Mark 1

John and Jesus both came to preach Good News of a coming kingdom. They came to a world fractured by war. The Jordan River was a boundary between Rome's empire and the enemy. As such is was an uneasy place. Yet people came out to be baptized. This is where John baptized many people.

Both Jesus and John preached about the advent of a new world. John came to announce the savior. Jesus was the savior. As savior he would announce the coming kingdom that he would rule. There would be a new world, new rules. Yet it did not really happen. Instead we come into the kingdom one by one, not as a group. The whole nation of Israel did not repent and accept her savior. They rejected and killed him.

This reminds me to pray today for places that have strife. We pray that the kingdom of God will come there. Just as Jesus came to bring the kingdom to Israel. Jesus does come to these places calling people to repentance and peace. Yet still today most people reject his advances. Yet still today people come into the kingdom one person at a time.

I can think of a few places where there is strife. Syria and Congo (Zaire) come to mind. I am sure there are others. Let us pray for souls to repent and accept Jesus and join a fellowship of believers. And let us pray for peace.

Let us pray or workers in those wartime places.

Isaiah 3

Isaiah 3 speaks of God's judgment. First God speaks of capricious rulers. This brings a sort of judgment all its own. Isaiah lists people types: warrior, judge, elder, honorable man, artisan but if those who lead are not fair and cannot be relied upon then you are always insecure no matter how personally capable you are. Next God seems to be speaking of a lack of leadership, people desperately trying to find someone to lead them. Having a cloak is sufficient qualification for leadership. But people refuse to lead. This seems to be a sort of judgment from God as well. Perhaps people really refuse to be led, making anyone of any ability unwilling to take on such a thankless task.

Then there is a section where God describes how the rich abuse the poor and powerless. I always ask myself if I am fair and righteous in my business dealings? I try to be. But I'm never sure.

Then women are denounced. The young women (daughters) proudly strut their stuff for all to see. They use cheap jewelry to attract attention. Isaiah gives a long list of the types of ornamentation the women wear. Almost all of it seems to make noise as the women move. This shows a further effort to get attention. But God says judgment will come. Instead of well set hair they will have a plucked out scalp. OUCH! Instead of a beautiful belt they will wear a rope. Instead of fine clothes they will wear sackcloth. This makes me picture slavery, servitude. Also a judgment to them the young men will die in battle, even the strong men. So the women will be left alone, with no one to marry and give them children.

The survivors will be left to beg for a man. They will accept anyone who will call himself husband, even if he refuses to support them. These women, rather than be cursed with spinsterhood will be willing to live in their own place and get their own food if a man will call himself her husband. They are willing to share this man with other women. It is implied that most men do not find this arrangement satisfactory. They do not wish the responsibility and find it hard enough to survive. So probably many of these women do not find a husband under any condition.

All this is a judgment from God for the people's sin. It describes a commentary on the situation that Isaiah sees around him. He sees it through the eyes of God and shares it with those who will listen. And he writes it down for posterity.

Psalm 18

Psalm 18 is a great psalm to read slowly, meditate. Accept the promises and the challenges. Read it over.

18:6 seems to imply that God has a heavenly throne. Revelation expands on that. God is in the violent forces of nature. Is the earthquake a response to God's anger. Then we have a word picture of God riding on a cherub. I think flying chariot.

A book I have recently read is called "He Shall Thunder from the Sky". Perhaps that is an allusion to 18:13. The God who get the rocks to moving is a God who is very close indeed. He is very involved in his world. He starts in his temple (on earth or in heaven). Then he gets busy. I wonder if the author experienced an awful earthquake. It reminded him of God's awesome power. The earthquake is a response to a small ripple of God's anger. The breath from his nose can cause a great earthquake (18:15).

Then God shows his involvement with his people. God is described as a redeemer, a deliverer. I am reminded of how much God wants to be involved in our lives. When we are in trouble he wants us to cry out to him. "He rescued me because he delighted in me." (18:19)

Verse 20 is a promise. Is it for me? Am I qualified? Am I righteous or clean enough? Thank God I do have a redeemer in Jesus Christ who has made me righteous. Verses 20 and 24 are bookends enclosing a promise and a challenge. Can I walk blameless before him? Can I live righteously? I have been made clean by God's mercy. And God expects us to strive to live a life worthy of our calling.

