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Missing the Kingdom of God
Last Sunday our gospel text was Mark 3:23-35. The story here is the pressure Jesus is getting from his family and then the religious leaders. Neither one is happy with him. For his family, Jesus was avoiding them and his ministry was attracting so many people that his own family couldn’t get into their own home to eat. This put…
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Basic discipleship
What Jesus treated as basic discipleship in his time on earth we’ve made into a rarity and some “specialist” work. In Mark 9 Jesus has come down from the Transfiguration and a father runs straight to him.
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Power hungry
Mark 10:42–45 (NIV): Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 43 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first must be slave…
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Our spiritual blindness
Mark 8:22–26 (NIV): They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. 23 He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?”24 He looked up and said,…
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Where am I found?
15 While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 16 When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 17 On hearing…
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Living in the gospel wrecks your daily schedule
Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (which means “son of Timaeus”), was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” (Mark 10:46-47) The way of…
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The way of the cross
Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. (Mark 8:34) My personal prayer as I walk through this very difficult passage in the Gospel of Mark:
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Legalism is great
I am finding the Spirit calling me to walk a little more intentionally through the Gospel of Mark right now, so I have suspended my Daily Office reading for a season to see what the Lord wants to say to me in this gospel, which happens to be my favorite of the four. Mark 7 is a powerful statement on…
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Tearing off the roof in prayer
As I read through the Gospel of Mark again, the story of the friends carrying their paralyzed buddy to Jesus (Mark 2:1-12) continues to challenge me. They have the faith to get him to Jesus. The paralytic himself doesn’t have that faith. The others have that faith and carry him to the One who can answer.