Mark 1:21-22
“Then they entered Capernaum. When the Sabbath arrived, Jesus lost no time in getting to the meeting place. He spent the day there teaching. They were surprised at his teaching—so forthright, so confident—not quibbling and quoting like the religion scholars.”
“Jesus and his companions went to the town of Capernaum. When the Sabbath day came, he went into the synagogue and began to teach. The people were amazed at his teaching, for he taught with real authority-quite unlike the teachers of religious law.”
Jesus, like his Father, speaks simply and directly to us. Understanding him does not require mental gymnastics. He does not need to undergird his statements with supporting arguments nor drive them home with applications. He does not pester us to gain our attention. He simply speaks and speaks simply. Those who know their shepherd listen.
Lord, help me to listen for you more carefully. Thank you for your precious voice in my life. May I ever know it and listen to it.
Mark 1:16-18
“Passing along the beach of Lake Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew net-fishing. Fishing was their regular work. Jesus said to them, “Come with me. I’ll make a new kind of fisherman out of you. I’ll show you how to catch men and women instead of perch and bass.” They didn’t ask questions. They dropped their nets and followed.”
“One day as Jesus was walking along, the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew throwing a net into the water, for they fished fo a living. Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” And they left their nets at once and followed him.”
Simon and Andrew were the first disciples called by Christ. John and his brother James, fishing just down the shore, were next. I have always wondered at these disciples’ response to Jesus, assuming they had no previous contact with him. Now I see it was just as plausible they had previous experience of Jesus that made them want to abandon all they had known to go on the road with him. Regardless, the Spirit had prepared their hearts for this moment. If I am willing to listen, he prepares my heart too, equipping me for the task that is my God-given calling.
Lord, may I always take time to listen to you. Especially help me to lean into listening prayer more readily. Usually my mind is a whirl with daily chores. They are nothing compared to you and yet I give into them. Help me to relax into listening prayer, to be at peace with doing nothing, that I might hear you, my Lord and my redeemer.
Mark 1:12-13
“At once, this same Spirit pushed Jesus out into the wild. For forty wilderness days and nights he was tested by Satan. Wild animals were his companions, and angels took care of him.”
“The Spirit then compelled Jesus to go into the wilderness, where he was tempted by Satan for forty days. He was out among the wild animals, and angels took care of him.”
The brevity of Mark’s language describing the temptation of Christ runs across the page. There is none of the drama as it is elaborated in other gospels. Mark’s subjects and predicates shine with immediacy. It makes me feel like I’m in the story, not merely observing it, immersed in the eternal portent of those forty days. Christ rejected the temptation to ascend God’s throne. Instead, he chose to redeem the world and sacrificed himself. Blessedly he chose to show us the way to submit and become free.
Lord Jesus, thank you for resisting Satan’s call. I am grateful for your message and the definition it has brought to my life. You chose to walk with me rather than sit upon a throne. I feel loved. Spirit, help me to respond in measure to your incredible gift.
Mark 1:7-8
“As he preached he said, ‘The real action comes next: The star in this drama, to whom I’m a mere stagehand, will change your life. I’m baptizing you here in the river, turning your old life in for a kingdom life. His baptism—a holy baptism by the Holy Spirit—will change you from the inside out.’”
“John announced, ‘Someone is coming soon who is greater than I am – so much greater that I’m not even worthy to stoop down like a slave and untie the straps of his sandals. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit!’”
I am struck by the contrast between and Old Testament Jew, attempting to please God, and believers in this age of the gentiles. We almost take the indwelling Holy Spirit for granted. Imagine how wonderful this foretelling was for the Jew who had to drum up obedience from within himself. Here was help to overturn the desires of the relentless self. Believers today have a supreme blessing in the One who fills our jars of clay. It is the Pearl of Great Price.
Lord, forgive my grieving of your precious Spirit. Make me more malleable, more inclined to listen and respect your presence withing me. As always, change my heart to be more fully thine.
Mark 1:4-6
“John the Baptizer appeared in the wild, preaching a baptism of life-change that leads to forgiveness of sins. People thronged to him from Judea and Jerusalem and, as they confessed their sins, were baptized by him in the Jordan River into a changed life. John wore a camel-hair habit, tied at the waist with a leather belt. He ate locusts and wild field honey.”
