I often share what I’m reading or pondering or have studied of a morning during my quiet time.

I do this not to boast that I do study, but because what I have learned or read is just too good not to share and because I long (read that deep desire) for others to share in the knowledge with me and to desire to seek out this knowledge on their own (the Christian speak for this is that I want to see you growing in the Lord and I believe this can’t happen unless you are actively and consistently reading your bible).

Even now it is all I can do not to go into my bedroom and wake my husband and share what I have just read. I long to discuss this with him while it is fresh on my mind and hear his thoughts…but since he is asleep I’ll share some of my thoughts with you. ( Aren’t you lucky.  )

Why I share (again):   I share in the hope that my reading of God’s word will inspire you to pick up your bible (not a book on marriage, or a book on this spiritual topic or that spiritual topic, or a book on this way to get your life in order, or that book on the best five steps to get free of whatever is keeping you in bondage…or whatever book is currently number one on the Lifeway booklist – they aren’t bad, in fact they are often helpful and good, but they shouldn’t be your first or your only source of information – the first source you turn to should be your bible. After you have read your bible you can turn to these other sources, but remember to always hold up them up to scripture to see if they agree with it) and read it.

Many of us read book after book but let the most important book sit quietly on the shelf gathering dust. Or we pick up that Most Important Book and read it but do not understand what we have read and we either put it down in frustration or we apply our own interpretation to the passage and completely miss what the passage is about. So (to combat this) one of the things that I love to do when I have a little extra time (and especially if I don’t understand a verse/ passage) is to look it up in a commentary. (I’ve come to love commentaries. And NO they are not dry and dreary. There are so many wonderful resources to choose from.) I know that most of you probably don’t have a single commentary sitting on your bookshelf, but lucky for you there are some fabulous resources right at your fingertips. One of which is Preceptsaustin.org.  I love this resource. Use it and you will be blessed.

This morning I read Mark 8:11-26.

Originally, I was going to share what this passage was about and how the commentary spoke to me, but now I’ve decided to let you figure it out for yourself. Here is your homework.

1.  Read Mark 8:11-26 in your own bible – not just on biblegateway or whatever online resource you use.

2.  Read this commentary by Steve Zeisler (Yes, I know it is long, but please endure to the end.)

Now tell me you weren’t blessed. Don’t you too feel like waking up your husband or wife or neighbor and telling them what you just read? Did the verses and the commentary speak to you? Maybe it didn’t speak to you or apply to your life in the same way it did mine, but I bet the commentary did enlighten you on the passage didn’t it? Did you know that leaven is often used as a reference for sin? Did you know what Jesus was talking about when he refused to give the Pharisees a sign? Did you too think about how often we are like the disciples and focus on bread and miss what the Lord is really doing in our lives or saying to us? Zeisler writes, “Their discussion of bread had no purpose and no value. They were distracted by silly things.” How often that is true. And what about v.17-21. Ouch. Did you notice that earlier in v. 12 the bible says “And he sighed deeply in his spirit…” And it says this earlier in Mark 7:34. Have you ever sighed like this? Do we even understand it?  Do we want Jesus sighing like this over us? And what about the blind man…I’ve always wondered why Jesus spit on His hands and then touched the man’s eyes. It wasn’t necessary, and yet Zeisler tells us it was done to show love for the man. I never would have known that without the commentary. See weren’t you blessed? (So much and so rich. I think I’ll read it again.)

Now, don’t you feel like you understand Mark 8:11-26 better? I know I do. And I still want to go in and wake my husband because there is so much more to share…

Then Jesus laid His hands on his eyes again; and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.  –Mark 8:25

May your eyes be opened and your sight restored.

Mark 5:24-34 tells us the story of a woman who had a flow of blood for many years that the physicians (read that many physicians, over many years) were unable to heal. This woman had tried everything to find a cure for this ailment. Then one day she is out in the street as Jesus is walking by. She’d heard the reports about Him (v.27) and knew that He was a healer. She knew that He had healed others and this gave her hope.

