Quiet Time on Friday's Eve.

So, I installed Windows 7 on my computer today. And guess what... My Microsoft Office is incompatible with Windows 7. I look forward to buying Office 2010 someday. I was at a loss for where to take notes for my quiet time. "Why not post them here?" I thought to myself. Hopefully God will bless you guys through the ramblings of my brain.

Quiet Time 5/28/2010 (Two days prior to liftoff)

Mark 7:27 "First let the children eat all they want," he told her, "for it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs." (Those were Jesus' words.)

Hah. Serious business. Looking at the context, we find that he's referring to the gentiles as the dogs in the sentence, and the Jews as the children. Obviously, they are the children because they are the children of God. But why are the Gentiles portrayed as dogs?

In the culture of the day, dogs were viewed as nasty, vile creatures that hung around towns looking for scraps, and bringing about their stench.

Once again. Why ya gotta be callin' us dogs, Jesus?

Or was Jesus merely using the expression in light of the woman's next quip?

Mark 7:28 "Yes, Lord," she replied, "but even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs."

Witty. I like it. Jesus liked it. Want proof? Read the next line and see for yourself.

And still, where's the application? Remember where I said read on, just a few pixels ago? Please do so. You'll need to for this next bit. I'm not going to spoon-feed you on this one. Just go ahead and read all of 7:24-30. It's best that way. :)

Refer to verse 29. Jesus saw that she knew her place. I think, out of many things that can be gathered from this passage, the key idea I'm seeing is persistence. What Jesus was getting at was that the gospel would go first to the Jews, then to the Gentiles. It wasn't yet the woman's time. But because of her persistence and faith, Jesus had mercy on her. The woman understood her place as a gentile in the Jewish culture. It wasn't a good place. And she humbled herself and pleaded with Christ to at least let her lick the "crumbs" up from the ground. (v. 28) Jesus knew her faith was genuine. He never lets His followers down.

Go ahead and check Matthew's version of the story. Matthew 15:21-28.

This sheds a bit more light as to why Jesus calls the Gentiles, "dogs." Jesus' ministry was not to the Gentiles. He knew that was to be someone else's job someday. (Paul, duh.) This lady wasn't just being persistent. She was quite the pest. Was Jesus testing her patience? Was she testing Jesus' patience? Well, my friends, I regret to inform you that I have no seminary degree. I'll leave this one to those whom God has graced with the Spiritual gift of Knowledge. (Something I hope to acquire someday.)

Regardless, this lady was humble, persistent, and in need. How could Jesus say, "no?"

Remember Matthew 6:26. I'll be memorizing this one for the rest of the night.