Roswell season three came out sooner than we thought!! It’s out now! Yahoo!! We bought it last night and we’ve already watched five episodes…

but BACK TO JESUS and Mark…

Day 10 (Mark 5:21-43)
I struggled with this one for a little while. It was a good struggle-I was forced to have to really think about Jesus, and I didn’t want to use healer again-so I noticed that besides physical healing, something else was given to the bleeding woman and the dead girl–it was freedom. Jesus is the FREEDOM GIVER. For 12 years that woman was bleeding, but she touched Jesus and was given freedom from her shame in the Jewish culture.

Day 11 (Mark 6:1-29)
Here we see an aspect of Jesus that is very cool. We see that Jesus is a DISCERNER, or perhaps to be grammatically correct-has discernment. He is able to see things that are beyond our normal comprehension. Not just because He is diety, though, because I do believe that Jesus can give us discernment about people, too. He goes to his home town to speak in the synagogue, but it says he was AMAZED at their lack of faith. Several times in the gospels we see Jesus have discernment in a situation that goes beyond words. He gets questioned all the time by the religious rulers, but he always cuts to the core of that person and sees all the way into their true intent.

Day 12 (Mark 6:30-56)
Here we see Jesus as our PROVIDER. This is the story of feeding the five thousand. It’s an obvious one for me-Jesus provides for our needs. Pretty plain and simple.

It’s gonna be a busy weekend!

The ants are back! I guess it’s that time of year, and I knew this was coming-and oh, how I’ve dreaded it, and prepared for it all year long–I found a lot of ants in Nathaniel’s bathroom. ARGH!

Back to Jesus in Mark:

Day 7 (Mark 4:1-20)
Jesus at this time in his ministry was very POPULAR among the common people. Jesus went through phases in his 3-year ministry. At the beginning he was obscure and unknown, followed by a time when he was very popular and did many miracles, and then followed by a time near the end when he set His eyes on the cross and began to withdraw a lot to pray by himself or with his disciples–this last time was also the time when His popularity was fading and we see more that religous leaders were trying to kill him. It is a nice arc over the three years….at the beginning of this chapter it says that a very large crowd gathered to hear him preach, so much so that he had to get in a boat on the lake.

Day 8 (Mark 4:21-41)
Here we find that Jesus is the LORD OF ALL CREATION. Not only in this passage is Jesus doing more teaching (but I already used teacher!) but we also see the instance where Jesus calms the storm on the water. I love the last part of the passage: “They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”
Well–He’s the LORD OF ALL CREATION!

Day 9 (Mark 5:1-20)
Here we see Jesus as our DELIVERER. The story of Jesus casting the legion of demons out of a possessed man and into 2000 pigs, who then run off the hillside and drown themselves in the sea. Wow. I mean, if Jesus can deliver a couple-thousand demons out of a guy who was extremely volitale and feared by the people that lived around him, don’t you think He can deliver you from whatever pain and problems you are going through? This passage is really cool because Jesus not only heals this guy, but he does it at the cost of his own popularity in this town. The townsfolk come out and ask him to leave because all the pigs killed themselves and they’re pretty upset! They don’t want anything else like that going on–but Jesus didn’t care. He was and still is in the business of being our deliverer, He can deliver you!

Be praying that Al’s daughter-in-law has her baby, NOW!!! So he can come to A Summer’s Night.

Alright, more on Jesus from Mark…

Day 4 (Mark 2:13-28)
Jesus is the FRIEND OF SINNERS. During these passages we see Jesus hanging out and eating with the lowlifes of that time. But when questioned about why, he says that “it is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners. A clear slap in the face to the pharisees–which, imo, are all around us still today. Pious, over-religious Christians who have forgotten Christ and only love Christianity-I abhor them…

Day 5 (Mark 3:1-19)
Jesus is the HEALER. This is an obvious one…Jesus performs many healing miracles, and in this passage are some of the first ones in Mark…

Day 6 (Mark 3:20-35)
Here we see Jesus as a great TEACHER. He is faced with a couple of questions here and we see the masterful teacher side of Jesus come through–when he tells the parable of the strong man, or tells his disciples that “whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.” This is just the beginning; throughout Mark we see Jesus rise above the trite questions and cut to the heart of the issue. I think sometimes people go to the extreme of this today–they either are not enough of a teacher to tell someone they are wrong about something, or they are so confrontational and damning that people shut them off and don’t listen. I rarely see the right blend of insightfulness and knowledge to have incredible, life-changing teaching happen.

btw- finished orchestration for Doc for HERE I AM, LORD. I think it will be good-I am looking forward to hearing it.

So our small group has been doing a study on Christ. It’s great. It is a 6-book series put out by Purpose Driven, called Experiencing Christ Together (we’re on book one). During this book the study encourages us to read through the book of Mark in a month, following a schedule they give us in the back of the book. A few of us decided to do this, and I decided that every day I would think of something that would describe Jesus from whatever passage I read, and write it down. An aspect of his character, or a quality, or behavior I should emulate–something. So here comes a long line of entries devoted to what I’ve found over the last month or so…

MARK

Day 1 (Mark 1:1-20)
Jesus spoke with AUTHORITY. The disciples were following him without question (from what we read). People were listening to Jesus, and even in this early few verses, we see His ability to attract attention and respect with the way He called a couple of His disciples.

Day 2 (Mark 1:21-45)
Jesus was filled with COMPASSION. He started healing people in this passage, and in one instance, it seems like Jesus was withdrawing from the crowds but a leper still found Him, asking Jesus to heal him. It says He was filled with compassion-something I think I lack, or certainly am not filled with…

Day 3 (Mark 2:1-12)
Jesus FORGIVES. This is the story of the guy who wanted to be healed so bad that his friends lowered him through the roof of someone’s house. In this passage, Jesus shows the pharisees that He is the one who forgives sins, not just a healer. I am thankful for forgiveness!

more to come…

We had a great vacation. Nothing to complicated, or we wouldn’t have actually gotten to relax, not with two toddlers anyway…so we kept it simple. Visit friends, go to Disneyland, visit other family, watch TV, all centered around the grand ole nap time. I tell you, we figured out REAL FAST that when the kids get their nap we are ALL happier…so every day we went back to the hotel or to Christy’s parents house for nap, even the days we were at Disneyland. Let me tell you, it was worth it!!!

All that to say, it was a great vacation!

Now back to the grind…I’m sure Christy will write soon about our vacation in more detail…