Inside Out Living

I was reading in Mark 10 this morning and I came across the story of Jesus healing the blind man Bartimaeus. Jesus' words in verse 52 caused me to think about the interaction of faith and works. In his response to Bartimaeus request to have his vision restored, Jesus says to him, "Your faith has healed you." I have read the passage a few times and no where in the passage do I see that Bartimaeus gives a confession of faith and a rehearsed three part testimony about how his faith in God has changed his life.

All Bartimaeus does is identify who Jesus is with his words and his request. He refers to Jesus as the Son of David, a clear Messianic title from the Hebrew Scriptures. Furthermore his request to be healed by Jesus is based on his faith that Jesus as Messiah is able to heal him. He doesn't have to say the right words or pray a certain prayer to show his faith. His actions in boldly approaching the one who had the power to "save" him from his blindness full demonstrated his faith in who Jesus is. Not only did Bartimaeus boldly approach Jesus, he "threw aside his coat" (v. 50) as he was jumping up to come to Jesus. This was no insignificant act as we will see in a minute.

Earlier in the chapter, Jesus interacted with a rich young man who was seemingly coming to faith in Jesus. Jesus didn't question this man's faith, but merely asked him to give up everything else that he was trusting in to save himself, which for this man was his money and possessions. Unfortunately, for him, his faith in Jesus was not sufficient to trust in Jesus as the only means of salvation and he chose to hold onto his possessions as a "back up" plan of sorts.

Now back to Bartimaeus and the casting aside of the coat. When Bartimaeus was told that he could approach the Messiah, he cast aside his coat in preparation for the meeting. It is quite likely that Bartimaeus' only worldly possession was that coat. The coat is what would keep him protected from the cool nights. It was the only other thing he had in this life and yet he forsake it for the opportunity to come to Jesus. This is the faith that God recognizes and honors. It isn't faith that is mere words, but it is faith that demonstrates that one believes that Jesus is the only one who can save me.

So what are you trusting in to save you? Are you willing to give up anything to follow the one with the power to save you?

"I am the greatest, I said that even before I knew I was." - Muhammad Ali

"I figured that if I said it enough, I would convince the world that I really was the greatest." - Muhammad Ali

"It's hard to be humble, when you're as great as I am." - Muhammad Ali

Have you ever wondered why people are constantly concerned with who the greatest is? As I thought about the disciples discussion about which one of the them was the greatest, I couldn't help but think about the outlandish quotes from Muhammand Ali about his greatness.

It really does say something thing about human nature that we are constantly concerned with who the greatest is. In our conversations we are always debating who the greatest athlete, or politician, or actor is. We compare and evaluate peoples lives based on their accomplishments and accolades.

I think this is one of the greatest, pardon the pun, teachings that we have from Jesus about how God really views our lives. Life isn't about who the greatest human being is, because from God's perspective we are all but dust. We cannot impress God with how great and powerful and successful we are, because in reality all that we have comes from Him, and we only live because of the common grace that is extended to all of humanity.

I think that oftentimes our conversations and statements about success and significance deeply grieve our heavenly father.

What would your life look like if you actually believed Jesus words that "Anyone who wants to be the first must take last place and be the servant of everyone else." (Mark 9:35)?

How would you treat people differently? How would you speak to your spouse when you get home from work? How would you treat your secretary, your bus driver, your coffee barista?

If you cannot remember the last time that you served someone else without gaining anything from it (no publicity, no recognition) then I think you might want to reevaluate how you are living your life. I am now going to go home and eat my words and make my family some lunch.

I was reading in Mark 6 and I was struck by something very curious. I had noticed this before, but for some reason today it took me somewhat by surprise. Jesus when he was in Nazareth was unable to do "any might miracles" because "of their unbelief." (Mark 6:5) At first glance this may seem to fly in the face of the doctrine of the omnipotence of God. However I don't think that it is actually the case. And in case your wondering I am not going to argue from the standpoint that because Jesus is the GodMan that his attribute of omnipotence is somehow limited or changed. That would be an entirely different discussion which I am not going to get into today. Someday, but today is not the day.

What this curious passage does communicate to us is that there is a connection between our faith and the power of God. In order to understand how Jesus can fully possess the divine attribute of omnipotence and yet be limited by the faith of the people that he is ministering to, we have to return to a biblical understanding of what omnipotence means. Biblically, omnipotence means that God has the power to do all that He wills to do. This is an important distinction from a simple understanding of omnipotence as just all-powerful. Now, how can we apply this to the situation of Jesus in Nazareth. Well, if you read the New Testament carefully you will discover that God does not work in isolation of the faith of people. Basically what I saying here is that God will, in many circumstances, freely choose to limit what He is doing based on people's faith.

