The Gospel according to Mark

Back at Centrifuge this year, we had the privileged of Ben Stuart as our speaker. Ben is the lead speaker at Breakaway, the campus bible study at Texas A&M, and they record all they're studies and post them podcasts on iTunes. I just finished listening to one they posted on January 20th titled "The Gospel According to Mark." Like usual, it was fantastically good, and I took extremely wordy notes, pretty much word for word what he said at times.
So the point of this? I've been trying to work on my knowledge of the bible, and I don't know if anyone that reads these is trying to as well, but if you are, I would highly suggest subscribing to Breakaway ministries podcasts, they post both video and audio podcasts, and they're free, so you don't really have an excuse not to unless you just don't have iTunes. :) And to start, if you could take about 40 minutes from your day to listen to the one titled "A Gospel According to Mark" in the video podcasts. I promise you you wont regret it. I'm also going to copy and paste my notes under this, so if you just really don't have 40 minutes to spare you can read those, but they wont be nearly as influential.

(Aside: other podcast that could interest you that I subscribe to: Passion City Church (main speaker Louie Giglio) and Cornerstone Semi Video (main speaker Francis Chan))



Notes:

The Gospel according to Mark.

1. Who is He?
-Gospel
-What that meant to them in v. 1 was that a historical event has occurred that has brought a new situation to the world. Someone has just showed up, and it changes everything for you, cause he’s the King. Mark takes this and creates the gospel of Jesus.
- Gospel through prophet Isaiah (to the Hebrews)
- Written to people in exile, served idols. Yet, good new was being proclaimed.  Good news turned into the gospel
- The Gospel to the Hebrews was: there’s a day coming where God’s gonna show up, and he will set you free, and bless you, and save you, and make you his people. A day is coming where its not just a King arriving that changes things, it is God coming, and he will change things!
-Isaiah 40
-Mark is saying, “Hey the voice has come, his name is John the Baptist, and God has come, and his name is Jesus! He says Jesus isn’t just the Messiah that coming to change everything, He’s God, and He is bringing a new kingdom.
-that statement, the Gospel of Jesus, is a bombshell, that is Mark messing with people. This changes the argument of philosophy: the ideal just became real. The unapproachable just became a dude you can hug. The impossible just because possible.
-It changes the inside and the out
- Inside: All of us have a prime motivation that drives us in this world. For most of us its fear, and religion exacerbates that (there’s a path you have to follow and if you don’t you miss God)
- What Mark is saying that we don’t have to do all these things to get to Him. He’s saying that God has come down to us. So we get joy, peace, and love. We don’t sing in order to placate God so he won’t hurt us. We sing because God came for us, and we celebrate a God who isn’t distant.
-Outside: The arrival if Jesus in the physical world is the most compelling argument for social justice. Because Jesus just didn’t come to rescue your spirit and whisk it away to Heaven, he came in a physical body healing disease and taking away injustice as part of the agenda. The hope is that not only would he heal your soul, but he would heal all creation.

2. How do I meet him?
-The world wilderness comes up in text. “The voice us crying out in the wilderness” and John appeared baptizing in the wilderness.  All this text is happening in the wilderness. Everyone went to John. The words “wilderness” or sometimes “desert” are major themes used throughout the bible, and that’s significant because the wilderness is a place you come out to and you come into. (Explanation: Most popular example: in the Old Testament, Moses leads the people out of Egypt into the wilderness to meet God.  Less popular example: Hundreds of years later, the people of God are disobedient, and they’re pursuing other idols and gods. The gods of sensuality, the gods of violence, and the gods of social advancement. God exiles them to Babylon, where they soon realize they don’t wanna live there, the gods they thought would satisfy them don’t, and they want out. The voice of Isaiah comes to them and says, a new exodus is coming, and a time where you will leave Babylon and walk into the wilderness, and journey back into a relationship with God again. ) Wilderness is written all over text near repentance, and to the Jews it’s the same thing. It says the gods I’ve been serving aren’t working for me, and I wanna leave them and I wanna walk out.
- in Isaiah 26: “Oh Lord, our God other Lords beside you have ruled us, but your name alone we remember. They are dead, they do not live. They are shades, they do not rise.”
-Money, dating, and beauty as a whole are not bad. Money, dating, and beauty as a god are bad.
-Wilderness does not mean a jungle. Back then, wilderness meant desert. It meant a place where there was no life. It meant thorns, thirst, loneliness, hard, a place that was isolated and in need.
-When people meet God, they always meet him in the “wilderness”
-Why does God love scary, lonely, isolated places? Its because out there you realized just how needy you are, and if your going to survive you need God to bring water from the rock and manna from Heaven.
-We don’t come trying to give him stuff, we come with hands empty. We don’t come telling him how awesome we are and listing out accomplishments. We come zeroed out and say “I need you.”
-That’s what baptism is about.
-Before the Jew would just come and wash his hands to cleanse himself of his sins, the Gentile would dump water all over himself because your dirty. But you always did it to yourself. John told them to come to him, you have to walk out here with hands wide open. Come empty, with nothing but needs.

3. Why would I want to?
-Spirit.
-In Hosea it says Israel is kinda like a whore, and your relationship with God, your like a prostitute. Your married to me, but you keep sleeping with other men, and as you do that you realize sex is not the answer, and these other men aren’t the answer. God says that’s what my people are like to me, they keep running to things that aren’t satisfying them. God doesn’t say to Isaiah, “I’m gonna kick you, I’m gonna divorce you, I’m gonna throw you out.” He says, “I’m going to allure her out into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her, and there I will give her vineyards, and I will make the valley of trouble a door of hope.”
-John says there’s a guy coming mightier than me, I’m not worthy to tie his sandals, He’ll bring the spirit with Him.
- Isaiah 32:14-15
-When you come to me, I put my spirit into you, and you burst into life.
-Jesus was baptized for us, to identify with his people.
-take a walk with him.

"If you think you can do anything without him you end up sounding quite self-righteous. Like a pharisee. Like the people that got Jesus fired up."

Read this earlier, it really made me think so I thought I'd share it with you. This is the journal entry from Mike Donehey (Lead singer of Tenth Avenue North) explaining the motive behind their song "You Are More."

http://tenthavenuenorth.com/journal

What I'm referring to is the first entry titled "You Are More," but feel free to continue reading the rest, his insight is pretty brilliant.

Haiti, We Are Here For You

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41034184/ns/world_news-haiti_earthquake

One year ago today Haiti was devastated, and little progress has been made in rebuilding the city after the earthquake destroyed Port-au-Prince. Above is a news article that MSN posted today. So instead of writing about it myself i thought i'd just give you that link instead.

Psalm 32:7-8     You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance. 

My Word

This has been one of those, horrible, emotionally draining days...well...week really, and I know the purpose of this blog is to share things, but I really can't give any details about whats been going on. Its not my place, and this whole thing is really just bigger than me. Not many people know me well enough to know that I don't handle stress well. I don't sleep, and I usually have anxiety attacks, which is hard for me to admit, I'm not one to openly admit my flaws. But, In all this, what I'm trying to do is ask for some serious prayer for me, and for this situation. I'm not used to asking for help, but because this is bigger than me, I can't handle dealing with this alone anymore, so some hardcore prayers would be appreciated.

Anyways.. :)
Two good things about today:
1) Kristian Stanfill's new album "Mountains Move" came out today. I've already listened to it twice, and guys...its legit, like seriously...you need this album. So major props to KSB.
2) I rented Eat Pray Love today on iTunes. Super good movie. Very thought provoking. Especially this one part where Julia Robert's character Liz is in Rome and shes eating dinner with some people shes met, and they're talking about what how each city has a word. For example..in the movie they said: London=stuffy, Stockholm= conform, New York=ambition or soot, and Rome=sex. (Aside: seriously...the said sex for Rome...for real.) And eventually, one of them asks Liz what her word would be. Silence.
And like any normal person, my next thought was "What would my word be?" And just like Liz, silence... And for some reason, that was just so unsettling to me. I have no idea who I am, in the most broad sense. So, aside from everything else that was previously stated... I've been mulling over that.  So in conclusion, this whole New Years Resolution now consists of me: being healthier, less sarcastic, to share with the people i care about more, and to figure out who in the crap i am. Go big or go home I guess??

"Day after day, Our God is reigning, he's never shaken. My Hope is in the Lord. Time after time, Our God is faithful, trustworthy Savior, My Hope is in the Lord" -Day After Day: Kristian Stanfill, Mountains Move.
....just a little taste for you there....  :)
Thanks for listening.
-Rachel

Top 10 things you hear at my house.

