The End of the Beginning

The very first verse in the Gospel According to Mark is "The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God." In my first blog post I commented that these words are more than an introduction to the book. They are a description of the entire work. The whole sixteen chapters describe the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ.

With this in mind, then, Chapter 16 marks the end of the beginning. And the beginning ends with an empty tomb. Mary Magdalene and her companions find the tomb empty and Jesus gone. A young man in a white robe tells them that Jesus is no longer there but is going ahead of them to Galilee. In other words, Jesus is "out there" somewhere. He is busy with the Father's work. He will not be contained, not even by the grave. What a glorious image!

If the beginning has ended, then the rest of the story is unfolding. Jesus is "out there" somewhere, and he is at work loving and healing and calling people to repentance, to forgiveness, and to true life. The good news is spreading. As C.S. Lewis says, it is like a good contagion - infecting a sick world. The Gospel is contagious, and when we catch it (and it catches us!), we discover we've been infected with real and lasting life.

And we are invited to be part of the unfolding story of grace.

I find this to be an incredibly hopeful thought. You and I are part of the rest of the story. Jesus is still at work. He is "out there" somewhere, and his Spirit is "in us." As he writes the rest of the story, you and I get to be a part of it. We carry the good news of Jesus forward into our circles of influence, and we discover that Jesus meets us there. He is already at work. As we join him in his work, we will be drawn deeper into the fullness of his love, the solidity of his joy, and the blessedness of his life.

And that is good news.

On Sin and Grace

In Mark 14, we see the natural outcomes of sin. Sin is rebellion against God. It is rebellion against God's authority. It is rebellion against God's ways. It is rebellion against God. And when sin is allowed to run unchecked, to act freely in its rebellion, sin will lead to an attempt to bind God's hands and silence God's words.

In Christ, God makes himself available to sinful human beings. There are no other kinds. And eventually as God is with us in Emmanuel, the full outcome of human sinfulness is revealed. People lay hands upon God, refusing to believe that he is God, perhaps uncaring that he might be God. In their rebellion against God, they are interested only in silencing an opposing voice of authority and rendering him impotent.

So Jesus is bound and blindfolded and beaten. And it is not exceptionally wicked people who undertake this act, but religious people - upstanding citizens of the community. These men could be anyone - and they represent everyone. They blindfold and beat Jesus, rejecting the authority of God in their lives, while at the same time demanding a sign of his power: "Prophecy!" they shout at him.

It is convicting to think of my own sin in the light of Mark 14. How often do I wish to blindfold God so he does not see what I am about to do or say? How often do I attempt to bind his hands in my life? How often would I, if I could only lay my hands on him, be willing to kill him to silence him forever? Mark 14 uncovers the depth of my own rebellion against God.

And it reveals the amazing depths of God's love for sinners like me. God made himself available to sinners - and he still does. God lived among them. God became reachable and vulnerable for our sake. And God willingly bore the outcome of our rebellion - allowing our rebellion to run its full course. He was bound and blindfold, beaten and bruised, pierced and murdered.

And he came back.

Not Far from the Kingdom

It is an intriguing phrase, isn't it? "You are not far from the kingdom of God." (12:34) Jesus says these words to one a scribe - an expert in the Jewish Law - a man who would have known the Old Testament Scriptures thoroughly. His trouble was not a lack of knowledge, though. His trouble was a matter of his heart. It was a matter of loyalty.

Imagine with me the events of Mark 12. It is a remarkable chapter in which all of Jesus' encounters except the last one (12:41 - 44) are with Jewish religious/political leaders (these two concepts not being divided in this period of Jewish life). At the heart of all of these encounters is a vision of God's greater authority in the world.

Despite the differences between the Sadducees and the Pharisees, they basically agreed in their focus - they were committed to the restoration and continuation of their nation. They were thorough-going nationalists even though their nation was occupied and controlled by the Roman Empire. Their disagreements, while often using theological language, were largely disagreements about the best method for bringing prosperity and independence to themselves and their people. The Pharisees focused more on religious observances - we might go so far as to say morality. If everyone would live rightly before God, God would bless the nation with salvation and independence. This was the motivation behind their stringent rule-keeping. The Sadducees, while not opposed to morality, were focused more on the proper function of the Temple - its sacrifices and offerings. They were also focused on the relational aspects of political life - interacting with the Roman authorities. Both of them were primarily interested in their nation. This was a political disagreement between the two groups - not over goals, but over means and methods, policies and procedures.

