Today's Reading: Mark 14: 12-25
**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 14: 12-25
Bible Study
This passage starts the painful scene of Jesus way to the cross.
N.T. Wright gives a powerful conclusion to these few verses:
Are we, like the disciples, full of bluster one minute, sleep the next, and confused shame the next? Are we ready to betray Jesus if it suits our other plans or if he fails to live up to our expectations? Or are we prepared to keep watch with him in the garden, sharing his anguished prayers? ... The church is called to live in the middle of this great scene; surrounded by confusion, false loyalty, direct attack and traitor's kisses, those who name the name of Christ must stay in the garden with him until the Father's will is done.
In the midst of this great scene there are the famous "big four" as the four actions of how Jesus blessed the bread: take, give thanks, break and give.
The whole scene of how Jesus die for us is an invitation to all of us to take part in this "big four":
To take our lives and what we have got
To give thanks
To break our lives and everything we have just like how Jesus broke his body
To give what have been broken to the others building up the body of Christ and extending God's Kingdom
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: The Big Four
Today Jesus put before us these "Big Four" inviting us to follow His example and do it likewise. Are you willing to take your life and what you have got?
Are you willing to give thanks to those things ready to break them?
Are you willing to really break them?
Are you willing to give them out and leave nothing for yourself?
That's how we follow Jesus to the Cross?
Are you coming along with us?
Dear Lord Jesus,
Help us to live out the Big Four in our daily lives in order to build your body and to extend your mighty Kingdom. 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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