Category Archives: Mark

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Hoping for a Cross-Free Way? Think Again

No Cross - No Crown

True discipleship, according to Jesus, requires us to jettison our own agenda — “let him deny himself”; commit to God’s agenda — “take up his cross”; and make daily, continual obedience our highest priority — “and follow me.” (Mark 8:34) Too often, however, we prefer another way — easier, cheaper, quicker, pain-free — to discipleship rather than the way of the cross. Perhaps today, if you are serious about following Christ, you should say to him, “Lord, not my will, but your will be done!”

Enduring Truth // Focus: Mark 8:33

Jesus turned around and looked at his disciples, then reprimanded Peter. “Get away from me, Satan!” he said. “You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.”

What a dramatic moment this must have been for the disciples—especially Peter. Jesus had just asked the disciples this question, “Who do people say that I am?” And Peter’s simple yet profound prophetic response was a declaration for the ages: “You are the Christ!” (Mark 8:27-30)

But when Jesus began to speak of his impending sacrificial death, Peter didn’t like it one bit, so he began to rebuke Jesus. How could one who was to be “Christ” suffer and die? This certainly wasn’t in line with God’s will, Peter thought. Peter had an entirely different definition for what it meant to be “Christ”, and a far better agenda than the one Jesus was suggesting.

That’s when Jesus turned on Peter and gave him the spiritual smack-down of all smack-downs. Anyone who reads these dramatic words — “Get away from me, Satan” — certainly must think, “Wow! Glad that wasn’t me!” It was then that Jesus went on to talk about the cost of discipleship. True discipleship requires one to jettison his own agenda — “let him deny himself”; commit to God’s agenda — “take up his cross”; and make daily, continual obedience his highest priority — “and follow me.” (Mark 8:34)

As dramatic as this rebuke seems in print, however, may I suggest that perhaps it wasn’t as focused on Peter as we might think. When you look at the context, what you see is that Jesus wasn’t so much upset with Peter, the person, as with Peter’s misguided agenda. You see, Peter’s plan would have taken Jesus off the Father’s mission. It was the easier, smarter, less painful path, but as Jesus said, it was “not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.” (Mark 8:33).

In a sense, we really were there when Jesus uttered that rebuke. We were not only there — we were Peter! How so? Haven’t we, too, been the tool of Satan in desiring the things of men rather than the things of God. How often have we preferred our way — the easier, cheaper, quicker, pain-free way — to discipleship rather than the way of the cross? How often has the essence of our prayers, if not our desires, been, “not your will but mine be done”?

Peter took the brunt of Christ’s rebuke that day—but he did so as the representative head of a class of spiritual dunderheads of which you and I are members. However, Peter ultimately got his spiritual act together, and so can we. What it requires, though, is that we get the things of God rather than the things of men in our view finder, and keep our sights there.

Thrive: If you are attracted to a cross-free path to discipleship, then you may want to pray this prayer every day this week: “Lord, deliver me from the Evil One, who would lure me onto the easier, quicker, pain-free path of the things of men. May your will be done—not mine. May your kingdom come today in my life, just as it is done in heaven.”

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Beware Of Cheap Forgiveness

God's Transactional Reset for Broken Relationships

Forgiveness alone may not restore a broken relationship. It may led to relational détente, but God’s reset for reconciled relationships requires a transaction of confession with repentance and restitution.

Enduring Truth // Focus: Mark 11:24-26

I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours. But when you are praying, first forgive anyone you are holding a grudge against, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your sins, too. But if you refuse to forgive, your Father in heaven will not forgive your sins.

Don’t skip past these words too quickly! Far too many Christians claim an exemption on this one—to the Lord’s dismay and their own harm.

Having said that, there is another side to the forgiveness coin that we need to consider if we are going to have theological balance in this matter. The question that always comes up when you begin to talk about forgiveness is: Do we have to forgive everyone who has offended us?

I think there is a fair amount of confusion on this, and a lot of misguided theology is to blame. Perhaps you’ve been taught that you are to forgive others even when they don’t repent of the wrong they have committed. And the scriptural justification for that is Jesus’ words we read here. That might be leveraged, for instance, to say to the wife of a chronically unfaithful husband, “You gotta’ forgive him, or God won’t forgive you.”

But that interpretation fails to reconcile Jesus’ teachings with the rest of scripture, best summarized in Colossians 3:13 and Ephesians 4:32, where we are commanded to forgive others in the same manner that God forgives us.

How does God forgive us? Only when we confess. Confession opens the door to forgiveness. I John 1:9 says, “If…” underscore that conditional clause, “…if we confess our sins…” then comes the apodosis, or the consequence, “God will forgive our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Nothing in the Bible indicates that God forgives sin if people don’t confess and repent of the sin.

Furthermore, the Bible always calls the sinner to repentance—that is, a radical reversal of the attitudes and actions that resulted in the sin. Confession without repentance is always hollow. (Matthew 3:7-8, Acts 2:37-38)

So when a wife is encouraged to forgive her adulterous husband while he’s continuing in his sin, she’s being asked to do something that God himself doesn’t require. What Scripture does teach is that we must always be ready and willing, as God is always ready and willing, to forgive those who repent.

But forgiveness without confession and repentance doesn’t lead to reconciliation. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the great theologian who was martyred by hanging in a Nazis concentration camp in 1945, said forgiveness without repentance is “cheap grace… which amounts to the justification of sin without the justification of the repentant sinner.”

Let me suggest that when there is no confession for a moral wrong committed against you, the better response would be to release that person to God’s justice in hopes that God will deal with them in a way that brings them to repentance and reconciliation. Further, we are never to give into bitterness, hold grudges, or let anger over sin pull us into sin. We must be very alert when we find ourselves in such a situation.

If you forgive cheaply, as Bonhoeffer warns, you may very well circumvent God’s process to bring that person to repentance and in so doing, close the door to reconciliation in your relationship.

Be very discerning about cheap grace. Genuine forgiveness and Biblical reconciliation require a two-person transaction that is enabled by the confession and repentance.

Yes, forgive! Do it early and often, quickly and fully. Be a forgiver, for sure, but don’t go beyond what Scripture teaches.

Thrive: Is there someone you have not forgiven? Why? Did their offense against you rise to the level of a moral offense? Are they continuing in harmful behavior against you or others? If the offense doesn’t rise to that high threshold, then go before the Lord and ask him to help you forgive. If the offense does meet that threshold, make sure you are not holding on to destructive anger, allowing bitterness to take root in your soul, or nursing a grudge. Don’t let their sin pull you into the sin.

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Desperate For God

He Waits To Be Wanted

How desperate is your faith? Not very, you say. Perhaps that’s the reason God doesn’t seem to do as much in our lives as we read about in the Bible or hear about in third-world Christianity. When we become truly desperate for God, maybe we will see God move as he did in days of old. May the God who waits to be wanted set us ablaze with a desperate desire for his holy presence!

Enduring Truth // Focus: Mark 2:2-5

Soon the house where Jesus was staying was so packed with visitors that there was no more room, even outside the door. While he was preaching God’s word to them, four men arrived carrying a paralyzed man on a mat. They couldn’t bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, so they dug a hole through the roof above his head. Then they lowered the man on his mat, right down in front of Jesus. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “My child, your sins are forgiven.”

