20/2/18 – Exodus 27, Exodus 28 Mark 5:21-43, Mark 6:1-6 Psalm 24:1-10

Ex 28:31-32

“You shall make the robe of the ephod all of blue. It shall have an opening for the head in the middle of it, with a woven binding around the opening, like the opening in a garment, so that it may not tear.

This whole section of scripture contains so much… detail. God is describing in this verse the ephod for the priests. He even goes as far to tell them to have an opening for the head to go into and how to bind it so that it won’t tear.

This tells me that God does think about the details. God does care about the details. He’s not a broad brush strokes God. He’s involved. As we read about the tabernacle, every little detail is laid out.

Sometimes we only expect a vague word from God and then to work the rest out on our own. But God wants to speak about the details too. If God cares about the details then we should. There’s no sense in doing half a job for God, or not putting the effort in, because that’s not how God works.

He knows the hairs on your head. All of them. Not only that, He put them there. No detail in your life is too small for God to care about, so bring Him the little things as well as the big and trust Him with those too.

Mark 5:30-34

And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’” And he looked around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”

Jesus responds to faith. He loves it. He loves it when people trust Him enough to belie that He can do what He says He can.

But Jesus also responds to a lack of faith too.

When Jesus went to His hometown, people didn’t believe and Jesus “marvelled because of their unbelief.”

I love that it says He could not do any miracles there, expect lay his hands on a few sick people and they were healed – because that sounds pretty miraculous to me!

When we believe, anything is possible. When we don’t – we hinder the work of God in our lives.

When Jesus met the centurion who showed great faith he marvelled. As He did with the lack of faith in His home town.

Marvelled. Amazed. Be astonished.

We can make Jesus amazed – either with our faith or with our lack of it. When HE looks at you, which way do you amaze Him?

Ps 24:1

The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein,

You belong to God. He does not belong to you.

He has dominion over everything – the cattle on a thousand hills belong to Him. Anything we have, anything we think we own – we’ve just borrowed it from Him.

Our bodies are not our own, they are just one short term lease.

Have you ever drove someone else’s car? You drive a little differently when it belongs to someone else, you take care – you want to look after it.

If we fully understood who own our world and our bodies… maybe we’d treat them all a little better. This world is a great responsibility, yet we are acting like it’s our to do with as we please.

When we refuse to tithe, we forget whose money it really is. When we sin, we forget who this body belongs to.

Let’s not be so concerned with what we have or what we gain in this life. None of it’s ours anyway. I wonder how many wars could have been avoided if we’d remembered this?