“This messenger was John the Baptist. He was in the wilderness and preached that people should be baptized to show that they had repented of their sins and turned to God to be forgiven. All of Judea, including all the people of Jerusalem, went out to see and hear John. And when they confessed their sins, he baptized them in the Jordan River. His clothes were woven from coarse camel hair, and he wore a leather belt around his waist. For food he ate locusts and wild honey.”
God was at work through John to prepare the hearts of the people for Jesus. Times were confusing and stressful. People looked for something to meet their gnawing anxiety and need. Charismatic and eccentric John got people’s attention. He called them to face sin and undergo an immersion ceremony in water symbolizing the washing away of their sin.
Our times are confusing and stressful too. God’s work in our heart begins with a conviction of sinfulness, of falling short. There seems little hope of God’s message gaining hold with this self-absorbed generation where fault always belongs to someone else. But God works in them nonetheless. We must trust to the unseen, not letting the seen discourage us. God worked that way in 1st Century Palestine and still does. The times are worrisome indeed, but not beyond God’s calling people to himself and his work of redemption.
Lord, give me courage to speak the light and hope you give. Give me wisdom to recognize and comfort those who despair. May your Spirit flow in and around the elements of our being, bringing hope and clear sight to those suffering with sin and its consequences. May I faithfully message your Word as you have so faithfully grown and protected me. I am yours.
II Peter 3:16-18
“Some things Paul writes are difficult to understand. Irresponsible people who don’t know what they are talking about twist them every which way. They do it to the rest of the Scriptures, too, destroying themselves as they do it. But you, friends, are well-warned. Be on guard lest you lose your footing and get swept off your feet by these lawless and loose-talking teachers.”
“Some of his (Paul’s) comments are hard to understand, and those who are ignorant and unstable have twisted his letters to mean something quite different, just as they do with other parts of Scripture. And this will result in their destruction. You already know these things, dear friends. So be on guard; then you will not be carried away by the errors of these wicked people and lose your own secure footing.”
The institutional church can be a controller; set boundaries, stay inside them, and all will be well. But this is fear, not freedom. Besides, we bring sin into the enclosure and the boundaries are porous anyway. Force feeding the Bible does not develop soldiers. Peter calls us to be on guard in our faith. That means drilling through our doubts with critical thinking skills, skirmishing with the worldly crowd, getting bumped, bruised and shot at. Setting aside control to develop skilled soldiers, false teachers don’t have a chance.
Lord, please allow me to assist my grandchildren as their minds grow. May I help them to learn and test their faith, to make it their own. Grant me time and opportunity to do this. And, lead me to put my own faith into practice, as a soldier out on patrol.
II Peter 3:11-13
“Daily expect the Day of God, eager for its arrival. The galaxies will burn up and the elements melt down that day—but we’ll hardly notice. We’ll be looking the other way, ready for the promised new heavens and the promised new earth, all landscaped with righteousness.”
“Since everything around us is going to be destroyed like this, what holy and godly lives you should live, looking forward to the day of God and hurrying it along. On that day, he will set the heavens on fire, and the elements will melt away in the flames. But we are looking forward to the new heavens and a new earth he has promised, a world filled with God’s righteousness.”
This promise of a new earth, along with that of our salvation, gives believers reason to hope. Hope is in short supply around the world right now. Political uncertainty and upheaval along with anxiety over a worn and weary earth are major causes. The Lord graciously assures us he has plans for healing these. I should do a better job at sharing my hope in his plans with those terrified with hopelessness.
Lord, I can easily let my hope become apathy for the world’s sorry state. Instead, help me tune into other’s anxiety, validate it, and share my hope for a glorious future. Make me your ambassador of love and hope to the world.
II Peter 3:8-9
“Don’t overlook the obvious here, friends. With God, one day is as good as a thousand years, a thousand years as a day. God isn’t late with his promise as some measure lateness. He is restraining himself on account of you, holding back the End because he doesn’t want anyone lost. He’s giving everyone space and time to change.”
