Wednesday, July 17th

Today's passage from the Bible In a Year Reading Plan is 2 Chronicles 23-24, Psalm 121, 1 Corinthians 9

Today's scripture focus is Luke 8:49-56

Luke 8:49-56

English Standard Version (ESV)

⁴⁹ While he was still speaking, someone from the ruler's house came and said, “Your daughter is dead; do not trouble the Teacher any more.” ⁵⁰ But Jesus on hearing this answered him, “Do not fear; only believe, and she will be well.” ⁵¹ And when he came to the house, he allowed no one to enter with him, except Peter and John and James, and the father and mother of the child. ⁵² And all were weeping and mourning for her, but he said, “Do not weep, for she is not dead but sleeping.” ⁵³ And they laughed at him, knowing that she was dead. ⁵⁴ But taking her by the hand he called, saying, “Child, arise.” ⁵⁵ And her spirit returned, and she got up at once. And he directed that something should be given her to eat. ⁵⁶ And her parents were amazed, but he charged them to tell no one what had happened.

Accompanying John MacArthur sermon: Jesus' Compassionate Power Part 2
Accompanying Mark Driscoll sermon: Jesus Heals a Woman and a Girl

This is really the 2nd half of yesterday's passage.

Yesterday we saw that Jesus took the time to respond to a woman who was a societal outcast.  Here we see that this was, for Jairus' daughter, a deadly choice.

Jairus missed his daughter's death.  Now obviously, no parent want's their child to die.  I can't really even let myself try to imagine how traumatic that experience would be.  But if they have to die, I think every parents would want to be there for their child's last moments.  But Jairus wasn't there.  Not because he didn't love his daughter, but because he was trying to save her, by reaching out to the only One who could help.

And this man had faith.  Even after hearing the news that the worst had happened - his daughter was dead.  Luke doesn't tell us, but Matthew tells us....
“My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.”
His faith did not waver.

And so Jesus went to His house - and He redefined death.  She is only sleeping.  Our physical death is really as though our body is sleeping and awaiting its bodily resurrection where it will be united with our eternal souls and live forever - either in heaven or in hell.

The mournings laugh at Jesus, mocking Him.  These are more than likely the hired mournings (as was customary for funerals), because the family would not be able to move from weeping to laughing in a heartbeat like that.  They may have been bewildered, maybe even angered, if they didn't understand what Jesus meant.  But they wouldn't have laughed.

And then Jesus took her by the hand and, with no fanfare, raised her back to life.  And immediately she got up - no resting period necessary, this was complete and instantaneous healing from death to full life.  And then she ate - proving that she was not a ghost, but had truly been raised back to life.

I love it that Jesus took her by the hand.  First, because that's what Jairus had asked of Him, and He compassionately did as he requested.  But because it is so personal, and reveals His deep compassion for His children.

We serve a personal God.  This is mind boggling, considering how many people occupy this earth!  But it's true.  Someone, beyond our human comprehension, God can see all our needs.  And He comes alongside us in our pain.  Sometimes to heal in this life, always to heal in the next.  Sometimes simply to provide the comfort and peace that only He can give.  But He is there.  He cares.  He is with us.  God with us - Emmanuel.

MacArthur: We don't have to fear death as believers, we can trust the one who conquered it.

He conquered death when He raised others to life. And He conquered death with finality when He rose from the dead.  The sting of death is gone.  Yes, it still hurts when we lose those we love.  But we mourn with the sure hope that we will be reunited.  Death's victory is indeed shallow because it is not forever.

Driscoll:
Sleep is a euphemism. It’s a metaphor that the Bible uses to speak of those who die in faith as believers. See, death, ultimately, is not just physical death, but it’s spiritual death, which is separation from God. Some of you are physically alive, but spiritually dead, living apart from Jesus. You’re dead in your trespasses and sins, the Bible would say. And that because of your sins, you will die, and upon death, you will experience eternal death in hell. That’s the worst death of all. That’s the ultimate death.

Those who have faith in Jesus, and belong to Jesus, and are believers in Jesus, when they die physically, they do not experience ultimate death because their soul goes to be with Jesus. We have a physical body and an immaterial soul, and upon the death of the physical body, the immaterial soul goes to be with God. That’s why Paul says, “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” That’s why Paul would say elsewhere that “to live is Christ and to die is,” what? “Gain.”

And so the Bible uses the language of sleep when the believer dies; that the body goes into the ground, and the soul goes to be with the Lord until the day that the Lord Jesus returns, and he commands the soul to reenter and occupy the body; that the soul and the body are rejoined in a glorified resurrected body patterned after the resurrection body of Jesus....

Sin results in suffering and death, we see that in both stories of the older woman and the young girl.....We will all die. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, therefore all die. And one day death will come for us all, and you and I will die. And if our faith is in Jesus, we will die in him, and we will rise like him, forever to be with him.
Jesus is the only One that has proven to have power over death. Jesus' grave has been empty since 3 days after His death.  Everyone else, including every other religious leader in all of human history, has a grave marker with their name on it.  I'm glad I serve the only living God!



