Mark 11
Now when they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples 2 and said to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately as you enter it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it. 3 If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord has need of it and will send it back here immediately.’”
4 And they went away and found a colt tied at a door outside in the street, and they untied it. 5 And some of those standing there said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” 6 And they told them what Jesus had said, and they let them go.
7 And they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it, and he sat on it.
8 And many spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. 9 And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! 10 Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!”
11 And he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple. And when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.
12 On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry.
13 And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. 14 And he said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it.
15 And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 16 And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. 17 And he was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” 18 And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching. 19 And when evening came they went out of the city.
20 As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots.
21 And Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.”
22 And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God.
23 Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
25 And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”
27 And they came again to Jerusalem. And as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to him, 28 and they said to him, “By what authority are you doing these things, or who gave you this authority to do them?”
29 Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one question; answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. 30 Was the baptism of John from heaven or from man? Answer me.”
31 And they discussed it with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ 32 But shall we say, ‘From man’?”—they were afraid of the people, for they all held that John really was a prophet. 33 So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.”
And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”
We've all been put on a path. And as most paths, we are all in different aspects of the journey. Some of the Larger Cities are struggling with high numbers of the virus. Particularly where smoking is more part of life. Or where vaping has been prevalent.
Some counties have seen no one with the virus - in smaller counties. Seeing grocery stores being in need of stocking new groceries is just merely something on television.
Scripture explains other Scripture with highest ability. If we were to do this for Mark 11 - we could point out this:
Why do we do what we do in Life?
To be able to say the Lord has need of us, is to find our lives have Meaning.
Human beings will have their needs change as life progresses. What we call meaningful won't always have meaning for the relationship. Parents, children, marital needs. To find we please God is going to center us in all stages of peace, problem or as life changes. Even when we have to decide God's Word gives us Faith to believe our daily lives have meaning.
Upward.
Give The Lord God Almighty our cloak over the dust and muck.
The only thing we can give God, God has not first given us is - genuine and sincere Thanks. Jesus tells us permanent prayer conversation.
To ask for More Heaven. To give us This Very Day. To meet the needs of Today. Forgiveness. Protection. Being eternally delivered. Finding God would give us today a glimpse of His Kingdom. To see today - His Power. To know His Glory. God has an uplifting journey in His Plan.
Find other Helpers finding/seeking/enjoying/renewing/reminding us and seeing and celebrating Good in God's gifts. Seeing the Spirit of God in one another. Finding the Light of Jesus Christ in mankind.
Jesus Discusses us and Hunger and Fruitfulness
When Communication is 60% non-verbal, let's remember, Jesus pleased, no Jesus actually Thrilled Nathaniel in John 1 to find Jesus saw Nathaniel praying under a fig tree.
Currently, most of us are in a storm. We are hungering for the usual, regular pattern of life, we hunger for safety. We hunger for crowds, we hunger for gathering, we hunger not to be watching the news at home. We hunger not to worry. We hunger for our regular life. We hunger for schools, for safety, for family. We hunger not to be lonely and isolated.
Jesus was talking about praying against: fruitlessness or Lack. Lack of ~ Love, Joy, Peace, Comfort, calm to find patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness. Jesus is never toast dunked in milk. Jesus is angry to find the fig promises, shade, rest, comfort, beauty, sharing, eating and renewal. Jesus does not say, gosh the fig tree is out of figs, golly. Jesus isn't saying forgive the figgie tree.
When Jesus is talking about not finding figs - He is talking about financial crisis. Health Crisis as life seemed golden. Finding a circle of friends has gone sour. He is talking about having life interrupted with news reports of life Crisis.
Jesus gave us a parallel to the 'Fig Tree'. Of Course!
The parallel is a Crisis Parallel.
This particular Crisis Parallel - is for a specific people:
- those of us who have ever ho trusted in ourselves
- those of us who trust we are righteous,
- and those who have treated others with contempt
The "Author-it-Tay" has decreed 'everybody' shouldn't give God a thought and cared nothing for other people.
And then the underprivileged, the overlooked, the powerless, the loser person, the suck it up - it is what it is - decided to keep coming back and talking about the 'situation.'
Because of the impudence and persistence, The "Author-it-Tay" is starting to wonder about this 'decree'. The "Author-it-Tay" is feeling bothered. And has decided for comfort. In fact, The "Author-it-Tay" has decided for selfish comfort. (Are we surprised?)
And surprise of surprises, Jesus tells us we think of Father God exactly this way! Exactly, as if we are going to strip down to the fact Jesus sees us exactly as we really know we are. CS Lewis called this Concept, "Podfoot".
Oh! You better be nice, you better be good, Santa God has seen you as you are!!! He sees you when you're sleeping. He knows when you're awake. Oh! You better watch out, you better not cry. You better not pout, I'm telling you why - Santa Claus is not coming to town. However, Father God likes you as you are.
Picture real emotion in this:
Luke 18
18 And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. 2 He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. 3 And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ 4 For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” 6 And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. 7 And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? 8 I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
9 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt.
Paul completely understood. Paul understood:
Romans 7:15-20
15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
John, the Longest Living Disciple said this: Pray. Spit it out to God.
1 John 3
19 By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; 20 for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.
21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; 22 and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. 24 Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him.
And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.
Whew. God sees and discusses our heart - yes - no and has given us the Highest Privilege to find God knows who we are and Loves us.
Jesus Christ:
1 John 4:19
We love because he first loved us
Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God.
Jesus is Way, Truly Creator of all Life and ahead of us when we pray.
Matthew 20
A great crowd followed him.
30 And behold,
there were two blind men sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!” 31 The crowd rebuked them, telling them to be silent, but they cried out all the more, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!”
32 And stopping, Jesus called them and said, “What do you want me to do for you?”
33 They said to him, “Lord, let our eyes be opened.”
34 And Jesus in pity touched their eyes, and immediately they recovered their sight and followed him.
Jesus did not ask them to say Vouchsafe. Jesus did not ask them to say, "Creator of All, Dear Sir." In fact, what these men had was Desire. Faith. Courage. Earnestness. Sincerity. The prayer was really pretty straight forward. One thing, Jesus did not ask these men to assume Jesus didn't require a few words of explanation. And these men did what Mark's Gospel in Chapter 11 said, "Jesus has the Authority to do what we ask Him."
In Proverbs 8, Jesus delights in the Master Workmanship of His Father. Yes. Jesus knew Acts 2, God was going to share what God has with Jesus. And Jesus lives within Acts 2, Jesus is going to Give what He has to the blind men.
Hear, O Israel. The Lord Your God is One. The Word of God Stands Forever.
Abba,
You have given us Jesus. Jesus is Love. Dwell in me.
And this Virus has the whole world wondering if we have all the news. If the Rainbow of Noah remains. And we all have an idea Your Word is Good yesterday, today and tomorrow.
We'd like the Light of the world in mankind to touch Your Heart and have this virus and this illness to be gone. Healed. We would like Your Word to be Spoken, "He Healed Them All."
You have given us wonderful and sincere prayer of Jesus saying more Heaven on this earth. We would love to see more of Your Kingdom, Your Power and Your Glory. We would like to pray this with "Give us this day."
And we'd love to pray so effectively, we wouldn't look back and say, 'If only we had understood more of Your Plan to enfold in our Prayer." You know Your Hope and Future for us better than we do.
We would cover what lacks in this prayer, with Your Favorite Word:Jesus.
Jesus, Wonderful Counselor, Almighty God pray for us now and always. Amen.
♔ Lord Jesus Saves! †
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment