son, so the everyone who believed in Him would not perish but have eternal life. That “everyone" included this woman who knelt at His feet crying, “Help me!”