Mark Chapter 2

I love the story of the four men and thier paralyzed friend. This is the subject of this Sunday's message at Christ Community. What profound faith they had to make a hole in someone's roof so that their friend could be brought to Jesus. We know that spiritual ills has a physical impact on us and that physical woes can have a spiritual impact on our lives -- as can emotional or relationship difficulties. Does it surprise us that Jesus says to the man on the pallet your sins are forgiven? The forgivness of sins and the healing of a body must have an impact on one another. What say you?Mark 2:15 gives us the Levi(Matthew) party. When Levi is called to follow Jesus he does so and his next step is to invite all of his tax collecting sinner friends to a gathering at his house to meet Jesus. As an evangelism strategy this is a great idea. When was the last time any of us invited all of our pre Christian friends to a gathering . . .?You don't sew new patches on old cloth nor do you put new wine in old wine skins -- critical teaching. When God is doing something new he will create a new form to do it. This is why each new outpouring of the Holy Spirit has new music, new worship forms and new structures. These "new wine skins" make growth space for the new thing the Spirit is doing.Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath -- that is he is Lord over religious practices -- he frees us from the constraints of religion so that we can live lives of faith!

Dr. BJ