Today's DB from TRC reading list Mark 12 w/ Lena's Journalin'

Scripture selections are taken from the Rock Church Daily Bread Reading schedule for each month. “Lena’s Journalin’” are Lena’s comments on the specific passages from her Daily Journal.

If the e-mail text you receive is encrypted at all, just scroll down to the end of all of the text and click on Lena’s Journalin’ , which will take you directly to the web-page where you will be able to read the text quite clearly in it’s purposed form.

Mark 12:1-44
The Story About a Vineyard
1Then Jesus started telling them stories. "A man planted a vineyard. He fenced it, dug a winepress, erected a watchtower, turned it over to the farmhands, and went off on a trip. 2At the time for harvest, he sent a servant back to the farmhands to collect his profits.
3"They grabbed him, beat him up, and sent him off empty-handed. 4So he sent another servant. That one they tarred and feathered. 5He sent another and that one they killed. And on and on, many others. Some they beat up, some they killed.
6"Finally there was only one left: a beloved son. In a last-ditch effort, he sent him, thinking, "Surely they will respect my son.'
7"But those farmhands saw their chance. They rubbed their hands together in greed and said, "This is the heir! Let's kill him and have it all for ourselves.' 8They grabbed him, killed him, and threw him over the fence.
9"What do you think the owner of the vineyard will do? Right. He'll come and clean house. Then he'll assign the care of the vineyard to others. 10Read it for yourselves in Scripture:
That stone the masons threw outis now the cornerstone!
11This is God's work;we rub our eyes--we can hardly believe it!"
12They wanted to lynch him then and there but, intimidated by public opinion, held back. They knew the story was about them. They got away from there as fast as they could.
Paying Taxes to Caesar
13They sent some Pharisees and followers of Herod to bait him, hoping to catch him saying something incriminating. 14They came up and said, "Teacher, we know you have integrity, that you are indifferent to public opinion, don't pander to your students, and teach the way of God accurately. Tell us: Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?"
15He knew it was a trick question, and said, "Why are you playing these games with me? Bring me a coin and let me look at it." 16They handed him one."This engraving--who does it look like? And whose name is on it?""Caesar," they said.
17Jesus said, "Give Caesar what is his, and give God what is his."Their mouths hung open, speechless.
Our Intimacies Will Be with God
18Some Sadducees, the party that denies any possibility of resurrection, came up and asked, 19"Teacher, Moses wrote that if a man dies and leaves a wife but no child, his brother is obligated to marry the widow and have children. 20Well, there once were seven brothers. The first took a wife. He died childless. 21The second married her. He died, and still no child. The same with the third. 22All seven took their turn, but no child. Finally the wife died. 23When they are raised at the resurrection, whose wife is she? All seven were her husband."
24Jesus said, "You're way off base, and here's why: One, you don't know your Bibles; two, you don't know how God works. 25After the dead are raised up, we're past the marriage business. As it is with angels now, all our ecstasies and intimacies then will be with God. 26And regarding the dead, whether or not they are raised, don't you ever read the Bible? How God at the bush said to Moses, "I am--not was--the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? 27The living God is God of the living, not the dead. You're way, way off base."
The Most Important Commandment
28One of the religion scholars came up. Hearing the lively exchanges of question and answer and seeing how sharp Jesus was in his answers, he put in his question: "Which is most important of all the commandments?"
29Jesus said, "The first in importance is, "Listen, Israel: The Lord your God is one; 30so love the Lord God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence and energy.' 31And here is the second: "Love others as well as you love yourself.' There is no other commandment that ranks with these."
32The religion scholar said, "A wonderful answer, Teacher! So lucid and accurate--that God is one and there is no other. 33And loving him with all passion and intelligence and energy, and loving others as well as you love yourself. Why, that's better than all offerings and sacrifices put together!"
34When Jesus realized how insightful he was, he said, "You're almost there, right on the border of God's kingdom."After that, no one else dared ask a question.
35While he was teaching in the Temple, Jesus asked, "How is it that the religion scholars say that the Messiah is David's "son,' 36when we all know that David, inspired by the Holy Spirit, said,
God said to my Master,"Sit here at my right handuntil I put your enemies under your feet."
37"David here designates the Messiah "my Master'--so how can the Messiah also be his "son'?"The large crowd was delighted with what they heard.
38He continued teaching. "Watch out for the religion scholars. They love to walk around in academic gowns, preening in the radiance of public flattery, 39basking in prominent positions, sitting at the head table at every church function. 40And all the time they are exploiting the weak and helpless. The longer their prayers, the worse they get. But they'll pay for it in the end."
41Sitting across from the offering box, he was observing how the crowd tossed money in for the collection. Many of the rich were making large contributions. 42One poor widow came up and put in two small coins--a measly two cents. 43Jesus called his disciples over and said, "The truth is that this poor widow gave more to the collection than all the others put together. 44All the others gave what they'll never miss; she gave extravagantly what she couldn't afford--she gave her all."

Copyright Statement: THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary LanguageThis edition issued by contractual arrangement with NavPress, a division of The Navigators, U.S.A.Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language Copyright © 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.

~ Lena’s Journalin’ ~
“They knew the story was about them”….and it made them mad. Does that ever happen to you when you hear a story in God’s word that applies to you and is specifically telling you about a change you need to make, but don’t want to make? That’s flesh rising up against the knowledge of God and of Christ in me. It’s my old, not born again, nature wanting to be resurrected again, yet it was supposed to have died in the new birth of Christ in me.
I have to keep my flesh in its place. When it rises up and tries to tell me how I feel about such and such and so and so situation, especially about God’s word, I must ignore its cries and do the word anyway, almost contesting it, bringing it under subjection to my newly born spirit nature, so we know who rules who. Our newborn spirit man can arise and become stronger than our old flesh nature if we exercise its authority and feed our spirit man the obedience’s of God’s word, no matter how we feel. At times we must make our will a slave to obey God, even if it protests and screams like an insistent child. We see the insistence and we discipline our selves into our new lifestyle of the spirit natured man, who’s made in the image and likeness of God, not the image and likeness of the world.
Jesus was telling the Jewish people that they were favored by God to receive the Kingdom inheritance from God, but they refused God’s calls and offers for them. In refusing the calls and offers from God, they also refused God and His words, so God sought for others who would be thankful and grateful for His word and call.
It is the same today. The offers of God’s spirit go out to all of us, everyday, if and when one refuses it is offered to any who will accept. God does not respect persons based on anything except willingness to love and this obey Him, no matter what they feel.
Are we playing games with God, games of allegiance? Do we try to serve God and also serve ourselves? It is an impossible task to human reason, but with serving God wholeheartedly nothing is impossible, one can actually serve man, while serving God, because the love of God inside of a person brings a heart of service out of them also, no matter how it feels, no matter who it is, the community, the government, the people who are not yet saved. Love gives of Himself. Jesus died for the ungodly and sinners also. He gave His life for these.
How intimate are we with the God of the whole universe? Is He also the God of me, or am I so free I don’t need His government placed upon me? The point of life is love, loving. Not laws and regulations that must be kept to a “T” with no love involved. God’s love leads me to come under Him, under His will. It is His love that draws us and equips us to walk in love. If we see Him we know Him, if we know Him we see Him more, if we see Him more we cannot help but give Him. If a person marries This many people they may be seeking the desire of man, and the fulfillment of the things of earth where mans acceptance leads. Those who love God can find themselves in the favor of man, yet their source of fulfillment lies in God whether man is satisfied or not. God meant for marriages to exemplify His love relationship with man. Marriage was created as an earth model of the heavenly character of Jesus and His bride.
Are we alive to self desire and goals and dead to the things of God, the love of God? Or are we rather alive unto God and dead to the satisfaction and fulfillment we could find in earthly relationships? Do earthly relationships satisfy us enough that we don’t seek God, but we seek more and more of the earthly type of relationships? Earthly relationships will never be great until our relationship with God is great. He is our fountain and all of our fountains must be found in Him, in His fountain we are made whole and we are refreshed and we are found, then we will have living eternal water to give others we relate to also.
Be made whole oh man of God, be made whole oh woman of God, be made whole oh child of God. Will you be made whole? There’s only one place to be made whole, in the presence of your Father- God IS your Father! Your father IS God! If they say, who’s “jo” daddy? You can assuredly say, “God IS my Father!” It does not matter who gave you natural life here, it matters who gave you all of the life you’ll ever need, enough to go back and love those who gave you natural life, not holding anything against their humanness, being God holds nothing against yours.
Go and sin no more, forgive and love God with ALL of your whole heart. Love people as your love for God has brought healing to your self image. You were created by God and for God, in His very image and likeness, no matter what man or woman on earth you look like. No matter the color of your skin, no matter if you have a bad or good hair day. You belong, you belong to God. He loves you. He is your Father, your source, your love, Your life, your fountain.

Daily Repetitive Verses:

John 3:17
You know these things – now do them! That is the path of blessing.