After John was arrested, Jesus went to Galilee preaching the Message of God:
"Time's up! God's kingdom is here. Change your life and believe the Message."
Mark 1:14-15, The Message

Hello! Welcome back to this week's Life Answers Update. I hope this finds you having a good week. And if not, hopefully this recap and the prayers and readings can help carry you through to the end of the week.

Ironic story of the week: A three-inch pipe burst in the Fish Tank, and it was not a good thing. It's been cleaned up, but folks were worried.

In other news, HCC and Crossroads were in the news. Check it out here if you didn't see this last week.

Last Sunday's ABF Recap:
rg

Mark 1

We spoke in depth two Sunday's ago about how the discipline of study is vital to the Christian's life, and how the Bible is reliable for our study. But how should we study? If we wish to implement study as a discipline in our life, what steps ought we take?

A suggestion from Howard Hendricks in his book, Living By The Book, is a three step process (not to be confused with Andy Willoughby's "Three Step Plan").

1. Observation: This is where we read a verse or a section and ask ourselves, "What do I see?" No need to get too deep here... that's what the next steps are for. Matt talked about using BibleGateway.com to print a passage, read it a number of times, the moving on to...

2. Interpretation: After reading the passage a couple of times, we now ask ourselves, "What does this mean?" or, "What was the author communicating to his audience?" This is where printing the verse is helpful because you can mark it up, placing your notes and thoughts on the page.

   This is Part 1 of a 2-part video. It's short, not more than 13 minutes for both, and it gives great insight into what it meant for Andrew, Peter, James & John to drop everything and follow Jesus. Check it out.

3. Application: We now can ask ourselves, "How does this work?" This is the step to which we often jump when we crack open the Bible. "What is God saying to me?" is our immediate question. This is a very worth-while question to ask, but it important that when practicing the discipline of study we not skip steps.

   While the author wrote with one intent, it is Biblical to have broad-based applications from a particular passage.

That's how we spent the first portion of our time together. Next we began studying the text of Mark, spending about 20 minutes taking apart verses 14-20 within the context of the Observation and Interpretation steps of Biblical Study. Some questions and thoughts that surfaced:

• Why start with fisherman?
• Notice that Jesus approached potential disciples, and not the other way around... This was very different from the norm of the time.
• Why mention John in verse 14?
  • Jesus' job was going to be tough... ministry cost John his freedom, and eventually his life.
  • It emphasizes John's position relative to Jesus, a position that John had accepted.
  • A secondary task for God is a great task.
  • II Corinthians 4:16-18 - a verbal illustration of John's focus
• What did the disciples give up by following Jesus? What were their priorities?
• When Jesus said, "I will make you fishers of men," what was he saying?

After Observing and Interpreting, the Application step was left to us as individuals. It was a good time of reflection on the Scripture.

Some background about Mark to keep in mind as we move forward:
Mark was written by John Mark. He was Barnabas' cousin and he made several missionary journeys with Barnabas, Paul and others. One of these he'd probably like to forget, but he found redemption later in life. He was also a friend of Peter's.

It is believed by some that Mark was specifically written to encourage the Christians in Rome suffering under Nero's persecution. Other's believe that Mark was written to preserve Peter's account and memories of his time with Jesus. In any event, Mark was sometime around A.D. 60. This is important when considering the credibility of this Gospel. It was written while others who had first-hand experience with Jesus were still alive. There was no disputing what Mark had written.

So as the week closes, take a look at Mark 2. We'll see you this Sunday!

At the Gates Home, Jenn and I have a particular interest in the history surrounding the Scriptures: what was going on at the time the book was written, the archaeology, etc. If you share that interest, the following is for you. I'll try to provide some more of this as we go through Mark.

