Pastor Shaun Marksbury

31  Then he returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. 32  And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on him. 33  And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue. 34  And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” 35  And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. 36  And Jesus charged them to tell no one. But the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. 37  And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.” Jesus remains in Gentile territory as He heads back southward.  This would have been an odd route, apparently avoiding Galilee.  He arrives in the region of Decapolis, the ten cities, where He healed the man with th

5            “Because the poor are plundered, because the needy groan,             I will now arise,” says the Lord;             “I will place him in the safety for which he longs.” 6            The words of the Lord are pure words,             like silver refined in a furnace on the ground,             purified seven times. 7            You, O Lord, will keep them;             you will guard us from this generation forever. 8            On every side the wicked prowl,             as vileness is exalted among the children of man. Last time, we began looking at David’s faithless generation, and its default seems to be lies and deceit.  Since there’s no love of truth, and the truth-speakers seem to have vanished, “On every side the wicked prowl, as vileness is exalted among the children of man” (v. 8).  However, we see at least three truths about Scripture that fills David with confidence. The Word of God is active.  Verse 5 serves as the hub of the psalm, wher

27  And he said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” 28  But she answered him, “Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” 29  And he said to her, “For this statement you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.” 30  And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone. We saw last time that Jesus headed northward, perhaps to teach His disciples in private when they met this mother.  Because of her encounter with Jesus, her daughter is free from Satan to experience normal life.  Her faith-filled plea is a teaching opportunity, so let’s see what these verses reveal about it. She comes to Jesus with faithful persistence.  Matthew fills in some intervening information; Jesus at first remains silent to her request, and His disciples ask Him to send her away (Mt. 15:23).  He then speaks—to the disciples rather than the woman (v. 24)—saying, “I was

And from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And he entered a house and did not want anyone to know, yet he could not be hidden. 25  But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet. 26  Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. Jesus heads northward, perhaps to retreat with the disciples to teach them, seeking to avoid public ministry when they meet this mother.  Tyre was a port city in Phoenicia (modern-day Lebanon), then called Syria.  Since there were also Phoenicians in North Africa, this woman is called a Syrophoenician, a Phoenician from Hellenized (Greek-speaking) Syria.  She’s not Jewish , so her faith-filled plea is a teaching opportunity for the disciples. First, she comes to Jesus with scriptural understanding.   How much she knows isn’t stated, but what she does is startling.  In Matthew 15:22, she c

This is a reminder to be reposted every few years. If you are new to the internet or electronic age in general, one of the basic rules of communication is to keep your "caps lock" key in the off position. Use "mixed case" when writing---the style you learned in elementary school (using a capital letter only to start a sentence or to mark a proper noun). Avoid use of all capital letters (or all lowercase, for that matter). Why care about this rule? Some people are in a hurry, so why not use all capital letters to blog, comment, send emails, or the like? First , it is more difficult to read something written in all capital letters. There is a reason the Greeks switched from all caps (majuscules) to a mixture of case (minuscules): to make what is written easier to read. Wikipedia has this piece of insight: However, the shapes of words set in lowercase provide a valuable cue to readers that helps speed the process of reading; type in all caps forms a rectangular

And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. 18  And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, 19  since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) 20  And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 21  For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22  coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23  All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” A sign in front of a small church here in Georgia made the bold proclamation—“Alcohol is a demon.”  There’s no doubt that alcohol has been instrumental in the destruction of many families and lives, used for demonic purposes in other words, but it’s not an actual demon!  There’s nothing intrinsic in the fermentation

This is based on a paper submitted during my college days and serves as more thinking fodder on  Solus Chistus, " Christ Alone." -------------------------------------------- Is God really just? This question drills to the heart of the debate concerning the plight of the unevangelized. It's what people wonder when some say that the Gospel excludes any other means of salvation outside of Christ. Thus, it's a valid question if the Gospel is exclusive, for many have and never will hear the Gospel's message. Is God just in sending people to Hell who have never heard the Gospel? We will look briefly at two alternatives to an exclusivistic view[1] – pluralism and inclusivism. The number of people in the world who die without Christ is staggering. These numbers are accentuated by two facts. First, the number of actual Christians is probably only a factional to those living in "Christendom" (those who live in nations touched by the Gospel message and profe

