Nov. 1, 2009 - Live Your Faith

This Sunday we will be moving into a new book of the Bible and it is one of my favorites! The book of James. I love James because it is so practical and easy to understand. But be forewarned, that doesn't mean it's easy to live out! We will begin this week's lesson by looking at James 1:19 - 25

James 1:19 - 25 - 19 My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20 for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. 21 Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. 22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it--he will be blessed in what he does.

Wow, see what I mean?

Be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.

Get rid of all moral filth.

Humbly accept the word planted in you.

Do not merely listen to the word....do what it says.

James doesn't mince words. He tells it like it is. And it's great stuff! On top of the fact that this is the way that I like to have conversations (kind of a guy thing I think - just get to the point) it's also cool because the author is none other than Jesus' brother! James got to watch the life of the Messiah behind closed doors 24/7. He lived with Him, might've shared a bed with Him, probably got in some good wrestling matches with Him and played practical jokes on Him. James knew Christ intimately as a half-brother. And after watching His life and learning what life should really be about, he gives us instructions.

James is not for the faint-of-heart or for those who feel good about their spiritual state simply because they attend church. This is a book that will pierce your heart and test your inner motives. I'm ready to dive in...are you?

Oct. 25 Lesson, Part 3 - Mar 15:37-39; 16:1, 5-7

It's hard to imagine God Himself, coming to Earth from a place of perfection and allowing Himself to be ridiculed, hated, and killed. It's painful to think about people laughing at Him and spitting on Him and punching Him. But He loved us so much and He knew the only way to rescue us was to lay down His own perfect life as a sacrifice for our sin.

One of the awesome things about this first passage is that it says, "But Jesus let out a loud cry and breathed His last." As we study the method of crucifixion and how it works, we come to recognize that the main reason people died was asphyxiation. They didn't die from wounds, rather they died a very slow and unimaginably painful, agonizing death. It was created to be a long, dragged out process so they would die miserably. But they died from not having the strength to continue to lift up their bodies to take another breath. HOWEVER, Jesus let out a loud cry just before He breathed His last breath. What does this mean? He died in strength. He died voluntarily. And as the Scripture says, "When the centurion, who was standing opposite Him, saw the way He breathed His last, he said, 'This man was God's Son!' " The centurion, who had witnessed hundreds of crucifixions saw the way Jesus went out and was.....AMAZED.

This same passage also describes something incredible that happened as Jesus breathed His last, the veil in the temple that separated the Holy of Holies (which represented God's presence) was torn in half FROM TOP TO BOTTOM. Through Jesus, we now have direct access to God, He is our only mediator! How amazing - how unlike any other religion's beliefs. A loving, sacrificial, personal, gracious God who didn't wait on us to fix things (not that we could have) but rather acted first, giving His own life for us.

As amazing as the sacrificial death of Jesus was, it means nothing without the next passage that explains His resurrection. Neither death nor sin could overpower God, He is in control and through Jesus Christ, He has freed us from the fear of death. When we turn away from our sin and put our faith and hope in Jesus we are forgiven of all sin and reconciled to our perfect God. We too can experience eternal life and the freedom of sin through faith in Him - there is no greater gift than this.

Oct. 25 Lesson, Part 2 - Mark 15:12-15, 32

(Click on link to the right to view this Scripture passage)

In today's passage, we read the story of Pilate asking the crowd what he should do with Jesus and then the people mocking Jesus as He hung on the cross.

It's interesting that Pilate saw nothing wrong with Jesus, but the Jews (Jesus' own people) wanted Him killed. It's so easy for a mob mentality to come about. A few of the leading Jews stirred up the crowd and before long they were chanting "Crucify Him, Crucify Him!" Yet these same people walked among Jesus during His time on Earth. They heard Him teach, and as we have noted throughout the book of Mark, were constantly amazed by Him. They also saw Him perform miracles and heal many people, but instead of letting Him go, they wanted to let a known murderer go (Barabbas).

Jesus was alone.

His disciples had fled. His own people were shouting for His death. And soon, on the cross, His Father in Heaven would turn briefly aside and Jesus took on Himself the sin of humanity. It hurts to be alone.

I talked with an individual just yesterday who is alone in life right now. Facing a difficult situation and bearing the load of responsibilities by themselves. I longed for this person to know what it's like to have a Christian community to rally behind them. So often in the midst of the busyness of life or perhaps little squabbles or differences of opinion with others we forget how awesome it is to have a spiritual family. Ashley and I have been overwhelmingly blessed throughout our relationship by the body of Christ. They have blessed us with wedding gifts, baby showers, house warming, help in the midst of sickness or death, the list goes on... I'm not sure how people without a church family make it through life without this blessing.

But even in the midst of a wonderful community we can and must sometimes be (or feel) alone. Sometimes we need to be reminded of our dependency on God alone. Humans will fail, but the Lord is Almighty and always with us. What a great comfort in time of need. And we can always remember that our Lord knows what it's like to be alone - as we are reminded of this awful time in Jesus' life where He stood alone so that we would never have to.

Oct. 25 Lesson, Part 1 - Mark 15:1-5

If you want to look up this passage before you read this blog, just click on the link to the right (below) for either YouVersion.com or Crosswalk and you can go to this passage...

We pick up in this passage where we left off in Life Group this past week. Jesus had just been arrested in the middle of the night by a group of guys who had come after him with weapons and at a time of day when no one else would know. Peter tried to fight back, but Jesus rebuked him, put the guard's ear back on and questioned the mob about why they had come after him in the night bearing weapons when they could've arrested him any day over the course of the past two weeks as he taught openly in broad daylight. We talked about how Peter had good intentions, he wanted to stand up for his friend and teacher, but in the midst of this chaos, Peter forgot what Jesus had been teaching him. Jesus' teaching was about peace and turning the other cheek - sometimes in the midst of our good intentions, we do what we think is right but forget to think through Jesus' commands.

Somebody in class this past week brought up a good question that has to do with today's passage. "Why didn't Jesus just come out and say that He was the King of the Jews, the Messiah? It seems like He should've spoken up." We discussed what we see in Mark 15:1-5 in that Jesus did what was most wise. Pilate asked Him if He was the "King of the Jews" and Jesus answered, "You have said it." Jesus recognized that if He were to proclaim Himself as King of the Jews, it would've been recognized as treason, as if He were trying to take over the kingdom in which He lived. But Jesus was taking over the spiritual kingdom, not the political one. So Jesus was wise to not proclaim this Himself, yet when Pilate said it Jesus was not shy about saying "YES! What you have said is right!!!"

As the passage goes on, Pilate wonders why Jesus isnt' defending Himself from all of these charges (which is what most of us would do). But once again, Jesus is in complete control and knows what He's doing. He knows that He came to Earth for this very reason and beyond that His arguments wouldn't help the situation, so He remains silent. I wish I were wise enough to remain silent more often.

The passage ends with Pilate amazed. This is the twelfth time we see someone amazed at Jesus in the book of Mark. He was no ordinary man to say the least. If only we (I) were more often amazed with Him perhaps we (I) would live more extraordinarily (like Him) and others would be amazed with Him still (through watching us).

Considering getting back to it

Well, after an absence of about two years, I am considering blogging again. Perhaps I'll start once the new year rolls around? We'll see...