Mark 6

Mark 6

First off Welcome back and Happy New Year! I am so glad to get back into the swing of things. With all the abala (busy) ness I missed studying with you gals. I still read but with out you it was different. I dug into Ezekiel and man did God have some things to teach me! But we are back and Mark 6 seems nice to come home to! So here we go!

We see here he leaves after healing the daughter of Jairus and he is going back to his home town of Nazareth. I can say from experience that coming home from a mission trip is hard stuff. You have just had a “mountain top” experience and want to share it and tell of all the GREAT THINGS GOD has done! You want to carry it over to your family and friends but just as you are about to give them the awesome news it seems they start to attack. You are no longer around people who are focused on Christ and on spreading the Gospel but you are just you the older sister the daughter, the grand child. No one really listens to your stories excited about what God is doing in a foreign land. And if they do listen they are in the “real world” and things like that don’t happen there!
Jesus was coming back home and every one knew who his family was had watched him grow up. They only saw him as a normal boy, a carpenter’s son. They had obviously heard about him because they started to mock him power and authority. He marveled at their unbelief. I love the way the King James puts it, he could do no mighty work, save he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them. He went through the city teaching and healing but these people could not bring them selves to believe.
Chapter 6 verses 7-13 I read these verses over and over and over. I had a hard time swallowing what Jesus has told his disciples to do. Go and take nothing, not even an extra coat. No money no food, they only needed to be prepared to walk with sandals and a staff. He was telling them to trust and to obey. Isn’t that really the only lesson we need to learn. We grow up singing the song we are taken care of and yet we still have trouble simply trusting God to provide and obeying his commands. We are like sheep just wandering around looking for greener grass. They trusted and obeyed and he worked mightily through them. They preached repentance and cast out demons and healed the sick. And you know what God blessed them. He took care of them. He was true to his caricature. Why do find this so amazing? I’ll tell for one thing there is nothing we can trust here on earth except the Word of God. He is faithful!
Verses 14-29 these verses are so sad. We see this awesome man of God giving his all for Jesus and speaking the truth and was killed for it. I look at John and see a man committed to Christ in such a way that he was willing to fallow his call even unto death. I am encouraged and spurred on by men like John the Baptist.
Verse 31 reminded me that I can become like Martha, busy in good things but I too need to rest, sit at God’s feet and just listen to him. He took his disciples away to the desert to rest. But as we read we see he is fallowed. But Jesus has compassion toward them and so he took time to share with them. He used every moment to do the work of his father. I forget often on my “off days” that I am still a follower of Christ and I still need to be available to minister to people. I need to have more compassion like Jesus. He then feeds them to top it off.
Then he sends his disciples away and he goes and prays, He draws near to his father. Then later after walking on the water and calming the sea he is faced with even more people who have heard of his power and have come to be healed. I love that it says as many as touched him were made whole.
We too can be made whole by his mercy and grace. We too need only to trust and obey and we will be made whole. What a great Chapter! I hope you were as blessed as I was this week. Keep reading and remember to TRUST AND OBEY!

Happy New Year!! 2009!!

So the new year is on it's way and as we are making big resolutions I would like to suggest to you all a BIG one! I have thought long and hard and have decided to pray for some thing HUGE! I am going to commit to pray for two Orphans that I met while I was on my Christmas holiday. This is HUGE because they are both special in the hard to handle kind of way. And well I am going to pray for them both to find a family who will care and love them! First Peter, he is 11 and is blind and is also autistic, he can't talk and well with the lack of training he just exists. And then Miranda, she is 7 and has cerebral palsy, she is so beautiful and is always smiling! She used to be able to feed her self and had good equipment to help her muscles work right but as she has grown and being one of 13 kids feeding time has to be rushed and she has out grown her equipment so she is slowly moving backwards. These two Children are so lovable BUT they are huge responsibilities! These kids will need constant care and need special parents that can give them a home full of love.

This is Meranda I don't have a picture of Peter yet but I will get one soon!

So that is my resolution this year to pray for them and to find them a family. They are both on a special list that allows you to choose one of them and get them GUARANTEED! They are not a combo deal, sorry if it sounds that way, I am a bad writer.

Ok so what are you gals going to do? Make it BIG, make it impossible because our God is Big and nothing is impossible for God as Luke tells us in Chapter 1 verse 37. He has all power and might and only he can do great things if we only allow him to work in our lives.

