Mark 1:14-22 ~ repent and believe

Mark 1:14-22

14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

16 Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. 

17 And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” 

18 And immediately they left their nets and followed him. 19 And going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were in their boat mending the nets. 20 And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him.

21 And they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and was teaching. 22 And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes.

Isaiah 7 tells us so much about the Birth of Jesus, society and economic conditions. With Ahaz, the king of realism to give up to the Assyrian Empire - using what God says tells us of our treasure and heart - to give up the solid gold Temple to keep power. Even if it's puppet power. Ahaz didn't want to even ask God for a sign, as God was doing what Mike Pence finds a bedrock of our lives today - God was speaking to Ahaz. History would show their conversation bore much fruit.

Jesus arrives in as the Temple is a tool of Herod and Herod a tool of Rome. The Essenes leave to give the world the Dead Sea Scrolls and tell us the Temple is spiritually devoid.

Jesus arrives when people are not expecting much of God. There is enormous wealth and many people line up for sustaining money.

The message of Jesus is this - Repent and Believe. Jesus isn't just speaking of personal flaw, mistake and sin - Jesus is saying repent of thinking God is small and not personally useful in the hunt for sustaining money and life. Of course, Jesus is saying personally examine what removes us from God. Of course. We all deeply know about keeping the path of Love and care and communication to God - our Father - who Loves us.

Jesus was saying He agrees John has prepared His path. Personal repentance. Jesus fully agrees with John the Baptist's God-given message.

Jesus is saying - Believe God is the Almighty.

One of the loveliest aspects of Community Worship - being with the faithful. Our physical bodies God gives us to put all of our brain, all our mind, all our soul into worship of God. We feel God is available. If we need to hold on to the robe of Jesus, we are invited. Yet in Community Worship, we are with the people who feel - in God - we live, move and have our being. God is here. We tell our Father - we Love Him.

God is saying as we recognize how God warms and loves us, God is speaking in warming our hearts.

We are answering the Living Word of God. We are telling Our Loving, Caring, Good Father - we believe. We repent for our self-doubts the war on our faith. We open our hearts again to our Father.

Jesus begins by saying, "Repent and Believe." Is this harsh? Jesus certainly tells us He wades into Life - with all heart. With all Love. Jesus has to fully state- belief. Repent - knock out the tarnish, the dust, the hopelessness of doubt. Jesus is here.

When you are praying - collect and remember God miracles. Your miracles. God is Alive. He is Working.

Praying - Grief over death - when we have recovered from losing someone we love - we can remember God's Grace to us to heal. The prayer looks promising now. We are blessed remembering healing. And healing from sorrow is huge in prayer and in Hope. When most of the young are asked to pray for grief from death recovery - we can do the best we can. Grief transferred to Living Hope - suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

My father lived a wonderful life. Alcoholism causes early death. And as he aged - the depressant took firm hold of all his mind. Daddy left a wake of things to forgive. We worried about him. He had loved Jesus we knew, but he had left all the ones who loved him best. To become comfortable with the death of someone you love - is to fully trust the Goodness of God's Love.

To lose a child is to believe God must know something you have no clue to cover. To contemplate the Heavens and see the Planning of God. And as life unfolds - to realize God's Plan Truly is Good and Truly Exists. Believe God.

Prayer Warrior Skills are with us when we believe in Jesus as Living Hope over Death. We can pray with our own assurance instead of the gloom of 'Oh no grief - horrid' recalling the new vision of Hope and applying this relief in prayer upon the suffering Child of God.

Remember your miracles.

Cancer. One of our family, actually two, have recovered from stage 4 Cancer. We can apply the Works of God to the prayer request.

Hip surgery, knee surgery, back surgery. The name of the person you know God favored so well. The same healing. The same willing Good Father.

For loved ones to know and Love Jesus and His Love. I remember my grandmother saying her hopeless son would never leave her prayers. In his 7th decade, my uncle loved Jesus. My mother and I wept because we knew how important this was to Grandmother. What we can't do - Jesus can. Jesus is willing.

Hope. Job searching. I think of my mother's friend Carolyn. Diligent in her job. Married to a Navy man - who left her. She wasn't sure she felt free of her marriage. Everyone told her to be reasonable. She'd been divorced 10 years - biological clocks. She would shake her head.

One Tuesday, she came home to her apartment to find someone sitting on her door front bent over. She ran to her car. Danger. As she arrived in the car, she looked up and in the almost homeless man, realized this was her husband. He was still in the Navy and in end stages of Brain Cancer. He didn't want his family, he wanted his 10 year divorced wife. She nursed him for just under a year and he died. Carolyn quietly said she knew God had a plan for her.