I am not recommending that you knock over the pews to get to the altar or anything, but I wonder what you would be willing to do just to touch Jesus—either for yourself or someone you care about very deeply. I personally like things a little more calm and controlled than that, but there was just something about a person’s holy desperation that seemed to move Jesus to action:

The blind man named Bartimaeus who wouldn’t shut up until Jesus healed him…

Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (which means “son of Timaeus”), was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” So they called to the blind man, “Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.”Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus. “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him. The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.” “Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road. (Mark 10:46-52)

The Canaanite woman who wouldn’t back down just to get Jesus to deliver her demonized daughter…

A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.” Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.” He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said. He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” “Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment. (Matthew 15:22-28)

The woman with the issue of blood that pressed through the crowd just to touch Jesus …

A large crowd followed Jesus and pressed around him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’” But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.” (Mark 5:24-34)

The guy named Zacchaeus who shimmied up a tree just to see Jesus…

Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.” But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything,I will pay back four times the amount.” Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:1-10)

So how desperate is your faith?

Not very, you say. Well, perhaps that is the reason God doesn’t seem to do as much in your life, and mine, as we read about in Scripture or hear about in third-world Christianity. When we become truly desperate for God, maybe we will see God move as he did in days of old.

May the God who waits to be wanted set us a blaze with a desperate desire for his holy presence!

Thrive: Are you desperate for God? If you would like to have the kind of desperation that the men in Mark 2 had, a good place to begin would be to simply go to God and ask him to give you that kind of holy desire.

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Tying God’s Hands

Only You Can Surrender Your Willful Unbelief

What is the one thing Jesus can’t do? Violate your willful unbelief, that’s what. He will not impose his Lordship on your refusal to give him a chance, yet amazingly, he will even help your humble admission of unbelief (“Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” Mark 9:24) Wrestling with doubt today? Try this simple, honest prayer: “Lord, help!”

Enduring Truth // Focus: Mark 6:5-6

Jesus could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. And He marveled because of their unbelief.

This is one of the most amazing texts in the entire Bible. Jesus—the second person of the Trinity, the visible image of the invisible God; the one who existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation; the one through whom God created everything in the heaven and on earth, the things we can see and the things we can’t see—thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world; the one by whom all creation is held together (Colossians 1:15-17), the one who had raised the dead, healed the sick, delivered the demonized, fed the five thousand, and walked on water—this Jesus could do no mighty works in his own town because of the unbelief of the people who knew him.

And even he—the one who had seen it all—was amazed by their unbelief. I would dare say it must take an awful lot to stump Jesus!

What is the one thing Jesus can’t do? Violate a person’s willful unbelief, that’s what. He will help a person’s humble admission of unbelief (Mark 9:14-25), but he will not impose his Lordship on someone’s refusal to give him a chance.

Now before we get all huffy about Jesus’ neighbors, do you think we sometimes do that with Jesus, too? Haven’t we seen his glory; haven’t we tasted his goodness; haven’t we been touched by his love and grace and power, yet we still question his right of Lordship over our lives? You might say, “but I don’t do that!” Yes, you do—so do I! How? We do that when we give in to doubt, worry, fear, depression, anger—or engage in any number of other self-medicating, self-destructive acts—overspending, overeating, oversleeping, over-talking, over-sharing, over-indulging, sexually addictive behaviors, substance abuse…

Why would we surrender to any of those harmful and deceptive things when we have seen and touched the power and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ? Truthfully, I don’t know why we would. Sometimes my own propensity to resist Christ’s loving Lordship amazes me.

Here’s what I do know: If we will take an honest look at where we are resisting Jesus’ right to rule over us—both passively and willfully—and come to him with a humble request that he help our unbelief, even that crack in the door will be enough for him to do his mighty works in our lives.

Otherwise, you will be tying God’s hands. And that will amaze even him—and not in a good way. So offer him instead your humble, simple faith, and Jesus will likewise be amazed—and I mean in the best way possible:

When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, “I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel.” (Luke 7:9)

Thrive: Offer this prayer sincere today: “Jesus, there are still areas of my life where I resist your Lordship. Help my unbelief. I open the door of my heart to you, and invite you to burst through it to accomplish your mighty works in me.”

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2,000 Years And Going Strong

You May Not See The Seed Growing, But It Is

Stay faithful to God’s Kingdom, always. Don’t lose heart and never give up. You have a stake in something that is truly, indescribably amazing—and the full results of its growth will not be known until the other side of eternity. But it will grow!