Keep reading Psalm 18. It bears reading slowly and rereading. There is good stuff here.

Acts 5

This is the story of Ananias and Sapphira. We probably all know it and shudder because we secretly identify with their actions (and motivations). We suspect we have tried to claim ourselves to be "all in", to be 100% committed to Jesus while we know in out hearts we are holding back some. We may not actually lie like this married couple did. Yet we feel we are not being totally honest. And we wonder what God is thinking about us.

So this story scares us. A man I used to know would like to argue religion and would take the position in arguments that the Bible is not inerrant but is the creation of wily men. About this story he once stated that what really happened was that Peter killed them both, executed them if you will, and then had them buried. This seems very far fetched but it answers the question of why they died so suddenly. His version certainly does not make one feel better.

But it is very amazing "coincidence" that they just happen to have massive heart attacks after being confronted with their lie. Panic must have ensued in their hearts. In some strange way they feared God, hence their willingness to give some money and join the group but somehow they thought they could hide their deceitfulness from God. I hope we do not do that. As Peter told Sapphira, it is better to be open with God. You cannot fool him. But you can trust him.

When I am not totally committed I admit my weakness to God. Why try to fool God? One should trust God to be just and merciful. I also admit my weakness to men who need to know. I pray for God to make up for what I lack.

We sing a new song in our church called "Furious". In the song God's love is described with several adjectives and one of them is furious. Of course there are the more usual adjectives too. The Spanish translation perhaps more literally means "fierce". I like that.

What does it mean that God's love is furious? I think the point is to create dissonance in our minds, to point out that God's love is different than our love. We do not think of our love for our wife or family as furious, do we? God is a passionate God, extremely passionate. His love is holy too. We do well to remember God's love is amazing and vigorous. It is real. When we think of love we think of hearts, flowers, peace, the color red. God's love is that but it's much more too. Can we handle God's love being called furious?

Two other examples of God's furious love are seen in Aachan's sin (Joshua 7) and Uzzah's presumption to touch the ark (2 Samuel 6:6-7). Aachan, like Ananias, thought he could hide his deceitfulness from God. God is loving but he is also holy. He is God. We are made in his image but God is more. We should never take God for granted. When we do take him for granted he will surprise us.

Acts 4

About 5,000 men came to faith from Peter's speech (Acts 4:4). I would maintain that not just the healing caused them to believe. That brought the crowd to listen. No, it was the fact of Jesus' resurrection being confirmed and explained by one of his followers. That was the sign, the big sign, Jesus predicted when he said, "Destroy this temple and I will raise it up in three days." Jesus was referring to his body.

All of those in the crowd had heard of the resurrection. All of them knew someone who knew someone who saw Jesus alive. Roman executions were very public and fairly frequent. They all knew people did not survive Roman executions. The Romans were very efficient. Jesus resurrection was the sign everyone knew about. Peter explained what it meant. And he explained what they could do about it (3:19). Peter was eloquent but that is not why they responded.

Peter was equally bold in front of the temple leaders (4:8). Peter proclaims Jesus is the only name in which salvation comes (4:12). Wow. That is the gospel in a nutshell. Peter did not need a lot of theologians to explain it to him. He was truly filled with the perfect wisdom of the Holy Spirit (4:8).

The Jesus leaders felt it was not expedient to anything to Peter and John right then. Perhaps there was even division among them. Some of them may have been secret believers. But there must never have been sufficient numbers to carry the day. Later the Sanhedrin would be successful in stamping out the new movement in Jerusalem. They would kick all believers in Jesus as Messiah out of the temple.

Acts 3

Peter and John are going to the temple to pray at prayer time. It sounds like they are becoming observant religious Jews. I wonder if they are wearing traditional religious attire much like today's observant Jews do. The beggar speaks to them. They feel compassion for the beggar who asked for money.

