This is material we went over in Matthew, but one interesting thing strikes me.

There are two reactions to Jesus working a miracle. One is more people coming to him for more miracles. The other is people wanting him to go away.

The story of the Gerasene (or Gadarene) demoniac is one I've always liked because it shows Jesus not only driving out ( Read more... )

No, I haven't forgotten this community, I've just been hellaciously busy getting ready for this deployment.  Our readings were chapters 3 and 4, but I keep coming back to one particular little set of verses, namely Mark 3:1-6, the man with the withered hand.  And it's not so much a reading of, "Oh look, Jesus can do miracles!" as his reaction to ( Read more... )

I got a little distracted last week, so let's pick up where we left off. Mark 3 and 4 ( Read more... )

Seems like Mark is in a hurry to tell his story, only 2 chapters and he already has Jesus collecting apostles and the crowds following Jesus around.

Seems, too, like maybe we're getting into an area that differentiates between the spirit of the law and the letter of the law, could be interesting

I've really enjoyed Matthew, but never realized how *rushed* the ending is. It's as if he was sick of writing this story and just wanted to roll up the scroll, hand it off to be copied and be done with it. Mark's conclusion is ironic, Luke's is emotional and John's is lengthy and sublime. Matthew...the stone rolls away, hey look, no Jesus, don't ( Read more... )

This reading always makes me feel kind of sad for Judas. Did he really have free will? Was he really so naive as to not know what would happen when he turned Jesus over? What if he hadn't done what was his destiny to do? Sometimes I think his only real sin was losing hope in his own redemption and taking his own life ( Read more... )

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Jesus is marching towards zero hour. Very bad things are about to happen ( Read more... )

Last week we had Matthew 24, scary stories about the parousia. I was tending a sick spouse (and not doing so well myself) so I took a bye on writing. lucy_indisguise picked up the slack and for that I thank her ( Read more... )

I'm heading out to Honduras for three weeks starting April 4. Could someone assure me that they can at least post what the readings are? I don't know what internet access I'll have while down there, and while I assume there will be some, I don't know how often I'll be able to get to it, or even if I'll want to ( Read more... )