Who do you say I am?

It is easy to see yourself as one small part of a big crowd. And when it comes to the Lord, it may be easy to get lost in "crowd think". You may find yourself following one crowd or another when it comes to your feelings and beliefs about God. Jesus challenged the Disciples when he asked them: ""But who do you say I am"? in Mark, chapter 8:29. At some point we need to answer that question on a personal level. After we evaluate the evidence of Jesus' miracles and His fulfillment of prophecy and after we allow his words to work deep inside us..."Who do we say that he is, from our personal conviction?" We have to move away from the crowds and draw near to Jesus to allow him to reach us in a personal way before we can say with Peter, "You are the Messiah!"

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blessings,

Rob Smith

near and far

In Mark, chapter 8, Jesus feeds another large crowd miraculously...just as he did back in chapter 6. He divided seven loaves and a few fishes and fed 4,000 people. The disciples seemed to need a repetition of this particular miracle because when Jesus expressed concern for the hunger of the crowd the disciples complained that they wouldn't be able to find the food....apparently they forgot the power of the special person who led them. It occurs to me that we also can forget the power of Jesus, despite his nearness. We may have a "head knowledge" that Jesus is here, and even that he dwells in our hearts, but we may forget all that this nearness...this presence means. There is no need that we have that he cannot meet and there are times when he will even use us to meet the needs of others. I suppose that we need to make supernatural thinking a bit more natural to our thinking!

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Mark 8:6-8 ...then he took the seven loaves, thanked God for them, and broke them into pieces....They( the crowd) ate as much as they wanted. Afterward, the disciples picked up seven large baskets of leftover food...

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blessings,

Rob Smith

wrestling with God

I think sometimes God is watching to see how earnestly we want Him. There is an encounter captured in Mark, chapter 7, between a woman and Jesus that seems to illustrate this. A woman, who is not Jewish, has come to fall at Jesus' feet to beg for healing for her daughter (who is possessed by an evil spirit). Jesus has responded instantly to other, similar requests, but pushes back at this one. He knows, or recognizes, that she is not Jewish and says, "First I should feed the children-my own family, the Jews. It isn't right to take food from the children and throw it to the dogs." This sounds like a cruel attitude and statement but rather than turning away the woman presses in. She answered, "That's true, Lord, but even the dogs under the table are allowed to eat the scraps from the children's plates." Jesus praises her, saying, "Good answer", and he set the little girl free of the evil spirit. In a sense none of us is worthy to receive the touch...the healing...the grace of the Lord. We are all like "dogs under the table". But we come out of need to the only one who can truly make right what is wrong. There is no one else who can. Like the woman in this encounter we need to humbly fall before Jesus and, yet persistently cling to the sure hope that He can and will do what we cannot do! This is grace and this is faith and this is the work of trusting.

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blessings,

Rob Smith

the painter's brush

I received some great birthday cards this week. A few of them captured gorgeous outdoor scenes and one of the cards was a print of a painting of a rocky mountain gorge with a waterfall and a frothing creek at its base, with an elk lapping water in a quiet pool. As I thought about the picture, I thought about the artist. It occurred to me that every bit of that painting was applied by the artist consciously. From the cloudy sky overhead to the pine covered slope on one side and the bare rock cliffs on the other...to the falling water, the white water, the grassy area in the foreground and the thirst quenching elk...If the artist hadn't applied the paint the picture wouldn't have been complete. It must have taken days to finish this painting. The artist could not have rushed...it took concentration, a sense of vision, skill with color and a gift for blending light into the scene. Then I thought of our Creator and the effort He made to fashion this living canvas that we walk across each day! We are surrounded by His artwork and He even painted us into the picture. He has not rushed, and with purpose and skill and a great sense of the impact of light...He has painted a gorgeous picture. And every stroke of His brush and every dab of paint and every creature who walks is necessary to complete the scene.

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Psalm 96:6 Honor and majesty surround him; strength and beauty fill his sanctuary.