Behind the Book of Mark: Nazareth
from The Archaeological Study Bible

The town of Nazareth is located north of the Jezreel Valley in the hills of lower galilee, approximately 3 miles south of Sepphoris. While Sepphoris was an opulent Greco-Roman city during Jesus' youth and functioned as the capital of Galilee until A.D. 20, Nazareth remained in relative obscurity. Nazareth occupied about 60 acres, with a population of only about 500. In his writings Josephus named some 45 Galilean towns but never once mentioned Nazareth, and neither does the Talmud, which names 63 other than Galilean sites. The insignificance of Nazareth provoked disparaging comments already in Jesus' day, such as Nathanael's retort: "Can any good come from [Nazareth]?"

Nevertheless, the New Testament explicitly identifies Jesus as "the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee". This humble town was the residence of Mary and Joseph and the place where Jesus grew up. It was also the jumping off point of his public ministry and the site of his first rejection. He is frequently referred to in the Gospel narratives simply as "Jesus of Nazareth", and the titulus (official placard) that Pilate affixed to the cross dubbed him "Jesus of Nazareth, The King of the Jews." Even his earliest followers were labeled as "the Nazarene sect."

Both Matthew and John however, connected the origin of Jesus from Nazareth with an important precedent in the Bible. Matthew 2:23 states that Jesus fulfilled the prophecy, "He will be called a Nazarene." What was Matthew referring to? No Old Testament text contains those specific words, and Matthew did not indicated the source of his reference. Some have conjectured that he was alluding to Isaiah 11:1, in which the Messiah is called a "Branch" (the Hebrew word for branch, netzer, sounds similar to Nazareth). Others have proposed that Matthew was referring tot he concept of the Nazirite, a person consecrated to God's service. But John also linked his first mention of Jesus' origins in Nazareth to his assertion that Jesus was the fulfillment of what Moses and the prophets had written. John did not claim that Jesus coming from Nazareth in and of itself fulfilled Scripture, but he did report Nathanael's astonishment at the idea that the Messiah could have hailed from such a little-known hometown.

Archaeological excavations conducted beneath the Chruch of the Annunciantion ahve revealed that ancient Nazareth was an agricultural village. Pottery was found there from the Iron Age II (900-600 B.C.) to the Byzantine period (A.D. 330-640). Excavations have also uncovered a number of Jewish tombs, including four that were sealed with rolling stones, typical of tombs used up to A.D. 70 and similar to the one in which Jesus was laid. In addition, a third-century A.D. Jewish-Christian synagogue was discovered there. Oriented toward Jerusalem, it contained Jewish-Christian iconography within its mosaic floor. The synagogue that Jesus attended as a young man and in which he first proclaimed his Messianic identity probably stood beneath this later structure. The present-day Basilica of the Annunciation at Nazareth was dedicated in 1969 and represents the largest Christian church structure in the Middle East.

• Wyatt Hunter McGlone was born to Patrick and Marissa last week. He was 5 weeks premature and has been in the hospital since. The latest news is that he may be able to come home this weekend!
• Several of our number have been laid off of work recently, and others are looking fore new jobs to take a pre-emptive strike. Pray for the LORD to provide both opportunity and encouragement.
• Aynsley's sister recently became engaged, and there have been some struggles with the engagement. Aynsley specifically requested prayer for the LORD to help her give good advice to her sister when she asks.
• Jessica Kiel's sister is due in April. Jessica asked for prayer for a healthy delivery.
• Staci Szugye's has a healing arm and an 8-month-old to care for.
• My brother-in-law started a new business in January and I'm asking for prayer for the LORD to provide clients for him.
• Many marriages are represented within the ABF. Pray for healthy, God-honoring marriages.
• Matt Koons, and the rest of HCC's leadership.

DON'T BE RIDICULOUS
John Ortberg

Ephesians 5:15-20; John 6:51-58

IN GARRISON KEILLOR'S mythical Lake Wobegon, Pastor Inqvist is alarmed when he glances at Dear Abby columns and notices how often she refers her readers to ministers. Talk to your minister, Abby counsels a 14-year-old deeply in love with a 50-something married man serving serious time in a federal penitentiary.

... as she pours out her love for Vince, her belief in his innocence, the fact that his wife never loved him ... not like she, Trish, can love him, and the fact that despite his age and their never having met except in letters, there is something indescribably sacred and precious between them; all the pastor can think is: "You're crazy. Don't be ridiculous."

