Tag Archives: fire

Drastic Mutilation

July 27, 2015Bible Studyfire, little ones, millstone, stumbleLuella Campbell

DRASTIC MUTILATION

‘If anyone causes one of these little ones– those who believe in me – to stumble. It would be better for him if a large millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.

If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It were better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and go to hell. And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell where ‘the worms that eat them do not die and the fire is not quenched.

Everyone will be salted with fire. ‘Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt among yourselves, and be at peace with one another.’ (Mark 9: 42-50).

What Jesus was talking about makes no sense to a westerner without an understanding of Hebrew background and rabbinic teaching methods. First of all, Jesus used a teaching method here called hyperbole or exaggeration. What He said was never intended to be taken literally, and His disciples understood that.

He was not telling His disciples to mutilate themselves in order to get rid of sin. That would contradict what He had already taught them, that sin is not about behaviour first of all; sin begins in the heart and issues in words and behaviour. What would be the point of cutting off hands or feet or plucking out an eye without a change of heart? Equally useless are the rules about diet and washing the body, because none of these things have any effect on the heart.

What did Jesus mean, then? He was speaking to His disciples in the context of John’s information that they had stopped a man from casting out demons in His name because he was not “one of them”. Jesus was indignant because they were being exclusive, as though He belonged to them and to no one else. He opened the door for anyone to follow Him. If they were not against Him, they were for Him.

What did He mean by “little ones”? He used this expression not only for children but also for the ordinary people who followed Him. They were “little ones” in the sense that they were simple and down-to-earth, like children. They had no high-and-mighty ideas about themselves unlike the religious leaders who thought they were a cut above everyone else and that they had exclusive rights to the understanding of the Torah.

Jesus had to use strong words to get them to understand that their attitude was unacceptable to Him. They were sinning against Jesus and against the man by stopping him from following Jesus. By “cutting off” hand or foot or “plucking out” an eye that offended, Jesus was conveying the need for a drastic change of attitude. “Get rid of whatever causes you to sin against another person.”

What these men needed to do was not to mutilate their bodies in order to change the attitude but to mutilate their hearts. The Apostle Paul would take this thought ever further. In the light of Jesus’s death, in order to change one’s attitude, one was to reckon oneself dead to sin and alive to God.

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? (Rom. 6: 1-2).

The use of the word gehenna (translated “hell”) is also misunderstood. Gehenna was the city rubbish dump outside Jerusalem in the valley of Hinnom where the fire burned continually and where the garbage was thrown, including the bodies of criminals. Jesus was not referring to a place of eternal torment but a place where worthless rubbish was destroyed. His words were a warning that a person who had both hands, both feet and both eyes, but whose heart was corrupted by sin, would be utterly destroyed, like the garbage in the city dump.

Was He advocating a literal fire that never went out? Was He saying that people will burn forever in hell? We don’t know. What we do know is that what He said was intended not to scare people out of hell and into heaven, but to warn them of the dangers of selfishness which issue from a corrupted heart. If we want to experience real life with Him, we must get rid of the attitudes that diminish and dehumanise us.

This is not a “self-help” programme but a response to what He did for us. He died to remove sin and change our hearts. Without that, whatever changes we may make will merely be cosmetic. He calls us to follow Him. Only through faith in Him can we experience the deliverance He achieved through the cross. He put sin to death when He died. Now we can enter into real like by dying to sin with Him.

Since you died with Christ . . . Since you have been raised with Christ, set you hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God (Col. 2: 20a; 3:1).

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Failure

July 23, 2015Bible Studyfire, Spirit, unbelief, waterLuella Campbell

FAILURE

When they came to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and the teachers of the law arguing with them. As soon as the people saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with wonder and ran to greet Him. ‘What are you arguing with them about?’ He asked. A man in the crowd answered, ‘Teacher, I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech. Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not.’ (Mark 9:14-18).

Jesus’ disciples weren’t doing very well, were they? The ones with Him up the mountain were hopelessly uncomprehending and the ones down below were out of their depth with a demon-possessed boy. They were supposed to be practising to be disciples but all they could produce at this stage was failure.

Imagine the disappointment and exasperation the father of the boy must have felt! Of course he understood that these men were followers of Jesus and that they, therefore, should be able to do what He did. But they couldn’t. The evil spirit just would not obey them. Didn’t the spirit know that he was supposed to get out when they told it to? Apparently not.

