Day 289: Mark 8:26 - 10:25

It's interesting that there are two separate references in this passage to children and Jesus' command for us to try to follow their examples. It seems like there are alot of Christians out there who seem to have a more "mature" view of Christianity and to be honest, they're going completely against what God has commanded. Of course, there are plenty of places where God tells us to mature and grow in His Word, but growing and maturing seems to oftentimes be confused with becoming calloused and cynical. All too often, believers allow the "logic" of the world to come in and drown out the faith in their hearts because they begin to learn how things "really are." Rather than letting our true faith in God be contaminated by the thinking of the world, we need to allow God to keep our hearts soft and continue to have the faith of a little child. God wants us to simply believe in Him without all of the pretense and conditions that this world seems to require. True child-like faith means putting everything else aside and simply trusting in Him.

- Father, give me the strength to have faith like a child. It's so easy in this day and age to get the ridiculous idea that we are supposed to have a more "mature" and realistic kind of faith, but Your Word tells us that we have only one responsibility and that is to have complete and total child-like faith in You. -

Day 288: Mark 6:31 - 8:25

Towards the last of this passage, we see a story that seems to be very characteristic of our generation. Twice just in this passage we read about Jesus performing a miracle that my brain cannot seem to even begin to understand. Once with a group of 5000+ and another time with 4000+ He took a miniscule quantity of food and multiplied it into more than enough food to feed the entire crowds. Jesus did these two miracles nearly back-to-back right in the presence of His disciples and yet we read that not long after He performed these miracles, His disciples were hanging out in the back of the boat worrying about the fact that they didn't have any food. We seem to live in a generation guilty of the exact same thing. God has and continues to offer such huge and incredible blessings to each and every one of us, and yet it seems that regardless of how deeply God has blessed us, if one little thing starts to go wrong, we fall into a panic and wonder if there's any way out. We must always remember that God is faithful and He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. If He's provided for us once, He'll do it again. All we have to do is have faith.

- Lord, keep me in remembrance of all of the blessings that You've given me. Help me to not get caught up in my own petty little problems, but rather get caught up in Your glory and Your blessings. You are my Provider and all I have to do is believe that You are who You said You are and let You do what You said You would do. -

Day 287: Mark 4:29 - 6:30

For this passage, I want to focus on a very small but powerful point from the story of the Gaderene Demoniac. It's so incredibly intriguing to me that amidst this powerful, excited story, we read towards the and that the people got mad and asked Jesus to leave. After the Son of God came to their area, delivered a man from satan's power, and showed the amazing strength of His Father in heaven, all the people could think about was their own shallow desires and possessions. We as Christians must remember that we can never make everybody happy. Regardless of how obedient we are to God's Word, there will inevitably be someone nearby who disagrees with our decision and is somehow disappointed with it. We have to understand that instead of living our lives to make people happy, the only One that we need to bend over backwards to please is our Heavenly Father. As long as God is happy with us, the entire world can be at our throats and it won't mean a thing.

- Father, help me to remember that You are the only one that we need to please. The world will always be able to find something to get upset about, but give me the strength to not let their opinions have even the slightest effect on how I respond to Your calling. -

Day 286: Mark 2:1 - 4:28

I think it's very important to pay close attention to the relationships that Jesus had with the "sinners" of the day. There seem to be two primary schools of thought when it comes to relationships with unsaved people, and neither is at all correct. The first is that people read stories such as the one towards the beginning of Mark 2 and think that their job is to spend all of their time out in the world hanging out with sinful people in sinful places in order to be a "light" by simply having a good time with other people. The other is that we as believers are supposed to stay as far away from sinful people so as to not get contaminated with their disgusting sin. It's interesting because both of these concepts have a little bit of truth and a little bit of a lie. Just like everything else in this life, we must learn the very important lesson of moderation. The best example I could possibly give is the example that Jesus Himself gave us. Consider a doctor. How effective would a doctor be if he never even came near a sick person? Sure he could learn alot about conditions and come up with some really wonderful ideas, but without making contact with the people who have those specific conditions, he will never truly be able to help them. On the other hand, how effective would a doctor be if all he did was provide company for the sick people who came into his office? If all he did was "Be an example" to those sick people, not only would the sick never recover, but he would undoubtedly become infected by their own sickness eventually. We must understand that it is our job as representatives of The Most High to bring the solution to those with the problem, but we must also spend time with other believers so that we can learn and develop and grow in an environment that encourages that type of growth. Yes, spending time with sinners is imperative in order to share the Gospel with them, but spending time with believers is just as important for our spiritual man.