Enduring Truth // Focus: Mark 4:28

…And finally the grain ripens.

Jesus spent a fair amount of time in both private settings and public presentations describing the kingdom of God to people. One of the compelling ways he did that was through stories—parables—earthy vignettes that revealed spiritual truth about God, heaven and the kingdom life. Jesus did that because people’s understanding of God’s kingdom had gotten messed up over the thousands of years since God first called the tribes of Israel out of Egypt and fashioned them into a people for himself. So through parables, he reminded them of what God and his rule was really like.

Of the many wonderful descriptions Jesus gave, we find two stories about seeds in Mark 4:26-34 that describe the amazing, unstoppable growth of God’s kingdom on Planet Earth: The parable of the growing seed and the parable of the mustard seed. The point of both is that when the seed—the Word of God—is faithfully planted in good soil—the hearts of open and hungry people—the rule of God will begin to grow. Little by little, imperceptibly, over time the kingdom begins to expand, dominate and even perpetuate itself until it becomes a major, irresistible, governing force in individual lives, whole families, communities, and entire people groups.

I hope that encourages you—it does me! Sometimes we get frustrated by the lack of growth of God’s kingdom in our lives, or our churches, or perhaps by what we may perceive as a falling away from the rule of God in our nation. To be sure, there are enemies and forces that not only oppose the kingdom, but are actively working to kill it off. The truth is, the growth of the kingdom is not an easy thing because there is a very strong Enemy whose chief objective is to stop it. Satan is alive and well on God’s planet, and he will be a force to be reckoned with until his time is up.

However, at the end of the day, the kingdom of God is unstoppable. People who claim to follow God may come and go, churches that once thrived may plateau, decline or perhaps even close their doors; denominations will rise and fall; nations will wander from the guiding principles that once made them a godly nation—and you might even find your own passion for the rule of God waxing and waning a bit. Yet the kingdom of God is doing just fine after 2,000 years since Jesus gave it its start. What began with twelve unlikely fishermen from Galilee has spread around the world to hundreds of millions today who have joyfully surrendered to God’s rule—and it shows no signs of abating.

So don’t get discouraged, my friend. You may not be able to see the seed growing, but it is—and it will. You may never see the end result, but that does not diminish the seed’s potential. Just keep planting that seed wherever you can. Water the soil—in your own life, in your family, your circle of influence and at your church. Keep the weeds pulled—it is a constant battle because the Enemy keeps sneaking into the field to sow tares.

Just stay faithful to the kingdom, don’t lose heart and never give up. You have a stake in something that is truly, indescribably amazing—and the full results of its growth will not be known until the other side of eternity.

Yes, the grain will finally ripen!

Thrive: Recommit your life to the kingdom of God today—especially if you have become discouraged by its lack of growth in your own life or its waning vitality in your church or some other circle of concern—by praying this prayer: “Heavenly Father, may your kingdom come, may your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever! Amen.”

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Everything Goes Back To Normal

Don’t Get Stuck on Spiritual Highs

Don’t get me wrong: I am not down on “spiritual highs.” They are wonderful, and necessary. Just don’t fixate on them. Resist the urge to erect a shelter and live in their warm afterglow. Don’t rate the rest of your Christian experience against them. Don’t build the entire meaning of your existence upon them. Simply see them for what they are: Fuel for the assignment ahead.

Enduring Truth // Mark 9:9

As they went back down the mountain…

In Mark 9:2-13 we come across one of the most fascinating and mysterious stories about Jesus in the Gospels. Jesus takes Peter, James and John to the top of a mountain, and there before their very eyes, for a few moments at least, his humanity morphs into the dazzling brilliance of his divine being. And if that weren’t enough to knock their sandals off, Moses and Elijah, Israel’s two greatest historical and theological figures, suddenly show up and begin to encourage Jesus about his upcoming death.