Tomorrow's scripture focus: Luke 9:1-6

Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage: 2 Chronicles 25-26, Psalm 122, 1 Corinthians 10

Tuesday, July 16th

Today's passage from the Bible In a Year Reading Plan is 1 Corinthians 8, Psalm 120, 2 Chronicles 21-22

Today's scripture focus is Luke 8:40-48

Luke 8:40-48

English Standard Version (ESV)

Jesus Heals a Woman and Jairus's Daughter

⁴⁰ Now when Jesus returned, the crowd welcomed him, for they were all waiting for him. ⁴¹ And there came a man named Jairus, who was a ruler of the synagogue. And falling at Jesus' feet, he implored him to come to his house, ⁴² for he had an only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she was dying.
As Jesus went, the people pressed around him. ⁴³ And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone. ⁴⁴ She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately her discharge of blood ceased.⁴⁵ And Jesus said, “Who was it that touched me?” When all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you!” ⁴⁶ But Jesus said, “Someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me.” ⁴⁷ And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, and falling down before him declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed. ⁴⁸ And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.”

Accompanying John MacArthur sermon: Jesus' Compassionate Power Part 1
Accompanying Mark Driscoll sermon: Jesus Heals a Woman and a Girl

MacArthur:
Two people out of this crowd that have legitimate faith. That man who was a ruler of the synagogue and a woman who was an outcast. And the contrasts are pretty clear. One is a man, one is a woman. One is rich, one is poor. One is revered and exalted, the other is vilified and despised. One is respected, one is rejected. One is used to being honored, one is used to being scorned. One has a twelve-year-old daughter dying, and the other has a twelve-year-old disease. One leads the synagogue, and the other is excommunicated from the synagogue. And here you see the Savior embracing the extremes.

Jesus was accessible to the crowds - He didn't preach from some ivory tower, He went out amongst the people.  And He wasn't just accessible to the crowds, He was available personally to the people.  He was compassionate and He gave Him time and energy to individuals out of love and concern for them.

It must be overwhelming for our pastors sometimes - so many needs, but only 24 hrs in a day.  Filtering needs and assessing which are the highest priority requires discernment.  We need to give our leaders grace in this area.  Just because our concerns aren't immediately addressed, doesn't mean they don't care.  Perhaps it means someone else had a more pressing concern.

Here Jesus decides to delay helping Jairus and his daughter, to tend to the woman who had been struggling for 12 years.  For 12 years!  12 years of bleeding, which, in the Jewish faith meant that she was unclean.  It had been 12 years since she had, for all intents and purposes, been excommunicated from the synagogue and basically, LIFE.  12 years since she had held a baby.  12 years since anyone had touched her at all.  12 years of physical suffering combined with 12 years of emotional and spiritual isolation.  This is suffering on a massive scale.  By now, she must be virtually without hope.

Until Jesus comes.

It's that way with us, isn't it?  Our spiritual condition of sinfulness leaves unable to have a relationship with our Creator.  We are depraved.  He is holy.  It is hopeless.

Until Jesus comes.

Until we reach out in faith as this woman did.  Jesus was her only hope left.  And so she went out in the midst of the crowd, even though she knew she wasn't supposed to.  She probably didn't care.  She knew this was her only hope and she was going to do whatever it took to get to Jesus.

And she was instantly healed physically.  But Jesus didn't stop there.  He could have just kept going.  But He didn't.  She needed to be restored spiritually. And so He gives her the opportunity to be restored by asking who it was that He had healed.

It wasn't a mystery to Him, He knew who she was. He knew that. When He said, "Who was clinging to Me?" He was calling for her to come out and reveal herself. It isn't that He needed information, He just wasn't done with her yet. He knew who she was. He knew what was in her.

This is one of the most profound things Jesus ever said. "I was aware that power had gone out of Me." What an insight. Listen to this. The power of God is not impersonal. What a truth. It is personal in the nature of God and when the power of God flows from Him to you, He feels the flow. Incredible thought. His life pours into us, we feel that power, that infusion of spiritual power into our lives as we see it evidenced in our lives. Do we ever think that God feels it? Our Lord experienced actually, personally felt the outflow of His power, His creative power to recreate that woman's insides. God is not impersonal. God is not detached. When God touches a life and power flows, He feels the flow...He feels it. No one receives the power of God into His or her life without personal involvement from God. We are saved and the power flows. We are sanctified and the power flows. We are glorified and the power flows....

She couldn't hide. She saw that she hadn't escaped notice. She came trembling, trembling under the weight of realizing she was in the presence of God. She's crushed. She falls down before Him in homage and worship. She declares in the presence of all the people the reason why she had touched Him, in order to be healed. And how He had responded, she had been immediately healed. Now the social part of it has been taken care of and He says to her, "Daughter," that's the only time in the whole New Testament He ever called a woman by that name. "Daughter, you are now, as if to say, in the Kingdom and your faith has sozo, saved you." It's exactly what He said to the one leper in chapter 17 who came back. He healed ten, how many came back? One. He said, "Your faith has sozo saved you."

He wasn't done with her. She needed to be restored physically. She needed to be restored socially. She needed to be restored spiritually. Your faith has saved you. Go in peace, not psychological peace, go in peace with God, objective peace. Your faith has saved you. God in peace. You have made peace with God. Matthew 9:22 said, "He said, 'Be of good comfort.'" Eusebius, the church historian says, there's a statue of this lady in his day, in her town as a living testimony that she became a believer in Jesus Christ. Listen, Jesus knows you. He knows your hurts, your needs. He is accessible to you. He is available to you. He is interruptible by you. And He is inexhaustible in meeting your need. And it's personal with Him. He feels the flow of power into your life. This is our God manifest in Jesus Christ.

