The dangers of rash words – Mark 6v1-29

Herod admired John the Baptist and protected him from Herodia, his evil wife. He enjoyed listening to him even if he, Herod, was the target of John’s preaching. At least John’s courage puzzled him (v20). Unfortunately due to rash words uttered at an unguarded moment he murdered this man that he acknowledged was righteous and holy and as a result, lived under the pangs of guilty conscience for the rest of his life as indicated by his belief that John had come back to life in the person of Jesus Christ (v16).

If only Herod had thought through the words he was about to say or the promises he was about to make! If only he had formed the habit of weighing his words, he would not have been faced with the most difficult choice of having to swallow his promise to the young lady in the presence of his august visitors. He would have had time to weigh the implication of  honouring such a  heinous request!

Solomon highlighted the danger clearly when he stated in Prov.10v19 that “When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise.” Whether the rash words are targeted at God or fellow man, the danger is the same – Sin!

We will do well to heed the advice from three men who should know and above all that of our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ.

1. David – prayed “Set a guard over my mouth, O LORD, keep watch over the door of my lips.” (Psalms 141v3)
2. Solomon – in Ecc. 5v1-7, extensively advises on the management of our tongue before God encouraging us to be silent rather than offering the sacrifice of fools. Specifically in v2 he admonishes “Do not be quick with your mouth ,do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few.” He warned that God might be angry at what we say and destroy the work of our hands.
3. James - admonishes that “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry” (James 1v19).
4. Jesus Christ – emphasised the need for us to weigh our words because “…men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”(Matt.12v32)

Lord, I pray along with David today that you set a guard over my mouth and keep watch over the door of my lips In Jesus name. Amen.

When you do not know what to do – Mark 5v21-43

The life of his daughter is in danger. She is at the point of death and this religious leader resolves to seek help from one sure source – The Lord Jesus Christ! Humbly falling down on his knees at the Lord’s feet he earnestly entreats Him to do something quickly.  Not even the obvious implication of the death of the girl as communicated to him by those who met them on the way back home deterred him from hanging on to the Lord to honour his faith

Suffering for twelve years going from one doctor to another with all her life’s savings gone, a timid lady steals behind the Lord, convinced that if only she could touch the hem of His garment, she would be healed. She did just that and she is healed and her faith was  affirmed by the Lord Himself in love.

Jehosaphat is faced with the allied forces made up of the Moabites, the Ammonites and the children of Edom. He goes to the presence of the Lord and humbly admits that “We do not know what to do but our eyes are on you” (2 Chron.20v1-13). Of course the Lord fought and gave the victory.

These three people and unnumbered more in the scriptures and down the ages have certain things in common when confronted with the challenge of knowing what to do, when hemmed in, when at a dead end, when all hope is gone:

1. They looked up to God – They  believed that no situation was hopeless with God and therefore reached out to Him for a way out.
2. They overcame their obstacles – No excuses could keep them from the source of help. The crowd, the reputation of the church leader, the urgency of the attack – They all in humility approach the master of all situations. Even when they lacked the faith, they prayed for it like the man who brought his son to the Lord for healing. When confronted with his lack of faith, he pleaded with the lord to help his unbelief.
3. They listened to the Lord – When word came to Jairus that the daughter was already dead, he choose to hold on to the word of the Lord telling him “to only believe!” Jehosaphat is to go to the war front led by a choir hardly the most sensible thing to do when confronted with such an overwhelming force.  Given the setting it would be tantamount to surrender!  The woman comes out to admit her step of faith even though the disciples made excuses for her and the chances of being found out by others were zero.
4. They all received the reward of their faith – Jairus had his daughter back, the woman was healed permanently, victory was wrought for the Israelites as Jehosaphat led them out to battle singing songs of  praise to God.

Hebrews 11 catalogs the exploits and reward of steps of faith taken by ordinary men and women of old. So when next you are faced with a seemingly hopeless situation, humbly reach out in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ who promises that all things are possible for him who believes (Mark 9v23).

Great God Almighty, I thank you that with you there is no situation that is hopeless. “With your help I can advance against a troop; with my God I can scale a wall.” (2 Sam.22v30) Help me to always trust and not doubt through Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen

Responding to the Presence of the Lord – Mark 5v1-20

Until now, people were trooping to the Lord Jesus Christ for healing, to behold great sights, for feeding etc. The more they heard of His activities, the more they came. However, here, in Gadara, across the seas, we have a record of people pleading with Jesus to leave their shores having performed the miracle of restoring to sanity, somebody society had lost hope in; somebody who was a danger both to society and self!

