Monthly Archives: April 2013

"And He marveled because of their unbelief." Mark 6:6

Some things Jesus cannot do. That's what Mark tells us.

In the sixth chapter of his Gospel he described Jesus' return to his hometown. As was His habit He taught in the synagogue, and the crowd was amazed at His teaching. But their amazement seems to have a different quality from the crowd's amazement at the Sermon on the Mount. There, the people heard a message that rang true and had an authority to it. It was appealing in a deeply satisfying way.

In His own hometown, however, the crowd was offended. They did not believe this carpenter could have such insight. They had seen Him as a boy. Yes He appeared to have wisdom, and yes they had heard about the mighty works, but where did He get all of this? Maybe jealousy was the problem. Or, more likely, they simply did not want anyone coming in and upsetting their familiar religion and notions of what God is really like. Whatever the case, Jesus commented that a prophet is seldom honored in his own hometown.

Then Mark notes for us: "he could do no mighty work there except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them." He could do no mighty work there. Some things Jesus can't do. That phrase has stuck with me since I heard it from a professor at seminary when we studied this part of the Gospel of Mark. It was Dr. Simmons who told of using this in a sermon one time only to have a man come up to him afterward, quite agitated, and claim, "there's nothing my Jesus can't do."

Well, of course, that man is right on one level. Jesus, God, is able to do anything. He is omnipotent (all powerful) and sovereign (not subject to anything or anyone), but He has obviously put a limit of some nature and extent on what He will or will not do. In this story from the Gospel of Mark we clearly see that He was unwilling to force himself on anyone. He would not cross the line He had drawn. Therefore, He was unable to do a mighty work there.

The sixth verse takes us to the heart of the matter. "Jesus marveled at their unbelief." There's the problem. Unbelief. The word belief, of course, is the same as the word faith. They had no faith. Jesus will not enter a life unless faith has opened the door. He is not in the habit of kicking in the door. He could, but forced obedience does not produce the character He really desires. Only belief, trust and submission can produce the love God really wants from us.

Faith at its root is an openness to God. When He finds faith He performs a mighty work. When He finds unbelief, He waits. By our lack of faith, trust, and obedience we can limit what God would do in our midst.

God will bless you today. What you see and hear from Him may be meager or plentiful. It depends on faith. Be open to God. The Creator wants to reveal Himself more clearly to you today. Welcome Him in faith.

Grace,

Dr. Terry Ellis

April 29, 2013

"Suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope." Romans 5:3-4

One week ago another tragedy gashed our nation and shattered us. The bombing in Boston is the latest in a never-ending string of collective and personal tragedies. It overshadows, for a while, everything else. Have we already forgotten about the Newtown shootings? We all must move on in our own way and in the grace God gives us. But we must never forget the lessons we can learn through suffering of any kind.

In one of the most memorable and moving passages in the New Testament, Paul wrote of a kind of "cycle of hope" (see Romans 5:3-4). He believed hope in God through Christ was inexhaustible, and that God transforms all suffering into strength and even greater hope. Paul used three very important words to describe this cycle.

The first is suffering. The word means to crush, press, compress, and squeeze. It is derived from a Greek word that means "to break," and refers to tribulation, trouble, and affliction. Suffering is a fact of human life. It is an uncomfortable echo of the original Breaking, our Fall into sin. God did not create suffering, but the cross stands as His ultimate effort to reverse its effects.

Suffering leads to endurance. This is one of the two great Greek words for patience, and this one refers to bearing up under stressful circumstances (the other word refers to bearing up with stressful people.) Christian endurance refuses to surrender to circumstances or succumb to suffering.

The third word is character, and this is what endurance produces. It refers to something that is proved or has met the criterion of a test. You may have heard it said that "tough times reveal character." While true, the New Testament teaches us that tough times build character, and that is certainly the meaning in Romans. It is simply an uncomfortable fact of life that the only way we grow is through facing pain and refusing to give in.

If you enter into suffering with hope, then you emerge with stronger endurance and character. Of course, this cycle may take a very long and uncomfortable time. What is true physically is also true spiritually, in this case. The pain is usually quick and intense in its coming. The healing is slow.

The great truth of Christianity is that we do not face pain or stress alone. We do not grow character ourselves. We walk with Christ, who walks with us, and He guides us through darkest times with the light of hope. Another tragedy will come, of that we can be sure. But we can also embrace hope, always looking for the eternal dawning of God's light.

