Mark 5:21-43

The healing power of God is truly awesome. I find it so interesting that The woman who bled endlessly only knew she had to touch Jesus' garments to be healed. Then, that Jesus knew power had left Him. He knew among everyone that someone had touched Him in faith.  Beautiful!

Also how Jesus only had certain people witness the miracle of healing the man's daughter. Some people He heals He tell to go out and tell everyone what God has done for Him. Others He tells them to tell no one. I wonder how He chooses who to tell and who not to tell.

Mark 5:1-20

This is something we don't see every day, but it does happen-- The casting out of evil spirits. Deliverance from evil. The spiritual realm is much more active and complex than what we might think. Sometimes, we do need spirits to be cast out of us. It's not just our own struggle we're dealing with. My grandpa understood this quite well and was active in this ministry. I would love to learn more about spiritual warfare and how it works. Can anyone be possessed? I think I will do some research on this.

When I read this passage, I was thinking of how epic this must have been--it would make for a great movie-i "My name is Legion, for we are many." One man, many spirits. This is just how amazing God is. There's so much more to him than people tend to think. Maybe people are intimidated by the fact that we will never completely understand Him, but there is still SO much we can learn about him!

Mark 4:21-41

What I primarily get from this passage is that we need to really understand the purpose of God along with our purpose. If we have a lamp, and we don't know what to do with it because we aren't familiar with how it works, we will put it in all sorts of places it doesn't belong, and it won't be able to serve its purpose. Once we understand that it is for shining light, we will put it out in the open to light the darkness.
This is exactly how I think we should see Jesus. All we need to do is strive to understand Him, so we can have faith in what's He's doing in us. Just a little bit of faith, mustard seed faith, and we can move mountains. It is a beautiful thing.
It's just not always easy to muster up. Even the disciples didn't have faith that Jesus would  see them through the stormy waters. yet, He commands the wind and waters still. What an amazing site that must have been....

Mark 4:1-20

This is just a great parable. Jesus spells it out for us. There's only one way seeds will grow-- They have to be in good soil. From there, we must seek a relationship the father for nourishment. With that food we can live out our purpose--glorifying God. This is how we will bear fruit. We must be mindful not to be choked my thorns or forget to plant our roots in God--or in other words we must trust what He says it true. It is one thing to hear the Word, it is another to live it out.

Mark 3:20-35

A divided house cannot stand. This we have seen to be proven true throughout history. Divided we fall, that is why we must be united in Christ. We will rise to the heavenly kingdom by His guidance! It is so strange to think of why there were people who rejected Christ as savior. Really, who were they expecting? Did they have some preconceived idea of what their savior looked like? He was performing works of God... He never sinned. They were too wrapped up in their symbolic lives to see that the real thing was right i front of them.

Mark 3:1-19

God ordered the Isrealites to obey by use of symbols. He told them they could only eat clean animals, only do certain things. This was because God is holy and distinct, and he wanted his people to also be holy and distinct. The symbols themselves had little meaning, but pointed to what would be the reason for them. Jesus. Jesus is how you become holy. He is the only way to get to God. The pharisees believed no healing should take place on the sabbath, and when they saw Jesus heal, they plotted against Him.  In reality, the whole purpose of the previous belief of not healing on the Sabbath was to please God, yet now that Jesus had arrived, that was fulfilled. Jesus pleased God. Others saw His works and flocked to Him. They as well as the demons they possessed knew Jesus is the son of God. Jesus then appointed the apostles to spread His word. He had come to save us all!

Mark 2:13-27

People seems to forget who Jesus is and what He wants.  Jesus came to save the sinners. He was the righteous one who went to heal those sick with sin. We are commanded to be like Him, so therefore our goal must not be to simply be righteous, but to righteously lead those who are sick with sin to Jesus for healing.  We will face adversity, but that fact was never hidden from us.
All that we do for God must not become a tedious matter of religion for our own sakes, but an effort to get closer to God.

Mark 2:1-12

Jesus heals the paralytic. This terrible illness is curable by faith alone. By faith, the men lowered the man THROUGH THE ROOF! Why? because they knew that it was in Jesus' power to heal even when others were astonished that He actually did it. The paralytic's sins had crippled him, but Jesus forgave him and his sins no longer held power over him. He freely obeyed Jesus' command to get up, take his bed, and go home. Nothing hindered him, because he was no longer crippled by sin. In the same way, when we know God, believe in Him like the four men did, nothing stops you from completing His will.

Mark 1:21-45

Jesus is healer. Any situation we're in, any state of health, God can heal us. This is what Jesus did--He healed so many that people came to Him from all over to be healed. We often ask so much of God, yet how often do we ask, Lord, what do YOU want, what can I do for YOU? He's given so much for us already, it is only right to give back as much as we can. I pray that God will heal AJ.  There's so little we can know about what he's going through in a coma, but I hope that he can still hear the word. I want to go pray with him. Hopefully I can do that soon.

Mark 1:1-20

It's truly amazing how Jesus called the disciples to drop everything and follow Him. They had their whole lives--family, friends, jobs, previous engagements, and expectations. Not one thing mattered more than that moment He called them to follow Him.  There was no tying up loose ends or questioning their destination, it all came down to Jesus, and their trust in Him.
Any value they put in anything else was meaningless. Wow.
Jesus was tempted too. I think we often neglect to remember that Jesus was not only 100% God, but also 100% man. That means He felt temptations just like we do. But every time, He fled from it. We can do it too!!