GRINDIT podcast

A Gentile woman hears that Jesus is in town and she rushes to find him. When she does, she prostrates herself before him and asks him to cast a demon out of her little girl. Jesus calls her a dog and tells her he came for the Jews. This woman would not take no for an answer and her reply floors Jesus...in so much he heals her daughter. She shows us a great lesson in moving the heart of God--humility.

Traditions...something the Pharisees had major problems with. They had studied God's law, interpreted God's law, and made their interpretations more binding than God's law! They had become traditions over the years and they were teaching them to the people in the synagogue instead of teaching the people about God and His law. Jesus gets to the "heart" of the mater...the Pharisee's hearts. They looked like they loved God, sounded like they loved God, but Jesus quotes Isaiah and says their hearts are far from God. Don't let your worship become tradition. Keep your heart in it and seeking after God!

Jesus feeds the 5,00, more like 10,000 including women and children, with 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread. He had questioned his disciples on how they were going to feed this big crowd before he performed this miracle because he wanted to teach them a lesson: God will not only provide for your immediate needs, He will provide for your future needs as well but they didn't seem to get the message because Jesus sends them away in a boat so he could go be alone with the Father. As they were rowing their boat, a strong wind hinders their progress and they are getting tired and frustrated. Jesus was watching them from the shore and one of their struggle but he didn't immediately come to their rescue! Once he did by walking on water, he got into the boat and the wind ceased immediately. Mark says the disciples' hearts hardened. In other words, they were aggravated with Jesus because they thought he didn't care. Where was he? Why did he let us struggle like this? It's the same questions you and I ask when storms come in our lives. Don't get sidetracked...stay the course and keep the faith. Jesus will show up!

John the Baptizer loses his head because Herodias wanted to show how powerful she is! Herod put John in prison hoping to appease his wife but it wasn't good enough for her. She was working behind the scenes, scheming, and manipulating to get her way not caring who she used or affected, including her own daughter. While he wa sin prison, John doubted Jesus and sent his disciples to ask for some reassurance. Jesus sent a message back to John and basically said, "I am who I am and you can die in peace." Jesus could have rescued John but he didn't and we have to realize that suffering is a part of life, but we can trust that God is with us through it all.

As a follower of Jesus, we claim to be his hands and his feet? What does that mean? Am I really being his hands and feet? We tackle this deep subject in this podcast as we look at the disciples as Jesus sends them out in pairs into the local villages to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.

The enemy has many tools in his arsenal to keep us from serving God and three of the greatest are: Fear, discouragement, and rejection. Nobody likes to be rejected but what we learn in Mark 6 is even Jesus was rejected! He was rejected by the religious leaders, he was rejected by his own disciples at times, and he was rejected by his friends and family in his hometown. Two things we need to be aware of: 1) Be careful who you let speak into your life because not everybody shares your vision...2) Don't let other people shape your identity because in Nazareth, Jesus wan't known as God's Son, he was known as Mary's son who is just a carpenter!

Jairus’ 12 year old daughter was sick and was dying. He seeks out Jesus and asks him to come to his house and lay hands on her to heal her. In other words, Jesus was his hope. As they were going to Jairus’ house, there was an interruption…a woman with a hemorrhage for 12 years heard about Jesus and she makes a B-line to him. This interruption takes long enough that Jairus’ daughter dies but as soon as he receives the news, Jesus looks at him and says, “Do not be afraid…only believe.” In other words, don’t give up hope…I got this. Jesus goes to his house, grabs the girl by the hand, and tells her to getup. She immediately gets up and starts walking around as if nothing ever happened. Don’t wait until you are desperate to turn to Jesus…go to him now! Put your faith in him and trust him!

Jesus and his disciples show up in the town of Gadarene and a man that is possessed with 2,000 demons meet him as he gets out of the boat. This man was naked, he cut himself with stones, and he lived in a graveyard. He was a freak of nature! After a small conversation, Jesus casts the demons into a herd of pigs and they ran down the hill, jumped into the water, and were drowned. When the pig farmers ran into the village to tell the people what had happened, they came out to run Jesus out of town. They wanted to know what happened and how did Jesus do this thing. Jesus happened…and they didn’t want anything to with Jesus, the very one who could save their souls and change their lives.

Jesus continues to use parables to describe what the kingdom of God is like. In this podcast, we discuss the Parable of the Growing Seed and the Mustard Seed. It's all about the seed...or the word of God. The word of God is powerful! It has nothing to do with us! All we are supposed to be concerned with is sowing and watering seed, or spreading the word of God into people's lives so fruit will be produced by God. Are you sowing the seed of the kingdom brother?

Jesus uses parables to help drive a point home and in Mark 4, he uses several of these parables to teach the people what the kingdom of God is like. Think about it...they've never been to heaven so they have no idea but Jesus came from there and he knows ALL about it!