Jesus is speaking into the midst of these disagreements - and makes enemies of both sides. His message is not one of different methods to achieve nationalistic goals. His is a message that is bigger than a politically or geographically defined nation. He is preaching the authority, the power, and the blessing of God's Kingdom in the midst of the entire world. His interests are not bounded by national borders or citizenship or immigration. Those concepts were meaningless to the Kingdom he was proclaiming. The grace of God was tearing down the boundaries - including national and ethnic boundaries - that divide people. God's grace, God's favor, God's presence was for all people - no matter where they grew up or what language they spoke or who their father was. And this is why both the Sadducees and the Pharisees hated him. He wouldn't play their small-vision game. He would not compromise on the large vision of God's eternal kingdom.

And it is with this as a background that Jesus spoke those intriguing words to one of the scribes in Mark 12 - "You are not far from the Kingdom of God." These are words of hope, but they are also words of judgment. The scribe is not far from the Kingdom of God, but he has not gained entrance into yet. He is still an outsider, despite his deep knowledge of Scripture.

What has just transpired to evoke these words? Jesus has identified the greatest commandment as being two-fold: the love of God and the love of neighbor. The scribe has agreed. Jesus knows that if the scribe will simply follow those commands to their ultimate ends, he will find himself living according Kingdom principles. If he will love God by loving his neighbor - and not limit his definition of neighbor to people like himself - he will find himself loving Gentiles and Romans and barbarians. In short, he will find himself looking out for the best interests of all people - just as God does.

In light of today's headlines, I find this a profound challenge for the people of God. We are too easily tempted by the small vision of nationalism, and we too easily lose sight of the larger concerns of God - concerns that transcend national borders or national interests. Like the scribe, many of us know God's commands. But like the scribe, many of us, I fear, might hear Jesus' words today, "you are not far from the Kingdom of God." We are more interested in God's blessing for ourselves and our nation than we are for the best interests of all people. We may be great citizens of our own nation, but miss out on our citizenship in the Kingdom. We may love the authority of our nation more than the authority of God. 

But there is hope here too. "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. . . You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these."

The Hard Edge of Grace

Two things came together in mind this morning as I was reading Mark 10. First, I remembered the sermon from Sunday, and I was looking hard for the grace of God. Second, I encountered Jesus' grace toward the Rich Young Ruler in Mark 10:17-22.

We know grace is unmerited favor. It is God desiring and offering the very best for our lives - not because we deserve the very best, but because he loves us and wants it for us. Sometimes, though, we confuse grace with affirmation. We assume that grace is God accepting us just as we are. We further assume that because God accepts us just as we are, grace is some type of affirmation of our basic goodness or worthiness or acceptability. Why should we change if grace accepts us as we are?

But grace has never been affirmation. Grace always comes in spite of who we are and how good or bad our choices have been. Grace comes offering something better and demanding a transformation in us - a transformation empowered not solely by us but by the power of God at work within us.

And because God's grace will not settle for anything less than our very best, we soon find that it is uncompromising in its insistence that we abandon the old standards of life and embrace a new pattern. Such uncompromising insistence on change gives the grace of God a hard edge. It is not just a warm, fuzzy, satisfied feeling about life. Grace is relentless in its pressure for us to conform to the image of Christ.

The Rich Young Ruler of Mark 10 encountered this hard edge. By all accounts, he was a good man. He was rich. He was young. He was religious. He was faithful. He recognized the goodness of Jesus. But Jesus knew that unless he gave it up, there was one thing in his life that would always hold him back from the best version of himself that he could be - from being the version of himself that God intended. The Rich Young Ruler would always struggle with his possessions. They owned him more than he owned them. He could not let them go. He would not let them go. They gave his life definition and purpose.