And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: 15  There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.  [ 16  If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.] Sometimes, Christians develop odd notions about diet.  Once, I saw granola bars that were supposed to taste like manna.  People argue that God wants us to be vegetarians because of Adam and Eve, while others sell books promising detox and weight-loss based on how Daniel ate.  Some eat kosher because they believe there’s an intrinsic holiness that comes from keeping the dietary law of Moses.  Jesus addresses these notions while confronting the false traditions of the Pharisees. Consider first His commands.   As the multitude of people considered the controversy between Jesus and the Pharisees (vv. 1–13), Jesus regathers them for further exposition.  Perhaps He now turns to those who’ll be more recept

1            Save, O Lord, for the godly one is gone;             for the faithful have vanished from among the children of man. 2            Everyone utters lies to his neighbor;             with flattering lips and a double heart they speak. 3            May the Lord cut off all flattering lips,             the tongue that makes great boasts, 4            those who say, “With our tongue we will prevail,             our lips are with us; who is master over us?” 5            “Because the poor are plundered, because the needy groan,             I will now arise,” says the Lord;              “I will place him in the safety for which he longs.” This psalm is a lament of a faithless generation in Israel battling words.  On one side, the wicked boast and oppress with their tongues.  On the other, the Lord arises and speaks His tried and true Word—the one enduring forever, delivering the righteous for generations to come (v. 7).  For now, David lifts his prayer to th

James White of Alpha and Omega Ministries posted a five part debate between himself and sociologist professor Michael Schutz on the topic of gay marriage. Schutz, taking the "pro" side of the debate, claims to be a Christian himself, though it is interesting to see what he appeals to as his authority. If anything, the debate is worth watching just for James White's opening remarks on the value of marriage. (This debate took place well before the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court decision.) Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5

(Originally posted December 01, 2008) Todd Friel and Kirk Cameron had a great conversation on Christian parenting on Friday that I thought you might enjoy. It was on the Way of the Master Radio/Wretched Radio broadcast, and I've posted it on YouTube. Here is the "video" with commentary below: You can read all of John MacArthur's message, "A Crash Course in Christian Parenting,"  here . I've highlighted some points below that Todd and Kirk discuss: 15. Spoil him. Give him everything he wants, even more than you can afford—just charge it—so you can get him off your back. 14. When he does wrong, nag him a little, but don’t spank him. I wanted to add comment here because spanking is becoming more and more of a social taboo. Kirk notes that it is absolutely wrong to strike a child in anger. It is wrong to strike anyone in unholy anger, let alone a child. Perhaps this is what many people confuse with spanking: an enraged parent swatting aw

(Originally posted August 22, 2008) I cannot tell you how often I have heard the story told in a pulpit of how bank tellers spot a counterfeit bill. Apparently, the Secret Service has tellers study only true currency. The idea is in knowing the genuine article, a person will be able to spot counterfeit bills more readily. The spiritual application of this tale is that Christians should only study true things, rather than spending extra time learning about heresy. If the Christian only knows truth, then he will not be tricked by error. One problem: the bank teller story is a myth. Tellers are given counterfeit bills, as well, so they can learn some of the tell-tell markers of fakes. I'm currently reading Roger E. Olson's The Story of Christian Theology: Twenty Centuries of Tradition & Reform . He writes of this myth on pages 20-21. On checking with the Treasury Department's Minneapolis Secret Service agent in charge of training bank tellers to identify counterf

