Welcome back. Great is His faithfulness.
Mark 4:10-12
10 But when He was alone, those around Him with the twelve asked Him about the parable. 11 And He said to them, “To you it has been given to know the [a]mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables, 12 so that
‘Seeing they may see and not perceive,And hearing they may hear and not understand;Lest they should turn,And their sins be forgiven them.’ ”
"To be honest, we'd prefer to hop, skip, and jump right over these verses because they're the opposite of what we think Jesus would've or should've said. Jesus is kind and welcoming, patient and merciful. But the words in these verses are shocking and seemingly brutal. Yet here they are, straight from Jesus red ink of the New Testament, which begs the questions, didn't He want everyone to understand? Doesn't He want everyone to be saved?" Context matters. In fact, sometimes context is our only wat forward, our only way to understand the harder things in Scripture. Lucky for us, this exchange between Jesus and the disciples wasn't the first time these difficult words had been spoken. (The Chosen 40 Days with Jesus devotional, page 107- DAY 23- THE WHOLE TRUTH).
Isaiah 6:8-13
8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying:
“Whom shall I send,And who will go for Us?”
Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”
9 And He said, “Go, and tell this people:
‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand;Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’
10 “Make the heart of this people dull,And their ears heavy,And shut their eyes;Lest they see with their eyes,And hear with their ears,And understand with their heart,And return and be healed.”
11 Then I said, “Lord, how long?”
And He answered:
“Until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitant,The houses are without a man,The land is utterly desolate,12 The Lord has removed men far away,And the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.13 But yet a tenth will be in it,And will return and be for consuming,As a terebinth tree or as an oak,Whose stump remains when it is cut down. So the holy seed shall be its stump.”
As people we sin by choice not by nature, evil is a choice a decision made by mankind's free will. Mankind's free will is also responsible for stopping THEIR EARS and CLOSING THEIR EYES.
The questions from the devotional brought me to a reading from John 3:16-18
John 3:16-18
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
See v. 17 the key WORD the world "MIGHT BE SAVED" this indicates it's a choice we must accept our salvation from Him. By doing this we crucify the old and become a new creation, created for good works through our relationship with Christ the other option is to reject the free gift of salvation.
Numbers 6:24-26
“The Lord bless you and keep you;
25 The Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
26 The Lord [a]lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.” ’
In Christ love Jared W Campbell
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