Notes on Mark 4 PLus thoughts on Identity and God....Wednesday 10-21-20

 

     

Mark 4:11 "And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all [these] things are done in parables:"

“Mystery … parables”: A “mystery” in the New Testament refers to something previously hidden and unknown but revealed in the New Testament.

In context, the subject of the mystery is the kingdom of heaven , which Jesus communicates in the form of parables. Thus, the mystery is revealed to those who believe, yet it remains concealed to those who reject Christ and His gospel.

“But unto them that are without”: Those who are not followers of Christ.

In the New Testament, a “mystery” is not a decipherable puzzle but a profound spiritual truth, which God is just now revealing to whomever He chooses. The Twelve are evidently regarded as being receptive to the deeper meaning or application of the parable just related. In this sense the parable has a positive aim: to reveal a mystery of God’s working.

On the other hand, the parable obscures its meaning to those who are outside, who evidently lack the spiritual responsiveness for Jesus to divulge His story’s full import.

The secrets of God are just revealed to the believers. Those that seek will find. The Bible is written in such a manner that just casual reading does not reveal the great mysteries of God. You can read the same Scripture 20 times, and each time God will reveal just a little bit more to you.

Considering the way I grew up, I have spent many years studying the Bible and even in doing this bible study, I have seen things that I never saw before. I believe the Lord reveals as much as you can handle at the time. I have said this before, but it bears repeating. God does not want us to accept Him with our minds. He wants our hearts. He wants us to have faith in things we cannot see with the physical eye. As we progress in this bible study and in our lives it is helpful to remember these things and feel secure in the knowledge that God will open our eyes in the perfect space and time…

Personal Thoughts to share……

Some people would say that I am a good person and have said so directly. Others frame it differently by how they interact with you or refer to you. But I wouldn’t refer to myself as good because I think it’s dangerous… But I did become terrified about how terrible I could be…And I mean I became terrified about how terrible human beings could be..It seems very easy to understand that of other human beings; doesn’t it?. Its different to understand that it is true of yourself..

So I recommend that we read our history or even the bible as a perpetrator and not a hero or victim or faithful disciple… but people very seldom do this and its no wonder ..It might be traumatic…

What I would say instead of “good” is that I became terrified enough from learning what I learned over the years that I tried to avoid the pathways that lead people to the darkness places that they go and there’s something in that that may approximate “good” ..

Some say I am a positive guy others say my life’s view is a bit depressing or tragic… It could be positively tragic…

There is an odd necessity of having a tragic view of life. Let me explain… Ironically if you don’t have that you can’t be happy… There is this old idea ..

You know this idea..

Its an idea that’s expressed, for example, in the classic Disney movie , which I really like, called Pinocchio..

You know when Pinocchio is attempting to free himself from the forces that manipulate him as a puppet to become an autonomous human being he is required to go to the darkest place to find the worst monster and face that catastrophe voluntarily  and in doing so rescues his father.

This is a very old idea I don’t know how old it is ..it is one of the oldest ideas we have in written form  and there is no doubt that in its prewritten form it would be tens of thousands of years older than that. It’s a very strange idea that you have to journey to the darkness of the abyss to free the spirit of your father.. But there is a reason for it and it has to do with the tragic view of life…Which is that you can’t discover what your capable of being or withstanding , and those are the same things,…

without doing so..

if you hide away from anything about life that is terrible but true.. you can’t discover who you really are..In facing the terrible aspects of life we are blessed with a necessity that will force your greatest capacity  out of you….From the prospective of learning, if you go to work in a palliative care ward you’ll learn to  deal with death.. ..You learn the psychological strategies necessary to cope and understand … You become more informed but its even deeper than that..

We even  know now, from a biological prospective, that if you put yourself in new situations ..in new and challenging situations that new genes turn on your nervous system and code for new proteins that produce new neurological structures and so you can’t even be who you are fully biologically unless you expose yourself to everything that you can expose yourself to, as you journey through life ..the old idea of a pilgrimage was predicated on that idea as walking the shark Cathedral , in France..The idea that you walk the Labyrinth or maze, in Chartres and you come to the centre….It  is that you transverse every corner of the world quarter by quarter until you come to the centre ..The centre is the centre of the church and is the centre of the crucifixion..its the centre of suffering and you can’t get to what that centre signifies without journeying everywhere ..

And so the tragic view of life is necessary because it puts you on the journey that reveals to yourself who you could be if you were courageous as you could be and as truthful as you could be and that’s equivalent to discovering to vivifying your dead father because you are an ancient creature, in some sense. We hope with a spark of divinity inherent in it but you will never release that unless you are willing to go everywhere that you have to go because only necessity will call that out of you…and so you can’t be Happy..you can’t be complete ..you can’t know what you could withstand ..You can’t have a proper sense of self or self-respect unless you know what you can tolerate and if you avoid everything that you have reason to avoid , but should none the less not avoid, you won’t know who you are and then you cannot live properly…

If we walk with God we may do it fearlessly.. Ye though I walk through the shadow of death I will fear no evil………And when we become complete. When we understand who we are..when we understand and fully appreciate who God is then we can truly emanate “Goodness”..We can truly be happy…

I live as if there is a God..When people have asked me over the years if I believe in God and people keep asking that question for some reason ..which I really don’t like much…I thought perhaps it was because I presented logical and practical arguments… But inside as I cringed at the question I pondered  for myself  why I didn’t like the question…

 I thought who would have the audacity to claim that they believed in God if they examined the way they lived ..Who would dare say that;  In a Christian sense….. Actually this is why Nietzsche said if there was ever one Christian and that was Christ ..To have the audacity to claim that I “believe” means that I or YOU live it out fully and that’s an unbearable task in some sense..

Pondering this aspect led me to other places….. I would refer to Christ’s moment on the cross when he cried out to God that he had been forsaken and it seems that ..it seems what that meant was that the conditions of human existence are so tragic that even God himself, in human form, lost faith for a moment in the goodness of being..How remarkable this is to consider….!

If God himself could have lost faith under such conditions what would you expect from normal human beings…confronted with what we are confronted by ..to be able to accept the structure of existence ..and the suffering that GOES ALONG WITH IT , the disappointment and the betrayal and in the face of it all  act properly right. To aim at the Good with all of your heart. To dispense with malevolence and your desire for destruction and revenge and all of that and to face things courageously and to tell the truth ..to speak the truth and act it out ..thats what it means ..It doesn’t mean just to say it.. You have to live it…Unless you can act it out you should be very careful about saying it ..and I’ve rarely  been comfortable saying anything other that “I try to act as if God exists”..because God only knows what you would truly be like if you truly “believed”…… I mean if you think about it in some sense  that’s the central idea in Christianity is that we are capable of believing ,it would be a transfiguring event, a truly transfiguring event…. and I know people experience that to one degree or another but we have no idea what the limit of that is ..we have no idea what the possibility is within each person if they lived a life that was maximally courageous and maximally truthful .. Maybe your running at 60 or 70% or 20% and at cross purposes to yourself. God only knows what you would be if you believed completely.. and so I try to act as best as I am able as if I believed… But I never claim that I can manage it.. Because it’s a lot to manage properly and you have to be careful about claiming to manage things that you can’t manage and so that is a part of my answer to that question that  I always disliked getting ….

In spite of our shortfalls we can believe and understand that If you “cease” to believe in God you’ll start to believe in anything….And there is much illusion and deception in the world today..

2020 is a year of disguises. Some examples include computer models/modellers disguised as “science/scientists,” Tyrants/Dictators/Totalitarians disguised as “elected officials,” propaganda machines disguised as “news sources,” brainwashing disguised as “information,” censorship disguised as “public health safeguard,” panic and fear disguised as “social responsibility.” This awareness may serve only to stoke more fear ,anxiety and worry in our lives.. Yet if we believe. If we place our hearts in it’s most honest and truthful place we have a benefactor who knows our heart’s every beat.. Who can see beyond our limitations even if we are unable to. He can help us push the limit.. he can help us be courageous.. He can help us know our best selves..

Fear, Anxiety and Worry… What does the Bible say? ... “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7).

Let us pray…

Hear us Lord tonight….

We thank thee Lord for touching our lives. We ask today  for the help to strive for the “good” in ourselves and in this life… Help us conduct ourselves honestly. Let our truth be a shining beacon of light for others… We understand Lord that we may share your Word with others in many ways, even in the quiet way of example… We ask for your blessing as we go forth and minister to those in our sphere of influence…

We ask for blessings on our bible study tonight and we ask also for guidance as we begin another segment of your word, in Mark 5…  We ask that you watch over our members and touch even the quiet ones, those who have become apathetic and those who may be beginning their journey even at the 11^th hour… Help us to extend ourselves to them with love and effectiveness… Let our fellowship grow and flourish as we grow in you…

Help the children who are suffering all over the world today.. They are the helpless, innocent ones…we ask that you might mitigate their hardship… We pray for the faith to cool our fears and tears with prayer. We ask for your blessings not because we think we deserve them but we humbly ask in spite of  our unworthiness…. We are thankful for our blessings of health even if we find our struggles  take us down a dark and lonely pathway.. But for all of our successes to be healthy.. Physically, mentally and spiritually. We understand it is but for your grace and are deeply grateful….

We ask these things in Jesus’s name……