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~ Rejecting the gods of our culture since 1998.

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Tag Archives: Mark

Bread Enough For All

24 Tuesday Feb 2015

Posted by braddahr in Inspiration, Observations, Spirituality

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Bread, christ, God, Good News, gospel, Jesus, Mark, salvation

I invite you on a journey through Mark’s Good News about Jesus Christ. We are thinking about what Mark wants to tell us through bread. If you missed where we started, click here. Now, I invite you to consider Mark 8:1-10.

We began our journey watching Jesus feed thousands of people, an event in Jewish territory that told the Jews that God has come and he is feeding his people with bread! Then Jesus takes his disciples to the other side, a bad place with pigs and demons and unclean people. Sure enough, they run into a Syrophoenician woman. What does she get from Jesus? Bread!*

Now we are in Mark 8 and we are going to watch Jesus feed another group of people. Seems like a repeat of the event in Mark 6 but there are subtle but critically important difference. Please read the passage because I have some questions for you.

Who said the people had to be fed?
How many loaves of bread did they have?
How was the crowd arranged when they sat down?
What did Jesus do with the bread?
How many baskets of bread did they gather?
Did anybody go hungry?

Everything in this passage shouts Gentile. How many loves of bread? Seven.
How many baskets of bread left over? Seven. There are no five books of the law here; no twelve tribes of Israel. Seven tells us this is Gentile territory. There were seven nations in Canaan that were sent packing by the Jews. Even their baskets are wrong – spuris baskets, not kophinos, the Jewish word for bread baskets.

This time around, the people need to eat but it’s not the disciples who point this out, it’s Jesus. Back in Jewish territory, the disciples told Jesus their people needed to eat. Now they are silent. Why wouldn’t they want to give them something to eat? These are not God’s people! They don’t know Moses, they don’t keep the commandments! No bread for them!

And yet, did anyone go hungry? No, they all ate and were satisfied.

Are you understanding yet?

*Symbolically speaking

Bread Even for Them?

17 Tuesday Feb 2015

Posted by braddahr in Uncategorized

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Tags

Bread, God, Good News, gospel, Jesus Christ, Mark, salvation

I invite you on a journey through Mark’s Good News about Jesus Christ. We are thinking about what Mark wants to tell us through bread. If you missed where we started, click here. Now, I invite you to consider Mark 8:1-10.

We began our journey watching Jesus feed thousands of people, an event in Jewish territory that told the Jews that God has come and he is feeding his people with bread! Then Jesus takes his disciples to the other side, a bad place with pigs and demons and unclean people. Sure enough, they run into a Syrophoenician woman. What does she get from Jesus? Bread!*

Now we are in Mark 8 and we are going to watch Jesus feed another group of people. Seems like a repeat of the event in Mark 6 but there are subtle but critically important difference. Please read the passage because I have some questions for you.

Who said the people had to be fed?
How many loaves of bread did they have?
How was the crowd arranged when they sat down?
What did Jesus do with the bread?
How many baskets of bread did they gather?
Did anybody go hungry?

Everything in this passage shouts Gentile. How many loves of bread? Seven.
How many baskets of bread left over? Seven. There are no five books of the law here; no twelve tribes of Israel. Seven tells us this is Gentile territory. There were seven nations in Canaan that were sent packing by the Jews. Even their baskets are wrong – spuris baskets, not kophinos, the Jewish word for bread baskets.

This time around, the people need to eat but it’s not the disciples who point this out, it’s Jesus. Back in Jewish territory, the disciples told Jesus their people needed to eat. Now they are silent. Why wouldn’t they want to give them something to eat? These are not God’s people! They don’t know Moses, they don’t keep the commandments! No bread for them!

And yet, did anyone go hungry? No, they all ate and were satisfied.

Are you understanding yet?

*Symbolically speaking

Enough Bread Even for Dogs

10 Tuesday Feb 2015

Posted by braddahr in Inspiration, Observations, Spirituality

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Tags

Bread, God, Good News, gospel, Jesus Christ, Jews, Mark, Pagans, salvation

I invite you on a journey through Mark’s Good News about Jesus Christ. We are thinking about what Mark wants to tell us through bread. If you missed where we started, click here. Now, I invite you to consider Mark 7:24-30.

