The Multitudes
Mark 3:7,8 Jesus went away with his followers to the lake. A large crowd of people from Galilee followed them. Many also came from Judea, from Jerusalem, from Idumea, from the area across the Jordan River, and from the area around Tyre and Sidon. These people came because they heard about all that Jesus was doing.
There’s a reason that religious rules feel empty and hollow and meaningless. It’s because they are. Jesus came, in His own words, to set us free. And when He sets us free, we are free indeed.
I’m always taken by the stark contrast between rule-based religion on the one hand and the reality of the God of grace and mercy who sent His Son Jesus to suffer and die for the likes of thee and me, on the other.
Sadly, you don’t have to look all that far to discover rule-based religion. It’s something that manipulates and oppresses people the world over. And yet Jesus stands in such stark contrast to the oppression that religion has delivered to this world, to the lives of millions, down through the centuries.
Mark 3:7,8 Jesus went away with his followers to the lake. A large crowd of people from Galilee followed them. Many also came from Judea, from Jerusalem, from Idumea, from the area across the Jordan River, and from the area around Tyre and Sidon. These people came because they heard about all that Jesus was doing.
This large crowd intrigues me. Think about it. All these people believed in God and attended Synagogue or Temple on Saturdays. And yet they left everything behind, travelled mile after mile on foot, over hill and dale, to follow Jesus. Amazing!
And I think that’s it. We know in our hearts when someone’s for real – and there’s authenticity, a wonder, a healing, a truth that flows out of Jesus that you just don’t find amongst the tombstones of religious rules.
We aren’t called, you and I, to follow a religion or a denomination, or the rules that people make up and then guilt you over.
We’re called, you and I, to follow Jesus.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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Barbara
Amen and Amen. Thank you Jesus that your words are living and that You change peoples lives by Your grace. Thank You ...
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Amen and Amen.
Thank you Jesus that your words are living and that You change peoples lives by Your grace.
Thank You Father for giving us Your Son.
All glory unto our amazing God!
Michael Adams
Here is a question no one is asking or even care to even asked they just take what they have been told as a fact of ...
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Here is a question no one is asking or even care to even asked they just take what they have been told as a fact of life. No matter how many time Jesus stated that he was not the father but the son of the father that people believe that Jesus was actually God. My question is this: when Jesus was in The Garden of Gethsemane and from the cross of his crucifixion if he was actually God then who was he actually Praying too. Now I have faith in the Word and the word is God but I have a problem when it come to God is a jealous God place no other God before him. If by the text of the Bible Jesus is praying to his Father as he repeated time and time again in the Bible haven’t we done exactly what God told us not to do by placing his son above him and calling him God and not the son of God? Just asking.
Troy Gaudino
When you follow Christ, you will obey him and keep his commandments. These are rules. We are not free from rules. ...
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When you follow Christ, you will obey him and keep his commandments. These are rules. We are not free from rules. Which rules we keep is another lesson. Rules do not save us. However, when we come to Christ, we love him so much that we want to do what he says. What does he say? Love God and neighbor. How do we do that? By not stealing, taking his name in vain, etc.