"Practically Divine" - Week 4

Tuesday, June 28th

“Practically Divine”

Summer Book Club – Week 4

Read: Mark 7: 1-23

I find it very, very interesting that Becca introduced Covid and the pandemic in our chapter this week. Her experience in March of 2020 was the basis of the chapter’s meaning. Then, Mark 7 begins with hand-washing traditions. I had to chuckle just a little.

This passage of scripture is packed with goodness, insight, and challenge. Wisdom tells me it is best to tread slowly through the words in these 23 verses.

The religious approached Jesus furious that His disciples were getting away with eating before washing their hands. The Passion Translation says, “They were shocked to find that some of Jesus’ disciples ate bread without first observing the Jewish ritual of hand washing before eating a meal (verse 2).

Now, please keep in mind Jesus’ disciples had cast out demons, healed, shared the Gospel, walked with Jesus, learned from Jesus, and participated in numerous miracles with Jesus. BUT, the religious people decided to focus on how they did or did not wash their hands. I mean, there was tradition to contend with after all.

Y’all, I’m praying as I type every word, because this lesson is very personal for me. I grew up with a religious background that worships tradition. That is most likely an overstatement. Maybe it’s a little bit dramatic. I have an assortment of childhood to young adult memories, though, where people of my religious background chose to honor ancient ritual and tradition over Biblical teaching and people.

Sweet Jesus let them explain their whole ridiculous argument before He called the hypocrites. Then, He went on to explain how Isaiah had prophesied about their hypocrisy long before that day. He corrected them for treasuring their man-made tradition over the instruction of God. He challenged them by saying, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God, in order to keep your tradition!”

I understand what Jesus was teaching perfectly. I’ve actually seen it first-hand….

The well-dressed pastor condemning a congregation for not actively loving the community by volunteering to comb the neighborhood with Gospel tracts just before going home to verbally and emotionally abuse his wife and/or children.

The well-meaning group of youth that stand outside of abortion clinics to rescue the lives of unborn babies while they slander scared, pregnant women with hate-filled statements as they pass by.

The mother so dedicated to raising strong, Christian children as the Bible instructs but allows insecurity and comparison to run freely in her heart so that she pushes and pressures and unknowingly encourages a hardened heart within her child.

Tradition, y’all. It can lead us all astray, because it allows us to focus on beautifying the outside while the inside rots.

Jesus’ disciples had a lot of trouble understanding His initial story. So, from verse 18 through 23, Jesus tries to explain even more clearly. I’m including His words from Passion, because I believe they’re important,

Are you as dull as the rest? Don’t you understand that you are not defiled by what you eat? For the food you swallow doesn’t enter your heart, but goes into your stomach, only to pass out into the sewer. He added, Words and deeds pollute a person, not food. Evil originates from inside a person. Coming out of a human heart are evil schemes, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, treachery, debauchery, jealousy (an evil eye), slander, arrogance (boasting), and recklessness (senselessness). All these corrupt things emerge from within and constantly defile a person.

Jesus is a savage! I crave His boldness.

The issue is the heart!

Over the past 5 years, I’ve been going through some stuff. It’s been a lot. I don’t mean to hide any of it from you. There’s just too much to go into here. Situations and circumstances have exposed parts and pieces of my heart that have been traumatized, betrayed, maybe even trampled but not fully cleaned, cared for, and healed. Do you know what happens when a heart (even a Christian’s heart) is left injured and not fully treated?

You guessed it…. From it flow wickedness, greed, jealous, slander, arrogancy, and senselessness. Maybe it was unintentional, but my heart wasn’t rescued for that. My heart was rescued to be free.

At the beginning of this five-year journey, I attended a ladies’ conference. In one of our breakout sessions, we were introduced to “bullet journaling.” If you’ve never heard of it, google it. You’ll see it involves a little bit of crafting. From that day forward, I was a bullet journal-er. J Every morning, I’d wake up and journal my thoughts with pens, markers, stencils, and stickers. It’s as close to crafting as I’ve ever been and completely out of my area of expertise.

Recently, I felt the nudge from Holy Spirit that it was time for me to put away the bullet journaling. So, I’m back in my spiral notebooks. First, though, I took out all of the bullet journals from the past five years and stacked them up in a tower. In that moment, I knew that God had given me this crafting practice to slow me down in a season when I needed to take time to rest in Him. Moving my hands caused me to quiet my heart and soul so that He could have full access to heal.

I am on a mission for the collective heart of Christ’s Church to be healed. Until we pause long enough to let Him do the hard and dirty work of exposing our darkness and cleansing us from the inside out, we will continue to cling tightly to horrid ritual and tradition over the goodness of His Word.

Maybe crafting is the way it will happen. I can’t say for certain. But, moving beyond ourselves to see the larger world around us IS the answer. And, I’ve been completely challenged by Becca’s “we can make it” chapter to GET UP and do something with my healing.

How about you? What have you been challenged with in this chapter.

God, thank you for all of the ways You invite us to slow down and focus on YOU. Protect us from clinging to tradition because it’s easier, seemingly safer, but incredibly damaging. You sent Jesus into the dirty of this world, because anything that He touches becomes clean. Christ in us cannot be defiled. Please, heal Your Church. We want to do right, but we are hurt, bruised, and sick. That much is obvious in the way we “fight” for You. Your ways don’t injure. Your ways bring life. Speak, Lord, speak. We need the hearts of Your children to be cleaned and healed in a big way. Your Word says that when Your people turn from wicked ways You’ll hear from heaven and heal. Do it, Lord. Please. Amen.