Author Archives: Barbara Harper

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About Barbara Harper

https://barbarah.wordpress.com

Laudable Linkage

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A collection of good reading online

I found lots of good online reading this week:

What’s Next? 8 Questions to Get You Ready to Roll. Evaluating and preparing for post-pandemic life.

I came across two good posts about praying for lost loved ones: A Prayer for When They Don’t Believe and A Parent’s Prayer for an Unbelieving Child.

Coping with Publishing Conflict. Though written in the context of publishing, the advice is good for any area of conflict.

10 Ways God Desires to Set Apart His People. “The purpose in being set apart is to be set to something else. Biblically speaking, something else is desiring what God desires for us. It means desiring someone else—God. And not desiring the things of this world more.”

Stretching Application Beyond the Big Three. “It is good to be reminded to read the Bible, pray, and talk to our friends about Jesus, but that doesn’t mean these are the only applications we should draw from Scriptural truths.” Ryan provides some helpful tips and a worksheet for getting to the heart of a passage’s applications.

Who Will Roll the Stone Away? Good take-aways from the women who went to anoint Christ’s body that first Resurrection morning.

What Does Binding and Loosing Mean in Matthew 16:19? HT to Knowable Word. Probably the clearest explanation of this verse I can recall reading.

With Independence Day last weekend, there were some good posts about patriotism. Since patriotism isn’t just for the 4th of July, though, I’m including them now:

Why Younger Evangelicals May Feel Uneasy in a Patriotic Church Service. A good, balanced article about some of the positives and some of the problems of a patriotic church service.

How Can an Ordinary Citizen Begin to Practice a Radical Patriotism? “Viewing a flawed nation led by deeply flawed individuals, G.K. Chesterton asked:  ‘Can we hate it enough to change it, and yet love it enough to think it worth changing?'”

If you need a dose of cuteness, try this:

Happy Saturday

Friday’s Fave Five

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It’s Friday, time to look back over the blessings of the week
with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story and other friends.

It’s the first full week of July, and summer has settled in. Here are some of the best parts of the last week.

1. A long weekend. Everyone had Monday off, but Jim took Thursday and Friday off as well. He worked on some things he had wanted to, but spent the better part of Saturday fishing, something he hadn’t done in a long time.

2. Donuts. There’s a new independent donut shop nearby we stopped at, but they were closed. We heard they usually sell out before noon. Jim went back Saturday morning and got some donuts and fritters. Those things were huge, but so good. They were too big to eat a whole donut in one sitting, so we cut pieces off the next few days.

3. Independence Day. Though our country has serious problems, I still believe it’s the best place in the world to live. I’m thankful for the freedoms we enjoy. We celebrated the 4th all together after church on Sunday. One nice thing about celebrating with adult children is divvying up the meal. Jim grilled burgers and sausage, I made French fries, Jesse made a cheesy hash brown casserole and shucked corn on the cob for me. Mittu made a wonderful cheesecake. Jason and Mittu found the festive paper products to make clean-up easier.

Favorite picture of the day:

4. Fireworks are illegal in our county—but the law doesn’t seem to be enforced unless something gets out of hand. From our yard, we saw several large displays of fireworks from at least six different places. Jason caught this photo of one, but we saw many fuller and higher than this one. It was fun to see fireworks without leaving the yard.

We didn’t have fireworks, but Jason and Mittu brought over glowsticks, pop-its (these little things that make a popping sound when you throw them on the ground), and these other devices that have strings you pull on, and they release confetti.

5. Family meal at a restaurant. Jason and Mittu invited us over Monday afternoon, and talk turned to going somewhere for dinner. We ended up going to one of my favorite restaurants on a river. And I didn’t even ask—Jim suggested it. 🙂 We called to see if Jesse wanted to meet us there. It was the first time we had eaten all together in a restaurant since before the pandemic.

All in all, a good week. I hope yours was as well!

Heaven Sent Rain

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In the novel Heaven Sent Rain by Lauraine Snelling, Dinah Taylor is a scientist who started her own company of food supplements to improve health. Her job, her life, her all-white condo and wardrobe are perfectly ordered.

One day at her usual breakfast stop, she sees a small boy and his dog sitting out in front. They look shabby, but not dirty. Dinah offers to buy the boy, Jonah, breakfast, and he accepts. Then he’s at the same place the next day, and then every day thereafter. Dinah tries to find out his background, imagining everything from a drug-infested home to neglect. But Jonah evades her questions.