Carolyn married a man who assured her he was Christian. 5 years of abuse followed. One day she realized God had given her freedom from this. Carolyn boldly divorced. And at the age of 43, realized no children had happened. No lasting marriage. Her job. Steadfast. And then one day her work caused her to meet a fine professional man who offered her a - job - no marriage. And they were blessed with a child. A happy life. Blessed. We ask for jobs - we look for Blessing.

After volunteering with women in crisis, I realized the strength God gives us when we rely on Jesus Christ. And life looked very different. We do not answer prayers. God, Himself, is the Spirit giving Life. We are loved and we can tell our Father again we remember His Glory and Willingness. New stories are being collected as we pray.

We allow God to be God when we Pray. God assembles our heartfelt prayers in His Plan. We believe God is a Loving and Good Father. And His Plan will be Hope and Future. Carolyn waited quite a few years. She believed God.


Jesus said repent from putting God in the same old box. Believe.

James 2:23
Scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness," and he was called a friend of God.


Prayer is like the Gospels. We bring our friends who have had God's Wonders to our prayers. Give thanks. Give wonders of God. Pray and never lose Hope.

Mark 2
4 These men could not get near Jesus because of so many people. They made a hole in the roof of the house over where Jesus stood. Then they let down the bed with the sick man on it.

5 When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the sick man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”



Abba,

We ask Your Blessings, knowing Goodness of Jesus.

Jesus heals as Sins are Forgiven. We answer, "I have faith, help me to have more."

And in bringing God the Good News of Jesus as Living and Working - we are blessed. And in being Blessed - have blessings, and blessings and blessings in our on-going talking with You, Loving, Father.

We know Scriptures, we know the Power of God. In the name of Jesus, we ask Jesus and Your Holy Spirit prays with us. Interceding, mediating. Drawing us in the Love Jesus has for His Father. The Love our Father has for Jesus. The Love in the Holy Spirit and our Father's Joy in us. And placing the Holy Spirit in us - Abba increase and move us - in Your Love.

Let the Circle be Unbroken. God's Unending Love holding our loved ones. Placing us with Him. Today and Always.

His Love coming boldly to all around the world to increase the awareness of His Love and Glory. Blessing our Nation with peace and those who pray for Peace.

The Love You have for us, directing us, healing us, abundant Life, abundant Hope, encouraging us, teaching us. Enabling us upon the Path and Plan You have for us.

Amen in Jesus.

Mark 12:35-44 ~ be at our right Hand, Jesus Lord God

Mark 12:35-44

35 And as Jesus taught in the temple, he said, “How can the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David?

36 David himself, in the Holy Spirit, declared,
“‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at my right hand,
until I put your enemies under your feet.”’

37 David himself calls him Lord. So how is he his son?” And the great throng heard him gladly.

38 And in his teaching he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and like greetings in the marketplaces 39 and have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, 40 who devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”

41 And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. 42 And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny.

43 And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. 44 For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”

Have you noticed you never hear a Sermon or Scripture of Jesus relating, "And Jesus flapped around so upset. Walking back and forth in great concern and deep vexation."

Nothing about today had Jesus hopping angry.

Jesus and His Father and the Holy Spirit tell us in Proverbs - Genesis 1 and 2 - Jesus delighted in His Father. His Father delighted in Jesus. Jesus delighted in the Master Workmanship of God. And then they delighted in - people. Jesus, Abba and the Holy Spirit saw deep into mankind and their response? Placing the Holy Spirit to abide with mankind, abiding over the prevalent waters of the new Creation. Abiding with us.

Jesus is explaining who He is. And in His delight in speaking of God and God's Plan - the great throng heard Him gladly.

Jesus pouring out Truth with Love, Joy, Peace and Mercy. Jesus delighting in His Ministry. Jesus bringing us all Love and Healing. The mystery of Matthew 1 and Luke 3 with delight.

Jesus taking on the uptight with less than concern. Ease and security in Jesus.

Jesus could sit loftily on High. Jesus does not - Jesus is praising the widow. Loving Generosity -  calling this forward with Joy.

Jesus is the Exact Representation of God. I'd sincerely doubt any of us being a cheerful giver - would be unemotional - to hear Father God say, "Well done, Good and Faithful Servant." We have a Reunion in front of us. Jesus and the ones we love Forever. We will get used to being with Jesus in Heaven!!!

