Day 38

Today’s Reading: Mark 10

Today’s reading is a tough one. Jesus gets a test . . . a test about marriage and divorce.

Before we dive into this chapter, listen to these poignant words from Augustine, which apply to what we’re studying today: “If you believe what you like in the Gospel, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the Gospel you believe, but yourself.”

Now let’s read about Jesus’ test: “Some Pharisees came up to Jesus, testing Him, and began to question Him whether it was lawful for a man to divorce a wife” (Mark 10:2).

There are some hot-potato issues in the church—and one of those is about divorce and remarriage. Not only is this controversial today in the body of Christ, it was also in the first century when Jesus was here on the earth.

It’s important to note that not every question is from an honest heart. Not every questioner is asking to get a truthful answer. Some people ask to see if you agree with them. That is why the divorce question here is not for the religious people to learn the truth, to discover insight or wisdom, but to see if Jesus agrees with them. They already had their opinions and now they want to test Jesus.

To test assumes two things: (1) you are the teacher; (2) you already know the answer, so you’re seeing if your student knows the answer. Then you grade them on their answer. Think of the audacity—they are testing the omniscient God to see if He knows, not the right answer, but their answer.

That is really the issue today. When was the last time you asked Jesus a question about your struggling marriage? When was the last time you sought direction and theological wisdom from Him?

So many times we will go to a book, a pastor—someone who has already decided for us. But what about this issue? Have you ever asked Jesus: Should I divorce?

Most never ask Jesus if we should, instead we ask for help once it’s already decided. Then we ask for Him to bless our already decided-upon plans.

If this is what you do, then this is the painful truth: you are testing Jesus just as these religious people did.

So how did Jesus respond?

First, we need to see it from a biblical basis and not a culture or society basis. With all the divorce that is happening today, people try to adjust Jesus’ words to fit our epidemic of marriages falling apart. It’s like our government that can’t stop drugs so they legalize it to make that the best answer. But that is not an answer to a problem. 

So if half of the marriages in the church end in divorce, as some statistics suggest, do we have to adjust Jesus’ words based on the twenty-first-century marriage problem? I don’t think so. Some have cited successful remarriages as their reason that divorce can’t be wrong. They argue, “So and so got remarried and look at them after twenty-five years. It must be okay.”

But we must be careful that we don’t adjust Scripture to fit our beliefs or wants. Instead we must take Jesus’ words as they stand:

He answered and said to them, “What did Moses command you?” They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.” But Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother, and the two shall become one flesh; so they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.”

Here’s my summary based on Jesus’ words: Divorce was instituted by Moses. The motive for divorce was that our hearts are hard. Therefore, the reason for divorce was because we have hard hearts. Every marriage, no matter the struggle or the sin or the offense, can have a miracle ending with God if our hearts are soft.

God’s intention from the beginning of creation was for two to become one flesh—and what God has joined together, no one should separate.

I heard a counselor once say to a young woman contemplating marriage: “Do not accept a man’s proposal until you have successfully worked through at least one significant disagreement. Better yet, make it a heated argument that leaves one of you preferably in tears. If you have never been in the thick of a serious conflict with that person, you don’t really know their heart. And marriage needs a soft heart to face hard situations.”

So let me try to make this applicable. Divorce is an option—but it occurs because of a person becoming hard hearted.

Just look at the statistics on divorce and remarriage. Statistics have shown that in the United States, 50 percent of first marriages end in divorce. The number raises to 67 percent of second marriage, and 73 percent of third marriages. Why do the percentages go up each time a person gets married? Because they very likely have not addressed the hardness issue.

So now the question is . . . where is your heart today? Are you working toward a soft and tender heart? Or have you allowed your heart to become hardened?

Someone said it like this: “How do you fix your troubled marriage? You don’t need a change of partners, but a change in partners.”

We are only halfway through our scene with Jesus, though. When the disciples hear Jesus’ response to the Pharisees, they ask for more insight. Notice verse 10: “In the house the disciples began questioning Him about this again.” They are not testing Him, but genuinely questioning Him. They wanted answers. That was the difference between them and the religious leaders.

As you read Jesus’ response, think about what that means for you in your marriage, if you are married, or if someday you want to pursue marriage. Ask Jesus what He means, just as the disciples did.

Day 37

Today’s Reading: Mark 9

If there was anything you ever wanted to tell people, it would be what happened to three disciples on a mountain in Mark 9:2-7. The conversation might go like this . . .

