Dear Student of the Word,
It's that time again, time for another installment of our Mark study. The word of God is magnificent--I know you realize that. I am always amazed at how readable and relevant the Bible is to our human condition. The Bible would be good reading even if it wasn't the inspired Word, which of course it is.
At any rate, this week I wrote:
v. 14 -- As I stated earlier, Jesus was a celebrity and here His notoriety was caused by what His disciples were doing. Even King Herod received a report about Jesus' work and that of His followers. Yet there was confusion about who Jesus was and where He had come from. Since Herod had John beheaded, Herod would have paid particular attention to the rumor that Jesus was John the Baptist back from the dead.
When you examine that rumor, it was utterly foolish! How could Jesus be John, when they were cousins and contemporaries of one another? Jesus was doing the work He did before John was beheaded, so how could He now suddenly be John? There can certainly be a lot of superstitions even among spiritual people. Do you have any superstitious beliefs? Don't answer too quickly.
If you gave a special offering one time and God blessed you in some way right after that, you can easily think, "My offering brought that blessing, so the next time I have a need, I will give just like I did in that instance and God will bless me again." God may, or He may not. That belief in the cause and effect of your gift, however, is in some ways a superstition. Does that make sense? Do you agree or disagree? Can you think of any other such beliefs in your life?
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Download this week's study: Download mark_study_8.doc
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