Mark 12:18-37 You have been reading about twenty verses a day and hopefully taking your time to meditate on those verses. One of the values of slowing down while you read is noticing the details of Scripture. As Jesus asked and responded to a series of questions in Mark 12, he revealed the importance of even the minutiae of Scripture. In his response to the question of the Sadducees, Jesus quotes ...  Read More

Mark 11:27-12:17 How much do you value truth? How much are you willing to change your life to conform to the demands of truth? The religious leaders reveal multiple times they are more concerned about keeping the status quo than they are about knowing and walking in the truth. They ask Jesus questions but do not really care about the answers and other times only do it to “catch him in his words” o...  Read More

Mark 11:1-26 C.S. Lewis wrote that Jesus is either a liar, lord, or lunatic. Often people want to think that Jesus was simply a good man and a great moral teacher, but the words of Jesus do not leave us with those options. We have to take seriously the claims Jesus made about himself. As Jesus entered Jerusalem on the back of a donkey, it was clear to the crowds that he was proclaiming himself kin...  Read More

Mark 10:32-52 So often we miss what God is doing. We are so busy and consumed by our own agendas that we miss the larger, more beautiful work that God is performing. In Mark 10:32-52, Jesus heads toward Jerusalem and announces that he is walking into his arrest, condemnation, abuse, and death. The disciples seem to completely miss the meaning of his words. They, like us, are so consumed by their t...  Read More

Mark 10:13-31 Who are the most important people in our society? Younger people might think of social media influencers while older people might think of business moguls or politicians. Yet Jesus wants us to understand the value of every person. Jesus is confronted by two extremes of the ancient social significance scale in Mark 10. First, he is brought a series of little children. Kids can be elev...  Read More

Mark 9:30-10:12 Who is the greatest person you have ever met? Is it a celebrity, a financial guru, a powerful CEO? The way we conceive of greatness, especially as a culture, is profoundly different from Jesus’ view. This is why Jesus came to earth not only as Lord, savior, and king, but also as a teacher. He came as a teacher because we are prone to embrace lies rather than truth.Mark 9 describes ...  Read More

Mark 9:1-29 Jesus came to Earth with power. Despite looking physically like any other Jewish man, he continually demonstrated his unparalleled power. He performed miracles, he revealed supreme knowledge and wisdom, and he asserted his control over creation. In Mark 9, his power was revealed in the transfiguration as he became "dazzling white." Then his power was again shown when he cast a demon ou...  Read More

Mark 8:11-38It is so easy to miss the point. You can hear a sermon and walk away failing to grasp what it is all about. Or maybe you feel like that after reading the Bible. Many people who experienced Jesus in the flesh missed the point. The Pharisees were so fixated on trying to trick Jesus with theological riddles that they failed to come to grips with who he was. The disciples were often so fix...  Read More

Mark 7:24-8:10 Today’s reading centers around a few of Jesus’s most famous miracles: casting out a demon, healing deafness, and multiplying the loaves and fish to feed the four thousand. These miracles have long been celebrated by the Church, but we can often forget that God’s power did not vanish along with Jesus’s ascension to heaven. Although the Bible is clear that God is, and always will be, ...  Read More

Mark 7:1-23 Proverbs 21:11 compares our hearts to a river. Our desires, pursuits, and longings are flowing in a direction; the only question is where. Our spiritual heart health determines so much of our lives that it is critical we consistently evaluate it. The Pharisees were fixated on externals while Jesus’ focus was on the heart. Jesus is concerned about motivations, desires, and thoughts, whi...  Read More

Mark 6:30-56 Are you good at allowing past lessons you learned change your present? Do you remember what God did yesterday and use that to trust him more today? The night after feeding the 5,000, Jesus’ disciples were overwhelmed by the wind on the lake. Amid their exhaustion, Jesus walked out to them on top of the water. We are told that they “were completely amazed, for they had not understood a...  Read More

Mark 6:1-29 There is a lie spread in many churches that if we have enough faith and obey God, it will lead to health, wealth, and prosperity here and now. This sounds wonderful, but it is profoundly unbiblical. John the Baptist was the forerunner for Jesus and preached a message of repentance to the masses. He fulfilled his calling, and the result was his gruesome death. He was first arrested by H...  Read More