This woman reached out to Jesus in an act of faith.

Driscoll:
And I want you to see that that is an act of faith. And for some of you, this concept of faith, that we’re saved by faith, that we live by faith, that we’re kept by faith, it may be a difficult abstract concept, but I want you to see it here as reaching out to Jesus. Friends, that’s what faith is. She has faith in her heart, which is a gift of God, and she reaches out in faith, trusting, knowing, believing, “If I could just touch the tassel on the end of his robe, I could be healed.” She has great faith, saving faith in Jesus.

And in that instant, her soul is healed—she becomes a worshiper of Jesus—and her body is healed, and the power of God is unleashed in her life through faith. You need to know that this is how it works. The power of God is unleashed in our life through faith, trusting, believing in Jesus. This is amazing. Not everyone who touched Jesus was healed. Luke doesn’t extrapolate and give us the exact reasons that this happens. But by faith, the power of God is unleashed in her life.

And let me say this, and this is beautiful: She does not make Jesus unclean. Jesus makes her clean. She was not to touch anyone because she was unclean, and she would make them unclean. But because Jesus is pure, Jesus is sinless, Jesus is good, Jesus is God, when she touches him, he does not become unclean, she becomes clean.And I need you to know this. And in your heart, I need you to today, by faith, believe this, that whoever you are, and whatever you’ve done, or however dirty, and disgusting, and defiled your life has been, you reach out to Jesus in faith, and you don’t make him unclean. He makes you clean. And the power of God is unleashed in your life to give you new life. She’s a picture of all who are saved by faith, reaching out to Jesus, and receiving new life....

We need to be forgiven and made clean. And Jesus, this man is going to be her Yom Kippur. He is going to be her great high priest, and his death on the cross is going to be her day of atonement.

And so he forgives her, and cleanses her, and he ultimately is going to the cross, and perhaps my favorite verse in all of Scripture, 2 Corinthians 5:21 explains what transpired in that moment in this way, “God made him who knew no sin to become sin so that in him, we might become the righteousness of God.” You’ve heard me say it a lot if you’ve been at Mars Hill for any length of time. Luther calls it the great exchange. All of my uncleanness and filth goes to Jesus.

I want you to see yourself reaching out to Jesus with all the sin committed against you, and all the sin that you’ve committed, and all your filth, and all of your defilement, and all of your disobedience, and all of your uncleanness, all of your idolatry, and I want you to see yourself touching Jesus, fearful that you’re going to make him unclean.

And the most amazing thing happens. He’s not made unclean, you’re made clean. You’re forgiven and cleansed. And his righteousness is imputed, granted, reckoned, given to you, and you’re made clean; that he forgives and cleanses, just like he did this woman. That’s why 1 John says, “If we confess our sins, he’s faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us of all of our unrighteousness.” He’s our sacrificial goat. He is the one who forgives sin. He’s our scapegoat. He’s the one who cleanses us from unrighteousness, and makes us clean in his sight. And this is this woman’s Yom Kippur. This is her high holy day. This is her day, by faith she is saved, physically and spiritually. She’s forgiven and made clean.

And what does Jesus say? “‘Daughter, your faith has made you well: go in peace.’” “Go live a new life. Go live to God’s glory and your joy.” I am desperate for you to receive new life through Jesus, new life through Jesus, to leave here going in peace and being called a child of God. That’s her story, that Jesus cleanses.
That's what saving faith is.  Recognizing our depravity, recognizing that Jesus is our only hope, being willing to do whatever it takes to get to Jesus; acknowledging, repenting, giving up every sin; reaching out to Him with all our filth, throwing ourselves on His mercy, and wondrously, amazingly receiving His righteousness, forgiveness, cleansing, new life.

Beautiful.  Amazing.  Faith.  Thank you, Jesus.

Tomorrow's scripture focus: Luke 8:49-56

Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage: 2 Chronicles 23-24, Psalm 121, 1 Corinthians 9

Monday, July 15 ~ by Pamela

Today's passage from the Bible In a Year Reading Plan is 1 Corinthians 7, Psalm 119:169-176, 2 Chronicles 19-20

Today's scripture focus is Luke 8:26-39

Jesus Heals a Man with a Demon

²⁶ Then they sailed to the country of the Gerasenes,^[a] which is opposite Galilee. ²⁷ When Jesus^[b] had stepped out on land, there met him a man from the city who had demons. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he had not lived in a house but among the tombs.²⁸ When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him and said with a loud voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me.” ²⁹ For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many a time it had seized him. He was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the desert.) ³⁰ Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Legion,” for many demons had entered him. ³¹ And they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss. ³² Now a large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. ³³ Then the demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned.

³⁴ When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country. ³⁵ Then people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. ³⁶ And those who had seen it told them how the demon-possessed^[c] man had been healed. ³⁷ Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. ³⁸ The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, ³⁹ “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.

 MacArthur has this to say:

Now if you were looking around for missionary candidates, you probably wouldn't pick Charles Manson. But this man [Legion] demonstrates the same bizarre kind of behavior that Charles Manson demonstrated...deadly. And to get a little more contemporary, if you were looking for a missionary candidate, you probably wouldn't pick Andrea Yates who drowned her five children, nor would you pick John Wayne Gasey who chopped up people. And if you're looking for, you know, the right raw material, a candidate to be a missionary, you don't go to the maniac category unless you're Jesus and have the power to totally transform. And if you want to make a statement about what your power is like, that's the best place to make it. The more obvious the transformation, you would think, the greater the evidence, and certainly that is so.

