The 4th of July is all about freedom and, not coincidentally, so is Jesus;  his clashes with the Pharisees and Herod,( as both of them  demanded fireworks) is a precious lesson on how we can loose our FREEDOM.

In Mark Chapter 8: Following  Jesus feeding the 4,000 and a difficult encounter with the Pharisees demanding a sign from heaven (Fireworks), Jesus loads up the boat to take the group to Bethsaida (House of Fish, Herod’s Territory, sounds fishy right)  15 And he cautioned them, saying, “Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.”

So what was this leaven? I have pondered that all week and surely Jesus was talking about demanding fireworks as both ask for a sign, Herod in Luke 23:6-12. Speaking of leaven both were certainly puffed up, the pharisees with their self righteousness, and Herod as a Politician and his supposed power, (I would imagine like me you can see some church folk and politicians you know as puffed up). So where do we let the hot air out and what was Jesus warning me not to fall for?

I believe the leaven is the bondage of control which leads in this case to fireworks on demand or as a computer programmer would see it as a, “Conditional Statement” or an “If, Then”. Example: “If you are the Christ then give us a sign in heaven”. This is a test, yes testing God as we sit the seat of judgement and control. You may, like me, be saying I would never do that. Hmmmmm lets look closer at my self talk and yes I do say these things to myself.

“If I tithe then God will bless me.”  “If I don’t tithe then God will break me.” “If I pray for my children then they will fall in love with Christ.” If I don’t pray for my children they will be lost and something bad will happen”.  “If God sees me giving my all for the Kingdom then he will bless me.” “If I slack off at work then God will surely punish me .”  AHHHHHH who will save me from this body of death.

Three days no food and no one asked Jesus to take seven loaves and feed everybody, it was His idea. Yes, just the day before. “Remember, yesterday, Robby,  didn’t you eat well and didn’t your kids eat well and not have an accident, ROBBY, you are not in control and if you would let go of the reins for a minute and just trust Me and love Me and stop testing Me, there is phenomenal FREEDOM.

Here is the way I have seen this play out in the car business both Sales and Service  with interpersonal relationships. In Sales many customers think of the salesperson as an annoyance someone that has no clue how to help them, and so those customers are in control, they choose what to look at what to test drive what price they will pay. There were days that I laughed all the way home at the insanity of it as someone who has done something maybe three times in their life will take no help from someone who has done it everyday for years and was really on their side but they had to control it.

In service its the customer who has to control his or her repair’s. The arguments that ensue are mind blowing as a person who has no clue what a tuneup even is insists that a tuneup will fix their car when a qualified technician has proof right in their hand that all they need is an oxygen sensor. Because the problem is even with the service advisors we were taught that we were not to diagnose a condition but put down the complaint. In other words you don’t write on a repair order, “Replace Battery”, but instead you write, “Customer says, “Car won’t Crank over””.  WHO’s in Control?

God help US to not test you or put our demands on Your Fireworks>

 

 

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