Great to What?

Have you ever had something great happen only to be followed by something that totally bummed you out? This morning in our teen study we looked at one of those instances. In Mark chapter 8 right after 2 really cool miracles by Jesus, He is hanging with just the disciples and he has a quiet moment with them. He asks, "who do people say I am?" The disciples give some of the thoughts that are out there, then Jesus looks them in the eye and point blank asks, "who do YOU think I am?"

Enter Peter. The quick answer, "You are the Messiah!" Great answer! This showed great faith! Way to go Peter! A spiritual breakthrough with a great statement of faith! Way to go Peter!

Immediately following this, Jesus lets them in on what will happen to Him with his death and resurrection. Peter doesn't like the news because in his mind the Messiah was going to set up an earthly kingdom and Peter would hopefully be ruling alongside Jesus. So Pete pulls Jesus aside and tries to rebuke Jesus. "I don't think you should be saying things like that, Jesus. It's not good." So Jesus looks at all of the disciples and then back at Peter. "Get behind me, Satan! You're looking at things from your perspective and not God's."

Ouch! Uh...deflation. Peter was just on this huge high, and now he is being called the enemy of Satan! Why? Because even though Peter had faith in Jesus, he was still operating on what he wanted Jesus to be and do, rather than go along with what the will of God was which was the salvation of man. And while Jesus wasn't specifically saying Peter was posessed by Satan, He was relating Peter's actions to what Satan tries to do...prevent the will of God.

I know today was long, but think about this thought. Did you make any decisions today that stood in the way of the will of God? Did any of your actions prevent someone from coming to know Jesus? I know there are too many days that I'm guilty too. It's easy to blame Peter, but we deserve some blame too. I want to have the great proclomations of Peter, not the poor decisions of standing in the way of Jesus. How about you? Which side would you rather be on?

Have a great day!

Ron Foster

Um, gross!

I was reading in Mark chapter 8 today, and there is a short, little passage thrown inbetween two big passages. They are the verses 22 to 26. The progression that has happened leading up to this is that Jesus has yet again fed a large crowd (at least 4,000 men) with little food (7 loaves and a few small fish). The faith of the disciples is challenged then and later on the boat as Jesus reminded them that He can meet any need.

So now they get off the boat, a blind man is brought to Jesus and the people that bring him are begging Jesus to heal him. Jesus, for his own reasons, decides to not allow the crowd to be around for this, so He leads him by the hand out of town. Get this...Jesus faces the man AND SPITS ON HIS EYES! Can you picture that! Jesus probably grabbed his head, leaned back to get some trajectory and spit at the dude's eyes! Jesus then asks him if he can see anything. First of all, do you think that Jesus didn't really know whether the man could see or not? Just a thought. Then, the man says he can see, but it's blurry, and he sees men, but they are like trees walking around. So Jesus puts his hands over his eyes and tells him to look again, and this time he could see everything clearly.

So why this story? It's obvious that this all happened for a reason, but what's the point? Why have this man see, but not very clearly, and then have him try again and this time see everything clearly?

It reminds me of how when we are exposed to the truth of God's Word, it starts to come to light for us, but it doesn't all quite make sense and we can't fully understand what God wants us to know. That is until we are fully accepting of what God wants for us and we give our life to Him and it is at that point that we can see Him clearly. I think God wanted to show us that it is only through our giving our life to Him fully that we can truly have life, that we can truly see life for what it truly is!

So let me ask you, does life just seem to be a little distorted to you? Are you living life through some darkened blurred lenses? My question now would be have you fully surrendered to Jesus? It is only through our full choice of Jesus that we can see life for the way it is. I don't know about you, but I would rather know the truth of life rather then see the lies that Satan tries to pull over my eyes. How about you? Your move.

Have a great day!

Ron Foster