MARK

Today is Monday.  What an amazing day we had yesterday at Church!  God was so good to us.  The morning service, we had a great crowd of people and people were saved, baptized, and three families joined the Church.  What a great spirit among us!  Then we had the teens take the evening service and they sang as a choir, played in the orchestra, had solos, ensembles, recitals, instrumentals, and three young men preached amazing sermons for about 7 minutes each.  It was not just enjoyable, it was amazing.  What dedicated young people we have and what a blessing they are!  Wow.  Today I am in Mark, and here are some thoughts:

1) A SOWER TO SOW- Mark 4:3 starts the parable of the sower by saying:  "Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow:"  Now the rest of the parable we are familiar with.  The seed feel on four types of ground, and only one brought forth fruit, and each seed to different amounts of harvest.  But, what I want to focus on is that the sower had a mission.  He went forth to sow!  That is our mission.  We cannot analysis the soil, but we can sow the seed of God's Word.  That is our mission.  We are sowers and we need to be sowing!  I pray that this week, God will give me plenty of opportunities to sow. 

2) HE CALLETH THEE- In Mark 10 we see the story of blind Bartimaeus.  He sits by the road and calls out for Jesus:  "Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me."  Many charged him to be silent, but he cries out the more:  "Thou son of David, have mercy on me."  Now, Jesus stood still, and commanded him to be called.  They go to blind Bartimaeus and in verse 49 say:  "Be of good comfort, rise; he calleth thee."  What a blessed story of Christ's compassion this is!  Bartimaeus casts off his beggers garments and is led to Jesus.  He will not need those garments, ever again!  But here is what I want to focus on.... He calleth thee.  Jesus is calling you.  So, you are already saved... He calls you to spend time with Him.... He calls you to serve Him... He calls you to draw closer to Him... He calleth thee!  Oh, let us listen!

3) GOD OF THE LIVING- in Mark 12:27, Jesus lets us in on a wonderful truth:  "He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living:  ye therefore do greatly err."  Now in other passages He shares this same truth:  Luke 20:38  "For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him."  and John 11:26  "And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?"  The truth is that all are alive unto Him.  In other words, we do not die, we just transfer our abode.  No one dies in God's sight.  We are created to be eternal beings either in Heaven or in Hell.  Our loved ones who died in faith are waiting for us, and are in Christ's presence.  Oh what a comfort that is!  He ever liveth, and we will live forever!  He is the God of the living!

Well, so much for this Monday morning.  Hope you have a blessed day!  Pastor Mike Mutchler