Mark Devotionals

Go to Mark 12:41-44

[Please read and meditate on the passage before (or after) reading the devotion.]

I love the fourth verse of the Christmas carol “In the Bleak Midwinter”: What can I give him, poor as I am? If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb; if I were a Wise Man, I would do my part; yet what I can, I give him: give my heart. The attitude is reflective of the widow’s – she gave with her whole heart. Jesus showed the disciples what really pleased the heart of God – it wasn’t the “bigness” of the gifts that are given to him. And usually they were either the surplus of one’s possessions, or a very small percentage of it – what one could “spare”. What Jesus saw was the actual “smallness” (in God’s eyes) of those huge amounts of money the rich gave; and the “bigness” of that widow’s almost negligible amount – because it just wasn’t her giving everything she had, she had given all of herself. I wonder, how will you give to God?

Prayer: Lord Jesus, you remind me again and again that you did not keep back any of yourself; when you gave, you gave yourself completely, without holding back. How could you be sure that I was/am a “worthy investment”? But that didn’t matter to you, did it Lord? You gave yourself because you loved me, whether or not I would love you in return. Forgive me for my distracted, half-hearted worship. Lord, I give you my heart, soul, mind… everything, especially during difficult time. Amen.

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 Mark Devotionals

Go to Mark 12:35-40

[Please read and meditate on the passage before (or after) reading the devotion]

It is Jesus’ turn now to be the one who asks the questions of those so-called religious teachers. Did they really know and understand who this “Messiah” that they were expecting was? Did they really think him to be a human descendant of David, or was he somebody much, much more? I think we can understand what Jesus was trying to say in this way: The way we behave (act) as followers of Jesus is proportional to the way we actually perceive how great and awesome Jesus is. If our perception of Jesus is small then our behavior is likewise small minded. Like the religious teachers’ perception of the Messiah was small – they thought he would be a human descendant of David. They definitely didn’t believe he would be divine (as Jesus was). And so their behavior was likewise so much less than divine – they craved attention and took advantage of the weak; what earthly leaders often tend to do. The person who knows (and experiences) Jesus as He truly is – awesome, almighty, amazing – will behave in like manner. Their thoughts, desires, actions will be far higher and more meaningful than those religious teachers in Jesus’ day. In fact it is such people who are witnesses for Christ, and bring Him pleasure. How big is your perception of your Jesus?

Prayer: Lord Jesus, forgive me for often perceiving you as no greater than a remarkable human. But you are much more than that. You are God; awesome, almighty, glorious. And you have given me the privilege of calling myself your child – a child of the King! I want to represent you in every way O Lord. Teach me to act worthy of my Parentage. I want my desires, thoughts, actions/behavior to show that I belong to a Great God – the God who loves unconditionally, who acts on behalf of the voice-less, who identifies Himself with the marginalized and out-caste, who forgives again, and again, and again… Amen.

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Mark Devotionals

Go to Mark 12:28-34

[Please read and meditate on the passage before (or after) reading the devotion.]

Reminder: There will be no daily devotion tomorrow, Sunday. Hopefully most of you will be in a House of Worship listening to God yourselves. Go prepared with open hearts, though!

What really is this “Great Commandment”? We know it as “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” Jesus went on to say, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” But he wasn’t asking us to make a priority list. We as humans love to “mechanize” our lives with check-lists and priorities so that we can check them off one at a time with a sense of satisfaction, “Done! Now for the next thing…” However Jesus did mean love God with… all of ourselves – our desires, thoughts, actions, relationships… So where does church, family, job, pleasure and all those wonderful things that He has given us fit in? And that’s just the point. I believe we are to love our God more than any of them (he once even said we need to “hate” our family, if we were to follow him – obviously an exaggeration/hyperbole; cf. Luke 14:26). Thus there would be times we would love our families as an expression of loving Him. There would be other times when our love for God’s people (church) would be that expression – even to the apparent detriment to our families. Jesus does not want us to compartmentalize our loves, our lives; instead our lives need to be grace-filled by his Love. How do I know when to love whom as an expression of my love of God? I believe it keeps changing (that’s how Grace works!); but I would think He would show that too. And some of it is obvious – like when I have to go to work, or when my child has a fever, or when there’s a fire in the neighbor’s house…

Prayer: Lord, forgive me for choosing the easy way and loving you with only that part of me that seems convenient. Your love was not partial. Thank you Jesus, that when Scripture says you loved us, you gave all of yourself for us, to us. May I do the same to you. Amen.

