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By Mark Chapter 2 people are saying - "We have never seen anything like this."

There are some thirty healings in the Gospel of Mark. This is the beginning of a journey for these disciples who are to become so involved with this Good News. When Jesus called James and John to leave their father and follow Him, remember Jesus had already left His Father. In Mark Chapter 1 verses 35 to 38, Jesus is up early and praying, and when He hears of the crowds He refused to enjoy this moment of popularity. He had to move on elsewhere. There was work to be done. There was a message of Good News and joy and healing to be shared in a wider way. Jesus knew why He had come into this world, and neither the enemy in the desert, nor appreciative crowds, were going to hinder and limit and restrict His ministry. Jesus always looked for the quality of the response rather the quantity of the response. Jesus spent 18 years in a carpenter's workshop, and only three preaching and teaching. This should teach us much when we think we are being limited and restricted in some way. Jesus begins His public ministry when John is put in prison. John had been getting people ready for the coming of Jesus. John had done what he could, and now Jesus starts. Jesus began in Galilee. It was where Jesus lived. Everybody would have known Jesus. Galilee was on the road to so many other nations. It was a busy area at that time. It was a crossroads. The junction was at a place called Megiddo, not far from Nazareth. Winston Churchill thought there would be a key battle there as the Second World War drew to a close - no - but one day there will be a key battle there. We see a pattern of Jesus ministry - physical needs and mental needs and spiritual needs. Jesus sought to meet the needs of people. Jesus had grace and power to meet every need. Jesus began with preaching, and Jesus preached about repentance and forgiveness. Jesus went for the most important issue. All the suffering and pain of this world is called by sin, and Jesus came wanting to free people who had been bound and chained and imprisoned by an enemy. People had been waiting to be set free, and now God had come to set people free. When? Now! The time is right and the time is ripe. Jesus comes preaching about the kingdom of God. The kingdom then was ruled by a ruler - by someone in charge of an area. If you were under the power of a king, you were under his control. Wherever God's power reaches, and is in control, that is where the kingdom of God is. This King has power over disease and fear and worry and sin. The kingdom was breaking into a world that knew nothing but darkness and suffering and fear and worry and sickness and we hear these words of Jesus in verse 15. Jesus said - Repent - turn from your sin - whatever it might be. Some sins are 'obvious' - some are not so obvious - bad temper - jealousy - worry, and bad anger - and Jesus is more than able to deal with other matters too. Repent means to change your mind. Believe - believe is the opposite of seeing. 'Seeing is believing' is not true. Mark then tells us that Jesus called disciples. Jesus called men to be partners in His ministry and these men were going to spend three years with Jesus. This was the beginning of the Church, and it has lasted two thousand years. It is so simple - with fisherman by a lakeside. Notice the response. At once - immediately - they left their nets. They were young inexperienced men, with no formal education. They were ordinary people - and like Joseph in Nazareth, they were to have extraordinary lives. Everything these men were to become was because of Jesus Christ.

"Chip Shots from the Ruff of Life" from Tom Kelley

What I Drive

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