[NOTE: For those who are continuing the 1-year Bible reading plan we started on April 1, 2018, just go to the end of this entry and you will find the Day 297-Mark 1-4 summary!]

In Exodus 24-27, we read of God reaffirming His covenant with Moses, and also of Moses receiving the description of how the Tabernacle would be constructed. God started by telling Moses people were to give free will offerings to provide funds for the Tabernacle. I find that refreshing. God’s people were offered the opportunity to give or not to the construction of the Temple. We will read later the people gave so much Moses had to tell them to stop! That has always amazed me. The people of New Life, where I serve as lead pastor are generous people, as generous as any group of Jesus’ followers I have known. Yet, we have never had to tell folks to stop giving, yet. That will be an incredible day.  

God gave Moses specific details about each aspect of the Tabernacle and its content as we read through most of the remainder of Exodus, we will find these details as the main focus. Planning is an important component of every project we undertake as Jesus’ followers. If God needed to do that with Moses, we can be sure our efforts in His name need to include planning as well. While we always want to be led by the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is a Spirit of order, unity, and peace. Those realities require planning and prayer to live out in our lives.

As we return to Mark 6, we see again how the people of Jesus’ hometown didn’t receive Him. He pointed out a prophet is without honor among his own people. How true that is. When we have grown up in a particular place, and the people know us well, they know the negative details of our lives. That makes it harder for them to find our transformation in the Lord, and our call from Him credible. That wasn’t the case with Jesus. He started out perfect. He didn’t need to be transformed. Even so, the people didn’t receive Him for who He was, so they missed out on experiencing His amazing power.

As the chapter continues, Jesus sends the twelve out on their first “mission trip.” Note Jesus tells them not to worry about provision, because God will provide for them. This wasn’t always Jesus’ instruction, but in this case, He wanted the twelve to rely totally on God to provide what they needed. Mark includes the account of how John the Baptist died in this chapter, and then moves on to tell us about Jesus feeding the 5,000 (which was more likely the feeding of the 20,000, because the 5,000 only included the men) with extremely limited resources. This is the only miracle of Jesus included in all four gospels. Finally, Mark offers us another “nature” miracle as Jesus walks on water. I have always thought it would have been incredible to be one of Jesus’ disciples. They experienced so many amazing miracles while Jesus was with them. It’s easy to think they ought to have “gotten it,” sooner. But it’s also easy to forget the twelve expected Jesus to be a conquering hero, instead of a suffering servant. More about that as we continue through the year. We live on the resurrection side of Easter, so let’s live into the Holy Spirit’s power as we experience Jesus’ life in our lives today!

Day 297-Mark 1-4

This is our sixth time through Mark’s Gospel, so my hope is you don’t need me to comment on chapters 1-4. You know without looking that Mark 1 tells us of John the Baptist preparing the way for Jesus, and the start of Jesus’ ministry. Mark 2 tells us of the healing of the paralytic, which leads to Jesus’ first run in with the religious leaders. We also find the call of Levi, and another run in with the Pharisees when Jesus’ disciples pick heads of grain on the Sabbath. Mark 3 offers us more examples of Jesus’ run ins with the religious leaders, and of their decision to get rid of Him. Jesus also calls the twelve disciples to be with Him, and to be equipped to carry His ministry to the nations. Mark 4 offers us the first extended teaching section in Mark’s gospel, and Jesus offers us the Parable of the Sower (or the Parable of the Soils), and other parables of God’s Kingdom. If you have questions about any of these chapters, you can go back through the posts from this year, or by this time you might have notes in your own Bible to which you can refer. (As we read through Mark this time, you might want to read it in a different translation than the one you’ve been using. It’s helpful to see how the English translators translated the Greek into our language. The nuances and differences can sometimes add extra insights to our understanding.)