Mark 8

8:4 - Even the concrete realities of life don't hinder or restrain God's ability and willingness to move. It didn't matter that they were in a remote place and there was no food to buy. When God wants to do something He is not limited by our resources, politics, land, etc. God's will is accomplished wherever He wants it to be. We need to remember that so we leave lots of room for God to do the miraculous instead of having such little faith that God chooses not to move miraculously among us.

The disciples also ask if anyone can get food in a place like this. Well, Jesus isn't just anyone. AND NEITHER ARE YOU!!! When you accepted Jesus Christ and began your walk with Him you were changed. You are no longer just anyone and you need to remember that.

8:17-18 - ... Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? ... And don't you remember? - How would you honestly answer these questions if Jesus posed them to you?

8:29 - But what about you? Who do you say I am?

8:33 - Get behind me, Satan! You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns. - I look at this verse and it causes me to believe that when all I can think about are the human concerns I am thinking like Satan would have me think. When there is no room for God in my thinking Satan is winning. To be a follower of Christ is to consider the human, but focus on the godly.

8:34 - To be a disciple of Jesus you MUST: 1) deny yourself
2) take up your cross
3) follow Jesus
I think we are so familiar with this verse that it has lost meaning to us. To be a disciple you don;t pick one out of three. You MUST do all three. You must say no to yourself everyday (how good are you at that?), you must take up your cross, pay the price for your faith (do you carry a cross each day or just drag it around behind you?) and you have to follow Jesus. The last one seems pretty obvious, but what did you do today to actively follow Jesus instead of just checking in with Him and then doing what you had planned anyway?

8:36 - What good is it for you to gain the whole world, yet forfeit your soul? - Another way of asking this might be, what good is it to have the biggest church in town and yet lose your soul? Or, what good is it to become fire chief and yet lose your soul? What good is it to become debt-free and yet lose your soul? What good is it to become highly educated and yet lose your soul? What good is it to do ANYTHING and yet lose your soul? The question Jesus is asking is a question of focus and priority. Why do we keep putting other things in front of Christ? We know it won't be worth it in the long run and yet we keep doing it. We keep thinking other things will satisfy more. We know better. It is time we start reminding ourselves with how we make every decision that our souls are more important than whatever we are being offered or whatever we are chasing.

Love, Michael