"I'm like peter"

I loved the point mad in class about peter only having a few bad days. In our culture we seem to always focus more on negative aspects of things or people instead of positive qualities.

as noted in class we identify with the weakness of peter rather than his strength. But we do this with david too, in the oppposite way, we focus on him defeating the giant and leave out his shortcommings.

What i see in these men are ordinary people used inspite of themselves to accomplish extrordinary feats for the Lord. and that is how i want to relate to these men. GOd can use me, plain old, messed up, trying, me.

Everybody is a M. Night Shyamalan (We love the twist)

Mark's resurrection, assuming that it ends with 16:8, has been called incredibly negative and literary genius at the same time. I am a reader and I know that happy endings, as good as they make you feel, are not always inspiring. It is those movies and book that give you something unexpected or unfinished that leave you meditating on it all day.
The Dictionary addresses the kind of “fear” the women had and explained that it was awe not a fear of disobedience. Also, this is not the end, there is still Galilee. In Mark 14:28 he tells the disciples that after he was resurrected he will meet them in Galilee. Granted they had denied him and possible even lost faith, but I think I would hang out in Galilee for a few days just to be sure. The angel tells the women that he is going to Galilee (that’s a surprise) and that they would see him there.
This ending is not negative, it leaves the reader with anticipation of Galilee and the choice of what to do with their own fear and belief. Mark has this misunderstanding disciples theme, and the women do the same. Mark wants us to see and understand and not to fear.

Eschatology is for the birds!

Just some ramblings...

So, I guess the class discussion that I will be referring to took place sometime during the week before Spring Break, but I have really been pondereing it over during the past few weeks and have even talked to others about it. I think that the dialogue of Jesus in Mark 13 says a lot about the role of the Trinity within the Gospels. The simple fact that Jesus did not know the hour of the socond coming is astonishing and something that I will never understand. I also believe that some Christians today get too wrapped up in trying to learn about the signs leading up to and the exact time of the eschaton that we forget to do the things that are important now, such as making disciples and showing the love of Christ to others. Jesus tells the disciples to 'Stay Awake" (13:37). Forgive me for using an allegory (Please don't tell Gore), but perhaps we should also "stay awake" not to the signs of the end of the age, but to the commands and the ministry that we have been given.

-Steven

The ending of Mark

As i was reading the ending of Mark today for my readings it made me think yet again what i really think abou it. I know there are a lot of different view points on whether it is true or false, and i have always kind of just sat on the fence and never taken a side for what i believe. As I read it, I noticed something that i have never really thought about myself, those few verses just don't really sound like any of Mark. It's like why would Mark go on for 15 or so chapters sounding exactly alike and then in the last little bit he changes. It raises a lot of questions and I'm still on the fence, I'm looking forward to trying to get off the fence through this class.

Think BIG! Think STRONG!

In the first few verses of Mark chapter 16 we see that the Marys were heading to the tomb of Jesus to take care of His body as they would commonly do for all those who had died. The thing I found so interesting was that they contiplated which one of them was going to move this stone that was placed in front of the grave so that no one could get in there and take the body, to fake the resurrection of Jesus. They must have been thinking BIG and thinking STRONG of themselves to have even gone there to annoint the body. I really think it was there unknown faith in the LORD that He would give them the ability to roll the stone away so they could honor this great Man. We sometimes need to just think BIG and think STRONG when it comes to the service of the LORD for the LORD!

I often wonder if...........

I often wonder which disciple I would have been if I was one of Jesus original twelve. In class Monday as we talked about Judas and Peter, it amazed me at how awful these "men of God" followed him. I mean one helped the chief the priest and scribes capture Jesus and then the other practically spit in his face by denying him. I often wonder would I be one of these guys. It seems as though in my life I tend to see little bit of characteristics from both of these individual types. I might not deny Jesus with my mouth, but I do deny him with my life. People might hear my proclaim I am a Christian, but according to the way they see me living sometimes, I have never known him.