Somehow, this made me think of stories of testimonies. I grew up in a church-attending home and accepted Christ at a very early age. Often when I hear the testimonies of those that had been living lives of massive destruction and how God in a very vivid way reached down and saved them, it almost makes my own story of how I became a Christian almost ....boring. However, that is not the case. We all have lived lives that are in massive destruction because our sin--whatever form that may take--separates us from God and until we commit to Him we are headed to destruction. In today's passage we see the extreme example of a life separated from God. In this man there was chaos. There was terror. There was a belief that no one could contain him. No human could because it says the demon was so powerful that For many a time it had seized him. He was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the desert.It would appear that this man was beyond saving. The way we all are when we are separated from God.

Our sin, regardless of any other demons in our lives, keep us from God. Satan does exercise his power and his attempts to keep us from God are not unnoticed and not something of only biblical times.

 MacArthur explains:
Satan is the prince of the power of the air, there is a wrestling with demons that is going on, a fight with principalities and powers, etc. The forces of hell are active. The evil spirits of fallen angels are moving and plying their trade. They're withstanding the purposes of God, such as we saw in Daniel, you remember, so that God sometimes dispatches angels to deal with them. They are there. But listen to this, they prefer anonymity. They would rather that you would characterize that behavior as postpartum blues. They would far rather that you would define that behavior as the effect of child abuse or a failure to take your medication. They really don't want you to know they're there. They don't want to be exposed. But in the presence of Jesus they had no option. And what happened was Jesus just being there confronted them and they gave up their anonymity unwillingly by the sheer force of His personality. Jesus walks into a synagogue in the fourth chapter of Luke, as we learned. He walks into the synagogue, there is a man there, Jesus is preaching the gospel that He came to set the prisoners free, to give sight to the blind. He came to give spiritual wealth to the poor. He came to free the oppressed from their burdens. The poor prisoners, blind and oppressed, this is the acceptable favorable year of the Lord and He's preaching the gospel and this demon just blurts out of this guy, "HA, what do we have to do with You?" And in the presence of Jesus Christ, he cannot restrain his fear. He was so terrified at the presence of the Son of God that he exposed himself and that happened again and again and again in the encounters that Jesus had with the demon possessed during the time of His life.

Jesus exposes the sin in our lives through our relationship with Him. As we grow in our relationship with God the magnitude of our sinfulness is revealed and our need for a Saviour is displayed. It doesn't matter if you were a child of a young age with not too much of a sinful past behind you or an inmate on death row with days left of your life--we all need a Saviour. However, when we are saved, we all have the ability to be ambassadors for Christ and do tell our story of how we became a child of God. Regardless of our past, we are now a new creation in Him. Our changed lives have the power to lead others to Jesus, the story doesn't even have to come from us.

 MacArthur says :

And when the herdsmen saw what had happened, they ran away and reported it in the city and out in the country. And the people went out to see what had happened and they came to Jesus and found the man with whom the demons had gone out...from whom the demons had gone out sitting down at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind and they became frightened.. Those who had seen it reported to them how the man who was demon-possessed had been made well. And all the people of the country of the Gerasenes and the surrounding district asked Him to depart from them, for they were gripped with great fear and He got into a boat and returned, but the man from whom the demons had gone out was begging Him that he might accompany Him but He sent him away saying, 'Return to your house and describe what great things God has done for you.' And he went away proclaiming throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him."

Now that's the maniac who became a missionary. It's an incredible story. I want to show you three displays of power in the story. I want to show you the destructive power of demons, first point...the destructive power of demons. Secondly, the delivering power of Jesus. And thirdly, the damning power of sin. (To read what MacArthur's thoughts on these 3 points, you can read the entire sermon here)

We have the capacity to be overcome with demons and Jesus has the power to set us free. Nothing is impossible with Christ. He came to save us and we all need to be saved.


Tomorrow's scripture focus: Luke 8:40-48

Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage: 1 Corinthians 8, Psalm 120, 2 Chronicles 21-22

Friday 12 July 2013 ~ Roxie's Post

Today's passage from the Bible In a Year Reading Plan is 1 Corinthians 6; Psalm 119:161-168; 2 Chronicles 13, 14

Today's scripture focus is Luke 8:22-25


Wow. I am so with Miriam!!! I didn't comment on your post, Miriam, because my post will be the comment! I am very much feeling like you are feeling...am I doing what God wants me to do?? Does God want me to do more? Does God want me to do anything????

And I know that my thoughts are along the same path as Miriam's...different situation, very similar thought pattern. Lately, I have been so very wrapped up in something that I want...that I have dreamed of since I was just a little girl...something that only God can give me...that I have started to be a bit...well... I guess it could be called manipulative. I get so angry that I have to wait, that the answer might be "no", that I don't even want to look at or touch my Bible; I don't want to see another devotional, hear another person say, "just have faith"...but then I think, maybe if I prayed more, read more, sang more, served more. Maybe then I would know blessing like so many others around me...maybe then...

God doesn't work that way. No matter how often I oscillate between fear and faith, God doesn't change. He knows my heart. He knows my needs. Most importantly of all, He knows what is best for me.

And I am so glad that I am in such good company, including the disciples of the Scripture for today!

