Friday 12 Oct 2012

Friday Reading: Mark 1:1-8

Key Verse: Mark 1:5
5  And there went out unto him all the land of Judaea, and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins.

Devotion:
One thing that I have never been very good at is figuring out the emotions of people and to some extent I think I have been lucky with that because it has kept me out of trouble but landed me in some too. So it comes as no real surprise to see that I am not alone with this and that people have always looked to someone greater and with more wisdom to get guidance from. Unfortunately there is only one person that can really help us with our emotions because there is only one person that knows us from the inside out – and that is God. No matter how well we think we know each other or how well we think that other people know us, nobody knows us the same as God does.

So what does this have to do with our passage today? Well, it is just another insight into reading God’s Word for me. I do have problems understanding why some people do or say some things and yet other times I can see as clear as day why they do things; but when it comes down to God’s Word I do get a whole lot of help from God to understand things. The next problem comes in trying to apply those things that I learn into my life because that has got to be our goal, to be able to learn from God’s Word so that we can live our lives being encouraged to do what God would like  us to do.

This passage shows us that John the Baptist knew the difference between having intimate knowledge of the scriptures for teaching others and that intimate knowledge that one has because one has written or inspired those scriptures; that same difference that we may see when we look at how we see others and how God must see us. John was a great preacher. We know this because he had many followers who all came to love God because he taught them all about God. And yet he would be the first to admit that he was not worthy to loosen the buckles of Jesus’ sandals, never mind anything else for Him.

When I see how some people can tell the emotional state of others, I stand in awe. But then I get to think about our Awesome God and realise that even if I lift up anyone because of my lack of understanding, that is nothing compared to how we should be lifting up our omniscient God!

Points to Ponder:
Who do you admire?

How much do you actually admire God?