"Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother." Mark 3:35
Obedience to the Father's will is thicker than blood when it comes to relationship with Jesus. During His earthly life Jesus' heart beat for the will of His Father. Our kinship to Him will be reflected in a like passion. Will your first concern today be to do God's will in all things?
Father, as Jesus' heart beat for your will may my heart also beat for Your will today.
I'm praying for you.
Pastor Mark
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Today's reading of ch.3 reminds me that,not only is Jesus ministering to us in the church but also by the lake or anywhere else we may be.He is every where.We only need to seek Him.Even when He when He tried to withdraw,He never failed to minister to those that actively sought Him.
ReplyDeleteHoly Christ Jesus, thank you for being available to me no matter where I am as long as I seek you,you will always respond to me with compassion and love. amen
Jesus ended the last chapter proclaiming that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. Jesus returns to the synagogue where a man with a withered hand is seated in the group. Those in the side watch to see if Jesus will heal on the Sabbath. Jesus instructed the man to stand and He asked the crowd, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath day to do good, or to do harm? To save a life , or to kill?”No one answers Jesus. Here were the religious leaders stuck in ignorance, uncaring and compassion less. Oh, how calloused and hardened their hearts were.
ReplyDeleteFrom a grieving heart, Jesus became angry with the Pharisees and healed the man. From that point the Pharisees and Herodians conspired to destroy Jesus. The Herodians were a Jewish political party whose goal was to recover some of their lost political powers. The Pharisees on the other hand were caught up in their man-made laws and traditions. Learning to channel our anger like Jesus is a good lesson from this section. Jesus withdrew to the lake with His disciples and crowd from all over the area. Everyone waited to be healed and to hear His wisdom and words. Evil spirits blurted out that He was the Son of God and Jesus hushed them. From the lake, Jesus moved to the mountains and appointed 12 disciples / apostles. To them He gave great power to preach, to heal and to cast out demons. The Pharisees concluded that Jesus did His mighty acts by the power of Beelzebub (Satan) because their pride would not let them believe that He was the Son of God (Messiah). Jesus proved this argument too illogical and silly to believe. A house divided against itself will not stand. What were they thinking? I see no evidence that they were thinking or they would have seen the truth. Blaspheme against the Holy Spirit is attributing to the devil what is the work of the Holy Spirit and they just committed it. In the next verses, it is clear that Jesus’ family did not clearly understand His ministry. Maybe they were trying to rescue Him from the constant crowds. Maybe they were concerned that He was irritating the political and religious leaders too much and they feared for His safety. Maybe they were embarrassed or even jealous. Out of this Jesus stresses the importance of the larger family - the family of God.
Reflective Question ~ How can each of us focus our anger to do good and not evil?