Sorry about two weeks with out a study, Next week we will pick up at Chapter 6! God Bless and may you have a Blessed New Year!

Christmas Break!

Ok gals lets take a break for no not the Holidays and no not Quanza, but for the celebration of the birth of our King! He is the most valuable gift we could ever receive! Let's take time this week to Praise Him for all the good things he has done. We can also take some time to be with our friends and family and share with those who are a little confused about this wonderful time of year when we remember what our heavenly father gave to us as a redeeming grace! Our God is mighty and worthy to be praised! As my favorite song goes, GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAINS OVER THE HILLS AND EVERY WHERE! GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAINS THAT JESUS CHRIST IS BORN!!!
We can meet back next week after all the gifts under the tree are put away! hehe
I love you guys and hope you have a wonderful and blessed Christmas!

Mark 5

Sorry so late! and well i have been busy so I am just going to make this short! Hit the main stuff!

So How awesome is Jesus! I some times imagine I was there and I try to think of what I would be doing while watching him. This time I could honestly say I would be laughing and crying at the same time. Although I am a tuff girl I am very sensitive to any one or thing being killed or having pain. And so I think watching those demons obey Jesus and being forced to go into pigs would just be funny seeing thousands of pigs who are normally lazy and fat running a muck would be crazy! but then seeing them run into the sea would be so sad.
This all got me thinking, what power demons can have over us! We are weak and need to be saved! Jesus is the only answer. We must turn to him and trust that has conquered the evil one. He has the power and authority to save us! I love then that he tells the man to go and tell his family of the great things Jesus had done. I took this to heart, I need to be bold and start sharing what great things god has done in my life! He is working on me every day. I am at times so selfish and unforgiving. I need to remember that I too am a saint who has son in my life. I too fall short of God's glory, He is teaching me so many things. He has not given up on me! So let's try this week to tell of the GREAT things He has done! Kind of like count your blessing name them one by one!

I will be out of town for two weeks. I will try to get on line but if I can't please forgive me! You can pray for our trip we leave on Dec. 15 and return on the 27th. Merry Christmas!

Mark 4

Mark 4
I can’t imagine what it was like to hear Jesus speak and to sit at his feet and hear him teach. He is the good Shepard, the Bridegroom. He is a perfect teacher of the truth. I understand why so many fallowed him and yet I do not get how the Scribes and Pharoses could not see him for who he was. I should say I didn’t understand, this parable tells why some hear the truth but simply don’t receive it. I see this as a warning to us to continue to preach the truth, to share with those I have already shared with as a fallow up, a precaution. What if the Devil had snatched it away, or what if the trials of this world have overtaken them? We see here that there are so many ways that the word of God can be handled and yet only one way it can be useful to our lives, only by receiving it and nourishing it with good soil! That meant we need to be feeding our souls every day! Be in constant prayer, reading God’s word, sharpening our selves with other believers in fellowship. I also just thought isn’t it neat to see that God, even though the ground is rocky he still let seeds fall there, He truly wants all to come to the knowledge of him and his love.
In verses 21-23 we see Jesus giving us direction, the Gospel is a candle we are not to hide it but set it out so that the darkness will no longer be. We are to let it shine for all to see it!
We have a responsibility. In verses 24&25 show that we will be given a measure. He has great things for us in Heaven!
The Mustard seed! What a great story! At our church we are teaching the little kids the song “faith as small as a mustard seed” different story I know but it is so true! The mustard seed is so small you can’t even see it if your not looking for it. Yet with God all things are possible! Even a mustard seed can grow into a tree that produces fruit and becomes a home for the birds. It is only an herb yet it grows branches and becomes strong. God’s Kingdom is a marvelous place! I can’t beguine to imagine. It is going to be just as he has planed it. And it will not be tainted with sin and well since we can think outside of sin I can imagine what it will be like except awesome.
Now to a powerful scene! PEACE, BE STILL. Wow! This is truly God in the form of a man. Only His words will be obeyed. These poor men, they really don’t get it. I think I am the same. I know he is powerful and I know he is God but when the heat is on I doubt, my actions sometimes contradict my faith. I am so glad that my salvation is not biased on me but on the faithfulness of Jesus and on his power not mine.
I am sorry this is late I had no internet! God Bless you as you walk in his goodness.