Paul Email -14July2013- Mark 3

How you doin? I love Jesus. He so rad.! We read Mark 3 today. I say so often how I love the Bibles themes. Today's reading had some of those themes.

He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus. (Mark 3:5-6) Stacey and both had this verse (in bold) stand out. Picturing Jesus angry is tough. More on this shortly.

Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lake, and a large crowd from Galilee followed. When they heard about all he was doing, many people came to him from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, and the regions across the Jordan and around Tyre and Sidon. Because of the crowd he told his disciples to have a small boat ready for him, to keep the people from crowding him. For he had healed many, so that those with diseases were pushing forward to touch him. Whenever the impure spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” But he gave them strict orders not to tell others about him. (Mark 3:7-12) This theme stood out the most for me this morning. The connection between illness, sickness, handicap, disease and the demonic. All these people are drawn to Jesus' power. The scripture goes from talking about the diseased trying to touch Jesus to impure spirits. Here's the connection to verse 5... when Jesus deals with demons, He uses authority and doesn't get angry. Stacey pointed out this morning how Jesus was angry at the stubborn hearts of the Pharisee. He doesn't deal with them in the same way as the demons. He doesn't use authority on them. He tends to reason and explain to them the ways of the Kingdom. We'll be praying for more understanding of this.

So Jesus called them over to him and began to speak to them in parables: “How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come. In fact, no one can enter a strong man’s house without first tying him up. Then he can plunder the strong man’s house. Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin.” (Mark 3:23-29) This parable makes sense to me. “How can Satan drive out Satan?". We certainly don't want to give Satan credit for something that is of God or vice versa. The last few days, I've been thrilled by Jesus' depth, authority, power, compassion, and all the other stuff He is. COME ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love Jesus!