Jesus tells us we have a Father who would run to us. Seeing us come Home.

John 8:36

The Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

Jesus Goes to Prepare a Place for us.

Ephesians 3 - Families Live in Heaven

Scriptures tell us of Clouds in Heaven.

Revelation 7:9
After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language,
standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes

1 Corinthians 9:24
Run in such a way as to get the prize.

Abba,

Jesus blesses us.

We Have because of Jesus.

John 10:10

I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

John 16:33

Have peace.

In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.

1 Peter 1:8

you have believed in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy

John 16:24

Until now you have not asked for anything in my name.

Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.

Abba, we pray for more peace and comfort in the Holy Spirit for those who believe.

We pray we may have Joy in the You each day.

We Pray that our Path, our Race, is Good in Your eyes each day with Your Presence.

We Pray more Goodness and Gratitude is seen and enjoyed each day.

In Christ Jesus our God, Amen.

Luke 1:37 ~ With God

Yesterday we spoke of God and prayer changing life.

We did not write of the people in African hotels waking to cries of Murder. What of lives lost? What of the people left to suffer?

Jesus died upon the Cross. Jesus is the exact nature of God. When the Son died - the Father felt this. The skies blackened completely. The earth shook and tore on the Place of the Skull. The Temple broke in half and the veil of the Holy of Holies tore. Again we find evidence of the Eclipse. Evidence of the earthquake. Always inside us - evidence of Jesus.

Jesus wept with Lazarus' family. Jesus raised the widow of Nain's son.

The deaf man to be healed was privately taken to have this explained to him. Jesus did not just run over the man's understanding. Great care was taken to explain God's arrival.

The blind men were asked to explain what they wanted. Jesus did not jump into the room and rush to His next scheduled event.



David told God, Your judgments of me are right. Parents do not always parent because they have the same faults. We feel that in too many ways we are not good enough to ask God. This is a valid thought. All have fallen. God is merciful. Not our butler, not the waiter. God of His Love.

When did God tell us - with Him all things are possible?

During this sign, the King of Judah, Ahaz, refused to ask a sign. To not try God too hard. Ahaz lived 'realistically' leading the people away from the solid gold Temple as Assyria grew. Live realistically. And Ahaz's son, Hezekiah, was to live by faith.

12But Ahaz said, "I will not ask, nor will I test the LORD!" 13Then he said, "Listen now, O house of David! Is it too slight a thing for you to try the patience of men, that you will try the patience of my God as well?…

We Celebrate Christmas easily. Our Father God announced all things are possible - as Jesus was told to arrive. By the one who stands in the Presence of God. Gabriel explained the impossibility and the truth.

There was no hope of Israel to survive the Babylonian destruction.

There was no hope of Israel to survive the destruction of Titus in 70 A.D. and almost 2,000 years later - in these troubled times - Israel thrives. The 3 million could not survive the 100 million against them. And today we have Israel.

Those who fell - Jesus fell. Lazarus fell.

Raised by God.

Our Father,

Who art in Heaven
Holy is Thy Name.

Thy Kingdom Come
They Will be Done
On earth as in Heaven

Give us this day
our Daily Living Bread

Forgive us our Trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us.

Lead us not into temptation,
Deliver us from evil.

For Thine is the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory.

And all of us pray, we are loved, touched, saved and encouraged,
Jesus is God Amen.

2 Chronicles 20:15 ~ For the battle is not yours, but God's

Our Prayers are with all of those at Peace
- who have found war and violence

This is not new in the Bible.

David knew this as he watched his father's flock.

Lent is Preparation. Preparation for Life in Jesus Christ. Preparation for walking with God daily. Preparation for believing the Word of God. Preparation for deepening our life in the Body of Christ - Community - Church - bringing more Heaven to earth. Preparation for our own eternity - today.

We talk a lot about stopping bullying. Nothing wrong with this.

We do our part each day to provide mercy and justice. Because we see in the History of the world - times of peace. Peace time  exist, bringing in times of more Faith, more Hope, more Love.

Realistically, you cannot stop the mouths of what God calls the two natures of mankind. With more compassion to all and more belief in the structures of Love and obedience to God - we can see times of Awakening and Refreshing. David knew this time in the midst of his 23 year struggle in the 'Anointing' of God. This Anointing is, of course real, and was a great deal of work - like the Exodus. Not surprisingly, Works of God take continual Hope, Faith and Love.

