Today’s Podcast
Today’s Scriptures
Today’s Bible reading plans include:
Ready – Mark 6:1-13
Set – Job 21; Mark 6
Go! – Job 21; Mark 5-6
Mark 6:1-13
1 Jesus went back into His own hometown where He had grown up, and His disciples followed Him there. 2 When the Sabbath came, He went into the synagogue in Nazareth and began to teach as He had done elsewhere, and many of those who heard Him were astonished.
Those in the Synagogue: Where did He gain this wisdom? And what are all these stories we’ve been hearing about the signs and healings He’s performed? Where did He get that kind of power? 3 Isn’t this Jesus, the little boy we used to see in Joseph’s carpenter shop? Didn’t He grow up to be a carpenter just like His father? Isn’t He the son of Mary over there and the brother of James, Joses, Judas, Simon, and their sisters? Who does He think He is?
And when they had thought about it that way, they became indignant and closed themselves to His message.
Jesus (seeing this): 4 A prophet can find honor anywhere except in his hometown, among his own people, and in his own household.
5 He could not do any of His great works among them except with a few of the sick, whom He healed by laying His hands upon them. 6 He was amazed by the stubbornness of their unbelief.
Jesus went out among the villages teaching, 7 and He called the twelve to Him and began to send them out in pairs. He gave them authority over unclean spirits 8 and instructed them to take nothing with them but a staff: no money, no bread, no bag, 9 nothing but the sandals on their feet and the coat on their back.
Jesus: 10 When you go into a house, stay there until it is time for you to leave that town. 11 And if someone will not accept you and your message, when you leave, shake off the dust of that place from your feet as a judgment against it. On the day of judgment, that city will wish for the punishment of Sodom and Gomorrah.
12 And so His disciples went out into the countryside, preaching the changed life as Jesus had taught them, 13 casting out unclean spirits and anointing the sick with oil to heal them.
Today’s Devotional
From today’s background scripture God might say:
Do you ever think back about some of your childhood friends and wonder about the change in their lives? Perhaps you see their face on a television newscast and think, “I remember him! I never thought he would do something like that, he was such a nice guy.” Or, “How did he ever make it to the top of his industry? When I knew him he was the laziest guy in the class.”
Maybe you remember someone you went to high school or college with and never thought they would amount to much because they were the worst student, biggest cut up, most ill behaved student you could imagine. But people change, and I change them even more. Take a look at Paul. He was in the business of finding, capturing, and killing Christians because he thought they were damaging the “true” faith of the Jewish people. But then Paul met Me on his trip to Damascus and I changed him completely. Paul suffered tremendously as a result of his change. The people he formerly worked for tried their best to kill him because of the message I gave him to spread to the world.
Others run from Me and the change is not pretty. Everyone has some good in them because I made you and everything I make is good. But people can turn from Me and like rotting meat begin to decay and spoil and smell. You may not see the decay physically, but you’ll see it in behavior, character, and relationship. You’ll see their life begin to fall apart spiritually and spiral into certain destruction until they turn again to Me.
Sometimes it’s hard to believe the transformation that some have had. That’s what happened with the people in Nazareth. Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t this the guy we went to school with every day? Isn’t this the kid we played with growing up? How can He be the Messiah? He grew up with us. He can’t be the Messiah, He went grew up in the same place we did, he just can’t be the Messiah. We know what His brothers and sisters are like. Surely, He’s the same. He can’t be the Messiah.
Well, I was and I am. Sometimes you just need to open you eyes and recognize I can transform lives. Maybe you need to go through the transformation yourself to realize just how much I can change a person. If you think I can’t change someone completely, try Me. Let Me change you and you’ll find that no one is too hard for Me to give a complete makeover from the inside out.
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