Logically Explaining God

I was reading the tail end of Mark chapter six this morning and found a new perspective on the disciples. They just got done seeing (or experiencing) Jesus' miracle of feeding 5,000 men and their families. Huge faith builder right?!? You'd think so, but as I read what happened immediately after (6:45), I get a different picture. Jesus makes them get into a boat to travel back across the sea. Verse 48 tells us that Jesus was watching them from a distant mountain (that's a whole different blog, cool thought though). He could see that they were in some trouble. So, like any other King of the Universe would do, He walks out to them on the water, gets in the boat, and calms the storm. WOW! Here's what the end of the story reads...

"Then he climbed into the boat, and the wind stopped. They

were totally amazed, for they still didn’t understand the

significance of the miracle of the loaves. Their hearts were

too hard to take it in. - Mark 6:51-52 (nlt)

Their hearts were hardened?? Are you kidding me? What's that all about?! Why did they have hard hearts? C'mon, these were Jesus' followers. They hung out with Him. They did life together with Him. He poured His life into them, and they have hardened hearts?!? What's up with that? Why were they amazed? Didn't they see Him an hour ago feed thousands of people with a handful of food?

They missed it! The Message reads like this, "They didn't understand what He had done at the supper. None of this had penetrated their hearts." The feeding of the 5000 was to show us that Jesus IS God! If they really believed that He was God, they wouldn't have been amazed (or perplexed and bewildered) at Him walking on water or calming the storm? (I know - I know, If we were there, we'd probably be in the "same boat"). We should be in awe of Jesus, but not astonished or amazed. Those words describe being confused, not being able to think logically.

That's the problem, trying to make Jesus fit our thoughts logically. We can't, He's GOD! His thoughts aren't as our thoughts! Verses 53-56 gives us the picture that the laity recognized Jesus as God, while Jesus' leaders still had a hard time with it. The disciples, were still trying to logically figure Him out. When we do that, we are in danger of our hearts hardening as the disciples' did.

At Catalyst this year Craig Groeschel gave a message on "practical atheism." He said that when we believe God exists, but live life like He doesn't, we have become a practical atheist. Do you live life knowing God exists, but not acting like it?

• In the area of your finances?
• In the area of your witness?
• In the area of your prayer life?
• In the area of your marriage?
• In the area of your ministry?

If we really believed God exists in our heart and not just in our head, how would life be different for us in these areas??? Would we see some things that we can't "logically" explain? I don't want to have a hardened heart, as a result of logically trying to figure out God. God is God, many times He goes against all logic. Sometimes the stuff He leads us to do would seem to be illogical to others. But remember, His ways aren't as our ways. We don't have to try to figure Him out, we just have to trust Him!