Dull Boys are Troubled Men

Its funny how often the things you thought you knew about Jesus are wrong. Growing up I always believed that Jesus was kind of like my dad. He worked 12 hour days 6 days a week and took Sunday off. I never saw my dad just take a day off. As long as I was with him on this earth there was never a vacation. What my father did was important to the family and so he worked a lot.

And to be honest, what I want to share today I learned 15 years ago, but because of my up bringing and our culture I never got it until the last couple of years.

Remember, Jesus ministry was Successful. Its still in business. He never ran on a quarter tank and always filled up before He poured out and when He filled up, it was with premium "God"!

But how does this filling and pouring look to us? Well lets check the bible.

In the Gospels there are many examples of what I am going to share but because I'm currently in Mark we will use that as a reference.

I found eight examples of Jesus pouring himself out and filling himself up and here they are. Today you will get four.

Mark 1:9-13

Jesus had just gotten baptized and you would think that He would officially begin His ministry, but no, Jesus spent 40 days in the desert alone praying, meditating and thinking of God.  It was in the wilderness that He was tempted and defeated Satan setting the tone for His ministry. This gave Him what He needed for a strong start to what God had called Him to.

Mark 1:35

Jesus went out to a very lonely place and prayed. This time helped Jesus discern His next step of going to Galilee.

Mark 3:13

Jesus went up to a Mountain to pray. This gave Him the wisdom to make a very important decision. The choosing of the twelve men who would do ministry with Him and later, Eleven, without Him.

Mark 6:30-32

Jesus and the Apostles had just finished a wonderful but painful time of ministry and so Jesus suggested that they go for a boat ride. John the Baptist had just died and so they needed some time to grieve. But every where they went people thronged them creating amazing stress among the apostles. But Jesus, because he had filled up was fully capable of pouring out leading him to feed thousands and little to no real effort.

This is a little different than I was taught. Jesus didn't just work all the time. He filled Himself first, then Poured Himself out. Chew on that a little today and we will see more tomorrow.