Tag Faith

What You Have Forgotten Today He Can Supply

Todd R Leave a comment

The Gospel of Mark records two miraculous feedings of multitudes.  The first was mainly a Jewish crowd of about 5,000 in Mark 6:30-44; the second was a mainly Gentile group of about 4,000 in Mark 8:1-9.  These two stories are very well known, but if you read on Mark adds this about Jesus’ disciples in 8:14 – “Now they had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat.”

On this verse Warren Wiersbe remarks: “It must have grieved Jesus that His hand-picked helpers were so spiritually obtuse. The fact that He had multiplied bread on two occasions and fed over ten thousand people had apparently made little impression on them! Why worry and argue over one loaf of bread when you have Jesus in the boat with you?”[1]

When well-known Bible stories have little impact on us, remember that these disciples knew the story even better than we do – they were there!  Jesus did not give up on them and will not give up on us.

Have you forgotten to trust Jesus with something today?  He desires to be “in the boat with you” in constant fellowship.  Ask Him to take your anxiety and to supply your daily bread.  He never forgets.

[1] Wiersbe, Warren.  Be Diligent (Mark) (1987).  P. 97.

He is Always Abba, Father

Todd R 1 Comment

Fellow travelers,

Just before being betrayed by Judas and arrested, Jesus sought some solitude in the garden of Gethsemane, where “he fell on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him.  And he said, ‘Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.’” (Mark 14:35-36). Jesus knew He was soon to die.

Donald McKim notes that “In Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke, Abba is the word for ‘Father.’ It is a term that expresses the closest and deepest intimacy of the relationship of parent and child.”[1]  Jesus knew this intimacy even on the way to the cross.

McKim also quotes Philip Melanchthon, who said: “’Abba, Father’. By this he taught us that these two things are required in prayer, namely, the ardent affection of the mind and the faithful trust of children toward God: these two words testify that both of these aspects were present in Christ.”

The Father loves us always, even on our most difficult days.  Trust Him in prayer today.

[1] McKim, Donald K.  Everyday Prayer with the Reformers (2020).  P. 73.

O Ye of Little Faith

Todd R Leave a comment

Does it sometimes feel like our faith is useless?  Like it’s not big enough to be effective?  To enable us to trust God?  Also, do we often feel like we should be perfect, but we’re not?  Like sin continues to conquer some areas of our lives, regardless of our best efforts?  In Mark 4, Jesus tells two parables that can reassure us that we shouldn’t lose heart when we feel this way.

The first parable is about how the kingdom of God grows from small, scattered seeds to a full and bountiful harvest.  This short parable has a lot to say, and makes (among others) these two points, just in verse 28: “The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.”  Jesus says that from the seed, “the earth produces by itself.”  The phrase “by itself” in the original Greek is automatos, where we get the English word automatic.  Like we don’t know how literal seeds grow, we also don’t know how the seed of the kingdom of God grows, but Jesus tells us that it grows automatically, meaning not by our own effort.  In the life of a believer, faith and obedience to the kingdom of God will grow because God causes it to grow.  When we feel our faith has failed, God can and will use that failure to grow our faith more than we could imagine.

The second point is made by the phrase “first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.”  In Jesus’ day, many Jews expected the Messiah to come and immediately implement His kingdom, overthrowing Rome and restoring Israel to its glory days under King David, but better.  However, the phrase “first the blade…” points out that the kingdom of God comes slowly and in stages.  It first comes to individual believers, then spreads to others, then “when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come”(verse 29).

Jesus was referring to the kingdom as a whole, but I believe it also refers to the life and growth of each believer’s faith.  First, our faith is only enough to restore our relationship to God and He grants us salvation by His mercy and grace.  Over time, our faith grows into a “blade,” then an “ear” in the different areas of our lives.  In some ways we may be faithful, but in others we may continue to struggle, even for very long periods of time.  But someday, when “the harvest has come,” He will bring us home and perfect our faith forever in every area of our lives.  When the time comes, the kingdom will come suddenly and completely, but until then it grows slowly, both in aggregate and in each individual.

The second parable is the parable of the mustard seed, one of the smallest seeds.  “When sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants.”  Again, Jesus is speaking most directly about the entire kingdom of God, but the truth is also lived out in the life of each of us.  Sometimes our faith seems as small as a mustard seed, but that faith is destined to be perfect and complete.  As pointed out in the first parable, it’s not our own effort that causes our faith to grow, but the power of God that causes it to grow “automatically.”  Everyone’s faith seems small at first and also may seem small at different times and in different ways, but like the mustard seed, it’s not the size of our faith in the beginning or now that really matters, it’s what that seed is destined to grow up to be that’s important.  We might not even notice our faith at some times because it seems so small, but the size of our faith is not what matters, it’s the power of the One we have faith in.

So, does your faith seem useless and small today?  Does it seem like you can’t trust God enough to follow Him in every area of your life, or to overcome some habitual sin (or sins)?  Remember that faith as small as the smallest seed, the mustard seed, will grow so that it overcomes all of our failures.  God will cause it to grow, in ways that seem “automatic” to us.  If He has given us any faith at all, He will see the growth of that faith through to the end.  As Paul wrote in Phillipians 1:6, “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

Amen.