It amazes me that in our society today preachers, teachers, or just your normal run of the mill Christians can mess up one time and their lives be over. In recent years we have seen many preachers come under fire for ethical decisions they made(or didn't) and most of the time we do not see those preachers rebound.(except Jim Baker of course) See what amazes me about Peter is that he did rebound. That day changed Peter's life forever, as we know from scripture he went on to be one of the most influential preachers of all time. WOW! Maybe I do want to be like Peter, hopefully though I can use my past denials and move on.

Concerning the Death of Christ

Looking at the events surrounding Jesus' death, I am amazed. It is clear he was no mere man. When he was on the cross, the sky grew dark. Who else had a sign on his cross saying Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. In addition to all of this, when Jesus died the curtain in the temple was torning in two pieces from top to bottom. (I wonder how the pharisees handled that!) Then the earth shook and the bodies of many godly people were raised from the dead. According to Matthew, more believed than just one centurion. Matthew says other soldiers believed also.

Jesus did not go out of this world quietly. I wonder what the pharisees thought when all this happened. Were they like whoopsies..we just killed the real deal, or were they callous and hard? I wonder if any pharisees believed after this. Just imagine the stir this created! Your godly friend George was buried a week before, then you see him in town three days later. The God we serve is truly amazing! There is no limit to what he can do!

Which way to go, left or right?

God is so amazing. Peter denied knowing Jesus THREE times before the rooster crowed. The very thing Jesus called him to do, follow me. Highschool students in Columbine, CO had more guts than Peter did. Those students really did die with Christ. Peter, after seeing what he had done, breaks down into tears. He repented of his sinful act to become the eventual leader of the early church. We blame Peter so much, but think about how much he learned from this experience and was able to use later. There are two lessons i grab from the surface of this text. First, God is merciful and forgives us of our sin. If we are faithful he will use us to great things for his glory. Second, we should not bring ourselves down to depression like Judas did. Peter shows us how to learn from our mistakes and give God all the glory in the future. I will not make a statement that I would never deny Jesus like Peter was because I have never been faced with an environment like he was. I love God. I love Jesus. I want to be like Peter because he was a great preacher, learned from his mistakes, and gave the glory to God. Not to mention he was homeboys with Jesus.

two witnesses?

Jewish law required that if a man is to be condemned, two eye-witness accounts must be provided of his crime. Ironic that when Jesus comes back to life, as he said he would do on multiple occasions (Mt 16:21, 17:9, 23, 20:19), he gave the disciples an eye-witness and they didn't believe. Then he gave them two more and they still rejected the idea. Why were they so skeptical of the thought of Jesus doing what he said he would do? Multiple times Jesus said, "I'm gonna die and I'm gonna come back to life." When he did come back, not only did it take 3 eye-witnesses, but it took a personal appearance from Jesus himself.
Jesus then scolds them, or condemns them, and tells them to tell others...anyone who doesn't believe, as they didn't believe, will be condemned. Ironic.

Alex H.

Wicked Hands

Wicked hands seized Jesus. Wicked hands beat Him. Wicked hands tore out His beard. Wicked hands nailed Him to the cross. Wicked hands pierced His side. All of this happened to our Savior. The Father was watching and allowing the whole thing. He went through that for me, a sinner. If I was the only person He had to endure all that for, He still would have done it. What kind of love is that? After all this suffering, wicked hands would touch Him no more. The wicked hands did what they could do, being limited the whole time. Not a bone in His body was broken....what an amazing thing! Wicked hands did a lot to Jesus, but they were limited. Now wicked hands can touch Him no more, but only the loving hands of the Father. I can't wait until the time when wicked hands will touch us no more....

son of a father

i find the name of barabbas interesting. in fact, i find the whole scene interesting. we look at barabbas as nasty and deserving of murder and wonder why the crowd wanted him released instead of Jesus. we have to remember that the crowd was only trying to please the roman government and show them they were not rebellious and following this "king of the Jews". not only that, but its quite possible that barabbas was a "robin hood" type, stealing from the romans and giving to the poor. whatever the case, Pilate's decision was based on what they wanted! what irony in this situation! we find irony even in the name of barabbas, simply meaning "son of a father". while one son of a father is being realeased, the other, the Son of the Father, is condemned to death. i find this incredible and quite intriguing.

