Why So Stupid?

Mark 8:1-21
I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now been with me three days, and have nothing to eat:
And his disciples answered him, From whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in the wilderness? And he asked them, How many loaves have ye? And they said, Seven.
When I brake the five loaves among five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? They say unto him, Twelve. And when the seven among four thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? And they said, Seven. And he said unto them, How is it that ye do not understand?

Reason why we are so stupid-
A. We fail to know God and His Word
There is more to God beyond what we know. We examine the miracles that God performed, we go beyond the normal understanding. It is not just being fed with bread, but that God is the provider of all things including the enternal life. More importantly, we fret when we lost our provision in daily life; we lost faith the He will ultimately provide. We worry about daily provisions, when these should be the least of our worries. We need to have faith and trust the Lord to provide while to focus our attention on the heavenly things of enter all life.

God has compassion; He provided for all and fed the multitude when there was no food. God will have compassion towards us;  we just need to have faith and patience that he will provide. We worry, we are stupid. We live like spiritual orphans as though we have no father, we are stupid. We are stupid because we chose to be; forgetting that God is companionate and powerful. Put God first and have faith.

B. We fail to see things through the word of God
Many things happen in the world, and we use our own understanding to interpret the world. God's theology is given to us for the reason, that we can understand the things of the world through the lens of God. People follow great leaders of the world and their thinking; but they forgot that they already have the greatest teaching in the Bible. Only when we know theology then can we see the world in the light of God's word, and everything will make sense  in spiritual sense.

We also make decisions according to our own wisdom and understanding; we never bring God into our decision making. What is His will for us? What is the Bible say about what we are going to do? Would the decision we made be a good testimony to us as Christian? Did we consider all these questions before we make decisions? How stupid can we be?

If only we rely on God, life would be earlier for us. We are limited in our understanding, God alone should should be our only yardstick for all.

Sunday Service - Who Can Forgive Sin?

Mark 2:1-12 - Jesus heal the sick of the palsy

Mark 2-10-12 "But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (he saith to the sick of the palsy,) say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house. And immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all; insomuch that they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, We never saw it on this fashion."

One major characteristic of Jesus' saving of the sick of the palsy is that the forgiveness is absolute and permanent. There is no relapse, no partial healing. It is always complete. Can any healing in this world today be compared to what Jesus did? Only Jesus can do it because he is God. 

Mark 2:5. "When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee."

The second point to note in this incident is the faith of the friends who carried the sick and lower him down from the roof. Such faith that they had to believe that what they were doing was worth it. It was the great zeal of getting near to Jesus that was recognized and bore fruit. Were they lazy? Were they complacent? No, and we should not be either. Where has our zeal for God gone? Learn and rekindle that passion for God. 

The perseverance of the sick man to get to Jesus no matter what is also a lesson for us. How much sin had he committed in his life? Who can forgive him? Jesus called him "son", and saved him. He was physically sick but spiritually well. 

No man is too far away from God so long as he recognizes his own sin and seek repentance. Do we seek God for cleansing of sins? What other ways we attempted to be rid of sin? There is no other way except the forgiveness of God. 

Mark 2: 8-9 "And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he said unto them, Why reason ye these things in your hearts? 9 Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk?"

There was a third group of people - the scribes. They were the ones who knew God's words and knew what God can do. However their minds were closed to Jesus, and could not see God even when the miracles were done, Jesus knew it and that's why he needed to demonstrate the power of God.  However they continued not to believe even with the miracle, and continued to find fault with him. (Mark 3:6) In comparison, they were physically well but spiritually dead. 

God is all knowing, He knows, He heals, so long as we seek Him.