A Lack of Faith…

Quiet Time – 5.10.2016 [Mark 6:1-6]

Hey homie I just read Mark 6:1-6.  Jesus goes back to His hometown and they don’t respond well to Him, in fact they’re described to have an amazing lack of faith!  It ends up with Jesus not doing many miracles there except heal a few sick people.

The people of Nazareth is another example of how people react to who Jesus is.  They live by sight and doubt who He is because of what they’ve seen.

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The People of Nazareth

It’s starts off with Jesus teaching in the synagogue and “many who heard Him were amazed…” but they’re not amazed for what you might think.  They begin asking questions like “Where did this man get these things?” and “What’s this wisdom that has been given Him, that He even does miracles!  Isn’t this the carpenter?  Isn’t this Mary’s Son…”  They’re extremely doubtful of Jesus because they’re remembering who He was when He was growing up and living here before He began His public ministry.  He surely can’t be anything else!

The people of Nazareth have a lack of faith because they’re focusing on what they’ve seen only.  They don’t even consider if what Jesus is saying to them is true, if He is who He says He is.  

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Jesus

Jesus sees this and is “amazed at their lack of faith.”  They give Jesus’ Words absolutely no consideration, not even the slightest chance.  They deny who Jesus is by relying on their sight.  They live by sight and not by faith.  Just as C.S Lewis argues, Jesus is either a liar, a lunatic or LORD.  It seems that the people of Nazareth see Him as both a liar and a lunatic.

They deny who Jesus is as they live by sight and not by faith.

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Application

From seeing this I asked myself:

• How do I deny His character?
• How do I fail to respond to who Jesus is?
• How do I live by sight instead of trusting in God’s promises?

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How do I deny His character?

I often deny the fact that Jesus is enough in the way I see relationships.  I can sometimes feel that if I had a partner I would be happier, more satisfied or more fulfilled.  This is a straight up lie.   In fact human partners are all deficient, they can never satisfy me the way that I intrinsically need because it’s only found in Jesus.

Jesus is absolutely enough for me. 

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How do I fail to respond to who Jesus is?

Jesus is king.  He is LORD above all.  But if someone was to look at how I live would they see that Jesus is Lord over all of my life?  Maybe on the surface they would, “Oh!  You’re involved in ministry and all these great leadership roles!  You must be having Jesus as Lord over all of your life!”  But what about my time at home?  What about all the time I spend procrastinating because I’m too lazy and slothful?

I need to be intentional with the way I spend my time at home, one of the ways for me to do this is cut down on the time I spend watching YouTube and rest in a way that will actually help me look at Jesus.

I want to live in a way that shows to everyone that I live for a King who is not myself.  I live for a Kingdom that is not here.  

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How do I live by sight instead of trusting in God’s promises?

I live by faith because I trust in myself, my skills and my gifts as I serve in ministry.  I get the delusion that past ministries have borne much fruit because of how skillful I was, how gifted I was, how much I tried to achieve success through them.  In reality they bear fruit because God is Sovereign and He always works by His Spirit whenever His Word is opened to achieve His purposes.  I try to claim His success as my all and delude myself to thinking that I’m the important gear that makes everything run.  Only God does this.  If it was reliant upon me everything would legitimately fall apart.

One way that I can stay humble and remember to rely upon God’s promises instead of what I can achieve is by staying in prayer.  Prayer is how you can really tell if someone trusts God or not.

Prayer is NOT the preparation for the more important thing.
It IS the more important thing.

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“Jesus said to them, “Only in His hometown, among His relatives and in His own house is a prophet without honour.”  He could not do any miracles there, except lay His hands on a few sick people and heal them.  And He was amazed at their lack of faith.”

– Mark 6:4-6

Responding to who Jesus is…

Hey there WordPress!  I haven’t posted anything up for a while because I haven’t had the time to write poetry/devote much of my head space into keeping this blog constant BUT I normally share some of my quiet time reflections with some of my close homies and realised that it wouldn’t be hard to just copy and paste some of them onto here!  This is the reason why most of how I will be talking in these blog posts will be super casual and often use my own weird colloquial language.  I apologise to all of you in advance :)

So I’ve decided to be posting up my quiet time reflections onto this blog and God-willing it would be an encouragement to some of you guys!  Hope you guys enjoy seeing this kid try to love Jesus.  If you’re encouraged by anything I share please encourage me back by letting me know in the comment section!