“Guess who I saw today? Moses. Oh yeah, and Elijah. And guess whose voice I heard? Audible voice? God’s! Yep, God Himself. I know what He sounds like now.”

These are the ultimate bragging rights. Seeing two celebrity Old Testament guys and hearing God’s audible voice? It doesn’t get better than that.

And Jesus messed the whole thing up. He messed it all up when He said . . . “You can’t say anything till after the resurrection.”

What?

It was about to become a really good day for the disciples, and Jesus tapped the brakes and put a pause on it.

Listen closely. There is a huge challenge here for all of us. Just because you saw something and hear it from God doesn’t mean you share it immediately. We are all guilty of saying things too quickly that we heard from God.

Let’s speculate for a moment: what could have happened if they would have told that story when they came down?

The truth is whatever might have happened wouldn’t have been what Jesus wanted for a good reason. The truth is that some things need to marinate before they are spoken. I think there are many things I read in the Bible that I was called to sit on before speaking them—for the following reasons:

• to grow in me

And the best place or best way are not always immediately. Waiting develops self-control and turns it to God to say, I trust Your timing.

In this transfiguration scene, we do know whether this event occurred around AD 29 or AD 30, which means they may have had to keep their mouths shut for more than a year. Though Mark tells the story, Peter does too in 2 Peter 1:17-18:

I was there on the holy mountain when he shone out with honor given him by God his Father; I heard that glorious, majestic voice calling down from heaven, saying, “This is my much-loved Son; I am well pleased with him.” (TLB)

Peter finally got his time. He was finally able to tell it. And are you ready for this? That 2 Peter passage was written in AD 67, which would be almost forty years later. We have no record that he said anything before that.

One final thought: what are you supposed to do when God says to pause on speaking? Don’t say anything. Let’s read it together:

As they were coming down from the mountain, He gave them orders not to relate to anyone what they had seen, until the Son of Man rose from the dead. They seized upon that statement, discussing with one another what rising from the dead meant. (Mark 9:9-10)

The Bible says when Jesus gave them the command, “they seized upon that statement.” That is such a good phrase for us to learn in this journey. As you read the New Testament, you will seize upon a verse or seize a story.

Seize. This is such a strong word. To seize a statement means to forcibly take possession of something forcibly. You make it your own. They did that with something they did not understand fully. So practically, what do you do when one of these New Testament passages seize you? You do what the disciples did:

First, in verse 9 it says they “discussed it with one another.” They got others’ perspective from experience, study, and their own wrestling with a passage. For you and me, this means we need to read books, ask our pastor, discuss with our friends. We can’t simply trust our viewpoint. 

And second, verse 11 says, “They asked Him.” Don’t forget this: the author of the Bible is still alive and He knows what He wrote. There comes a time when you have to go to God in prayer and simply ask Him. In answer, He may speak to your heart (revelation) or He may guide you to other passages. The best interpretation of the Bible is the Bible. Let God interpret God.

So be quiet, ask God, and then listen to how He responds.

Day 36

Today’s Reading: Mark 8

Today’s reading opens with a familiar story. But if we examine it closely, we will notice something really puzzling and even humorous.

We’ve all heard the saying, “Experience is the best teacher,” but it is simply not true. Experience is not the best teacher; it never has been and never will be. Maturity doesn’t always come with time. Sometimes age brings nothing more than wrinkles and gray hair. And though experience is not the best teacher, evaluated experience is the best teacher.

Someone once said, “Experience teaches only the teachable.” And when that happens, maturity happens. But maturity is not a gift. As author Aldous Huxley reminds us, “Experience is not what happens to you, it is what you do with what happens to you.” This is important for us to remember as we dig into today’s reading:

In those days, when there was again a large crowd and they had nothing to eat, Jesus called His disciples and said to them, “I feel compassion for the people because they have remained with Me now three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way; and some of them have come from a great distance.” And His disciples answered Him, “Where will anyone be able to find enough bread here in this desolate place to satisfy these people?” (Mark 8:1-4)

This story probably sounds familiar to you. Either you’ve heard it before or you’ve recently read something similar before—such as two chapters ago:

The people saw them going, and many recognized them and ran there together on foot from all the cities, and got there ahead of them. When Jesus went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and He felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things. When it was already quite late, His disciples came to Him and said, “This place is desolate and it is already quite late; send them away so that they may go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” But He answered them, “You give them something to eat!” And they said to Him, “Shall we go and spend two hundred denarii on bread and give them something to eat?” And He said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go look!” And when they found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.” (Mark 6:33-38)

Think about this. Two chapters ago this same scenario took place. Jesus fed five thousand men (not counting women and children) in Mark 6 with five loaves and two fish. And in chapter 8, we have the same situation with four thousand people (verse 9) and seven loaves (verse 6). So in Mark 8, we have less people, more food, and the same Jesus—and they still didn’t get it.

