Mark 6:56 - May 6, 2010

Mark 6:56 “And wherever he went-into villages, towns or countryside-they placed the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched him were healed.”

Hope is a powerful force! Jesus was the world’s greatest ambassador of hope. Jesus mission took Him from village to village, moving constantly throughout the regions where the Father sent Him to labor. Everywhere that He went, with Him came hope. With Him came the possibility for change.

When Jesus came into a region people would fill the marketplaces with the sick all who were hoping for a life changing encounter with Jesus. This passage is so alive with possibility because it highlights the fact that the ministry of Jesus was not reserved for the temple or the table! Jesus was in the town square. Jesus was in the marketplace working to bring the kingdom of God and its message of hope and redemption.

This passage is a reminder to the church that the real ministry of Jesus has to transcend the four walls of the local church. The kingdom of God is intended to permeate every facet of society with its life changing power! We must not confuse the meaning of Holiness! Yes, the kingdom of God is something holy. Yes, the power of God is holy. But holiness is not something reserved for a particular setting or activity. True holiness is an attitude of heart! True holiness is an outlook on life! It is a commitment to being set apart to God! This means that I bring an attitude of holiness into every aspect of life and influence the atmosphere wherever I am to become a God honoring atmosphere!

Jesus’ presence stirred the people to come out into the marketplace with a new sense of Hope and expectation that they could meet God in their everyday lives. They were given an understanding that they didn’t have to go into the temple and observe dead religious forms. They were given the message that Jesus is a personal God! Jesus introduced them to the same concept that He spoke of to the woman at the well when He told her that a time was coming when the nature of worship would be changed. It would no longer be about a certain temple or mountain. Now worship would be centered around the Spirit and truth! Every time that Jesus demonstrated the power of God in a non-conventional way, or in a non-traditional location He made God more accessible to the masses! He took them out from under the regulatory control of the hypocritical Pharisees and Sadducees. He brought them one step closer to freedom!

Mark 6:53-55 - May 5, 2010

Mark 6:53-55 “When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret and anchored there. 54 As soon as they got out of the boat, people recognized Jesus. 55 They ran throughout that whole region and carried the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was.”

“As soon as they got out of the boat, people recognized Jesus!” What happens when you get out of the boat? What is the impression that your presence leaves upon people!? Is there an attractive quality about you that causes Jesus to stand out? This passage though simple in nature is thought provoking in the abstract sense of its potential.

All of the disciples were there. They were traveling as a team. But it was not any one of them that drew the attention of the people. It was Jesus. The ones who served Him were not the focus and the draw of the crowds that gathered to this place by the Sea of Galilee. Many ministers draw a crowd by the power of the personality. Others make an impact through the strength of their intellect. However, neither of these carries the potential and hope that is present when it is the person of Jesus that is at the center of attention.

When the human heart is attracted to the person of Jesus there is a supernatural reaction that takes place! In Mark 6 as people recognized that it was really Jesus there amongst them they gathered the sick and the needy from far and wide to be placed before Jesus wherever they heard that He was.

The central message in this simple little passage is the reality that the presence of Jesus brings hope in a way that no other thing can. When the woman pressed through the crowds to touch Jesus, knowing that if she could touch Him she would be healed it was after she had already spent all that she had in years of being treated by doctors. She had suffered intensely and lost all that she possessed yet when Jesus came, with Him came hope! In the same way when Jesus comes to us today it is in the context of hope. When we have His presence people come. When His presence is exalted, not the gifts of a man or a ministry, lives are changed.

Our goal as servants of the Lord is not to do great things for God! Our mission is to be the habitation of God’s presence, the presence of Christ, so that He can draw people to Himself through us. Our task is to make sure that we are in the same boat that Jesus is in and that when the crowds begin to gather that it is Jesus that people see, not us.

Psalm 5:7-8 - May 2, 2010

Ps 5:7-8 “But I, by your great mercy, will come into your house; in reverence will I bow down toward your holy temple. 8 Lead me, O LORD, in your righteousness because of my enemies — make straight your way before me.” NIV

In his mercy God draws us. Jesus declares in John 6:44 "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him…” Without the Holy Spirit calling us we cannot come. This is reflected in the desires of your heart. The very fact that you desire God is evidence of his mercy touching your heart. This knowledge should produce an abundance of good fruit in the form of both thanksgiving and reverence as we understand that it is God’s mercy that has enabled us to come into his holy place.

A heart of reverence is a precious gift from God. The ability to appreciate God’s worth and to live in a genuine, healthy fear of the Lord is a precious treasure. This heart leads me into the presence of God with a right spirit so that I may come to God bringing him the praise that he is due from a heart that understands the difference between the weak life that I bring as an offering and the graciousness of a perfect, pure and powerful God who has chosen to welcome me into his presence.

From this place of reverence we can ask with certainty for the leading of the Lord into his perfect will. A heart in right order can expect God. We can be assured that he desires to direct our steps, deliver us from evil and lead us into his many great and precious promises. He desires to lead us in the straight-way. Too often it is our own heart condition that leaves us vulnerable to the enemy and causes us to fall into paths that are not straight but are distractions from the directions that God has for us.