“But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends: A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day. The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.”
This is the answer for those who rail against evil and suffering, wondering why God does nothing. It is because of his great love and longing for each human. He asks that we who believe be patient in the our own suffering and that which engulfs the earth so that more brothers and sisters may discover the One who perfectly loves them. Suffering gets our attention. The Lord’s focus is adding souls to eternity. Again, reality is upside down from our expectation. We should not be surprised. Our Lord is completely other from us, as is his purpose.
Lord, may I grow facile in adapting to your upside down way of doing things. May I learn to value the addition of souls to your kingdom over my own and others comfort and freedom from pain.
II Peter 2:19
“They promise these newcomers freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption, for if they’re addicted to corruption—and they are—they’re enslaved.”
“They promise freedom, but they themselves are slaves of sin and corruption. For you are a slave to whatever controls you.”
In our time the world looks to early childhood for the roots of various dysfunctions. Therefore, no one is guilty of their sin. It was, “someone else’s fault.” If we fix early childhood, all is well. Easy. That may be partially true, but here Peter speaks of being addicted not to a behavior, but to sin and corruption itself and that is something else. Dysfunctional behavior is a repeated choice, made so often a soul craves ever more dysfunction and eventual longs for destruction. Those who learn of absolutes in childhood are fortunate. They are guided to choose good which builds over evil that destroys. Would that all were so blessed.
Lord, when you came you spoke of sheep without a shepherd whom you loved, and I know you love them still. Make me a vessel of your love to them now. Help me to share your story so those who wander may hear their shepherd’s voice, be set free by the truth and be healed.
II Peter 2:15-16
“They’ve left the main road and are directionless, having taken the way of Balaam, son of Beor, the prophet who turned profiteer, a connoisseur of evil. But Balaam was stopped in his wayward tracks: A dumb animal spoke in a human voice and prevented the prophet’s craziness.”
“They have wandered off the right road and followed the footsteps of Balaam son of Beor, who loved to earn money by doing wrong. But Balaam was stopped from his mad course when his donkey rebuked him with a human voice.”
This chapter warns believers against corrupt leaders. Peter compared these leaders to Balaam in Numbers 22. Balaam was a false prophet the Moabites hired to curse Israel on their way from Egypt to Canaan. God stopped him by speaking to him in an extraordinary way, through the vocal cords and mouth of an animal.
I have loved ones who follow someone like Balaam. I will pray that God speaks to them in an extraordinary way, just as his did to the Balaam of Numbers 22. And I will pray that they listen.
Lord, open the eyes of the Balaam types in my life. Shout a warning that will stop them in their tracks and may they head it. Make me faithful to pray for them and point them to you.
II Peter 1:3
“Everything that goes into a life of pleasing God has been miraculously given to us by getting to know, personally and intimately, the One who invited us to God.”
“By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence.”
Christ is the center. He shares what pleases the Father with us, inviting us into a personal relationship with the Trinity. He makes us part of the miracle of restoration he is doing in the world. We cannot go wrong in following him. Conversely, we should beware anyone or any idea that shifts the focus away from him and his saving work amongst mankind.
Lord, I am grateful for knowing you these many years. Looking back, I see you always at work in my life. I feel so loved! May this security bubble up out of me, bringing hope and light into the world. I want them to feel loved too.
II Peter 1:1-2
“I, Simon Peter, am a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ. I write this to you whose experience with God is as life-changing as ours, all due to our God’s straight dealing and the intervention of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Grace and peace to you many times over as you deepen in your experience with God and Jesus, our Master.”
“This letter is from Simon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ. I am writing to you who share the same precious faith we have. This faith was given to you because of the justice and fairness of Jesus Christ, our God and Savior.”
God is just, fair and deals straight with us. His message is the same. Beware those who twist words into castles of air. They pretend to sophistication, destaining those who live straight and simply. Those whose hearts are evil need a disguise. The pure in heart need none.
Lord, keep me pure in heart. You’ve given me natural abilities with which I could preen and posture. I am afraid of my own capacity to humanly complicate when I need to stay humble. Give me clear sight and guide me in simple living that your wisdom shines, not mine.