This response can only be explained by what they focused their minds (and eyes) on when they came to Jesus! They saw the restored man sitting sanely at the feet of the Lord but their mind was on the loss of their investment – the 2000 pigs that drowned when the demons left the man and went into them! Surely His presence was apparently bad for business. They might have wondered to themselves  what would be touched next?

In other instances of similar miracles being performed by the Lord, the reaction of people varied from skepticism through amazement to praising God depending on what was on their minds.

• The Pharisees felt threatened by the Lord’s ministry and as often as they could, tried to discredit the basis of the miracles hence the earlier encounter in Mark 3v20.
• In Luke 5v25-26 and 18v43, people with particularly nothing on their minds were filled with amazement and praises to God.

How true that our attitude to given situations determine our actions and reactions to such situations! How different their fortunes would have been had they focused solely on this God of impossibility who restored somebody they had written off and had displayed unparalleled power over demons and their investments? They would have broken into joy and praises and would have invited Him back to town as did the people of Samaria when they met the Lord based on the Samaritan woman’s story (John 4v39-42).

Instead, they were afraid (v15) and pleaded with Him to leave their land and of course the Lord obliged them. What a loss! They lost their investment and they lost the company of the one who owns the sheep on a thousand hills, the one who could make a difference in their lives as He had just done to the demon-possessed man. They lost the opportunity of having many more of their sick healed as was done in Capernaum after a similar setting following His healing of a demon-possessed (Mark 1v21-34).

Lord, I pray that the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of sin will not becloud my vision of your presence which to have is more to be desired than gold. This I pray through Jesus my Lord. Amen

Managing the storms of life – Mark 4 v21-41

Storms of life refer to the challenging situations,  sometimes life threatening, which come upon us.  Such situations are hardly anticipated, they come suddenly without warning and we are totally helpless in ourselves to manage or handle such situations.  Examples of some of these include the following:

1. The disciples, at the Lord’s instruction and with Him in the boat, take off to the other side after a full day’s work to rest, to be alone and midway they are struck by a squall that threatens the possibility of their boat sinking! (v35-41).
2. The disciples after experiencing the miracle of feeding 5,000 from 5 loaves of bread, the Lord instructed them to get into the boat and head for the other side  and midway they ran into a real storm on the sea (Matt 14 v22-36).
3. Paul is on his way to Rome fully assured of the Lord’s promise that he will get to his destination and preach Him there and midway they are in the storm which leads to a shipwreck (Acts 27v13-44).
4. We must mention Job whose life storm was not on the sea but still totally out of his control.

Facts about storms are that:

1. They are bound to come.  They are not necessarily a result of disobedience in fact their origins are outside of one’s self.  The Lord in the story of the builders (one on sand and the other on the rock) said when not If the storms come.
2. They do not last for ever. They have a beginning and an end.  Just as the origin of the storm is outside of us, the secret to surviving the storm is outside of oneself.  The Lord said, “have you no faith?”  Therefore faith in God is the secret to managing life’s storms.  Faith that He will keep throughout the storm. Faith as displayed by the disciples who woke him up, faith of Peter that enabled him to walk on the water despite and in spite of the storm.  Job said I know my redeemer lives and I will come out as pure gold.  Paul said I know we will be speared!
3. Nothing that is done during the storm would amount to anything except it was done before the storm namely; developing a relationship with the Master of the storm and seas helps to sustain us through the storm. Christ said the secret of surviving the storm is the foundation of the house.  If it is built on the rock it will withstand the storm.  Jesus is the Rock of our Salvation and Paul said that no other foundation can be laid other than that of Christ! Anchoring our faith in Him and entrusting our very lives into His hand guarantees surviving the storms.

We have an anchor that keeps the soul

steadfast and sure while the bellow roar

fasten to the rock which cannot move

grounded, firm and deep in the Saviour’s love.

Father,  thank you for the assurance that you will manage the storms in my life as, in faith, I look up to you.  I am satisfied in Jesus love.  Amen.

