Bible study ‘Gospel of Mark’ – Chapter 16

Bible study ‘Gospel of Mark’ – Chapter 16

Dear brothers and sisters,

First of all I want to thank your for following this Bible study on the Gospel of Mark. Today I will be talking on the last chapter of this book. I myself have enjoyed this study and also loved the secrets and lessons God has learned me through the course of this Bible study. 

Before reading this Bible study please first pray God for guidance and wisdom. And also read this chapter in your Bible.

This chapter is about the the resurrection

After the Sabbat we see three persons (Maria Magdalene, Maria the mother of Jesus, and Salome) buying spices to anoint the body of Jesus. It wasn’t any of the disciples that went to the grave of Jesus, but these three. I believe Jesus has blessed them for not forgetting Him after He died and still wanted to anoint Him.

However, when they came near the grave they were shocked to see the big rock moved from the entrance from the grave. And before it they saw a young man sitting (this will have been an angel). This angel told them fantastic news that Jesus was no longer dead, but he has risen from the dead! Our earthly dead is not the end of us, because we (our soul) will be living in heaven! This angel asked them to check the grave. Why? To make sure that they would become witness to Jesus no longer being death, but has risen! I believe made sure that His disciples but these three where the first eyewitnesses to his resurrection, because the authorities could easily claim that the disciples would have removed His body to pretend that He was risen. God wanted no such lie to even have any chance of being possible, so the first eyewitnesses where not the disciples.

The three did not immediately go, because they were afraid. So Jesus decided to show Himself to Maria Magdalena so that she knew for sure that Jesus has risen again! And He did not only showed Himself to her, but also (in another appearance – because Jesus is always with us, but we will not always recognize Him if we do not learn to look for Him) to 2 others. When Maria Magdalena gave account the disciples did not even believe her. Being a Christian or in their case a disciple does not always mean that we have the best of faith. So we really need Gods help in building our faith!

In the end Jesus went to the 11 disciples (the original 12 without Judas Iskariot) and rebuked them for their unbelief. After rebuking them however He sent them on their work for God. In the following verses He explains their work they had to do. And God also expects this from us! We cannot be Christians and not share the gospel with others!

15 He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18 they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.” 19 After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God. 20 Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.

God bless you that You have chosen us to help you share Your word and enable other to hear from You. 

The following Bible study will be on the Gospel of Matthew

God bless you all!

Bible study ‘Gospel of Mark’ – Chapter 14

Bible study ‘Gospel of Mark’ – Chapter 14

Dear brothers and sisters,

Welcome to the Bible study on the Gospel of Mark. This week we are reading on chapter 14. Before continuing I ask you to pray God for guidance, wisdom and understanding. And also first read chapter 14 in your Bible.

In this chapter the following stories are told by Mark:

• Jesus anointed at Bethany
• The Lord’s supper
• Jesus predicts Peter’s  denial
• Gethsemane
• Jesus arrested
• Before the Sanhedrin
• Peter disowns Jesus

Jesus anointed at Bethany

Jesus and His disciples were in Bethany in the house of a man called Simon the leper. In this house a woman came in that used perfume to anoint Him. See the difference in reaction between Jesus and His disciples. The disciples and other people around Him only can think of the monetary value of the perfume used. They saw the anointing of Jesus by this woman as sort of a waste. But Jesus shows her a lot of respect and honor for her anointing Him (so close before He would die). Jesus respected her action so much, because she was using her very expensive not to earn some money, but to show respect to Jesus. Jesus wants us to give our best to Him and to His honor. Don’t look how you can make some money or fame in this world, but look how we can honor God and Jesus. And for deed she will forever be reminded in the Bible. This part ends with Judas leaving the group and selling out Jesus to the chief priest.

The Lord’s supper

The location of the supper (during the Feast of Unleavened Bread) on the 1st evening was not yet know in the morning. Then Jesus let them exactly know how they would find the suitable location. He gave the disciples very specific directions on how to find it. And because they showed full faith in His directions, the location was realized. This shows that when God tells us something that we should follow it precisely, because God knows precisely how things will go and need to go.

During the supper that evening Jesus told to His disciples that one of them would betray them. This shocked them very much and everybody was there to deny that it would be them that would betray Jesus. Then Jesus took the time to break the bread and gave it to the disciples and told them this bread signifies his body. Then He took a cup of wine and told them this was the blood of His covenant. Then Jesus went out to the mount of Olives.

