Day 17- John The Responder

After studying the first section of Mark where it talks about John the Baptist I see a reoccurring theme throughout all of the gospels about him. The theme is that he was in a constant attitude of response. No figure in the Bible even Jesus is portrayed the same throughout the whole thing. But in every gospel he is described the same and that he is in a constant state of response. I almost think he should not be called John the Baptist but John the Responder. If you look at his entire life he is living in complete and unquestioning response. Isn't it interesting that John was supposed to be a priest, it was even in his lineage, but chose to do the will of the Father. If he wanted to live a comfortable life where he could do ministry in a city where all the people where there already, and the building had A/C and the best restaurants are there to take people out and witness to them...however he didn't choose that. He chose to respond to God and take a Nazirite vow for life, live in the desert, and preach something radical and new and eat locust and wild honey. Let alone his dress was questionable, and surroundings were not fit for a good ministry. But when we respond to the Holy Spirit we get more than what we can do or expect. We get something more than we planned or prepared for, and we are forced to rely on Him. We can think of it as a scary thing or we can think of it as living outside our means. We are able to think like we can't think, love like we can't love, see things like we can't see them. We take on the very characteristics of God because His Spirit is living inside of us! I want that so bad that I'm willing to give up that fear of the unknown and let Him take over the situation so I can live like I am unable to live and break out of my limited box that I seem to stay in. I want Him to shake up my everyday living and rock my traditions and patterns that I have slipped into. Let me become known as The Responder also!

Day 16- Personal Preference

Well as I have studied Mark 1:7 more and more I find out that since Jesus was responding to the Father's will and when He did that Jesus personal preference changed from His own to the Father's. I presented on a conference call today and as we were talking about changing our personal preference even when it comes to the matter of food. What would happen if I get so wrapped up in the Father that if He wants to take me to a restaurant that I don't like to go to I am still willing to go because He sends me there. I have to get to the point that I trust Him and His plans and that there is a purpose for me going there. Isn't it something when we begin to think like that, where something like where we eat could become a witnessing opportunity. Generally we think of witnessing as I have to get in the mindset of it and get ready with all the answers that people might ask, and probably have a scripture ready for them. Why can't I live in this all of the time, not in a attitude of defense, but in an attitude of response. Where I'm going where He's leading me and I'm not worried about it because He will give me the correct thing to say or scripture to present. When I take myself out of the equation and let Him take the reigns then it seems to work out perfect. But if I'm in the driver seat then I am bound for an accident! I want to get so wrapped up in Him that my personal preference changes to His. I want to have the mind of God, and to have my heart beat with His heart, to see and have the vision of Christ. That is my desire more than anything to respond to Him!

Day 15- The Spill You Won't Clean Up

As I begun to read on in Mark (I couldn't wait to keep reading) I was reading how Jesus cast out a demon. I found that very interesting because the demon realized that Jesus was the Son of God before the disciples did! But the fact that Jesus had this indisputable power over this demon gives me a sense of comfort. See I worship the God who has power over everything including any person, situation, demon, or Satan himself! We always have this idea of Satan being this red guy who has horns and a pitch fork with a tail. However I personally think that he is a very beautiful thing, and that we are often deceived because we are expecting the first image. When Jesus cast this demon out the demon knew from the beginning that there was no point in putting up a fight because it knew it would lose. I want that Jesus who is all powerful and everything living thing fears Him, to live inside of me. See when I do that I take upon that power, not by myself but the power He posses I now have because He is my source. Now when I say He's my source I don't mean source like I eat a hamburger and that gives me energy to do things, I mean that everything that I do, all the talents I posses, my drives, my emotions, EVERYTHING comes from Him. When that takes place that I am taking upon His motives, His passions, His desires, I begin to see His vision and see people like He sees them. I don't know if you have ever experienced that, but when the person of Christ comes upon you it is like no other! You will know without a doubt that He is a living source inside of you and you start to act outside of your normal conditions. See when He lives inside of you it is this filling and the more and more that you get into Him the more He fills you and it begins to out pour out of you that people can see a difference and it will be obvious. What a concept that we can get so filled with Jesus that every where we go we just spill Him on everyone and everybody we come in contact with. I mean wouldn't it be something to be so filled with Jesus that people have to wade through Jesus just to get to you! I want that to happen in my life, I have to have Jesus so fill me that the out pour of His Spirit is a natural and moment by moment thing. That it's not something I turn off when I go to bed, but I go to sleep and He's spilling out of me onto my wife. I wake up and He's spilling out of me onto my co-workers. I want Him so dominate in my life that other people begin to question my joy and want to have it themselves. Let it be so in my life, Spill Out Of Me JESUS!!

