Category Archives: faith

Show Us The Father — Pursuer of Our Heart

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Today is Mark 9.

Jesus knows everything. He knows what is in the hearts of every man.

Jesus came upon a great crowd and commotion regarding a boy with an unclean spirit. This boy was mute and self destructive. The boy’s father was desperate for healing for his son.

Jesus could have immediately cast the demon out of the boy and healed him, but instead He asked he fathers a question: “How long has he been like this?” (Verse 21) Again, Jesus knew this. He knew all things. But there was an issue within the father’s heart that Jesus wanted to address.

The father said, “If you can do anything have compassion on us and help us.” (verse 22) What was in the father’s heart came out of his mouth…unbelief. Jesus addressed this, “If you can! All things are possible for one who believes.” (Verse 23)

The father needed to see his true need. It wasn’t his son, it was his unbelieving heart. He spoke a prayer, “I believe, help my unbelief!”

Jesus then cast out the demon and the boy was healed.

Our Heavenly Father desires our hearts to be entirely, totally, completely His! He works in our circumstances to show us what is inside of them. He is willing to take the time to get to the heart of the matter in our lives.

Unbelief was separating this father from His Heavenly Father. Jesus addressed the issue and worked a miracle for the man.

A simple prayer by a desperate man brought healing and wholeness not only to his son, but to his own heart. When we sense the Holy Spirit asking us a question, “How long have you been like this?” We stand on the precipice of freedom. If we choose to humble ourselves, confess our sin, and say, “I believe in You Jesus! Help me!”

Show Us The Father — Faithful

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Today’s reading is Mark :1-29.

Jesus went to His hometown. As He was teaching, the people who heard Him had a hard time looking at Jesus as anything more than “the carpenter’s son.” Even though He spoke with wisdom, and did mighty works. They were in “unbelief.” Jesus “marveled” at it. But this did not deter Jesus from continuing His mission that God had sent Him to do. He continued to go about the villages teaching. Jesus was faithful! He displayed the faithfulness of His Heavenly Father.

I know I have acted like the people of Jesus’s hometown a time or two in my life. I heard the Word of Wisdom, and I knew that God did mighty works, Yet I stood in unbelief. I am thankful that God has been faithful to me. He continued to call to me. He continued to draw me to Himself.

The Apostle Paul described the faithfulness of God like this:

“if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself.”
‭‭2 Timothy‬ ‭2‬:‭13‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Jesus “could do no mighty works there…” because of their unbelief. His desire is to do mighty works in our lives. This is why He faithfully pursues us. May we repent of our unbelief and surrender to Him our faithful God!

Show Us The Father — He is Sovereign

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Today is Mark 4:30-41.

Circumstances can loom intimidating and large. In today’s passage the disciples found themselves in a circumstance they knew was bigger than them, “a great windstorm” and “waves… breaking the boat” they were in. When they woke Jesus who was asleep in the oat, they asked Him a question that I’m sure I have asked God before, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” Or in my words it may have sounded like, “God, don’t you care…?”

Then Jesus speaks, “Peace! Be still!”

“Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” These are the questions that Jesus asks as they sat in the boat in the “great calm.”

Every day as they walked with Jesus, the disciples saw Him perform miracles, speak with wisdom like no one else, heal, cast out demons, etc. He displayed that He indeed is Lord, and sovereign over all. He is supreme in power and dominion.

In my life, God has come through, time after time after time. Why would I be afraid and have no faith? If Jesus displayed His sovereignty on the boat that day with His disciples, He has not changed.

Jesus shows me my Heavenly Father. My God is Sovereign over the storms that may blow in my life. The safest place to be in a time of storms and uncertainty is in the boat with Jesus! He alone has the power to say, “Peace! Be Still!” And bring calmness in uncertainty! He is in control. He is Sovereign and my sovereign God loves me.

How can I lose?

Show Us The Father — Family

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Today is Mark 3:21-35.

Jesus’s biological family thought He was “out of his mind.” They came to seize Him. They did not understand who Jesus really was.

When Jesus was told about their coming, they said, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, seeking you.” Jesus then defined our true heavenly family. He said, “…whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.” (Verse 35)

If we want to dwell in a relationship of “family” with God, we need to do the will of God. What is the will of God?

