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Today’s Reading: Genesis 28-29; Mark 11

The eleventh chapter of the Gospel Mark starts with the “The Triumphant Entry” of Jesus into Jerusalem.  As Christians, we celebrate this event as Palm Sunday, a day which our humble king, Jesus, rode a donkey into Jerusalem.  Verse eight says the people of the city “spread their clothes on the road, and others cut down leafy branches from the trees and spread them on the road.”

The prophet Luke also wrote of this day in Luke 19:28-39, which he chronicles the event much like Mark did.  Neither prophet indicates how large the crowds were nor what the context for His entry was.  What we do know is many Jews returned to Jerusalem for Passover and the crowds in the city would have been much larger than usual.   One point of note, verse 39 in Luke 19 says “And some of the Pharisees called to Him from the crowd, ‘Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.’”  Even in the celebration of Jesus and the recognition of Him as a “king-like figure,” He had detractors that were “loud voices.” Wikipedia has a great illustration chronicling this event by four different prophets, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Just five short days later, Jesus was murdered by the Jewish leaders, in what we as Christians refer to as Good Friday.

How could a man go from being hailed and glorified on Sunday to being dead on Friday?

The Jewish leaders, who saw Jesus as a threat to their leadership and traditions, set out to get rid of Jesus.  The Sanhedrin, or Jewish leadership, commanded great respect holding and instilling the Jewish traditions.  They rebuked Jesus for claiming He was their King.  Unfortunately, their “loud voices” prevailed.

Even though five days earlier, hundreds, likely thousands, were hailing Jesus as their King.  I cannot help but think about all the miracles Jesus performed, the lives of people He had changed, and wonder where they were during Jesus’ “trial.”  Were they there to testify to Jesus’ power?  Did they speak up to defend their Savior for the good things He had done for them?

This leads me to reflect on who are the “loudest voices” in my life.  Who do I listen to, to formulate my opinions and beliefs?  How do I make decisions in my life?  Where do I derive my opinions on what is right and proper?  Do I reflect on what my parents taught me?  Do I turn to friends and family for their influence?  Do I listen to elected officials to influence my decisions?

I encourage us all to be cautious and guarded about who we turn to for advice and more importantly who influences our decisions.  Facebook, Instagram, and even the media are NOT objectives sources of information.  Influencers in our lives are building blocks and foundation of how we make decisions.  I encourage you to take a very close look and explore how you react to situations and who you rely on to help you make decisions.  Be cautious of those that try to influence you in ways that contradict the Gospel Jesus died for.  Be guarded of those that question your pursuit of faith-filled life because it may be subtly pulling you away from Jesus.

Even though the “masses” worshipped Jesus on a Sunday, a small few had him crucified on Friday.  Unfortunately, the “loudest voices,” even though they were few, influenced the death of the greatest man to ever walk this earth.

Be on guard against the “loudest voices.”

Today’s reading:  Genesis 24-25, Psalm 4, Mark 9

In my day job, I do a lot of work with third parties.  These are people who provide service to my organization, but are employed by a different company.  While the folks I work with are bound to uphold the contractual provisions to which we agree, third parties always have divided loyalty between the organization to which they are providing service (my company) and the organization with whom they are employed.

My teams’ day to day management of third parties involves a lot of metrics and data.  Some of which comes from the third parties themselves and some of which comes from my company.  We spend a lot of time evaluating whether data elements are useful (or not) for decision making.  Often times it comes down to the authoritative source of the data.  To be fit for decision making, data must be sourced from within the company , or when it comes from the third party, the data must be corroborated/validated with internal data.  Making decisions about third parties using data they provide is like letting the fox watch the hen house!

Our text for today begins with Mark’s account of the transfiguration.  This short passage reveals to us God’s perspective on the authoritative source for how to obtain salvation and spend eternity with God in heaven.  Let’s take a closer look.

Jesus took Peter, James and John with him up the mountain.  When they got up to a place where they were alone, Jesus transformed into a heavenly being.  Elijah and Moses also appeared.  As a devout Jew, Peter knew Elijah and Moses to be heroes of the faith, great leaders who God used to do significant work for his kingdom.  While he was a little tongue-tied, Peter wanted to show respect and offered to make shelters for all three of the heavenly beings – Jesus, Elijah and Moses.  Notice how God responds in verse 7.

Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!” (Mark 9:7).

In no uncertain terms, God affirmed the authority of Jesus, the name above all names, over Elijah and Moses.

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

Fortunately for us, we have Jesus’ teachings at our fingertips daily.  The Bible, the inspired work of God, can be our roadmap for daily living.  Thanks for embarking on our 2023 journey to read it cover to cover.  I promise we will all benefit from better knowing God’s word.

