Mark 8:16-21

"Enter with the password: 'Thank you!' Make yourselves at home, talking praise."

• Thank you for worship. It is completely life-centering, focusing my heart on what is real and what actually matters.
• Thank you for Sundays and the chance to just be today with family, to relax with pancakes and prosage and the paper! For a little more time to get lost in the Word.
• You have given me so much, and yet so often I catch myself wanting more. Thank you for providing for my every need and then some. May I give the blessing away today.

"By your words I see where I'm going; they throw a beam of light on my dark path."

Read Mark 8:16-21

The Pharisees had accosted Jesus in Dalmanoutha, asking Jesus to prove Himself with a “miraculous guarantee” in spite of the fact He had given plenty. He had ministered to Gentile pagans as well. The “Contaminating yeast of the Pharisees” may have included the desire for more miracles and signs; desire to minister to the right kind of people; to keep the rules; a Messiah that was only for the Jews; to gain power and authority; self; yeast that prevents people from finding freedom in the Lord.

The disciples' reaction to the “yeast of the Pharisees” talk was to turn to their immediate need for bread. They had likely witnessed the confrontations between Jesus and the Pharisees. They had also witnessed the freedom Jesus had brought to people: Jews, Samaritans, and even Gentile pagans. Their discussion was about immediacy. It was self-centered. It focused on their needs. It’s almost like they are saying, “The Pharisees would keep us from eating!” A great exercise in missing the point.

As Jesus reacts, I almost get the sense that His radar was out for discussions that revolved around the self/flesh. Hey, for every generation on earth He had witnessed what the self actually did to people. This is the first indication from Jesus that the disciples were way off track. To say this is about bread (physical need, satisfying the self) is to be blind to reality that was happening right in front of them. It proves that their heart was hardened, that Satan was successful in getting them to see this in terms of immediate gratification of the flesh rather than seeing reality with God’s eyes.

So, Jesus basically says, "OK, let’s go over this again. What did you just see, right in front of your face?" In Galilee, Jesus had made a huge meal from nothing, with mostly Jews in attendance. It should have hearkened memories of the Jews’ history with God. Manna and quail in the desert. Creating the world out of nothing. Bringing bread to Elijah at the brook Cherith. God providing when provision seemed impossible. Jesus doing the same, showing Himself to be the Son of God, even better than Moses or Elijah, and providing more than enough. Then He did the same for people who were also Gentiles and pagans. They had not experienced God the same way. For them, this was a new experience. It proved that Jesus was the real thing, not a no-god idol or a myth, but flesh and blood right in front of them, yet more than flesh and blood but God in the flesh! He was what they were searching for, and enslavement to a demonic master was no longer necessary. He is the Son of God, Savior for the whole world! (Maybe pagans and Pharisees weren't really that different, actually... either way of life in that day could easily make "self" into a no-god idol).

Jesus was basically telling them to change their viewpoint… it’s much bigger than they were seeing. It’s not about just you. It’s not about immediate gratification or the flesh. It’s not about just your people. It’s much greater! Open your eyes and see things with God’s eyes! So, “yeast of the Pharisees” changes even a bit here. Their yeast is self. It is immediacy. It is power-hoarding. It is flesh. It is limited and limiting. It is blindness—it is seeing the world through your own human eyes, unable to see with God’s, blind to the greatest reality of all. To them, miraculous signs would have only gratified their own flesh.

There are a few takeways for me here to apply to my life. First, I learn to keep in front of what God has done. How has He provided for me?

• Transportation. I have two vehicles that I didn’t even know I could have a few months ago but desperately needed.
• Family. Really, nothing brings me more happiness than my relationship with my wife. Nothing brings more joy than how awesome my children are.
• I am not hungry. I am not in need of shelter right now. I may take this stuff for granted, but it is a real provision of the Father, not something that I have just done for myself.
• Hope and a future. Not just something immediate, but something eternal in Jesus.

Second, I learn not to turn God’s action and provision for me into self-gratification.

• Don’t abuse the vehicles He’s given me. Care for them. Be good stewards of His provision.
• Daily return to God my family. It’s not my family to do what I want with. It’s His, and He’s given them all to me to care for and cherish, to pray for and with, to lead to Jesus each day.
• Don’t overindulge. He hasn’t sheltered me to want for something bigger and better. He hasn’t fed me to be a glutton. He hasn’t given so I can horde. Be satisfied. Be temperate. Be modest and simple. Look for ways to be generous in spirit and in practice.
• Don’t abuse hope and future. Eternal life isn’t license to do want I want. My future isn’t about my self. It’s about Jesus and who He wants me to be in Him. Value this hope each day with passionate obedience, by caring for the gifts and talents I’ve been given. Die to self daily. Live in Christ. Be full of His heart and His Spirit. Be a new person today!

Father, I plead with you, put me to death. Put me on Christ to be taken to the cross. But put me on Him so that I’ll be raised in Him! Give me a new heart today in place of my old, stony, worn-out and wretched heart. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit so I’ll live new in Christ, passionately following You, desiring You and Your Word, obeying You, and growing in You. Give me your mind, thinking, reacting, and feeling as You. Give me Your nature to see, hear, and touch the world as You would, and to speak as only You would speak. May my life be unexplainable except that the Holy Spirit is there and I live in Christ. I am a new creation! I am completely changed! “The old has gone! Behold, the new life is burgeoning today!” May I care for what You have given me, not being a glutton or a hoarder, but satisfied, temperate, and generous.

Fling laboring harvesters into Your harvest field today. Please, begin with me.

"Pile your troubles on God's shoulders—he'll carry your load, he'll help you out. He'll never let good people topple into ruin."

• Corine and Tommy
• Cynthia Hunter
• Hester and his family
• Your Spirit poured out on my family, all of us becoming disciples, taking up our cross(es) and following You.
• Your Spirit poured out on Carrollwood. Your protection. More people praying. More people becoming disciples, connecting to Christ, church, and community.
• Godly leadership for East Pasco.

Jesus... all!