From the Kitchen Table

Mark Day 22

And he cautioned them, saying, “Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.”

Mark 8:15

Be careful of what influences your life.  Watch out for the influence of rules and rulers on your heart.  Life isn’t found in rules and rulers but in the revelation of heaven on our hearts.  Jesus lived in the revelation of heaven.  He knew God and what God could and would do.  Jesus didn’t send the people away hungry because revelation allows us to live with a heavenly conscience and compassion.  Rules and rulers live in the rationalization of man.  If you don’t bring a lunch, you’re going to be hungry.  That’s the way it works; that’s reasonable.  Rules and Rulers exist to protect life as we know it.  Revelation comes for us to expect life as God wants it.  Let heaven influence the here and now.  Accept and agree with God’s word and not only will you know God, but you will also know what God can and will do.  Let God influence your thinking and living.  Rules and Rulers will only leave us unsatisfied and empty.  They can only try to protect what we already have here.  Revelation will give us the life we need to be filled and satisfied.  Revelation brings the influence of heaven into the here and now.  The disciples could not understand Jesus reference to bread.  They were tied to the rules and rulers of that day.  But they would get it, just like you and I can.  But it will mean believing in God’s word over man’s word.  Let God reveal to you the way life really works.

Mark Day 21

And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” Mark 7:34

Once again, the faith of a crowd brings the need of a man to the feet of Jesus.  There is a passion and compassion of faith that causes us to bring people to Jesus.  Love moves the heart and hands of God, but faith releases the power and glory of God on the earth.  Jesus works with our belief.  Even when Jesus heals this man, He speaks to him through sign language so that man can believe too.  Jesus spits on the ground and touches the man’s tongue and ears.  The man knows what Jesus is working on, now he can believe with Jesus and the crowd.  Jesus commands the man’s ears to be open completely and they are opened.  There is a healing and lesson here.  We cannot speak if we cannot hear.  The Bible says the man’s ears were opened and his tongue was loosed, and he could speak plainly.  It’s difficult to speak when we can’t hear.  The hope, help, and healing of God works through hearing God.  Faith comes by hearing…  Jesus was specific in healing people.  He didn’t speak to a general need but to a specific need.  The crowd had a specific request, heal our friend of deaf and mute situation.  That’s a good prayer for all of us.  Lord, heal our ears that we might speak of your glory.  We get faith by hearing but we see faith by speaking through our mouths and our lives.  Let your faith motivate your love and your language.

Mark Day 20

But she answered him, “Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” ²⁹ And he said to her, “For this statement you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.” ³⁰ And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone. Mark 7:28-30

There is power in the word of God for those who would believe.  Even a morsel contains the ingredients of the whole loaf and works for the glory of God.  Just believing in a morsel can become a miracle.  However, our part is to believe.  God can do anything He wants without us, but He chooses to de everything He wants through us.  Our part is to believe, and we can’t fake that.  God doesn’t hear us because of our actions but because of belief.  Belief is our part in this process.  Ephesians 3 tells us that He is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, according to the power at work within us. (Eph 3:20-21)  Here’s the thing.  We cannot fake the power of God within us.  That power is the person of the Holy Spirit and He is the Spirit of truth. (John 15:26)  We cannot pretend to be believers because it is not who we are but who He is and it’s not where we are but where He is that matters.  Don’t be a pretender, be a possessor or the presence of God.  He is our Savior and He is our Healer.

Mark Day 19

This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ Mark 7:6-7

Now we’ve come to the chapter on “pretending”.  This chapter is full of people who are “pretending” to know and love God.  Pretending doesn’t work.  Pretenders worry about the outside, not the inside.  It’s more about what they do than what they believe.  They fill their lives with robes and rules to convince the rest that they are good.  That’s what pretenders must do.  But there is no joy, peace, or love in this kind of life.  We don’t find love on the outside but on the inside.  We find it by having a real and personal relationship with God.  It is a relationship so real that we don’t have to fake it at all.  When we find the love of God in our own hearts we can live in the love of God with our own lives.  His love becomes our robe regardless of what we are wearing.  Now rules may have some benefits on the outside such as the hygiene of washing our hands and cups before we eat.  But it’s not rules that help on the inside, that requires a relationship with God personally.  And we can’t live off the faith of other believers, we must believe ourselves.  Pretenders do that; they pretend by hanging around people who don’t pretend.  We can’t pretend to know this life, we must possess this life personally by believing in Jesus for ourselves and letting Him rule in our heart, personally.

Mark Day 18

But immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” Mark 6:50

There was fear in the dark until there was faith in the boat.  That’s how it is.  And Jesus says, “Take heart, it is I.  Do not be afraid.”  Do you know what that statement means?  It means “Be cheerful” Jesus is here.  Once fear gets started it burns like a wildfire and is hard to stop.  If you want to conquer fear, be glad Jesus is here to get in the boat; it will change everything for everyone concerned.  Fear and faith both grow in a crowd or a group.  And fear, it we let it burn and grow, will make us fearful of the power of heaven as much as the peril of hell.  Be cheerful, Jesus is here.  The disciples who are operating from a boat on the lake in the dark during a storm making painful headway, and they are afraid of Jesus.  Jesus comes walking over the very thing threatening to take them under.  But it is hard to recognize Jesus when our hearts are full of fear.  Hear His voice, let Him into your boat and just be glad He is here.  Joy is a demonstration of faith.  It really is, there are so many things to be afraid of in this life but when we let Jesus get in the boat there can be the joyful peace and pleasure of faith.  We feel according to the way we think.  That happens personally and that happens in a crowd.  Take heart, be cheerful, Jesus is here.  Watch Him calm the storms of life.  There will be fear in this life until there is faith for this life.