They are living communally with other believers by faith. So they had no spending money. All the money in the community was used to buy essentials for the group. We read earlier that the group was growing. They had no spare money. But what they did have was faith in Jesus Christ their ascended Lord. They had seen him heal lame men before. So they called on Jesus, used his name, to heal the lame man. Peter, impetuous as always, grabs the man by the arm and yanks him up. He uses a maneuver he had used many times while fishing, to pull him to his feet. I imagine a strong pull, almost rough.

But as the man is pulled up his legs are strengthened and he is able to stand and walk without help. Just minutes before he had been carried by friends or family to this place. He was not able to move without help. It is possible that the very act of pulling him up did the trick. Perhaps he had not actually tried out his legs in a long long time. Perhaps he could have stood on his own but not known it. Perhaps. However Acts 3 tells us his feet and ankles we strengthened (7) and late in Peter's sermon (16). He is not wobbling around either. When he realizes he can stand on his own he gives a big leap. He is enthusiastic, eager to be free to move on his own. He walks, jumps around, and praises God.

The former beggar now follows Peter and John through the temple. Now when Peter sees they have attracted a crowd he decides to witness. Something so wonder as God's mercy on this man should not be hidden. It is appropriate to give credit to the one who is able to heal. That is certainly not Peter. God gets the glory

Peter then takes the time to glorify Jesus Christ who is risen from the dead. He blames them for his death but then excuses them because they did not know what they were doing. He explains that they can still be his followers even now. They do not scoff. The rumors about a man being raised from the dead surely have passed around. People may wonder but there are many who claim to have seen Jesus alive. As Paul said, this did not happen in a dark corner somewhere. Just as they were offered the gift of salvation so are we, even after we have rejected Jesus, we can still repent and accept him as savior and Lord.

Hebrews 6

Hebrews 6:4-6 is a tough saying. We are likely to dismiss it and go on. What if we struggle with it for a minute?

Heb 6:4-6 But what about people who turn away after they have already seen the light and have received the gift from heaven and have shared in the Holy Spirit? What about those who turn away after they have received the good message of God and the powers of the future world? There is no way to bring them back. What they are doing is the same as nailing the Son of God to a cross and insulting him in public! CEV

The Greek starts with a preposition that means "it is impossible that". At minimum one must realize how serious God is and how important it is that we do not fall away. The writer warns the readers to not decide to quit the church, go back to old beliefs without considering the consequences. The writer often contrasts Jesus' new revelation with the older Jewish revelation. This new revelation of God is much greater, much stronger, much closer to God. And it is not a good thing to give it up, as is implied the people this is written to are considering.

But what about what he writes here? Is it true that once one falls away, repents of being a Christian there is no way back? The Greek uses the word "tasted" twice. Once we have tasted God, can we give it up? Certainly there is only one salvation, only one crucifixion. Jesus will not do it again. It is once and done. But wasn't that one time sufficient, even if we fall away and attempt to come back again?

Perhaps he is speaking about us. How hard will it be for us to repent a second time after rejecting it once? It will take a lot more humility than most people have. The first time took humility but we can tell ourselves we did not know any better. But now we did. We did taste how good God was. And we rejected it for a bowl of porridge. Are we going to be able to fully and honestly repent again? It will be much harder for us a second time. Perhaps that is one way to look at it. But are we being honest with the text?

I think one thing is true. If we decide to fall away to try other things, to sin a lot with the idea of coming back later, one may never get back. That is too risky. Certainly we have been tempted to do some sin: have sex with some person casually, steal money from a business or the government, live a lie with the idea that later God will have to forgive us and we'll be good. There are lots of reasons not to do that but one reason is we may get permanently trapped or we may die while still fallen away. Would God's forgiveness still apply while we are in flagrant sin? The writer here leaves some room for doubt. And I think we should struggle with it, if we are serious about being a disciple of Jesus.

The writer goes on to say those of us who have tasted God but then go on to produce bad fruit, what will God say about that? But after warning them, the writer then encourages them that the works they have done in God's name will be remembered by God. He encourages them to be steadfast, not lazy.

He concludes the chapter by reminded them of the revelation to Abraham and then beginning to show that Jesus is a priest of the order of Melchizedek, whom Abraham acknowledged as an agent of God. That he will continue into the seventh chapter.