Mark and his compound verbs

I've been writing my paper over the ending of Mark and one of the most interesting things that I have noticed about Mark's vocabulary is his use of verbs. When looking in the greek its easy to see that Mark loves using compound verbs. He will take a normal verb and put a preposition on the front of that verb in order to be more specific. One verb in particular that sticks out is poreuomai (yes, some sweet transliteration). The simple verb actually never once occurs within the text of Mark except three times in 16:9-20 but of course those verses are under speculation. Mark always uses this verb in a compound form. I love his style of writing how he manages to squeeze so much detail into his small 16 chapters of text. Mark is not a simple Gospel but in fact a Gospel of great complexity in language and he is set on bringing more clarity upon the action of the verbs in his work.

Judas is a cuss word

I do not like the idea that we talked about in class Monday about the "comical scene" of the disciples all sitting around wondering, "Is it me?" That, to me, is a scary thought. Should betraying Jesus unto death have been so easy a thing to do that they thought themselves qualified. I applaud Peter for his answer, "No way Jose!" I think if someone had to sit around contimplating, "well, maybe it could be me" then something was extremely wrong. I know that I am flawed, but if I was sitting with Jesus and had known Him intimately, that question would not faze me. I would be scared for my leader and friend but I would not make myself a murderer. I do not think any Christian should call themselves Judas to make a point. Because unless you would walk up to physically living Healer Miracle Working Jesus and kiss Him sicking guards on Him to kill Him and then turn around and recieve a sack of money for being King Shady, then you can not call yourself Judas. We should let him be the scum that he is and us be the redeemed that we are.

I Feel Like Peter, but act like Judas

Peter often gets the bad reputation for his zealousness, speaking out of turn, and his denials, but look what became of him in Acts. This same man boldly proclaimed the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ in a hostile environment and 3,000 people were saved. To often we identify ourselves with Peter; i.e., I denied Christ, or I was walking on the water, but lacked the faith to stand once I noticed my circumstances. However, are we really as bold as Peter who said, I will follow you Jesus even if it means death? We are probably more like Judas, betraying our savior when the going gets tough, selling Jesus out for a moment of pleasure even though we were right there with Peter and the others saying we will follow him anywhere. I wish I could be more like Peter. I find comfort in the fact that even through the dark night of Peter's soul, his denials, God never left him or forsaken him and gave him the promised Holy Spirit that empowered him to die the martyrs death that he did (I think he was crucified up side down). But to often I act more like a Judas, selling Jesus out for my own agenda, because my idea of a messiah does not jive wit who Jesus is. Peter, however, followed in the way. The way that Jesus had prepared. The problem with this way, though, it is not always the way we want to travel. The way to glory is marked by a cross that I often do not want to bear.

TRAITOR!

I've often wondered and thought alot about Judas, asking questions such as Did Jesus know that when he caleed Judas that he would be the one to betray him and if so it had to of have been hard knowing throughout his ministry that this man would be the one to become the traitor. Is it possible that Jesus might have hinted at anytime before the last few moments of his death to Judas that he would be the one to betray him and what grew to make Judas finally make the final decision to say i am going to betray this man even though he has seen all of the miraculous things he has done. The whole idea of how Judas betrayed Jesus brings alot of questions to my mind and leads me to really think even though, if would have been there, would I have been the one to betray, what really pushed Judas to that final breaking point and would we break as well?

What makes our message different?

