Mark 12 - Baiting Jesus

The summer of 2000 I worked my first summer missions camp in the inner cities of West Palm Beach, FL. It was a summer youth camp where students would come from all over the US to do missions. Every week day I would take a group of teenagers into the rough neighborhoods of WPB, and we would conduct sports camps and share the Gospel. I would do this for about 10 weeks in the summer. I remember my first day like it was yesterday.

I had met with the lady that was over the Weed and Seed program there in WPB, and she stated that there would be no more than 20 kids (ranging anywhere from 7 to 13 years old) coming to this camp, so I began preparing games and fun activities for 20 kids. I had it all mapped out in my head, and when the teenage campers showed up week 1, I was "ready". I had this amazing sports camp planned that I thought was going to revolutionize how the church was going to reach out to the children of the inner city. I was so excited to bring this plan to these 20 kids.

Monday came and we loaded up our van and headed to the park where this camp was going to be held. We passed by this park on our way, but I made the driver of the van keep going, because that couldn't be our camp there were WAY to many kids to be ours. After circling the park several times I finally figured out this WAS the park we were suppose to be at.

When I got out of the van I was amazed at how many children had shown up. There was at least 120 kids, a far cry from the 20 that was promised. I pulled my team together and told them what we planned would go on as scheduled. We wouldn't let the numbers change anything.

Our life changing plan was to break the children into groups and play fun games with each group. At the end of every activity we would share a Bible story with them, and then rotate the groups. At that time it sounded like a great plan. Boy was I wrong.

As soon as I blew the whistle for the children to get into groups all H-E- double hockey sticks broke out. I broke up fight after fight. I had an 8 year old call me every name in the book. I had a 10 year girl cursing so bad that it would make a sailor blush. I had kids biting my campers and adult chaperons. I had kids hitting each other with the handles of the foam boppers we had brought. Kids where screaming, kids where everywhere, and I felt helpless!!!!

When I looked around it was like that moment in the movies when the bad guys are winning, and it goes to that slow motion effect to make it more dramatic, I felt like Satan was winning and everything was in slow motion. I had only been at the park for an hour and I was ready to pack my bags and get back to Louisiana, and then, God broke me. He drew my mind to this chapter, and He said to me, "John, love me and love these children". To say that was a turning point in my faith is a major understatement. In that moment I finally got it!!

You see every since I had given my life to Christ I thought I did an awesome job of loving God and loving people, but in that moment God was breaking me, I realized I had only loved people that were easy to love. The great commandment is so easy to live out when you surround yourself with people like you and people that are easy to love. I finally knew what Jesus was saying in this text when He said love God and love people!!

I had never experienced the inner city culture before, and my cookie cutter world didn't fit their world. Once I figured out how to love these kids God sent revival to that area. Kids came to know Christ on a daily basis, and in the end God got all the glory. That summer I saw the inner city kids learn to love God so much that they began leading the campers who came to the camp to Christ.

If you really want to know how that Great commandment really plays out in your life, learn to love people that seem unlovable, and watch how God will radically change their lives but also yours!

John

Mark 11: Opposition Heats Up

As I read of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, a detail in the story puzzles me.  Who are these guys who own the donkey’s colt Jesus rides into the city?  Where did they come from and what’s really happening here?  Why loan their livestock to strangers?

Is it like Obi Wan Kenobi playing a Jedi mind trick on the storm troopers to keep Luke out of trouble?  Early in the original Star Wars film just before the Cantina scene, Imperial storm troopers are hunting down two droids, C3PO and R2D2.  They surround Luke and Obi Wan – who are in possession of these very droids – demanding to see some identification, when Obi Wan steps in with some impressive powers.

Obi Wan to storm trooper in charge: You don't need to see his identification.

Storm trooper in charge to his men: We don’t need to see his identification.

Obi Wan to storm trooper in charge: These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.

Storm trooper in charge to his men: These aren’t the droids we’re looking for.

Obi Wan to storm trooper in charge: He (Luke) can go about his business.

Storm trooper in charge to Luke: You can go about your business.

Obi Wan to storm trooper in charge: Move along.

Storm trooper in charge to Luke: Move along.

So was Jesus pulling an “Obi Wan,” telepathically controlling the donkey owners, compelling them to unwittingly volunteer their animal for Jesus’ use?  A similar thing happens a few days later with the upper room where Jesus and his disciples shared the Passover meal (Mark 14:12-15). 

Cool as Obi Wan’s powers are, I think something far more exciting was going on here and even now, 2000 years later, it gives me pause at certain times – maybe when I’m tempted to rush to judgment about someone whose path has crossed mine.  I think Jesus had followers his followers didn’t know anything about.  Not everyone who loved Jesus was cheering on the roadside as he made his way into Jerusalem that day.  I think Jesus had followers his followers didn’t know about. 

I think he still does.

- Paul Abbott

Mark 10 – Servant Leadership

In the summer of 1989, the Smith kids contracted the chicken pox.  Besides affording a week-long visit from itchy, plague-like spots which we were told must not be scratched at any cost, the highly contagious virus also required quarantining.  To keep from spreading the virus, we had to stay home and keep away from other kids—except those who had already endured the virus.  This group was now immune.

