Do you fast? If so, why? How? To what end?
Fred’s sermon last Sunday turned my thoughts to fasting; Michael Oh’s talk at the Desiring God Pastors Conference, “Missions as…
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How do you prepare for corporate worship?
God gave the Israelites extensive regulations regarding how they were to prepare for tabernacle or temple worship; someone who was unprepared was unclean (see the first sermon on Acts 10). Living a normal life in this world could lead to uncleanness; explicit acts of sin were not necessarily involved.
Mark 7, Acts 10, and other passages make clear that the specific cleanliness regulations God gave the Israelites are not binding on Christians today. But those same passages make clear that the picture they provide of the need to prepare ourselves for worship still holds.
So we too must prepare ourselves for worship. How?
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Do you listen? How is your hearing?
Jesus thinks listening is vital: He says, "Whoever has ears to hear had better listen!" (Mark 4:9 NET).
Most of us have the physical equipment to hear. And yet so often we fail to listen.
Listening is never easy, is it? All of us are so easily distracted – even in church. For example, when someone gets up during a service, perhaps to go to the bathroom, at least one-third of the eyes in the sanctuary follow the person out the door – making sure, I suppose, that the person doesn't fall down.
Sometimes we listen, but don’t really hear. This was the case with Ezekiel. God tells His prophet that to the people of Israel:
you are nothing more than one who sings love songs with a beautiful voice and plays an instrument well, for they hear your words but do not put them into practice. (Ezekiel 33:32 NIV)
Ezekiel had become an attraction, an amusement. And note that the people responded to his preaching! They expressed devotion, but their actions belied their words. So Ezekiel was to them a performer, a maestro, fun to listen to but having no impact on their lives. They responded aesthetically – but they did not really hear him.
In Mark 4, Jesus emphasizes again and again the importance of truly hearing Him.
- Verse 3: His first word to the crowds is, "Listen!"
- Verse 9: "He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"
- Verse 23: "If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear!"
- Verse 24: "Consider carefully what you hear!"
- Verse 33: "Jesus spoke the word to them, [literally] as much as they could hear."
In this chapter, He relates the parable of the farmer who sows seed on the path, on rocky ground, among thorns, and on good soil. The seed on the path is eaten by birds; the seed on the rocky soil and among the thorns initially springs up, but dies; the seed on good soil bears a hundredfold more seed.
We frequently understand this parable as referring to evangelism: the evangelist spreads the word; some people never respond; some people appear to respond, yet fall away eventually; others respond and bear fruit. That interpretation states an important truth.
But in context in Mark, I believe it preferable to think of the different grounds as yourself at different times. Ask yourself: How am I responding to the word I hear right now? What barriers prevent me from hearing the word and putting it into practice?
We all want to be like that good soil, multiplying the seed of the word, bearing fruit, giving to others God’s love and life. What does this parable teach us about overcoming barriers to hearing – so that we might be that good soil?
[President-elect Obama has asked Pastor Rick Warren to pray at his inauguration. Dan Phillips at the pyromaniacs blog asked several well-known pastors and theologians to let him know if they…
(This is an excerpt from Charles Spurgeon's sermon on Isaiah 7:14-15, "The Birth of Christ," preached December 24, 1854. I read this excerpt at our Christmas Eve service. You can…
(For a version of this devotion that is easier to print, follow this link.)
Child of the stable's secret birth The Lord by right of the lords of earth Let angels sing of a king newborn The world is weaving a crown of thorn A crown of thorn for that infant head Cradled soft in a manger bed.
Eyes that shine in the lantern's ray; A face so small in its nest of hay - Face of a child who is born to scan The world of men through the eyes of man: And from that face in the final day Heaven and earth shall flee away.
By Timothy Dudley Smith, © Hope Publishing Company, 1983
At Christmas, we celebrate the birth of Jesus. Since we all love babies, it is easy for us to love the Baby Jesus. He is cute. He is fat. He is cuddly.
But babies don‘t start out cute and cuddly. And Jesus, indeed, was a real human baby, born in the normal human way: Mary began to have contractions; her water broke; she felt overwhelmed by the process going on inside her body; her back hurt; there was pain and effort and sweat and pushing and stretching and burning – and then, finally, amazingly, this new little creature came forth from her body: a new creature covered with mucous and amniotic fluid and blood and vernix – hair (if any) plastered to his head; that head possibly misshapen from hours of pushing, his skin bluish in color until the first breath, and first cry. Mary gave birth – and the baby, Jesus, came into this world just as you and I, through His mother’s strong efforts: bloody, slippery – and yet beautiful.
As you see pictures this season of a clean and comfortable Baby Jesus, remember His humanity. Jesus was a baby who soiled himself, spit up, cried when He was hungry; He was completely dependent upon his parents for meeting His every need. He could do nothing for himself. With His little hands, he grasped fingers held out to Him. He couldn’t communicate at first except by crying. He took months to learn to crawl, and more months to learn to walk, and to speak. Jesus was a normal, lovable human baby.
But Jesus did not remain lovable to many.