Tag Archives: Mark 4-5

Daily Bible Study

October 15, 2023 Bible Study — Consider Carefully What You Hear

Today, I am reading and commenting on Mark 4-5.

I want to start by writing about Jesus saying some variation of, “If anyone has ears to hear, let them hear.”  Related to that Jesus quotes part of Isaiah 6:9-10. I believe He is warning us against intentionally missing what God is telling us.  Are we willing to hear what God has to say to us?  Today it struck me that we often miss the main point Jesus makes here when He talks about putting a lamp on a stand.  In Matthew, Jesus used the lamp as an example about being open about our beliefs.  Here the reference to the lamp on a stand seems to suggest that His teachings are not just for those initiated into the secrets.  Rather, He tells us that as we study God’s word more we will see more.  So, if we study God’s word in little pieces, we will have little bits revealed to us, but if we invest more into it, we will understand more.  And those who have little understanding of God’s word, and make no effort to increase that understanding, will lose what little understanding that they have.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

October 15, 2022 Bible Study — Preach The Word Of God And It Will Bear Fruit

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Mark 4-5.

Today’s passage contains another of Jesus’ parables which we do not often put much thought into, and, if we do, we tend to lump it in with the parable of the sower.  While the parable of the sower provides understanding for the parable of the growing seed, the latter has a different message.  As I read it today it occurred to me that when we are seeking ways to grow a congregation, this parable should speak to us.  Jesus tells us that the seed, which Jesus had just told His disciples was the word, is spread on the ground, which Jesus told His disciples was those people who heard the word.  The one who spread the seed need do nothing more.  In fact, Jesus says it doesn’t matter what else he does, the seed will grow according to its nature.  The one who sowed the seed need not know why the seed grows, and Jesus says we can’t know.  So, sow the word of God, and it will grow according to God’s plan.  As God says through the prophet Isaiah, God’s word will accomplish the purpose for which He sent it.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

October 15, 2021 Bible Study — Don’t Be Afraid; Just Believe

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Mark 4-5.

I was not sure what I was going to write about this passage because the incidents recounted here have been discussed from many different angles.  Then I came across what Jesus said to Jairus after he was told that his daughter had died: “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”  This came just after the woman was healed by touching Jesus’ clothes.  She was certainly frightened, but acted on her belief nevertheless.  And earlier in today’s passage we have the story of Jesus calming the storm.  There Jesus asked His disciples why they were so afraid, suggesting that they would not be afraid if they had faith.  So, we have a recurring theme in this passage.  The more faith we have the less fear we will feel.  No, that is not quite right.  The more faith we have the less impact fear will have on our behavior.  So, as we look at the world around us, let us not be afraid but just believe.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

October 15, 2020 Bible Study Peace, Be Still

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Mark 4-5

There are two powerful statements in today’s passage.  The first is Jesus’ response to the storm: “Peace, be still.”  What makes that so interesting and powerful is that He said it after the Apostles woke Him in a panic about the storm.  Having said that and calmed the storm He asked them why they were afraid.  Jesus was able to sleep during the storm because He had faith.  He knew that God was in charge of everything in the world, including the storm, and that God’s plans would be fulfilled.  There was no need, and nothing to gain, from staying awake and worrying about the storm.  When life’s storms beat at us we should try to live as Jesus lived, calmly and without fear.  Sometimes those storms will overwhelm even those among us with the strongest faith, when that happens we can call on God and He will provide us with the calm needed to face our lives.   However, sometimes we need to do for others what Jesus did for His Apostles and calm the storms which are overwhelming their faith.  Do you have the faith, do I have the faith, to call out to life’s storms, “Peace, be still” with the confidence that God will still those storms?  And remember, sometimes all it takes to calm life’s storms is for someone to calmly respond to them.

The other one is that of the woman seeking healing: “If I can just touch His robe…”  That is another statement of faith.  The woman knew, she just knew, that if she could get close to Jesus and touch His robe she would be healed.  Do we share her desire to get close to Jesus?  Do we share her faith that just being near Him will bring us healing?

Daily Bible Study

October 15, 2019 Bible Study — Having Faith To Spread God’s Word

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Mark 4-5

Most of today’s passage focuses on the power of faith and how just a small amount of faith can produce mighty results.  I suspect that today’s blog will be somewhat scattered, sort of like the first parable in the passage.  Let’s start there.  The parable of the farmer sowing seed has a lesson I don’t think I have ever heard anyone comment on and one which I never noticed before.  The parable describes different types of soil, some of which is better for grain to grow on than others and some of which is completely inhospitable.  However, in the parable the farmer spreads his seed equally on all of it.  Which brings us to the point, we should not attempt to only bring God’s word to those we think will be receptive.  We should spread God’s word to all and sunder.  Better to “waste” some of it on the hardened path where it will not root than to miss that small patch of fertile soil in the midst of the beaten down path.

Which brings us to Jesus’ teachings on faith which permeate this passage.  Why should we spread God’s word, even to those we are sure will not listen?  Because we should have faith that God can “plow up the hard ground of their heart”.  The parable of the growing seed goes into this a little more.  Just as the farmer does not need to understand how the seed grows into the plant which produces food, so we do not need to understand (and generally will not understand) how God’s word will work its way into someone’s heart to allow the Holy Spirit to transform them.  Mark’s account of the parable of the lamp gives us insight into how we spread God’s word to those around us.  We put our faith on a stand where everyone can see it.  No hiding it in under a basket or a bed.  Let the light of our faith illuminate everything we do.  That means studying God’s word and listening to His Spirit to determine what He wants us to do, and then doing it.  When we do the things which we understand we will come to understand more.  Finally, Jesus tells us to put into practice what little faith we have, because even a tiny grain of faith will grow into a mighty plant if given the chance.

