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A Boat with No Oars
Collage by Beth A. Richardson It has been a year since our lives were upended by Read More
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Melissa Earley | Read Mark 3:20-30
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Sign Up TodayA friend of mine and I are going skydiving to celebrate our birthdays—his fiftieth and my forty-ninth. We will put on parachutes, be strapped to an experienced diver, get on an airplane, fly up to fourteen thousand feet, and then launch ourselves out into thin air. We will free-fall for...
God, whose voice was heard through prophets we today would call crazy; whose love was made visible in Jesus of Nazareth, a man whose own family suspected he was not right in the head, set us free from the need to conform to our community, to our context, and to our generation so that we may go a little crazy in love with those you love. Amen.
We sometimes struggle to believe in the power of a God we cannot see. The psalmist declares that God is greater than any earthly king and will preserve us in the face of our enemies. However, in the time of Samuel, the Israelites demanded a human king to lead them into battle, as other nations had. God was not enough for them. Paul admonishes the Corinthians not to repeat this mistake. We should not think that what we can see is the ultimate reality. What we see is temporary; what cannot be seen is eternal. Perhaps Jesus is teaching a similar idea in this somewhat troubling passage in Mark. Jesus is not against family, but he is emphasizing that human families are temporary; spiritual family is eternal.
• Read 1 Samuel 8:4-20. How influenced by culture and neigh-
bors are you? How do you attempt to keep your priorities aligned with God’s reign?
• Read Psalm 138. How do you evaluate the “gods” in your life? How do you recognize when those gods have gained control of your life?
• Read 2 Corinthians 4:13–5:1. When life’s circumstances over-
whelm you, how do you avoid losing heart?
• Read Mark 3:20-35. Who is your spiritual family? Whom do you identify as your brothers, sisters, mother and father?
Respond by posting a prayer.
Seeing young people, both men and women, participate in and write their testimonies at The Upper Room daily devotional writers’ workshop in Yangon, 2019, has been a highlight for me. The event and testimonies led to the publication of the first Lenten devotional in the Myanmar language. I truly believe that through The Upper Room ministry, the Lord will continue to equip people in Myanmar to grow and to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
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