Mark 9: 30-37 There are three predictions in the gospel of Mark Jesus shares of his own arrest, crucifixion and resurrection. At each of these points, Jesus predicts, the disciples respond with misunderstanding, and Jesus instructs his followers about discipleship. We read and heard the first one last week, and the second such foretelling this…
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They Begged Him
Mark 7: 24-37 I love the miracles in the gospels! I love hearing them. I love reading them. I love taking stabs at teaching and preaching them. I even love hearing someone explaining away the supernatural elements and translating them into metaphorical fairy tales. But the miraculous in the gospels don’t just straighten people out….
Our Only Hope of Understanding
John 6: 51-66 I encourage you to recall that all I just read began with the crowd in this chapter from the gospel of John looking for Jesus the day after he fed them miraculously. In verse 26 of John 6, Jesus said, “You are looking for me not because you saw signs but because…
Something Is Happening
Mark 6: 7-16 At a local hospital, there was no special place for the ministers to park. They were told to stop by the front desk on leaving the hospital, identify themselves as ministers, and the person on duty would give them a dollar to get up of the general parking lot. One minister had…
Great Big Things
Happy Father’s Day. “My kids are always so nice to me on Father’s day,” said one father. “They will do anything I ask them to do.” A co-worker replied, “Well, I must say that Father’s Day is the one day that my children do listen to me. I tell them not to spend a lot…
But I Wait in Patience
My posts over the last year have all been sermon manuscripts. Way back when I was told to write (Write this down for the next generation. . . Write so the story can be told in Zion, so God’s praise will be sung. . . – Psalm 102 in The Message), there was an intentionality…
In Relationship with Him
Mark 3: 20-30 With the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost still in mind, we’re hearing about the work of Jesus in the Holy Spirit and how it was misconstrued on one occasion as the work of Satan. The story is going around that up in the Stanford Research Laboratories they have made an…
Crosses and Costs
Mark 8: 31-38 A husband says to his wife, “I don’t want to brag, but here it is February, and I’ve kept every one of my New Year’s resolutions. I’ve kept them in a manila folder in the back of my desk.” Some of us make resolutions like one man said to his friend, “There’s…
No Regret This Time
Genesis 9: 8-17; Mark 1: 9-15 Talking to a suntanned resident of New Mexico about the weather in Albuquerque, the tourist asked, “Doesn’t it ever rain here?” The native replied, “Mister, do you remember the story of Noah and the Ark, and how it rained forty days and forty nights?” “Of course, I do,” the…
The Whole Package
Mark 1: 21-28 A bible commentary I read recently depicted Jesus in the gospel of Mark in three facets: preacher, teacher and exorcist. In our lesson today, he’s described as a teacher with authority, not like the scribes. We don’t know what he taught in the synagogue that day. Chances are he taught about the…
Psalm 102 in The Message 