Today's passage comes from Luke 8:22-25 and reads as follows:

Luke 8:22-25

22 One day Jesus said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side of the lake.” So they got into a boat and set out. 23 As they sailed, he fell asleep. A squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger.

24 The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we’re going to drown!”

He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. 25 “Where is your faith?” he asked his disciples.

Jesus was travelling around healing, teaching, loving, forgiving and proclaiming the good news and decides it is time to cross the Sea of Galilee, a lake surrounded by hills and valleys and mountains that occasionally create a wind tunnel. These effects can churn up the Sea into a raging monster in very little time, very daunting to a boat that, according to archeological finds, would be about 26 feet by 7 feet (pictures and more info can be found at the Jesus Boat museum site). This is no "ship"; it is a working man's boat with enough room for nets, a few fisherman and the catch of the day...and sides low enough to haul in nets heavy with fish.

Jesus, sleeping, was unconcerned about the spray, the waves, the wind, tossing the boat and tormenting his companions, many of whom were seasoned sailors. If the storm was terrifying even those familiar with the ways of the Sea, how much more terrifying for those who were "landlubbers", so to speak? Did you also catch the words: "and they were in great danger"? The author of this book may not be known for his boating skills, but he is known for his keen observations...and he did not say that they thought that they were in great danger...but that they were in great danger. 

The storm is raging and it is real. Lives could be lost, limbs maimed. Hearts despairing, they did the only thing they could think of to do (or maybe they just thought Jesus should know that they were going to die)...they woke Jesus up. Defeated, they tell Him, "we're going to drown". 

Defeat, panic, misery, doubt...common enough among people in dangerous times...yet these men had seen "the blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised and the good news is preached to the poor." (Luke 7:22).

Should they have been shocked that Jesus would get up and rebuke the wind, calm the storm? 

I find it interesting that Jesus waited until they came to him in desperation. These men would have tried every trick that they knew to keep that boat afloat before appealing to the one who created the wind and the waters...the One who knows every trick to keep the boat afloat from a completely different angle. 

Jesus had every right to ask them, "Where is your faith?"

Just as He has every right to ask the same of me...of us. Can we be strong enough to approach Jesus for His angle on our problems before we become desperate? Maybe strong is not the right word...humble...wise. Can we give up striving on our own to leave our troubles, our desires, our hopes and dreams in His far more capable hands?...is it possible to let go of all that we fear and choose  to have faith that God actually knows what He is doing?

He is a God for whom nothing is impossible and He knows and cares about our every need. May we lay down our fears and choose faith. 

May we choose to walk hand in hand with Him instead of battling our storms on our own.

..."where is your faith?"

Monday's scripture focus: Luke 8:26-39

Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage: 2 Chronicles 15, 16

Thursday, July 11 ~ Miriam

Today's passage from the Bible In a Year Reading Plan is 2 Chronicles 11-12; Psalm 119:153-160; 1 Corinthians 5.

Today's scripture focus is Luke 8:16-21.

16 “Now no one after lighting a lamp covers it over with a container, or puts it under a bed; but he puts it on a lampstand, so that those who come in may see the light. 17 For nothing is hidden that will not become evident, nor anything secret that will not be known and come to light. 18 So take care how you listen; for whoever has, to him more shall be given; and whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has shall be taken away from him.”

19 And His mother and brothers came to Him, and they were unable to get to Him because of the crowd. 20 And it was reported to Him, “Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, wishing to see You.” 21 But He answered and said to them, “My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it.”

I'm not going to expound on the entire passage today, just focus on the first couple of verses.  Somehow, as has happened before, it seems that I got a passage that I particularly needed this week.  I will admit to feeling a little disconnected or uprooted, if you will, lately.  Even as I help prepare for our church's VBS in a few weeks, even as I read this blog daily, even as I serve in the church in various ways and play Christian music, somehow it all seems a little distant at the moment.   It seems I've been focusing too much on the outward and not enough on the inward.

From Mark Driscoll's sermon Jesus' True Family:

The secular version is: you’re defined by your appearance, by your job, by your performance, by your status in life. So it’s whatever you do or accomplish that determines your identity.

In Christianity, it’s completely the opposite. Through the grace of God, and the work of Jesus, and the love of the Father, we receive an identity. And out of that identity, there is activity, not so that God would love us, but because he already has, not so that God would accept us, but because in Christ, he already does. So who we are determines what we do. It is not that what we do determines who we are. That’s the miracle of Christianity. And so as God commands us to activity, it is simply the outworking of our identity. He makes us someone so we can do some things.

“This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.” It’s theologically accurate, artistically not so phenomenal, so I will not sing it for you. But if you sang it as a little kid, it’s actually a pretty good little theological instruction piece. You want your light to shine. What that means is where there are lies, you want to bring truth. Where there is sin, you want to bring conviction of sin and repentance of sin. Where people are enslaved to sin, you want to bring redemption through the gospel. Where people are hiding and sinning in secrecy and shame, you want to shine the light of God’s truth and love, and invite them to repentance in Jesus.

So the picture is as if the whole world is filled with darkness, and Jesus comes as a torch, as it were, and that each Christian is like a small candle who’s lit by the torch of Jesus. By the grace of God, we are to humbly carry our light into the world, take it to work or school or wherever it is that we happen to be as missionaries in a dark world bringing the light of the gospel and good news, and exposing and illuminating of Jesus Christ.