And it was precisely to this part of his life that grace spoke most loudly. "Go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me." (Mark 10:21)

To no one else in the New Testament does Jesus give this exact call. When he invited Peter and Andrew and James and John, his call to them was not so restrictive. To Matthew, he simply said, "Follow Me." Zaccheus voluntarily offered to repay those whom he had defrauded, but Jesus did not ask him to sell everything he had. Instead, Jesus said, "Today salvation has come to this house." (Luke 19:9) Why is it different for this man? I believe it is because Jesus is not satisfied with half-measures. God wants the very best for us. That is the nature of his grace. So he offered the man the very best version of himself that he could be - a version uncontrolled by his possessions; a version capable of generosity and love; a version free from any control except the authority of God. But the man could not accept this grace. He turned his back on it. He did not want God's version of himself. He did not want grace. He wanted affirmation. He wanted God to bless his self-made version of himself. But that is not grace.

How often do we pray for grace, but in our hearts we are desiring affirmation? How often do we pray for God's will to be done, but in our hearts are actually asking that our will be done? Grace is bigger than us. Grace will not settle for half-loves and half-truths. Grace will give to us more than we can imagine, but it will be uncompromising in its insistence that we conform to the will and the way of Jesus Christ.

The Lord has Need of It

I was reading through Mark 9 to 12 this morning, and the episode at the beginning of Mark 11 caught my eye. Jesus is about to enter Jerusalem. He sends his disciples ahead of him to get a colt for him to ride on. He tells them that if anyone asks why they are taking this colt, they should reply, "The Lord has need of it." So the disciples do as Jesus asked, and they find the colt just as Jesus said. As they are untying it, some bystanders - the owners perhaps? - ask what they are doing. They reply as Jesus instructed them too, and the bystanders let them take the colt.

I thought about those bystanders. I thought about the unnamed owner of that colt. We know so little about them - not even their names. We don't know what they did for a living. We don't know if they were regular followers of Jesus or whether they were just mildly interested in the events of the day. We don't know whether they were well-liked in the community or people with a dubious reputation. We know nothing about them. They could have been anyone.

But whoever they were, the grace of God visited them in a particular way. And they were asked to participate in the work of God. They were not asked to get behind a microphone and share their testimony. They were not asked to sing. They were not asked to be part of a worship service. They were not even asked to come witness Jesus riding into Jerusalem. They were simply asked to share something they possessed. And the reason they were given for doing so was, "the Lord has need of it." You don't have to be a hero of the faith to contribute greatly to the work of God! The generosity of an unnamed, unknown donkey owner was a key piece of Jesus' Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem.

This makes me appreciate the quiet, behind-the-scenes working of God. How many people does he ask daily to share in his work? We may know nothing about them. He may be asking them to participate in unusual ways - not up front, not in the spotlight, not with their name on the program, but behind-the-scenes. Who knows who these people might be? It could be anyone.

It could be you.

It could be me.

We are asked to share something of our own for a purpose beyond our understanding. The reason he gives is, "the Lord has need of it," and our generosity may be the key contribution to some great event in the Kingdom of God.

What does the Lord need from you today?

Who Do You Say That I Am?

It is the essential question of the Gospel of Mark. I would argue that it is the essential question of life. Jesus asks, "Who do you say that I am?"

The warning of this part of Mark 8 is that even if we have "the right answer" we may still "get it wrong." Peter gave Jesus the correct title: "You are the Christ." (8:29) There is a certainty in Peter's declaration. He does not ask, "Are you the Christ?" and he does not say, "I think you are the Christ." He says, "You are the Christ." Peter is certain.

And Jesus does not tell him that he is wrong.

Peter has become convinced of a very profound truth. Jesus is not just a prophet. Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah. Jesus is the one who will save people from their sins and restore the presence of God among the people of God. This is big news! And Peter names it correctly.

But Peter immediately turns around and demonstrates that he really has no idea what it means for Jesus to be the Christ. After receiving Peter's declaration, Jesus explains what the Messiah's work will look like. Peter disagrees, and he tries to correct Jesus. "Get behind me, Satan," Jesus says to Peter. "You are not setting your mind on God's interests but mans's." (8:33)

It is a curious case of getting the right answer but getting the application of that answer wrong.

How often do we do the same thing? How often do we know the right answers about God, about Jesus, about the Holy Spirit, and about the church? And how often do we mess up the application? We speak of love and are unloving. We speak of forgiveness and harbor bitterness. We talk of justice but are only interested in it for ourselves.

Do not be overly proud of right answers, but strive for right action. It is in the action that our faith is seen. "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me." (8:34) Faith is in the following.

Prayerfully consider your answer to Jesus' question: Who do you say that I am?

