Trust in the Lord. The message is ringing loud and clear for me this week. There is so much to share and yet I do not have a free moment to get it down the way I feel would best explain GOD’S HAND in what has been transpiring these last few days.
If you want to know the truth, God has me SPEECHLESS! Can you imagine? That is witnessing the mountain being moved! 😉
Until I can find the moment to sit down and gather my thoughts and words to share with you in a way that possibly God will also reach out to you through the message then I leave you with this excerpt from a talk that I gave for our Cornerstone Bible Study on Wednesday afternoon. It is an overview of Mark’s Gospel chapters 10-16. I prepared it the week before Christmas and once I delivered it Wednesday it brought me to tears because there was so much that I needed to hear that I ‘d forgotten I’d been inspired to write.
Mark is a fabulous Gospel and I highly suggest taking the time to read a chapter or two a day this year.
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Mark Overview Excerpt:
According to the New American Catholic Study Bible, Mark is described as Peter’s interpreter and the book was aimed to equip Christians to stand faithful in the face of persecution while going on with their proclamation of the gospel. I believe as we move forward with Mark and follow Jesus into his passion and resurrection we should move forward with the knowledge and certainty that WE are the Christians sent forth to proclaim the ‘good news’. What is it in hearing about Jesus and his persecution, his condemnation and his resurrection that will encourage us to be bolder, louder, and more diligent in living as if we believe?
In Chapters 10 and 11 Jesus wastes no time in telling it like it is. He doesn’t protect our feelings, step around uncomfortable topics or mince words. We have seen him drive out demons and perform countless miracles but now it’s our turn. We must be active in our pursuit of heaven. If we are married, keep it sacred, we must hold onto our child-like faith believing and trusting in Him and rebuke the justifications that age our spirits and build up walls between us and our Father.
Jesus curses the barren fig tree which represented his judgment on barren Israel and the fate of Jerusalem for failing to receive his teaching and later goes into the temple and we see and feel his righteous anger at the defiling of the sacredness of the temple with their thievery.
But what I love about Mark’s gospel is just after he recounts one of the only times we see Jesus filled with this righteous anger we immediately get a dose of his redemptive love.
Mark 11:20-25
Early in the morning, as they were walking along, they saw the fig tree withered to its roots. Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.” Jesus said to them in reply, “Have faith in God. Amen, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it shall be done for him. Therefore I tell you, all that you ask for in prayer, believe that you will receive it and it shall be yours. When you stand to pray, forgive anyone against whom you have a grievance, so that your heavenly Father may in turn forgive you your transgressions.”
One of the greatest moments for a ‘born again’ Christian is finally ‘getting’ this passage. – the ability to fully believe that with God we CAN do anything. There was a time in my life that I felt so unworthy and unable to accomplish anything worthwhile that I could see no joy or hope in my future. But when I finally said ‘enough’ of trying to do it on my own by forcing my round peg into a square hole and I let God take a shot at it regardless of the outcome that is when I saw the miracle of mountains being lifted and moved. I finally understood that God wants me to achieve the desires of my heart and in wanting me to achieve these desires he has to prepare me to receive them so that they last a lifetime and not just fifteen seconds of glory. And when I saw all of these things he wanted for me I felt so humbled to ‘be’ in His presence. Me a sinner. Me the one who went about it in all the wrong ways how could I look upon anyone else and not expect that he would do the same for them?
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The moment God stops speaking to me through what He gives me to deliver to others is the moment I realize I am on a precarious pedestal that is tipping waiting for me to fall. Blessed Father, may I never even get an inch off the ground.
Hopefully in the next few days I’ll be able to give part 2 of this ‘trust’ segment…until then next week I hope to begin a blog series on VIRTUES (as promised). 🙂
Blessings
Shannon