Then in the middle of one night, Dinah receives a frantic phone call. Jonah’s dog is badly injured. Can she help?

Dinah isn’t sure what she’s getting into, but she can’t refuse. Searching for an emergency vet clinic open that time of night, she takes Jonah and his dog in. They are met by veterinarian Garret Miller, who seems warm and kind toward Jonah and the dog, but icy toward Dinah.

As Dinah continues to help Jonah, she gets in over her head. As she, Jonah, and Garret interact, their lives change.

Most of the other books I’ve read by Lauraine were historical fiction about Norwegian immigrants. I didn’t think I had read any of her contemporary fiction, but then remembered I had read Someday Home a couple of years ago.

I loved the way Dinah’s story unfolded, with the author revealing just a bit at a time until the whole picture came into view. Garret is an enjoyable character, too, after getting past his initial standoffishness, which is explained later.

Dinah is not a Christian, having rejected her parents’ teaching and beliefs. The details of that situation are gradually revealed, too. Garret and Jonah are both believers, as is Dinah’s receptionist. But the faith element felt very natural and not forced.

I thought the ending wrapped up a bit too quickly, and I had a theological quibble with one sentence. But overall I really enjoyed the book.

(Sharing with Carole’s Books You Loved)

14 Reasons to Read the Old Testament

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It’s safe to say most of us gravitate to the New Testament of the Bible. We enjoy the Old Testament stories, the practical wisdom of Proverbs, the emotional depth of the Psalms.

But Jesus fulfilled all the OT ceremonial law and the sacrificial requirements, so we’re not under obligation to practice those any more. And all that past history is . . .well. . . .past. The NT seems more practical.

So why bother to read the OT?

Well, there are several good reasons.

1. The whole Bible is inspired by God (2 Timothy 3:16). One of our former pastors used to say the Bible is divinely brief. Think of all the things an eternal God knows and could tell us. He chose the particular words in the Bible for specific reasons.

2. The whole Bible is beneficial. 2 Timothy goes on to say all Scripture is “beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man or woman of God may be fully capable, equipped for every good work” (3:16b-17, NASB).

3. The OT provides examples for us. “Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come” (1 Corinthians 10:11, NASB). The context of these verses talks about various things OT Israel did wrong. Then the passage warns the reader, “Therefore let the one who thinks he stands watch out that he does not fall” (verse 12).

4. The OT helps us appreciate what we have in Christ. Our  church recently studied Leviticus.

The tabernacle and temple system emphasized the distance between us and God. Only the priests could enter and only with the right sacrifices conducted the right way. When Jesus died, the veil of the temple was supernaturally torn in two, indicating the way to God was now open.

Hebrews 10:19-20 tells us, “We have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, through His flesh.” Because He made a way for us and is our high priest, we’re encouraged to

  • approach God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith
  • hold firmly to the confession of our hope without wavering
  • consider how to encourage one another in love and good deeds (verses 21-25).

5. The OT emphasizes holiness. A seminary professor taught a class on Leviticus. He asked his students to try to keep the regulations in Leviticus for a week and journal about the experience. One replied that the assignment had him evaluating everything in his life related to holiness all the time. The NT requires holiness, too. But we don’t often examine every area of our lives to see whether we measure up to God’s holy standards as they were required to in the OT. We’re free from the strictures of the OT ceremonial law, but we still need to submit our conscience and practice to God’s Holy Spirit.

6. The NT quotes or alludes to the OT over 880 times. The NT would not make sense without the OT foundation. [1]

7. Jesus quoted and believed in the Old Testament. Jesus told the Jews who opposed Him, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me” (John 5:39, ESV). The Scriptures He referred to were the Old Testament writings. Many times He said, “Have you not read…?” and quoted something from the Old Testament, meaning that He expected them to know what it taught.

After His resurrection, when He walked along with two disciples on the road to Emmaus, “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27, ESV).

8. The OT instructs us and gives us hope. Paul tells us in Romans 15:4: “For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” When we realize we are not that different from the complaining, disbelieving Israelites in the wilderness, we have hope that God will be faithful and longsuffering with us as He was with them. When we read of God helping His people through various trials and troubles in the Bible, we’re encouraged that He will take care of us as well.