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blessings,

Rob Smith

Wonderful!

If you had a chance to be with someone who consistently does wonderful things, wouldn't you take that chance? I think that's why crowds surrounded Jesus like a cloud wherever he went during his earthly walk. He healed people dramatically from serious illness, delivered them from evil spirits that had captured their minds and even brought back the dead to life. Naturally, if you had a serious problem yourself you would want to get close and touch Jesus or, better yet, receive his touch and his words on your behalf. The same is true today! Jesus walks in our midst in a more inclusive way. Because He is in spirit and not in flesh he is not limited to one geographical spot. He is just as capable now as he was then to heal, deliver and restore. It's interesting that Jesus actually told folks not to tell anyone about miracles after they were performed...maybe he knew that they would do just the opposite and spread the news far and wide. Are you prepared to be amazed? Join the crowd that is following Jesus and then press in close to touch him and to look into his eyes and to bring your particular burden to him.

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Mark 7:37 They were completely amazed and said again and again, "Everything he does is wonderful. He even makes the deaf to hear and gives speech to those who cannot speak."

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blessings,

Rob Smith

The battle within

Mark 7:15 "It's not what goes into your body that defiles you; you are defiled by what comes from your heart."

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Jesus had been conversing with Pharisees who were critical of his disciples for not following their traditions for hand washing to ceremonially cleanse themselves. He explained that their concerns for cleaning the outside of the body were misplaced. The real uncleanness comes from within. Apparently the problem with men is the problem within each man. We have hearts that have seeds of sin that germinate within. Since the beginning...since the first man, Adam, the tendency to "go wrong" is right there in the center of each of us. So the answer to that problem can't be addressed from the outside-in...it must come from the inside-out. We need the spiritual surgeon's scalpel of God's word to go to the source. The Pharisees' sin was to cancel the effect of God's word by substituting their own words and their own ways. Our deception comes when we believe that we are o.k. and that we are essentially good and that we are essentially clean within. We need the help of the Lord to understand that we are unclean within. Here are some amplifying words from Jesus (verse 20): "It is what comes from inside that defiles you. For from within, out of a person's heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you."

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Listen once more to Jesus as he later instructed the disciples: (John 15:3) "Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken to you."

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blessings,

Rob Smith

Judging Jesus

Mark, chapter 7 recounts the story of some men who decided that they would judge Jesus. Pharisees and teachers of religious law must have heard of the miracles and crowds surrounding Jesus. They decided that would come out of Jerusalem and find fault with him somehow. I remember when inspection teams would come aboard our ship in the Navy. We knew that they would find some discrepancies...that was their whole mission. Well the best the Pharisees could do was to say that Jesus' disciples weren't washing their hands properly before they ate their food. Here was Jesus, who was restoring sight to the blind, driving demons from the possessed and bringing back the dead to life and the Pharisees decide to charge him with a trivial fault. And then Jesus dismissed even that charge, explaining that their hand washing rituals were manmade traditions. In verse 9 we hear Jesus, "You skillfully sidestep God's law in order to hold on to your own tradition." Perhaps there is a lesson for us too. Are we more interested in guarding our own ways or submitting to those of Jesus? Have we become so centered on ourselves that we cannot even see the wonders of God lying all about and within?

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blessings,

Rob Smith

in our midst

After the disciples had seen Jesus feed the 5,000 he sent them back across the Sea of Galilee in a boat while he went into the hills to pray. A few more wonders soon followed. Mark, chapter 6, tells us that when the disciples were in the middle of the sea Jesus saw them struggling to row against some rough water. That has to be supernatural as the disciples were miles out of the range of natural vision. A second wonder took place as Jesus walked toward them on the water. They thought he was a ghost and cried out in fear. Jesus says something that we can benefit from as well. "Don't be afraid," he said. "Take courage! I am here." A third wonder took place as he climbed into the boat and the wind immediately ceased. The next few statements are very important. We are told that the disciples were amazed because they "still didn't understand the significance of the miracle of the loaves." You see, even though the disciples had seen Jesus do numerous miracles they still hadn't grasped the greater meaning. The greater meaning is that the one who does miracles is God, himself, and God, himself, is in their midst. And this is the greater meaning for us as well. God, himself, is in our midst. Miracles, from God's point of view, are normal activity. He is the creator of all and all the material world must submit to him. With the disciples we need to grasp the significance of the reality of God being in our midst...for he very much still is!