After the miracle of watching five thousand men being fed on a little boy’s lunch, His disciples still asked Jesus this humorous but very sad question: “Where will anyone be able to find enough bread here in this desolate place to satisfy these people?” (verse 4).

Let’s switch gears for a moment. A popular cleaner on the market—one you may already use—is call Formula 409®. What you probably aren’t familiar with, though, is that the name is actually a tribute to the tenacity of two young Detroit scientists whose goal was to formulate the greatest grease-cutting, dirt-destroying, bacteria-cutting cleaner on the planet. The thing is, creating the ultimate cleaner doesn’t just happen on the first try. And it didn’t happen on the 101st or the 301st either. It wasn’t until batch number 409 that they were finally satisfied. And the name stuck: Formula 409.

I don’t want it to take 409 times to get a lesson from Jesus. I want Him to call me 1 or 2. I’ll even take 3 or 4—but not 409. The disciples couldn’t put it together that the same Jesus was present for both miracles. Jesus who turns little to a lot was present for them—and is present for us.

When you find yourself stuck with no way out, go backward into your mind and think. When you do that, you will end up with a moment that God got you out, God came through, God multiplied the little into a lot. 

Don’t get stuck and forget.

Day 35

Today’s Reading: Mark 7

In today’s reading, Jesus makes a statement to religious people that we have to put the spotlight on. Jesus speaks to the Pharisees and Scribes these cutting words about their relationship to the Bible, God’s Word. Let’s read it from The Passion Translation:

“You abandon God’s commandments just to keep men’s rituals, such as ceremonially washing utensils, cups, and other things.”

Then he added, “How skillful you’ve become in rejecting God’s law in order to maintain your man-made set of rules. For example, Moses taught us: ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever insults or mistreats his father or mother must be put to death.’

“But your made-up rules allow a person to say to his parents, ‘I’ve decided to take the support you were counting on from me and make it my holy offering to God, and that will be your blessing instead.’ How convenient! The rules you teach exempt him from providing for his aged parents. Do you really think God will honor your traditions passed down to others, making up these rules that nullify God’s Word? And you’re doing many other things like that.” (Mark 7:8-13)

The New American Standard Bible says, “Thus invalidating the Word of God by your tradition” (verse 13).

Wow! Invalidating the Word of God. Nothing could be more horrible.

Taking something as powerful as God’s Word and making it invalid. That word is so vivid and so appropriate. An invalid is a person who is disabled by an injury, illness, or disease. They cannot do what they were designed to do because of their handicap.

Jesus told them they had just put the Word of God in a wheelchair. Instead of it walking on its own, they crippled it and did it by their traditions.

That’s what had happened to these religious people. They studied the Bible and did not do what it said. Instead, they made it confirm their lifestyle.

E. Paul Hovey said it like this: “Men do not reject the Bible because it contradicts itself, but because it contradicts them.” The Bible contradicted them so they made it say what they wanted it to say, “thus invalidating the Word of God by their tradition.”

This verse is so important. Jesus was cautioning the religious from interpreting the Bible through their religion. They saw things with their experience instead of letting the Bible interpret the Bible.

Now before we get really ticked at the Pharisees, this is happening to us today. Consider the last part of Jesus’ statement, “by your tradition.” Let’s take out the word tradition and fill in the blank.

Ways people can invalidate the Word of God:

It is invalid . . .

• by their denomination. They will interpret passages denominationally (such as water baptism).

• by their soapbox. They will interpret passages from their soapbox (such as political leanings).

• by conspiracy. They will interpret passages from their conspiracy (such as end times).

• by experience. They will interpret passages from their experience (such as Jesus visitations).

• by their pain. God is a horrible Father based on their natural father.

• by their ethnicity. Seeing passages from a minority standpoint and cause instead of for what they say.

• by their parents.

• by their upbringing in church.

• by their pastor.

• by their seminary.

As Søren Kierkegaard said, “The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obliged to act accordingly.”

