Monday Reading: Mark 6:1-6
Key Verse: Mark 6:4
4 But Jesus said to them, A prophet is not without honour, except in his native-place, and among his own kin, and in his own house.
Devotion:
Have you ever noticed that when you try to teach strangers about something they seem more willing to listen that your own family is? Your family seems to treat you with some sort of contempt rather than with the respect due a teacher of some kind. Although these words are only spoken by Jesus and not found in the Old Testament we can relate to them because we find it to be true. We seem to have no problem being able to teach strangers about the word of God when they are willing to listen, but the more we get to know people the less they are apt at sitting still and listening to His Word!
Christ continued to teach wherever He went no matter whether the people around Him were willing to listen or not. That is the attitude that we have to take as well – to go out there are preach to anyone that is willing to listen so that they may get to know God too. When strangers see that we know things they perceive us as being wise, but many times when family members see that we know things they try to trip us up or even mock us before we can teach them. A human saying that comes from that is familiarity breeds contempt; and how sadly it is true!
Therein lays a trap for each one of us – the more we get to know God the more we may be likely to treat His Word with contempt at times! We like to think that we know enough and that we don’t have to sit down and study His Word – how wrong can we be! God’s Word is just about the most important thing that we have because it is that that is more important than what we can see and what we can think. No matter how much we learn we must always know that His Word is the truth and we must base our lives on that and not on what other people say we should...
Points to Ponder:
Who do you find it hardest to teach anything?
How good a student are you to Christ?
