You are Invited!

Hi, my name is Dave Edgren. I just wanted to invite those of you who enjoy my content, my writing, and my storytelling to join in on my daily devotions. They're free, and I've been doing them for about a month now, and the link is below. I thought I'd share today's just to give you a bit of a taste of what we're doing. So I'm using the SOAP model of personal devotions, which is scripture— you read a scripture, and then you choose one verse out of that reading to focus on. Then you write your observation of that context, the verse in context. Then you write an application of how you can apply that today. And then you write a prayer. So here's today's Bible study. Mark 8:22-29, verse 1. They came to Bethsaida. They brought a blind man to him and begged him to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and brought him out of the village. Spitting on his eyes and laying his hands on him, he asked him, Do you see anything? He looked up and said, I see people. They look like trees walking. Again, Jesus placed his hands on the man's eyes. The man looked intently at his son, and his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Then he sent him home, saying, don't even go into the village. Jesus went out with his disciples to the village of Caesarea Philippi, and on the road he asked his disciples, 'Who do people say that I am?' They answered him, 'John the Baptist,' others, 'Elijah,' still others, 'one of the prophets.' 'But you,' he asked them, 'who do you say that I am?' Peter answered him, 'You are the Messiah.' And he strictly warned them not to tell anyone about him. Then he began to teach them that it was necessary for the Son of Man to suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, I must be killed and rise after 3 days. He spoke openly about this. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning around and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, Get behind me, Satan! You are not thinking about God's concerns but human concerns. Calling the crowd along with the disciples, he said to them, If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself. Take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me and the gospel will save it. For what does it benefit someone to gain the whole world and yet lose his life? What can anyone give in exchange for his life? For whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his Father, with the holy angels. Then he said to them, truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God come in power. So you can see that's a large passage of scripture, and now I have to zoom in, choose one verse. And I like to try to choose a verse that I wouldn't normally choose, something that says aha to me about something new. So in today's soap, I have decided to choose the middle of Mark 8:32 to the middle of Mark 8:33, which says Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him. But turning around and looking at his disciples, Jesus rebuked Peter. The observation: This lengthy passage, the full one that we just read, begins with a miracle, concludes with a challenge, and includes a reality check at its heart. Jesus heals a blind man. Then he asks his disciples for an external identity check. Who do people say that I am? This leads to him declaring his own internal self-knowledge: the leaders of Israel will kill him because he is the Son of Man. All of the disciples would have been shocked by this rhetoric. Only Peter has the nerve to challenge Jesus, and he does so in private. He tells Jesus to stop talking like this. Be a winner, not a loser. The Messiah changes everything. You have the power within you to change the world. We don't know Peter's exact words, but we know Jesus' response word for word. "Get behind me, Satan," Jesus told him. "You are thinking about God— not thinking about God, but about yourself." Ouch. That would have been painful for Peter to hear in Jesus' whispered words, but it wasn't whispered. Notice the description. Jesus— Peter took Jesus aside leads to, but turning around and looking to his disciples, Jesus rebuked Peter. Due to his respect for Jesus, Peter wanted to quietly say what everyone was thinking. In response, Jesus turns to everyone. Yes, Peter would have felt the reply more deeply than the others, but they all needed to hear it. "If anyone wants to follow after me," Jesus said later to the crowd as well as the disciples, "let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me." This reply from Jesus to Peter expands beyond the disciples to wrap its challenge around and call around every heart that cherishes Jesus, but wants allegiance with Jesus to lead to power and success here on sinful planet Earth. Jesus says, "For what does it benefit someone to gain the whole world and yet lose his life?" This is the only parameter that matters: eternal life. Application: The way of Jesus is very different from the way of the world. It's not just a slight correction change or a gentle nudge to "be good now." Instead, it's about throwing everything in with Jesus and his desire to glorify God alone. Of course, Jesus has the power to give us everything we want. He could fill your plate every day with earthly food, but he doesn't because he has eternal life to offer. He doesn't want you to become reliant on things of this earth. Which die tomorrow, when he has in his power eternal things, eternal life, and eternal provision. When I choose to focus on wealth, power, influence, and daily bread, I fixate on death. When I place my every waking desire on Jesus, I am granted a view into the kingdom of eternal presence with God. No death. No pain, no sin. Seeing this is very difficult while buried up to our necks in the dragon's hoard. This world's gold, power, position, and possession— possessions is constantly paraded before us. We're so blinded by it that we cannot see it is fool's gold. Jesus uses strong language. To break through this mirage: "Get behind me, Satan!" Hopefully, we can hear Jesus' words over sin's cacophony. Hopefully, we can see him and the kingdom to come. And hopefully, we can place our hope in him alone. Prayer: Dear Lord, please help me stop fixating on the shiny awful this world offers as wealth. Rebuke me when I live selfishly. Help me to see the vast difference between this life and eternal life. There is no comparison. Help me see as you see. Amen. So I'd invite you to join us each day at my, uh, soap link that's down below. Subscribe It's free, and then you'll receive one in your email every single day. Thank you for listening.