And prayerfully consider what that answer looks like in the application to your life.

They Asked Jesus to Leave

If you are looking for a passage of Scripture on which to practice your devotional reading skills, the opening story of Mark 5 is a great passage. There is a lot going on. And, of course, there is Jesus.

So start with prayer. Ask God to give you wisdom and understanding as you read. Ask that your eyes and ears and heart would be open to hear and receive the voice of he Spirit.

Then read the account of Jesus and the Gerasene Demoniac. Imagine what it would have been like to witness those events firsthand.

If we read a little before this passage (context!), in Mark 4, we discover that Jesus and the disciples have had a long night as they crossed the Sea of Galilee. And they had a long day before that. They are tired. They are wet. They smell like the sea. They are probably glad to be getting out of the boat, and they are looking forward to breakfast and a little rest. Which of us can't appreciate the feeling of being emotionally and physically exhausted? That must have been how the disciples felt after the day and the night that they had. All they want is a little peace and quiet.

But what they get is a crazy man running out of the cemetery. This man would have assaulted their senses.  He would have assaulted the nose - I doubt hygiene was high on his priority list while he was living among the tombs and cutting himself with rocks. He would have assaulted the ears - he was loud, screaming day and night. He would have assaulted the eyes - Luke tells us he was naked, and Mark indicates a man who beat himself up. Imagine long, wild hair and an unkempt beard. Imagine fresh wounds where he has cut himself with stones. Imagine bad breath and body odor. This is the man who meets the tired disciples that morning on the beach.

But he does something truly unexpected. He falls at the feet of Jesus. He begins to beg Jesus to leave him alone. We might note two things here. First, the plea to be left alone is the plea of demonic forces - spiritual forces opposed to the will and the way of God. Second, these forces recognize the authority of Jesus, and they submit to him. That would have gotten the disciples' attention, I'm sure. And it should get ours.

A curious dialogue then ensues, and Jesus accepts the demon's suggestion that they be allowed to possess the nearby pigs rather than be sent into some spiritual limbo. The demons then leave the man, restoring him to a right mind. We might say that Jesus restores his humanity, which is a thought worth meditating on. The pigs fare poorly, though. Possessed by demonic forces who, by their nature, destroy and pervert the good things God has made, they immediately rush down the bank into the sea and destroy themselves. Where the man was being slowly destroyed by the demons, the pigs take the fast-track.

It is worth noting that a person is more important than pigs to Jesus.

The destruction of the pigs has enormous social consequences. These represent the livelihoods of numerous people and would have had an economic impact on many. Imagine being one of the town's citizens - perhaps on of the pig owners. Would you have considered that crazy man's life more important than your pigs?

Jesus did.

Well, news of the pigs demise spreads quickly through the community, and everybody comes to the beach to see it for themselves. They encounter Jesus, and sitting at Jesus' feet is the man once considered crazy. Now he is in his right mind. What a great image - in his right mind at the feet of Jesus!

As the crowd pieces the story together, though, they become afraid. For the second time in this story, Jesus is asked to leave someone alone. The entire community asks Jesus to leave. Can there be a sadder testimony than the one given in Mark 5:17? These people are not demon-possessed, but they echo the demonic wishes -- for Jesus to leave them alone.

Perhaps the cost of love and healing for one man was too high for them. Perhaps they feared that a man who would upset the economics of the community might do even more. Perhaps they didn't know how to respond or accept a man who had power over spiritual forces. Perhaps they didn't feel they could control him. Maybe it was some of all of these ideas. But for whatever reason, they begged him to leave their region.

And Jesus left.

It is a startling outcome after such a great act of grace. The people refused to welcome him. They asked him to leave. And he left.

Jesus clearly challenges people. His priorities and his power are different and awesome. As you walk away from this passage, ask yourself: How is he challenging me today?

He Has Done All Things Well

As we continue our slow reading of Mark today (chapters 5 to 8), our goal is to read all four chapters today and then one chapter each day for the next four days.

As I read all four chapters this morning, there were many things that caught my attention, but it was the last verse in Mark 7 that summed up the reading best, I thought. "He has done all things well." What a great testimony!

I am reminded of Genesis 1 where God "saw that it was good" after every act of creation. The new creation that Jesus is bringing into being is of no less quality or goodness. The work of Christ in us and in our world is good stuff!

