Crowds and Calling
Opening Prayer
Lord, I consciously put aside all else and pray Your Spirit to reveal what You want to say to me.
Read Mark 3:7-19
[7] Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lake, and a large crowd from Galilee followed. [8] When they heard about all he was doing, many people came to him from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, and the regions across the Jordan and around Tyre and Sidon. [9] Because of the crowd he told his disciples to have a small boat ready for him, to keep the people from crowding him. [10] For he had healed many, so that those with diseases were pushing forward to touch him. [11] Whenever the impure spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” [12] But he gave them strict orders not to tell others about him. [13] Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. [14] He appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach [15] and to have authority to drive out demons. [16] These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter), [17] James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means “sons of thunder”), [18] Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot [19] and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. Scripture taken from the THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
How did evil spirits respond to Jesus?What is your image of Jesus – your mental picture of what he was like? There must have been something arresting and compelling about him, something charismatic which made people follow him, leading to problems of overcrowding (8,10). He’d left the towns due to difficulties (3:6,7) but still people flocked to him, wanting to touch him. And when he called specific followers, what was their reaction (13)? There were two reasons why Jesus then appointed 12 apostles from those he had called (14,15). They were to be with him and then to be sent out on a mission (which came later in 6:7) as his witnesses. Sometimes we forget that he calls us to go with him, and instead think about inviting him into our lives, as if it were all about us rather than him. We are called to proclaim the kingdom of God and Christ is the King. Our lives, as Jesus’ life is to be spent in seeing others brought into the blessing of that kingdom even as we ourselves live the kingdom reality here on earth—as it is in heaven.
Apply
Remember what originally attracted you to Jesus. Recommit yourself to him and ask for a renewed calling to go with him.
Closing prayer
God, help me to keep You and Your purposes at the center of my thinking and of all my life.
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