“save Yourself, and come down from the cross!”
– Mark 15:30
But if He did then He would not have been able to save us.
Enduring Word Commentary with Pastor David Guzik
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My Utmost for His Highest | Oswald Chambers
Morning & Evening | Charles Spurgeon
After two days it was the Passover and the Feastof Unleavened Bread. And the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take Him by trickery and put Him to death. But they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar of the people.”
– Mark 14:1-2
Though I’ve read these words dozens of times, I’m always struck by the absurdity of them. The chief priests and the scribes. The most religious of all Israel. The leaders of the Jewish religion. As one of the holiest days of the year approached, they weren’t preparing for the passover. They were plotting how they might catch Jesus by tricky and put him to death. And the thing that caused them pause was not the unrighteousness and wickedness of their deceitful plotting, but the fact that they’d have to be careful so as to not cause an uproar with the people.
We need to be very careful that our religion not blind us to the unrighteous plotting of our fallen and deceitful hearts.
Enduring Word Commentary with Pastor David Guzik
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My Utmost for His Highest | Oswald Chambers
Morning & Evening | Charles Spurgeon
And Jesus, answering them, began to say: “Take heed that no one deceives you.
– Mark 13:5
The events concerning the last days are, to many, the most interesting of all Scripture. But just as Jesus foretold, there have been many deceptions surrounding them. It is essential when considering eschatological passages such as the Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24 & 25, Mark 13 & Luke 17) that we approach them with humility and grace.
With humility, because much of what we know to be true about future events is speculative. And with grace, because many God fearing Christians have differing interpretations of the very same passages.
Enduring Word Commentary with Pastor David Guzik
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My Utmost for His Highest | Oswald Chambers
Morning & Evening | Charles Spurgeon
Now when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, He said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” But after that no one dared question Him.
– Mark 12:34
Many a good person is “not far from the kingdom of God.” But being “not far from” and “a part of” are to entirely different things.
Enduring Word Commentary with Pastor David Guzik
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My Utmost for His Highest | Oswald Chambers
Morning & Evening | Charles Spurgeon
And they reasoned among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ “But if we say, ‘From men’ ”—they feared the people, for all counted John to have been a prophet indeed.
– Mark 11:31-32
Remember, if you cannot give a sincere and honest answer to a straightforward question, you should really reevaluate the path you’re on.
Enduring Word Commentary with Pastor David Guzik
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My Utmost for His Highest | Oswald Chambers
Morning & Evening | Charles Spurgeon
So He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her. And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”
– Mark 10:11-12
These are really hard words. Hard words that have been a stumbling block for many people. And rightly so. They should be a stumbling block. Especially before the person who would rush toward divorce. In the same way that couples should not rush into marriage, they should have great pause before turning toward divorce.
Enduring Word Commentary with Pastor David Guzik
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My Utmost for His Highest | Oswald Chambers
Morning & Evening | Charles Spurgeon
Then they departed from there and passed through Galilee, and He did not want anyone to know it.
– Mark 9:30
In chapter 8 He sent away a great multitude, and now He doesn’t want anyone to know that He is passing through Galilee. Jesus didn’t allow the short-term trappings of ‘success’ to get in the way of the greater mission. Again, this is challenging and instructive. I’m sure there have been more than a few of Christ’s ministers that have been snared by success and missed the larger mission.
Enduring Word Commentary with Pastor David Guzik
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My Utmost for His Highest | Oswald Chambers
Morning & Evening | Charles Spurgeon
Now those who had eaten were about four thousand. And He sent them away, immediately got into the boat with His disciples, and came to the region of Dalmanutha.
– Mark 8:9-10
So much of what is done in modern, western Christianity is centered around getting a crowd. And yet on several occasions, in the Gospels, Jesus sent the crowds away. He’d just fed 4,000 individuals. They’d followed Him out into the middle of nowhere. And then He sends them away.
Cleary Jesus wasn’t looking for a crowd. And as a result there are now more than 2 billion who call Him Lord.
Enduring Word Commentary with Pastor David Guzik
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My Utmost for His Highest | Oswald Chambers
Morning & Evening | Charles Spurgeon
When He had called all the multitude to Himself,He said to them, “Hear Me, everyone, and understand: “There is nothing that enters a man from outside which can defile him; but the things which come out of him, those are the things that defile a man.
– Matthew 7:14-15
Often we are captivated—seduced even—by the religious notion that certain foods are morally defiled and therefore morally defile the partaker of them. Jesus in Mark 7 dispels that idea completely. Could His words be anymore emphatic? “There is nothing that enters a man from outside which can defile him.”
No doubt there are unclean foods that can make you sick, or unhealthy. But when it comes to wickedness and immorality, those things are in this world because of the wicked, fallen hearts of humanity. And that wickedness cannot be purged by religious rituals or formality. Only the saving and sanctifying power of Christ will suffice.
Enduring Word Commentary with Pastor David Guzik
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My Utmost for His Highest | Oswald Chambers
Morning & Evening | Charles Spurgeon
So they went out and preached that peopleshould repent.
– Mark 6:12
The message of John the Baptist (Matthew 3:2) was “repent.” The message of Jesus (Matthew 4:17) was the same. Is it any wonder what the message of Jesus’ disciples would be?
Enduring Word Commentary with Pastor David Guzik
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My Utmost for His Highest | Oswald Chambers
Morning & Evening | Charles Spurgeon