More Foolish Than Baghdad Bob Today's Three-minute Bible Study Print, Study and Apply Title: More Foolish Than Baghdad Bob------------------- Date: 4/14/2003 Keywords: “demand” “dispute” “foolish” “miracle” “sign” Welcome to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand strong in the face of sexual temptation. Passage: Mark 8:11-13* 11. Then the Pharisees came out and began to dispute with [Jesus], seeking from Him a sign from heaven, testing Him. 12. But He sighed deeply in His spirit, and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Assuredly, I say to you, no sign shall be given to this generation.” 13. And He left them, and getting into the boat again, departed to the other side. Questions 1. If you haven’t read yesterday’s study, I believe it would help you understand today’s a little better. When you read the Bible, do you attempt to understand passages in context before trying to make personal applications?   2. Why would Jesus feed a multitude of hungry people one moment and then refuse to perform a miracle the next?   3. When you seek something from God, are you more like the hungry people in the preceding study or the Pharisees we encounter in today’s study?   Practical help To me, the key word in today’s study is “dispute.” What makes us dispute with God? I think the biggest reason is the fear of losing personal power. For example, let’s look at these religious leaders known as the Pharisees who were disputing with Jesus. If Jesus’ teaching were correct, it would mean that the Pharisees’ teachings were wrong. If their teachings were wrong, then who would admire them? Who would follow them and respect them? Aren’t we the same way? In moments of honesty, I must agree with Isaiah 55:9 when God says “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.” And because there can be only one real God, I am faced with an important decision — one that will affect how I live the rest of my life. Either I submit to God’s instructions and ways, or I resist Him and put up a fight. Of course, when I do dispute, I will become sort of like Iraqi’s Minister of Information who was given the name “Baghdad Bob” by the Western press. In the midst of bombs dropping, he tells us there are no Americans in Baghdad, and in fact those Americans who are there are being beaten to a pulp (never mind internal inconsistencies in the two back-to-back statements). I can dispute the reality and power of God in the same way. In the midst of this unexplainably complex universe I have been dropped into, I can declare there is no God. And also I can declare that He (who I just said didn’t exist) is powerless giving as proof that I just asked Him for a miracle and nothing happened. “It says in the Bible that if I ask for anything, He will do it. I just did, and nothing happened. So there’s your proof. God does not exist!” When you and I have a heart of pride, anger or arrogance and we come to God demanding that He fix our worlds (e.g., Take away my desire for porn) as proof of His existence, He will, out of love for us, patiently sit on his hands. Why? Because we need to first see our situation as it really is. We are not in a position to demand anything from God. And when we do demand, we are in essence making the statement that our ways are higher than His ways and our thoughts are better than His thoughts. This is foolishness at the deepest level. You know it — and so does God. eXXit homepage Index of three-minute studies Copyright 2003 by eXXit *Scripture taken from the New King James Version (NKJV), © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. ---