Mark Day 17

And he said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” And when they had found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.”    Mark 6:38

God doesn’t need to know how much we have, but how many believe.  In Mark 6 there is an interesting thing that happens.  In Nazareth, Jesus marveled at their unbelief but when Jesus pulled His boat ashore and saw the many who had recognized Him and ran to Him, He performed the mighty work of God in their midst.  God doesn’t need to know how much we have or even how many there are who believe to show His love.  However, we do.  There is power to believe in a crowd of faith.  That’s why we need to be there.  The woman with an issued of blood worked her way through the crowd of faith to just touch the garment of Jesus.  Sometimes there is the existence of faith and then there are times where there is an environment of faith.  Where there is an environment of faith, the existence of faith is elevated.  It just happens.  In just a few short hours the disciples will find themselves trying to stay alive from a boat, on a lake, in the dark during a storm and they will be afraid.  Fear ruled the night until Jesus came walking over the very thing threatening to take them under.  When faith came, into the boat, faith ruled from the midst of the boat.  One thing the church is about is the creating of a crowd of faith where God can and will do mighty things.  Don’t isolate yourself.  Where there is a crowd of faith there is an environment for faith to work in the name of Jesus.

Mark Day 16

And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” Mark 6:11

God can do anything He wants without us, but He chooses to do everything He wills through us by faith. 

God works through faith.  Mark writes that Jesus could do no mighty works because of their unbelief in Nazareth.  They were offended by Jesus.  He was just a common person to them.  Their eyes focused on what they could see naturally rather than what they could not understand spiritually.  That happens.  Jesus tells His disciples to not stay where there is not belief.  The power and love of God manifests itself where there is faith in Him and His word.  The Bible says that power and unfailing love belong to God (Ps 62:11-12).   Believe!  Look at life according to what you hear God say.  That’s not unusual, most of use look at life according to what we have heard someone say.  God speaks life in love.  Who else or what else are you going to believe anyway?  The power and unfailing love of God comes through faith in Him.  Beware of those who live offended by God and what He says and does.  The favor of God flows through faith in God.  The only hope we have is in the power and unfailing love of God.  Believe!

Mark Day 15

But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.” Mark 5:36

Jesus hears what we say, so don’t try to fool Him.  It’s easy to speak fear when we realize our frailty.  We don’t have much control of disease and death, but He does.  Fear, however, rules where the tongue fails to speak belief.  Our enemy knows our vulnerability as well as we do and exploits those moments through the words and worries of others.  But God gives us the option to believe and we get to chose who and what we want to believe.  Do not fear, only believe.  Believe in Jesus, believe in God.  His plans and pleasure for us is good.  Get past the words, wailings and worries of fears’ supporting cast.  Jesus in is the room.  Believe in God and His pleasure and power for us.  Death isn’t our greatest enemy, denial is.  Receive His word and rest in His will for us.  Don’t even give in to the temptation to laugh with those who do not believe.  That kind of laughter is just a cover for the fear we fear.  Do not fear, only believe.  Believe is the only option God gives us to live within this life.  Take it, it’s the greatest option you and I will ever have in this world.

Mark Day 14

And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your disease.”

Mark 5:34

The only thing we “do” to receive God’s blessings, is believe.  The only thing that God cannot do is to believe for us.  Believing is our part in this great relationship with God.  In this story, Jesus is on a mission to save a young girl who is dying when this woman reaches out and touches Him.  Immediately she is healed.  Jesus didn’t even seem to know that the woman was there and seeking His touch.  But the moment faith reached out to touch Jesus, the power of God reached out and touched her.  There is a faith here that is revealed here in two ways.  First of all, there is the faith of the woman who reaches out to touch Jesus.  But then there is the faith of Jesus that is so real that it was released from Him without His permission.  That is what God can do through faith.  Remember, Jesus is showing us what the Christian life looks like.  Where there is “faith” there is the power of God to save and heal and deliver.  Where there is “faith” there are impossible possibilities that can happen without our permission.

Mark Day 13

And he did not permit him but said to him, “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.”

Mark 5:19

Our testimony about what God has done for us is one of the most profound things we can proclaim.  Every person who has come to God through Christ has a testimony.  Meeting Jesus is life-changing and if not I’m not sure you’ve met Jesus.  Just as Jesus delivered the Gerasene, Jesus delivers us from the tombs  and laws associated with sin.  The wages of sin is death.  Sin leaves us naked and ashamed.   Tombs and laws can’t control the person who is looking for love.  The enemy feeds off our loneliness and despair.  Tombs remind us of the death we’ve chosen, and laws remind us of our inability to find love and life.  The law doesn’t provide us with the love we seek, only the mercy of Jesus can help us.  When Jesus steps onto the scene everything changes and when we let Him step into our lives, He changes us.  It’s that miracle that we have to share.  We might not understand all that He is or all that He can do but we know this, He changed our lives and the direction of our lives with His great love.  No more visiting the tombstones of our bad decisions and broken relationships, we have a testimony for Jesus Himself.  Start there,  Go and tell how much the Lord has done for you.