Sola fide or "faith alone" is so important that it extends past the question of salvation and affects how we live our lives.  As an example, consider the incident at Antioch.  Paul writes in Galatians 2:12–13, “For before certain men came from James, [Peter] was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.”  Paul highlights this incident because “their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel” (v. 14).  If the Gentiles have come to full faith in Christ, and Christ tore down the partition between the two, then Peter and the rest of the Jews shouldn’t be acting as though works like diet choices or the flesh (i.e., nationality) can make someone a second-class Kingdom citizen.  Paul goes on to explain the point.  He writes that “we know that a person is not justified by works o

If you have a true faith that Christ is your Saviour, then at once you have a gracious God, for faith leads you in and opens up God’s heart and will, that you should see pure grace and overflowing love. This it is to behold God in faith that you should look upon his fatherly, friendly heart, in which there is no anger nor ungraciousness. He who sees God as angry does not see him rightly but looks only on a curtain, as if a dark cloud had been drawn across his face. (Martin Luther quoted by Roland Bainton in Here I Stand , pp. 49-50).

This was originally posted at my old blog, July 19, 2008, "We Need to Correct Our Bent:" ------------------------------------------------------------------------- We just came back from vacation in Florida, visiting the kin folk. Overall, it was a wonderful visit. Some stories I began to hear, however, made me quite uneasy. For instance, my ears perked up while visiting our home church when a gal began praising the Lakeland Revival -- to the approval of the pastor and congregation. I was told by others that several people from the church had gone to the visit the supposed outpouring. Having only recently heard of Todd Bentley, and the reports were unsavory from a biblical perspective, I looked for videos on our pal, YouTube. Here are some of the search results: Todd Bentley hears the "audible voice of God" and discovers he was demon possessed [EDIT: at a Charismatic Catholic mass!] after his profession of faith ( video ). Bentley announces the physical app

Mark Dever's ministry has been a blessing to the church at large.  With books like Nine Marks of a Healthy Church and the resulting 9Marks ministry , he has helped many Evangelicals better understand biblical ecclesiology.  His booklet entitled By Whose Authority? Elders in Baptist Life is also useful; it rightly argues for the importance of elders.  For many in Southern Baptist circles, this will be a difficult sale, as self-identifying “traditionalist” congregations (those ironically not following the traditional ecclesiological beliefs of the founders of the SBC) are typically deacon-run, even if they have multiple pastors.  It is, however, the more biblical model, and this book is worth the read simply for that. Another reason it's a difficult sale is the concern that church members will lose their say.  Interestingly, Dever doesn't counter here with what Scripture says about the authority of elders.  Instead, he argues that the congregation can remain as the final

As we come up on the next section of Mark next month, we have a missing verse.  The ESV says, "Some manuscripts add verse 16: If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear ."  The NASB has this verse bracketed off with this note: "Early mss do not contain this verse." These kinds of things bothered me when I was younger in the faith.  It seemed to validate what the scoffers of Scripture alleged—that the Bible's been changed over time and that no one can know what it originally said.  They say it’s like a game of Telephone.  However, what makes Telephone fun is that we have all the players, including the original messenger, and we can discover who “corrupted” the message. We have tons of ancient manuscripts of the Bible, many more thousands of pages than for any other ancient writing, and we can determine where and when something got altered.  Because we can have more confidence than ever that we have the Bible accurately transmitted to us from 2,000 years ago, th

As you reflect on the Reformation 500 years later, you'll notice that there's growing support for reversing it.  Folks are building bridges on both sides of the Tiber River in an effort to bring Protestants back home to Rome. In 1994, an ecumenical document called “ Evangelicals and Catholics Together ” shook the Christian world. In 2014, megachurch evangelical pastor Rick Warren called Pope Francis “our pope,”   erased the major differences between Catholics and Evangelicals , and recently made headlines again when he said that Catholics were partners in ministry and recipients of God’s grace . Last month, Pope Francis met with Catholic and Evangelical Charismatics and said that the Holy Spirit gave them all forgiveness and “unity in diversity.” Let us not forget that the Catholic church anathematized anyone who believes that a sinner can be justified by grace alone apart from works.  This means that they teach anyone holding to this belief will go to hell because of