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 Mark Devotionals

Go to Mark 12:18-27

[Please read and meditate on the passage before (or after) reading the devotion.]

The Sadducees, a Jewish religious sect that did not believe in the resurrection of the dead, came to Jesus with their trick question. What they described was known as Levirate marriage, where a son-less dead man’s family name would be carried on by his widow marrying his younger brother and having a son by him. The Sadducees theoretical question was meant to put Jesus in knots, but as usual Jesus didn’t just “floor” them, he went to the heart of their own problem of misunderstanding and disbelief. Jesus replied, “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?” (v.24) But I think that’s true about many of our own questions, doubts, misgivings, impatience with God. Do we really know the Scriptures? Do we really know the power of God? If Scripture is all about God saying, “This is who I am – know about me; know me;” if through Scripture and circumstances God has been trying again and again to show us that He works His power on our behalf, for His children’s good… could it be that it is we who are deaf…and blind?

Prayer: Lord, have I been deaf to your voice, blind to your mighty acts of love? Your Word does say “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31) Why then do I question your love so often? Forgive me Jesus, if I have neglected your Word, and that neglect has let to ignorance. And that ignorance has led to deafness. It is even possible that that neglect has blinded me to your acts of love because I have been so taken up by the world. Forgive me, Lord. I know deep within me that every promise in your Word is true. Please teach me so that I can see past my own walls to your face of love. Amen.

 Mark Devotionals

Go to Mark 12:13-17

[Please read and meditate on the passage before (or after) reading the devotion.]

I wish I could be so wise in giving people such replies when they try to trap me. But Jesus wasn’t trying to be clever when he answered, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” Sure, that strange but convenient alliance of the super-religious and the pro-establishment was out to trap Jesus with their trick question of who to pay taxes to. The super-religious would emphasize giving only to the Temple (and thereby to the Jewish nation), and denying Rome; the pro-establishment would say just the opposite in order to keep the status quo (and peace with Rome). But for Jesus it wasn’t a case of just fulfilling your duties or the Law. It never is for God (more later in verses 30 & 31). The deeper question is: How do you see yourself and your possessions in relation to the world, and in relation to God? Yes, to be part of the world we need to fulfill our responsibility to society. But we can best do that by first fulfilling our responsibility to God. And what do you think that is? (Does yesterday’s devotion give a hint?)

Prayer: Father, I remember reading in Proverbs 9:10 that “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” You really don’t want me to show the world that I belong to you by giving people clever answers to their (cunning) questions, do you, Lord. Help me to be a witness to them by my genuine (authentic) devotion to you in all that I am (my identity), and through all that I have (my possessions). I know that only by doing this will I reveal my love, respect, and awe of you, and strangely I will also want to fulfill my responsibility to the society I live in – for your sake! Teach me, change me, and work through me, my Savior, Lord, and Holy One. Amen.

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 Mark Devotionals

Go to Mark 11:27-33

[Please read and meditate on the passage before (or after) reading the devotion.]

Jesus is back in the Temple courts. The Jewish hierarchy comes challenging him to prove the authority with which he cleared the Temple courts (and maybe the royal, Messianic way he entered Jerusalem). Jesus turns the question on to them by asking them about how they viewed (the now dead) John the Baptist’s authority – was John’s authority human-initiated or divine? In refusing to give an honest answer, the Jewish leaders did what a lot of us do – and end up being the losers for it. They allowed their prejudice to blind their senses to the very blessing they had yearned for so long – the Presence of the Messiah! It’s what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4:4, “The god of age has blinded the mind of the unbeliever…” And all because Jesus did not fit their image of Messiahship; they missed the blessing. What about you?

Prayer: Forgive me Lord when I let my prejudices and personal preferences blind me to the times you pass me by or even stand in front of me – and I don’t see you! I do want to see you clearly Lord, so I shed all that hinders me from doing so. Open my eyes that I may see… You. In the beauty of your holiness. Amen.