Jesus predicts Peter’s denial

Jesus know informs the disciples that they will fall away from Him. He lets them know that it was written, but that they will be together after He has risen. Peter like all the others is sure that He will not fall away, but Jesus tells Him that he will deny Him three times before the next day.

Gethsemane

Jesus went to Gethsemane in His most difficult moment here on earth. He took Peter, James and John with Him and let them know it was a very difficult moment. He asked them to stay waiting and wait for Jesus to return. Jesus went to pray and ask God to let this difficult moment of death pass Him. But in prayer He knew and told that He would do Gods will. But what we see here is that the disciples did not stay awake but fell asleep more then 1 time instead of being there for Jesus. This shows that in the most difficult moment we should rely on God solely, because we never know until which extent we can be there for one another.

When He woke them up the third time Jesus told them that the betrayer was coming. And indeed Judas showed up with the guards.

Jesus arrested

When standing before the crowd Judas came towards Jesus and kissed Him on the forehead as a sign for the guards this was Jesus. This guards came with armor and their swords … to capture (the unarmed) Jesus! When they tried to arrest Jesus, one of His followers sliced of the ear from one of the guards.

Then Jesus asks them why they did not arrest Him in the courtyard of the temple where He had been so many times – I believe to confront them with their own sin and fears. In the end Jesus let them because as is written in the scriptures, this had to happen.

Before the sanhedrin

Before the high priests they were doing their best to find proof against Him, so that they could judge Him, but they couldn’t with all the fake testimonies and lies they brought forth. At some point they asked Him if He was the Son of the Blessed one and He confirmed that question. This was blasphemy for them and that was enough for them to convict Him.

This is a real example how cowardice the devil is, to let them arrest and falsely convict Him in the dark / in the middle of the night. Because they also know that the daylight could not bear their actions. After the conviction they attacked/hurt Him and also insulted Him. This is a very painful part of the gospel, to see the people reject Jesus (the one that was sent to save us all!)

Peter disowns Jesus

As Jesus told Peter, Peter would deny Jesus 3 times before the rooster would crowed three times. This part shows that following Jesus is not always going to be easy, and that it takes a lot (being close to God) to not falter in the moment of major opposition against our faith. I pray that God will keep us strong as we move more and more closer to the end of the times.

God bless you!

 

Bible study ‘Gospel of Mark’ – Chapter 12

Bible study ‘Gospel of Mark’ – Chapter 12

Dear brothers and sisters,

After a busy week of birthdays in the family (in 12 days time we celebrated the birthdays of my oldest and youngest son and min). So my wife and daughter finally have some rest. Well almost as on the 6th of August God has blessed us with our 3th wedding anniversary. I am so blessed with my wife and children … I love them very much!

Thanks again for reading this Bible study on the Gospel of Mark. We are now in chapter 12 and I pray again that God will guide us through this chapter and Bible study. I ask you before reading this study first to pray to God for guiding you and showing you whatever He needs you to know and then to read the chapter. This will help you to even get more benefit out of this Bible study.

In this chapter Mark tells the following stories:

• The parable of the tenants
• Paying taxes to Caesar
• Marriage at the Resurrection
• The greatest commandment
• Whose Son is the Christ
• The widow’s offering

The parable of the tenants

This parable was one that the Pharisees did not like at all and it was one more reason to plot an arrest against Him. Why? Because they understood very well that Jesus was (also) referring to them in this parable. But I believe it was not only mentioned for the Pharisees back then, but is just as applicable for us now. God has given us all a very blessed life and all the fruits we need, but we should be very aware that God gave us that life to life for Him and not ourselves. God will come over again to also let us see the fruits of our labors and follow His guidance. But if we reject Him over and over, then we should be aware that at the moment of judgement God will take that into account. I pray that we are always aware that God gave us our lives and that our lives is always His, so we should always do our best to give Him the best of our fruits in our life’s. Amen!

Pay taxes to Caesar

The Pharisees again tried to trick Jesus, but of course they failed again. This is an important lesson to be learned. That we are Christians does in no way exempt us from obeying to the rules of the place where you life (as long as they are not opposing Gods word). We need to pay taxes, we need not to break other laws. But even more important God wants and expect from us that we give everything from us that is from Him! God has given us so much talents and He wants us to use it for His Kingdom. I pray that God will show and develop our talents and give us the opportunities to use these talents in His name and honor.