Today’s Reading: Genesis 16-18; Mark 6 

With the New Year just passing,  many people are trying to find themselves and trying to reinvent themselves with resolutions. The new year always brings about a transformation for our past-self to self that should be somewhat better, somewhat different, and somewhat improved. The one thing that we have to recognize is that we already are amazing individuals, but we sometimes do not have the ability to see for ourselves the goodness that God has put in us. Many times we are searching for a new app, a new diet, a new way of organizing; but these are already inside of us. We just have to understand and be able to tap into our own potential that God has placed it.

In our reading today from Genesis and Mark, we have several individuals who do not understand the full confidence in their abilities and try to make up for it in various ways. They are questioning their confidence in themselves and the promise of God.  

We first started with Sarai.  God has promised her that she would be fruitful in her womb and the mother of many nations. But she did not understand how to depend on God‘s timing for her and his promise. So Sarai doesn’t have the confidence in herself to produce the promise God has set for her. She decides to take matters into her own hands and bring her servant to assist her. She lacked confidence in herself to wait for fulfillment of God’s promise. How many times do we have a promise from God and we attempt to assist God in his fulfillment of our promises from him? 

Next, we have Abram. Abram had actually seen God.  He had seen him in the form of angels and humans. Abram had been in communication with God and was able to connect with God on a personal level. Abram had a relationship with God and had confidence in God, but not confidence in himself. Abram decided to “assist” God in his promised fulfillment as well. But this brought about unrest and division between his family. He didn’t feel confident in himself that God would be able to create a nation in a person who is more than seventy years old.  

Then we have Hagar.   She was a servant to Sarai.  She didn’t have any form of self awareness.  She was at the behest and order of Sarai.  But when Sarai chose her to be the bearer of the promised nation, Hagar became more confident in herself and started to move from her station to a bigger one.  She became embolden and this created a rift in the family.  

The lesson that we can gain from this passage is to be confident in the person that God has placed in us.  We have so much potential and internal worth that we sometimes forget and try to push it faster than God wants.  We have to be confident in God’s fulfillment of his promises and confident in the skills that are inside us.  

The second passage of today’s reading, Mark 6, dovetails so well with the confidence in one’s self and ability.  

• Christ gives us confidence in confronting our peers and past life and the ability to reach for higher heights.  This allows us to not be conformed to our past self and failures but open to the possibility of the future.  This confidence is seen when Jesus returns home to begin his ministry.   This doesn’t dissuade him in his ministry.  It actually propels Jesus into a more open ministry.
• Christ gives us confidence in being able to go out on our “own” and be able to perform miracles in his name as seen when he sent the disciples out on their mission.  
• Christ gives us confidence in his ability to provide for us out of ordinary and sometimes minimal resources form us as shown to us when he performs the miracle of feeding the five thousand. 
• Christ gives us confidence in the darkness and despair in the sea of life as seen with the disciples when we walked on water. 

Allow this week to be a week where you can recapture your confidence in yourself.  Allow God to show you a piece of your promise and know that he will be there with you. 

Today’s readings if you are following along with the Bible in one year plan are Genesis 9-11 and Mark 4.

Our focus here will be on Genesis 11:1-9.

“Then they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves’….”

Genesis 11:4

These words were said by the people of Babel which is estimated to be about six generations past Noah. How quickly they forgot what God had done for their ancestors to save them and how disappointed God was with the sin of those outside of Noah’s family.  And, how quickly they wanted to glorify themselves again. With one language for everyone they were gaining too much power and desiring to glorify themselves, so God mixed up their languages and dispersed them across the Earth.

We live in a world today where it’s all about making a name for yourself. Many forms of self-promotion are a necessary part of life to make a team, get into college, or get a job. However, there is a very fine line to walk and from there our world today has really caused self-promotion to get out of control through social media selfies and posts that say look at what I or my family accomplished or did. I am guilty of this as well.  We quickly forget like Noah’s ancestors that all we have and accomplish comes from God. James 1:17 tells us, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with who there is no variation or shadow due to change.”

I am not saying we should not post on social media what is going on in our business or family’s life. In fact, I thoroughly enjoy keeping up with what’s going on with friends and their family’s life. As a Christ follower though, I will personally commit to being more aware in 2023 of the example John the Baptist set. He said in John 3:30, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” Through all my actions and words, I want to keep in mind more how I can bring glory to God as a result of both the good and bad things that happen.

How different would this world look if all Christ followers lived out John’s mission to glorify God to help Him increase through all that happens and all we say and do?