To go off of the idea about the t-shirt slogans that we talked about in class I though of something. When my oldest brother Tim and my dad and I went to the LSU game this past fall, Tim showed me how he kind of viewed Christians. He began to joke around about it and then said this to one of the LSU fans "Could I talk to you about making Darren McFadden your personal lord and savior?" When he said that at first I just laughed it off. But thinking back on it I realize that it is how he views Christians. And I think the reason he says things like that is partly do to Christians throwing around religious language in the same way that a beer commercial advertises. And when we do that we are basically saying that are message is no different from a beer commercial. But our message is different because it is the message that saves people through Christ's blood.

Tobias: Fisher Demon Slayer

I read Tobit 6-8 and I'm not sure what it has to do with anything that we covered in class, or Mark at all for that matter, but it was quite entertaining. Tobias was washing in a river and an angel told him to catch a fish and remove his innards. These he would use to cast away a demon. His cousin had married 7 men, all whom had died on the wedding night (stinks for them) and Tobias was told to marry her and use the fish heart and liver to make smoke and repel the demon in love with her.
Tobias did as was told despite his fear and was found asleep but very alive the next morning by his father in law, who filled in Tobias' already prepared grave (not much faith in the guy), praised God, and had a PARTY!!!
I guess the moral of the story is Don't throw your fish back, you never know when a demon is going to come around. It was really interesting to see the demon exorcism compared to Jesus' and how in-depth Tobias' was, when all Jesus did was speak.

Hello Mountain

I really enjoyed talking about the different possible contextes for the "mountain be moved" passage. I had never heard the story about Herod having the one mountain poured on to another so that his would be higher. I thought that was so rediculous and yet, it makes perfect sense. That was the power a king had. I do not think that that is what Jesus was making refrence to, though. I always have an image in my mind of Jesus walking up to a mountain, completely unintimidated, and asking it to move. Then, the Mountain gets up on "legs" of some sort and runs to the Ocean and jumps in. That seems so silly. It only seems so crazy because that is too much power/authority for me to wrap my mind around. I am too weak to imagine that God has intrusted that kind of power to me. The first mountain I would need to say hello to would be my Everest of unbelief.

The Irony of the Triumphal Entry

Prior to our discussion of the Triumphal Entry of Jesus I have to be honest and say that I was a bit confused as to exactly what was going on in the text. I think that Dr. Foster's description of Louisville during the Kentucky Derby was right on in regards to Jerusalem during this time. I never really understood why the people waved palm branches at Jesus until we talked about the Maccabean revolt. I suppoose the great irony of this passage is that the same people that shouted 'Hosanna' also cried 'Crucify Him' only a few short days later. I often wonder if we today do not ask God to be the main part of our lives and then do not acknowledge him as if our prior request to God was false. I think that we can (and should) learn a lot from the Jews who participated in the Triumphial Entry.

-Steven

Just a game!

As I read today's reading selection I was taken back at the motives of the guards and on lookers of Jesus' Crucifixion. I have read the story many of times and I have been alive for twenty one Easter's. I know the story. However, the older I get the more it feels as though I am able to process the reality of situations, especially this situation. It never occurred to me that the guards and priests cared so much about Jesus. That's right they cared. They cared about giving Jesus the best/worst treatment possible on the cross. The guards where doing their best to make sure nobody ever forgot the day, that the "King of Jews" was killed. It was a game to them, they wanted to see how much humiliation they could put the destroyer of the temple through. They did not care about who's son he was, they cared about pain. The one point that gets me thinking about this whole story is the part at the end of the Crucifixion story when the guard says, "Surely He was the son of God." This statement implies that the guard thought that he was God's Son, but he is now dead and will not be again. This guard as part of it right, He is God's Son. But the thing the guard missed is that He still is. Why after all the miracles Jesus preformed and exorcisms did this guard decide who Jesus was based on His last words. I can't figure it out, I wonder if I would have done the same.