Day 14- Straight

As I study in Mark I found some pretty awesome stuff on preparing and making straight the way. The Greek word for prepare is to make ready, or to have things in order. So if there was a messenger then they would ride ahead make sure all the bridges are down, the land was flat, the gates were open before the king even arrived. He was sent to Prepare and make things as they should be for the king. I also got into the word Straight, it means to level something, or to make it not curvy. But the thing I really liked in that word is this: it has a sense of urgency. So when John the Baptist is out in the desert crying out for the people to come and repent it is not a thing where they can tomorrow if they want but whenever is fine kind of thing. NO, it's a you have to right now kind of thing, it's so urgent because we don't know when he'll be here. He didn't know when the king was coming but he knew that when He did it was going to be the greatest thing ever. He knew that when Jesus arrived on the spot that He not only wanted himself to be ready, but was so selfless that he wanted others to be ready as well. Since he was this way He didn't care about anything else so much so it transferred into his dining, and clothing. He was so focused on God and the preparation that needed to take place that nothing else mattered to him except that. He didn't care about what others thought of himself, but what they thought of Christ. I want that today so badly, that I lose sight of what others think of me and get lost in Him. I don't want to let little things like appearance and food get in my way of getting closer to Him, or leading others to Him. I want nothing more than the embrace of the Father and the calmness and peace that happens when the King arrives!

Day 13- Personal Preference

I have been in Mark for a little while now and I love how it can give me new truth even though I think it’s tapped out for one section. As I was studying Mark 1:7 I got stuck on the word “come”. It is a common word but in this verse has a lot of meaning! The verse is: And this was his message: “After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I struggled with this word because in the Greek it is in the middle voice or the passive deponent. You generally have the active voice (the boy hit the ball) or the passive voice (the ball hit the boy), however this one is different. I had to call John, Jeremiah, and Stephen to help with this but it was good stuff. The middle voice is the noun of the sentence doing something to itself. For instance, I wash myself or I feed myself. So it is a special interest that it taking place. So I began to try and put that into this context and figure out what John the Baptist was talking about, since this was Mark quoting him. I began to think of the knowledge that John the Baptist had of Jesus and the only thing I could think of was when he was in the womb and Elizabeth and Mary were hanging out and John sensed Jesus’ presence and leapt in his mother’s womb. So he had a general sense of Jesus even before birth, but how did he have that kind of knowledge of Jesus. Then it hit me, since John the Baptist was a messenger of, or and extension of, God then he had this knowledge of Jesus from the Father. So when I was thinking of the word come I was thinking that this would tell me the reason that Jesus would come, verse eight tells us some of it, but there was more. It was Jesus submitting to the Father’s will so God the Father led Jesus out to John. But just to be clear on this, it wasn’t a kicking and screaming thing like I used to do when I had to go and do homework. It wasn’t a huge sigh and head tilted back thing where Jesus said “What does he want now?” kind of thing. No this was a total willing thing that Jesus was responding to the Father and His will, not Jesus will. But this also gives the idea of personal preference so Jesus was led by the Father out there, but He also went out there on His own accord. He wanted to do this and chose to do this and by doing so had the Father’s vision because He was responding from before. Then the final part of why Jesus came out there is verse 8 that He will baptize with the Holy Spirit. So it’s almost an order that you can see here, response to the Father will cause you to see the same vision that He has to the point you have a personal preference to what He’s doing. Then once you do respond and have His vision to see what He sees you experience the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Wow, I want that so badly in my life. I want Him to lead me without me asking stupid questions of how or when or where. I want to follow blindly and completely trust in Him that He will not lead me into anything that will lead to death and destruction. Then after that I want to have the Vision of God to see the potential, the person, the image that He sees in a situation. Then finally I want to be so baptized in the Holy Spirit that it spills out of me to the point I become possessed and obviously His. Father make it so in my life today. I want to have your vision and personal preference and your Spirit so badly I leave my choice behind no matter what that may be.

Day 12- How Far We Fall

Have you known somebody that you knew as friend when you were kids, teens, or college age and was just an on fire Christian and now they are not? I know that when I was a teenager I went nuts when I was in college. I got caught up in drinking and drugs, and I look back and realize that I wanted this freedom and all of a sudden had total freedom. It was like I was trying to make up for lost time or something, I don't know. However I know that looking back on my life I was addicted to something other than Jesus. In high school it was sports and "going to church". I played sports so much it was insane! I wrapped my life around that and when I got to college I didn't play anything for the first two years or so and that addiction that I had before needed something else to fill the spot and drugs and alcohol were readily available. We seem sometimes to be so high up and then to fall so low, but are we ever really up that high in the first place or are we just "going to church"? Unless we are an "On Fire Christian" then we are not a Christian at all. I feel like I cannot say this enough and I get criticized for it but unless you're an Amen Amen, front row hand raiser, gotta have more of Jesus type then are you really saved or have you fallen from where you were? We don't like to question this in our life but unless you act like an addict (yes like a drug addict) for Jesus then you're missing it. He has to be our everything, our source, our answer, our salvation, HE JUST HAS TO! So if you know that friend or maybe you are that friend pray for a renewal in their life or in your own! Get that fire back, Jesus is always waiting to take you back and start raising that hand in the front row, being the Amen Amen Christian, that's exactly what He wants! Don't do it because you are putting on a show or trying to impress somebody, but do it rather because you're so in love with Jesus and you have no other choice but to do it! I want that today Jesus, I am addicted to you and I don't want anything else to come in the way of that. It is so important in my life that I'm addicted to you because if I'm not then I'm addicted to something else and not living my life for You! Mold me more and more, never let my cup run empty, always fill me, and feed me! I love you Jesus and I know you love us no matter How Far We Fall!