I wish church really was a meeting of like-minded people seeking to worship God, open the Scriptures, sing songs of praise, encourage one another, talk through things, give testimonies of God's grace in their lives.
In Matthew 16 Jesus was crossing the Sea of Galilee with His disciples and He had a moment with them that makes me wonder how frustrated He was by their lack of spiritual thinking. Here was the exchange:
"When they went across the lake, the disciples forgot to take bread. "Be careful," Jesus said to them. "Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees."
They discussed this among themselves and said, "It is because we didn't bring any bread."
Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked, "You of little faith, why are you talking among yourselves about having no bread? Do you still not understand? Don't you remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? How is it you don't understand that I was not talking to you about bread? But be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees." Then they understood that he was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees."
It's like He's saying, "Come on - stay with Me here. Every moment with you, every conversation, is spiritual. Get your minds off the bread of this world. Think with me."
We are so earth-bound and it is frustrating. Our lives are backward. We punch our time in at church so we can back to our lives. Every moment should be church. Every conversation spiritual, even if it's about the weather. Or bread.
2 comments:
That's funny...I was reading Mark 8 yesterday and came across the same story. I felt like Jesus was frustrated...these disciples had seen all the miracles that Jesus did and didn't have the faith that he'd provide food for them after he fed 4,000 and 5,000 on 2 separate occassions.
We beat ourselves at times because we fail to have the Faith that we want to have...but are we really failing? The disciples saw the miracles and still had doubt. We are basing our belief on FAITH, not EYE WITNESS events. That says a lot.
I think we need to make sure we keep an open heart - God gets us through situations and then we forget and doubt he'll do it for us in the future as new trials come up in our life. We need to learn from what the disciples did in error - do not doubt Christ!
And by the way, if I were the blind man in Mark 8:24, I don't think I'd tell Jesus that my vision was blury. That guy had some guts!
good stuff tdags! i learned a bit about the pharisees and the saducees in class tonight. they were on opposite ends of the political/religious spectrum, but both carried an unbearable yoke.
Jesus called his disciple to carry his yoke. easy and light. grace. it's all spiritual. the pharisees and saducees determined salvation through merit and success. worldly goals. that's not the way of Christ.
good stuff indeed!
dave
Post a Comment