9. The OT and NT tell us about the same God. Some have felt that the OT presents an angry, vengeful God while the NT shows us a merciful, loving God. But they are one and the same. God shows His grace and mercy and love to His people many times in the OT, even when they behaved the worst. And many places in the NT warn of God’s wrath against sin.

10. The Old Testament shows us our need and prepares us for the only One who can meet it. The laws and sacrificial system showed Israel the impossibility of keeping God’s law and the need for a Savior. The law was our “schoolmaster” to bring us to Christ (Galatians 3:24, KJV). The sinless lamb of the sacrifices points to the Lamb of God, the ultimate sacrifice for our sins. The OT sacrifices had to be repeated, but Jesus’s offering took care of our sins forever (Hebrews 10:14).

11. The Old Testament points to Christ, from the representation of the scapegoat, to the atonement, to Messianic prophecies. A former pastor, Dr. Mark Minnick, used to say that the Old Testament showed Israel’s need for a judge, a prophet, and a king. But even the best judges, prophets, and kings fell short. Jesus fulfills all those offices perfectly.

12. The Old Testament is part of our spiritual heritage. Romans 11:11-31 tells us we were grafted into the olive tree of the Jews.  The true Israel is by faith, not just lineage. Galatians 3:29 and Romans 9:6-8 say that those in Christ are children of Abraham:

Abraham “believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.” So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham (Galatians 3:6-9, NKJV).

13. The Old and New Testaments form a whole, with each part of the same overarching story. L. E. Maxwell, cofounder and eventual president of the Prairie Bible Institute, said in his book Crowded to Christ, “The New Testament is enfolded in the Old, and the Old Testament is unfolded in the New.” [2]

14. There are treasures in the OT. If you skipped the OT, you’d miss some of the greatest treasures of the Bible, like these:

Zephaniah 3:17: The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.

Isaiah 30:15a: For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.”

If the OT seemed dry or hard to understand in the past, a good study Bible helps. You can find a variety of sizes and types of commentaries and other study aids. This past year I have used Warren Wiersbe’s “Be” commentaries on different books of the Bible. They often show up on Kindle sales. They’re detailed enough to give insights, yet simple enough to understand.

If you’ve been avoiding the OT, I encourage you to read and study  it. You’ll find rich, meaningful treasure there.

[1] “O.T. Quotations Found in the N.T. – Study Resources.” Blue Letter Bible. Web. 15 Jun, 2021. <https://www.blueletterbible.org/study/pnt/pnt08.cfm&gt;.

[2] L. E. Maxwell, Crowded to Christ (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1950), p. 272.

Unless otherwise stated, all Bible verses are from the ESV.

(I often link up with some of these bloggers)

Laudable Linkage

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Here are some of the noteworthy reads discovered recently:

Why Do You Want to Be Happy? HT to Challies. “Sadly, Christ-followers routinely say things like, ‘God doesn’t want you to be happy; he wants you to be holy.’ But holiness and happiness are two sides of the same coin — we dare not pit them against each other.” Yes!

My Life as a Christian Under a Communist Regime, HT to Challies. “It may surprise you, but from my perspective the main suffering for Chinese Christians is not physical persecution or lack of religious liberty but bad theology, though the reason behind bad theology is the lack of freedom.”

The Ordinary War with Irritability, HT to Challies. “If your consistent response to testing circumstances or challenging people is to become annoyed or angry, then you are irritable. But I have good news for you. Because of Jesus, believers can have godly attitudes even when our patience is tried, and we don’t have to make self-justifying excuses when we don’t. We can confess our failure as sin, knowing Jesus forgives.”

The Unbelief in My Belief, HT to Challies. “I’ve thought about both of my seat companions several times since then and wondered why the words stick in my throat when there’s nothing more important to share than my hope in Christ. . . . But unbelief stood in my way. Not theirs, but mine.”

7 Ways Not to Provoke Your Children, HT to Challies. “Parents, trust in him alone for strength to make it through this journey without provoking your children. Keep praying that he will give you the grace required to raise godly children.”

Are Christian Parents Too Protective of Their Children? HT to Challies. We may be tempted to place our children inside a sanitized theological bubble, safe from all forms of intellectual contamination. But, just like germ-conscious parents, this may not be accomplishing what we think.”