The story that has always intrigued me is from Jack Deere’s Surprised by the Power of the Spirit. Jack Deere was a seminary professor at Dallas Theological Seminary. Both they and he held to a very strong cessationist theology, which basically says that the gifts of the New Testament are no longer needed or in existence. One of the simplest things that changed Jack Deere was this thought: If I gave a new convert a Bible and put him in a room and told him to read the Bible, I can’t see him coming out saying, “That was such power in the New Testament, too bad we don’t have access to that power today. Too bad the gifts are no longer available for us.” He said that was impossible. He realized that by simply reading the Scriptures, you can’t end up as a cessationist. You end up as a continuationist, someone who believes the spiritual gifts given in the early church continue on today.

Jack Deere realized that entire generations are being influenced by men’s interpretation of the Bible and theology, and he wanted to be influenced by what the Bible is really saying.

One of the liveliest debates I had in seminary was with a great theology teacher whom I highly respected. He said that those that know Greek can read the Bible better than those who don’t. I countered, “So just to be clear, are you saying an unsaved Greek scholar has a better chance of understanding the Scriptures than I do, who is in my fourth semester of Greek and who loves Jesus?" He said, “Absolutely.” Nothing could be further from the truth. He was influenced by his Greek and ancient language.

Make a commitment not to allow your “traditions” to put your faith in a wheelchair.

Day 34

Today’s Reading: Mark 6

No one would disagree that Jesus had all the potential to heal anyone, anywhere, anytime. Can you imagine having the person who could heal you, your child, your family, or your marriage right in your town and nothing happens?

How is that possible?

By limiting Jesus.

We have only two times in the Gospels that Jesus was shocked and both have to deal with the issue of faith.

The words wonder or marveled in the gospels mean to be shocked. The first time it occurs is in Matthew when He was shocked at the great faith of a Roman centurion for a servant who was paralyzed. The centurion said to Jesus, “Just say the word and my servant will be healed” (Matthew 8:8). The centurion’s faith shocked Jesus:

When Jesus heard this, He marveled and said to those who were following, “Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel.” (Matthew 8:10)

The second time Jesus was shocked is in today’s reading in Mark 6. But this is a different kind of shock. This is a shock that happens in a negative way in his hometown. Let’s read it together:

He could do no miracle there except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. And He wondered at their unbelief. (Mark 6:5-6)

The unbelief was not from a Roman pagan but from the people who saw Jesus as a boy and grew up with Him. The people who knew Him best trusted Him least. The people who were around Him most, missed who He was and received only a few things when the potential for everything was in their little town.

When Jesus was shocked, it was either no faith or great faith and this incident was no faith, unbelief. What makes this story crazy is what it’s on the heels of.

In chapter 5 He had just raised a dead girl, set a demoniac free of some 5,400 demons, and healed a woman who had suffered from an incurable condition for twelve years. Then in chapter 6, He went into Nazareth, His hometown, and “could do no miracle” except for healing a few sick people. And here is what’s insane—all these miracles were within walking distance. They happened around Capernaum, and then Jesus walked to Nazareth. The people of Nazareth had Jesus but not His miracles.

Can that happen? You have Jesus but nothing miraculous?

Nazareth was located in the hills of Galilee and had a population of around two hundred people. So the presence of Jesus could literally have changed this town. 

How did they limit Jesus?

How can we stop Jesus from doing what He does best—changing lives? We see in Mark 6 that it is through unbelief. What is unbelief?

Unbelief cannot be little faith. The disciples had that, got rebuked, but still had Jesus calm the sea in Mark 4.

What is the difference between unbelief and little faith?

It seems that little faith is seeing our bad and big circumstances as bigger than Jesus. I think unbelief is different; it is doubting the one’s character who can bring the miracle.

When Jesus taught the people, they challenged who He is because of their limited knowledge:

When the sabbath came, He began to teach in the synagogue; and the many listeners were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things, and what is this wisdom given to Him, and such miracles as these performed by His hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? Are not His sisters here with us?” (Mark 6:2-3)

Little faith—what Jesus sometimes labeled as doubt—is when you question what you believe, or if you believe it, or why you believe it.

That’s okay. God is still there. Miracles can still happen with doubt present and questions swirling in your mind. But nothing happens when there is unbelief.

Unbelief is the refusal to believe. There is no doubt, there are no questions. You have come to your conclusion.