The secret formula for spiritual maturity – Mark 4v1-20

How come that many people are exposed to the same messages and over time some seem to grasp the essence of  the teachings more than the others? What explains the differences in response to the same situations or circumstances we experience? What made the disciples stand out from the crowds that followed the Lord daily, that heard the same words the Lord taught, saw and experienced the same miracles the Lord performed? It was clear that everybody, the disciples inclusive, were perplexed by the parable of the sower so what qualified them to be disciples?

A major factor from the passage was that they made time to be alone with the Lord to seek clarification to the things that perplexed them!(v10). They were not satisfied with explaining away their ignorance with the often heard expression that “there are many things we will never understand”. They did not adopt the easy way out like some of their fellow disciples did as recorded in John 6v60,66 when they exclaimed “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” and “ From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.”

The Lord Himself had said in John that “he who follows me must be where I am” (John12v26). How often we are contented with following the Lord at a distance and in the process end up not having the full benefit of the focused tutorial sessions as he often had with His disciples. In other cases we are contented with the mass servings of His bountifulness to the crowd and as a result we only know the provider side of Him and condemn ourselves to only going to Him with our shopping lists for provision.

There is no doubt that there are certain lessons that are best grasped in a tutorial session, certain depths of understanding that can only be reached using man-on-man interactive teaching approach and anybody who denies himself of such opportunities is condemned to mediocrity, to the immature level of relationship with the teacher and as the writer of Hebrews observed, such persons can only handle milk not meat.(Heb.5v12-14).

Father, I pray that I will never grow out of the hunger for time alone with you. I am persuaded that you will meet this desire through Jesus Christ my Lord who never played with His time alone with you. Amen

Handling cases of being misunderstood – Mark 3v20-35

How often we are confronted with situations when our intentions are misunderstood, our communications misrepresented, and credit for positive actions attributed to persons other than ourselves. Thank God we seem to be in good company, for such was the lot of our Lord Jesus Christ for most of His ministry time here on earth. How did He handle such situations and what lessons are there for us to follow? Peter admonished believers that “To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.” (1 Peter 2v21)

• Christ was misunderstood by those who should know – His nuclear family. Their conclusion was that He was out of His mind (v21) and went as a team to probably get him back to His senses!! (v31). In another occasion they tried to persuade Him to go to Jerusalem in pursuit of His popularity campaign. So even they did not understand, at least at that time, the Lord’s mission here on earth.(John 7v1-8)
• The religious leaders of the day whose power base was being threatened by Christ’s revolutionary teachings and actions discredited His ministry and attributed his source of power to Satan (v22-30)
• The crowd blinded by tradition and their common sense could not appreciate Christ’s definition of family (v31-35). Even the crowd in John 7v20 declared Him demon- possessed when He pointed out their folly in putting tradition above doing the will of God.

Christ’s response to such cases of being misunderstood were varied but could be distilled into the following:

1. He addressed issues or the specifics of such misunderstanding rather than the persons involved. His brothers did not become enemies because they misunderstood Him. He answered them when required, ignored their comments if a response was unnecessary, got up and followed His mother even if she did not quite understand Him. (Lk 2v42-51) It is of note that James (one of the brothers) later became the leader of the church and Jude, another brother, wrote the second to the last book of the Bible.
2. He confronted cases of deliberate misrepresentations headlong often pointing out the folly in their reasoning. Never was the Lord intimidated from doing what He came to do on account of such opposition. He was aggressive when the occasion demanded, He avoided confrontation when the time was inappropriate, but in all situations, the Lord was in control of Himself refusing to be provoked to the point of giving the enemy the advantage.
3. When He perceived genuine misunderstanding, the Lord did not withhold the teaching necessary to correct such misunderstanding such as explaining the true make up of His family. He never spared any personal inconveniences such as not having time to eat (v20) in order to be able to teach, rebuke, correct and train those whose intentions were genuine.

Father, grant me the wisdom to handle cases of misunderstandings in a manner that will bring glory to you through the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen

Lessons in team building – Mark 3v1-19

The first lesson in team building is to understand the nature of the population the team is to be selected from. The crowd that daily milled around the Lord which constituted His population was made of people with varied interests:

-       some were there to look for reasons to accuse Him (v2),

-       some were there for what they could get from being in His company, be it healing or feeding,

-       others were there just for the spectacle of it

-       but a few were there for Him, to be learn of Him and in answer to His call to follow.

