Advancing the Kingdom

The Gospel of Mark is such a short, quick account of Jesus’ life, we may sometimes overlook it. This time preaching through Mark, I’m struck by the subtle ways that Mark tells these stories in order to highlight what Jesus is teaching us. Particularly in the sermon yesterday on Mark 6, it was interesting to see how Mark tells stories of Jesus receiving opposition or even indifference right alongside stories that show the advancing of God’s Kingdom. Jesus is doing so many things that the people are amazed, until he comes to his own hometown. Jesus’ disciples go out preaching throughout the villages of Galilee, and at the same time we are reminded that John the Baptist paid with his life for speaking the truth. I believe it’s the same for us. When we are working for God’s Kingdom, there will be difficulty, but God’s Kingdom will continue to advance.

There was problem with streaming the service yesterday. It was recorded and we are hoping to be able to post it later. Meanwhile, we are trying to figure out what went wrong. There will still be some changes going on in our system, and there is still a learning curve as we implement our new streaming system. Thank you to our tech team for the time they continue to devote to working with this system.

We owe a big thank you to all of those who volunteered this past weekend. So thank you to all of you who made food, or who served. Thanks to those who moved furniture and who set up tables. Thanks to those who cleaned up. Thank you to all of those who helped with the service—ushering or running the sound and video system. Your efforts were noticed and you helped Wally’s family celebrate his life. Thank you.

Make sure to read through the announcements in this E-Gram. There are some updates about the Relief Sale.

God bless, Brian

Scripture readings for next Sunday

Mark 7:1-23—How would you describe the nature of this disagreement between Jesus and the religious leaders?

Mark 7:24-37—Why do you think Mark includes another story from the Decapolis here?

Isaiah 29:13-21—Why do you think Jesus’ quotation of Isaiah 29 an appropriate response to the religious leaders?

Romans 9:22-33—How does Paul describe the shortcoming of the law in this passage?