Archive | The Jesus Journey

Back when I was growing up, Palm Sunday and Easter were special occasions when my sister and I would get new dresses, shoes, hats and gloves to wear to church!  I remember that every pew was filled on those Sundays; no one wanted to miss out on the celebration! No one wanted to miss out […]

Can you imagine keeping a secret as huge as the one that occurred when Jesus was transfigured (Mark 9)? How could Peter, James and John contain it? I mean, wow! What an encounter with glory! Yet that’s exactly what Jesus tells these three men to do – until “the Son of Man had risen from […]

We live in a world that has its eye on measurable results, don’t we? I think Jesus did too, although he doesn’t say so when he sends out the twelve (Mark 6:8-11). He focuses instead on what they are to do to pull off the assignment: “take nothing for the journey except a staff…” Mark, brief […]

Seeds are fascinating little things, aren’t they?  I love that Jesus chose one – the mustard seed – to talk about the characteristics of his Kingdom. The mustard seed is invasive, and every gardener I’ve ever known is pretty much in dread of an invasive plant getting out of control in their garden. I once […]

Desperate is not a word we usually like associated with our name, is it? And yet, the feeling is probably common to all of us at some time or another. In the Gospel of Mark we meet a man who many think of, not as desperate, but as a ‘desperado’ – a dangerous, bold outlaw, […]

The story of four men lowering a paralyzed man through the roof of a house in Capernaum is well known to most of us (Mark 2:1-12). But something Pastor Rob said this past Sunday about Jesus’ ability to read minds has me looking at this story from a different perspective, that of the “teachers of […]

Several years ago I met a young mom in our church named Lisa whose father, Bjorn Pedersen, is the head of Prayer Watch International. On several occasions Bjorn spoke at PLC, and one of the most memorable things he told us was about shooting arrow prayers. These are short, quick prayers asking God for his […]

My mind is on repentance. I mean, if these words, “Repent and believe the good news,” are the first words spoken by Jesus in Mark’s Gospel, they carry weight, you know? I think of how easily I recite the prayer of confession each week in our worship service, trying my best to mean every word, […]

As we start on this journey into the Gospel of Mark, I think it’s important to realize there’s a fair amount of drama associated with the name Mark! This man is actually John Mark – who once angered the Apostle Paul so much by leaving him during his first mission trip (Acts 13) that Paul […]