These few He must fish out in other for Him to be effective. The Lord could have taken the easy way out by regarding the whole crowd as His team. After all they were always there conveying the fact that His ministry was popular. He could have, in the process, yielded to the temptation of measuring the success of His ministry by the size of the crowd, but we are told that “But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men”(John 2v22).

Convinced of the fact that buried in that crowd was His team, He took the appropriate steps to select His team:

• He distanced Himself from the crowd (v13) Had he made His selection while in the midst of the crowd ministering, probably the closest to him , locationally, could have be selected, maybe those who have the most powerful lobby could have made it or it could have been hurriedly done like applying the rule of first come, first in or the selection process would have been flawed one way or the other. We are told that the Lord went into the mountains, away from the crowd and called to Himself his team. No doubt He took the time to reflect and refocus on the goal He wanted to achieve with the team to be selected. 
• He took time to pray. Luke reporting on the same event observed that “One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles” (Lk 6v12-13). Christ who is Himself God still needed to spend the whole night praying before He made this most important decision in the life of His ministry! How we need to learn this lesson daily. How we are prone to rush into making life-long decisions flippantly with no thought and serious consideration given at all. Of course we can not but face the consequences of not taking the right steps in building our team as many a leader has had to experience at various times in their various leadership roles.

The result of this prior preparation was so clear. The Lord’s team was a balanced team. People of different personality traits and qualities but people who had some basic things in common such as

-       their deep commitment to the Master and to one another,

-       their availability with no personal agenda outside that of the Master (at least for most of them) and

-       their willingness to learn.

No wonder, this unschooled team, when the Master had finished with them, were able to turn the world upside down (Acts 4v13). It is interesting that the team was not made up of perfect people. They were ordinary people with human faults proned to fall -

-       some with a tendency towards inordinate ambitions.

-       Others had uncontrollable anger calling down fire at the slightest provocation.

-       One, Simon, was radical enough to be called the zealot

-       Another, Matthew the Tax collector, was almost a social outcast as an agent of the Roman government!

-       Of course there was the skeptic called Thomas!

-       A few were totally obscure but were still valuable members of the team. Indeed, they were a team.

Lord, teach me this type of lesson in team building in your precious name I pray. Amen

Being a positive influence on friendship – Mark 2

The four friends loved the sick man sufficiently to set aside their individual programmes, physically carry their friend to where Jesus Christ was. Not even the large crowd would prevent them from ensuring that their friend got the needed help. Their faith led to their friend, being healed not only physically but also spiritually!

Levi (Matthew) had just received a call to follow the Lord but proceeded to inviting his friends and business associates to dinner with his new friend and boss. They where described as “sinners and tax collectors” (v15) by the teachers of the law and Pharisees – those who believed they were socially superior, but it made no difference to Levi. These people were friends – period.

Andrew meets the Lord and the bible said “The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ) and he brought him to Jesus.”(John 1v40). Similarly Philip finds his friend Nathaniel and introduces him to Christ. (John 1v44-50). It is of note that all these ended up as disciples and friends of Christ.

Jonathan loved David as his own soul despite the extreme hatred his father had for David. He not only aided David’s escape from the reach of his father but risked his life to travel to the wilderness of Horesh where David was hiding to “helped him find strength in God.” (1 Sam.23v16)

We must also mention friends like Hushai, David’s friend during Absolom’s rebellion and Ruth’s commitment to Naomi.

Jesus Christ, the best of friends, said “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”(John15v13).and that was what He completed at Calvary for us!

On the other side of friendship are those that were extreme bad influences on friendship such as the following:

• Job’s friends although they went to sympathise with him on his misfortunes ended up being his accusers and tormentors.
• The Twelve friends of the Lord at His time of greatest need all ran for their dear lives some even ran away naked. (Mark 14v50-52).
• Some of Paul’s friends – in love with the world – abandoned him at his trial in Rome. (2 Tim.1v15, 4v10,16).

The key lesson which can be drawn from these examples seem to be that any friendship that is built on mutual commitment to helping the other be the best that God made him to be will endure while any friendship built on personal gains – What I can gain from it – would naturally crumble under pressure. To endure, friendship must be selfless and as Paul advised – must put the interest of the other person ahead of personal interest (Rom.12v10).

Lord, I pray that I will be a friend that loves at all times in the words of Solomon in Prov.17v17 and that I will be a positive influence on those that you have blessed me with. This I pray through Jesus Christ, the best of friends. Amen.

Making time to Pray – Mark 1v21-45

“Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed”(v35). The day before, on the Sabbath, Jesus worked right into the night teaching, casting out demons, healing the sick and very early before dawn the following morning, He was up into His quite place to commune with His Father!

So many reasons why He could not have made time to pray: tiredness, being busy healing more people because by daybreak every body was looking for him. He could have been so preoccupied with doing good not to have time to pray. That was the case with not having time to eat as recorded in Mark 3v20 but the Lord did not joke with His time of prayer.

How His times of prayers help Him to keep focused on His mission!! How easy it would have been to go back and minister to all those looking for Him but He told the disciples that they should move on with  His eyes on the goal of spreading the good news to others (v38-39). Surely Christ could have been carried away with apparent success in His young ministry judging from His growing popularity but after His quite time He said let us move on! In the face of major decision making such as the selection of His twelve disciples, He spend a whole night in prayer (Luke 6v12).

David said “In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation.”( Ps.5v3).David prayed three times daily for he said “evening, morning and noon I cry out in distress, and he hears my voice.” (Ps.55v17) He said “I will rise before dawn and cry for help; I have put my hope in your word”(Ps. 119v147).

Paul and Silas in the Philippians jail spent the night praying and praising God. They prayed night and day for the fruit of their ministry like the Thessalonians (1 Thess.3v10).

Daniel could only be accused of total devotion to His God in prayers and even after the king’s decree, he continued with his prayers three times daily.(Dan. 6v10).

To sum it up, Paul instructed that we should pray without ceasing (1 Thess.5v17).

Lord I pray for the power of your Holy Spirit in me to motivate me to pray at all times in all situation in the name of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who never played with His times of prayer while here on earth. Amen

Harvesting the wealth of the desert experience – Mark 1v1-20

How easy it is to yield to the temptation of equating the desert experience to consequence of sin, of disobedience or generally to moves that are the result of going our own way rather than the Lord’s paths which are strewn with blessings and flowing with milk and honey!  Yet the testaments about the Lord Jesus Christ prior to going to the desert speaks of:

i)               A quality of life that was above board.  He came to be baptized to “fulfil all righteousness” (Matt 3v15).

ii)             The Spirit of God descends on Him like a dove empowering Him for the challenges ahead (v10).

iii)            A direct affirmation from the Father declaring His love for His Son (v11)

Then followed the desert experience! He was led by the Spirit to the desert to be tested and tempted (v12).  Jesus Christ, the Son of God, filled with the Holy Spirit, living a life of obedience to His Father was led into the desert – a place of:

• want (lack of water and food).
• of loneliness with only wild animals as His companions
• of extremes (heat by day and cold by night)

Generally, it was a place of physical, mental and physiological hardship!  What was or is the purposes of such an experience?  Moses, talking to the Israelites after their 40 years desert experience, proffered some reason in Deut 8v1-5:

1. To learn humility – nothing humbles a man than the grace to cope under  extreme situations. Unlike pride that destroys, that enthrones self at the centre of one’s life, humility submits to the leadership and control of a superior power and in the process expands ones capability beyond one’s self.
2. To learn dependence on God, not on oneself and in the process to test the quality of such dependence – How precious is the type of dependence on God that is not a function of ones perceived blessings from Him!  A dependence on God based on who He is rather than the benefit that one derives from Him. Job, in his darkest moment reaffirmed his dependence on God. He said “Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him” (Job 13v15).
3. To learn to know God’s word, to recognise it and obey it. “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from His mouth” (Matt.4v4). Any friend of God has had at one time or the other to spend time in the desert to be equipped for the ministry.  Even Paul was in Arabia for 2 years. David at the height of his military career was driven to the wilderness, holing in caves and obscure places being pursued by Saul and of course the children of Israel!
4. To learn discipline (Deut 8v5) – Not only the discipline arising from acts of disobedience but that which is self-imposed – call it self discipline one that subjects the body to the mind controlled by the Spirit, one that learns to say no to all ungodliness and one that continually hungers and thirsts after righteousness, after God’s word, after His presence.

Thank God that every desert experience is followed by a period of refreshing with angels attending to the person (v13), a reassurance of God’s continuing presence and a confidence to move into the daily arena of service.

Lord, help me to learn the lessons intended for me through my desert experiences. This I pray through Jesus Christ my Lord.  Amen.