This means that sometimes whether God's work gets accomplished or not isn't dependent upon God's desires or ability, but rather it is dependent upon the faith of his people. Why would God do this? Because God, in his wisdom and grace, has freely chosen to partner with us His people, in working out His plan of salvation and restoration in this world.

This is a picture of the remains of the church that was built to commemorate Jesus' healing of the demoniac in Mark 5.

I was reading in Mark 5 today and observed some interesting things from this passage that I thought I might share with you.

I found it very interesting that Jesus even entertained a conversation with the "legion" of demons that were possessing this particular man. I am not quite certain what we are to make of this. It isn't as if Jesus has to grant their request to enter into the swine. We could make the argument that He was attempting to demonstrate the value of a human life over animals. While, that is indeed true and consistent with the overall teaching of Scripture, I don't think that it is necessarily the point of the passage. One thing that this interaction does demonstrate is Jesus authority over the demonic forces. They have to receive his permission to be able to enter into the swine. This doesn't mean that God is always directly granting permission to demonic forces, but it does mean that He possesses authority over these forces, and when He chooses to exercise that authority, they have no choice but to obey. The reality that we face is that for the time being, God doesn't exercise that authority on a constant basis, but the Bible gives us hope because according to Revelation, God will eventually exercise that authority in a final judgment of Satan and his demons.

The next thing that I noticed is Jesus compassion for this man. The community around him had only attempted to lock him up as a way to deal with him. As is evident from the text, this effort was met with failure and frustration. I would imagine that the community would live with his behavior until the acts were offensive enough to bother them to the point where they would try to arrest him. However, no one had attempted to deal with his spiritual condition that was causing the behavior (at least we don't know from the text that no one had attempted to do so). Jesus, knowing the condition of this mans tormented soul, goes about the process of setting him free and extending hope to him. This is the difference between compassion and justice. Certainly the community was within its right to try to exercise justice towards this man for things he had done wrong, but what he needed was compassion and for someone to deal with his spiritual condition.

This is how we need to interact with the world around us. All to often the church of Jesus Christ is so concerned with justice and protecting our own rights, that we neglect the need for compassion. We have to realize that people are not the real enemy, but rather that our "struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens." (Eph 6:12 NET)

Another interesting thing to note is that the text mentions that after the demons left the man and the people from the nearby town come out to see Jesus, they find the man "fully clothed and perfectly sane." (Mark 5:15 NLB) Why does the text mention that the man was fully clothed, probably because he was naked when he was demon possessed. So the question becomes, where did the clothes come from. I think the most logical answer would be from Jesus and his followers. Since they were constantly travelling around, they would have carried additional garments to change into when necessary. They more than likely gave the man some clothes as an act of compassion and generosity. This reminds us of the need to not only meet a man's spiritual needs, but also his physical needs.

I was replying to some emails today and as I often do I was signing off with by typing "blessings" as a salutation. I got to thinking about that salutation and I think that I have it all backwards especially when I am writing to someone who already is enjoying the fullness of blessing through a relationship with Jesus.

I think as oppossed to offering a blessing to people who are already blessed beyond measure, I should remind and challenge them to be a blessing to others around them. People at their school or workplace that need encouragement and need to know that there is a God who loves them unconditionally.

So please excuse me if I generically type "blessings" on any email that you receive from me, and re-read that word as a challenge to bless others with the blessings that you have received already. To all of you out there who do not know the blessings or a relationship with Jesus Christ, then I do pray that you may know those blessings, because it has radically changed my life.

Just a random thought that I wanted to share with you today.

Blessings(That is be a blessing to others)

David

I have been thinking lately about what a modern day Pharisee looks like. Often times we chalk it up to simple legalism but I think that there are more subtle ways that we Christians today can act just like the Pharisees that Jesus condemned. More on that in the future. But for today I wanted to direct you to this post at theblazingcenter.com. I thought it convicting and thought provoking so please take the time to absorb what Stephen and Justin have to say on being a member of the Pharisees Anonymous club.

This Friday there will be an interesting Nightline debate that will take place at Mars Hill Church in Seattle. The debate will pit Deepak Chopra and Bishop Carlton Pearson who will argue that Satan does not in fact exist and Mars Hill Pastor Mark Driscoll and and Annie Lobert, founder of “Hookers for Jesus” will argue he does and that he’s impacted their lives. While the debate takes place this Friday the episode of Nightline will not air until Thursday March 26th at 11:35 pm.