At this time Jesus is on His way to Jairus’ house to heal his daughter (v.22-23). The crowd is large and the woman thinks, “I won’t bother Him. I’ll just reach out and touch Him. He’ll never know and maybe, just maybe,…yes, I believe it will…be enough to heal me.” And possibly she is desperately thinking, “Let it be enough.” So she reaches out her hand and touches His garment. Surprisingly Jesus notices her touch and stops. He turns and asks (although He probably didn’t need to ask – although maybe in His humanity He did) who touched Him. The woman is honest – she is also overwhelmed. And maybe like the disciples (v.31) she is surprised that He even noticed that she had touched Him. But, she feels different. She can tell that the bleeding has stopped. She knows she has been healed! So she falls to her knees, trembling and tells Him, “Lord, it was me.” Her sense of gratitude must have been overflowing. The bible doesn’t say, but I wonder if she wept? I picture her there, at Jesus’ feet, on her knees, tears flowing and bathing His feet, her body trembling, her mind overwhelmed and rejoicing…

The bible says she told Him the “whole truth”.

“I touched you.”

And He said to her (v.34), “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”

This morning as I read this passage – and I encourage you to read it too from your own bible – I couldn’t help but think about how we so often struggle with sin for years and years when all we really need to do is “touch his garment”. The passage doesn’t talk about the woman’s sin…but isn’t it the same - not sin and sickness - but the similarity between the flow of blood she had for years and years and how we struggle with sin for years and years even after we become Christians. I can’t help but think that this shouldn’t be. That God didn’t create us for this – that He created us for victory – and that He gave His life/the life of His only begotten Son, that we might have it. I wonder if we simply need to reach out in faith and touch His garment?

Oh, that poor sinners would go to Jesus, believing in the power of His blessed substitutionary work, and they would soon learn the power of His gracious touch. That hand that multiplied the loaves, that saved sinking Peter, that upholds afflicted saints, that crowns believers, that same hand will touch every seeking sinner and in a moment make him clean.  The love of Jesus is the source of salvation.  He loves, He looks, He touches us, and we live!  -Charles H. Spurgeon

Voice of the Martyrs web-site says that over 500,000 of these have been ordered!!! Even the President has one. Praise the Lord!  

As you are watching the Olympics (and do watch it because this is a history in the making - weren’t the opening ceremonies amazing!), please remember that Christians in China are being persecuted every day and that to be a Christian in China is very dangerous. Please keep these precious men and women (and children) in your prayers.

Btw, these bracelets are a great way to involve your children in praying for missionaries – but even if you don’t have the prayer bands at least turn on the Olympics now and then and take the opportunity to involve your children in history and tell them that outside the doors of the beautiful, magnificent Olympic complex there are many brave godly men and women who risk their lives daily for the sake of the gospel. And pray that the message that these saints strive daily to share – in a language that is often completely foreign (and very difficult to learn) to them - is received and that many, many, many will turn to Christ.

I define surrender in two words: “Yes, Lord.”

When I was younger (and a relatively new Christian) Louie Giglio came to my church and taught many summer Sunday night services. (I think he did this for at least two years.) During one session he taught on Isaiah 26:8 and I’ve never forgotten him reading the passage and saying, “For Your Name and Your renown, O Lord…”  

That night at the altar I changed. My thinking changed, my heart changed.

For Your Name and Your renown, O Lord.

And although I didn’t realize it at the time these two words (Yes, Lord.) and this verse (Isaiah 26:8) would become my definition of surrender.

Yes, Lord. For Your Name and Your renown I will ________________.

I daily try to live this out…but more often than not I fail. I’m weak.

It’s a little like walking on water. Often like Peter I start to sink. Often I don’t like it because it requires something of me -- me.

Often I forget, and I get afraid, and selfishness rears its ugly head (because the opposite of surrender is self) but after awhile I remember again…and I step out onto the water once more. Thankfully I’m not out there alone.

So thankful for grace.

in baptism;

raised to walk in the newness of life.

Last weekend Mark and I were privileged to witness a rededication baptism. (And a rededication wedding.)

On the way home (at close to midnight) Mark and I talked about baptism.

About the symbolic significance of it…about our sins being “buried” with Christ. About how going down into the water should be done with a sorrowful heart. Not sorrow for the loss of our old life, but sorrow for the sins we have committed against Christ.