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blessings,

Rob Smith

How much do you have?

Mark, chapter 6, records the well known story of Jesus feeding the 5,000. The background of the story is interesting. Jesus and his disciples had been attempting to get away for a mini retreat. They had been besieged by people wanting to be healed and they were exhausted and hungry. But as they attempted to escape by boat, the crowd managed to follow them along the shore. Jesus responded to the crowd and ministered to them because they seemed like sheep without a shepherd and he had compassion for them. The disciples reached a point where they wanted to send the people away to find food so they could finally get some rest themselves. But Jesus wanted to teach them a lesson about provision and material things. He said to the disciples, "You feed them." They replied that it would take months of work to earn enough money to buy the food for the crowd. Then Jesus told them to bring whatever food they already had to him. Of course he then did the miraculous and multiplied five loaves of bread and two fish and fed the entire crowd, with leftovers filling twelve baskets. I think that we need to remember that it isn't what we don't have that we need to be concerned with, but what we do with what we already have. When real needs exist in our lives and the lives of those around us, we need to trust the Lord to multiply what he has already given us to meet those needs. In the process of provision we find the person of the living God.

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Mark 6:38 "How much bread do you have?" he asked. "Go and find out."

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blessings,

Rob Smith

Who's in charge?

You would think that a king would be the one in charge. That is what kings do...they make the big decisions. There was a king in Mark, chapter 6, named Herod who couldn't seem to figure out who was in charge...of his family, his kingdom or his personal life! Herod had transgressed God's law by taking his brother's wife and John the Baptist called him out on this, because John was all about following God in truth and righteousness and he knew that the king was not only wrong but providing a bad example for others. The king knew that John was right and that he was wrong and he knew that John was a good man. He even liked to listen to John and hear words of truth. The problems is that he wasn't willing to act on all of that good information. Instead, he listened to his wife, as she influenced him to ultimately take the life of John. It became more important to him to maintain his relationship with the wife he had wrongly taken than the God who had given him life and allowed him to become king.

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We may think that we are "king" of our own life. We may think that we make the choices and that we are in charge. But what are the influences that we really act on? In Herod's case, he was a puppet of other influences that came to rule him. It would have taken humility for Herod to bow before God and acknowledge that John was right. He would have had to give up his illicit marriage and face public humiliation perhaps. He chose to keep the unhealthy relationships intact and cut himself off from the most important relationship of all.

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Who is in charge of your life?

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Mark 6:20b Herod was greatly disturbed whenever he talked with John, but even so, he liked to listen to him.

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blessings,

Rob Smith

provision and power and purpose

Mark 6:6

Then Jesus went from village to village, teaching the people. ⁷ And he called his twelve disciples together and began sending them out two by two, giving them authority to cast out evil spirits. ⁸ He told them to take nothing for their journey except a walking stick—no food, no traveler's bag, no money. ⁹ He allowed them to wear sandals but not to take a change of clothes.

¹⁰ "Wherever you go," he said, "stay in the same house until you leave town. ¹¹ But if any place refuses to welcome you or listen to you, shake its dust from your feet as you leave to show that you have abandoned those people to their fate."

¹² So the disciples went out, telling everyone they met to repent of their sins and turn to God. ¹³ And they cast out many demons and healed many sick people, anointing them with olive oil.