Marriage at the Resurrection

The Pharisees again raised a question to Jesus. This time they wanted to know if a woman marries more then once, which man will be her husband in heaven. Jesus makes very clear that this is totally not important in heaven. How much I love my wife, I know that when God has called us to go to heaven then we will no longer be married, but we will be angels and are giving praise to God in heaven. God gave us the blessing of love and marriage while we are on earth. In a bigger picture God wants us to realize that we should not be focused on our earthly situation and possession, because we won’t have them in heaven.

The greatest commandment

Jesus explains that all commandments are very important, but the most important (in that order!) are:

• Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.
• Love your neighbor as yourself

Jesus shows now that He doesn’t like us to put our egoistical needs first. For God we need to place God in the first place above everything! And He wants us to love Him with all heart and soul. After this He wants us to love our neighbor as ourselves. This means that we have no excuse not to love someone else and be in bad standing with that person. We continuously need to love and forgive people that we have in our life’s.

Whose Son is the Christ

The teachers of the law were very busy discussing if Jesus was a son of David. Jesus explains that even David speaks against this point, because of course Jesus is only a son from God. The whole discussion was of course irrelevant. Also Jesus used this conversation to let everyone know that if we work for God that we are not allowed to wicked in our actions, because God will judge us! Therefore life your life according to Gods will and not to just serve our own egotistical needs!

The widow’s offering

This is a part of this Chapter that really is speaking to me, being in a place of financial hardship myself. In the moments of my life that I was blessed with financial prosperity it was easy to give larger amounts as a tithe. And although that money can be used for Gods work, it is not so powerful as when we are willing to give our best of our money, time and efforts to give to God, when we are in time of financial distress in our life. I have gone this feeling myself and God is really helping me to grow in this department. First of all not be so busy with money and worrying about it, but also to give the best of my money even when I have just a little. And most important that I will give with a happy heart. God doesn’t appreciate any amount of money we gave without a good heart behind it! I know that God is already bring us out of this situation (but is using it to teach us and build us according to His plan with our life’s!) and bless us again with a financial prosperous time (where we can use all of His teaching we are learning now). I thank God for teaching my wife and my so many lessons to help us grow to His plan with our life’, but also for preparing us for a time of financial prosperity again.

 

God bless you!

Bible study ‘Gospel of Mark’ – Chapter 11

Bible study ‘Gospel of Mark’ – Chapter 11

God bless you and thank your for reading this next Bible study on the Gospel of Mark. I ask you to first read the chapter in your Bible and pray that God will lead you through the text and this bible study. Thank you God for giving us your blessings and new teachings.

In this chapter Mark tells the following stories:

• The triumphal entry
• Jesus clears the temple
• The withered fig tree
• The authority of Jesus questioned

The triumphal entry

Jesus continues His journey to Jerusalem. Before entering Jerusalem He asks 2 of His disciples to go to the town of Bethany and look for a donkey that will be standing there on which nobody has every sat yet. The 2 disciples go there and as Jesus told them the donkey was there. This shows how everything in our life’s is already in Gods plan with our lives!

In the world we tend to want to get honor from others and we want to have the most expensive to look good! Jesus again shows that He didn’t came to be a worldly king, but that He is the Son of God and was there for us. The disciples put there mantles on the donkey before Jesus sat down on it, other people that were cheering and paying respect to Jesus before Him entering Jerusalem also through there mantles on the ground for Jesus to ride over with His donkey. With this entrance the prophecy of Isaiah came to pass! Also during His second coming He will come back but then on a more great way!

Jesus clears the temple

Jesus was again on the way with His disciples and was now hungry. He therefore went to a fig tree along the way to get a fruit. But when they came to the tree Jesus saw it had no fruits on it (because it wasn’t the season for it). For this Jesus told to the tree that this tree would never give fruit again.

Afterwards Jesus went to disciple to see a lot of people using the temple as a marketplace. Jesus really got angry, because they were using a place of prayer as a place to make profit. Never use your place and time that you have dedicated to God for anything else. God deserves the best of your time, your love, your offerings. The fig tree story above is applicable on this part of the story as people came to the temple to receive the fruits/blessings from God, but they were never nourished that way, because others were using that place as a marketplace to make a profit (and not always in an honest way!

The withered fig tree

On the way back from Jerusalem to Bethany Jesus and His disciples came across that same fig tree. And now it was totally withered from the ground up. The disciples were shocked and reminded what happened that morning.

Jesus explained them that when we pray God to help us, that we need not only pray, but need to it having faith that God has already given it to us! God wants us to have a faith without doubt. I ask God everyday to help me grow in this area and I know that God will bless me this way and make stronger in this area not let any doubt come in. God wants us to not look at what we see in our earthly circumstances. I for example know that God has already blessed me with a new job and will bless my families financial situation and give us in abundance. Also I know that God has blessed me to also do the work for Him!

But God also asks us to forgive everyone that we still hold a grudge against, because if we forgive them, then God will forgive us our sins. We cannot expect to be blessed by God if we cannot even forgive other people for what they have done to you!

The authority of Jesus questioned

The chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders saw everything that Jesus was doing and aksed Him on what authority He did all those things. Jesus asked them on which authority JBap did all he did. They did not want to admit that he did it on Gods authority, but also didn’t dare to say it was on his own authority. JBap was widely accepted as a prophet from God and they feared both reactions to give them an unwanted consequence so the did not answer this question from Jesus. For this reason Jesus (knowing that their intent was false and wicked) also told them that He would not answer them. God wants us to share the Good Word, but if people are only out to do us harm or ridicule them, then we are not by anyway obliged to answer there question. God will let us know through the Holy Spirit why people are asking certain questions (and if the intent is good or wicked).

 

God bless you all!

Bible study ‘Gospel of Mark’ – Chapter 10

Bible study ‘Gospel of Mark’ – Chapter 10

Dear brothers and sisters,

Thanks you for reading this Bible study on the Gospel of Mark. I pray that we are led by the Holy Spirit while reading this chapter and also reading this study. I ask God to show us the lessons He wants us to learn and help us apply these lessons in our lives.

In this chapter the following subject are told:

• Divorce
• The little children and Jesus
• The rich young man
• Jesus again predicts His death.
• The request of James and John
• Blind Bartimeus receives his sight

Divorce

Again the Pharisees were testing Jesus and now on the subject of divorce. Before going further on that subject, please not how wicked these Pharisees were by continiously looking to trap Jesus to bring Him down. As Christians we should be aware of not being like that because it is a worldly behavior of trying and bringing damage to someone else(s) reputation.

When it comes to the matter of divorce Jesus is very clear:

6 “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’ 7 ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, 8 and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one. 9 Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.”

So God sees marriage as a covenant between a man and his wife together with God! This is a convenant forever and not just for a brief time. Nowadays the Christian values on marriage are being continiously attacked and divorcing isn’t seen as something big anymore (let alone that it is considered a sin). So Jesus makes very clear that we cannot just end a marriage. The fact that in the Old Testament in the Law of Moses it was arranged that a woman can get permission from her husband to divorce was a law created because we are weak. Also God makes clear that if you marry someone else after a divorce God sees it as a sin (adultery).

The little children and Jesus

The disciples tried to stop the children from coming close to Jesus, but Jesus rebuked them and let the Children come close to put His hands on them to bless them. Jesus also let us know that we need to have the same kind of faith little children have to receive the Kingdom of God. This means that we fully need to trust on God and have faith without any doubt that what God has promised and that He exists is true. That is beautiful when you are a child you still have that natural ability to believe without questioning it or doubting it. Be like a child when it comes to your faith – no doubt, God is real!.

The rich young man

This story is always much debated and also misunderstood. Some people see this story as a rejection of Christians being allowed to be rich (with money). First of all it is beatiful to see that God corrected the young man by letting him know that only God is good! The young man asked God if he could follow Jesus. Jesus already saw that although He did keep a lot of Christian values, he still was lacking one thing. God wasn’t against him being rich, but he was mentionig the fact that the young man wasn’t able to give all his riches away to follow God. This means that the young man put the riches higher then following God (so his wealth was his real God). God wants us to life in abundance, also financially. But He will not allow that we put anythig higher then Him! Always ask God to make sure that nothing in this life is higher then God, not even our loved ones.

Jesus again predicts His death

Again Jesus takes His disciples apart (this also suggest that He was followed by more people then his 12 disciples alone. He took them apart and informed that they were going to Jerusalem where the chief priests and the teacher of the law would betray Him and would get Him killed, for Him to rise 3 days later. Jesus told them this on purpose, because this way the disciples could testify to everyone that this betrayal and dying at the cross needed to happen and that Jesus was not only aware of it, but that He willfully under went everything. God has already fully planned our lives and if we follow Him He will make sure that His plan with our life will come to pass. With this Jesus again confirmed His exact mission here on earth: not to become a worldly leader, but to die for our sins so that we can come to God through Him and enter heaven based on His mercy.

