Week 1 - From Dust we came

Day 1 - Ash Wednesday 2/13

Joel 2:12-17

Matthew 6:16-21

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Don't just change your clothes, change your life.  Don't just go to church, worship and outside the Lord your God.
Don't just pray, talk to your Abba as your loving guardian, dearest friend, and precious savior.

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Day 2 - Valentine's Day 2/14

Psalm 34

2 Corinthians 2:5-13

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Day 3 - 2/15

Mums the Word

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·         Mark 1

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Jesus didn't want the demons to say anything or the leper.  As he cast out demons and disease, his desire was to keep the muscles hush hush. After the first unruly demon in service, the rest got the message. But it is the person with free will who, in disobeying Jesus, brought more to be healed.this also prevented him from being able to move freely about Galilee.

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Day 4 - 2/16

 Mark 2

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Earlier this week, people were clogging the entrance to BBM stores trying to get their last minute Vday orders in.  Had someone desperately needed their order, would they have pushed their way through the New York crowd to the front of the line?

Fervor for Jesus in his time seems easier to exhibit.  Large crowds were already following him, so follow the crowd.  Get a good meal every now and again of fish and bread, have some great Ted Talks about faith, and even get healed.  But what about today?  How do we show our fervor?

Also, in this story,there are two characters that interact with Jesus, but only one gets the miracle.  The paraplegic had four amazing friends willing to not only carry him, but push through a thick crowd, and not stop there.  These friends, when seeing that they could not get through, climbed to the top of this house, with their friend in tow, and lowered him into the house!  Talk about a friend that is closer than a brother.  It is because of these friends that the paraplegic was able to receive his miracle.  Who are the people in my life that help carry me to Jesus when I can no longer move?  Who are willing to push through crowds of wrong thinking and negativity and scale walls of doubt and despair to get me into my Savior's presence?  Do you have enough people to help carry you?

Another thing that struck me in this reading was the way Jesus healed the paraplegic   He is healed initially with the words, "Your sins are forgiven."  This implies that his differently abled life is a response to sin.  Is it his own personal sin?  The general sin of man?  Perhaps we all have a manifestation of sin in our lives that hinders us which only God can relieve us of.  To the naysayers in the crowd, who honestly why are you following this guy you don't believe in or even like very much anyway, Jesus makes a point of literally healing the man just to prove that he could forgive sins and heal.  Why he chose a moment of healing as the opportunity to reveal his ability to forgive sins must be significant.

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Day 5 - 2/17

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