‘You unbelieving generation,’ Jesus replied, ‘how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.’ (Mark 9: 19).

Jesus exploded! After all this time with them, all they could produce was unbelief and failure. What was wrong with them? How long would it take Him to convince these knuckleheads that He was who He was and that He had given them authority to do what He did? Exasperated, He called for the boy to be brought to Him. What was the use of having disciples when He had to do it all Himself?

What was their problem? His outburst, in the words of Eugene Peterson (The Message), reveal their mind-set, still stuck on their circumstances instead of being aware of God.

‘What a generation! No sense of God! How many times do I have to go over these things? How much longer do I have to put up with this?

In this outburst, Jesus revealed the difference between the attitude of the disciples and His attitude – God-awareness. Adam and Eve lost their God-awareness the moment they disobeyed Him and stepped out of His felt presence. They hid from Him because they were afraid. Why were they afraid? They were aware of their nakedness? What happened to change everything? Because of their rebellion, they became painfully self-aware and their self-awareness took over.

Jesus was so God-conscious, so one with the Father, that He did everything in God. There was no situation too big for Him to handle because He and the Holy Spirit were one. Yes, Jesus was frustrated with His disciples and yet, failure was as much, if not more, their training ground as success. Isn’t it true that we learn more from our failures than from our successes?

Jesus was annoyed but not fazed by their inability to drive out the demon. He knew that when the Holy Spirit fell on them, they would be launched into a new kind of life, filled with revelation and authority way beyond their wildest dreams. This is still boot-camp. They were still battling with the basics, but their time was coming.

So they brought him. When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth.

Jesus asked the boy’s father, ‘How long has he been like this?’ ‘From childhood,’ he answered. ‘It has often thrown him into the fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us. ‘If you can’? said Jesus. ‘Everything is possible for one who believes.’ (Mark 9: 20-23).

Now we are beginning to understand why the disciples failed with this boy. This was a particularly stubborn and defiant demon. It even tried to resist Jesus. It had been squatting in this boy for years and was not about to give way without a fight.

The father’s wistful request brought an indignant retort from Jesus. “If you can”? He echoed. Of course He could. He would never ignore a cry for help. But His mercy needed trust. If the father trusted Jesus, it would happen.

Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, ‘I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!’ (Mark 9: 24).

Now it was all coming together – God-consciousness that made them more aware of God than the circumstances, and the authority that flowed from that God-consciousness; and confidence that Jesus could do it. This was a lesson the disciples had to learn. It was not about them. It was about Him. They could do it because He said so and He had confidence in their confidence in Him.

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Check out my Blog site – www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com

Breakfast On The Beach

June 14, 2014Bible Studybeach, bread, fire, fish, JesusLuella Campbell

BREAKFAST ON THE BEACH

“As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, ‘It is the Lord,’ he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water. The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards.” John 21:7b-8.

How predictable of Peter! He was the first to respond. Unlike Judas, who had slunk away in his remorse and committed suicide, Peter yearned for another chance. Another chance to do what? To prove to Jesus that he was no coward, after all? That he could and would make good on his promise to stick with Him through thick and thin?

But now everything had changed. They were no longer trudging all over Israel with an itinerant rabbi. He was alive, yes, but He was different. He came and went in a flash. It was impossible to follow Him as they did before He died. The only thing Peter knew at that moment was that Jesus was on the beach and he wanted to get to Him as quickly as he could.

Why did Peter grab his cloak? The others could have given it to him when they reached the shore. To be uncovered above the ankles was regarded as nakedness. He couldn’t work with the encumbrance of his cloak so he took it off in the company of his fellow disciples, but in the presence of his Master he needed to be appropriately dressed, wet or not!

Was this Peter’s first encounter with Jesus after His resurrection? No, it wasn’t. He had been with the other disciples in the upper room when Jesus appeared to them the first time. Why was this occasion so special? I think Jesus planned a leisurely breakfast on the beach around a fire to trigger something in Peter he would never forget.