The request of James and John

James and John came to Jesus to ask Him to give them the seats in heaven directly next to Him. God made very clear that this was not up to Him, but also that the ways of the world don’t apply in heaven. In the world we can have a chance to make us self higher then others, but Jesus makes it very clear to us that we need to be very humble. God doesn’t like it if we consider ourselves higher of better then others. God wants us to be servants to others if we want to become great (Jesus is referring to go to heaven). Even Jesus himself came to serve and not to be served. We need to be humble and not be so hung up on worldly titles and admiration of others. Makes sure that you are good in Gods eyes!

Blind Bartimeus receives his sight

This is a beautiful example how our faith in God will heal us. This blind man knew without a doubt that Jesus would cure him of his blindness and asked Jesus to see, because he had full faith and trust in Jesus! But also see how the world will continuously discourage us to follow Jesus or to trust on Him. They were trying to stop him to come to Jesus. I ask God that He continiously makes us strong to follow Him no matter how much the world tries to prevent it.

 

God bless you all and I pray that this Bible study will build you up. Feel free to sent prayer request or if you have questions about the Bible or this Bible study.

 

Bible study ‘Gospel of Mark’ – Chapter 9

Bible study ‘Gospel of Mark’ – Chapter 9

Dear brothers and sisters,

Welcome to the Bible study on the ninth chapter of the Gospel of Mark. I first want to thank Yahweh for blessing us and making it possible to be reading this Bible study. I ask God to guide us through this chapter and this Bible study so we will learn the lessons that God wants us to get from them.

 

In this chapter Mark tells us about the following stories:

• The transfiguration
• The healing of a boy with an evil spirit
• Who is the greatest?
• Whoever is not against us is for us?
• Causing to sin

The transfiguration

After six days Jesus takes three of His disciples (Peter, James and John) with Him up a mountain. Jesus wanted to be fully alone with these disciples before He transfigured in white clothing that were much whiter then we as humans can do. This is to show them that Jesus is indeed the Son of God. Before them they see Jesus talk with Elijah and Moses. This moment on the mountain is the moment where the eternal (heaven) and temporal (world) meet, where Jesus is the connecting point (the bridge between heaven and earth). God tells the 3 apostles:

This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!

This confirms by God that Jesus is His son and that whatever Jesus speaks/tells has power. Jesus is a messenger and mouth-piece of God, so if we reject Jesus and His teaching we are also rejecting God!

The healing of a boy with an evil spirit

After Jesus and the 3 disciples returned to the other disciples they say them being very busy with a very busy crowd (among them teachers of the law). Jesus asked what the commotion was about and a man came forward from the crowd and told Jesus that he brought his son who was possessed by a spirit that robbed him from speech, but also sent him to the ground from time to time and giving him seizures (based on the description it looks to be something like that the boy was an epileptic). This shows that we never should allow to view any kind of sickness as just something that happens to us, but as an attack of the devil. God has made us in His image and that is without and sickness. Therefore we should never think ease about this and always include God in being healed/delivered from any sickness how benign we might perceive it!

The father of the boy goes on to tell that he brought his son to the disciples to drive out this spirit, but that they were not able. Jesus not clearly makes it publicly known that He is disappointed by them and ask them how long He has to be there to teach them. This shows that God wants us to use our time on earth to grow in our faith and be able to work for God, but also to be ready to go to heaven at some point when God decides our time has come. Jesus ask the boy to be brought to Him and at that moment the boy is thrown to the ground and has a new seizure. Jesus ask the father how long the boy had these (they were already there from birth, so sickness isn’t always a consequence of sinning, but the devil will also attacks us just to break us – look at the story of Job).The father asks Jesus if he can heal his son. Jesus immediately replies him that “everything is possible for him who believes. God asks us very clearly to believe! An important requirement is that we always believe for God to work in our lives. I pray that we grow in our faith and believe God and have no doubt over Him and all He is able to do! Jesus healed the boy from the evil spirit and explains His disciples that they failed in casting out that spirit, because this only possible by prayer! This makes very clear how important praying and a prayer life is and that it has to be a significant part of our life as Christians! Also it shows how powerful prayer is and we should never think to lightly about it.

Jesus also tells the disciples that He will be betrayed and turned over to man, will be killed and rise up after three days.

Who is the greatest?