One of the marks of the human condition is that it is not simply depraved or lost; it is also ridiculous. Paul says that as we relate to each other we are to sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, making melody to the Lord in our hearts and giving thanks to God at all times. But even in the church we end up spending more time fighting about the kind of melodies we should sing, and whether the Lord God prefers organ or guitar. People split churches over how loudly the songs should be amplified. We are ridiculous.

Things are no better outside. Imagine what the world might be like if CEOs of large corporations would go into Watts or Cabrini Green and sing and make melody in their hearts. Or if Israelis and Palestinians spent a day singing psalms and hymns to one another. When we are alone at night and all the fools are asleep, it is not hard to imagine such a world. But why does it remain so ridiculously remote?

Of course, folly in the tradition of ancient wisdom literature involves something more tragic than wasting energy trying to get into the Guinness Book of Records. Foolishness, in this way of thinking, is not so much a disease of the intellect as of the will. The fool says in her heart that there is no God; or that she will live as god, which is perhaps the same thing. The fool thinks he needs bigger barns for the riches that he in his cleverness has accumulated, and forgets that the night when his construction project is finished is the night he has scheduled a massive coronary. You can be a fool and still find good work in Cambridge, Massachusetts, or on Madison Avenue. Sometimes it helps.

Paul said of fools: "Their god is their stomach." They have a philosophy of life that was perhaps best articulated by Sesame Street's Cookie Monster: "See cookie. Want cookie. Absorb cookie. Seek ye first the cookie." Some of the highest-IQ people in our world stay up late at night trying to find new ways to convince us that we are nothing more than a collection of appetites. See. Want. Absorb. What would Paul say to a society whose magazine covers feature well-coiffed, aerobicized versions of the Cookie Monster? "Thou shalt not be ridiculous."

Scholars tell us that the ancient Hebrews had a fierce appetite for wisdom. They loved wisdom so much that they spoke of her as a person: "Does not wisdom call out? Does not understanding raise her voice? ... Listen to me: happy are those who keep my ways ... For whoever finds me finds life." They hoped for the coming of wisdom as we hope for the resurrection of the NASDAQ.

Then wisdom became a person. He came so that hungry people and thirsty people could finally be filled. (To be hungry and thirsty, Dallas Willard writes, is to be driven by unsatisfied desires. We live in a hungry world.) Wisdom was born in a manger and died on a cross, and in between said that our only shot at ever being filled up is if we follow him in the life of self-emptying love. He said that our only hope for being filled is to be filled with him, to absorb him, to follow in the way of the one who emptied himself and thus became the fullness of all things. See Jesus. Want Jesus. Absorb Jesus.

Paul said for such people a new kind of fullness is possible. "Don't get drunk with wine -- Don't consider yourself a giant appetite to be gratified ... but be filled with the Spirit." I grew up in circles where we stayed far away from wine, and were not all that sure about the Spirit. But it is in the Spirit where true fullness lies, in "the shy member of the Trinity," as Dale Bruner says, "the member who is always pointing beyond himself." The fullness of the Spirit comes only when we are emptied of all the ego and self-preoccupation that promises so much and delivers so little; emptied of all that is foolish and dying and ridiculous. It is the Spirit that Jesus was so full of that the life came spilling out of him as well.

Be careful how you live ...

I wanted to close here with a note hi-liting the ladies of Life Answers ABF. I've watched with interest over the past week as the flurry of e-mails have circulated with Jessica marshalling volunteers to provide meals for the McGlone Family. In case you didn't get to watch it in real time, the list filled up in what seemed to be just a few short hours. It was fascinating to see how the ladies mobilized to serve another family from the ABF. That's what Life Answers is capable of when it comes to serving in Jesus' name.

Do you have a particular need in your life? If you do, contact any one of the Life Answers leadership couples (e-mails are listed above in the left-hand column) and let them know how one or more of the folks of Life Answers Adult Bible Fellowship can help.

Enjoy your week. Send an encouraging e-mail to a friend.

RG