The people of Nazareth had unbelief: Jesus was the carpenter’s son, Mary’s boy. Nothing more. They left no room to be wrong. They decided that they already knew, and what they knew couldn’t be wrong. Well, the Nazareth people were not just wrong, they were limited, and therefore Jesus was limited. This was the carpenter’s son and also God’s Son. He made things out of wood and made a universe out of nothing. He came from a virgin’s womb but also came down from heaven as Immanuel.

But they chose not to believe.

After viewing the works in a renowned art museum, a man said to the guard, “I don’t see any great value in this artwork.”

“Sir,” the guard answered, “the paintings are not what’s on trial here. The visitors are.”

That’s so true. If you look at a Rembrandt or a Monet, and you say, “I don’t see anything good about that,” it simply shows your ignorance concerning art.

That’s the Nazareth problem. The people said, “We don’t see anything special about Jesus. He’s just the carpenter, and we know His mother, brothers, and sisters.”

Jesus wasn’t on trial in Nazareth. The Nazarites were and they failed. Let’s be careful not to make the same mistake. Always remember He is much more that you can ever imagine.

Let’s not limit Jesus in our churches, in our cities, or in our homes.

Let Jesus, be Jesus!

Day 33

Today’s Reading: Mark 5

Wow, today’s reading is filled with action, miracles, and healing. It’s nonstop from verse 1 to verse 43. Mark 5 starts with a town demoniac who lived in a graveyard and acts as the welcoming committee for Jesus and the disciples and ends in a house where a dead twelve-year-old girl’s body is laid out and a bunch of laughing people who think Jesus is out of His mind. In this chapter, Jesus casts out a legion of demons, heals a woman of a twelve-year disease that doctors had no cure for, and raises from the dead a young girl whose body would soon be in a coffin for her burial. Go Jesus!

Let’s pause and consider the first miracle of the man who lived in a cemetery. Read that section with me, will you?

When [Jesus] got out of the boat, immediately a man from the tombs with an unclean spirit met Him, and he had his dwelling among the tombs. And no one was able to bind him anymore, even with a chain; because he had often been bound with shackles and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him and the shackles broken in pieces, and no one was strong enough to subdue him. Constantly, night and day, he was screaming among the tombs and in the mountains, and gashing himself with stones. Seeing Jesus from a distance, he ran up and bowed down before Him. (Mark 5:2-6)

I have had people ask me, “Can a Christian be demon possessed?” The answer to that question is based on your definition of a Christian. 

Paul tells us in Colossians 3:3 that when you become a Christian, “your life is hidden with Christ in God.” That means demons can’t find you to live in you. They can’t find the door to enter your soul and spirit; your life is hidden in Christ. That is my definition of a believer in relation to the demonic world. 

The man was demon possessed, and the demon in this man had a name or a descriptive name: Legion.

He was asking him, “What is your name?” And he said to Him, “My name is Legion; for we are many.” (Mark 5:9)

Legion. This is not really a name but a description of what was going on internally in this man and the magnitude of the dark forces in his soul.

Legion was the term given for a battalion or squadron in the Roman army. It usually had 5,400 soldiers and 120 horsemen. This man was possessed by an army. 

But something huge happened to start this man’s healing, something that gives us hope for people no matter how messed up they are. It’s all in verse 6: “Seeing Jesus from a distance, he ran up and bowed down before him.”

A man with 5,400 demons still has the ability to get to Jesus. He is able to run to Him and bow before Him. No matter how much demonic control is going on, we can see that God doesn’t let the demons control a life who wants help and freedom.

Look what happens next. The Message says it like this:

Everyone wanted to see what had happened. They came up to Jesus and saw the madman sitting there wearing decent clothes and making sense, no longer a walking madhouse of a man. (Mark 5:14-15)

Why would Satan launch that kind of attack against this man?

He would be a mouthpiece of God.

If Satan does not stop this man, ten cities are about to be changed.

But Jesus said no. “Go home to your friends,” he told him, “and tell them what wonderful things God has done for you; and how merciful he has been.”

So the man started off to visit the Ten Towns of that region and began to tell everyone about the great things Jesus had done for him; and they were awestruck by his story. (Mark 5:19-20, TLB)

A. W. Tozer said, “I’m not afraid of the devil. The devil can handle me—he’s got judo I never heard of. But he can’t handle the One to whom I’m joined; he can’t handle the One to whom I’m united; he can’t handle the One [who lives in me].”

No one is unsavable. No one is unchangeable. No one is too far gone. No one has too many problems. Not with Jesus around! Even if they have 5,400 addictions, they can be freed because of Jesus, who can command that stronghold to flee.