On the way to Capernaum Jesus notices His disciples to be arguing with each other. And He asks what the argument was about. Note that Jesus already knew what they were talking about, but Jesus will ask us to be always open to Him and not to hold things secret from Him. The disciples kept quiet, because they were ashamed because they were discussing who was the greatest among them. Jesus – knowing everything – sits down with them and explains that if we want to the first then we should be the very last and servants of everyone. God really wants us to be humble and to serve. God doesn’t like arrogance at all and of course it is something that is from the world. If we are humble and have a serving heart then God will also bless us.  I pray that God will continuously give a humble and serving heart to help and serve others.

Whoever is not against us is for us

The disciples tried to stop a man that was driving out demons, because he didn’t belong to the group that was following Jesus. Jesus told them not to stop him, because if someone is doing Gods work, he will not turn on God and speak bad things about God. This also urges us not to judge others that also do work for God, because we don’t know them.

Causing to sin

Jesus explains that if we make others sin, that He will be very angry with us. We should always be very careful not to sin ourselves, but also that we do not knowingly and unknowingly cause others to sin. I pray God that He helps us not to sin, and also not to make others sin.

Also Jesus explains that if a part of us sins, we should remove that from our body and enter heaven with e.g. an arm then to be with a full body going to hell. This also means that if we have people or things in our lives that make us sin, then we should remove them from our lives to make sure that we do not go to hell due to someone or a part of us that is sinning.

God bless you all and see you at the next Bible study?

Also please share your thoughts about how important your prayer life is for you! And would like to hear from you how you spent your private time with God.

 

 

Bible study ‘Gospel of Mark’ – Chapter 8

Bible study on the Gospel of Mark This weeks Bible study deals with chapter 8. In this chapter the following stories about Jesus’ ministry are told:

• Jesus feeds the 4000
• The yeast of the Pharisees and Herod
• The healing of a blind man at Bethsaida
• Peter’s confession of Jesus
• Jesus predicts His death

Before proceeding I ask and thank the Holy Spirit for guiding us through this Bible study and show us all that God wants us to see. Thank you, Jehova!! Jesus feeds the 4,000 In yet another occasion Jesus feeds a large crowd that came listening to His teaching. First of all Jesus shows how much He cares for us not only by feeding us with the word but also making sure that our other needs will also be met. The response of the disciples is one that really amazed me. While they were present that God fed 5.000 people earlier by a beautiful miracle, they are now asking Jesus how He is going to feed all of them in such a remote place. For God/Jesus/the Holy Spirit nothing is impossible and even if we witness a miracle in our lives, we still tend to doubt or be insecure when new things come in our life. I ask God to take make us more strong and have faith and peace that God will always come through! Also we see the Pharisees demanding to see a miracle, but God will never be forced into a miracle to show us that He is real. I love that God wants us to have faith in Him and base our believe in God on that! The yeast of the Pharisees and Herod The disciples were discussing among each that they forgot the bread. Jesus immediately sees that they are discussing the bread and asks them if they still do not see and also asks if their hearts are hardened. God reminds them of the 2 times He feeds large crowds. We should never forget how God is able to do everything! The healing of the blind man at Bethsaida In this story God heals a man from his blindness. He heals the man by using spit and putting it on his eyes. Jesus shows us here how God can do anything …. therefore also healing blindness. Let us never forget that no problem is big enough for God! Peter’s confession of Christ In this part Jesus asks His apostles to describe how people describe Him. Peter’s describes Him as: Jesus the Christ. God immediately asked them to be quiet about this. Jesus came not to be a earthly king, but a heavenly king. Jesus therefore made sure that He didn’t became a political career so His ministry would be compromised. Jesus predicts His death Jesus talks about His own depending death, but also very importantly talks about us. He wants us to deny ourselves if we want to be saved by Him. God wants us to not be thinking of our earthly self, but be prepared to leave everything in this life to follow Him. If we are ashamed of Him now, then He will be ashamed of us later! Even if it will be that people will mock us or worse, we should never forget what Jesus went through for our lives. God is good! God bless you this week and may the Holy Spirit guide you on your journey!!

Bible study ‘Gospel of Mark’ – Chapter 7

Dear brothers and sisters,

God bless and welcome to this new Bible study. This week we have come to chapter 7 of the Gospel of Mark. Before we continue I pray that God touches our hearts to be open to the words He wants to teach us. Also that the Holy Spirit will guide everything we do. Amen!

