In verses 4-8, we see the entrance of John the Baptist. Can’t you just picture him with this description. And you know what? He looks different, doesn’t he? Mark makes it clear to us that he is not like the other religious leaders. Not in his dress, not in his actions (baptism of repentance) and not in his message – the savior is coming.
Are you feeling discouraged?
Depressed?
Defeated?
Frustrated?
Is everything a struggle?
Are we willing to present our bodies as a living sacrifice? To discover what it means to live in the freedom of holy sexuality? To fight for our cardiovascular health so we can continue to be Christ’s hands and feet to others? To step out in deep courage and faith and bear a child we may raise or may put in the care of someone else to raise when the pregnancy represented chaos or uncertainty or crisis? To swab the inside of a cheek so that we’re entered in a database of potential bone marrow donors?
How did we get here? We thought we were strong, faithful, and following where God led. But what if we weren’t?
Are we free to follow Christ quickly, lightly, quickly comprehending his ways? That is a question worth losing sleep over.
When nothing stands between our heart and God’s heart, God can become our hiding place rather than the One from whom we hide.
Do not think for an instant that the evil that pulls the trigger in a Bible study at a black church is different than the evil that drives ISIS recruits to kill Christians; it is the same evil. Christians died worshiping.
You need to have some area in your life, some space in your life, where you have to be the clueless follower.
Seasoned Christians seem stable because they know the enjoyment of measuring growth – but they don’t depend on those outward signs of success to affirm their character.
I’m shaking again, my knees are weak because I don’t know what I’m seeing – lightning with hands and feet? A thousand stars looking at me, blinking? I’m shaking all over, and then the light begins to speak, and it sounds like the voice is coming from the night sky, from the farthest stars, and from right next to me, at the same time.
After all – a great deal of the New Testament was written by believers, to believers, about believers, in order to encourage believers.
But it would seem that one of the Holy Spirit’s favorite ways to work is by doing remarkable things through shared humility. And by birthing unity through Spirit-infused shared humility.