Jesus highlights three "p" words in this story from Mark, chapter 6. He gives his disciples "purpose" when He sends them out to preach to message of repentance and return to God. He gives them "provision" when He tells them not to take food, money or clothing but to depend on others (in other words to trust the Lord for their needs and to allow their purpose to pave the way for their provision). He gives them power to minister...do do miraculous healings and deliverances. And they experience all this in pairs so that the experience is shared and the spiritual growth the disciples realize is reinforced and affirmed in each other's life. This seems to be an early picture of the "Great Commission" that the church is given at the end of Christ's earthly ministry. Have you responded to His call to go, with others, in a similar way...to trust in His provision, make His Purposes your purposes and become a vessel for His power? I think this is still our calling today!

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blessings,

Rob Smith

Amazed!

Being amazed is a rare and exciting idea. Certainly the impact of Jesus on individual lives is amazing and was amazing when Jesus walked the earth. In the Gospel of Mark we see the word "amazed" a few times in chapter 6 alone. When Jesus was preaching in the synagogue of his hometown the folks who had seen him grow up couldn't get over the wisdom and knowledge he had. They knew him as the son of a carpenter, with blue collar background just like they had. Somehow their amazement didn't lead to a positive outcome. Because they couldn't explain logically or naturally where Jesus had gotten his power from they turned negative and bitter. And because of their unbelief Jesus was unable to do the kind of ministry he had been able to do in the midst of strangers in other places. The second time "amazed" shows up it is Jesus who is amazed!! Verse 6 tells us "And he was amazed at their unbelief." In our lives the natural and logic of our day to day experiences gives us a sense of understanding that is useful but we need to be careful to allow the Lord to break into our natural experience with supernatural intervention. If we are not open to Heaven we remain captive to our familiar Earth.

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blessings,

Rob Smith

the fountain of life

Psalm 36:9 "For you are the fountain of life, the light by which we see."

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I think another word for Christians might be "life seekers", or "students of life". In Christ we find answers to our biggest questions: "Who am I?" "Why am I here?" "What is life all about?" "Where is history headed?" "Why is there evil and how can good triumph?" We are curious creatures who are born without operating instructions and raised by folks only one generation ahead of us. But in the Lord we find the answers, the guidance and the eternal relationship that begins here and continues in a place beyond time. If we are honest we will admit that we don't have the answers to the big questions inside of ourselves. We can live a life of distraction, pursuing temporary pleasures and gains...but that life will end and those pleasures will cease also. Deep within we all want to be students of life, seekers of truth, finders of that which is lasting. We find great hope in the words of Jesus from John, chapter 5, verse 26: "The Father has life in himself, and he has granted that same life-giving power to his Son."

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blessings to all the students of life,

Rob Smith

the comfort of the familiar

In Mark, chapter 5, there is the story of Jesus crossing the Sea of Galilee and finding a man possessed by an evil spirit. It turned out that he actually was possessed by a number of evil spirits. His life was miserable and he lived in the midst of a cemetery and often was chained to keep him under control. He was so unhappy with his life that he frequently attempted suicide. Jesus immediately recognized that he was controlled by evil spirits and he confronted those spirits and ultimately cast them out into a large herd of pigs feeding on a hillside nearby. The many spirits in the man left him and inhabited 2,000 pigs, which immediately plunged down a steep hillside and drowned in the water below. As witnesses told others what happened many people came and saw the man who had been possessed, now in his right mind. They had an interesting reaction, captured in verse 17: 'And the crowd began pleading with Jesus to go away and leave them alone'. You would think the people would be happy that the man who had been plagued with demons was now in his right mind, but they were distressed because Jesus had come in and turned their familiar world upside down. They were more content to have the daily drama of the man with a problem than they were to see that man set free from his problems. It occurs to me that we can become too comfortable with our lives, including those aspects that need the Lord's touch for change. Do we want Jesus to come across the water and land on our shore and upset our comfortable lives? Are we open to transformation? Or are we comfortable with an unhealthy state?

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blessings,

Rob Smith