In chapter 5 Mark tells the following stories:

• Clean and unclean
• The faith of a Syrophoenician woman
• The healing of a deaf and mute man

Clean and unclean

Jesus gets into a new discussion with the Parhisees when the Pharisees see that the apostles start eating without first cleansing their hands. Jesus rebukes the Pharisees, because they put a guideline made by man above God. Jesus explains how important it is not to let our own rules (even when we have learned them in church) come between us and God. God has given us the Bible (and prayer) to understand Gods word. As soon as we make rules/guidelines from our own they can really come between God and us. Always be aware of the rules we follow … are we following Gods will or our own man-made rules.

After rebuking the Pharisees He also discusses the incident with His apostles. He explains that unclean food is no problem, because after eating it will eventually leave our body again. Jesus explains that what comes out of our heart makes us unclean:

For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unclean.

This story makes it very clear that we should continiously bring our heart to God, because if we are to become unclean it is always from our own heart. Don’t follow you own hearts desires, but follow Gods will for your life!

The faith of a Syrophoenician woman

This woman from the Syrian town of Phoenicia finds Jesus in a house and begs Him to drive a demon out of her daughter. As a response he tells her that He will first attend to the children and not let the childrens bread to be tossed to the dogs. The woman replies by her that the dogs eat the crumbs under the table. This story shows that God is only for the Jews, but He send His son (and loves) for all of us! For her faith He removed the demon from the daughter of the woman. Always know that God also love us and will also take care of us non-Jews.

The healing of a deaf and mute man

This is the account how Jesus heals a deaf and mute man by touching the mans ears, spitting an touching his ears. And the man was healed! God asked Him not to tell anyone, but instead the  man did and Jesus became more and more known for all He was doing. This account shows that Jesus can heal anything, but also that He doesn’t boast about it. God hates boasting, so we should always ask God to keep us humble so that we understand that everything we succeed in is by Gods strength and not by our own deads.

 

God bless and be a blessing to others so God can be a blessing also to us.

Bible study ‘Gospel of Mark’ – Chapter 6

Dear brothers and sisters,

God bless and welcome to this weeks Bible study. This week we will be discussing chapter 6 of the Gospel of Mark. In this chapter the following stories are told:

• A prophet without honor
• Jesus sends out to the twelve
• John the Baptist beheaded
• Jesus feeds the five thousands
• Jesus walks on water

A prophet without honor

Jesus returns to his hometown of Nazareth were He also visits the synagogue to teach there. Soon we see the sceptical way that the people are talking about Him. They are very much amazed at the wisdom He speaks/teaches. They see Him just as the son of the carpenter. This makes Jesus tell them that only in his hometown a prophet doesn’t receive honor. Jesus does no miracles and only heals a few people and leaves town. When we are called to be working for God e.g. as a prophet we shouldn’t do it or expect honor of the people we grew up with, but we really need to do it to honor God.

Jesus sends out the twelve

Jesus now sends out his twelve disciples in pairs of two giving them the power to cast out evil spirits. In this story Jesus explains exactly how their journey (work for God) should be carried out: take nothing with you! How beautiful God shows in this story that if we are to do the work God has prepared us for, then He expect fully on Him and don’t bring anything from ourselves. All our strengths and talents are not from ourselves, but given by God. God calls us not only to work for Him, but also to fully trust in Him to provide us on this journey! Amen!! Also see how there work was being blessed, because they carried it out for God and by the way God wanted it to be done.

John the Baptist beheaded

Jesus ministry didn’t went unnoticed and also king Herod heared about the healing and wonders He did. And people were debating how He was, for example: John the Baptist. King Herod knew that it wasn’t John or an incarnation of him, because he was responsible for killing (beheading) John the Baptist. The story shows how important it is to fear God and not to listen to evil even if it is from people close from us. Everything we do, we need to bring it before God and ask the Holy Spirit to guide us. King Herod feared John and didn’t dare to kill Him, but his wife (well the wife of his brother) Herodias was annoyed by John for continually having critic on the adultery. For this reason she used her own daughter to dance sensually before King Herodias to bring lust in him so to get him to agree with a request. And she got her way and Herod was so full of lust that without thinking he gave the daughter the promise he would grant any wish. And together with her mother she decided her wish to be the head of John! We are ourselves responsible for the choices we make (also a King) even if the people around us give us (very) bad advice. If we follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit he will make sure that we are not misled by the devil that can even willingly or unwillingly use our loved ones.

