Mark 4

Mark 4

Jesus, as was His custom has just taught the masses in the form of a parable about a farmer to illustrate a truth about the Kingdom of Heaven. In this case the lesson is applicable to the followers of Jesus in that we are to follow the example of the farmer of that day. The disciples have not discerned the application and Jesus gives it to them alone.

Mar 4:14"The sower sows the word.
As the people of God we have a duty as described in Matt. 28:18-20. We are to make disciples and to do this we must spread the Gospel Message.

Mar 4:15"These are the ones who are beside the road where the word is sown; and when they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them.
(Mar 4:4as he was sowing, some seed fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate it up. ) As the farmer moved his seed to the field some would fall along the way and having no place to take root and it was gobbled up by the birds. In like manor, I have spread the Word of God across the Internet from my wheelchair and thousands have received the message but Satan distracts them with some momentary pleasure and they are never heard from again. This is true of every Preacher, teacher, and Evangelist.

Mar 4:16"In a similar way these are the ones on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy;
Mar 4:17and they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary; then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away.

(Mar 4:5"Other seed fell on the rocky ground where it did not have much soil; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of soil.
Mar 4:6"And after the sun had risen, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. ) In the day of Jesus the Harrows were used to turn the seed into the ground but they did not turn it deeply ad any rock beneath the surface would remain undetected and the seed there sprang up and died. The same is true of many that hear the Good News. They rejoice at the news and then just wither away.

Mar 4:18"And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word,
Mar 4:19but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
(Mar 4:7"Other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. )
I do my very best to never see these people and yet they are in attendance, at every service I have ever attended. Do I just ignore these people? No! Many of this group are in business and instead of seeking to serve God they seek to use their membership at their local church to increase their business. They are everywhere and it is easy for them to cause us to stumble and become judgmental.

Mar 4:20"And those are the ones on whom seed was sown on the good soil; and they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold."
(Mar 4:8"Other seeds fell into the good soil, and as they grew up and increased, they yielded a crop and produced thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold." )
These people are easy to spot, they work towards the Kingdom with an undying vigor and enthusiasm. They stand in the pulpits, teach in the classrooms, cut the grass, tend the shrubs, visit the sick and perform a million other tasks that have mistakenly been relegated to the pastor of the church. When I was saved, one night in a bar, I could not satisfy my hunger for knowledge of God. The more I studied the more my desire to serve God grew until I was teaching children and the evening men's class. Over the past 19 years (I just eight days) that has grown to filling the pulpit when the pastor vacationed, serving in a prison ministry and teaching on the web to the world wide audience. Those that are found in this group have no idea of the numbers, that's God's business, ours is to serve.

Mar 4:21 And He was saying to them, "A lamp is not brought to be put under a basket, is it, or under a bed? Is it not brought to be put on the lampstand?
Mar 4:22"For nothing is hidden, except to be revealed; nor has anything been secret, but that it would come to light.
Mar 4:23"If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear."
Here we have the emphases on the teaching placed. Jesus made this same statement in verse 9 and God never says anything twice that can be ignored. In verses 21 through 23 we have the life application of this statement. The man, whose spiritual ears are opened can hear the lessons taught here, it is he that has ears to hear.

Mar 4:24 And He was saying to them, "Take care what you listen to. By your standard of measure it will be measured to you; and more will be given you besides.
Mar 4:25"For whoever has, to him more shall be given; and whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him."
In the parable of the talents (Matt. 25:14-30) we have the lesson of this statement illustrated. Anyone that has studied the Bible for very long also knows that there is a hidden danger in this statement and the Matthew passage. When we work we must have our mind in the correct position also. If we are busy to earn the reward instead of for the purpose of building the Kingdom, greed has entered in and our good works are no longer profitable to us.
In Romans 3:20-26 we are taught that there is justification found only in our faith and then James teaches us that if we have faith that we will exhibit it by our works, so where did the Pharisees go so wrong? They were very proud of their works, pride. We do not work to gain position in Heaven, we work to build the kingdom and that belongs to God.

