March 31st: Mark 11:1-6: Jesus needs a Donkey

Jesus will soon enter in to the city of Jerusalem for the last time. He will enter into peacefully, but as its king. Jesus is the king of Jerusalem, for he is the king of all. Jesus accurately predicts what the disciples will find and they bring back the donkey to him.
I want you to prepare your hearts today. This coming week we will walk through the last week of Jesus' life, and see his death and resurrection. Let us be humble and learn from Jesus last words with his disciples before his death and let us glory in the Cross of Christ and his death and resurrection.

March 30th: Mark 10:46-52: THe Blind Man Who Wouldn't Give Up

This blind man showed tremendous faith. He would not give up. He kept calling for Jesus over and over again. Jesus did not answer him at first. If he had given up after the first time he would have stayed blind. But Jesus healed him because his faith was shown in his tenacity. He knew Jesus could heal him so he kept on asking. Even when other people told him to stop he continued on knowing that Jesus had the power.
Let our faith be like this so that we may find help in God.

March 29th Mark 10:41-44: The Other Disciples

It turns out that the other disciples were not better. They were upset at the two disciples for asking, because they were beat to the punch. They were upset because they wanted those positions and thought that they should have them instead of those two disciples.
Jesus turns the whole thing on its head saying that the great ones are the servants. In so many ways we can see this is the life of Jesus, who became a servant. He died for others, this is our example. If you want to be a leader for Christ then you need to be a servant.

March 28th: Mark 10:35-40: Wow...

Wow.. the nerve of these two disciples. Can you imagine? They come up to Jesus and ask if they can be the ones that are in charge in the coming kingdom of God. They want positions of honor. They are not concerned with the honor of God or of Jesus at this moment. They desire power and honor for themselves. Jesus explains that those positions have been prepared for someone else after asking if they will drink the cup, meaning suffer what he is going to suffer.
These two disciples hearts were not in the right place. They were focused on the wrong things and needed a change of heart. Are we concerned with God's glory or our own?

March 27th: Mark 10:32-34: Jesus Fortells His Own Death and Ressurection (again)

This is not the first time Jesus has foretold his death and resurrection. He does this to comfort his disciples who will before too long see these things happen to Jesus. They will be frightened and for a period of time lose hope. They will be found hiding for fear of being executed themselves as followers of Jesus Christ. One of Jesus' closest followers will find himself denying him three times all because they failed to listen to Jesus when he told them these things.
In this passage he goes into quite a bit more detail of what is going to happen, yet they are still surprised when these things go down.

March 26th: Mark 10:28-31: The Reward

Peter points out the obvious. The 12 disciples had done what Jesus asked the rich young man to do. Jesus says that they will be rewarded far beyond what they have given up. Remember the call to follow Jesus is the call to die to self and be willing to die for Him. The call to Christianity is not an easy call but it is a worthwhile call. This is what Jesus is saying here. Yes as Christians we may give up things, we may suffer hardship and we may fight against persecution, but we will be rewarded. We find peace and friendship with God in this life and will be able to fulfill our eternal purpose in heaven for all eternity.

March 25th: Mark 10:26-27: Salvation is Impossible

The disciples are thinking if rich people cannot be saved then who can be saved? And Jesus' response is beautiful "With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God." The point Jesus is making is that it is impossible with man for anyone to be saved. We are so dead in our sins that no amount of good and right living could ever save us. It is impossible. But with God the rich and the poor can have salvation. With God the horrible murder can be saved. With God the rebellious teen ager can be saved. With God the self righteous person can get saved. With God the impossible can happen and a human being can be saved from damnation.