Bible League: Living His Word Jesus said, "Go. You are healed because you believed."— Mark 10:52 ERV We need to get up and go. There are things we need to do and places we need to visit. Life should move forward. Standing still is not a viable option, and going back is even worse. Moving into the future should be moving forward into the new, the different, and the good, but moving into the same old thing can happen. Stagnation and reversal are not impossibilities. If we are to move forward, then we need to break free from the past. We need to break free from everything that holds us back from flourishing in the future. The trouble is that there is an enemy that wants to hold us back. Satan wants to keep us locked up in the old, the same, and the bad. He wants us to stay stuck in sickness, spiritual blindness, financial failure, social woe, marital collapse, and any other trap his evil mind can conceive to keep us from moving forward in blessing. Like Bartimaeus, the beggar to whom Jesus spoke the words of our verse for today, we need to find the key that will unlock our futures. Bartimaeus was trapped in blindness (Mark 10:46). He couldn't do what needed to be done. He couldn't go where he needed to go. But when Jesus showed up, he knew he had found what was needed. He knew that Jesus was the key that could set him free from Satan's traps. So, he cried out, "Jesus, Son of David, please help me" (Mark 10:47)! He had faith that Jesus would set him free. He didn't listen to those who wanted him to be quiet. His faith made him shout even louder (Mark 10:48). Indeed, his faith in Jesus set him free. That's when Jesus told him to "Go." That's when Jesus released him into his future. We need to move forward like him. We also need to cry out, "Jesus, Son of David, please help me!" When we do, our faith in Jesus will set us free, our faith will open up a future full of promise. Then, with that future there before us, just like He told Bartimaeus, Jesus will tell us to "Go." Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingPsalm 68, 69 Psalm 68 -- Let God arise! Let his enemies be scattered! NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Psalm 69 -- Save me, God, for the waters have come up to my neck! NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading Romans 3 Romans 3 -- All Have Sinned and are Justified by faith NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion He took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this to remember me.”Insight Jesus asked the disciples to eat the broken bread “to remember me.” He wanted them to remember his sacrifice, the basis for forgiveness of sins, and also his friendship that they could continue to enjoy through the work of the Holy Spirit. Although the exact meaning of Communion has been strongly debated throughout church history, Christians still take bread and wine in remembrance of their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Challenge Do not neglect participating in the Lord's Supper. Let it remind you of what Christ did for you. Morning and Evening by Spurgeon Ephesians 1:11 Who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.Our belief in God's wisdom supposes and necessitates that he has a settled purpose and plan in the work of salvation. What would creation have been without his design? Is there a fish in the sea, or a fowl in the air, which was left to chance for its formation? Nay, in every bone, joint, and muscle, sinew, gland, and blood-vessel, you mark the presence of a God working everything according to the design of infinite wisdom. And shall God be present in creation, ruling over all, and not in grace? Shall the new creation have the fickle genius of free will to preside over it when divine counsel rules the old creation? Look at Providence! Who knoweth not that not a sparrow falleth to the ground without your Father? Even the hairs of your head are all numbered. God weighs the mountains of our grief in scales, and the hills of our tribulation in balances. And shall there be a God in providence and not in grace? Shall the shell be ordained by wisdom and the kernel be left to blind chance? No; he knows the end from the beginning. He sees in its appointed place, not merely the corner-stone which he has laid in fair colours, in the blood of his dear Son, but he beholds in their ordained position each of the chosen stones taken out of the quarry of nature, and polished by his grace; he sees the whole from corner to cornice, from base to roof, from foundation to pinnacle. He hath in his mind a clear knowledge of every stone which shall be laid in its prepared space, and how vast the edifice shall be, and when the top-stone shall be brought forth with shoutings of "Grace! Grace! unto it." At the last it shall be clearly seen that in every chosen vessel of mercy, Jehovah did as he willed with his own; and that in every part of the work of grace he accomplished his purpose, and glorified his own name. Daily Light on the Daily Path Revelation 13:8 All who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain.Exodus 12:5-7,13 'Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. • 'You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight. • 'Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. • The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live; and when I see the blood I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. Hebrews 12:24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel. 1 Corinthians 5:7 Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. Acts 2:23 this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. 2 Timothy 1:9 who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity, Ephesians 1:7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace 1 Peter 4:1,2 Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, • so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit http://www.lockman.org. |
    |