Lent - Day 3

Jesus meets us, Jesus treats us.
Mark 2:1-17 (focus on 13-17)

When Jesus calls us to follow Him two things happen, He meets us and He treats us. He meets us right where we are in our lives, but he doesn’t allow us to stay there, He begins to treat us, He heals us, He redeems us..


Today’s Prayer:
Help me Jesus, to hear you calling, to celebrate your love, and to accept your healing in every area of my life.

Lent - Day 4

Jesus is the Story
Mark 1:9-15 (focus on 10-11)

Jesus’ story is The Story of God redeeming all of humanity.

Lent - Day 5

Jesus defeats temptations
Mark 1:12-13

We have a choice, be a slave to our temptations or follow Jesus and overcome the temptations we face.

Today’s Prayer:
Jesus, when I’m tempted may I turn to you.

Lent - Day 6
Mark 2:18-28 

Jesus challenges our way of seeing and understanding the world. We have to lay our worldviews down in order to follow Him and walk in the Kingdom of God.

Today’s Prayer:
Jesus, would you help me bring the fences that I have built down in my life?

Lent - Day 6
Mark 3:1-19  

Jesus calls the twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons.

Today’s Prayer:
May we remember that we are citizens of the Kingdom of God.

Lent - Day 8
Mark 3:20-35

Mark’s sandwich technique, interrupting a story to tell a story before finishing the original story. This technique is used to drive home an important point.

The point is when you follow Jesus you will be misunderstood, by family and friends to people in power. As Christ followers, our job is to keep our faith in the victory of Christ and find assurance in the fact that he was the most misunderstood.

Today’s Prayer:
Teach us, Lord Jesus, not to fear accusations of the enemy, but to trust in your victory at all times.

Lent - Day 9
Mark 4:1-20 (focus on 4:1-10)

The Power of the Parable

Parables are stories used by Jesus throughout scripture. They challenge us and speak right to our hearts. The question is, can you hear it? Will you allow the message of Jesus to penetrate your heart and change you?

Today’s Prayer:
Jesus, give us ears to hear.

Lent - Day 10
Mark 4:21-41 (focus on 4:35-41)

“They Woke Him Up”

Our wake-up call to God is often the moment when God’s wake-up call to us is finally getting through.

Today’s Prayer:
Jesus, wake me up.

Lent - Day 11
Mark 8-31-38

Common Sense and the Cross

The Cross and common sense are in conflict. Common sense means following Jesus in ways that do not cause problems, that don’t rock the boat. But you cannot follow Jesus and pick up your own cross and continue to live a common sense life.

Today’s Prayer:
Jesus help us follow you in the uncommon way.

Lent - Day 12
Psalm 22 (Read in two parts: Part 1 verses 1-18/Part 2 verses 19-31)

2 Sides of the Same Story

As we navigate the remainder of this Lent season, may the last thirteen verses of Psalm 22 become our reality as we stand amidst the darkness and brokenness of the world.

…
But you, Lord, do not be far from me.
You are my strength; come quickly to help me.
Deliver me from the sword,
my precious life from the power of the dogs.
Rescue me from the mouth of the lions;
save me from the horns of the wild oxen.
I will declare your name to my people;
in the assembly I will praise you.
You who fear the Lord, praise him!
All you descendants of Jacob, honor him!
Revere him, all you descendants of Israel!
For he has not despised or scorned
the suffering of the afflicted one;
he has not hidden his face from him
but has listened to his cry for help.

From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly;
before those who fear you I will fulfill my vows.
The poor will eat and be satisfied;
those who seek the Lord will praise him—
may your hearts live forever!

All the ends of the earth
will remember and turn to the Lord,
and all the families of the nations
will bow down before him,
for dominion belongs to the Lord
and he rules over the nations.

All the rich of the earth will feast and worship;
all who go down to the dust will kneel before him—
those who cannot keep themselves alive.
Posterity will serve him;
future generations will be told about the Lord.
They will proclaim his righteousness,
declaring to a people yet unborn:
He has done it!

Todays Prayer:
Help us, Jesus, to stand in faith at the foot of the cross that the light can break through the darkness and guide us on our way.

Lent - Day 13
Mark 5:1-20

There is no place, space, or part of your life that Jesus isn’t coming for.

Jesus travels to the far reaches of the Jewish world in this story and heals the most detestable person as a real life parable to show us that there is no place on this earth and nothing you have ever done that can keep you from healing and hope of the Kingdom of God.

Todays Prayer:
Jesus, may we cry out to you no matter the condition of our lives.

Lent - Day 14
Mark 5:21-43 (5:25-34)

When we follow Jesus, it’s not about keeping the world at bay, it’s about brining the power of the Spirit to the world.

Todays Prayer:
Jesus, may Your Spirit lead us to the broken places of this world.

