Mark 6-9

 Can you think of similar traps in our cultural mindset?  How do the issues of today tend to draw us into a polarizing ‘I’m against you’ or ‘for you’ attitude?  Each issue is different, but many of the debates draw us away from Scripture and God’s love into suspicion, distrust, and a ‘protect myself’ mindset. I’ve experienced acquaintances bluntly ask at election time, “Who are you for?  If you’re a Christian, you cannot support that person!”  Taking sides becomes more important than listening, more important than re-fouting the conversation to Jesus. 

“When you’re betrayed, abandoned, lied about, and scandalized; when you are sick with a fatal disease; when your finances are going down the drain; when you see your loved one walk through the doorway of hell; that is the moment to trust. And in trusting you will know God. Your point of desperation will likely not involve being sawn in two or wandering about destitute in sheepskins, but it might. Regardless, when you have nowhere else to turn except to God, and you turn to him, your faith of desperation will meet the fullness of God, and you will taste the life without lack as you discover the depths of the faith of sufficiency.” - Excerpt, Life Without Lack by Dallas Willard

“Jesus’s response not only avoided the trap the Pharisees and Herodians had set, it also confronted them. They were living with the appearance of serving God, but in reality, they lived the hierarchal, power-over ways of the world. They were like the fig tree and the temple and the tenants of the parable of the vineyard. They were not producing the expected fruit.” - Excerpt, Following Jesus: Discipleship in the Gospel of Mark by Steve Langford

Mark 6-8

 The religious leaders knew exactly the meaning of Jesus’s story, but wanted to protect their authority and standing in their world. The rue King was talking about another kingdom where each person has the freedom to respond and live. Most cultures emphasize the need to get ahead, protect the power of authority, and repeat what has always worked to maintain that system. Thinking outside the box to think God has always been doing things different than we are used to never enters our mind. Our Triune God continued to reach out to us personally to get our attention, that we might surrender voluntarily to His authority and presence. 

“If someone spends their life saying “I want nothing to do with God,” what would it imply for God to drag them into His presence forever? That wouldn’t be love—it would be coercion. Hell is, in a tragic sense, the ultimate honoring of human freedom. God respects our dignity enough to let us choose—even when that choice defies Him.” - Scott Sauls

“The religious leaders did not miss the meaning of the parable. They realized the parable was about them. Jesus told the parable in an attempt to get the religious leaders to look at themselves, to think about what they were doing, and to think about the teaching of scripture. Instead, the parable stirred their anger even more. They pushed forward with their self-protecting goal of eliminating him. “They wanted to arrest him” (Mark 12:12). Jesus’s popularity with the crowd was the only thing that prevented them from acting on their desire to arrest him.” - Excerpt, Following Jesus: Discipleship in the Gospel of Mark by Steve Langford

“I’ve continued to wrestle with what it really means to believe in a God whose power is love, not control, not coercion, but patient, freeing, persistent love. It’s honestly been both liberating and unsettling. I used to think God’s power meant God could do anything. But I’m starting to believe that the most powerful thing God does… is love us without forcing us.

That kind of love undoes me. Because I still catch myself wanting to fix people, manage outcomes, or control situations, especially with the people I love most. But love that controls isn’t really love. And the older I get, the more I realize how much of my own healing has come not from someone forcing me to change, but from someone refusing to give up on me.” - Paul Dazet

Mark 6-7

One thought for me is that as an American, accepting the authority of Jesus is a struggle with my independent self sufficient mindset. Having been taught to ‘do it yourself’, relying on His presence and His authority takes a requiring of the brain. Transformation inside my whole being is being awakened to how I’ve conformed to the world, going along with group think. May He continue to change us!

“As sinners we are sinners in the hands of a loving God. God has a single disposition toward sinners, that of unconditional, unwavering love. From the heart of God there flows an eternal river of fire, the fire of unquenchable love. The question is not whether God loves us but how we respond to God’s love. To those who respond to God’s love with love—“We love because he first loved us”*30—the river of fire is a source of warmth and light. But to those who refuse to love, this same river of fire produces torment.”

“Hell is the love of God refused.” - Excerpt, Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God by Brian Zahnd

“He answered their question by asking a question. In doing so, he shifted the focus back onto them and, with it, the pressure of answering his question. His question pointed to a deeper issue. The central issue was how they had turned the temple from “a house of prayer for all nations” into a money-making business that exploited the people’s hunger for God. The question that needed to be answered was “What were they doing in the name of God?” - Excerpt, Following Jesus: Discipleship in the Gospel of Mark by Steve Langford

Mark 6-6

 Struggling to pray boldly and fervently has been a life long battle for me. When in a crisis, my praying reflects the urgency of the moment. But my routine is NOT filled with confident praying. But as I read stories of others who experience prayer encounters with our Triune God, I’m compelled to dive in deeper. I’m learning that much of my praying has always been a laundry list of requests rather than listening for what He is saying. The mountains of my selfish view of living must be moved so that I have a clarity of who He is in my life. 

