 Jesus spends quite a bit of time teaching us that we should not worry. For me, worry seems to be a fact of life. I worry about if I worry too much! The reason I worry is I want a life of easy with very little suffering. I want to fulfill my dreams and I want to be liked by everyone! This is in complete conflict with the life of a Christ follower. I might do better if I started worrying about those things and started worrying less about my twisted ideas of God’s provincial care over my life.
-Pastor Doug
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 The focus of the Good Samaritan is on the commandment Jesus gave to love your neighbor and to explain through the parable who your neighbor is. Who is your neighbor? A true neighbor is one who is willing to look past the differences that traditionally divide us and to love unconditionally and without prejudice. So how are you doing?
-Pastor Doug  In Christian circles, it seems the conversion is always the main goal and though this is a good goal, it is not always lived out properly. Because churches want to sell Christianity, they preach easy messages of health and wealth or emphasize grace in contrast with nothing. The problem is that the life of a Christian is anything but easy…it’s hard and may cost you everything that is important to you. Job lost his family and suffered. Stephen was stoned for proclaiming Christ. John the Baptist lost his head for serving God exactly like God called him to. There is a cost for following Jesus, but to preach that would mean less money in the offering plates and isn’t that what it’s really about?
-Pastor Doug  The sinful woman who anointed Jesus’ feet with the “one year’s wage” perfume, is a powerful story. The woman is in the room because uninvited guests were regularly allowed to stand on the sidelines and listen to the conversations of influential guests. The problem is this is a sinful woman and her sinfulness (probably prostitution) disgraces the room. Sometimes I feel like the outsider listening in on what God is up to. It is in those moments I need to remember that God will accept me, just the way I am.
-Pastor Doug  One of the great distinctions about Jesus and other Rabbis or teachers of religious law is that he offered forgiveness. This became a point of contention for those that wanted to silence Jesus and squelch his influence. Jesus is God and only God can forgive. God willingly forgave people and that forgiveness is still as relevant today as it was then, We all need forgiveness today and thank God it’s here in Jesus.
-Pastor Doug  Angels are interesting parts of God’s creation that we know very little about. There are a lot of thoughts about angels and the way we think of them is based more on fiction than biblical certainty. For instance, cherubim are not chubby little babies with wings, they were powerful and frightening to look at (see picture above). Here in the early chapters of Luke, we see an angel named Gabriel. Gabriel is one of only two angels that are mentioned by name, the other one is Michael. Gabriel had the job of explaining the vision of 70 weeks concerning the coming of the messiah back in Daniel 9:24-27 and now he as the job of announcing the birth of that Messiah!
-Pastor Doug  The shorter and longer endings in Mark are troublesome. They are hard for people to understand because the truth can make them question more than the issue in Mark. If you will remember a few days back, I said that the shortest manuscripts are the most accurate. That is because over time, people add to them. This is not to add more story or false events, but people add to commentate and help explain passages. At some point, we lose what was commentary and what was original to the writer.
In Mark, the ending was originally part of the best and shortest manuscripts but since then, we have found even older ones and they don’t have the ending at all. The shorter the better. But because this rattles so many people, they keep it in there with a footnote but truth be told we should ditch the last verses. -Pastor Doug  When Peter denies Jesus it should make us gasp. Peter was the one who was always so confident. He was the one who always took a stand. He had the strength and personality to take on all of Rome with a dagger! But when Jesus needed him the most, he clammed up. I find there are times I feel uncomfortable being a follower of Jesus. I am ashamed at those moments and wish I could just overcome them. In some small way, I know how Peter felt that terrible night.
-Pastor Doug  The widows offering is one of the most touching stories in Mark. The woman actually gave all she had. She gave up her security for God. She gave up her judgment, by giving to a corrupt priesthood. She gave up all of herself…and Jesus noticed.
I like to give out of my surplus and not so much out of what I think I need. My definition of need is probably 99% want anyway. I need to take steps to move closer to being like this widow. What great faith! -Pastor Doug  It’s a short three verses but I’ve always like the story of the fig tree that did not have fruit on it when Jesus wanted a snack, and the tree wasn’t even supposed to have fruit during that time of year! On the surface it seems like Jesus is abusing his power a bit, as if he is irritated that the tree didn’t satisfy him so he just cursed it so it would never produce again.
Mark isn’t trying to tell his audience that Jesus was angered at not having figs to eat — this would be very strange, given that he would have known that it was far too early in the year for that. Instead, Jesus is making a larger point about Jewish religious traditions. Specifically: it was not the time for Jewish leaders to “bear fruit,” and therefore they would be cursed by God never to bear any fruit ever again. Thus, instead of merely cursing and killing a lowly fig tree, Jesus is saying that Judaism itself is cursed and will die off — “dry up at the roots,” as a later passage explains when the disciples see the tree the next day. -Pastor Doug |
AboutThis blog was originally written by Pastor Doug Bartel of Hillcrest Church, starting in Spring 2009. Keep that in mind if you read anything that doesn't quite add up to the time of year. Archives
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