I am really enjoying the "Revolution" series at Heritage by Tim Montgomery that we are currently going through. The things I love most in other people are passion and taking initiative, so this Sunday's message was right up my alley! I also am a huge believer in the fact that it just takes one person to change the world, as well as encouraging people to live according to God's calling on their life, not other people's.
Well, Bartimaeus in Chapter 10 or Mark gives us a perfect example of this. Tim spoke on "taking initiative" and also "not living in fear" yesterday. He gave five great points, but as I read the text again, it is the words involved in this story that speak most to me.
Here are a few things that stuck out to me in reading verses 46-52 of Mark 10:
1) The text opens with Bartimaeus sitting along the road and begging, as was common for people with disabilities in this day and time. Yet upon hearing that Jesus was coming by in verse 47, instead of sitting and feeling sorry for himself, he began to SHOUT aloud! He didn't walk up and get close and grab his ear. He didn't care who was around. He didn't ask someone to get a word to Jesus for him. No, he SHOUTED!
2) In verse 48, as people were being ugle towards him and rebuking him, did he stop and sit back down? Did he let other people or their negativity defeat his spirit? Heck no! The Bible says that he "SHOUTED ALL THE MORE!"
3) After Jesus has heard him and called him over, it says in verse 50 that Bartimaeus THREW his cloak aside and JUMPED to his feet!
4) Finally, in verse 52, after his faith has healed his blindness, it says that he IMMEDIATELY followed Jesus.
Look at the words used in this text. The words I have put in all-caps should speak to us. They are the actions taken that are a picture of how we should be following Christ! Read over those words again and think of how most of us go through living out our faith on a day-to-day basis. The words "jumped", "threw", and "immediately" are probably easily and truthfully replaced with words like "slowly got up", "folded and set down", and "when he got around to it." Think about that---we are more prone to follow Jesus on OUR terms, and in OUR time, right? We tend to let others take the initiative and are often inspired by what God does through them, but we let fear and ignorance get in the way of following through in things ourselves. We let satan tell us we aren't good enough or important enough, or that God called others to amazing things. We let the things in our past defeat us instead of living in the forgiveness of our sins that our relationship with Jesus Christ provides. We flat-out LIMIT God and put him in a box, instead of embracing the truth of his endless authority and power. Do you see any place where Bartimaeus lived like this???
These are some amazing things from a powerful story. I think there are some great lessons for each of us that can come from the strong language used here.
Think about your faith. Do you just go through the motions? Are you any different than a person that doesn't follow Jesus? Why or why not? What keeps you from living your faith out with passion just as Bartimaeus does here in this story?
I know my prayer for myself and others this year is that we will walk and live with boldness, faith, authenticity, and passion like we NEVER have before! I ask that you join me in praying that we will continue to become more and more followers of Jesus and live radically in our faith as oppossed to just being christians that go to church. I believe that in doing that, we CAN change the world that we live in, while at the same time further expanding the kingdom of heaven!
Make a difference out there this week! Trust the Lord as you never have! Live boldly in expectation!
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