God calls the two natures of mankind wheat - sustaining, nurturing, workable. And chaff - what blows around, isn't edible, doesn't sustain us, generally an irritant. Chaff the husks of corn or other seed separated by winnowing or threshing.Chopped hay and straw used as fodder - trash. Today we sometimes call Chaff 'talking trash'. Chaff will annoy someone in a less than patient mood. Chaff will stick to someone not properly prepared. Chaff can get in your eye.

The Christian Church grew in a time of great wealth and power.  In these 'Glory Days'  oppression happened. And in these days, medical care was hard to obtain. People knew to comfort, sustain, protect each other from what lurked out there. A time when people would pray for healing, pray for protection. People knew to pray their faith for each other. Place a hand on a shoulder, bow a head and pray for one another. "God Bless You" was something meant. Part of the culture of Christ Jesus.

We need to be able to say "God Bless You" and "I will pray for you". "Can I pray for you now?"

It's Ten O'clock - Have you Prayed for Someone Today?

Good. Do they Know You Prayed???

Luke 18:1
Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.


Mark 9:29
Jesus replied, "This kind can come out only by prayer."


Ephesians 6:12-18
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces

2 Chronicles 20:15

Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God's.


1 Samuel 17:47
All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD's








In times where the enemy numbers 100 million and the remnant is 3 million - God is still very able to win. God's hands and God's feet - are God's. In distinct words - when hope appears almost gone in times of violence - God is Perfectly Able. Do not lose hope.  Violence happens in the Bible to the good and the evil. Hope is within God as a viable and real event - today. Victory belongs to God.

In all generations - we recognize the hand of God shapes our world. Our prayers are a good thing. God's works are God's.  The Battle is God's. 

Probably the only painting of George Washington painted prior to the Revolutionary War.


In “Recollections of Washington”, George Washington Parke Curtis wrote of Washington's amazing survival.The coat in the painting is close to the uniform worn by General Washington in 1755 during the Battle of the Monongahela. There are four holes according to Washington’s account. There is no doubt his adopted children did know the story because George Washington Parke Curtis wrote this book.

After the Battle of Monongahela, George Washington wrote from Fort Cumberland to his younger brother, John Augustine Washington, July 18, 1755:

“But by the All-Powerful Dispensations of Providence, I have been protected beyond all human probability or expectation; for I had four bullets through my coat, and two horses shot under me, yet escaped unhurt, although death was leveling my companions on every side of me!”

The United States and President Washington had a miraculous escape.  Psalm 91.

The Ship with Paper Missiles

The year was 1956. Israel had been a modern nation for eight years, surrounded by hostile enemies who were planning wars to destroy the Jewish state. The navy of Israel was for all purposes, almost nonexistent. The main enemy of Israel was the Egyptians, under the leadership of President Nasser. The Egyptians had several battleships and Nasser gave orders to move one of the large ships toward Haifa, in Israel.

The Israelis had one beat-up hull of a ship. They immediately painted it and put huge paper Mache missiles on the deck. When the Egyptian ship arrived, the Israeli’s sent a smaller boat out to meet it and warned them they had a new ship with very large missiles pointed at the Egyptians. The orders were given for the Egyptians to surrender immediately, or be destroyed. Oddly enough, the Egyptians surrendered their battleship, to a hull with fake missiles!

The Miracle of the 67 War

In May 1967, Egyptian and Syrian troops massed on Israel's borders, Egypt closed the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping, and Egyptian President Gamel Abdal Nasser filled the airwaves with calls to drive the Jews into the sea. The mood in the 19-year-old-country of Israel was bleak. Facing five well-equipped, Soviet trained Arab armies, Israel's defeat was virtually a foregone conclusion.

The black humor on everyone's lips that Spring was: "The last one out, don't forget to turn off the lights."

Everyone knows that instead of defeat, Israel achieved a stunning victory. On June 5 at 7:46 AM, Israeli planes destroyed the entire Egyptian air force on the ground. In six days, Israel tripled its territory, gaining the Sinai Peninsula, the Golan Heights, the West Bank, and -- most precious of all -- the Old City and the Temple Mount.

The crucial strategy of destroying the Egyptian air force while their planes were still on the ground opened the way for the Israeli victory. The success of the maneuver is generally attributed to the Israeli planes flying below the tracking altitude of Egyptian radar. Many other factors, however, contributed to the success of the air strike and the subsequent battles. In fact, the coincidences and unlikely happenings at precisely the right time were so plentiful that, as we learn the details of the victory, the details are astonishing.

For example, a few days before the war, the Commander of Egyptian forces in the Sinai was ordered to change commanders in most of his brigades, putting in charge officers who didn't know the terrain or their forces.