So my question to you is this: How’s it going? For those of you who are Christian, or claim to be Christian, how’s it going? Because what Jesus exhorts us is not to hide our light, he uses this analogy that if the Holy Spirit has set his light aflame in you, you can either illuminate and expose, or you can conceal and hide that light. And what this looks like, practically, is that with your family, you don’t really talk about Jesus. With your friends, you don’t really talk about Jesus, or at least your non-Christian family and friends. And the whole point of your job is not to annoy people and talk about God all the time while you’re not doing your job, but you want to do well at your job. As part of your light, you want to show up early, stay late, work hard, be honest, tell the truth, deliver results, love others, pray for them, serve them, be gracious and kind. And as opportunity arises through friendship, love, and service, to talk to people about Jesus. Let them know you’ll pray for them, serve them in functional and practical ways.
And Jesus says that not only are we to allow others to see open, authentic, real faith, and hear true, biblical doctrine and exposition, but we want our light to continue to grow brighter. And this is maturing or sanctifying as a Christian, this is growing in Christ-likeness. And so what he tells us to do in light of that is this: consider carefully how you listen.

Once you become a Christian, what this means is you’ve gotta be a student. You’ve gotta be a student. This includes reading your Bible, Christian books, downloading classes, sermons on the Internet, listening. We live in this amazing world where there’s so much information that’s made available. This is listening to the Bible on your way to work. This is listening to God’s Word being taught and preached. And this includes and centers around as well, reading the Bible to your children, letting your children read the Bible out loud to you in an age-appropriate version when they’re of age to be able to read. This is as well, you reading the Bible for yourself, reading the Bible aloud. This is you hearing carefully, listening carefully, considering carefully what the Bible has to say, what God would have to say to you through his Word.

So let me ask, how’s your listening? How’s your listening? Are you listening carefully as Jesus would instruct and admonish you?
I'm guessing a large part of my problem is that I have not been listening.  I have not been spending enough time in prayer, and I have not been listening.  At least not well.  I've been doing things, but where did that list of to do's come from?  Am I doing what God wants me to do, or what I think I'm supposed to do?

Happy Thursday, everybody.  Have a great weekend.

Tomorrow's scripture focus:  Luke 8:22-25

Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage:  2 Chronicles 13-14; Psalm 119:161-168; 1 Corinthians 6

Wednesday, July 10th

Today's passage from the Bible In a Year Reading Plan is 2 Chronicles 9-10, Psalm 119: 145-152, 1 Corinthians 4

Today's scripture focus is Luke 8:4-15

Luke 8:4-15

English Standard Version (ESV)

The Parable of the Sower

4 And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable, 5 “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. 6 And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. 7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. 8 And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.” As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

The Purpose of the Parables

9 And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, 10 he said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’ 11 Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. 12 The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. 13 And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away. 14 And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. 15 As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.

Accompanying John MacArthur sermons: Receptivity to the Gospel Part 1, Part 2 & Part 3
Accompanying Matt Chandler sermon: Be Careful How You Hear

It was such an encouragement to me to listen to MacArthur's sermon (the 3rd one is the only one I went through) on this passage.

The truth is that many people reject the gospel message, but the reality is that it has nothing to do with the quality of the seed (the Gospel is the seed and there's obviously nothing wrong with the message itself!), or the skill of the sower (anyone who is sharing the gospel message), but the heart condition of the one hearing the message.

 If you know the gospel well enough to be saved by it, you know it well enough to present it to somebody else. And the message of the gospel is what it is and it isn't anything else and it doesn't need to be altered. And as we're learning in the story, it's not a matter of the sower and it's not a matter of the seed, it's a matter of...what?...the soil. Responses to the proclamation of the gospel are determined not by the skill of the sower and not by the state of the seed, but by the soil. It's really important to know that because that helps us to understand what to do in evangelism, what to expect and what not to expect...

within the big picture of quote/unquote "the church, the Christian church," there are going to be the children of Satan, the useless riff-raff sort of scraped up that ultimately are just the souls of people that are going to perish. There's going to be a kingdom that appears to be very large and influential when the truth is much smaller than that. Those are really important things to understand. The bottom line of all of that is not everybody talking about heaven is going there. Not everybody talking about Jesus knows Him. Not everybody who says they believe the Bible is converted. That doesn't sound too earth shattering to us, but this message has to be preached again and again and again and again. We are so method oriented that we think if somebody goes through the four steps of our little method, prays a little prayer, we can affirm to them that they are saved. Or if somebody comes to the church and manifests a certain amount of interest and makes it a routine part of their life and makes an outward profession to belong that that's sufficient. We have to just keep going back to the issue of the heart.

And so, Jesus told the parable of the soils to help us to understand that there are going to be people in response to the gospel whose response is immediately rejection, some whose response is immediately acceptance, some whose response is even more prolonged acceptance but none of them are saved. And then there are those that Jesus says are the good soil, and they're the real ones.

That's 4 categories, and only 1 of them involves true saving faith.

Chandler adds this....

every time the Scriptures are taught, every time the word of God goes out, it has a softening effect on some and a hardening effect on others, because God’s going to display both His mercy and His justice. 


Some hear with completely unmoved hearts, or moments after it "lands" it gets snatched away, or trampled underfoot by men, snuffed out before it goes anywhere at all.

