They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’ You have let go of the commands of God and hold on to human traditions.

‭‭Mark‬ ‭7‬:‭7‬-‭13‬ ‭NIV‬‬

The most radical change is from the inside out.

Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me and understand this. Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.

‭‭Mark‬ ‭7‬:‭14‬-‭15‬ ‭NIV‬‬

In a world focused on appearances, rituals, and external conformity, Jesus redirects the spotlight inward, teaching that what truly corrupts a person is not what they eat, wear, or touch, but the things that emerge from within: our words, intentions, attitudes, and actions.

It’s a call to integrity—not just moral behavior, but alignment of our heart and spirit with the way of love, humility, and truth. 

It’s not the world entering us that defiles—it’s the bitterness, pride, deceit, or hatred we allow to grow and flow outward.

This is the freedom Jesus offers: a life radically transformed from the inside out. 

Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. They all ate and were satisfied,

‭‭Mark‬ ‭6‬:‭41‬-‭42‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Since when did giving thanks to God for providing our meals go out of style?

We’ve all witnessed an adjacent table in the restaurant bow heads in prayer before eating. 

Some families still practice this around the kitchen table. 

Though not usually such a dramatic exercise as providing a dinner party for 5,000 from an essentially empty fridge, God steps up at every meal to remind us that it is he who sustains us. 

What dinner guest doesn’t thank his host for the invitation and the good gifts that come with it?

Prayer that precedes acceptance of any meal either in private or in public is a humble, reflexive, and unashamed acknowledgment of the generosity of the giver. 

Whether procured from the local Kroger’s or the loving handiwork of your host, at the end of the day it’s ultimately God who sustains our needs. 

So get back in the habit. Give pause to reflect as a very small demonstration of your faith and thanks. 

It may be a tiny but significant witness to a world around you groomed to take blessings for granted. 

Ephesians 5:20

Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.

‭‭Mark‬ ‭4‬:‭18‬-‭19‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Jesus’ parable of the sown seed is packed with terrible outcomes. 

But good soil has nutrients like deep faith, godly friendships, patience, discipline and unwavering loyalty to the sower. 

Where you land on the earth isn’t random chance, it’s choices. 

God’s desire for everyone is to bloom wherever you’re planted. 

If we are, indeed, overcomers, it’s through the depth of our faith that we prevail. 

Like David encountering Goliath, we aren’t overcome by fear but boldly pursue our mission and purpose despite the obstacles. 

God’s heroes all emerged from situations where the odds were no match for the engine that empowered them and was fueled by their faith. 

Take a heroic risk today. 

Put fear in its place and faith in the driver’s seat. 

Good soil is God’s will for you. 

Faith like a mustard seed grows roots and branches, places for birds to nest, and an incredible testimony of God’s power. 

You can bloom wherever you’re planted. 

For me, it started one day at the home of a new acquaintance when I shared how my sleeping disorder makes me fall asleep all day and that Provigil, the prescription medication for it, was $1,800/month.

He said he had an alternative that was much less. I know he meant well, but that was the very first time I smoked a bowl of meth, which miraculously and immediately woke me up then kept me up for days looking for more.

Fast forward to today after 10 years inescapably hooked and now nearly 13 years clean, the news of his passing was sad enough, but the news he never escaped the special hell of addiction was even moreso.

He was a good man, clever, funny and I always considered him a smart and resourceful guy.

Though I haven’t seen nor heard from him in what seems like a decade, his face and voice were distinctive enough I can even now see and hear him.

All I’m left with is a gnawing wonder and sadness what might have become of him had I sought him out to return him the favor of freedom that I had found in sobriety.

Too little too late as they say.

It’s kept me up most of this night and as I often do, my feelings pour out in words on a page which won’t bring him back nor the chance to find him before it’s too late.

Returning home from my Celebrate Recovery meeting I realized that regrets like these are the sordid products of sobriety but even so, have blessed me with the rest of my life.

My means of escape from drugs was so much easier than his.

The “if onlys” however, are inescapable.

Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand up in front of everyone.” Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” 

But they remained silent. 

He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored.”

‭‭Mark‬ ‭3‬:‭3‬-‭5‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Simple question. 

Not even about which day of the week it was, but whether a man should do good or evil, to save or kill. 

The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath. 

They were still so stuck in their traditions and laws, they wouldn’t dare answer for fear in doing so they might break one. 

Deeply angered and distressed at their stubborn hearts offering no answer, Jesus resumed doing what he does best: he answered. 

When we truly understand the transformative nature of Jesus, answers come easy. 

What we might construe as a trick question is the teaching moment. And the best answer is usually the simplest. 

Jesus speaks in parables and examples to train us toward a new way of thinking. 

But they remained silent. 