If you know someone who is far from God, who is really messed up, who is so out there that you have no idea if they would ever come back to their senses, let this story put faith in you.

Day 32

Today’s Reading: Mark 4

I want to tell you two stories about storms, Jesus, and a bunch of guys (the twelve disciples) in a boat. Both storms had winds and fear. But their endings were different.

We encounter the first storm in today’s reading. Let’s read about it together:

On that day, when evening came, He said to them, “Let us go over to the other side.” Leaving the crowd, they took Him along with them in the boat, just as He was; and other boats were with Him. And there arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up. Jesus Himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” (Mark 4:35-41)

“Do you not care?” is a huge indictment on God’s character, and it plays into this “no faith” issue. So keep these two phrases in mind: Do You not care and Do you have no faith.

Let’s continue reading:

He got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Hush, be still.” And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm. And He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” They became very much afraid and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?” (Mark 4:39-41)

Their “no faith” was revealed in this statement, “Who is this man?”

Faith is connected to knowing who this Man is. Think of the important progression.

A storm arises, as it does in life, and fear comes—fear of tomorrow, fear of going to the doctor or waiting for a call from the doctor, fear of being single, fear of not being pregnant, fear of getting laid off. These are all called storms. If storms produce fear and distrust, then we have a faith issue. When storms drive us to fear, faith has been punctured and is leaking somewhere. 

This storm ends with a question mark. It ends with questioning Who

Faith is a journey, and that’s what these disciples were on. They ended their first Jesus boat ride with, “Who is this Man?” The question mark.

If storms produce fear, then we have a faith problem. And if we have a faith problem, then it’s a God issue. What does that mean?

Knowing God increases faith. Always remember that if you want faith to increase, find out more about the character of God. As someone once said, “Feed your faith and your fears will starve to death.”

Faith is based on who God is. That’s how you increase in faith. The disciples did not get an increase of faith from the last storm, just more questions.

Now let’s dip back into Matthew for our second storm story:

He made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side, while He sent the crowds away. After He had sent the crowds away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray; and when it was evening, He was there alone. But the boat was already a long distance from the land, battered by the waves; for the wind was contrary. And in the fourth watch of the night He came to them, walking on the sea. When the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.”

When they got into the boat, the wind stopped. And those who were in the boat worshiped Him, saying, “You are certainly God’s Son!” (Matthew 14:22-33)

They worshiped him. They recognized who Jesus was: “You are certainly God’s Son!”

Remember our first boat story ended with a question. This one still ended with worship.

If storms make me a better worshiper, then so be it. I would just rather do it with music on Sunday. But that does not always happen. God wants your and my tests to end with praise not questions.

Andráe Crouch put it this way: “If I’d never had a problem, I wouldn’t know God could solve them.”

There is a difference between praise and worship. Praise means telling others about how good God is; telling others what God has done. Worship means telling God Who He is. 

If you know Who He is then you can know what He can do. And no storm has enough power to stand up to that.

Day 31

Today’s Reading: Mark 3

When you want to know the definition of a word, you look in the one trusted place that settles all doubt—the dictionary. When you think of the dictionary, you think of one name—Webster. But do you know who this Webster is?

Noah Webster was a devout Christian. His word speller was grounded in Scripture, and his first lesson began, “Be not anxious for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor for your body, what ye shall put on; for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of these things.”

His 1828 American dictionary contained the greatest number of Biblical definitions given in any reference volume. Webster considered education “useless without the Bible.” He claimed to have learned twenty different languages in finding definitions for which a particular word was used. From the preface to the 1828 edition of Webster’s American Dictionary of the English language:

In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government ought to be instructed. No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people.

In fact, Noah Webster wrote the first paraphrase of the Bible called the common Bible in 1833. Webster molded the King James Version to correct grammar, replaced words that were no longer used, and did away with words and phrases that could be seen as offensive.

When you are looking up a word, read the whole definition. You may just stumble into something amazing about the what it means and where it came from.

That happened to me. Noah Webster redefined the word enthusiasm for me. Here is his second definition for the word: “belief in special revelations from the Holy Spirit.” The noun enthusiasm comes from the Greek word enthousiasmos, from enthous, meaning “possessed by a God, inspired.”

The famous 1828 version said: “special divine communications from the Supreme Being, or familiar intercourse with him.”

Special revelations from the Holy Spirit!

Seriously? That’s incredible.

That redefined enthusiasm for how I think about the word. I get enthusiastic to preach, to go to church, to be a dad and a husband. I get inspired by God and receive special communications from Him to do these things.