Lent - Day 15
Mark 6:1-29 (6:7-29)

Contrasting Kingdoms

Jesus and the Kingdom of God, going out, preaching that people should repent, driving out demons and anointing the sick and healing them

-vs-

Herod’s Kingdom money, sex, and murder.  


Todays Prayer:
Jesus, give us leaders in the church and state who will serve your people rather than themselves.

Lent - Day 16
Mark 6:30-44

Miracles in the ordinary.

Extraordinary miracles show up in the ordinary and sometimes the hardest part of seeing and receiving the miracles in our lives.


Todays Prayer:
Jesus, may you have compassion on us and my we be able to receive the miracles in our lives.

Lent - Day 17
Mark 6:45–52 (45-52)

Hard Hearts

Everyone has a hard time understanding Jesus because we forget He is God. He’s not merely a man, not a great spiritual teacher, He is the incarnation, God in the flesh, 100% Human and 100% God.

Todays Prayer:
Jesus, help us recognize who you are and soften our hearts

Lent - Day 18
Read and compare:

Mark 6:1-3
Mark 6:53-56

Offense or Amazement?

What you think about when you think about Jesus, is the most important thing you can ever think.

Todays Prayer:
Jesus, when we think of you may we be like the people of Gennesaret.

Lent - Day 19
(Psalm 19)
Step Back.

To truly know Jesus and to know God we have to step back to see the masterpiece they are painting with every stroke of our lives.

Todays Prayer
Jesus may we step back so we can understand the masterpiece you are painting.

Lent - Day 29
Mark 10:1-16 (focus on 13-16)

“Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” (Verse 14)


Todays Prayer
Jesus, may we be like children in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Lent - Day 29
Mark 10:17-31
What must I do to inherit eternal life?

Here’s the trap, simply keeping the commandments and checking boxes will lead to a false sense of security, as if God owes us something.

What Mark is making clear here is that the demand of discipleship to Jesus go far beyond checking boxes and doing the bare minimum. The ultimate test of obedience is a willingness to be a disciple of Jesus.

Todays Prayer
Jesus, may we not do the bare minimum, but may we choose to follow you.

Lent - Day 31
Mark 10:32-45

Take your seat.

When we follow Jesus, we don’t sit in seats of prominence and power.

We follow Jesus, we sit in seats of service to those around us.

This is the most important verse in the entire gospel, memorize it, teach it to your children, remember it. This is who Jesus is:

“For the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Verse 45)


Todays Prayer
Jesus, may we follow you and sit in the places that nobody wants to sit.

Lent - Day 32
Mark 10:46-52

Be like Bartimaeus

So often we want to follow Jesus but we don’t know how. We can learn to take the first steps in the discipleship journey by looking at Bartimaeus and the 8 things he does to begin his discipleship journey with Jesus:

1. Cry out to Jesus, He’s the only one who can save you.
2. Don’t worry about who’s around you and what they think, keep calling out to Christ.
3. Do you know who you’re calling out to? It’s the Messiah, the anointed one, the Son of David.
4. Do you realize Jesus doesn’t owe you anything, are you asking for mercy?
5. Are you jumping at every opportunity to be in the presence of Christ?
6. Can you ask Jesus plainly and directly what it is that you need?
7. Are you putting your faith in the right place? Is it faith in a miracle or faith in Christ?
8. Are you satisfied to be blessed and return to your ordinary life? Or are you willing to follow Jesus down the hard road of discipleship?

You can do these 8 things, just like Bartimaeus!

Todays Prayer
Jesus, may we be like Bartimaeus.

Lent - Day 33
Psalm 119

Stick and Stones may break my bones…

Words are incredibly important, Jesus finds himself speaking to large crowds all the time. He uses His words to communicate the realities of the Kingdom of God.

God continues to speak to us through His Word, scripture, the Holy Bible.

Reading Psalm 119 is one of the very best ways to let the Word of God speak to you and transform you.


Todays Prayer
God would you transform us through Your Word.

Lent - Day 34
Mark 11:12-26

Mark and his literary intercalation or sandwich technique.

The fig tree that bares no fruit is cursed

- The story is interrupted by a the temple, which also bares no fruit.

Jesus returns to to fig tree and it has withered to the root.

The temple was a place of hope for not just the Jews but all nations and instead of being a place of sacrifice and forgiveness it has turned into a den of robbers.

Jesus is the embodiment of what the temple should be.

Todays Prayer
Jesus, may you uproot the places in our life that bare no fruit.

Lent - Day 35
Mark 12:1-17

It is story time.

To better understand this parable we have to understand Isaiah 5

In this parable the wicked tenants are not just bad tenants but they are trying to be bad owners. The vineyard is not ours to own, it is God’s business to own the vineyard.

Todays Prayer
Jesus, would we realize that we are not owners of the Kingdom of Heaven, we are workers.

Lent - Day 36
Mark 12:18-27

You are badly mistaken.