Jesus feeds the five thousand

This well known story shows how God/Jesus will bless us abundantly when we rely on God to bless us! There were 5.000 persons listening to Jesus and the disciples where having trouble to have faith and only looked at what it would costs to provide food for everyone. God not only showed that with “little” bread and fish that was gathered from the crowed He could feed all of them (and really fill there stomachs) , but also after the feeding still have an abundance of food left. How amazing is God that He will not only provide in our needs, but He will even give in abundance and more then we need, when we fully trust in Him!

Jesus walks onwater

Because the disciples didn’t fully believe all that Jesus had done when feeding the five thousand and what is meant, God went to pray on a mountainside while the disciples went on the lake (to travel to the other side) in the night. After Jesus had finished they tried to reach him, but couldn’t due to the wind being against them. For this reason Jesus decided to walk towards them on water! They were shocked and amazed on what Jesus just did, and Jesus comforted them by telling them to have courage and not to be afraid. And God also continuously does it our lives as well, he will let miraculous things happen (a terrible decease has been taken away, when no money was available tor provide for your family for the whole month, and yet the whole month God provided and you were taken care of the whole month) to show us we shouldn’t be afraid and need to rely on Him by faith.

 

Let God guide you every day by the Holy Spirit to make the right choices. The choices God wants you to make!

 

God bless you!!

Bible study ‘Gospel of Mark’ – Chapter 5

Dear brothers and sisters,

 

God bless you and thank you for coming to read this new blog / Bible study on the Gospel of Mark. In this weeks Bible study we have come to chapter 5 in which the following two stories are being told:

• The healing of a demon-possessed man; and
• A dead girl and a sick woman

The healing of a demon-possessed man

In this story Jesus comes with the boat to the region of Gerasenes. There he comes in contact with a demon-possessed man that lives in a tomb. The thing that immediately caught my attention is the fact that this man is so filled with demon(s) that he cannot even control himself anymore the demon(s) have to much power over him. The man is living in a cave and the demons are so strong that no chain can hold this man anymore. This shows how much influence the devil can have over our lives if we allow him. It is easy to think that what has happened to this man can’t happen to us … if we allow e.g. anger to control is instead of the Holy spirit then yes we are also in the same situation as this man.

For this reason it is very important that every time that the Holy Spirit makes us aware of things in our life that are not in line with Gods will for our life, then we need to come to Jesus and allow Him to help us to stop this demon to have any hold on our life. In this story we see how much this demon isn’t only fully aware of who Jesus is, but he also knows about what He can do. The demon even begs Jesus not to torture him and to allow him to stay in this area. But Jesus is a very amazing and beautiful and will never allow the devil or his demons to stay in us and he first ask the demon to identify himself and he does: Legion (for this man was possessed with a lot of demons). After that Jesus casts out the demons and sent them into a herd of pigs. Although this seems a good thing for the demons, the demons soon find out that the pigs will run towards the water and will drown.

God will never strike a deal with the devil on our lives. God will defeat any demon in our lives to make us really free. This story shows no matter the demons that you are dealing with, go to Jesus! He will not only cast out those demons, but will really set you free from them! Thank you Jesus!!

A dead girl and a sick woman

In this story it starts with one of the synagogue rulers (Jairus) coming to Jesus in a very big crowd. He comes to Jesus and tells Him that his daughter is very sick and will die. And he asks Jesus to heal her. While Jesus is on His way to see this girl, a woman in the crowd (that has been very sick for years – 12 years of bleeding) wants to be healed but can’t talk to him because of the crowd, so see decides to reach for his clothing to touch it.

Both Jarius and this woman come to Jesus because the know in their heart that Jesus can heal them. And this powerful faith is always rewarded, because we see that by touching Jesus clothing immediately  she is healed! Jesus feels this power going out of Him and he sees in the big crowd that this woman touched Him and He lets her and the crowd know that her faith has healed her. Then Jairus gets terrible news, his daughter has died. But Jesus tells him not to take notice and believe that Jesus has rebuked her dead and that she is alive again. Also Jairus decides to fully trust on Jesus and His power …. and indeed the girl is alive again.

This story wants to show us how important it is to be able to fully trust on God and what He can do . Even if it is hard sometimes to trust on this, we need to make an effort to grow and learn to fully trust on Him … and you will see that He will heal us!

God is amazing and I love to be a child of Him. Although it is certainly not always easy to fully put your trust on Him, because of getting to focused on our problems, but the times that we allow to fully trust Him, then we will always see how wonderful He is!

 

God bless you all and enjoy this weekend!!