God’s Mysterious Sovereignty

Todd R 2 Comments

Although God isn’t explicitly mentioned in the book of Esther, the story (like everything else in the Bible) is really about Him.  On the surface, the story revolves around the plot of Haman, a key advisor to King Ahasuerus, to have all of the Jews in the kingdom of Persia killed.  Haman was probably already an antisemite, but his fury was inflamed when Mordecai, a Jew, refused to bow down to him.  Before the plot to kill all Jews was able to unfold, we read this in Esther 6:1 –

“On that night the king could not sleep. And he gave orders to bring the book of memorable deeds, the chronicles, and they were read before the king.”

What the king read there caused him to favor Mordecai and Esther and write a proclamation that saved the Jews from Haman’s plot.  But was this all mere chance, or was there something, or Someone, else behind it?  Here are some interesting “coincidences” that assure us that God was in control of this situation:

First, King Ahasuerus’ insomnia.  One would think that a king, secure in his position, would be able to sleep well.  But while we don’t know how often he couldn’t sleep, we know that he couldn’t on this specific night, right before Esther was going to make her plea for the Jews.

Also, there are many things the king could have requested to do while remaining awake.  On this occasion, he asked for a specific thing: “the book of memorable deeds, the chronicles.”  We don’t know how much time the king wanted to spend having someone read this book, and how big the book was, but we do know that “it was found written how Mordecai had told about Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs, who guarded the threshold, and who had sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus.” (Esther 6:2).  What are the chances that the king would be guided to this exact information?

In addition, the event found in the book happened 5 years earlier, yet the king had not done anything to recognize Mordecai for saving his life (verse 3).  If Mordecai had been rewarded earlier, the king would not feel compelled to do anything at this time.  He might have just moved on to the next part of the “chronicles.”  Instead, the king went into the court to find someone who could help him celebrate Mordecai.  Who should he find but Haman, who intended to tell the king that he had gallows ready to hang Mordecai immediately.  Haman “happened” to be in court at a time when the king would ordinarily been asleep.  Before Haman could deliver his intended message, he instead received God’s intended message.  The king ordered him to parade Mordecai through the city, proclaiming “Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor.”  Haman, instead of being triumphant over Mordecai, who he hated, was humiliated.

So, we have this set of circumstances: Ahasuerus’ sleeplessness, his choice of what to do while awake, his servant finding the passage about Mordecai, his delay in rewarding Mordecai, and Haman’s presence in the court.  All of this led to Mordecai’s redemption from the gallows but also set up Esther’s plea to the king the very next day to act to save her people, the Jews.

In this whole story of Esther, God is not mentioned, but could these events have just happened right on time, “at random”?  Earlier in Esther, Mordecai says to her, “And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14b). Had it not been for the chain of events I’ve laid out, Esther’s purpose might have failed.  Instead of addressing the king, she could have been mourning her uncle Mordecai’s death on the gallows.  Instead of the Jews being saved, they could have been massacred.  Instead of memorializing these events in the annual festival of Purim, Jews could be mourning the deaths of their people under the Persian empire to this very day.

While He sometimes operates in the background (“the Lord works in mysterious ways” they say), He is operating.  He is intervening for the good of His people.  He is sovereign over all, even the minute details of the lives of those who rule us.  When you doubt this, think of Esther 6:1 –

“On that night the king could not sleep. And he gave orders to bring the book of memorable deeds, the chronicles, and they were read before the king.”

Barbs in Our Eyes

Todd R Leave a comment

As Israel was preparing to enter the Promised Land of Canaan after wandering in the wilderness, God gave them many instructions through Moses about how they were to live when they got there.  One of the instructions was to eliminate all of Canaan’s inhabitants.  Part of the warning not to ignore this comes in Numbers 33:55, which says:

“But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those of them whom you let remain shall be as barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they shall trouble you in the land where you dwell.”

What this is communicating is the urgency of getting rid of anything that could influence us to sin, and this applies as much to us as to ancient Israel.  In Israel’s case, the nations they were to remove from Canaan were under God’s judgement for centuries of worship of false gods, which included practices like ritual prostitution and child sacrifice.  God knew that His people would be tempted by these foreign gods and practices unless all trace of them was eliminated.

For us, God also wants to protect us from false gods and harmful practices and habits, and the phrase “barbs in your eyes” is a picture of the urgency for us to get rid of anything that would tempt us.  Think about it: If I had a thorn in my eye, I would drop everything and not be able to do anything else until I got it out.  Until the thorn was gone, it would be my one and only priority.  In modern times, God doesn’t tell His people to attack other nations in judgement, but He does want His people to attack sin with the same zeal.

So when I read “But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those of them whom you let remain shall be as barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they shall trouble you in the land where you dwell” it leads me to ask the question:

Do we remove sources of sin from our lives as urgently as we would a barb in our eye?