Jesus defined the will of God:

“For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.””
‭‭John‬ ‭6‬:‭40‬ ‭ESV‬‬

The will of God is that we believe on Jesus and receive His eternal life.

Jesus also defines eternal life:

“And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”
‭‭John‬ ‭17‬:‭3‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Knowing God = Eternal Life= Connection to God in a Relatioship of Oneness

When we know God intimately, in a connected relationship, we will be in His will. The ones who know God in this relationship are His family.

Nothing else matters in life. God wants us to experience Him as our Father. In this passage, the ones who were seated around Jesus, listening to Him speak were the ones who wanted to know God and to experience Him in relationship. They were the ones who were doing the will of God. They were Jesus’s true spiritual family.

When we enter into a relationship with God, we enter His family too! We can know God in a relationship of family!

Show Us The Father— Relational God

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Today is Mark 2:18-28.

The Pharisees thought they had God figured out. They had a list of laws with boxes to check off on that list. If they fulfilled it all they thought they were all good with God. They had “religion”…

Jesus came. He was Emmanuel — God with us. He came displaying God the Father to anyone who would pay attention to Him. Jesus walked and talked with the people who followed Him. He lived in relationship with them. His words He spoke and His call to follow Him literally changed lives. Relating to God was no longer a list of boxes to check off. Relating to God became a relationship — the very thing God wanted all along. Following the list of rules regarding the Sabbath (including picking grain for a hungry group of men) was not what God was after all along. It was their hearts.

God wants our hearts as well. When we truly love Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, we will do the things that God desires. We do not need a list of rules regarding the Sabbath when our greatest desire is to love and obey the Lord of the Sabbath, Jesus.

God will give us a new heart that desires to do what is right if we will only ask Him to. His desire is for us to know Him intimately in a relationship, not follow a list of rules.

Show Us The Father — Mark 1:1-20 There’s Something About Jesus

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“Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” John 14:9 NIV

God wants us to know Him! Jesus coming to earth is evidence of that truth. God has given us in the four Gospels a beautiful picture of what our Heavenly Father is like. Because if we have seen Jesus, we have seen the Father.

This month we will read the Book of Mark. With each section, we will explore what our Heavenly Father is like as Jesus displayed Him before us.

To Know God is to Love God is to Trust God is to Obey Him! It is my prayer that as we read each section, this will become a reality in our lives.

Today is Mark 1:1-20.

There’s something about Jesus!

Before Jesus stepped on the scene, John was proclaiming His coming. John realized that Jesus was mightier than Him. He knew that Jesus was worthy of worship. When the time came, Jesus was baptized by John. God audibly spoke. “You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased.” (Verse 11) The Holy Spirit descended on Him like a dove.

Jesus stepped into a world that was far from God in their hearts. God, Himself, had come to reveal Himself to us to show us the way back to Him. In today’s reading, Jesus reveals to us a Heavenly Father that wants us to KNOW Him! Not just know about Him from a distance. This is why Jesus came!

New Beginnings in The Book of Acts — All Things For Our Good and For His Glory!

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Today is Acts 27.

Paul sails to Rome, but along the way his ship ends up in a terrible storm and the lives of those aboard are in peril. Those aboard the ship “gave up all hope of being saved.”But God continues to speak to Paul about the situation. Paul told those aboard the ship with him:

“For this very night there stood before me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship, and he said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar. And behold, God has granted you all those who sail with you.’” Acts 27:23-24 ESV

What God spoke to Paul eventually came to pass. The ship was dashed to pieces on rocks, but everyone on the ship survived.

This story may seem like a horrible detour, unfair to a man that desired to live his life only for Jesus. But, God had a purpose in it! 

We go through things we do not understand, hardships… As we have yielded our lives to the Holy Spirit and trust God, we will see that God does work all things out for our good and for His glory.

May we trust Him more!

New Beginnings in Acts — Almost Persuaded

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Today is Acts 26.

Paul was brought before King Agrippa to plead his case. He once again tells his testimony of how he had an encounter with the living, resurrected Jesus. In that encounter, Jesus told Paul what his mission in life would be when he met him on the road to Damascus.

“But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles—to whom I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’” Acts 26:16-18 ESV

He was testifying of the power of God that enables us to turn from the darkness of sin- anything we do that is against God’s laws and separates us from God. He told everyone he was in contact with about what he had both physically and spiritually experienced, a God who could take eyes that are blind- unable to see God’s ways and truth- and make them see. He spoke of forgiveness from God for the wrongs we have done and being set apart for God’s purposes through faith.

This is all still available to us today. The Holy Spirit continues to move our hearts to desire to know all of what Paul was telling King Agrippa about. We have a choice. King Agrippa did too. But his response was truly a sad one.

“…In a short time would you persuade me to be a Christian?”” Acts 26:28 ESV

Paul’s desire was not simply to be free of his chains. His desire was that everyone he came in contact with would know the Jesus he knew. Paul wanted them to experience the relationship with the Holy Spirit he was experiencing. His response was this to the Kings question.

“And Paul said, “Whether short or long, I would to God that not only you but also all who hear me this day might become such as I am—except for these chains.”” Acts 26:29 ESV

This is why I write these things to you. I know from experience the power of God who broke off the chains of sin by which I was held captive. I can tell you the difference of walking in the darkness of my own ways as opposed to walking into the light of God’s path- His ways.

Do not be “almost persuaded” to surrender your heart entirely to God! King Agrippa walked away from Paul’s testimony of Jesus that day unchanged. May we see the value of what he spoke and seek out the relationship he described. It is the only way!

New Beginnings in The Book of Acts — “I Would Like to Hear the Man Myself”

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Today is Acts 25.

The Jewish leaders of Paul’s time refused to listen to the truth of God. They hated Paul, and they hated his testimony regarding Jesus. The would not believe that Jesus was alive, that Paul had had an encounter with Him, and that Jesus had changed Paul’s life.

They wanted the message that Paul was teaching and preaching to die. In their minds, the way to achieve it would be to kill Paul himself. The results of this mission was Paul imprisoned.

However, this gave Paul more opportunity to share what Jesus had done for him. First he shared with Felix, the Roman official. Then the opportunity came to speak to King Agrippa.

“I would like to hear the man myself.” King Agrippa spoke these words. He was not a believer in Jesus, but he was curious of what Paul was preaching.

Our world is filled with people similar to those of Paul’s time. There are those who have heard the message of Jesus rejecting and resisting it. There are those who are curious. Who would “like to hear” our testimony of what Jesus has done.

The question is will we respond as Paul did? Will we tell everyone with whom God brings into contact with us about the encounter we have experienced with Jesus?

Paul was not afraid to testify of the Gospel of Jesus! Are we? We live in a world with people who “would like to hear.” How they respond is not the issue. Our willingness to testify is.

New Beginnings in the Book of Acts — Experience Him

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Today we read Acts 23.

Paul stood on trial before the Sanhedrin, the religious rulers of the Jewish people. He knew some were Pharisees and some Sadducee’s. These were two different groups of the leaders. One of the differences was their belief in the resurrection of the dead. Paul knew this so he stated his belief in the resurrection. This caused an uproar between his accusers, and once again they wanted to kill him. They were about to tear him into pieces. Even so, the Holy Spirit gave Paul boldness to continue to testify. Jesus even came to Him in a vision, telling him he would go to Rome to testify.

Once again difficult circumstances surrounded Paul: accusations, beatings, imprisonment, death, etc. He could have recanted his stories, told his accusers he was a liar and he was sorry. He could have denied what he was proclaiming as truth. It would have all stopped and he more than likely would have been free. Perhaps they would have even made him a hero. 

Why did Paul continue? He had a personal, face to face encounter with Jesus. He was changed. The Holy Spirit dwelled within Him. He was not the same man that was on the road to Damascus years before.

It is a known fact that out of the twelve disciples that followed Jesus before His death, eleven of them died as martyrs. Something they saw and experienced made them willing to die for what they believed. People do not die a martyr for a lie willingly. They had experienced truth! 

John described it this way:

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us—” 1 John 1:1-2 ESV

God wants us to experience Him. This is why the Holy Spirit came to live within us. So we could see and touch. We can feel Him. Then we are able to testify to what we know!

May we experience the Holy Spirit’s presence in our lives!