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Quiet Time – 29.9.2016 [Mark 5:1-20]

Hey homie! I just read Mark 5:1-20. It’s about Jesus encountering Legion and it was super encouraging for me! It was really apparent how the character and person of Jesus demands a response from people. You can’t encounter Jesus and not have a response.

Legion

This homie is nothing short of badass. He lives in the tombs, no one can bind him, no one can match him in in strength. Everyone around is scared as beans of him. But as soon as he sees Jesus he runs to Him and falls on His knees in front of Him. He knows exactly who Jesus is, that He is the “Son of the Most High God.” He responds to who Jesus is in absolute terror. He pleads that Jesus would let him go into the pigs on the hillside. He knows his place before Jesus.

The dude who everyone is terrified of is not even slightly a match for the power and authority of Jesus.

Villagers

The villagers see that Jesus’ power absolutely trumps Legion and that the man is now freed from Legion and in his normal mind. This TERRIFIES them. The dude we couldn’t even hope to beat was quivering in front of this Dude? They respond to Jesus character in FEAR. They end up pleading for Jesus to leave their region.  Holy beans this Dude is nuts.

The character and person of Jesus demands a response from people.

Demon-Possessed Man

This dude is totally g now and BEGS Jesus to let him go with Jesus, but…. Jesus doesn’t let him. Jesus says “Go home to your family and tell them how much the LORD has done for you and how He has had mercy on you!” Jesus wants him to be a witness of His goodness to those around him!   “So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.”

Jesus wants the man to follow Him by staying here as a witness of His goodness.

Myself

So it was pretty clear to me that the character and person of Jesus forces people to respond to Him. My question for myself was how do I respond to Jesus’ character? I need to let who Jesus is, shape the way I live in every aspect. Clearly shown in this section is that He has an incredible amount of power and authority that I simply can’t ignore.

– I personally doubt His power in my life with my parents and family. I find myself basing their likeliness of salvation dependant on what I see. This doesn’t make sense because in the story if I was to bet on someone to win a power struggle, I’d bet on Legion and well… we all know how that story finished :)

The cross is big enough, even for the salvation of my parents and family.

– I personally doubt His authority in my life with the way I see purity. I’ve been finding it more difficult recently keeping my mind on things above and holding on to God’s call on my life to be “Holy as He is Holy.” I find intimacy and satisfaction in things not of God, and they all leave me feeling empty and disappointed.

Jesus is MORE than enough for my cravings of intimacy. Jesus is LORD and I need to submit to His LORDSHIP over all of my life.  He is King and He alone!

– I wish to respond to Jesus’ character just like the demon-possessed man. Would I be BOLD and TESTIFY to all of God’s goodness to me in my life! Particularly for me right now, I have a lot of birthday parties, battles and events with a lot of my dancing friends! Pray for me that I would be bold and courageous in talking about God’s goodness to me intentionally as I interact with them and all those people in my life just like the demon-possessed man!

Pray that I would boldly testify of God’s goodness towards me, to all around me!

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“The demons begged Jesus, “Send us among the pigs; allow us to go into them.” He gave them permission, and the evil spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned. Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man – and told about the pigs as well. Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region.”

– Mark 5:12-17

Psalm 1 Prayer

Father let me not be led by the world,
But instead fix my eyes upon You.
Let me delight in Your law,
Let me meditate upon Your scriptures day and night.

And as I do God,
I pray that Your love would overflow from me.
That as I am sustained by You,
Your love would overflow out of my hands,
Into this broken world that needs You so desperately.

May I be like the tree planted by the streams of living water,
Focusing on You, being sustained entirely by You.
And as Your Spirit sanctifies me and conforms me to the image of Jesus,
Would you let me trust in the righteousness that is found in Jesus alone.

Amen.