February 27
Lev 20:22-22:16 | PS 43:1-5 | Prov 10:18 | Mark 9:1-29
Why read through the entirety of Scripture year after year? Because I want to take in the fullness of God, better appreciate the character of God, etc. If we hang around in our favorite books, or worse than that fail to read the Bible at all, then we are stuck with a limited and often distorted view of who God actually is. Mischaracterizing God is a serious thing. It prevents us from fully trusting Him and it often removes the desire for others to consider Him. It doesn't need to be quoted, it needs to be embraced and applied. God does not play hide and seek with us. His desire is for us to enter into relationship with Him. Just as our relationships with our spouses, children, parents, etc. involve frequent engaging, so does our relationship with God.
When Jesus asked His disciples "But who do you say that I am?" in Mark 8:29, Peter correctly answered, "You are the Christ". But no sooner does Peter make this amazing declaration of faith that Jesus talks about His soon to come suffering, rejection, death and resurrection. To which we read the response in 8:32-33, "...Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. But when He had turned around and looked at His disciples, He rebuked Peter, saying, “Get behind Me, Satan! For you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”" Peter meant well and his statement was made out of love for Jesus, but he didn't fully comprehend who Jesus was. Though there is a chapter break, realize that when Mark wrote this there were no such breaks, as his words went fluidly into the next portion. We read in 9:2-4, "Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John, and led them up on a high mountain apart by themselves; and He was transfigured before them. His clothes became shining, exceedingly white, like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them. And Elijah appeared to them with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus." Jesus gave them an eyewitness account of His deity. Removing the deity or the humanity of the Person of Jesus leads to mischaracterizing who the Son of God is.
How does this impact us? We read in Mark 9:22-24, as the father of a demon possessed boy approaches Jesus, "...But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”" So many of us struggle with unbelief. We might be believers in Jesus, but we place limitations on Him, not fully comprehending who He is, and the true nature of His character. Yes, we are given trials. Yes, we will have our struggles. The world is our training ground, and God loves us so much that His desire is for us to desperately seek Him. But so many of us allow addictions, pervasive sins, etc. to linger longer than they have to because we have not fully trusted that our God can remove them. It's not that He won't, it's often that we don't fully believe that He can or that He wants to, which brings us back to the importance of understanding the character of God through the fullness of Scripture.
Messages from Pastor Lloyd Pulley: