BIAY Day 20 - Parables and Power
Mark 4-6, Psalm 18:1-24
Welcome to the Bible in a Year for 2025. Intro to this series and resource links available here, plus here’s how I’m approaching this year.
Scriptures for Today:
Reflection:
We begin today with Jesus’ “parables of the kingdom.”
Here are a few passages or verses that I’m noting today:
Secrets of the Kingdom - Instead of cute stories that make a spiritual truth more clear, with the parables of the kingdom it’s almost the opposite. They make the disciples and the people unsure about what they think they know about God. These parables are more like a puzzle. It turns out that the kingdom of God is kind of challenging to get our arms around. It is upside-down to the world we are used to, or rather “right-side up.”
Just as He was - Billy Graham’s revivals in the 20th century are associated with the great hymn of response, “Just As I Am.” The song makes the point that God receives us by grace that allows us to come to Him “just as we are.” So I love that Mark includes the little phrase “just as He was” to describe the disciples taking Jesus with them in the boat. “Just as He was,” even tired enough to sleep on a stone in the midst of a storm (verse 38) was enough to command the storm to be still.
Go and tell - Jesus frees a man with a severe demon problem, healing him from a terrible past. Given this incredible work, the man wants to follow Jesus, but is redirected: “Go home… and tell them how much the Lord has done for you.” Someone needs to hear this man’s story.
Engagement and solitude - Many places in the Gospel (6:46 is a good example) we see a rhythm in Jesus’ ministry of finding solitude and “lonely places” for prayer interspersed throughout busy times of public ministry. Jesus fueled His ministry by grounding His soul.
Questions:
Can you take Jesus with you “just as He is” or do you want to conform Him to your life somehow?
Who might need your story?
What else might the Holy Spirit be speaking with you about in the text today?
Prayer: Lord, help me to take you just as you are and follow where you lead. Amen.
“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)
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I love that you use the term "right-side up." I always say Jesus turned the world right-side up because it is definitely upside down right now as we have let the culture dictate right from wrong instead of God.