{"id":1232,"date":"2019-09-10T17:30:53","date_gmt":"2019-09-10T23:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?p=1232"},"modified":"2019-09-07T15:50:02","modified_gmt":"2019-09-07T21:50:02","slug":"are-we-learning-to-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?p=1232","title":{"rendered":"Are we learning to think?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

[To follow The Ewellogy<\/em><\/strong>, please click on Leave a Comment<\/em><\/strong> above, fill in your name and email, and check the box: Notify me of new posts by email<\/em><\/strong>. If your comment is, “Notify me,” it won’t post publicly. If you don’t start to receive the blog by email right away, please write to me at bob@ewell.com, and I will see that you get on the list.] <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThen how is it that you still don\u2019t get it?\u201d (Mark 8.21, Passion Translation)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus could be harsh(?) or at least frustrated with the disciples. He wants them to learn to think. To put 2 and 2 together. \u201cBeware of the yeast of the Pharisees<\/em>” (Mark 8.15). He could have just said \u201cBeware of the religious hypocrisy of the Pharisees,\u201d but he didn\u2019t. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They discussed this with one another and said, \u201cIt is because we have no bread.\u201d (Mark 8.16, NIV) <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When they were worried about not enough bread (what else could he be talking about?!), he challenged them to think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them: \u201cWhy are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don\u2019t you remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick\u00a0up?\u201d \u201cTwelve,\u201d they replied. \u201cAnd when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick\u00a0up?\u201d They answered, \u201cSeven.\u201d (Mark 8.17 – 20, NIV) <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus wasn’t direct with his original statement about the leaven of the Pharisees, and he didn’t directly explain why he couldn’t have been talking about their forgetting bread. He wanted them to figure it out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m having the same problem with a bright young man I’m mentoring in mathematics. Outside of rote procedures, he\u2019s not yet able to put 2 and 2 together without my help. I need to give him room to work it out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back to disciple-making, I need not be afraid to challenge people to think for themselves. To learn. To grow in understanding through hard work!\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I pray that I won\u2019t be dense either. Figure out what Jesus wants me to know. His provision for me. And his strategy for reaching the world. Don\u2019t get stuck in old paradigms. For example, the disciples respected the Pharisees; they hadn’t yet developed Jesus’ perspective on their hypocrisy so it was harder for them to understand Jesus’ criticism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learning to think is hard work!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1 \u00a0My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you,
2 \u00a0turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding\u2014
3 \u00a0indeed, if you call out for insight<\/strong> and cry aloud<\/strong> for understanding,
4 \u00a0and if you look for it as for silver <\/strong>and search for it as for hidden treasure<\/strong>,
5 \u00a0then <\/strong>you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. (Proverbs 2.1 – 5, NIV, emphasis mine)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThen how is it that you still don\u2019t get it?\u201d (Mark 8.21, Passion Translation) Jesus could be harsh(?) or at least frustrated with the disciples. He wants them to learn to think. To put 2 and 2 together. \u201cBeware of the yeast of the Pharisees” (Mark 8.15). He could have just said \u201cBeware of the … Continue reading Are we learning to think?<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8X9bo-jS","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1232"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1235,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1232\/revisions\/1235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}