Exodus: What's in your heart?

As the Egyptian army bore down on Israel pushing them towards the sea, the people were terrified. All they could see was sure death. Yet Moses saw something else and calmly spoke of the Lord's deliverance. Two groups looked at the same situation but did not see the same thing. All saw the chariots and spears but only one saw an opportunity for God. Most were ruled by the "concerns of men" while one was ruled by the "concerns of God."

Jesus rebuked Peter for mixing up his concerns. When Peter didn't want Jesus to die, Jesus rebuked him saying, "You don't have in mind the concerns of God but merely human concerns."

So today, when a city floods, do I see loss of buildings, money, materials? Or do I see how this might shape the soul and spirit of a people? When my car is hit, do I see financial loss, time spent on paperwork and tremendous inconvenience? Or do I see a window of opportunity to enter into the personal story of others that I would otherwise never meet? When I am sick, do I moan and make everyone else as miserable as me? Or do I rest in the opportunity to spend time refocusing my life?

Concerns of God versus concerns of men. Which one rules my heart? Which one sets my worldview?

Joshua 2; God here?

God seems to show up in the strangest places sometimes. Just when we think we have him all secure in nice church buildings, good Christian universities or well conducted small groups, he surprises us. In this chapter he worked through a prostitute to speak to spies. Their message then encouraged his chosen leader to boldly move forward.

Prostitutes and spies. Those are not the typical people we think of God working in. The story pushes our box open forcing us to remember that God is the God of heaven and earth (to use the words of Rahab). Reflecting on other stories of the Old Testament, God worked in Egyptian midwives, a sorcerer, foreign kings and even a donkey.

Today, then, where might I find God? Perhaps in a casual conversation in the hallway, the homeless man at the traffic light, the rebellious student or any one of a million other options. It seems that the primary issue is not if God is active around us but can we see him. An wise doctor once told me we can only diagnose what we look for; you can't diagnose a disease you are not familiar with. Likewise, we will never see God at work if we are not looking for him . . . whether in a church building or in the most unlikely places and people imaginable to us.

Lord, today, open the eyes of my soul and give me spiritual vision.

Mark 8:1-13; See the Need

It is intriguing that Jesus does not actually ask the apostles to feed this crowd. He simply points out the need. Then they begin to figure out how to respond.

So often in life God seems to operate this way. He simply presents needs to us. There are times, I must confess, that I am frustrated with others around me who can stroll by those needs without seeing a thing. How can they be so blind? How can they be so content in their blindness?

Yet the real difficulty comes in responding to any presented need. Like this story I often feel that what I have to work with is laughingly insufficient. Yet in this story the insufficient was made sufficient through Jesus' touch. They key will be to make myself remember that the next time I see a student who needs personal mentoring, a body of believers with no direction, a group stuck in confusion, etc.

To be honest the most lacking resources seem to be time and energy. In other words, there is an insufficient amount of me. Therefore the issue becomes do I believe that Jesus can touch and multiply me to meet the needs. Obviously I mentally assent to the concept and believe it in my heart. But will I default to that belief the next time I see a need?

Mark 6:45-56; Comments

"They were completely amazed, for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened." It is often the comments of the narrator of stories like these that bother me the most. I could read through the entire account and contemplate the scene, be impressed with how Jesus could walk on water and control the winds. I could be encouraged about how he sent the apostles away to get some rest and how he pulled away himself. Then I bump into a comment by Mark (as perhaps told him by Peter).

Basically the punch of the comment is "if you think that is amazing it's because you don't understand anything yet. You really don't understand that Jesus is God. You don't get it, do you?"

And the sad thing is that I have to admit that he is correct. If I saw Jesus walking on water or controlling a storm, I would still be impressed. My natural self is so entrenched in the rules of this physical world that I forget that he lives by another set of rules. I forget that God is not limited like me.

I wonder how many times God did something last week so outside of my realm of understanding that I totally missed seeing him at work. How many times did he answer prayers last month but I gave credit to some person changing their mind or some disease not being as bad as we thought. How many times, I wonder, has he calmed storms around me or walked by me and I was so amazed at the change in normal circumstances that I either totally missed him or revealed my total lack of faith in him by the way he answered. In those moments, Mark would say "the only reason that you are so amazed right now is that you really don't understand God."

I really don't like those comments . . . because they cut so deep.