"He has done all things well." This is a testimony to the quality of Jesus' work. Whether it was his teaching or his healing or his nature miracles or his power over demonic forces, he did all things well. No doubt, this applied to his carpentry and his compassion; his study and his service; his partying and his praying. He has done all things well - whether it was eating with sinners, raising the dead, or explaining the Scriptures. He has done all things well!

And he still does. The love he shows to us, the forgiveness he gives to us, the hope he sets in our hearts, the purpose he gives our lives - he does all things well. It is a testimony of his greatness that he does all things well. For this, I will be thankful this morning. In my prayer time, I will name my blessings and acknowledge with thanksgiving that he has done all things well.

And more than this, I will strive to follow his example. I pray for the desire to do all things well, and I pray for the equipping presence of the Holy Spirit so that I am enabled to do all things well. The old adage comes to mind: if a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing well. Jesus certainly modeled that. As his follower, I am inspired to do so as well.

How about you?

Meeting Jesus at Work

This morning as I was thinking about the call of Matthew (Levi) in Mark 2, the thought came to me, "He was at work." This hardly seems like a profound or life-changing insight, and it isn't as if I didn't know this already, but for some reason it became inescapably obvious. When Jesus called Matthew to be a disciple, Matthew was at work. He was at his office. He was sitting at his desk.

As I continued to think about this, I realized that several of Jesus' disciples were at work when the call of discipleship came. Peter and Andrew and James and John were working on their fishing boats (Mark 1:16-20). So at least five of the twelve named disciples encountered Jesus in a profoundly life-changing way while at work. We don't know the specifics of the calling to the others, with the exception of Nathaniel who came to Jesus at the invitation of Philip (John 1:43-51), but Philip encounters Jesus in the middle of the week.


The more I thought about this, the more I realized that at least half of these disciples came to Jesus, not in a synagogue service or at a Temple-sponsored event, but in the midst of their daily lives. There is a dose of conviction in this thought, for how often do we limit our expectations of God's activities to church moments? But church constitutes such a small percentage of our daily living. There are 168 hours in a week. If a person is at church four hours a week, that is 2.4% of the total time of the week. Our faith should be active and at work and applied for more than 2.4% of our lives! And the testimony of Scripture is clear - faith and grace aren't reserved for "religious times." Faith and grace plant themselves in the middle of our lives - work, family, and play. It is here that we really encounter God, and it is here that our faithfulness is most evident.

May God be evident in the middle of your daily life today!

How to Study the Bible: Devotionally

HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE: DEVOTIONALLY

PROVERBS 4:20 - 23

03 JUNE 2018

One of the more frequent questions that I have received over the years as a pastor is – how do I study the Bible? Sometimes it is phrased – how do I make sense of the Bible? or how can I understand the Bible better? or simply the admission: I struggle with understanding the Bible.

So in this month of June, I want us to take some time to explore this important question – how do we study the Bible?

Before we talk about how, it might help us to remember why we study the Bible.

Quite simply, we study the Bible because we believe it to be the inspired record of God’s revelation of Himself throughout history. This is God’s story – the eternal story. By his great grace, he inspired human beings to make a record of his saving actions. He inspired and instructed them to write it down. And he did so in order that his truth would be accessible to all people at all times. This is a marvelous gift he has given to us. It is a powerful gift, too. We need only think of the history of Western Civilization to see the power of God’s word, for the Reformation of Martin Luther and beyond was built upon the accessibility of God’s word to all people. When Johannes Guttenberg developed his printing press and then used it to print copies of the Bible, suddenly the Bible was available to more than just priests or monks. Other people got to see it and read it for themselves – and the change this wrought in the landscape of civilization continues to this day.

There is power in the Bible and in the ideas contained within it. Romans 1:16 tells us that the gospel is the very power of God for salvation. This book can change your life. It can change society. It has and it continues to change the world.

Unsurprisingly, not everyone appreciates this. At the end of April, GQ magazine identified the Bible as one of the 20 most irrelevant classic books not worth reading. Clearly the editors harbored some prejudice against the ideas they think are in the book, and they are extremely shortsighted in their history – failing to see how the ideas of this book, when unleashed, have given rise to democratic freedoms around the world, an appreciation for human rights, and an abiding sense of justice for all people no matter what their station in life.

What the editors of GQ may have discovered, however, is something you probably already know. The Bible, while accessible is not an easy book. Proverbs reminds us that first and foremost, it demands our attention. We must make some commitment to know it. We must be willing to lay down our social media and our sports and all of our amusements and busynesses and we must give it our attention.

Once we begin to give it our attention, several options for study open before us. Over the next month, we will look at several of those options, but no matter how in-depth you get in the study of the Bible, the essential step is this one. We must learn to study it devotionally.

What does that mean?

First and foremost, that means that we come to the Bible humbly.

There are many people in the world today who are considered biblical scholars, but they don’t really know the power of Scripture nor the God who inspired it. Some of these men and women are regulars on Television specials despite the fact that they fail to represent the orthodox positions of faith. I noticed recently that Bart Erhman is the instructor-of-choice for the Great Courses Series Bible courses – this despite his rejection of Jesus as Divine and his denial of the resurrection. Still, he is recognized as a Bible scholar by some. But he does not know it in the way that has changed the lives of millions and shaped the course of this world!

Why? Because he prefers to stand over God’s word – to break it apart, to put it together again, and to treat it as a thoroughly human book. He is not interested in God’s story.

If we would discover God and his power that lies behind these words, then the first step is to come to the book humbly. We come, treating it as God’s word to us.

Now this seemingly simple step is harder than you think.

It is harder first of all because we often come to Bible wanting it to answer questions for us about our own lives and our situations. We treat it as if it were a self-help book that was going to provide us some options for how live and how to act. We come assuming that our lives are generally good and worthy of affirmation – that our identities are firmly fixed in our family, our community, our activities – we come needing a little pick-me-up – another bit of advice to help us out.

This is not coming to the Bible humbly. This is coming to Bible as if it were simply one course among many that we can choose from in the cafeteria of life. Like going to Luby’s, we can choose this entrée or that entrée – this salad or that salad. Most of us have already chosen the entrees of life – the standards of success that will guide us. We aren’t looking for the entrée. We’re looking for a side item. The world has offered us several – what does the Bible offer? Is it more attractive? More sensible? Will it fit our tastes? Will it help us out?

These are not the questions of humility. These are the questions of pride. We want to use the Bible when it is convenient and easy. We don’t want to put ourselves under it or the authority of God.

And this, more than anything else, keeps us from really understanding this book.

If we are looking for easy answers, this is not an easy answer kind of book. If you are looking for bumper sticker quotes to help live your life by – this is not that kind of book.

And that’s why we so often struggle with it. It is why so many often walk away disappointed, frustrated, and calling it irrelevant.

If we would know it, and the God behind it, and the love and the power and the life it leads us to, then we must first come to it in humility. We come as students, not teachers; we come as learners, not masters; we come as starving beggars who can’t be choosers rather than cafeteria shoppers.

Key to this is understanding that this is not, first and foremost, our story. This is God’s story. We may come to share in it by God’s grace – but this is not just a self-help moral guide to an already fine life. This is a book about a new identity – wholly new – so new it is like being born again. And until we are willing to come to this place in our lives – to let go of the old, to let go of what we know and think we know, to let go of our own stories and the stories the world is telling us – until we are ready to let go of all of those things and receive a new and fresh story, a new identity, a new life – then the power behind this book will always elude us.

But if we come humbly, the book will change our lives.

The Gideon International group has long recognized the power of God’s word. It is why they work hard to place copies of the Bible in motel rooms and hospitals – to give them to students and to distribute them in foreign countries. They have, over the years, collected many, many stories of lives changed simply by reading God’s word. What is often unsaid in these stories – but what makes all the difference – is that those whose lives were profoundly changed by the Bible were people who were humbly seeking for help – for something that would make life worthwhile. They were ready to give up what was behind them and to embrace and be embraced by something new.

The man in the hotel room contemplating suicide who picks up the Bible and reads about a God who loved him so much that he gave his only begotten Son for him is a man at the end of his rope – not standing over Scripture, not looking for a quick fix, but looking for deep answers – he discovers the power behind these words.

The one in prison who gets a copy of the Bible – whose realizes that life is falling apart around them – who thinks back and wonders, how did I come to this? I never wanted this life – this person picks up the Bible and reads about hope and forgiveness. And they discover the power of the gospel contained in this book but now at work to change them.