I think that this will be quite a fascinating debate. Here are a few thoughts about the reality of Satan.

1.) If we take God's word, the Bible, as inerrant and divinely insprired then we have to believe in the existence of Satan because the Bible presents Satan as a real being that is quite powerful.

2.) It makes no sense for someone to believe in Jesus and to worship him as God, Savior, Messiah, Lord, etc. and then to deny the existence of Satan. Jesus readily acknowledged the existence of Satan and his demons.

3.) If we believe in an all-knowing and all-loving God and yet try to contend that Satan does not exist then where do we place the source of evil in this world. Satan as a created being chose to disobey his Creator and continually rebels against God seeking to take down as many other creatures with him as possible. If Satan does not exist then either God is to blame for evil or the purpose of mankind becomes reduced to overcoming some impersonal evil presence inside yourself and becoming one with your divine nature or some bizarre teaching like that.

As much as we dislike talking about Satan or thinking about his role in the world, he does exist, he is powerful, but he will not be victorious in derailing God's plan of salvation and restoration. Our hope in Jesus does not disappoint.

I know that it may sound like a strange question, but I think that it is a valid one for many people. I was reading Matthew 28 this morning and just was struck by how much fear and trepidation there was in the disciples, soldiers, and Jewish religious leaders. I wonder if there is that much fear about Jesus today.

Now I am not talking about old school, Old Testament fear of God that you might first think of, but I am more thinking about fear of who Jesus really is and what that actually means for us. Yes you might say at first that because Jesus loves us so much what do we actually have to be afriad of. But I want you to take a step back and think about what it would actually mean if we lived the way Jesus called us to lived. If we actually allowed the reality of who Jesus is and what he did for us to influence our lives how radically different would life be (That's right I said radically). Many of us professing Christians sing songs about how we are going to live for Jesus and we talk a lot about how we are going to live for Jesus but I think sometimes we don't really follow through on it because we are afraid.

Here are five things I think that people are afraid of when it comes to following Jesus:

1) We are afraid that we won't get to do the things that we think that we really enjoy, things that give us the greatest amount of pleasure becuase we think Jesus is boring and God doesn't want us to have any fun.

2) We are afraid of losing control of our lives because we question whether an all-loving and all-knowing God could really have what is best for us. Honestly, how many of you have made life altering decisions because of what God has called you to do? I hope you have.

3) We are afraid that we wont get the stuff we want, because when it comes right down to it we have bought into the lie that our true value is based on the stuff that we have.

4) We are afraid that we will lose friends or relationships that we value. Ouch! This one is tougher to criticize but again if we have defined our value based on our relationships then we really aren't in those relationships for the right reason. You are actually using those people because of how you feel about yourself because they are your friend/lover. To truly love and be loved we have to first give up our rights and enter into to relationship to recieve nothing back, and to give everything that we have.

5) We are afraid that people will think that we are just down right wierd. I know some people who are convinced that you have to talk, walk, dress, and eat differently in order to have it in with God. Whatever. Jesus said it isn't about what you eat/drink, wear, or do that makes you right with God, it is about putting your faith/trust in Jesus Christ as the Son of God who died for your sins.

The Bible tells us that perfect love casts out fear. You have to be willing to receive God's love (you are loveable, God says so) and then you will realize that you really do have nothing to fear when you embrace the life that God has for you.

Blessings,

David

As I was reading Matthew 27 today for some reason i got to thinking about the leadership of Jesus. Leadership is such a hot topic in the church today and I think that it may be overblown how much of a difference leadership makes. Yes pastors and elders are leaders of people but that doesn't mean that the key to pastoral ministry is effective leadership? What is pastoral leadership supposed to look like anyway?

I know that I don't have all of the answers, which is a good thing because if I had all the answers at age 31 then the rest of life would get rather boring. But having spent the last couple of weeks reading in Matthew and now thinking about the leadership of Jesus, I am thinking that you first have to learn how to follow before you can learn how to lead.

Think about it. The single greatest thing that Jesus did was that he perfectly followed the Father. His leadership flowed out of his relationship with the father. If there is anything that I can take away from Jesus teaching on how to live life, is that what actually works, the way God actually wants us to live is probably the opposite of what the world is telling you and what someone is trying to sell you.

This is why I think that the first lesson in leadership is this: You must first learn to follow before you can learn to lead.

Thanks to Don Miller for sharing this video on twitter. Hope you all enjoy this.