Redefinitions were needed when Jesus came to earth. Jesus went all Noah Webster from the outset of His ministry and brought an adjustment to a very important concept in today’s reading of Mark 3.

In Mark 3:32, a crowd was sitting around Him. They told Him, “Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are outside looking for You.”

Here are the words Jesus wanted to redefine: “Answering them, He said, “Who are My mother and my brothers?” Looking about at those who were sitting around Him, He said, “Behold My mother and My brothers!” (verses 33-34).

Here comes the redefinition: “For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother” (verse 35).

Did you see how He redefined terms?

“Who is My mother?” And, “Who is my brother?”

When Jesus came, He redefined things by putting them in their true light. He did that on the sermon on the mount when He redefined adultery. It’s not just in the bed but in the head (see Matthew 5:27-28).

Jesus asks these questions: Who is my real family? Who is related to me?

We hear all the time that blood is thicker than water. But Jesus took it even further by saying that spirit is thicker than blood.

Jesus redefined blood relationships for us. He said the ones whom we are closest to are not the ones who have the same father and mother but the ones who “do the will of God.”

Remember this important thing: whose definition really counts?

In Renaissance, Os Guinness wrote something that made me think redefinitions and how the crowd wants us to be stuck and not look up how Jesus defines something: “For the followers of Jesus, the voice of the people must never be taken as the voice of God.”

We live under the pressure that numbers (the crowd) are truth and they tell the truth and they make the truth. And so we give numbers and majority huge value. We are counting opinions instead of weighing them.

It tells you externals but never the heart of something. They can tell you what men spend on Valentine’s Day cards but never if he loves his wife as Christ loves the church.

They can tell you about church membership and frequency of attendance but never gauge those who are on fire in their love for God.

One hundred million tweets and “likes” still never add up to truth, wisdom, or what is right and good. The bandwagon is replacing the Bible—popularity rather than principle—horizontal pressure over vertical authority.

“Thus says the Lord” should always trump 51 percent. That’s something to get enthusiastic about. That’s something to redefine. That’s what Jesus did.

Day 30

Today’s Reading: Mark 2

I’ve never played poker in my life. I’m not saying that to sound righteous or religious, I’m just saying it. That being said, I had to google if four of a kind beat a full house. It does. That’s our story today.

I want to show you this concept in Mark 2 in which two things are competing. In one verse we find a full house and in another verse we find four of a kind. (And remember, four of a kind always beat a full house.)

When He had come back to Capernaum several days afterward, it was heard that He was at home. And many were gathered together, so that there was no longer room, not even near the door; and He was speaking the word to them. (Mark 2:1-2)

There is the full house. The full house didn’t do anything for a paralyzed man. The full house sat listening to Jesus but that did not fix the paralysis. The four of a kind was about to show up in verse 3. A paralyzed man did not need people just sitting there. He needed someone to get him to Jesus.

Mr. Rogers, an ordained minister and the famous host of one of the first shows for children on television back in the 1970s, once said, “When I was a child and my mother and I would read about such events in the newspapers or see them in newsreels, she used to tell me, ‘Always look for the helpers. There’s always someone who is trying to help.’”

I want to be one of the “helpers.” Don’t you? One of the four of a kind.

They came, bringing to Him a paralytic, carried by four men. Being unable to get to Him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above Him; and when they had dug an opening, they let down the pallet on which the paralytic was lying. And Jesus seeing their faith said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” (Mark 2:3-5)

Do you have friends who will get you to Jesus? If not, then you need new friends. They may be able to get you to a golf course, get you to a sports game, get you to a concert, or get you to a club or a bar. But do you have anyone who gets you to Jesus? These four got the sick man to Jesus.

There are times you are meant to bear another’s stretcher and not just sit and hear the Word. You must not only carry your Bible to church; at times, you may also need to carry your brother or sister to the Lord. Our problem here in Mark 2 is we have a full house but only four people who were carrying the stretcher. Not many left the full house to help another. How did they do it? When doors are shut, they went higher!

The four of a kind could not get through the door. So they had to take it up higher, literally, to the roof. There is a good principle we need to learn from the actions of these four men: when it seems like the door is shut, go higher.

Problems are surmountable from above. You can’t solve everything by walking through a door of a doctor’s office or a church. You have to take some things higher.