We began our journey watching Jesus feed thousands of people, an event in Jewish territory that told the Jews that God has come and he is feeding his people with bread! Then Jesus takes his disciples to the other side, a bad place with pigs and demons and unclean people. There’s no way God is on the other side. And Yet, Mark tells us the disciples didn’t understand. Now, in Mark 7:24-30, we watch Jesus as he encounters a woman who wants his help.

I’ve heard this woman described as a crescendo of demerit! She’s a woman, an unclean gentile, and she’s of the Syrophoenician race, from Tyre and Sidon. Do you know what means? She comes from the land of Jezebel who almost took all of Israel away from God! A crescendo of demerit.

Can you imagine what the disciples were thinking when Jesus responded to this woman? Jesus says, “First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”
I suspect they were thinking, “Yes Jesus, you got it! The bread is for your children; for God’s children, and not this Jezebel woman!”

There’s some wordplay in this passage that we can’t get into now but Jesus is giving this woman a riddle, he’s engaging her. Even though the disciples don’t understand and maybe we don’t understand, the woman understands. Check out verse 28 – she calls Jesus Lord. This is the only time someone addresses Jesus directly as Lord in Mark.

This underserving, morally suspect, pagan woman wants to know if there’s enough bread for her.

Is there?

The Other Side

03 Tuesday Feb 2015

Posted by braddahr in Inspiration, Observations, Spirituality

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Bread, God, Good News, gospel, Jesus Christ, Mark, salvation

I invite you on a journey through Mark’s Good News about Jesus Christ. We are thinking about what Mark wants to tell us through bread. If you missed where we started, click here. Now, I invite you to consider Mark 6:45-52.

Last time, we watched Jesus feed thousands of people. The event takes place in Jewish territory and has all sorts of clues for the Jewish people that shout: God has come! We are his people and he is feeding us and we are satisfied!

Then Jesus takes his disciples to the other side.

The other side is a bad place with pigs and demons and unclean people are. There’s no way God is on the other side. To go there is dangerous; life threatening.

Do you have an other side? Do you have a people or place that you have determined God is not present and the places and people are demonic and unclean?

Fortunately, the disciples trust Jesus enough to begin the journey across the lake but what happens when they are on the water? A storm comes up and the disciples are terrified but Jesus shows up. Look at verse 51-52:

“Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed, for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened.

THEY didn’t understand.
Do YOU understand?

Enough for Everyone

20 Tuesday Jan 2015

Posted by braddahr in Inspiration, Observations, Spirituality

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Bread, God, Good News, gospel, hope, Inspirational, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Mark, salvation

Over the next few weeks, I want to share something that I got turned on to late last year. It has caused me to re-evaluate my thinking and perhaps it will challenge and inspire you, too. I am thankful to my friends Elizabeth T. and Warren K. who helped me see more clearly.

Have you ever noticed that when we read the Bible we often compartmentalize the stories? When we do that, we miss important connections; connections that can inspire us, challenge us, and call us to be closer than ever before to God and others. I hope to share one of those connections with you.

In Mark’s Good News of Jesus Christ there is a symbol that Mark returns to over and over again. It’s a symbol that would have spoke to everyone in Mark’s time.

That symbol is bread.

Mark mentions bread 22 times and 19 of those times are in Mark 6, 7 and 8. I want to take you on a journey through these chapters and I hope we are able to see the breakthrough Jesus was trying to teach his friends because it’s a breakthrough we still need today.

Want to try some bread?

The Three – Forever Smoke

18 Monday Aug 2014

Posted by braddahr in Inspiration, Spirituality

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Angels, Beast, God, Hell, Jesus Christ, Mark, Redemption, Revelations, Satan, seal, Torment

The Bible letter, The Revelation of Jesus Christ, is God’s last message to a dying planet. In Revelation 14:6-12, three angels shout a warning to “those who dwell on the earth;” people who hate God and hate those who love God. It’s a message given in great love because God is willing to go to the uttermost to reach even his most aggressive enemies.

A year ago, we went to Florida. It was a nice trip but wherever we went we were waiting forever and ever. We would go to the Golden Corral for supper and we had to stand in a line waiting forever and ever. We went to Universal Studios and just to get in we had to wait forever and ever. After we were in the park, guess what – we were in more lines waiting forever and ever.

So let me ask you a question: if we were waiting forever and ever – how can can I be back home and writing this blog today?

In Revelation 14:11 we read that those who have aligned mind and body with the Beast will come to an end “And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever…” How long? Forever and ever.