Some hear and receive it with joy, but there is no root.  This is reminiscent to me of those who are stirred enough to "say the prayer" but there is absolutely no life change.  They may even go to church, and participate in cultural Christianity, but there is absolutely no substance to their faith, there is no relationship with God, they have not been transformed by the Holy Spirit - they have not been saved. And so, when any sort of trial comes, it weeds out those with no root.  They were never saved to begin with, they were just going through the motions, or accepting Christ for what He could do for them and as soon as that failed, they were done.

Some hear and receive it, but the cares of this world choke out the truth.  Basically this is no-lordship salvation which is not salvation.  It's when people say they choose Jesus because they don't want to land up in hell, but they haven't understood what they've actually chosen.  They have to choose Jesus over everything.  They have to understand the sin issue, and they have to be willing to give up their sin and submit to the Lordship of Christ.  Hungering after a better life doesn't cut it, hungering for righteousness is what it takes.

And lastly, some hear and receive it in it's fulness.  They understand the gospel message in it's entirety - the message of sin and judgment and the message of grace and eternal life. They see the true value of the gospel and are willing to give up absolutely everything in order to receive it.

Quite frankly, we can't always tell for sure whether or not someone is a Christian.  They can say all the right things but it may have never penetrated their heart.

But there are signs of real faith, and that is fruit, both in attitude and in action.  The true believer will have a regenerated heart filled with love, joy, peace, goodness, self control.  They will love God and love people. Times of trial will not cause them to falter.  There will be evidence of a transformed heart.  And there's also action fruit - a true believer will pursue holiness, they will walk the talk.

You need both. If you have the action without the attitude, you get legalism.  Action needs to be the result of attitude.

When it comes to evangelism, we need to remember that we are not the Holy Spirit.  We cannot plow the soil of their hearts to make it ready to receive the seed.  That's not our job.  Our job is to sow the seed and let God take care of the rest.

MacArthur: The Holy Spirit saves sinners but not without the gospel. That's why we have to proclaim it.

And we need to present the bad news before the good news.  If we do it the other way around they often don't even hear the bad news and all that produces is superficiality that is not faith at all.  You don't want people to want Jesus to fix their life, you want them to want Jesus to cleanse their sin and transform their hearts.

In Hebrews 10:22 and this is a good place to stop, do you want to come to Christ? Here's what it says. You want to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, you want to come into the presence of God, then here's how you come, verse 22, "Let us draw near with a true heart, a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water." So you want to come, do you? You want to come to Christ? Then you have to cry out for a cleansing...for a true and sincere heart sprinkled clean and washed. That's the issue, folks. It's about the heart.


Tomorrow's scripture focus: Luke 8:16-21

Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage: 2 Chronicles 11-12, Psalm 119:153-160, 1 Corinthians 5

Tuesday, July 9th

Today's passage from the Bible In a Year Reading Plan is 2 Chronicles 7-8; Psalm 119:137-144; 1 Corinthians 3

Today's scripture focus is Luke 8:1-3

Luke 8:1-3

English Standard Version (ESV)

Women Accompanying Jesus

8 Soon afterward he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him, 2 and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene,from whom seven demons had gone out, 3 and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod's household manager, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their means.

Accompanying John MacArthur sermon: The Scope of Jesus' Ministry

Mark Driscoll ties these 3 verses into the previous portion about Jesus and the sinful woman.  That that woman's story is not just her story.  Jesus loves women.  Women of His day were, for the most part, no better than property.  They had no rights.  But Jesus had women followers, and He loved them. And they were women from every status - the prostitute from yesterday's passage, the demon possessed Mary Magdalene, the wealthy and influential Joanna, and the unknown Susanna.  All these women helped to provide for the disciples out of whatever they had - much or little.  They reacted to Jesus' love for them, and His forgiveness for them, with not only gratefulness, but generosity.  What is our reaction to Christ's forgiveness?  Are we grateful?  Are we generous?  This is our story too.

MacArthur takes this in another direction, which I also found helpful.   He notes that this particular passage is not an incident, an event, a healing, or a sermon.  It's simply a summation of the nature of Jesus' ministry, and about some of the limits that God put on Jesus' ministry.  And, of course, you can't find a better model of Biblical ministry than Jesus Himself, so there are some great things to learn here.

The first point is that Jesus' ministry was not designed to give people what they wanted, or to fulfill an ambition that Jesus wanted, or to cater to a particular group or type of people.  His ministry was always under the complete sovereign control of the Father.  His ministry was always exactly and only what God wanted and designed it to be.  Whatever He did, whatever He said, wherever He went, whom He ministered to, and when He did/said/went - all was determined by God's timetable and design.

A key thing for anybody in any type of ministry to remember is that it's not the breadth of the ministry (how large it is) that determines it's impact so much as the depth of the ministry.
Concentration is the key to multiplication. The way you multiply your ministry, the real ministry, the way you multiply the power of ministry through the truth and changed lives is by concentration on changing lives and teaching people the truth. And the more intensely you teach that to a group of people, the more likely they are to multiply it.

We need to be concerned about the depth of the ministry, and let God determine its breadth.

.a call from a church somewhere is not a call from God, neither is a need a call from God. You better discern in your own heart through prayer and patience what it is that God wants you to do and when He wants you to do it with whom He wants you to do it. And Jesus was committed to that and that is the model for ministry. We serve at the divine discretion, do we not? We are servants of God and we are agents of His purpose.