“Do we really think we can experience integration of heart and mind and spirit with an erratic prayer life? Do we really believe we can, like Moses, “speak face to face” with God as someone would a friend by our unpredictable prayers? No, we develop intimacy by regular association. We develop ease as well. Why ease? Because we are forming fixed habits of righteousness. In time these “holy habits” will do their work of integration so that praying becomes the easy thing, the natural thing, the spontaneous thing—the hard thing will be to refrain from prayer.” - Excerpt, ‘Parayer’ by Richard Foster

“We acknowledge to God the mountains—our struggle to forgive, the hurt we hold onto, the anger and bitterness we harbor, our desire for the other to hurt like they hurt us, the grudge we hold. Faith leads us to be honest with God about these things we cling to in our hearts. That honesty with God puts us in a position for God to work in us. God is the one who moves the mountains in our hearts, not us. Our role is to bring the mountains to God, asking God to remove them. Our prayer is the expression of our faith.” - Excerpt, Following Jesus: Discipleship in the Gospel of Mark by Steve Langford

Mark 6-5

 How can you and I avoid the fig tree problem?  Could we be good church attendees, read the Bible, pray that our agenda works out, and still be judged as having a pointless religion?  The fig tree lesson sounds like James, teaching in his letter that we need to pay attention to being and doing what we believe to be true. I can easily over think my actions and words, wondering if I’ve done the right thing. But I’m trying to remind myself to be present in and with His presence, allowing the Holy Spirit to lead, letting Him take care of the results. 

“Only avid discipleship to Christ through the Spirit brings the inward transformation of thought, feeling and character that ​“cleans the inside of the cup” (Matt. 23:25) and ​“makes the tree good” (Matt. 12:33). As we study with Jesus we increasingly become on the inside — with ​“the Father who is in secret” (Matt 6:6) — exactly what we are on the outside, where actions and moods and attitudes visibly play over our body alive in its social context. An amazing simplicity will take over our lives — a simplicity that is really just transparency.” - Dallas Willard

“The first understanding is fruitlessness, the issue of the fig tree and the temple. Fruitlessness is the result of a life shaped by the yeast of the Pharisees and Herod, that is, the hierarchal, power-over thinking of the world. The attitudes and actions of the disciples in the previous section reflected this kind of thinking. Faith expressed in prayer is the way to move beyond such fruitlessness in our own lives. Such prayer opens us to God and the work of God in our lives. It allows the Spirit to work, transforming our thinking, teaching us the ways of God and of the kingdom, cultivating a servant spirit within us.” - Excerpt, Following Jesus: Discipleship in the Gospel of Mark by Steve Langford

Mark 6-4

 Jesus saw knew that the business transactions in the temple violated any idea of holiness and worship. Manipulating the process to worship for financial gain was corrupt and needed to be eliminated. Could the same concept be happening today?  Manipulating relationships within the church or between like minded believers for personal gain could destroy what is true and above reproach. Duplicity of behavior is easy to do but difficult to stop in a group think culture. May you and I carefully apply the wisdom of Jksmlresence as we make decisions. 

“To be formed in Christ is to be unformed by culture. This undoing is painful: it undoes our idols, our defenses, our loves, our ambitions, our pride, our myths. But in that undoing, the truth of God’s love is born.” - Graham Joseph Hill

“Jesus targeted these corrupt practices by driving out those who were buying and selling. He overturned the tables of the money changers and those selling doves (Mark 11:15). He took charge of the temple, forbidding people to carry anything through the temple court. The only activities he allowed were worship and prayer.

He explained his actions by quoting the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah. Isaiah wrote, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations” (Mark 11:17, Isaiah 56:7). The temple was a place to meet God, to commune with God, to pray. ” - Excerpt, Following Jesus: Discipleship in the Gospel of Mark by Steve Langford

Mark 6-3

 The fog tree lesson is sobering to think about for a perennial application. Fruitfulness is far more than looking good. Playing the game of being a Christian is different than following Christ. I’ve grown up with legalism and a checklist of expectations. All of those practices can be okay but if there is no fruit born out of the practice, it’s pointless. Jesus’s comments to the tree and about the tree demonstrate the kingdom’s reality despite what looks good. 

“The great news of God’s revelation is not simply that God exists, but also that God is actively present. Our God is a God who cares, heals, guides, directs, challenges, confronts, corrects, and forms us. God is a God who wants to lead us closer to the full realization of our lionhearted humanity, if you will. To be obedient means to be constantly attentive to this active presence and to allow God, who is only love, to be the source as well as the goal of all we think, say, and do.”

“Growing in faith requires a growing attentiveness to perceive where God is active and to where we are being led. ” - excerpt, Spiritual Direction by Henri Nouwen

“The story of the fig tree is told as a parable about the temple. The temple, symbolizing the nation as the people of God, gave the appearance of bearing fruit. Yet neither the temple nor the nation bore the fruit God desired. They failed to live the ways of God, i.e., the ways of the kingdom Jesus proclaimed. Instead, they followed the hierarchal, power-over ways of the world.” - Excerpt, Following Jesus: Discipleship in the Gospel of Mark by Steve Langford