Top 10 Things You Hear at My House

10. "Reggie, be quiet!!"
9. "MB, would you please turn the TV down?!"
8. When anyone say's anything to my dad, his response... "Huh?"
7. "Can we get anymore people in the kitchen!"
6. Dad- "Are we out of Diet Coke?"
5. Me: "Fletcher, go upstairs and stop creeping on me...GO UPSTAIRS!!"
4. "Reggie, scoot over!"
3. "How I Met Your Mother comes on in 10 minutes."
2."Fletcher! Get out of the kitchen!!"
1. Me to Fletcher. "Excuse me, Sir, Sir, please excuse me...FLETCHER, GET OUT OF THE WAY!!"

And this is for real. Enjoy.


Oh...and Tom... I'm blogging about the pizza. there ya go...i just did. :P

New Direction

I don't even know how to start this one guys. First of all, it has just become very clear to me that these blogs are going to be about something totally different then i thought. I just need to go back and explain where everything thats flying around in my head is coming from.
Got home from shopping earlier and started watching the Sugar Bowl, then the internet started working again so i ran and got my computer so i could watch the Passion session from this morning. Tomlin and Christy and Kristian and their fantastic back up band are playing and its amazing. Then Louie comes out because he's speaking at this last session. The general theme of his talk was about going out and spreading your passion wherever. Literally wherever you think you need to go. Who cares where, if thats where your lead, go. Then he says something that just like throws me for like, the biggest loop ever. "We are the ones who have to carry his name. And i know you know how to carry a name, because when you guys leave here, you'll be telling your friends about the great music you heard from Tomlin and Crowder. You wont be talking about how great Jesus is because he just IS!" of course he said with a lot more eloquence then i ever could, but the point of it all...WE ARE THE ONES WHO HAVE TO CARRY His NAME!!! Do you understand what that means?! If we don't, it doesn't happen, end of story! Another thing that threw me. "Carrying God's name with a capital G is great too, but if your sharing with a Muslim and you say ""Isn't God great?" they're going to say yes, but if you say "Yeah, Jesus, hes just great isnt he!""     silence.    Do you see the difference? Its so hard for me to put it into words like he did, but carrying the name of God isn't the same as carrying the name of Jesus. 


So, the new direction of these blogs. It was originally supposed to be about me sharing personal things about me, but honestly, the only personal thing about me that you need to know about me that truly matters is that I love Jesus, and this is going to be the tool i use to carry His name. 


I don't know if this is legal or not, but i'm going to end this with some lyrics from one of Chris Tomlin's songs from Passion2011.


"Open the heavens, come Living Water, all my fountains are in You"

We have it too easy

So i’m sitting here on my couch listening to the Passion 2011 live stream and Francis Chan is speaking, you know, being awesome like always, and he starts telling this story about when he was in China visiting an underground church. He’s asking them to tell him about the persecution they have faced trying to learn and spread the Work of Christ. He says they just start looking at him funny, like they don’t really know what he’s getting at. And he’s like, “Well, there are all these stories about how you guys face so much persecution and I was just interested to know so of your experiences.” They just keep giving him these looks, but they start telling stories about how government officials break into their meetings and chase them out and open fire on them and all these terrible things. But while they’re sharing all these stories, they’re just laughing!! They are taught in training for these churches that when a government official breaks in, you just run, and keep running! Eventually they start saying things like, “You must know, this is how its supposed to be everywhere, the bible says that if we face persecution, so will you.” So Francis starts explaining to them about how in America we have these buildings that are churches, and that people can choose which one they want to attend, and if the music is better at another, or the speaker, or the childcare, they can just up and switch whenever they want. And they just laugh! Francis is trying to get them to believe that what he’s saying is they way it is, but they just keep laughing!! Then he says, “They are right, how they have it they’re, thats how its supposed to be!” We have made learning and spreading the word too easy!! Of course, when Francis says it it just sounds so much more profound when I do, plus i’ve forgotten some of the things he said, but before I decided to share this with you guys I was sitting here listening to him go on with his sermon, but my mind kept going back to that, its such a overwhelming and…exciting, yet, scary truth, but a truth none the less. 

So this is my first blog. The first 2 days of the year have been fabulous aside for the fact that i got sick yesterday, on day 1, non the less. I guess the year is trying to fight back, but i’m still waking up every morning with such a better outlook on life. I’ll get into the sharing things about me stuff another time, but I just thought about starting this off this way. I’ll probably be sharing a lot of things like this throughout this process. So, if you haven’t given up and quit reading this, thanks! I hope you keep reading them, because I plan on having a lot to say! :)

Philippians 1:21   “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”