Monday Morning Bible Study on the Gospel of Mark 9:19-24
Easter Blessings and Peace be with you today and every day.
This weekend we have a free movie at 2pm on Saturday. This is a first run movie which is great for kids and adults. Bring a snack or use the ones which we provide. I hope to see you there. Please continue to pray for Katie who was lost in the desert for five days and is now in intensive care as doctors work to help her body to recover from extreme loss of fluids. I thank God for your prayers for her. As our children in high school prepare for Prom, pray for them to be wise in their choices, and that they may be brought safely home at the end of this big evening in their lives. And please continue to pray for cancer victims, Jeff and Kandice. Their doctors, though 1000s of miles apart, have said that their treatments are at best, difficult.
Today we have another recounting of what happened when Jesus came off the Mount of Transfiguration, and back into His daily life, which included the 24/7 teaching and healing, and the crowding that happened every time he was in public situations. This time when Christ arrives, He is confronted by the father of a child who suffered from a serious seizure disorder. According to Mark the cause was a spirit. What really bums Jesus out, is that His disciples have, in His absence, been unsuccessful in curing this child whose body is possessed. We know exactly what He is thinking too. Not only are the people lacking enough faith to allow for the power of healing to cure this boy, but the disciples themselves have failed in their attempt to bring healing to the boy, the faith of the boy's father has faltered too, and it failed, in all likelihood, due to the disappointment of the disciples, and the resulting loss of faith of the boy's father in that failure. After His mountain top experience, Jesus, had chosen with determination that will now take Him to Jerusalem. His faith is humble and pure, but the people, these people, are in a wholly difference place in their faith, or lack of faith. Christ is still not yet fully planted in their shaken hearts, they continue to look often for the affirmation for which the world looks for, proof. For these folks, faith alone will never be enough. We can hear the frustration, anger, and disappointment in Christ's Words. But now there is a young boy in front of him, and the wavering faith of his father, whose confidence in Christ has been shaken by the failure of the disciples. In this passage, Christ is called back into the world of people. This is no mountain top experience. It is here that Christ's compassion and power are restored. Though He is headed to His end on the cross, Christ now steps back to what He has done so well. He speaks His words of healing, and the power of illness that is in the boy is sent away. This is not only healing for the boy, but also healing and faith bringing for the boy's father, for the disciples, for those who have come running when Jesus has come down from the Mount, and dare I say it, for Jesus Himself.
With all of this taking place, Jesus offers His Truth for all of us. "All things are possible for the one who believes." On the other end of the spectrum, "All things are possible with God, yet through lack of faith, we most often see them as impossible, and like the boy's father after the failure of the disciples, he is no longer certain of the healing that is possible, yet in the view of the world, impossible! You and I often end up in the middle of this. Let's take our prayers for Katie to be found, but as the days passed, we grew more certain that God's answer would not be what we wanted, but what was likely from way we, and the world, experience this kind of getting lost in our desert. And yet, the miracle of the answer to our prayers offered in faith for Katie's salvation and being found, was granted. It was in our faith that the impossible became the possible. Lord, we do believe, but help our unbelief. With God, all things are possible!
Pray Unceasingly every day for every situation. In Christ's love, Pastor Kim
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