Today's Reading: Mark 3: 20-30
**For a simple and good way of Daily Devotion method please click this link: Subject Shifting Devotion.pdf.
Please click this link to read Mark 3: 20-30
Bible Study
These few verses are very important but not easy to explain. The situation is that after Jesus appointed His twelve apostles He was eagerly doing His ministries without eating. Some of His family members want to pull Him out but Jesus did not listen. So he was being accused by the teachers of the law that he was possessed by Beelzebub, the arch-devil.(opposite of the arch-angle) There are two questions that you may want to ask:
1. Who is the strong one and who is the stronger one?
2. What is that 'unforgivable sin' in verse 29?
N.T. Wright in his Mark for Everyone gives us very good answers:
1. "The Stronger One has arrived, and the Strong One finds his house being burgled. Jesus' healings, and particularly his exorcisms, are signs that God's kingdom is indeed arriving the kingdom in which people who have been held captive will at last be set free." (pages 37-38)
2. "Once you label what is in fact the work of the Holy Spirit as the work of the devil, there's no way back. You will be blind to the truth. It isn't that God gets specially angry with one sin in particular. It's rather that if you decide firmly that the doctor who is offering to perform a life-saving operation on you is in fact a sadistic murderer, you will never give your consent to the operation."
N.T. Wright gives us a very clear answer that the strong man is Satan and Jesus is the stronger man to go into his house and takes Satan's captives out. Actually, Jesus is the strongest! If any one label the work of the Holy Spirit as what Jesus was doing is the work of the devil, the action is the same as to blaspheme against the Holy Spirit because they will never be saved.
Let's listen to these important verses again:
"In fact, no one can enter a strong man's house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can rob his house. I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin."
Mark 3: 27-29
How are you willing to let Jesus to do His work through you to enter into Satan's house and territories to save and set free? Are you being captive by Satan lately? How can you be free?
Have a time to be still and give the Holy Spirit space to speak through the passage of scripture we have just read. Offer this time up to God as you listen to him, while listening to "Gabriel's Oboe"
My Spiritual Journal
What I heard from Jesus today is: Who's The Strongest? 誰是最強?
What I got today from Jesus is that how can I follow Jesus and be willing to let Him use me to enter into Satan's territories to save more captives, slaves of Satan! As Jesus says, that's the work of the Holy Spirit!
Come Holy Spirit, come! Fill us and anoint us with your fresh anointing that we are being strengthened and empowered to do your Kingdom work. Lord Jesus, prepare our hearts that we have the courage to go into Satan's territories with you to free the captives. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
Chinese praise song - 这一生最美的祝福 The Most Wonderful Blessing of My Life
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