Underlying this entire discussion with the Sadducees is the idea of the profound belief in the power of God, God’s ability to even overcome death or summon the dead back to life.

“Jesus accuses the Sadducees not just of misunderstanding scripture but of a failure of nerve, a failure to believe in a God whose yes to life is louder than Death’s no.”

(The Gospel of Mark: A socio-rhetorical Commentary, Ben Witherington)

Todays Prayer
Jesus, show me where I am badly mistaken.

Lent - Day 37
Mark 13 (Specifically verses 9-11)

Take a seat - We have to sit with Jesus on the Mount of Olives to truly understand what it means to be His disciple.

Jesus predicts the fall of the Temple and He warns the disciples to be on guard, they will be tried by the council, flogged, interrogated by kings and ministers. But they must procain the Gospel, the Good News must be spoken throughout every corner of the earth.

We have to understand this, because it is true for those of us following Jesus today. Do not be deceived, there is a tremendous cost on this earth to following Jesus.

Todays Prayer
Jesus, help us understand the cost of following you.

Lent - Day 38
Mark 12:28-34

“Love God and Love your Neighbor”

This response from Jesus is very famous and well known but it has been highjacked. We try to love our neighbors without loving God or even knowing God.

In order to love our neighbors we have to learn how to love God and we know God by knowing Jesus and we know His love for us by knowing the Cross.


Todays Prayer
Would we know you, Jesus, with all of our heart, with all of our soul, with all of our mind, and with all of our strength

Lent - Day 39
Mark 12:41-44

Is your Relationship with God transactionary or Transformational?

“But she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”

Do you give out of obligation or do you give because you have been so greatly saved by the grace of Jesus Christ?

Todays Prayer
Jesus, may our relationship with you not be transactionary, but may it be Transformational.

Lent - Day 40
Mark 11:1-11

Hosanna - To urgently save

Jesus doesn’t come to save us from governing powers, from problems in our lives, He comes to save us from sin.

When we cry ”Hosanna” may we understand that the salvation of Christ is salvation from sin in the world and it starts in our own hearts.

Todays Prayer
Jesus, Hosanna!

Holy Week - Monday
Mark 14:3-9

“Wherever the message is announced in all the world,” he says (verse 9) “the story of what she has just done will be told. That will be her memorial.”

The message is the “Good News”, the Gospel. Jesus is the Messiah the anointed one, the King, King of Israel and King of the World. James and John wanted to sit on Jesus’ right and left in his glory, Mary, acting in selfless generosity, is promised something better, an honored place in the story, as long as the world hears the gospel, there she is.

Service rendered to Jesus is part of the Greatest Commandment, it’s a matter of getting the priorities straightened out.


Todays Prayer
Jesus, may we love you with an extravagant overflow in our lives.

Holy Week - Tuesday
Mark 14:32-51

Grace in Gethsemane

Think about the journey we’ve been on, Jesus has preached the Good News, He has healed the sick, given sight to the blind, opened the ears of the deaf. Now…

“The time has come”

“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Grace is the event of salvation, it is the cross.

Todays Prayer
Jesus, not my will but yours be done.

Holy Week - Wednesday
Mark 14:53-65

The religious leaders are grasping at straws trying to build a case against Jesus, trying to protect their power and all Jesus does is give them Truth in return.

What’s inside of you?

Todays Prayer
Jesus, would you show us what is in our hearts.

Holy Week - Maundy Thursday
Mark 14:12-26

The meal of all meals, Jesus uses the Passover meal to show his disciples one last time who He is and what He is here to do.

Todays Prayer
Jesus, would we never forget this meal.

Holy Week - Good Friday
Mark 15

King of the Jews

In the darkest, bleakest places where the world looks upside-down in our life, we have to remember there is hope on the other side.

Read Psalm 22 and remember that Good Friday is not the end of the story.

Todays Prayer
Jesus, you are King of the Jews and You are King of my life

Holy Week - Holy Saturday
Mark 15:41-47

And now we WAIT.

On Holy Saturday we are forced to wait. We don’t like to wait on Holy Saturday, we want to get to Easter Sunday, but in order to fully understand Easter we have to wait on Saturday. We let the event of the Cross of Good Friday penetrate deep inside our bones so we can truly understand the miracle of Easter.

On Saturday we wait.

Todays Prayer
Jesus, meet me in my waiting.

Easter Sunday
Mark 16

“Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.” (Mark 16:8)

He Has Risen. Jesus died to save you and to change you.

Todays Prayer
May the Grace of Jesus Christ cause you to tremble and that it would change you.

Now What?
Mark 16:9-20

There’s more to the story. While we don’t know exactly how the Gospel of Mark ends, we know one thing for sure, the story is not over. Jesus’ mission continues and it continues through us. We have to keep believing, Jesus is who he says he is and we fight to believe it every day for the rest of our lives.

Todays Prayer
Don’t stop believing.