Why Long Lines Are Good for Writers and Everyone Else. “I used to feel, when I first met someone, like I had to perform. Like being a contestant on American Idol, I was expected to entertain them, and they would then judge me. And I would be sure to fail again.”

I’ve only been in Costco once that I remember, so I guess I am in the first stage. 🙂

I hope you have a happy Independence Day weekend, for those here in the USA! Here are some Ideas for Celebrating July 4th, if you need any, HT to The Story Warren.

Friday’s Fave Five

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It’s Friday, time to look back over the blessings of the week
with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story and other friends.

The first FFF of July! Here are some highlights of the week:

1. Retirement home ministry. Our church does this once a month—the place we visit rotates groups who hold services on Sunday afternoons. The people seem very attentive, and we all hang around and visit with them for a good while afterward. The lady we spent time with the first week looks for us now each week and even gave me a hug.

2. Impromptu lunch get-together. There wasn’t enough time to go home after church and come back for the retirement home service, so we stopped for lunch at McAlister’s Deli. There we ran into our pastor and his family, who were doing the same thing. We sat at adjacent tables and enjoyed the fellowship while we ate.

3. More time off from cooking. I mentioned last week that I hadn’t done any real cooking while Jim was out of town. Then my son and daughter-in-law invited us over both Friday and Saturday night. Then we went out for the lunch mentioned above on Sunday. That’s the first time in my adult life I’ve had a whole week off from cooking! Even though I could get used to that pretty easily, I did miss the things I make and missed having leftovers to reheat for lunch. So I was more or less ready to get back at it Monday.

4. A remade desk. I wish I had thought to take a “before” picture. An old one which shows a bit of the desk is here:

Old desk in old sewing room

More than anything else, I wanted to change out the old Colonial-style knobs and handles. But I wanted to lighten it up, too. I decided to keep the top stained–I figured that way we wouldn’t have to worry about paint chipping there. But Jim painted the rest of it white for me.

Desk makeover

I was originally thinking about glass knobs, but when I saw these vintage-looking ones, I loved them.

5. An uneventful cardiologist visit. I almost could have just phoned it in except for his needing to listen to my heart and run a EKG. Even though I’d just had an episode of afib last week, we pretty much just discussed increasing medicine if it happened again.

How was your week?

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek

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In Kim Michele Richardson’s novel, The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, Cussy Mary Carter was one of the Pack Horse Librarians. A Works Progress Administration (WPA) initiative by FDR during the Depression employed librarians to bring books to people in the Appalachian mountains. Books were donated, and the Pack Horse Librarians sorted, distributed them, and made scrapbooks for residents which included recipes and tips. The librarians, mostly women, rode hundreds of miles.

Many of the residents were eager for books and magazines. Some were suspicious.

Cussy Mary had to fight more than the usual amount of suspicion and superstition because she was colored: blue.

A family line in Kentucky produced people with a blue tint to their skin due to a recessive gene, though the cause wasn’t known at the time. Some people treated the “blues” like anyone else, but negative reactions ranged from a desire to keep a distance to fear of disease to superstitions to hatred. “Blues” were included in “No coloreds allowed” signs and laws.

Kim Michele Richardson ties together the blue people of Kentucky and the Pack Horse Librarian initiative to create unusual and interesting historical fiction.

The story begins with Cussy Mary’s father trying to arrange courtship for her, though she doesn’t want to be married. He has worked in the mines all his life, and his lungs are affected. He wants to make sure Mary is provided for before he dies. But no one is interested until he offers the deed to his land. A disastrous wedding night leaves Mary a widow.

We follow along with Mary on her travels, meet her patrons, hear their stories, see her interactions with townspeople, encounter the dangers on the trail.

The town doctor has always wanted to take blood samples and study Mary and her father, but they’ve resisted—until the father has a secret he needs the doctor to keep. The only way the doctor will agree is if Mary’s dad will let him take her to the hospital in Lexington for tests. Against Mary’s will, she’s subjected to all kinds of indignities. When the doctor finds a temporary “cure” for Mary’s blue skin, she enjoys being white at first. But the side effects and the lack of change in how people treat her leave her wondering if the change is worth it. The author says in her notes that the study and treatment she described didn’t actually occur until about thirty years later.