Daily Bible Study

October 15, 2018 Bible Study — Never Give Up Hope In the Power of God’s Love

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Mark 4-5.

    Today I am going to start by touching on several of the parables in a more rapid fire way than I usually would. There is significantly more depth to these than I plan on exploring today. The first parable is the parable of the lamp. There is no value to having faith in Christ if you attempt to hide that faith. Instead, you should act so that the greatest benefit can be had from your faith. Jesus followed that one with the parable of the growing seed. We do not know how God’s word will change people. Our job is to plant the seed and let God’s Spirit work from there. Finally, He gave the parable of the mustard seed. A small, seemingly insignificant action can have results all out of proportion to the effort we put into it, never pass by the small things we can do for others.

    We often separate the tow healing stories here as teaching different lessons. There is nothing wrong with doing so, but we also need to pay attention to the lesson that they both tell. They are both stories about not losing hope. Jairus came to Jesus because his daughter was sick and dying. He believed that Jesus could heal her, so he begged Jesus to come and do so. On the way, the woman who had suffered for years touched Jesus’ robe and was healed. Then Jairus got word that his daughter had died, there was no more hope that Jesus could heal her. First, let’s look at the woman. She had suffered for twelve years and tried everything anyone could think of, to no avail. Yet, despite all of this she still had faith, and hope. After twelve years you would think she would have given up. She did not. On the other hand, there is Jairus. He had come to Jesus hoping and believing that Jesus could heal his daughter, but now she was dead. What hope was there? Nevertheless, he trusted Jesus when He told him to have faith. Even in the face of the ridicule of his friends and neighbors, Jairus continued to have faith and to put his hope in Jesus. Let us not lose hope, even when we can see no way for things to get better. We need to continue to have faith in God, no matter how hopeless things may seem.

Daily Bible Study

October 15, 2017 Bible Study — Do God’s Will As You Understand It, Further Understanding Will Follow (But We Don’t Have to Understand How It Works)

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Mark 4-5.

    I have been struggling to put together what I want to write today. I knew right from my first read through what I wanted to focus on, but am having trouble getting it to fit together. Jesus tells us that we need to pay close attention to what we hear of His teaching, of God’s will for us. The more we pay attention to what we understand, the more we will understand. The reverse is also true, the less we do of what we understand we ought to do, the less we understand of what God wants us to do. I have seen the former in my own life and the latter in other people. I want to be clear that my failure to see the latter in my own life may indeed be a product of that very thing. If I lost understanding of God’s will for my life because I failed to do things I understood Him to want, it is unlikely I would recognize it to be happening.

    Jesus tells two parables here about small things having large results, even without us understanding how it happens. We have a natural tendency to want to do big things which will make a big difference. There is nothing wrong with that, but the fact of the matter is that Jesus tells us that that is not how God’s Kingdom works. It is the small things which God uses to change the world, kind words to a stranger, the widow’s two pennies, etc. Small things grow into large things. Sometimes, the small thing we do inspires others to do things for others in a geometric, or even logarithmic, progression. Sometimes, the small things we do inspires others to do larger things. And sometimes, the small things we do open up the opportunity for us to do larger things. Do not try to figure out how the small things will bring about big results, just do them. You may never see all that results from the little things which you do, but do them anyway.

Daily Bible Study

October 15, 2016 Bible Study — Faith and Understanding

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

dscn1006

Today, I am reading and commenting on Mark 4-5.

    Several times when Jesus told parables He said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”(NIV) The NLT translates something He says a short time later as an expansion on that (in other Gospels, all of the translations have Him say something like this). Jesus tells us that those who listen and understand will gain more understanding, but those who do not pay attention will lose what understanding they had in the first place. Those who pay attention to Jesus’ teachings will continually gain greater understandings while those who don’t pay attention because they think they already know what He has to say will gradually drift further and further from understanding what Jesus taught. In some ways I have discovered that this applies to my Bible reading. Since I have been reading through the Bible every year so as to write this blog I have discovered new meaning in passages which I though I already fully understood. The other side of this is important as well. If we think we understand something and therefore stop working to understand it even better, we will gradually lose what understanding we have. This applies to many things in addition to what God teaches us.

dscn1003

    This passage ends with two stories about having faith in God’s healing power. The two stories are intertwined and both tell us a lot about having faith. In one a leader in the synagogue comes to Jesus because his daughter is sick. Jesus went with this distraught father. However, while they were on the way, a woman who had been suffering for years touches Jesus’ robe and is healed. I am going to look at that one first. The woman was sure that if she could just touch the merest hem of Jesus’ robe, she would be healed. She did not need His undivided attention, she did not believe she needed His attention at all. She thought that she could be healed without Jesus paying any attention to her. She was right, and she was wrong. Yes, she was healed when she touched Jesus’ robe without Him paying any attention to her, but Jesus would not leave it at that. He chose to turn His attention to her. He chose to let her know that the healing she received was not given impersonally by performing a ritual. She was healed because Jesus cared.
    Back to that distraught father, just as Jesus is back on track to heal his daughter messengers arrive telling him not to bother. His daughter has died. If only Jesus had not been delayed by that woman, his daughter might have been saved…but wait, Jesus ignores those who think it is too late. Jesus does not listen to the naysayers and, with a little encouragement from Jesus, neither does the distraught father. When they got to the house, Jesus sees all of the people putting on a show of mourning and asks what all the commotion is about because the little girl is not yet dead. The people laugh at Him (and by proxy at the father who dares to believe his little girl might yet be saved). Are we willing to face the mockery and scorn of those who do not believe as this father did? Are we willing to be singled out from the crowd, as the woman was?