Our sinless Savior.

For love.

And about how the rising out of the water should be a time of rejoicing. We should clap and sing and praise the Lord. Our sins are buried. They are no more. We have become new creatures…raised to walk in the newness (Christ-likeness) of life. 

(If you happen to have read Dekker’s Circle Trilogy -- we are no longer “Scabs” the ugliness on our outside and inside has been washed away, we have been buried in the water with Elyon and raised clean… we are Albinos.)

Salvation.

Buried with Him in baptism; raised to walk in the newness of life.

The next day as I was cleaning the house and listening to KSBJ the song Mighty to Save came on the radio. When I heard it I thought that this song would have been the perfect song to end the night with. A song of rejoicing…

There used to be a time in our church when (in the old days of hymn singing) the service would end with a song (the title of which I do not know) which went something like this “We go out with joy”.  

It was a joyful song and when we left church we did “go out with joy”.  So when I heard Mighty to Save I thought, “It is a ‘go out with joy song’.”

So…it has been on my heart…and this song has been in my mind all week…so here it is…dedicated to you and you…you know who you are.

He is mighty to save.

Lest I forget Gethsemane,

Lest I forget Thine agony;

Lest I forget Thy love for me,

Lead me to Calvery

      -Jennie Evelyn Hussey

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb taking the spices they had prepared.  And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.  While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel.  And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?  He is not here, but has risen. …” -Luke 24:1-6

…just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in the newness of life.  –Romans 6:4

He is Risen!

My calling as a mother is the same as any other Christian’s:  to fulfill God’s will for our lives and to glorify Him.  This means I am to follow the Lord’s design for my marriage—cleaving to my husband, supporting him, honoring him, loving him as my own flesh.  I am to be a careful steward of the world in which I live.  I am to seek opportunities to bring God’s message of redemption to other’s, to make full use of the gifts and talents He has placed in my life to bring Him glory and further His kingdom.  And I am to delight in Him and worship Him and praise Him in whatever circumstance I find myself.

But that’s just the point.  Because God has blessed me with a husband and children, a part of His call to me is to follow His plan for families.  And that means I am to shepherd the hearts of the children whom He has providentially placed in my care.  I am to care for them tenderly and to partner with God and my husband in leading my children to know and love His Word and to follow His will.

This design doesn’t mean I have to lose myself in my children’s lives.  On the contrary, following God’s design for living is the true key to finding myself — to becoming the person He had in mind for me all along.  And saying yes to the mission of motherhood has certainly not meant giving up my ministry.  To a great extent, it is my ministry.

                                     - Sally Clarkson

Amen.

Read more in The Mission of Motherhood by Sally Clarkson.

I grasp…               

Dawn breaking, another cloudy day.

Gray morning

Early

In bed, thoughts swirl – a feeling of revelation, and then, loss…

Thoughts flutter away. I try to grab them.

Thoughts swirl. Clouds break apart.

Verses resound in my mind…

“When you pray…”

Hypocrites

Synagogues

Standing in the street to be seen by men.

Confusion. A cloudy day.

How does this fit Lord?

Someone said, “Heart attitudes…” I think, “Attitudes of the heart.”

Wives. Women. Husbands. Families. Attitudes?

Prayer

More verses. “But when you pray, go into your room and close the door.”

Lord…? Matthew 6:6. Verses resound…But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

I grasp. A real closet? Praying on the streets?

Thoughts swirl and race away.

Clouds race across the sky. Gray morning. Dawn breaking.

Help my understanding!

Is my table enough? Is what I do enough? Is it wrong?

My family sees…now the world sees…am I standing on the street corner babbling?

Forgive…

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your Name…

Confusion. Clouds swirl. Thoughts flutter.

Pray in the secret…lifting him up to God…clouds breaking…

Don’t stand on the street corner…our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Pray for him but don’t babble to your friends.

Husbands, wives…love one another…verses resound…clouds race across the sky…gray morning…if you forgive your husband when he sins (is less than perfect) against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. Love.

Dawn breaking, another cloudy day, gray morning. Early. Revelation. Reflecting on Matthew 6.

God hears…help my understanding.

blessings,

dani

“For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.” (Matthew 6:14)