This is the same power that is available to all people who will humble themselves and come to this book as seekers after the new life. Give attention to it says the writer of Proverbs. Incline your ear. Listen, really listen. Keep your focus on it. And keep them in the midst of your heart.

In other words, know it. Know what is in here. How can we hope for change, how can we hope for life to grow in us, how can we hope for the power of the gospel to overshadow us if we don’t really know the basic story?

Let me suggest a few steps to help you. Start with the Gospel of Mark – the shortest of the gospel stories. Read 4 chapters a week. So this week, read chapters 1 to 4. Read all four chapters the first day. Then read one chapter a day for the next four days. So day 1 – read Mark 1 to 4; Day 2 – read Mark 1; Day 3 – read Mark 2; and so forth. It is a slow reading. It is designed to slow you down and help you know the story.

And as you read, do so prayerfully. Ask – Lord, show me what you want me to know. Then look and listen – incline your ear and keep your eyes open. What jumps out at you? Is it a word? A verse? An action? Is it something you need to do or stop doing? Is it a prayer you need to pray? Is it a question you need answered?

Whatever it is – write it down. Ask God to help you understand it – and to apply it to your life.

As you read, do so imaginatively. What was it like to be there? See in your mind’s eye the dustiness of Judea. Feel the coolness of Jordan River. Taste the saltiness of the Dead Sea. Feel the heat of an afternoon sun, or imagine the darkness of the nights without electric street lights. Smell the fish in the fishing boats. Stand with Peter, sit with John, listen to Jesus as if you were there.

Know the facts of the story – but also know the feel the story. Let it soak into you – into your heart and into your mind.

And here is what will happen – as you take Scripture into your life, as you give sustained attention to it, God will bring it back to you during the week. Something someone says – something you do – something you read about or hear – it will come alongside Scripture and click – you will see things in a new way, you will understand things from a new perspective. You will be changed.

This is the power of the devotional reading. We humble ourselves as a first step. We come seeking, we come hungry, we come thirsty, we come looking and listening, we come to God’s story and get drawn into it.

This is the foundation from which all other true study of God’s word flows. Enter into it this week. Take up the first four chapters of the Gospel of Mark – and get to know them – and then mark how God speaks to you this week.

Slow Reading in Mark

This past Sunday, I talked about the importance of a "slow reading" of Scripture - reading the Bible devotionally and humbly. I challenged the church to read the Gospel of Mark this month at the pace of four chapters per week. The plan was this: on day one, read all four chapters; on day two, read chapter one; on day three, read chapter two; on day four, read chapter three; on day five, read chapter four. Five days. Four chapters. Slow reading.

I also challenged the church to watch for things that "glimmered" as they read. What jumped out at you? What caught your attention? Was it some word? Some phrase? Some action? Was it a prayer to pray? A sin to confess? A service to perform? Was it some question that needed answering? Or was it some truth about life you had never seen before? I suggested that you write it down when you saw it. Then you could pray about it and think about how God might be speaking into your life.

As I was thinking about writing down my own observations, it occurred to me that I could write the occasional blog post about my own readings. Perhaps (I thought) others could benefit from my own reading, or at the very least, I would be providing a model for how to read Scripture devotionally.

So welcome to Reading with the Pastor! This week, I'm reading in the Gospel of Mark, chapters one to four. I hope that you are reading along also, and I trust you are doing so prayerfully and humbly and expectantly. I pray God speaks to you this week as you read.

The first thing that jumped out to me in the Gospel of Mark was not something new, but something I had noticed a long time ago. It continues to seem important to me. Mark begins with these words: "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ. . ."

Gospel, as you probably know, means "good news." So this is the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ. In fact, the whole thing must be understood as good news. If we lose sight of its goodness, we've probably gotten off track. Good news is what this is about.

And Mark says that what he is writing is "the beginning of the good news." These words apply not only to the events of the first chapter, but to the entirety of the gospel. Everything in it - from Jesus' baptism, to the miracles, to the cross, to the resurrection - everything in it is just the beginning of the good news. And if this is just the beginning, then there must be more to come. I like this thought. If this is just the beginning, then the story hasn't ended with the last chapter. If this is just the beginning, then the story is still being written. We are in the middle of it. We have the opportunity to be a part of the unfolding of God's good news through Jesus. That excites me!

I hope it excites you too!