Take a look at Isaiah 34:8-10. From what we can tell, John lifted this phrase about the smoke ascending forever and from Isaiah and used it to describe what he was seeing in God-given vision. In this case, the place being discussed is Edom, modern Jordan. If you were to go there would you find places still burning? No.

In my last post, I asked you to consider Genesis 19, the destruction of Sodom by fire and sulphur. In verse 28, Abraham sees smoke rising up from where Sodom was. What does this tell him? That the destruction has happened. Sodom isn’t burning or smoking today. It only burned as long as it took to consume it (see verse 15).

Remember that in the Bible, fire is never intended to preserve, prolong or maintain something; it’s always to cleanse and consume. Smoke is the sign that the consuming fire has completed it’s task.

Forever and ever is expression that we don’t take literally; we say it for things that might even just be seconds or minutes. In a sense, what we are talking about is the quality of the experience rather than actual time.

How does that perspective impact how you see God?

The Three – Fire and Brimstone

11 Monday Aug 2014

Posted by braddahr in Inspiration, Spirituality

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Angels, Beast, God, Hell, Jesus Christ, Mark, Redemption, Revelations, Satan, seal, Torment

The Bible letter, The Revelation of Jesus Christ, is God’s last message to a dying planet. In Revelation 14:6-12, three angels shout a warning to “those who dwell on the earth;” people who hate God and hate those who love God. It’s a message given in great love because God is willing to go to the uttermost to reach even his most aggressive enemies.

In Revelation 14:10 we read that those who have aligned mind and body with the Beast will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the Lamb. Why fire and brimstone?

What’s brimstone? It’s sulphur. When I was about 12 years old, I went though an explosives phase – rocket engines, gunpowder, etc. It was winter, I was bored, and I had some extra sulphur. Obviously, I had to see what happens when sulphur burns. A snowbank on my parents driveway was my laboratory. It made perfect sense at the time.

Have you ever put your finger in melted wax? Well, there in the snow I had a little puddle of melted sulphur. Kind of the same, right? The thing about sulphur is it burns hot and it sticks. (Cue video of boy running around screaming and then jamming hand into snowbank.)

In Genesis 19, concerning the destruction of Sodom through fire and sulphur, verse 15 says, “When the morning dawned, the angels urged Lot to hurry, saying, “Arise, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city.””

Do you catch the word “consumed”? In the Bible, fire is never intended to preserve, prolong or maintain something; it’s always to cleanse and consume.

In Revelation 14, God’s last message to those who dwell on the earth, those who have given themselves completely to the Beast and by extension the Dragon, those who are intent on doing evil against others and are opposed to love and life: their path is leading to self-destruction; turn back lest they be consumed. This is a loving last call to repentance.

For those who will feel like the Beast is unstoppable, who will be the target of hatred and violence, this is a message of deliverance. No matter how bad it gets, no matter the circumstances, they will be rescued from this terrible evil.

The Three – Tormented 3

04 Monday Aug 2014

Posted by braddahr in Inspiration, Spirituality

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Angels, Beast, God, Hell, Jesus Christ, Mark, Redemption, Revelations, Satan, seal, Torment

The Bible letter, The Revelation of Jesus Christ, is God’s last message to a dying planet. In Revelation 14:6-12, three angels shout a warning to “those who dwell on the earth;” people who hate God and hate those who love God. It’s a message given in great love because God is willing to go to the uttermost to reach even his most aggressive enemies.

In Revelation 14:10 we read that those who have aligned mind and body with the Beast will be tormented in the presence of the Lamb. Why would they experience torment in the presence of the One who is love, compassion, forgiveness, acceptance?

Here’s a quick overview starting in Genesis 2:25. The Bible says, “And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.” Unfortunately, this didn’t last and because of their choices they became separated from God. They began to blame each other and God for what happened and they were ashamed.

Shame is toxic. If you dig into our stories you will find that shame is behind much of the pain the in the world. Thankfully, Jesus is the shame remover. At least three times, the writers of the new testament tell us that the one who believes on Jesus will by no means be put to shame (for example 1 Peter 2:5-7).

Even the author of Revelation, the apostle John, wrote in 1 John 2:28, “And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.” Deliverance from shame is an important part of our relationship with God and in meeting him face to face at the great reunion.

Sadly, even though Jesus is the shame remover, there are those who hang on or remain in their shame. Paul writes in Philippians 3:18-19, “For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame—who set their mind on earthly things.”

When we are close to God our glory is his righteousness – his character in us. Not so for those who worship the beast. What is their glory? Shame.