As you would expect of Peter, the unpredictable disciple offers to set up shop for this impromptu triumvirate. At that, a cloud covers the Jesus and his heavenly guests, the Voice speaks a word of Divine authentication from the heavens, Jesus is suddenly left standing with Peter, James and John, and everything goes back to normal.

EVERYTHING GOES BACK TO NORMAL!

That’s when Jesus leads them “back down the mountain” to the real world.

Here’s the deal: God never intends for us to fixate on “spiritual highs”; we are not to build tabernacles around them. They are simply means to an end, the fuel to empower us for another spiritual assignment. Jesus didn’t have this encounter with Moses and Elijah just so he could feel special. The same account of the transfiguration in Luke 9:31 (NLT) tells us that these two Old Testament prophets came to encourage Jesus about his upcoming departure—literally, in the original text, his “exodus.” He was about to face the greatest assignment of all—the cross. This mountaintop experience was meant as fuel—encouragement, strength, a reminder of his life’s purpose—for his impending death for the sins of the world.

Don’t get me wrong: I am not down on “spiritual highs.” They are wonderful, and necessary. Just don’t fixate on them. Resist the urge to erect a shelter and live in their warm afterglow. Don’t rate the rest of your Christian experience against them. Don’t build the entire meaning of your existence upon them. Simply see them for what they are: Fuel for the assignment ahead.

Then get back to normal. Climb down off your mountaintop experience and get back in the game. Lost people are still lost down there in the real world and the proclamation of God’s kingdom from your lips and the demonstration of it through your life is still the only way they will be found.

Thrive: Is there a “spiritual high” from your past (an ecstatic experience, a fruitful time of ministry, a wonderful season in an amazing church family, a dramatic period of spiritual growth under a gifted spiritual leader) against which you tend to measure current experience? Stop doing that! Repent of worshiping experience and instead ask God to show you how he intends for “high” to fuel you for the kingdom assignment ahead.

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You’re Worth It

He Didn't Have To - He Wanted To

Trumped up charges, the mockery of a trial, public humiliation, mental and physical torture and rejection—the Second Person of the Trinity, the Agent of Creation, the Messiah of God’s chosen people, suffered beyond description at the hands of the people he loved. Yet he chose to endure it. He didn’t have to endure it—He wanted to. Why? He did it for you!

Enduring Truth // Mark 15:24

Then the soldiers nailed him to the cross.

Mark’s account of the betrayal, arrest, trial, suffering and crucifixion of Jesus is moving beyond words. As you read in the paragraph below his description of what Jesus went through, I would encourage you to remember that Jesus didn’t have to go through this. But he did—and the reason was you.

The soldiers took Jesus into the courtyard of the governor’s headquarters (called the Praetorium) and called out the entire regiment. They dressed him in a purple robe, and they wove thorn branches into a crown and put it on his head. Then they saluted him and taunted, “Hail! King of the Jews!” And they struck him on the head with a reed stick, spit on him, and dropped to their knees in mock worship. When they were finally tired of mocking him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him again. Then they led him away to be crucified. (Mark 15:16-20)

Trumped up charges, the mockery of a trial, public humiliation, mental and physical torture and rejection—the Second Person of the Trinity, the Agent of Creation, the Messiah of God’s chosen people, suffered beyond description at the hands of the people he loved. Yet he chose to endure it. Why? He did it for you! Hebrews 12:2 says,

For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame.

What was the “joy” that so motivated Jesus to go through such a humiliating, torturous death? I am convinced, my friend, that you were the joy Jesus saw as he hung there on the cross. And when he saw that you would one day stand with him as one of the redeemed before his Father’s throne, his heart swelled even as the life drained from his body, and he said, “it’s worth it!”

All the suffering and humiliation of the cross was worth it to Jesus, because you’re worth it!

Thrive: Just take a minute before you do anything else today and offer your heartfelt thanks to God yet again for what he did by placing Jesus on the cross in your stead.