Going up higher means getting it to Jesus. It’s prayer! As Watchman Nee said, “Our prayers lay the track down on which God’s power can come. Like a mighty locomotive, His power is irresistible, but it cannot reach us without rails.”

These men didn’t quit when they saw the full house. They carried him to the roof, removed the shingles, and dug, and then they had to connect ropes to lower him down.

Jesus did not see roof busters, He saw their faith (verse 5). Always remember—when you go higher, you get more than you asked for.

That’s the twist in the story. They went through all this work to get a paralyzed man in front of Jesus and Jesus did not say, “Be healed!” or “Rise up and walk!” He said, “Your sins are forgiven.” Had I done all that work, His words would have taken the air out of me. I would have wanted my buddy to walk. I might have thought, I didn’t do all this for an inside work, but for an outside thing.

You can’t have Jesus for only what you want. If you want Jesus, you get all of Him. He is not some buffet line that you pick and choose and say, “I’ll take the Sermon on the Mount and healing when I am sick, but not the holiness and hell stuff. Tithing? Yuck. Love your neighbor. Okay, but only if they are lovable.”

Had Jesus just said, “Take up your pallet and walk,” everyone would have been happy. But it’s all or nothing with Jesus. That is why I don’t think He told the man to arise first but focused on forgiveness first.

I’m no gambler, but I’d take four of a kind over a full house—with all of Jesus—any day.

Day 29

Today’s Reading: Mark 1

Today’s reading showcases the cool way Jesus began His ministry. Who Jesus healed, what He healed, and where He healed it, makes this amazing. Take a look at this passage:

[The people] were amazed at [Jesus’] teaching; for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. Just then there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit; and he cried out, saying, “What business do we have with each other, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!” And Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be quiet, and come out of him!” Throwing him into convulsions, the unclean spirit cried out with a loud voice and came out of him. They were all amazed, so that they debated among themselves, saying, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him.” Immediately the news about Him spread everywhere into all the surrounding district of Galilee. (Mark 1:22-28)

First, a demon showed up in the synagogue. While Jesus was teaching, a demon tried to take center stage from Jesus. Verse 22 says when Jesus taught them, they were amazed. Then when the demon showed up, Jesus rebuked it and it came out of the man. And again “they were all amazed” (verse 27). These two words for amazed were different, though. The amazement the people felt over Jesus’ teaching was something like “blowing their minds.” They were in awe and wonder. But the second amazement the people felt was different—and Mark used a different word to convey it. That word adds something to the first. It adds the physical and the emotional aspect to it. The second word means to be in fear and trembling. 

When Jesus teaches us, we respond by shaking our heads in amazement. When Jesus heals and delivers us, we shake on the ground in fear and trembling awe. This was a huge miracle in the synagogue in front of non-followers, who were getting an introduction to the powerful ministry of the Son of God.

Then after the prayer to get rid of the demon, Jesus prayed again. I call it the fever prayer.

Now Simon’s mother-in-law was lying sick with a fever; and immediately they spoke to Jesus about her. And He came to her and raised her up, taking her by the hand, and the fever left her, and she waited on them. (Mark 1:30-31)

I love the phrase they spoke to Jesus about her. That’s really important. That is the best scriptural definition for “intercession.” It is a form of prayer that prays for others not for ourselves. What is intercession? It’s when we speak to Jesus about others. 

Quick side note—this kind of praying also heals the church of gossip. We don’t speak to other people about someone, we speak to Jesus about that person.  

This fever prayer is so encouraging. The demon prayer was in the church. The fever prayer was in the home. That’s where I need the most answers to prayer.  

I think Jesus was showing us something about Himself. Fever prayers are just as important to Him as demon prayers. I love what Paul says in Philippians about our prayers. “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything; tell God your needs, and don’t forget to thank him for his answers” (Philippians 4:6, TLB).

Pray about everything—demons and fevers. There’s nothing too small or insignificant to pray about. Too often we don’t want to take something to God, because we feel as though He would say, “Do you know how busy I am—and you’re asking for that?”

Here’s the truth: God tells us to pray about everything. God created us and He is interested in every aspect of our lives. He wants to know what’s on our minds. If it’s bothering us, He wants us to tell Him about it. 

Ask God today for big stuff and for little stuff. Pray for a scholarship to cover this year at university, pray for cancer to be healed, pray for that prodigal daughter to come back to Jesus. But it’s also okay to pray for no traffic, pray for the grocery store not to run out of a certain item, pray that an article of clothing is on sale. Pray demon prayers and pray fever prayers. And then be amazed!