“Do not be afraid” appears in your Bible over 100 times. 

Take a risk with Jesus and give an answer. That’s how we learn. 

Boldness always pleases the teacher. 

While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 

Jesus said “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.

‭‭Mark‬ ‭2‬:‭15‬-‭17‬ ‭NIV‬‬

The church where I serve is planted in an urban concrete part of town where little seems to grow except the population of lonely, homeless, drug addicted and abandoned people. 

A local melting pot of intergenerational, ethnic, and multinational souls within a center city church desert, our mission finds us eating, drinking, and serving alongside hundreds each week who look and act nothing like those in our own suburban neighborhoods. 

They often smell and look different and are unmannered but they come as they are, needing no invitation except a desire for new start and a new life. 

Jesus chose to be with people like these.  The dirty and despised. 

So we serve like Jesus. 

It’s uncomfortable at times. Awkward for many. But it’s as much for us as it is for these people we serve. 

All people need Jesus and we need to learn that all people means just that. 

Church has no room for your comfort zones but plenty of room for sinners who just need a hand up and out of what life and poor choices have dealt them. 

Come as you are. 

He didn’t come to serve the righteous.

But this has all taken place that the writings of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples deserted him and fled.

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭26‬:‭56‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Speed bump incoming. 

Betrayed in the garden by Judas and arrested, all the disciples then deserted him and fled. 

Despite fresh vows of loyalty to Jesus, their immediate reflex in the garden was self preservation.

To their credit though, the hasty exit itself was a fulfillment of prophecy. 

Zechariah 13:7: Strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter. 

Imagine your feeling abandoning your best friend  at his most serious time of need. 

How long did they run away for their lives until stopping to realize what they just did?

But Jesus already anticipated their reaction. It was already cooked into the  bitter recipe that would soon be served Jesus in his final days. 

I’d like to believe that I’d be the exception. That I’d have remained to be by Jesus’ side through it all. 

But alas, like you, I’m a sinner.

Fortunately, our savior knows that our intentions don’t always dictate our behaviors. 

Today, pray you’ll do your best to be faithful but accept it when you fall short. 

That’s precisely why he came. 

Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭26‬:‭41‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Letting down your guard. 

In this age of distractions, it’s increasingly difficult to keep focus on the dangers poised around every corner. 

The enemy roams night and day, to and fro seeking whom he might devour. 

1Peter 5:8

Though you might be prayed up and wearing all your Ephesians gear, a walk in the spirit is not always a stroll in the park. 

Taking pride in your preparedness makes one cocky as if to say “C’mon, bring it on!”

We should never seek an encounter with the enemy, the father of lies. 

Watching and praying is our most humble and most powerful defense against a fall into temptation. 

You’re not as resilient as you might believe, despite your preparations. 

Truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.” But Peter declared, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” And all the other disciples said the same.

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭26‬:‭34‬-‭35‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Each of us longs to believe that our faith and loyalty to Jesus is unstoppable. 

Even at my most intimate times of communion and spiritual connection, I’ve made promises I was unable to keep. 

The very best of intentions somehow end up having let us down. 

I’ll beat myself up for awhile until Jesus lets me off the hook with the truth of my inherently sinful nature. 

It’s better not to have made a vow at all than to make a vow and break it. (Ecclesiastes 5:4-5)

Our brokenness is also our reminder of our reliance on the saving work of the cross. 

The rooster always crows, declaring that truth. 

Just when you think you have it altogether, you’ll discover you don’t.  

As long as we’re above ground walking this earth, there’s no escaping our sin nature or the pride that fuels it.

Try as you may, the experience of humility is what makes us need and love Jesus all the more. 

The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.” Then Judas, the one who would betray him, said, “Surely you don’t mean me, Rabbi?” Jesus answered, “You have said so.

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭26‬:‭24‬-‭25‬ ‭NIV‬‬

There is a Judas in all of us. 

We each live our lives with some secret rebellion believing we are better at hiding than Jesus is at finding. 

Judas’ reply when confronted clearly demonstrates he doubted Jesus as God incarnate who is by his very nature all-knowing and all-seeing, otherwise he would have come clean immediately. 

There’s a Judas in all of us. 

Being wholly devoted means even when we sin, we don’t hide like Adam or deny it like Judas in self-defense or deflection of blame. 

When I was arrested on drug charges years ago, my first emotion was relief not defense. Despite having continued using and selling, I had longed for all of it to end. Not necessarily the way it did, but I knew I’d been found out. 

There’s a Judas in all of us. 

Accepting God’s forgiveness means first acknowledging both our guilt and God’s omniscience in the equation. 

Our reflexive response when confronted must include humility and sorrow before we can experience grace and mercy.