My Daily Pause

Jesus feeding a crowd with 5 loaves of bread and two fish – Early 1600’s – Bernardo Strozzi

Something awesome was happening!

The people were even willing to starve to see it!

The one thing that really helps me see the details and nuances in the Scriptures has to be the number of times I have read through it in recent years. I like how every time I pass through certain events, I see new details that I have never noticed.

The feeding of the four thousand (Mark 8:1-10) makes me slow down and study it more every time I get to it. On one hand, it seems like a repeat of the earlier feeding of the five thousand, but upon closer inspection, a number of differences in the situation pop out:

• The people had been following Jesus for three days
• The disciples never offered to feed the crowd, Jesus had to initiate it
• They started with more food, but had less left over

Those three days must have been something special to keep the crowd together that long! What would it take for you to drop what you are doing and follow someone you had only heard rumors about?

The word of God is like that. The more we are exposed to it, the more we can get from it. The more we get from it, the more we want. That’s pretty much what Paul meant in Romans 10:17

I would love to have witnessed the feeding of the four thousand. I’m not a fan of camping, but I would sure have spent the three days out there with Jesus.

But we are even more fortunate than they were…

…we have the Bible.

…we can set aside time for it in the comfort of our home

… in time we can become mature Christians by studying it

Find out what made those people want to stay out there with Jesus – Start a Bible reading plan today!

Woe unto You, Scribes and Pharisees – between 1886 and 1894 – James Tissot (1836–1902)

“The way I like to worship is ______”

“My favorite part of worship is ______”

“Worship is a personal thing with me …”

These statements and their variants are common in any conversation about the worship service and church attendance.

If we are going to have a conversation about worship, it should certainly should include a discussion of Mark 7. Here, we get to witness Jesus and his disciples running afoul of the Pharisees because the disciples chose not to do the ceremonial washing before eating. (Mark 7:1-4)

Jesus responds with a prophesy from Isaiah:

This people honors me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. – Mark 7:6-7

When we read these passages and compare what they are teaching to the typical comments we make about our worship, we should realize the danger! Is God telling us he doesn’t care about traditions and what we like when it comes to proper worship?

Take a look at Cain and Abel for a minute. (Genesis 4) We can assume from this event a couple of things:

• Abel obeyed God with his sacrifice
• Cain did not please God with his sacrifice

God goes on to ask Cain, “…if you do well, will you not be accepted?” The take away from this is that God is rather particular about how we worship him. The Hebrews writer praised Abel for having enough faith to worship exactly the way God told him to. (Hebrews 11:4)

To restate that: Obeying God in our worship is a measure of our faith!

Jesus equated the forming of new traditions to the rejection of God. (Mark 7:9) In light of his teaching, it sounds like a good idea to review how we worship. Today I challenge us to ask ourselves:

Are we offering God what he wants?

Are we putting what we want before his commandments?

Raising of the Daughter of Jairus – ca. 1546 – Paolo Veronese (1528–1588)

Shut out!

Jairus’ daughter was dead. There were people telling him not to bother Jesus anymore. There were people in his house making great theater out of mourning her passing. There were people laughing at Jesus when he tried to restore order and calm to the group. (Mark 4:36-40)

Since we know we are going to read about the resurrection of the little girl, we usually forget about all those people who Jesus ran out of the house. Who were they?

Doubters.

Mockers.

The faithless.

They missed out on something incredible. They weren’t warned or given another chance. When Jesus was ready, he only took the believers into the room to see the miracle.

Through Jesus’ examples and the parables, we have been told how it will be. From everything we can read in the Bible, we shouldn’t expect warnings or second chances when he returns.

To avoid being shut out, the time to believe, obey and serve him is now.

Landscape with the Parable of the Sower – 1557 – Pieter_Bruegel

The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. – Mark 4:26

Jesus’ parable about gathering souls to Christ is short, (Mark 4:26-29) but it offers one strong reminder of how souls find their way to Christ. We are the man that scatters the seeds on the ground.

Just like the farmer, we don’t have to know how the seed grows (Mark 4:27) – God will take care of the growth once we plant.

Just like the farmer, we will not see immediate results (Mark 4:28) – we should not get discouraged when there is no growth right away.

Just like the farmer, we gather the harvest as soon as it is ready (Mark 4:29) – our example and encouragement helps bring maturity.

Sowing the seeds of the kingdom is a lot of hard work. It is necessary work though. Just like the farmer cannot expect his field to yield a fine crop without sowing seed, we cannot expect people of the world to come to Christ without an introduction and an invitation.

What can you do today to improve how you scatter seed?

Biblia ectypa : Bildnussen auss Heiliger Schrifft Alt und Neuen Testaments – 1695 – Johann Christoph Weigel

My light isn’t so bright sometimes.

I know you know what I mean … It is hard to add a new activity to our routine, or take on a new responsibility. No matter how much the church needs something or could benefit from it, it is easy to let someone else take care of it.

That is a dangerous place to be!

I’ve pointed out before that Jesus chose busy people to be his disciples. In Mark 4:21-25, he is using the shining light parable to tell us just how important he considers our productivity in the kingdom. The passage makes three points:

• The higher we hold up a light, the brighter it shines.
• The bigger the measure we offer, the more abundant our return
• The more we have, the easier we will acquire

That last point, taken from Mark 4:25 is often hard to understand in the context of Jesus’ parables. Jesus also made the same statement about the man with one talent: (Matthew 25:19-29)

For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. – Matthew 25:29

This is what Jesus was trying to teach us with that lesson: Those who are not diligently doing the work of the master will find themselves unable to please him at any level! So much so that even what little skill and knowledge they have acquired will also be useless. We can see how that applies very easily to …

• Knowledge – The more we keep up with Bible study, the more the scriptures make sense
• Skills – The more we participate in the needs of the church, the easier it is to do so
• Effort – Momentum applies to the busy and the lazy, just like a stone on a hill
• Responsibility – Those who accept responsibility are trusted with even more responsibility

One of the threads that run throughout the New Testament is that Christians are to be giving and productive workers – even at the expense of everything else. Jesus told us time and time again that God is going to frown upon those who didn’t participate to the level he requires. He wants us out there doing the things that will make the kingdom grow –

It is hard work …

It is usually thankless …

But the retirement is excellent!