Thankfully for us, our cousin Lori was among the latter group.  And so she had come up from Virginia for the week to keep us all company at Camp Chicken Pox.  As a recent camp graduate herself, her presence was a welcomed breath of fresh air.  Together, we filled our days with all manner of games and outdoor antics, laughing and delighting in our cousin’s endless diversions.

But what we all knew was that our cousin had her own need for diversions.  This week had been a difficult one for her as well, but from very different circumstances.  Her parents’ marriage had been strained for the last year, and now her dad had decided to walk away from the family.  He wanted a divorce.

We were all aware of this, but were unsure what—if anything—to say to Lori about the subject.  None of us said a word about it until one day later in the week.

We were out exploring the woods when the topic of her parents’ divorce came up for the first time.  Some specifics from our conversation that day have blurred in my memory, but the feelings that accompanied them remain vivid, though difficult to articulate.

“So, is he still your dad?” one of us asked as we walked along.

“Oh, he’ll always be my dad.” Lori’s reply was quick, and in a way comforting, though the sense of loss between her words did not pass by unfelt.

It was as if some unknown, grown-up heaviness had descended from the trees overhead, alighting for a moment on our young shoulders as we walked.  The conversation continued, our words unfamiliar and weighty, out of place after a week of carefree laughter and make-believe play.  It seemed this was a subject from another world, a distant, grown-up world we didn’t understand; and would we ever?

Divorce.  God hates it (Micah 2:16), but He allows it for our sakes in certain conditions.  Like a tourniquet applied to a severed limb, sometimes this extreme maneuver is necessary to preserve what is left from further harm.  And so we cast no stones here; the weight is heavy enough.  But we remember this: like small children struggling to carry a subject too heavy for them, divorce is a burden we were never intended to bear.  But given over to the hands of a loving God, this too can be carried, even redeemed.

“A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows,
        is God in his holy dwelling.” – Psalm 68:5

Reuben Smith

Luke 10 - Mission Improbable

Here is a little treat for all of you who follow our blog. We had a great time making it and we hope you get a big laugh at our expense. Please click the link and enjoy!!

Mark 9: Slow Learners

In this chapter, we find Jesus repeating important lessons for his first followers – important lessons regarding faith, greatness, and the seriousness of sin. They had heard him speak about all of this stuff before, but they just did not get it (gives us hope, doesn’t it?). So Jesus takes another run at helping them understand.

One verse grabbed my attention this time through this chapter. Read it below, and try to visualize the scene in your mind’s eye.

“As soon as all the people saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed

with wonder and ran to greet him.” (Mark 9:15)

Can you imagine what this scene must have looked like in real time? Can you read the emotion on their faces… can you hear the excitement in their voices… can you feel the sense of wonder that seems to be drawing them irresistibly towards Jesus?

I love the simplicity of this verse. ALL the people saw Jesus. Just seeing him (think about that!) caused feelings of tremendous awe and astonishment to well up inside of them. How else could they respond? They ran to greet him, to be with him, to be near him.

When was the last time you really looked at Jesus? When was the last time that you felt an overwhelming sense of wonder in response to who he is and what he has done for you? When was the last time you ran towards him, just to be in his company?

My prayer for you (and me) today is a simple one: may God grant us the grace to see Jesus more clearly, to love him more dearly, and to follow him more nearly.

Ken Jackson

Mark 8 - Turning Point

Jesus offers quite an invitation in verses 34-37, yet it seems that not many people took him up on his offer. Perhaps it was the conditions attached to that invitation or that it was just easier to follow when it was convenient and entertaining. Free lunch. Healings. Miracles. When the weather was nice or the walk wasn’t too far. It seems much easier to follow Jesus then, doesn’t it?

We can easily make excuses about why it’s so difficult to follow Jesus now, to be fully committed to him. There’s so much more demanding my attention. Life is just different in our world today then back in Jesus’ day. Yet some things remain. The call is very much the same. You want to be a disciple? Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow him!

There is still a price to pay. The things in our lives that have true value also come with a high price. The same is true of being a disciple of Jesus Christ. What will it cost you? What areas of your life do you need to change? What do you need to do to be more like Christ?

“When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.” -Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship.

-Gina G.

John 10 - No Secrets

At one of my darkest hours I prayed that God reveal to me all my short comings. I was asking God to help me fix my fence that was allowing the enemy to come into my life and steal, kill, and destroy. When I was finally honest with God, He was honest me. He put a magnifying glass on all the sins that kept giving the enemy a foothold in my life.

This chapter Jesus tells the crowd and Pharisee's He is the prophesy fulfilled in the Old Testament and He is the Messiah. Jesus is brutally honest with the Pharisee's and the crowd that is following Him. His honesty nearly gets Him stoned and arrested, but that doesn't stop Him from looking at the crowd and the Pharisee's and telling them like it is.

When God revealed to me my sins that were keeping me from fixing my spiritual walk it was not an easy journey. Honestly I was actually in denial for a little while. I couldn't believe that I had any issues in my life, but eventually God's light shone so bright on my sin that I had to make changes.

When Christ made His claims some of the crowd became enraged. Hearing that a this carpenter's son was the Messiah made them want to arrest and kill Him. Eventually Jesus' claims did get Him killed, but that death leads to salvation.

Hearing what God has to say to you sometimes can be very difficult to swallow, but if you allow His light to shine on your life you will find freedom.

John