On the very morning of June 5th, three hours before the Israeli air strike, Egyptian intelligence did, in fact, issue a warning that an Israeli air attack would begin "within minutes." At that point, Egypt still had time to get its planes off the ground and save them. The message reached the command bunker in Cairo. An aide-de-camp signed a copy, but no one bothered to look for the Commander in Chief.

On the same morning of the attack, Egyptian officers stationed at the radar station in northern Jordan picked up the scrambling Israeli aircraft and sent a red alert message to Cairo. The sergeant in the decoding room of the supreme command tried to decipher the message using the previous day's code and failed.

And where was Egypt's Commander in Chief? The night before, he and most of his top officers attended a party at an air force base in the northern delta area, at which a renowned belly dancer performed. Early the next morning, he took off for the Sinai, where he had ordered all his top commanders to assemble in order to meet a high-level Iraqi delegation. When the Israeli strike happened, not one senior officer was at his post.

These amazing stories clearly demonstrate “The Battle belongs to the Lord!”





Winston Churchill's Grandson - Winston Churchill was in Israel for the War as a War Correspondent.

Among the rank & file, there was deep anxiety, even fear. My Israeli reservist escorting officer, a lawyer in his mid-forties, recently married with a small daughter, told me in all earnestness that, in the event that Israel was being defeated, he would have no hesitation killing his wife and daughter, rather than let them fall into the hands of the Arabs. It would indeed have been a second Masada.
For my part, I found myself wondering what I – a Goy and a Brit – should do in that event, given that I was from a foreign land and had no direct involvement in the quarrels of the Middle East – beyond a Grandfather who had been a strong supporter of the Balfour Declaration!

Without hesitation, I concluded that I would grab whatever weapon might come into my hands and fight at the side of the Israelis. From that moment onwards, though I avow the right of the Palestinians to have their own independent state within the confines of Biblical Palestine, which has been their homeland over the centuries, I have counted myself a Zionist, firmly believing in the justice of the existence of the State of Israel.

Just after dawn on 5 June 1967 – just as the world was beginning to believe that Israel’s days were numbered – Israel made her lightning strike, destroying the Egyptian Air Force in 2hrs50mins & four Arab air forces in the space of 36 hours. It was one of the most instant and dramatic military victories of all time. To many, it seemed to be the ‘war to end all wars’!




"...if you examine the days leading up to the war, you will see that the feeling among the Israeli public, and even among many government ministers, was that of the eve of a holocaust."
Menashe (Muni) Ben-Ari


"Every one of the hundred million Arabs has been living ... to see the day Israel is liquidated"
Cairo Radio’s Voice of the Arabs broadcast, May 18th, 1967.





"For Israel, the waiting was excruciating and debilitating. Israel's citizen army had to be mobilized. As its soldiers waited on the various fronts for the world to rescue the nation from its peril, Israeli society ground to a halt and its economy began bleeding to death. Army Chief of Staff Yitzhak Rabin, later to be hailed as a war hero and even later as a martyred man of peace, had a nervous breakdown. He was incapacitated to the point of incoherence by the unbearable tension of waiting with the life of his country in the balance, knowing that waiting too long would allow the armies of 100 million Arabs to strike first his country of 3 million." Charles Krauthammer


There were also the grim preparations that had to be kept secret: the parks in each city that had been consecrated for possible use as mass cemeteries.- Golda Meir

“The Battle belongs to the Lord!”

Abba,


Out of the depths, I cry to you, O Lord! O Lord, hear my voice!

Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy!

If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?

But with you, there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word, I hope;

my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning,
more than watchmen for the morning.

O Israel, hope in the Lord!

For with the Lord, there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption.
And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.



We thank You, Abba,
For Your Blessings, You willingly give ever day of our lives.
We thank You, Abba,
We are Israel today to You as well.
We thank You, Abba,
For Your forgiveness All Your prior Love and Care.
We thank You, Abba,
For Your Love, for those we Love and lift up their cares to You.
We thank You, Abba,
For Your Preparation in Lent and in solemn times in our life. For health, hope and provision.
We thank You, Abba,
You save the world in Jesus Christ.
We thank You, Abba,
You fulfill Your Word and Your Promises. Always.

Just as we love to hear Merry Christmas, let's be brave to say "God Bless you." With the same joy. Let's be brave like Diane and Marc who say, "I will pray for you." And usually receive a glad thanks and sometimes "I will pray for you now." Let's be brave for 60 seconds together.

Our Amen in the Name of Jesus.