Today's Reading: Mark 12: 12-17
**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 12: 12-17
Bible Study
This is a passage that is not easy to understand because it consists of quite a number of important meanings.
N. T. Wright says,
First, 'give Caesar what belongs to Caesar' can be taken, of course, as a way of saying 'yes, pay the tax' but without the sting of 'yes, submit to the Romans as your masters'. The fact that Jesus has drawn attention to the blasphemous image and writing gives his command the flavour of 'send this filthy stuff back where it came from!'
Second, in context, it doesn't leave Jesus open to a direct charge. His words are, after all, literally saying, 'yes, pay the tax.'
Third, the command to give God what belongs to God opens all kinds of further questions. Did he also mean that, because humans bear God's image, all humans owe themselves, their very lives, to God, and should give those lives back, as one might give a coin back to Caesar?
How much are you giving to pay your tax, your rent/mortgage, car(s), cloths, TV, computers, Hi-Fi, other expenses and your "precious"? How much time do you spend on your work, hobbies, eat-out, TV, internets? How much are you giving to God?
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"
Spiritual Journal
What I heard from Jesus today is: How much are you giving?
What I got from Jesus is a two-fold questions: How much are you giving to yourselves including all those I said above and beyond and how much are you giving to God?
Yes, just as N. T. Wright says that you and I have the image of God and yet we give our energy, time and money to mostly other images other than God! How sad!
When can you give all you have including your energy, time and money to God?
Dear Lord Jesus,
You are my all in all! Help us to know you are our everything that we can give our all to you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
Chinese praise song - 你是我的一切 You Are My All In All
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