Mary’s courage and determination shine throughout. She remembered being read to by her mother, who passed away. That hunger for learning stayed with Mary, and she wants to help those with the same hunger.

I first became aware of this book through reviews by Susan and Susanne.

There is a smattering of bad words, and Mary’s wedding night is told with more detail than I’d like.

But otherwise, this was a fascinating story.

I listened to the audiobook, which I was pleased to get for free–it was included with either my Audible subscription or Amazon Prime, I forget which. Katie Schorr did a wonderful job with the narration. I checked out the book from the library to read back matter not included with the audiobook, including a nice interview with the author.

Had you heard of blue people or the Pack Horse Librarians? Would you be willing to brave mountainous trails in the back woods on a mule to get books to people?

June Reflections

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Even though we’ve only officially been in summer ten days, I think of the whole month of June as summer. We spent more time outside over spring, but it’s getting too hot and humid to be outside much until evening.

Family

Around the house, Jim painted the “guest room” (or spare oom) and a desk and put some shelves and decorations on the walls of the sewing room for me. I finally dug up an aggressive ivy from the front planters and planted a bunch of flowers that are flourishing nicely thanks to my husband remembering to water them. I’ve done some pockets of reorganization—I tend to do just a shelf or corner or box at a time.

Our two main celebrations were Timothy’s finishing first grade and Father’s Day. Everyone helped to bring over the queen-sized bed Jason and Mittu gave us and set it up in our new official guest room, then Mittu made dinner for us all. I had searched for bedspreads and placed the one I liked on Amazon’s wishlist. But when I went to order it, it was “currently unavailable,” and they had no idea when or if they might get more. So I had to start from scratch. The bed is bigger than I was thinking. I realized the futon we had in there before was a full size and therefore smaller. So I don’t think I’ll be able to get an extra chair in there like I wanted. But that’s okay.

Timothyisms

Timothy asked his parents when the next paycheck was coming. When they asked why, he said he was making a list of toys for the next paycheck.

Creating

I didn’t make a Father’s Day card for Jim this year. When I searched for ideas, I found an already-made card that was just perfect, so I got that instead of making one.

The card I made for my step-father draws on his love for a certain sci-fi franchise:

I found a Star Trek font online and then found a template for the badge and colored it in with a gold paint pen.

This was for Jason:

Reading

Since last time, I finished (titles link to my reviews):

  • The Sign Painter by Davis Bunn. A young mom fallen on hard times finally gets a job and a place to stay. But a situation in her place of employment puts her in a dangerous moral dilemma. Meanwhile, a former cop tries to help a church deal with a drug house nearby.
  • Saving Alice by David Lewis. A young man’s first love is killed in an accident. He eventually marries their mutual friend and has a comfortable life, until he has a falling out with his daughter. Trying to reconcile with his daughter brings a lot of things to light in his life.
  • The Orchard House by Heidi Chiavaroli. A time slip novel. One plot line involves Louisa May Alcott and a close friend. The modern story tells of an adopted girl betrayed by her sister who reconciles over the mystery some poems by a friend of Louisa’s discovered in Louisa’s old house.
  • Be Counted (Numbers): Living a Life That Counts for God by Warren Wiersbe. Commentary on Numbers.
  • Be Diligent (Mark): Serving Others as you Walk with the Master Servant by Warren Wiersbe, commentary on Mark.
  • How to Read a Book by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren.
  • EPIC: An Around-the-World Journey Through Christian History by Tim Challies. A museum in a book! Lots of good information and inspiration.
  • A Room with a View by E. M. Forster (audiobook). While traveling in Italy, a girl in a conventional lifestyle meets a free-spirited brooding man who eventually changes her life.
  • The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi (audiobook). A little darker and more involved than the Disney version we’re used to. But a good moral illustration of what happens when boys don’t heed advice and instruction.
  • Our Town by Thornton Wilder. A play about treasuring ordinary life.
  • The House at the End of the Moor by Michelle Griep. A woman in hiding has to take in an injured man found on her property, and her anonymity and his safety is threatened.
  • The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson (audiobook).

This includes the last few days of May–I had done that monthly round-up a few days early.

