60IN60 Day 7 - Sun Jan 7

It's Day 7 and we're in Mark 7.

Where God Spoke To Me:
- Nothing jumped out to me today.

Help:
- Verse 27 - This sounds harsh.  Jesus was focusing His mission during His earthly life on ministering to the Jews.  He was trying to stay focused on that mission.  Her overwhelming faith, though, pushes Him to make an exception.
- Verse 33 - Why did Jesus do it this way?  We don't know.  I find comfort in Jesus doing miracles different ways at different times.  It reminds me that God doesn't work the same way in every situation.

If you want to read the chapter online, here's a link.

If you have a question or comment, email me at butcher@ymail.com.

60IN60 Day 6 - Sat Jan 6

It's Day 6 and we're in Mark 6.

Where God Spoke To Me:
- Verses 31, 46 - Time alone with God was essential for Jesus and it is for us as well.  Further, just having some down time to decompress is essential too.

Help:
- Verses 2-3 - We sometimes think that Jesus being the Son of God must have been obvious to everyone who ever saw Him, but obviously those from His hometown didn't have an expectation that He was going to do something extraordinary like this.
- Verse 3 - "brothers" and "sisters" - These would be half-brothers and half-sisters.  They were born to Mary and Joseph after Jesus was born.  Catholics believe they were Joseph's children from a previous marriage.
- Verse 5 - People's faith or lack of faith made a difference in what Jesus could do for them.

If you want to read the chapter online, here's a link.

If you have a question or comment, email me at butcher@ymail.com.

60IN60 Day 5 - Fri Jan 5

It's Day 5 and we're in Mark 5.

Where God Spoke To Me:
- Verse 17 - The power of God sometimes creates fear rather than a desire to have more from God.

Help:
- Verse 10 - "out of the country" - That's another way to say that they didn't want to be sent into the abyss (Luke 8:31).
- Verse 39 - "asleep" - This doesn't mean that He thought the child was just taking a nap.  Saying someone is asleep when they are in fact dead is an idea that's used several places in the New Testament in emphasizing resurrection.  "They're not gone forever; I can bring them back."

If you want to read the chapter online, here's a link.

If you have a question or comment, email me at butcher@ymail.com.

60IN60 Day 4 - Thurs Jan 4

It's Day 4 and we're in Mark 4.

Where God Spoke To Me:
- Nothing really jumped out to me today.

Help:
- Verse 12 - This sounds like Jesus is deliberately trying to keep them from the truth.  In fact, the idea that's trying to be conveyed is that they don't want to know the truth.  We see this in the longer version of this in Matthew 13:15.  We also see in later in Mark 4 in verses 21-22 when Jesus follows up the explanation of this parable by saying that there is no point to putting a light under a basket.  I think the point the verse is trying to make is: I'm teaching in parables and that allows those who want to understand to access it while those who don't want the truth are left outside.
- Verses 13-20 - Only the final "seed" is a true believer.  Fruitfulness is a defining characteristic of a true Christian.
- Verses 24-25 - Verse 25 sounds a little unfair at first but what He's saying is: the person who wants the truth is going to get even more while the person who doesn't want the truth will lose his grasp on even the little that he once had.

If you want to read the chapter online, here's a link.

If you have a question or comment, email me at butcher@ymail.com.

60IN60 Day 3 - Wed Jan 3

It's Day 3 and we're in Mark 3.

Where God Spoke To Me:
- Verses 2, 5-6 - Their spiritual blindness in missing the larger point is breathtaking.  Are there areas where I'm so stuck in my tradition that I miss what God is doing right in front of me?

Help:
- Verse 9 - I think a major reason He got in the boat was that people were continually coming up to touch Him in hope of a miracle.  He needed to teach them too and that helped Him be able to.  See verse 20.
- Verse 12 - As I've noted before, the main reason for Him saying things like this was, I think, maintaining the timetable He wanted.
- Verse 21 - This is a verse worthy of some pondering.  Rather than the fact that He was the Son of God being obvious to everyone who ever saw Him, His family is concerned that He's gone off the deep end.
- Verses 29-30 - The sin against the Holy Spirit is not one you can accidentally do or anything like that.  It's a deliberate choice to ignore God's leading and ascribe things of the Spirit to Satan.
- Verses 31-35 - While He still had a physical family, He's saying here that His spiritual family is His real family.

If you want to read the chapter online, here's a link.

If you have a question or comment, email me at butcher@ymail.com.

60IN60 Day 2 - Tues Jan 2

It's Day 2 and we're in Mark 2.

Where God Spoke To Me:

- Verse 17 - We have to keep central in our view that this was His mission.  It's too easy to make our religion one that keeps us from the broken and "sick" rather than trying to draw them to God.

Help:
- Verse 5 - Why did Jesus do this first instead of physical healing?  One, it was the bigger deal; 2. He knew that it would provide Him a chance to confront the Pharisees.
- Verse 14 - He had met Levi before - He was not calling someone He'd just met for the first time.
- Verse 20 - Yes, that means you should be fasting.
- Verses 21-22 - This means that Jesus is coming to bring a new thing.  The new thing is the church, as opposed to just sticking with the Jewish nation.
- Verses 24-27 - The religious rules that the Pharisees had come up with made the Law the supreme thing and put burdens on people they couldn't maintain.  Jesus here reminds them that man is the higher thing, not the Sabbath.

If you want to read the chapter online, here's a link.

If you have a question or comment, email me at butcher@ymail.com.

60IN60 Day 1 - Mon Jan 1

It's Day 1 and we're in Mark 1.

Where God Spoke To Me:
- Verse 35 - If it was important to Jesus to get away from everyone to have time in prayer, how much more do I need it?

Help:
- Verse 8 - "baptize you with the Holy Spirit" - That simply means that through Jesus we will receive the Holy Spirit for power in life.
- Verses 16-18 - Jesus had talked to them before.  This kind of makes it sound like He just walked up to someone He'd never met.
- Verse 24, 34, 44 - Why didn't Jesus want the demons or the healed people telling who He was?  The best answer I've heard is that He was trying to control the timetable and didn't want things to get too big and provoke the final confrontation with the Pharisees too early.  Additionally, He knew that faith that came from seeing miracles was often a shallow faith.

If you want to read the chapter online, here's a link.

If you have a question or comment, email me at butcher@ymail.com.