Tag: Christian living

Digging in Deeper: Mark 2:24-26

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“The Pharisees said to him, ‘Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?’ He said to them, ‘Have you never read what David and those who were with him did when he was in need and hungry — how he entered the house of God in the time of Abiathar the high priest and ate the bread of the Presence — which is not lawful for anyone to eat except the priests — and also gave some to his companions?’”‬ ‭(CSB‬‬ – Read the chapter)

One of the standard excuses or arguments kids have always made with their parents when trying to either justify something they’ve done or else plead for something they want is this: “But all the other kids are doing it!” The simple logic here is that if everyone else is doing it, then it must not be a bad thing to do. Therefore, they should get to do it as well. What we know as older and wiser parents (right???) is that right and wrong is not set by group consensus, and so what all the other kids are doing is not going to have any bearing on what we do. Why am I thinking about this today? Because it seems like Jesus was using this kind of reasoning here and I’m not sure what to do about it.

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Digging in Deeper: Mark 2:21-22

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“No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new patch pulls away from the old cloth, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost as well as the skins. No, new wine is put into fresh wineskins.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Have you ever seen somebody be insulted without realizing they were being insulted? Jon Stewart, former host of Comedy Central’s popular series, “The Daily Show,” was well-known for doing this. He would send out “reporters” to do interviews with unsuspecting individuals which were then edited to make them look stupid at best. Well, Jesus wasn’t doing that here, but He was making an observation about some folks that wasn’t exactly complimentary. In doing so, though, He offers us a good reminder to not fall into the same trap they had. Let’s talk about it.

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Morning Musing: 1 Peter 2:15

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“For it is God’s will that you silence the ignorance of foolish people by doing good.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

When was the last time you saw a post on social media that was so wrong you felt like it was your moral duty to correct it? Perhaps just this morning. There are a lot of people out there who are just ignorant, aren’t there? Of course, it may be the case that someone else has read something you posted and felt the same way. That’s not quite so comfortable a thought. Let’s shift subjects a bit. As followers of Jesus, we live in a world that seems increasingly intolerant of our faith all the time. And much of that vitriol seems to be expressed on social media…where we want to correct it. And we’re back to that again. Okay then, what should we do about it?

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Digging in Deeper: Mark 2:16-17

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“When the scribes who were Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples, ‘Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?’ When Jesus heard this, he told them, ‘It is not those who are well who need a doctor, but those who are sick. I didn’t come to call the righteous, but sinners.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Have you ever joined a club? Most people have at some point in their lives. Whether it was a school club or a civic club or a sports club, the options are nearly limitless. The thing about a club, though, is that it is a necessarily exclusionary organization. If you have a club in which literally anyone can claim membership, you don’t really have a club at all. You have the human race. Now, a club may have an open membership wherein anyone can join versus a closed, invitation-only membership, but even in the case of an open membership, you can only join if you are willing to abide by the rules of membership. In this story both the Pharisees and Jesus thought about the kingdom of God in terms of being a club. Their approach to membership, though, is where they differed.

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Digging in Deeper: Mark 2:5-7

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“Seeing their faith, Jesus told the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’ But some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts: ‘Why does he speak like this? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?’” ‭(CSB‬‬ – Read the chapter)

Have you ever prayed for someone else? I suspect you have. Even as our culture seems to grow more secular all the time, a sizable majority of people still claim prayer is something important in their lives in some form or fashion. And when we pray, we pray for ourselves, yes, but we also pray for others. But do those prayers really accomplish anything? Can they? We don’t necessarily get an answer to that question here, but we get some important evidence that prayer just may be a whole lot more powerful than we imagine.

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