Mar 4:26 And He was saying, "The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil;
Mar 4:27and he goes to bed at night and gets up by day, and the seed sprouts and grows--how, he himself does not know.
The first twenty or thirty men that witnessed to me never saw the seed sprout. Most of them had n idea that they were watering and not planting and yet they were faithful to play their part in my salvation. When I cross the Jordan and enter the gates, then they will know their reward for their work.

Mar 4:28"The soil produces crops by itself; first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head.
Before I prepared the land for my house there were weeds, trees, flowers and animals growing there that no-one planted. God can produce all the people He wishes to fellowship with but has instead given the honor of working toward that purpose to us.

Mar 4:29"But when the crop permits, he immediately puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come."
We work also because we do not know when the harvest will come and we do not want anyone to go to Hell. That is the heart of God. (2Pet. 3:9)

Mar 4:30 And He said, "How shall we picture the kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we present it?
Mar 4:31"It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the soil, though it is smaller than all the seeds that are upon the soil,
Mar 4:32yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and forms large branches; so that THE BIRDS OF THE AIR can NEST UNDER ITS SHADE."
No matter how many people walk away from us with disgust in their voices, if we never lead but one soul to the foot of the cross that one person might be the next Billy Graham.

The Truth vs. The Lie

There is a lie being told today that has crept into the Church, almost, unnoticed. We have folks that call themselves by a number of tags that can easily be summarized with Christian Evolutionist. I am going to step out on a limb that many will take a saw to immediately and tell you that there is no such creature as a Christian Evolutionist and please do not think that I am building a straw man to kill. I went to bed almost two hours ago after having stopped the meditation, study and prayer for my Sunday lesson in Mark and the Spirit of the LORD began to speak to me and to trouble my spirit about this matter and here I am at nearly One a.m. beginning a message from God about Junk Science.

I'm not going to beat the Scientific Community to death with my 25 pound Liberty Study Bible but will instead speak just common sense truth. First of all, for science to have any bearing on the matters of God's realm, it must be fact. Theory, by it's very nature is never fact and that one truth cancels all the “truths” of Evolution right there, it is know as Darwin's Theory of Evolution. The first central truth, presented by Darwin, for his theory to be true is that the single cell is an uncomplicated organism. Every cell in your body carries you complete DNA Code. (Rabbit trail) It is oft taught by Evolutionists that there is living proof in the Chimpanzee because there is only about a three per cent difference between the Chimp and the Human. That's true, the problem is that this three per cent is about three million differences in our DNA Structure.

Now, for man to have evolved the must, of necessity, be a fore runner of the species. This has long been stated to be the Neanderthal creature but DNA Science has proven that to be a lie. There is no demonstrable fore runner of man.

But let's go deeper than that, for evolution to be so important, it just seems reasonable that the Universe originated somewhere at some time. In schools in your neighborhood, right now, The Big Bang is being taught. Since science is demonstrable fact, all I need to be shot down on this one is the creation, by man, of one tiny universe of say, no more than one sun, two planets and a moon around one of them.

You see, to mix theory with the truth of the scriptures is to generate a lie with no substance.

A New Year, A New OS

... Windows 3.1 introduced the world to easy computer operations and as a side effect sent all DOS purists into rebellion. A gentleman college student in Europe took the UNIX OS (operating system) and adapted it to Desk-Top usage and there went all the nerds.
... As Linux became more and more popular the user base became more diversified and people began to emulate the, now popular, Windows. point and click,OS. Today, there are folks that wish for a new and better supported OS but they are still running Win. 98 and such because they cannot afford a new computer, nor can they chance being caught running a pirated system.
... The answer is free! At ubuntu.com is found a "Get It Now" link in the Nav. Bar on the left of the page. On that page there are two offerings of Ubuntu, versions 9.10 and 8.04.3LTS. These numbers represent the release date, year and then the month. LTS stands for Long Term Support and the truth is that they are both supported for a year and 4 months more before the updates cease.
... In the forth month of next year the next LTS version is released and will be supported for three years and replaced, for those that want it in two. I use the latest version and update my release every 6 months, I love to live on the cutting edge. If you are not a computer nerd I recommend the Hardy Heron a.k.a. v. 8.04.3LTS, it's very stable and very Windows like. If you run into any problems, need advise or just wish to learn about the system there are Ubuntu live forums and mailing lists that are free and offer 24/7 support. Also you may feel free to IM, PM or email me for assistance.

What Is The Bride Of Christ?

What Is The Bride of Christ?


... This question is seen in many forms today and seems to be asked quite a bit. There are several directions to approach answering this question. My favorite approach is to go to the teaching of Jesus and to reinforce that with the explanations of Paul. First it is important to lay a foundation before we start to build. For the foundation we need salvation to stand on. Found in the Roman Road Method of leading folks to the foot of the cross is the passage found in Romans 10, verses 9 ad 10. Salvation requires faith to believe that Jesus is the Messiah and has the power to snatch us away from the clutches of Satan. Then we can call out to God for our salvation and the He will lead us into repentance.
... But, is salvation all there is to it? No, salvation is Fire Insurance, nothing more unless one chooses to follow God. There is an interesting and illuminating passage found in the teaching method of Jesus in Matthew 22. Jesus, as was His custom, taught in a parable. In this parable we find Jesus teaching of the celebration of the wedding feast that will occur in Heaven after the Bride, the members of the Church that chose to live a separated life to and for God, are raptured. Of course we find the Groom, Jesus, there and the members of the Bride but just as is illustrated in the parable, there are the guests.
... The guests are a seldom taught class of people in the church universal because that is not the calling of God but is rather a default position for a saved man. My preferred term for these folks is Pew Whale. Now it is very important that we all speak the same language and the term Pew Whale has a lot of usage and, in this case, needs defining. A Pew Whale, in general, is a person that comes in, sits down and wants to be fed. They do not study the Word of God for themselves and they do not pursue the fulfillment of the Great Commission. These are, by my understanding, the guests Jesus speaks of in the parable. They have their Fire Insurance but they have not obeyed, sought to follow God, His commandments to the best of their ability.
... The Bride will have members such as Peter, John, Paul and many others of worthy note. Then there is the absolutely amazing truth that people like myself will be members of the Bride. We do not have spotless testimonies and there are periods of great shame and failure in our life stories but because we repented of our past and because of the mercy and the grace of God we have been molded (Jer. 18) into New Creations. As new creatures in Christ we have sought after the separated life and lend ourselves to what ever the LORD may lead us to do.
... This same question is sometimes see as what church or domination is the Bride? There are many churches today that claim to be the Bride and that you must be a member of their sect to obtain entrance into the Kingdom of God but the study of scripture, all of scripture, demonstrates a completely different truth. Jesus never laid out a form for worship to be followed. He did state to the Samaritan Woman at the well that we must worship in Spirit and in Truth. It is my firm belief that there will be members of the Bride found in most churches that teach the Bible in it's true form. I even believe that a few members will be found in the LDS and JW congregations.
... Now... that I have lit the match that destroys, allow me to blow it out. These people are not saved in these heretical sects, they were saved before they were drawn away. I have a relative that is a case example. My aunt was a good Christian, taught in a good Christian Church in the country. Then she married and was influenced by her husband to join the Jehovah's Witness'. After a few years she came to her senses, went back to a Christian church and as a result ended up being divorced. She did not need to regain her salvation, salvation is eternal and that eternity begins the moment we are saved, she just needed to begin living in the truth once more. Had the Rapture occurred while she was in that congregation of heresy she would have been take up but would have had that mistake to be rekoned with. I suspect she might have lost a crown or two to that error.

Mark 1

How Can Jesus Help Me?


He Can Save


… We live in, perhaps, the most exciting era the world has ever known for a Christian. The Rapture and the Great Tribulation are about to emerge. At the same time, as Americans, we are busy watching our form of Democracy die and a form of Marxism emerge. For those of us that have lived the past sixty or better years, many of us having fought and all of us watching our friends die defending this and other nations freedom, find this a very stressful time. It is during times like this that we can learn the true blessing of being a Child of God.


Mar 1:14 Now after John was delivered up, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God,
Mar 1:15 and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe in the gospel.
John the Baptist found himself at odds with Herod Antipas because John refused to ignore the Word of God and condemned the kings marriage to his niece, Herodias after her divorce from another uncle. Herod II. It was at this time that Jesus came out of the Wilderness and began His ministry.
The same struggle between truth and evil goes on today as preachers are put into prison in places like Canada for preaching the whole Bible and laws to accomplish that same end are being passed here in our land. The light of the truth makes people uncomfortable and they lash out in hatred at anyone that will dare to speak honestly to them. The message of Jesus should have been received by the Jewish people with great joy and celebration but they missed it, almost completely just as our nation is busy rationalizing our sins so were the Jews building the messiah they wanted to see.

He Can Lead

Mar 1:16 And passing along by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net in the sea; for they were fishers.
Mar 1:17 And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.
Jesus, as He began His ministry to the people of the world set a great example for everyone of us to follow. He prayed and He fasted, in seclusion, and then He involved others that could be trained to help Him minister to a greater number of people. He went so far as to completely change their lively-hood. Today there are associations and individuals that teach that the Pastor should have a job outside of the church and should not receive a wage from the church they Pastor. These same folks expect that same pastor to go to the hospital with them at three and four in the morning and of course that does not equate, no matter how you crunch it. But forgetting the pure logic that is violated by this idea, the Bible teaches us exactly the opposite. In the Old Testament the priests received their food and their keep from the people and in the New Testament we find verses like Luke 10:7 and 1Tim. 5:17-19. Further more Jesus instructed His Disciples to expect and to accept their keep.


Mar 1:18 And straightway they left the nets, and followed him.
This is another biblical example that we, Christians, need to meditate on. Simon Peter and Andrew were successful business men that abandoned their future at the call of God. I have met two basic classes of Christians and they are those that, like myself have allowed God to completely change their lives, these followers of Jesus I label Christian. The other major class includes those that, other than Sunday Morning, it is impossible to see the difference between them and the lost man. I'm reasonably certain that I'll never be able to tell them apart from one another but they seem to run the spectrum from pretender to having their Fire Insurance. These, I believe, will be the guests at the wedding feast. (Matt. 22:2-14)


Mar 1:19 And going on a little further, he saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who also were in the boat mending the nets.
Mar 1:20 And straightway he called them: and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, and went after him.
The lesson of unconditionally following God is repeated in verses 19 & 20. A great emphasis is given in this example for in the Law (Exo. 20:12) we are commanded to honor our father and our mother and yet we see these men abandoned their family's business to their father alone. (Matt. 6:24, Luke 14:25-35)


He Can Free


Mar 1:21 And they go into Capernaum; and straightway on the sabbath day he entered into the synagogue and taught.
Jesus is the living model of all that is holy and He is what we are to, as Christians, seek to become living examples of. I have oft been chastised for my understanding of Heb. 10:25 and the fact that I hold true the theology that there are no Lone Ranger Christians. The very first Sunday after I was saved, 25 days before my 45th birthday, I was in church, went forward and wanted to be baptized and to make my statement of faith so that it would be publicly recorded...forever. This verse and others that can be referenced to it are the example I followed. Jesus knew the nation of the called would reject Him and still He taught, by example, the lesson of assembling ourselves together in worship. Surely, no one doubts that that Jesus knew that most of the worshipers were not true believers and yet He assembled with them and taught.


Mar 1:22 And they were astonished at his teaching: for he taught them as having authority, and not as the scribes.
Jesus set a example here that is often missed or is completely ignored today. The Disciples did not miss it. In Acts 3 we find Peter and John commanding a cripple man to walk, this was done in the name of Jesus. In Acts 8 we see Philip, in the name of Jesus, performing Miracles and from the historian, Tertullian we know that John was placed in a pot of oiling oil, was removed, alive, and sentenced to exile the Isle of Patmos because he preached the Gospel of Jesus with authoritative conviction.


Mar 1:23 And straightway there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried out,
Mar 1:24 saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus thou Nazarene? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God.
Even the evil spirits know who Jesus is from the evidence. When we live for God we are being molded and shaped as we go and behind us there is a trail of evidence and witnesses that can convict us of Christianity.


Mar 1:25 And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him.
Mar 1:26 And the unclean spirit, tearing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him.
Mar 1:27 And they were all amazed, insomuch that they questioned among themselves, saying, What is this? a new teaching! with authority he commandeth even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.
Today, this is a difficult teaching and yet it is repeated, in various places in the Bible. Some teach that the ability to heal, as Peter and John did and as Philip did is not for today and yet in Central America, the Amazon and in the deep bush of Africa these healings from disease, birth defect and demon possession occur almost daily.
When Jesus did it, it was because He is God in the flesh. When the disciples did it they were given the authority by Jesus to do it and for that reason they believed. The same authority has been given to every true believer and yet they do not heal people. When these healings are performed in the third world nations and jungles not only does the person performing the healing believe but so do those surrounding him.
In the US and Europe there are so many charlatans cashing in, monetarily, by paying shills to fake being healed that the very belief in the miracle is seen as utter stupidity by the world and the Church, universal, has tucked it's tail, much like the crayfish does and has retreated. This is a clear illustration of what the lack of faith can accomplish. In fact, even though I have personally seen people that I and others joined together, prayed over while laying on our hands to have been certified as healed by medical doctors, I still, as any good Baptist will advise caution in this area. This will not be blessed by God without strong faith.



Mar 1:28 And the report of him went out straightway everywhere into all the region of Galilee round about.
This is the very reason the charlatans are able to bilk so much ill gotten gain out of poor and the rich alike, they have a built in publicity following. They also have a built in escape. They inform the unhealed that there faith is to weak to be healed, after all, every one o the shills walked off the platform in good health. They do great damage, as Joni Eareckson Tada can testify. Joni's faith was damaged for years by this lie of the fake healers.


He Can Enable


Mar 1:29 And straightway, when they were come out of the synagogue, they came into the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John.
Mar 1:30 Now Simon's wife's mother lay sick of a fever; and straightway they tell him of her:
Mar 1:31 and he came and took her by the hand, and raised her up; and the fever left her, and she ministered unto them.
Any time a thing is repeated in the Bible it is for emphasis. We must take note anytime we see this in the Word of God.

Arrogance

Pride
General references



See Rich, The; Ambition
Instances of:
Ahithophel
2Sa_17:23
Naaman, refusing to wash in Jordan
2Ki_5:11-13
Hezekiah, in displaying his resources
2Ki_20:13; 2Ch_32:31; Isa_39:2
Uzziah
2Ch_26:16-19
Haman
Est_3:5; Est_5:11; Est_5:13; Est_6:6; Est_7:10
Kings of Tyre
Eze_28:2
Nebuchadnezzar
Dan_4:30-34; Dan_5:20 (Naves)



... On the Internet I am often confronted with an arrogance that is unnerving and it often comes from teachers that are naming the name of Christ as their Lord. The above study on pride, a.k.a. arrogance is not meant to be all inclusive even though it is long and thorough. This is the short study on the subject and the long one is one I have repeated more than a couple of times, it requires a meditative reading of the entire Bible.
... This persistent attitude of pride is not seen on Sunday, I hope, but is ever present in the offenders every day life away from the Church. If we go to the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20) we find that it is our mission to make converts everywhere we go, all week long. In Gen. 14:14-16, Nehemiah 2:7-9, Matthew 12:10-12, Luke 13:15-16, Acts 2:44-45 and 1 Corinthians 4:5 we find instances, methods, considerations, potential and a warning that all apply to helping or being judgmental of our brother.
... The common rationalization here is that he is not my brother...WRONG!!! When we read Genesis, chapter 1 thru 3 we need go no further. Even the Arab, Osama Bin Laden is our brother. I am not about to teach acceptance of false teaching or those teachers. I do not even teach against war, I am a veteran of one. I will tell you that the first time I killed an enemy soldier, up close, it changed me forever, I had just killed one of my brothers.
... Some will need to understand that I am not teaching against charging a fee for their services, that would contradict the scriptures, now, wouldn't it? On the other hand, neither does the Bible, the Word of God, teach against kindness or Godly acts of mercy. We live, in America, in a society that is not built on but it is destroying itself by running on me, me, me! One of the greatest lessons I learned as a Christian is what a blessing it is to give. If we can ever get over ourselves, drop the haughtiness, and learn to love, we might just begin to look like Christ to the world.