Shameful experiences are very traumatic. When it happens it really is a full on physical torment: our stomach churns, we get tunnel vision, our heart pounds and our face burns.

Those who will not release their shame to Jesus get to keep it all. And in the presence of the Lamb; the slain Lamb; the Lamb of glory, and grace and love; those who worship the beast are in shame to an infinite level. It will be a horrific torment.

My favourite author puts it this way:
”Like Israel of old the wicked destroy themselves; they fall by their iniquity. By a life of sin, they have placed themselves so out of harmony with God, their natures have become so debased with evil, that the manifestation of His glory is to them a consuming fire.” White, Great Controversy

This is key: Nobody is “put” in this position. God destroys no one. Those who are destroyed have done it to themselves by a life of consistent choices – choices that lead the to deliverance from shame or immersed in it.

What choice are you making today?

The Three – Tormented 2

31 Thursday Jul 2014

Posted by braddahr in Inspiration, Spirituality

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Tags

Angels, Beast, God, Jesus Christ, Mark, Revelation, Satan, seal, Shame

The Bible letter, The Revelation of Jesus Christ, is God’s last message to a dying planet. In Revelation 14:6-12, three angels shout a warning to “those who dwell on the earth;” people who hate God and hate those who love God. It’s a message given in great love because God is willing to go to the uttermost to reach even his most aggressive enemies.

Please consider the second half of Revelation 14:10: “He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.”

In my last post, I wanted note that it doesn’t say that the person with the mark of the beast is being tormented by the lamb. Rather, for this person who was given themselves completely to the Dragon and the Beast, simply being in Jesus presence is torment.

I suspect you have experienced a small taste of this at least once in your life.

When I was a student at Canadian University College there came a point when I was overwhelmed. I had taken on too many tasks. I was Yearbook editor. Hebrew class was killing me. In my English Literature class, I was late completing the last assignment. I even skipped a couple classes before the weekend trying to get caught up. That Sabbath I was happy to be worshiping with my church family and not having to think about school when I came to face with… My English Lit instructor.
Being in her presence was torment.

Now she wasn’t mean to me; she didn’t scream at me or hit me. So what was going on?

The Three – Given Up

03 Tuesday Jun 2014

Posted by braddahr in Inspiration, Observations, Spirituality

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Angels, Beast, God, gospel, Jesus Christ, Lamb, Mark, Revelation, Sabbath, Satan, seal, Wrath

The Bible letter, The Revelation of Jesus Christ, is God’s last message to a dying planet. In Revelation 14:6-12, three angels shout a warning to “those who dwell on the earth;” people who hate God and hate those who love God. It’s a message given in great love because God is willing to go to the uttermost to reach even his most aggressive enemies.

Revelation 14:10 tells us that there will come a time when “those who dwell on the earth” will completely align themselves with the Beast (a symbol of a Christian looking politcal-religious institutional power on earth) and thus become beast-like; they manifest it’s character or in other words, receive it’s mark.

What can God do with with someone who stands violently, satanically, opposed to the kingdom of light, love, and life?  I mean the Bible makes it clear that for the sake of all creation, this sin war must come to an end. There has to be an end to starving children, rape, greed that poisons everything it touches, and the parasitic-like consumption that fuels humanity.  Eden will be restored and the heartbeat of the universe will be tuned once again to other-centered love. If they were still alive, “those that dwell on the earth” will hate it and continue to war against it. This cannot be. What’s God to do?

He pours out his wrath on them.  What does that mean?

I’ve already mentioned that all of us read those words through a lens of who we think God to be. Consider how in the beginning when God said to Adam and Eve, if you eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall die. Did he mean: If you break my rules I will have to punish you with execution? Many think so however, many also see him saying something else: Eating from that tree will break our relationship so horribly that death and destruction will rule the world.  In the first scenario, God offers salvation, in a sense, to save us from his just punishment.  In the second, God desires to save us, not from himself but from the horror of sin and death.  The scenario that you lean towards will be a filter through which you understand God’s poured out wrath.

To me, an interesting picture is revealed when we look closely at Romans 1 and see that the wrath of God is placed within the context of God giving people up because they want to be given up on. Despite everything he has done to win them back to light, love, and life, they have chosen to opt out. God gives them up – to their heart’s desire; to the full, unfiltered consequences of sin.

In the end, could it be that God’s wrath is the most loving thing he can offer those who are determined to die?

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