12 April 10
Greetings, dear family and friends in cyberland...
It gives me a great deal of pleasure to be coming to you again with
another exciting broadcast from our gorgeous fiasco headquarters in
Molalla, Oregon. Remember, my dear friends, this is a
listerner-supported ministry...so keep those cards and letters
coming. Oh phooey with that stuff...I'm sure you can see my
tongue in my cheek.
Even as I type this, a very difficult situation is being dropped in my/our lap. Pray for us.
And be blessed.
Love and prayers.
Dad/Ray
12 April 2010
Passage: Mark 7:1-23
Focus:
“The Pharisees and all the other Jews do not eat unless they give their
hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the
elders.” Mark 7:3.
Take note of what begins this passage and prompts Jesus’
teaching. The Jewish legalists are irritated over seeing Jesus’
disciples eating in a way that violated their sacred tradition of
ceremonial washing and state their complaint to Jesus. Jesus
takes them by surprise when He responds with a hot rebuke against their
glaring hypocrisy and their imbalanced preoccupation with tradition and
ceremony over and above godly principles.
Please pay careful attention to what Jesus is really saying. He
is delivering a key concept that is vital for a victorious Christian
life. Jesus establishes its importance when he says, “Listen to
me, everyone, and understand this.” If Jesus said that this is
something important to understand, let’s agree that it is something
important to understand. Let’s avoid the pitfall of being dull—a
negative condition afflicting the disciples and which Jesus clearly
condemned.
Throughout scripture we see the dichotomy of man addressed. We
learn that man is composed of both an exterior (the outside, the
physical, the outward appearance, the body), and an interior (the
inside, the soul and spirit, the center, the heart). Jesus is
proclaiming in no uncertain terms that the interior of a man is far far
FAR more important in establishing either his righteousness or
unrighteousness before God than his exterior.
Let’s understand that ceremony is a focus on the exterior.
Rightly used, it is to be a true expression of the interior. So
then ceremonial anything is really quite worthless if it does not
involve the interior—the heart. A ceremonial wedding is not very
healthy or lasting if it does not involve a heart-level love and
commitment to each other as a husband and wife. A ceremonial
baptism is of no value that does not accompany the heart condition of
being “dead to sin, but alive to God” (Rom. 6:11). Ceremonial
Holy Communion is of no value if it does not reflect the heart’s hunger
for and identification with Christ (Gal. 2:20). Ceremonial
conversion of going forward in an altar call and “saying” a prayer is
useless if it is not a manifestation of a heart-felt love for Christ
and surrender to His Lordship. Make sure that this important
truth expounded by Jesus always remains within the boundaries of your
understanding.
"You are as close to God right now as you want to be."