I’m currently reading:

  • Ten Words to Live By: Delighting in and Doing What God Commands by Jen Wilkin
  • Be Equipped (Deuteronomy): Acquiring the Tools for Spiritual Success by Warren Wiersbe
  • Three Shall Be One by Francena Arnold
  • The Secret War of Charles Fraser-Smith: The “Q” Gadget Wizard of World War II by Charles Fraser-Smith
  • Heaven Sent Rain by Lauraine Snelling (audiobook)

Blogging

Besides the weekly Friday’s Fave Fives and almost weekly Laudable Linkages and book reviews, I’ve shared these posts:

  • Is It Wrong to Be Right? We don’t have to set up a false dichotomy between being nice or right. We should strive to be right, but we can be nice about it.
  • Giving and Receiving God’s Word. Our hope and comfort come from the Bible, but sometimes we share it in a way that short-circuits its message.
  • What Are You Looking For? Nothing in this life will be perfect. Only as we look to God will we find perfect love, peace, justice, and so much more.
  • With Jesus in the Kitchen. How remembering Jesus’s ministry helped me when frazzled in the kitchen.
  • A Better Blade for Killing Sin. Even if we could cut off everything that leads us to sin, we’d still have trouble with our hearts. Only God’s Word pierces there.

As we turn the corner from June to July, we look forward to the Fourth of July weekend. We haven’t made sure plans yet, but they’ll definitely include family and burgers. We also look forward to my son, Jason’s, birthday this month. I hope to finish setting up the guest room in the next few weeks before Jeremy comes in August.

How was your June? Any fun plans for July?

(I often link up with some of these bloggers)

Be Diligent (Mark): Serving Others

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The gospel of Mark is a book of action. Many of the verbs are present participle, indicating continuing action: saying, going, teaching. The word “immediately” occurs in Mark 35 times (in the ESV), more than any other book, though Mark is the shortest of the four gospels.

In Warren Wiersbe’s short commentary, Be Diligent (Mark): Serving Others as You Walk with the Master Servant, he says:

Mark wrote for the Romans, and his theme is Jesus Christ the Servant. If we had to pick a “key verse” in this gospel, it would be Mark 10: 45—“For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.”

The fact that Mark wrote with the Romans in mind helps us understand his style and approach. The emphasis in this gospel is on activity. Mark describes Jesus as He busily moves from place to place and meets the physical and spiritual needs of all kinds of people.

Mark does not record many of our Lord’s sermons because his emphasis is on what Jesus did rather than what Jesus said.

Mark was written by a man known elsewhere in Scripture as John Mark. He and his mother were among the early disciples. When Peter was supernaturally released from prison, he fled to the house of Mark and his mother, where a prayer meeting was held. Mark left early from a mission trip with Paul and Barnabas for unnamed reasons, causing Paul to decline taking Mark along the next time. But later on in 2 Timothy 4:11, Paul asks for Mark to come, “for he is profitable to me for the ministry.” So they must have reconciled. Peter calls Mark “my son” (1 Peter 5:13), indicating Peter was probably the one who led Mark to the Lord. Most of Mark’s material came from Peter.

A few more observations from Wiersbe:

Jesus placed a great deal of importance on the hearing of the Word of God. In one form or another, the word hear is used thirteen times in Mark 4: 1–34. Obviously, our Lord was speaking, not about physical hearing, but about hearing with spiritual discernment. To “hear” the Word of God means to understand it and obey it (see James 1: 22–25).

Faithful women were the last at the cross on Friday and the first at the tomb on Sunday. What a contrast to the disciples, who had boasted that they would die for Him! The church of Jesus Christ owes much to the sacrifice and devotion of believing women.

The world’s philosophy is that you are “great” if others are working for you, but Christ’s message is that greatness comes from our serving others.

Because Mark’s gospel was so jam-packed, it was a little hard to discuss in our church’s Bible study time. But the study of Mark was profitable, as were the insights offered by Wiersbe.

A Better Blade for Killing Sin

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There’s one piece of chocolate cake on the counter.

I love chocolate cake. But I’ve already had something sweet today, and I want to save that last piece of cake for my husband. So I am resisting temptation.

There’s nothing inherently sinful about chocolate cake. But a lack of self-control is sinful. And chocolate cake tests my self-control.

If I start thinking about the cake, I’ll think about how good it tastes. Then I’ll think about maybe taking a sliver of it. Then half. And then I’ll think, “Well, it’s just this once. It’s not like I feast on chocolate cake every day.” I might even talk myself into eating the whole piece: my husband doesn’t know it’s there, so he isn’t expecting cake when he comes home.

