MARK
“If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O
Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be
feared.” Psalm 130:3,4
My parents were very
attentive and concerned that I learned to act right. They even seemed to be able to see the
motives I had for my actions. Rarely was
I able to pull anything over their eyes.
Sometimes I grew discouraged by their consistent examination. I would go to my room and make a list of the
things I would never do again.
Eventually my list would get so extreme that I would even list
breathing! I would never breathe
again!
Truly, if the Lord made
such a list for us, we would never breathe again.
Praise the Lord for that first little word, “if”. As His children, our sins are already
forgiven and He doesn’t go around making a list of the things we do wrong or
scrutinizing us to the point of despair.
However, that doesn’t give us excuse to go around sinning on
purpose. We are instructed to confess
our sins and to keep our lives free from the bondage of sinful activities and
attitudes. Our Lord is an attentive and
concerned parent. He wants us to know
that we are under his examination, but not in condemnation.
He is a parent of
forgiveness and of great power. He isn’t
just concerned that we “act right”, but that we “be right”, and He has given us
His power that we might be able to do rightly.
We might see our shortcomings and failures, but he sees our
potential. We might be self-condemning
and fearful, but he is empowering and confident. He is a parent we can trust and respect.
Do you live with the idea
that God is watching your every move in condemnation and judgment? Do you fear getting things wrong? Relax.
God is on your side. He is ready
to forgive and restore.
MARK
“Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright for the end of that man is
peace.” Psalm 37:37
Even as a young girl I noticed the people around me that
seemed to stand out from the crowd. They
were peaceful, happy and confident people who took time with others and who
seemed to have life all together. One
such person was a lady named Lou Grigsby.
She was married to an older man in our church. Her demeanor was kind and gentle and her
testimony and reputation in the church was one of respect. There was also a family who would visit our
little church each year when they came to see relatives. The moment they walked into the church I
noticed there was something different.
They were poised and dignified yet open and inviting. I found out years later that the husband was
a minister.
Just as I was able to mark these people for their lives,
others can mark us for what our lives reveal. We must remember that what we think
we are doing in secret is never secret. The
way we choose to live our lives is open for all to see. Our demeanor, attitude,
and responses will reveal our hearts.
This verse calls upon us not only to recognize, “mark”,
those that stand out, but also to look to see their end. As time passes and the generations change,
the lives of those who have lived uprightly are characterized by a peaceful
end. Oh, they may still face cancer or a
variety of terminal illnesses, but the overriding presence of their demeanor
and attitude is one of calmness and assurance of eternal rest. They do not fear death, but understand that
it is a passage from temporal to eternal.
What characterizes your life? Peace or turmoil? A glowing testimony where people mark you as
spiritual or “perfect”? or, are your
actions casting a shadow of doubt?
MARK
“…mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine
which ye have learned, and avoid them.
Romans 16:17
My parents were rather picky about whom we made our
childhood friends. Since my father’s job
meant he knew almost everyone in our county, it also meant that he knew the
homes or our friends. If their home life
was not up to his standard, we were not allowed to keep that friend. I often felt his evaluations unwarranted and
unkind, but I knew he was looking out for our welfare. He knew that friends would influence our
lives for better or for worse.
Here in Romans Paul giving a similar, but even starker
instruction. Those whose lives do not
match up to God’s standard will ultimately influence us, and not for the
better. Those who are always seeking
dispute, debate and sow discord are not ones who will make good Christian
companions.
We are to be discerning and take note – mark them. It means to look, observe, contemplate. We are to take heed. And – avoid them. Meaning we should turn aside, deviate; shun
in order to keep away from their sin and influence. Listening to their disputes and debates will
not bring us into a closer relationship with the Lord, nor will it bring an end
to their discord. It will only increase
into more of the same. We have a direct
instruction here to not only refuse to participate, but to totally withdraw
ourselves from their company.
We ought to be looking for good examples to follow.
Philippians 3:17 gives us the following admonition – “Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye
have us for an ensample.”
What about you? Do
you withdraw from gossipers and complainers, or do you revel in the juicy
tidbits? Have you learned enough of the
truth to know when these things are taking place? Do you have the strength of character and
obedience of heart necessary to step out of the situation? Are you following the right example?
MARK
“Why hast thou set me as a mark against thee, so that I am a burden to
myself? Job 7:20
As we look at Job 7:20 we see a man despairing of
life. He has searched his heart and life
for known sin and is confused. Used only
once, this definition of the word mark is to make one an object of assault or a
target. Job is feeling like God has made
him such – God is picking on him like a bully.
It reminds me of the image of Greek gods who simply played with men as
pawns in a game or for personal entertainment.
However, I know, and I hope you know, that the Almighty God does not
“play” with his creation in like manner.
So, we must look a bit deeper into the definition.
David Guzik makes this initial
clarification. “passages like Job 7:20 seem to have been altered by Jewish
scribes who were uncomfortable with his bold honesty with God. According to
Smick, "Ancient scribal tradition and the LXX show the original
reading" to be Have I become a burden to you? Most translations,
following later Hebrew manuscripts, have it I am burden to myself. Yet the
probably original text shows how deep Job's grief is, feeling himself to be a
burden to what feels like an unloving and uncaring God.”
It might be hard for us to
understand that sometimes men took liberties in the translation of the Word,
but we must not let us deter us from searching the Scriptures for truth.
The word, mark, is the one we
are considering, so let’s look at another commentator – Matthew Henry “The
complaint he makes of his afflictions, which he here aggravates, and (as we are
all too apt to do) makes the worst of, in…. expressions:-(1.) That he was the
butt to God's arrows: "Thou hast set me as a mark against thee,' v.
20. "My case is singular, and none is shot at as I am.' (2.) That he was a
burden to himself, ready to sink under the load of his own life. How
much delight soever we take in ourselves God can, when he pleases, make us
burdens to ourselves. What comfort can we take in ourselves if God appear
against us as an enemy and we have not comfort in him.”
Do you hear Job’s plea? “I am the only one going through this
trial. No one understands, no one cares,
not even God for He must surely be against me.”
Have you ever felt such?
But let’s not leave it here,
for in my reading I found that Spurgeon had yet another take on this verse – “Once
more we benefit from knowing the story-behind-the-story, which Job and his
friends do not know at this point in the narrative. Job believed that God was
against him and was punishing him, but it wasn't true. "Job was not being
punished; he was being honored. God was giving to him a name like that of the
great ones of the earth. The Lord was lifting him up, promoting him, putting
him into the front rank, making a great saint of him, causing him to become one
of the fathers and patterns in the ancient Church of God. He was really doing
for Job such extraordinarily good things that you or I, in looking back upon
his whole history, might well say, 'I would be quite content to take Job's
afflictions if I might also have Job's grace, and Job's place in the Church of
God.'"
When we, like Job, feel that
God is moving everything against us, or that we are the only ones being singled
out for punishment and trial, we must stop and take time to look at the bigger
picture. Trials are not meant to break
us, but to equip and prepare us for greater work. And, possibly, even like Job, to create
within us a testimony of God’s grace that could not have been shown any other
way – a testimony that God can use to glorify His name. We are not being bullied, but sculpted into a
jewel for His crown.
Maybe someday your name will be
marked and you could put it into this verse….”consider my servant,
________”.....what a privilege!
MARK
“I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in
Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:14
The definition for “mark” here is used only in this
instance. It means a distant goal or end
one has in view. To press toward the
mark is to aim at something. It is to
have an idea of what you expect the outcome to be and to continually move
toward that position or expectation.
Paul uses words like press, prize and high calling, to
emphasize the zeal with which this action is to take place. It isn’t just hoping that one will make it to
the finish line. It also isn’t just
waiting for the end to come. It is an
active and zealous pursuit of an expected goal or reward.
Sometimes I have heard it preached that this mark it a set
of standards, or a measuring stick. But
as I look at this verse I see it as the heavenly reward – heaven. Matthew Henry
says, “As he who runs a race never takes up short of the
end, but is still making forwards as fast as he can, so those who have heaven
in their eye must still be pressing forward to it in holy desires and hopes,
and constant endeavours and preparations. The fitter we grow for heaven the
faster we must press towards it. Heaven is called here the mark, because it is
that which every good Christian has in his eye; as the archer has his eye fixed
upon the mark he designs to hit.”
Not to say that we work to gain
Heaven, but we work toward Heaven. Our
home is secure and we are anxious to make our final abode there. This is the Christian’s high calling. This is the prize. To keep our eyes upon heaven gives us proper
measure in all our service and quickens every step we take.
Are you pressing toward your heavenly home with zeal and
expectation? Or, are you languishing
here on the earth? Set your eyes on the
prize, dear friend, and head toward the mark!