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 Mark Devotionals

Go to Mark 11:15-19

[Please read and meditate on the passage before (or after) reading the devotion.]

Reminder: There will be no daily devotion tomorrow, Sunday. Hopefully most of you will be in a House of Worship listening to God yourselves. Go prepared with open hearts, though!

A lot of emphasis has been put on Jesus’ clearing the temple because of what he saw happening there. There were booths set up to change the commonly used Roman money into the Jewish/Temple money required for offering. There were also sales of sacrificial animals/birds for those who came without them. But I believe Jesus’ focus was on what was not happening in the Temple – prayer! Hence his quoting from Isaiah, “My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations…” I wonder how passionate we are for our church(es) to be primarily known as a “house of prayer” – and consequently we be known as “people of prayer”. What Jesus did by disrupting the “business proceedings” in a house of worship was more than a “clean-up” job; (after all they would have come back the next day!). Jesus was prophetically showing what would happen to a worship place that did not manifest, or live out its primary reason for existing – worship, and prayer! Are we mindful of this?

Prayer: Father, you have often reminded me of the promise you gave Solomon and the Israelites when they dedicated the Temple: “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14). I know it’s not the same for us; yet the challenge is similar for us as well: we who have beautifully created structures we call churches. We too are called to use our “holy” structures for prayer – so that grace would flood down on us and from us to a world of need outside. Give us a passion to be a people of prayer so that your house will be known primarily as a “house of prayer for all nations”. Amen.

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 Mark Devotionals

Go to Mark 11:1-11

[Please read and meditate on the passage before (or after) reading the devotion.]

Jesus went to unusual detail about the way he would ride into Jerusalem in that final week of his human life by sending 2 disciples to procure a specific mode of transportation. Thus when he rode into Jerusalem he was intentionally fulfilling the Messianic symbolism of Zechariah 9:9, “Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” Jesus wanted people to know that he had no doubt about who he was (the Messiah), and what his (divine) purpose was (deliverance). True, everybody misunderstood both, trying to make him fit into what they wanted of him. But Jesus knew. What about you? Do you really know who you are? Do you know your divine purpose?

Prayer: Lord, I know you created me in a very special way (Psalm 139:13-14). Added to that there must be also some deeper reason why you redeemed me, saved me for yourself. Yet I am not always sure about who I am. Sure Lord, I know my name, my family; but sometimes I believe things and behave in ways that make me a stranger even to myself. I live my life without any higher purpose. Reveal to me O Lord the person that you want me to be. Show me your purpose in living that transforms not just me, but also touches every other person I meet in a positive (Godly) way. I want my choices to be meaningful because of what you are doing in my life. Amen.

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 Mark Devotionals

Go to Mark 10:46-52

[Please do read the passage before (or after) reading the devotion.]

“Your faith has healed you.” We sometimes think that means we need to have “x units” (or some God-calculated quantity) of faith in order to make things happen for us. But the Bible is clear about the fact that nothing we can do makes things work in our favor. Grace means that it is all God’s initiative, all His work; and He does it purely based on His love for us, and not on what have done/can do for Him. So what about blind Bartimaeus? I believe Jesus did heal him by his power, because of his love for him. But Jesus also wanted Bartimaeus to desire something he could not do himself, which only God (Jesus) could do for/to him. In a way, that is faith, because it is desiring the impossible from the only One that can make it happen. However, will God give us every impossible, faith-filled desire, like he did Bartimaeus’? Not necessarily. But with each of those desires comes a dependency on a loving God who surely reciprocates with a love that meets us at the point of our need, even if not always in the way we want.

Prayer: Lord, give me the faith to keep desiring the best that you have in store for me. I know that I may not always get what I want. But the more I desire from you, the more I will learn to depend on you for what is best for my life. I know you are a God of love. Your giving of Jesus for me shows me that if you did not spare your only Son, you will surely not hold back anything else that is good for me. So I will keep desiring of you, and asking you, my Lord, because only you have what I really need. And if I have to learn to wait, give the patience to be faithful even in the waiting. Amen.

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