Each thought is like laying kindling to the initial flame of temptation. Instead of feeding that flame, I need to stomp on it, douse it, dump sand on it.

That’s the kind of thing that comes to mind when someone talks about killing sin.

Romans 8:13 says, “For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” Colossians 3:5 says, “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you” and then names several wrong desires.

When something is killed, it’s . . . dead. Unresponsive. Not going to bother us any more.

But the problem is, wrong desires don’t stay dead. The next time chocolate cake is here, I’ll face the same temptation. So does that mean I didn’t “kill sin” in the first place?

Same with selfishness, probably my most besetting sin. Have you ever tried to kill selfishness in your life? It doesn’t stay dead. We might resist it one moment, but then it’s back soon.

So how can we kill it? I’ve supposed that the Bible means we kill sin in the moment. When I am tempted to sin, instead of entertaining the idea, I should look for ways to resist. God promises that “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it” 1 Corinthians 10:13). Too often I look for an excuse to indulge instead of the way of escape.

Instead of indulging the desire, I resist it–strangle it. Am unresponsive to it. It may come up again tomorrow. But for now, it’s slain.

Still, I wrestled with what it really meant to kill sin. Like the old slogan that promised Raid “kills bugs dead,” how could I kill sin dead?

A passage in Jen Wilkin’s book, Ten Words to Live By: Delighting In and Doing What God Commands, helped shed some light. The book is about the Ten Commandments, what they mean, how they apply today. In the seventh chapter on honoring marriage, Jen brings up Jesus’s command to cut off one’s eye or hand if those members cause us to sin, because “it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell” (Matthew 5:27-30). Jesus is obviously using hyperbole, exaggeration, to make a point.

Jen points out that even if we could cut off any body part that causes us to sin, we’d still have a problem in our hearts. Jesus made the same point when He said it’s not just committing adultery that’s a sin, but lusting. Jen goes on to say:

We need a better blade than any formed by human hands, one aimed at ridding our hearts of disordered desires.

Praise God, we have one. The blade that slays the beast is the word of God, made living and active by the Spirit of God, dividing thoughts and intentions of the heart (Heb. 4:12). By the word of God we learn to delight our hearts in the Lord, and the outcome is that which the psalmist predicts: “Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart” (Ps. 37:4) (p. 106).

Then Jen shares what was for me a light-bulb moment:

As we confess and repent, God puts to death our disordered desires and gives us rightly ordered ones. And our eyes and hands and feet and lips and tongues and noses begin to serve at the pleasure of a heart that delights in him.

“If your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light” (Matt. 6:22). The antidote to the lust of the eyes is not self-inflicted blindness, but seeing as God sees (pp. 106-107).

Being tempted is not sin. Jesus was tempted, yet never sinned. He resisted Satan with the Word of God. The more we know God’s Word, the better we’ll be able to resist sin.

But we put sin to death in our lives not just by resisting temptation in the moment, but by exposing ourselves to the blade of the Word of God, by delighting ourselves in the Lord and letting Him change our desires.

Killing sin doesn’t mean that I’ll never be tempted by a particular thing again or that all outward influences to sin will die. I wish. That won’t happen until heaven. But by God’s grace, I am supposed to kill sin in me. Sin lost its power over me at the cross. But I have to learn to live in newness of life—a process called sanctification, which won’t be complete until heaven. As I grow in the Lord, take in His Word, delight in Him, He changes my desires, and sin loses more power.

Scripture describes the Christian life as the source of such great joy that temptations lose their appeal. Like the feeling we have after Thanksgiving dinner, we should be so full of Christ that we don’t have room for sin!…Does obeying Christ mean saying no to sinful pleasures? Sure. However, saying no to sin in favor of Christ is like saying no to a scooter in favor of a sports car, or no to peanuts in favor of filet mignon. Life with Christ is a feast, not a famine (Chris Anderson, Gospel Meditations for Women).

One of Jen’s discussion questions at the end of this chapter says, “If you believe that the sharp blade of the Scriptures can put [sin] to death and reshape your desires, what regular practice of gazing on them do you follow?” (p. 110, emphases mine).

May we continually make time for God’s Word and grow in our love for Him.

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