Grace,

Dr. Terry Ellis

April 23, 2013

"Though He was a Son He learned obedience through what He suffered." Hebrews 5:8

The very thought sounds vaguely blasphemous. Jesus learned something? That's precisely what the writer of Hebrews tells us, and if accept the full humanity of Jesus then we must take some uncomfortable things very seriously.

Hebrews 5:8 is part of a line of reasoning that starts at 4:14 and goes through 5:10. We learn a great deal about Jesus. We learn that He was tested in every way, just as we are, yet without sin. Some people object that Jesus really could not understand the tests and temptations we face because He was sinless. But think about it. Do you really know the full pressure of a temptation or a test when you give in to it? Or do you only feel the full strength when you resist completely. Jesus' sinlessness is precisely what makes Him able to sympathize with us (4:14).

Next we move to the paragraph that contains our key verse. It begins with a description of Jesus' prayers in the Garden of Gethsemane when "He offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to Him who was able to save Him from death" (5:7). He asked God to take the cup of suffering from Him. He asked not to die. God was able to save Him from death, but He did not. Instead, He gave Jesus the strength to face that terrible test. Jesus did not get what He wanted, but got something better.

Now we arrive back to the learning through obedience verse. What did Jesus learn? He learned that the full measure of obedience entails suffering and tests. In this broken world, we simply cannot expect to avoid all cuts and bruises, and many times they will be severe. But God has so arranged it, that if we trust Him, obey Him, then He transforms the suffering into the means of our perfection. God wastes no suffering. Even the small hammer blows can refine us.

Through obedient suffering Jesus became our "source of eternal salvation" (5:9). Think of what God is making you! Your suffering is not pointless. You are not a victim who resigns from life. Trust God. Stay faithful. Don't give up!

C.S. Lewis wrote, "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world."

Your pain, weakness, and failure do not disqualify you from His plan. You are bound for glory and see and hear echoes of it now. You simply have much to learn. Stay faithful and obedient no matter what.

Grace,

Dr. Terry Ellis

April 15, 2013

"Forgetting what lies behind…" Philippians 3:13

The main theme of Easter and Easter week is hope, and as "Red" from Shawshank Redemption put it "Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things." Easter hope is not just Easter insurance, i.e. we have to die to get the benefit. Hope does point you to the future and even draws you there, but it also blesses this very present day.

Part of being a "new creation in Christ" means discovering daily how we become new in Christ. The process of spiritual growth is sometimes frustratingly slow, but God is at work. He whispers and nudges and closes and opens and eventually you end up in a completely different place.

I like what I read from Ken Chafin a few years ago. After daily Holy Week services he took his Bible and for 24 hours, prayed and read. Here is what he heard God saying to Him. See if you can relate.

He said, "Kenneth, you're a little frightened; let me take your fear. Through the years, you've accumulated people that don't like you. You've let that bother you. Let me take that away from you. Let me take away your defensiveness and insecurity and bring to you a sense of peace, of boldness, of love, of forgiveness, of openness, and the willingness to risk." So I said to him: This is what I want at Easter, for the living Christ to come and take out of me everything that's deadly; deadly to others and deadly to myself. You see, this is the kind of thing that Christ is trying to do in our lives, but sometimes we want to hold onto the things that are killing us."

You do not have to be the same person, and there's probably quite a few things in each of us we need to let go of. You may be holding on to things that are killing you. God offers to work His grace into your life. It will be slow, but do not underestimate Him or the grace He brings to your life. This is the hope you have today as an Easter Promise.

We are now well after Easter. Has the open dimmed? Have you picked up again what you should have left alone? That's the real challenge. Peter encourages us in his letter to cast all of our burdens on God because He cares for us, and so we do. But then as we leave the throne of His mercy and grace we pick it up again and carry that unnatural and unhelpful burden around with us until the next time we decide to leave it alone.

All the slings and arrows of life take a little blood, and if we don't deal with them quickly, confessionally, and intentionally they will drain us of life. What holds you back from the post-Easter assurance you were created to enjoy? Is it guilt? Fear? Resentment? Whatever it is, quite it and forget it. God certainly has.

Grace,

Dr. Terry Ellis

April 7, 2013