Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from Him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; He is my fortress, I will not be shaken. Psalm 62:5-6.

May your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in You. Psalm 33:22.

I loved this in Hearing God by Dallas Willard: “Effortless Obedience – Say the word, and my servant will be healed. Luke 7:7. For the centurion, faith was relatively easy. Jesus said He would heal the servant, and the centurion believed it. He recognized he was dealing with someone in high authority. He had experienced people in Roman authority and how they could command an event to happen or use mere words to change events in a material universe. He recognized in Jesus such authority (or better!), so it was a simple matter for him to behave in faith in the situation. Because Jesus Himself understood His own authority, He responded easily to the centurion’s statement about his servant’s condition with an offer to heal. Without being asked, Jesus said, “I will go and heal him” (Matthew 8:7) – just like that! It didn’t seem to be difficult or extraordinary to Him. For Jesus, healing this servant would be like our saying, “Now I’ll raise my hand.” Great faith, like great strength in general, is revealed by how easily it works. Most of what we call a struggle of faith is really the struggle to act as if we had faith when in fact we do not. Pray: Confess to God where you have struggled in your faith. Ask God to increase your faith, as the apostles did (Luke 17:5), and to let that faith create in you an easy obedience.”

And in our chapter, Mark 9, we see being played out in the backdrop of this time in history, the struggle of faith. Even today we are surrounded by confusion and lies; but as we look to Creator God – Father, Son, Spirit, we find our hope for what is true and good and sure. Jesus and the disciples are still in gentile land and even here crowds have come to hear Jesus. Imagine what that was like for the disciples who have never been in this part of the world or for the crowd who know only their way of life. They are listening the the Son, Creator God, speak truth. How could they not stay and listen? During those days another large crowd gathered. Since they had nothing to eat, Jesus called His disciples to Him and said, “I have compassion for these people; they have already been with Me three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way, because some of them have come a long distance.” v. 1-3. And surprisingly, the disciples again have no idea where the food will come from to feed the crowd. This time there are 7 loaves of bread and a few fish and God took that provision and enlarged it to feed 4,000 with 7 baskets of leftover food, v. 4-9. Afterward they travel by boat to the region of Dalmanutha where the Pharisees come to question Jesus. They asked Him to give them a sign from heaven to prove who He is. He refuses. Jesus is the sign but they refuse to see. As they leave there by boat Jesus warns them, “Be careful, watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod.” v. 14-15. What about the “yeast” of our leaders today? But when Jesus warns them about the yeast, all they could comprehend was physical bread which they had forgotten to bring. What about us? What do our hearts fail to comprehend? Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them, “Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?” “Twelve,” they replied. “And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?” They answered, “Seven.” He said to them, “Do you still not understand?” v. 17-21. Arriving in Bethsaida Jesus heals a blind man, v. 22-26. He did it in two stages; in the first stage he said people looked like trees, and in the second stage he saw clearly. And then Jesus and the disciples went to the villages around Caesarea Philippi, where Philip the brother of Herod Antipas ruled. Here there were many pagan idols. And here Jesus asks them who the people say He is. Here Peter affirms, “You are the Messiah.” Here Jesus begins to tell them what that means. He then began to teach them that the Son of Man (Daniel 7:13), must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that He must be killed and after three days rise again. v. 27-31. He tells them on three occasions that he would suffer and die and rise again, (8:31, 9:31, 10:33-34). Can you imagine being told that? Peter rebuked Jesus and Jesus rebuked Peter and the disciples for their hearts turned away from what God knows must be. “Get behind Me, Satan!” He said. “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” Then He called the crowd to Him along with His disciples and said, “Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for Me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? If anyone is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when He comes in His Father’s glory with the holy angels.” v. 33-38. Powerful words. And remember, Mark is writing to the Christians in Rome. They live with the reality of someone taking up their cross to carry it to their place of execution. This was not just words to them. This was Rome. And we live still today in “Rome”.

What does it mean? Everything! In every way! Be careful…Watch out for the yeast…You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.