- Lord, help me to remember that oh-so important concept of moderation in everything I do. Give me faith to go out into the darkness and shine Your light, but also give me the wisdom to come back into Your light in order to re-charge and get ready to go back out for You! -

Day 285: Matt 27:50 - Mark 1:45

I have to say that of all of the books of the Bible, I've probably read the book of Mark more than any other. I primarily love the book of Mark because I tend to think that it was written by someone who thought more like myself. The book of Mark isn't about thoughts or concepts or ideas, it's about action. Many people refer to this book of the Bible as the "action Gospel" and for good reason. I think that when we are spreading God's Word, there is definitely a place for discussing the deeper ideas and concepts of the Bible, but oftentimes, people get so caught up in the little details that they fail to present the point of the entire Bible - Jesus and His resurrection. I think we could all take a cue from Mark and remember that we must always keep the main thing the main thing. Rather than spending time trying to convince people of details that don't matter, we need to stand firm and present to them the real, powerful, living Word of God.

- Father, help me to be more like Mark in the way I present the Gospel to others. Rather than letting them know my opinions about irrelevant subjects, give me the wisdom to present Your Word in such a way that it becomes real and alive to all those who hear it. -

Day 284: Matt 26:39 - 27:49

You know, the crucifixion story is a very difficult one to provide any sort of commentary. It's sad to think that so many people have trivialized and "churched-up" this story. They've made it into a very common fairy tale of a story. To be honest, I'm not even sure that our human minds can fully comprehend the scope of the sacrifice that Jesus made for us. I light of what God was willing to sacrifice for us, it really seems to reason that there may be alot more that we should be willing to sacrifice for Him. We complain if we endure one small trial or tribulation yet Jesus was able to say to the Father, "Not my will, but Yours be done." I think everyone when reading the story of the crucifixion should pray and ask God to give them a true revelation of what this story truly means. This is not simply another interesting story within a book. This is the very subject that defines the previous 77% of the book and makes possible the remaining 23%. The story of the crucifixion is more than just a part of the story, it's the point of the story.

- Lord, help me to understand deeper what it meant for Your Son to die on the cross for my sins. Although I may have somewhat of an understanding of what that means, give me a true revelation so that it will be real in my heart and alive enough for me to share it with everyone around me. -

Day 283: Matt 25:1 - 26:38

The second story in chapter 25 is one of my favorite in the Gospels because it deals with something that the average person wouldn't consider to be a topic that Jesus would cover. There are alot of people out there who seem to think that although Jesus is concerned with the big situations in our lives - eternity, witnessing, life-lone relationships - He doesn't care anything about the smaller more detailed parts of our lives such as money management. So many people go their entire lives trying to manage their money all by themselves and therefore they never seem to get their money in order because they don't hand it over to God. God wants us to understand that He is concerned about every single detail of our lives and He is willing to show us what to do no matter how small the task may seem. In reality, everything in our lives is made up of smaller details and a God who loves His children desires nothing more than to be included in every single detail.

- Father, help me to keep my trust in You regardless of how big or how small a decision may be. Let me remember that You love me which means that You care about every decision I make no matter how big or how small. Let me hear Your voice about the small things so that I'll be sure to recognize it when the big things come up. -