“When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread. Jesus said to them, ‘Bring some of the fish you have just caught.’ So Simon climbed back into the boat and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn.” John 21:9-11,

Can you picture the scene? Fish cooking slowly over a fire of hot coals. Jesus waiting for a few more fish from their catch. The other disciples sitting around the fire, warming their cold hands. Why was Jesus here? He never did anything without a reason. Every detail of this little scene had meaning.

For Peter, everything was happening at a maddeningly slow pace. Had Jesus showed up on the beach just to have a picnic breakfast with them? Why bread and fish? As he stood watching the fish cooking over the fire, many thoughts flooded his mind. Bread and fish triggered the memory of crowds of people sitting on the grass while he and the other disciples distributed pieces that miraculously multiplied in their hands. Who was this man who could do that?

He could hardly bear to look at the coals. The memory of his failure almost suffocated him. He would never forget the look in the eyes of his Master as He turned and looked at him; not “I told you so,” or “Why did you do it?” but “Oh Peter, my heart breaks for you.” Perhaps this was the meaning of the scene he could not escape. Did the Master want him to feel the terrible pain of his denial so that he would never step across that boundary again?

I have a sense that Jesus took him back to that moment — He could not be with Peter when it happened — so that He could walk with him through it again, not to condemn but to reinterpret it with him so that Peter could feel His forgiveness and never again be overwhelmed by guilt and shame. Peter had a job to do, and there was no sense in living in the past.

From Jesus’ perspective, Peter’s past had ceased to exist, washed clean by the blood He had shed on the cross. Only the His words could erase the guilt from Peter’s soul and set him free to live for his future and not from his past. The message he was to proclaim was one he had to experience so that he could preach it with passion.

Never again would the sound of a cock crowing or the sight of a fire of coals trigger the feelings of guilt and shame that had imprisoned him until that moment. Yes, Jesus had a reason for every detail of his little breakfast on the beach. He had a beloved brother who needed the reassurance that he was free from his emotional prison and recommissioned to do what he had been called to do. His failure had not disqualified him, only refined him so that he would know himself and his Master a little better.

Acknowledgement

Glimpses Of The Great God: Day Twenty Eight

December 11, 2013Devotionfire, John, Patmos, Son of Man, visionLuella Campbell

DAY TWENTY EIGHT

I, John….was on the island of Patmos

because of the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus….

On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit

and I heard a loud voice behind me like a trumpet…

I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me.

And when I turned I saw seven golden lamp stands,

and among the lamp stands was someone “like a son of man,”

dressed in a robe down to His feet

and with a golden sash around His chest.

His head and His hair were white like wool, as white as snow,

and His eyes were like blazing fire.

His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace,

and His voice was like the sound of rushing waters.

In His right hand were seven stars,

and out of His mouth came a sharp double-edged sword.

His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.

When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as though dead.

Revelation 1:9a, 10, 12-17

The Jesus we worship is not a baby in a cradle, a carpenter in his workshop or an itinerant preacher walking the dusty roads of Galilee. He is a glorious and glorified Lord, majestic, beautiful and so terrifying that John, who once leaned on His breast, “fell at His feet as though dead.” We need to lay aside the image of the human Jesus and focus on the risen Christ who is God and who stands in our place in the presence of the Father to intercede for us.

Glimpses Of The Great God; Day Ten

November 21, 2013Devotionfear not, fire, water, with youLuella Campbell

DAY TEN

But now, this is what the Lord says —

He who created you, O Jacob,

He who formed you, O Israel:

“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;

I have summoned you by name;

you are mine.

When you pass through the waters,

I will be with you;

and when you pass through the rivers,

they will not sweep over you.

When you walk through the fire,

you will not be burned;

the flames will not set you ablaze.

For I am the Lord, your God,

the Holy One of Israel, your Saviour…

Do not be afraid, for I am with you…

Isaiah 43:1-3a; 5a

What a wonderful description of our Redeemer! He is the God who is always with us. He does not always shield us from the troubles of life, but He does promise to be with us and to hold us steady through the flood and fire. Whatever trouble comes your way, God assures you that He is there. His very presence is all you need because calamity cannot overwhelm Him and as long as He holds your hand, you will stand steady and secure until the trouble is over. Why does God care so much for you? Simply because He bought you and you belong to Him. He will never allow you to be overcome by anything in this life. He will strengthen you to overcome every test for His glory.

Ebenezer Family Church

HE IS RISEN!