Mark 7.

Mark 1 Minute

Here’s a new post for you to comment on Mark 7.

On the right-hand side of the page, there is now a link to a map of Israel during Jesus’ day that you can refer to when geographic names show up in the text.

From my perspective:

  • I don’t want this daily bible reading to become a tradition that keeps me from obeying Jesus’ commands.
  • I do want this daily bible reading to influence me to, among other things,
    • Love God and love others
    • Make disciples
    • Be merciful and help those less fortunate than I
    • Take up my cross
    • Grow in my faith
    • Pray for my enemies

This phrase in our reading whispered to me: 34 Then he looked up to heaven and said with a sigh, “Ephphatha” (that is, “Be opened”).

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7 thoughts on “Mark 7.”

  1. After I read Mark 7:1-20 (about defilement) this verse immediately came to mind. “Search me, O God, and know my heart;   test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you,    and lead me along the path of everlasting life.” Psalm 139:23-24 NLT. I need to pray that prayer more often, and then act on what God reveals to me. My friend’s mom prayed those verses every night before bed.

    My friend Jack Pettigrew (who is with the Lord now) and his wife used to do this: After Xmas, they would take down a few Xmas cards each day and pray for the senders. Following Jack’s example, as I read each of your blogposts, I will pray for you.

  2. I was thinking yesterday how easy it is/would be to let a Bible study/reading group easily become “religious”; a ritual (like Poppy said) instead of an encounter with Jesus-the Word made flesh.
    And like Jesus and Isaiah say in Mark 7:6 (though regarding a different topic): “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me…”
    I don’t want this to be a mental activity (“honoring” with my head?) or a study like you’d study a history book or mathematics. Check it off the list of to-dos. I want to open my Bible in faith knowing-I’m encountering the Lord in the Word. To “position” my heart near to Him.
    I want to yield to the Holy Spirit who reveals Jesus, so by Him, we can follow Him, and love Him, and obey Him.
    I pray it for each of us and the body of Christ around the world participating in similar reading/study plans. May our hearts be near to You God as we come to know You in Your Word.
    Praise the Lord for His Living Word and our savior Jesus Christ! Wahoo!

  4. Verses 1-23 really challenge our cultural norms. Is what we believe biblical or cultural? I think Jesus had to use such strong language because it is very difficult to distinguish without stepping out of your own culture. Having lived much of my adult life abroad, my perspective on what it means to follow Jesus is different from what it once was (much simpler, actually), and I often find myself at odds with the Christian culture of my home country. But I also have an outsider’s view of my host country’s cultural take(s) on Christianity. At times when I feel this, I count it a privilege to identify more closely as a member of the Kingdom of God. It can be very hard and isolating to throw off human traditions for the sake of following Jesus, but God calls all of us to do it.

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