"Your lives, like salt, are to season and preserve. So don’t lose your flavor, and preserve the peace in your union with one another.” (Mark 9:50b, TPT)Confession time: my tendency in life is to be a peace keeper. Peace keepers try to smooth over differences. Sometimes this works, but if you do not get at the core of what causes the conflict, you can spend a lifetime smoothing over differences. De...  Read More

"Rabbi, it’s good for us to be here. Let’s set up three shelters..." (Mark 9:5, CSB) It seems ironic that we are reading about the celebration of the Festival of Shelters (Numbers 29:12-40) on the day we read Peter's spontaneous outburst. Shelters was a reminder to Israel through their history that God provided shelter, food and clothing for His children through 40 years of wandering in the wilder...  Read More

Imagine the gall of rebuking Jesus (Mark 8:32). The audacity of Peter is magnified by his confession of who Christ is (Mark 8:29; Matthew 16:16). It was truly inconvenient for Peter's Messiah to  be opposed by the powers that be and subject to their tyranny, let alone, die. All of a sudden the student tries to school the Master, the follower lead the Lord. Jesus would have none of that! He would n...  Read More

"Don't you understand yet?" (Mark 8:21)It seems to be a part of the human condition. Balak would not relent...offering more sacrifices from different vantage points making greater threats would not change God's mind. All this did was give God an opportunity to reinforce His plan and purpose, and out of this came passages that speak life into our day and point wise men (and women) to Jesus (Numbers...  Read More

"He does everything well!" (Mark 7:37)What amazes the crowd (i.e., those who walk around with Jesus observing Him) is His core value: God's glory that is evidenced in His words and actions. Do you remember the response of the crowds to His excellent sermon? The crowds were amazed because He spoke with authority, not like the religious leaders who were so busy quoting everyone else that they could ...  Read More

Today we will focus on the sacrament of baptism in our 'We Believe' series of Sunday sermons. You will hear an expression I first remember hearing from one of my seminary professors, Dr. Rob Staples: 'an outward sign of an inward grace.' Our reading today illustrates that well (Mark 7:1-23*). Ceremonial washing was a part of ritual worship established in the days of Moses in the wilderness. It ext...  Read More