8 Soon afterward he went on through cities and villages
God limited Jesus' ministry geographically.  He's in Galilee which is not exactly the hub or religious activity - Jerusalem is.  He didn't go there, He stayed in little towns and villages. But every place He went became His pulpit - synagogues, hillsides, valleys, public squares.  Wherever He was, He preached and taught.  Jesus never left Israel.  He concentrated on the depth of His ministry and His influence has swept the world.

proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God
God limited Jesus' ministry theologically.  He had one message, one topic, and that was to preach the kingdom of God, the gospel message, evangelism.
the Kingdom of God is the sphere in which God rules over those who have come to Him for salvation, the sphere of salvation over which God rules as sovereign monarch. And so this was Jesus' message. It wasn't a political message, it wasn't a social message, it was a salvation message. Always a salvation message, always talking about the riches of the Kingdom of God, seeking the Kingdom of God and everything else being added to you, always the Kingdom of God. In fact, when Jesus died and then three days later rose again, after His resurrection it says in Acts 1:3 that He spent 40 days appearing to His disciples and speaking to them of things pertaining to the Kingdom of God. Even after the resurrection He was still speaking on the same subject, the sphere of salvation. The whole of the Bible is the story of salvation, isn't it? All the way through human history from Adam to the very end and all the way through redemptive history from election to glorification, the whole Bible is the saga, the story of salvation. Preaching the Kingdom is preaching the good news then that sinners can be saved, they can be delivered out of the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of God's dear Son. They can be delivered out of the domain of Satan into the domain of Christ. This is the message....

So when Jesus preached the Kingdom of God, He was always preaching about salvation. He was inviting people to come into the Kingdom of God. In order to come in they had to repent of their sin and believe the gospel. They had to come to the place where they were committed to loving God with all their souls, as much as is possible. And then they made a commitment to follow and never look back....

 once you find the Kingdom of God, once you find salvation, forgiveness, grace, once you find that, you give up everything to embrace it, you hold on to nothing. You totally abandon everything to receive that. That's what Jesus preached when He preached the Kingdom. He called people to come to the Kingdom of God and coming to repent and believe the gospel, to commit themselves to loving God with all their hearts and embracing Him, assenting to the gospel and embracing it and never looking back and being willing to give up everything valueless to embrace what is priceless. Like Paul, you count all things but dung compared to Christ. That was the ministry of the Kingdom of God, that's the message Jesus preached.

And once in the Kingdom of God, you were to live as a Kingdom citizen. Jesus talked about life in the Kingdom, how Kingdom citizens live and He also talked about the glorious future when the Kingdom of God comes on earth and then even the eternal and final Kingdom in the new heavens and the new earth. But His message was always about the Kingdom, it always came out of the revelation of God about the Kingdom. And that's what our message always has to be as well.

And the twelve were with him,
There were also limits on Jesus' ministry strategically.  He had a strategy.
Jesus concentrated on the place God put Him, the time God put Him there, the message God gave Him and the men God gave Him.
Jesus invested Himself into twelve very ordinary men and through them, turned the world upside down, to the glory of God.

But He didn't have just men with Him.  As we see in v2 and 3, He has women with Him as well.  And as we already know, women were not exactly influential in that day and age. There were no limits on His ministry socially.
So you have a woman who was demon possessed. You have a woman who was from the highest possible state in the land. She is the wife of the man who manages the king's estate. And then you have the non-descript Susanna. All of them believers in Jesus. All of them followers of Jesus. This tells us that the scope of His ministry socially went against the grain of modern convention which says you can only reach a certain type of person in a certain type of ministry and this is this homogeneity concept. Jesus preached the Kingdom and God brought into the Kingdom all that He had chosen to be in the Kingdom from every strata of life...men and women. There were no limitations placed upon His ministry in that regard. In fact, by the time you get here, we've already seen what a role women played in the ministry of Jesus. There's Elizabeth and Mary and Anna and there's Peter's mother-in-law, we've met in Luke, and the widow of Nain and the sinful woman in the seventh chapter. These three then there will be a crippled woman, they'll be a woman later on with a lost coin story in Luke 15, a couple of widows we're going to meet. The Lord reached way beyond the conventional lines in ministering socially across the widest spectrum.

and many others, who provided for them out of their means.
Jesus ministry was funded by those who had been changed by His ministry.  It depended on their generosity.

Now this isn't paying back a debt, I want to make that clear. They had received forgiveness for all their sins from Jesus, they didn't owe Him anything because of that and neither do you. The sinner's debt has been paid. It was canceled by God against you because it was paid by Jesus. Nothing is owed. Your service to God, your ministry, your gratitude, your giving does not repay your debt.

You say, "Why do we do it?" To mirror the same sacrificial loving grace that God mirrored toward us in Christ. To show our love and our gratitude, not to pay off a debt. That debt was paid by Christ. That's why we celebrate His cross where that debt was forever canceled.

In summary, the scope of Jesus' ministry...
sovereignly He did God's will and only God's will; geographically, He went where God put Him, covered it thoroughly; theologically, He preached only God's message, the gospel of the Kingdom; strategically, He knew that reaching many was based upon discipling a few; socially, He went to everybody, men and women, in all walks of life; materially, His ministry was dependent upon the support of the transformed who had been benefitted by it. That is a great model for ministry. And it takes us to where we need to be, at the cross of Christ who paid the debt. We don't serve to somehow pay off that debt, we serve out of gratitude and love to the One who did pay the debt.

Tomorrow's scripture focus: Luke 8:4-15

Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage: 2 Chronicles 9-10, Psalm 119: 145-152, 1 Corinthians 4